Missy Peregrym Talks About Joining Van Helsing [Exclusive] 

[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]

Missy Peregrym is a fan favorite from her six-season run on ABC’s Rookie Blue and since that series wrapped in 2015, she’s guested on shows as varied as Motive, Law & Order: SVU, Saving Hope, The Night Shift, and Ten Days in the Valley. Thursday night, she joins the second season of Syfy’s Van Helsing as Scarlett Harker, a potentially powerful weapon against the vampires, in an arc that will run through the rest of the season.

I chatted with Peregrym last week about the show, and I’ll have pieces of the interview in the coming weeks. In this first installment, she talks about her character and getting involved in the show.

Outside of Backcountry, a horror film set in the woods that she did a few years ago for Rookie Blue co-star Adam MacDonald, she hadn’t really done horror, but Van Helsing was an appealing alternative to her usual roles. “There was an offer that came through. I read the episodes. They gave me a few just to get an idea of my character. I had not seen the show before, so I bought it and watched [but] I couldn’t watch further because I found it really gory,” she says. “It’s not really my thing. I got the gist and that’s all I really needed.”

“I ended up talking to [series showrunner] Neil LaBute. It was such a great conversation. He was so fired up about it. He knew where he wanted to take it. He couldn’t promise me I wouldn’t be a vampire, because that’s what I was begging to not be. No promises. He was so passionate about it and I was in. I was like, ‘This is great.’ He had nothing but great things to say about the cast so I wanted to be a part of it.”

Peregrym’s character, Scarlett, is a counterpoint to Kelly Overton‘s Vanessa, and she loved creating a role that was a little different from the series’ heroine. “I have some trouble with [this] world and how dark is. It’s so twisted. When I read the scripts, I was like, ‘OK, Scarlett isn’t like that, really,'” she says. There was just some humor to her. I appreciated the tone that they had written her with. I wanted to bring more of that to the table.”

“There’s such an intensity to the show with Vanessa’s character and there has to be. She’s been betrayed, she’s had her daughter taken from her There’s so much grief and a survival thing that gets unleashed in her. She’s not been trained the way I have. I was really excited to play something a little bit opposite of that and bring a little bit of lightness to the situation.”

Here’s the logline for tonight’s episode, “Veritas Vincit” – Vanessa’s past rushes back to confront her in an unexpected way. A secret that Doc has been protecting is revealed. In a bid to bolster his power, Dmitri sends Scab on an impossible mission.

Van Helsing airs at 9 pm/8c on Syfy. Here’s a sneak peek.