CASTLE: Penny Johnson Jerald on ‘Heroes and Villains,’ Fan Reaction and More!

CASTLE fans you survived week one. Are you still riding the high from the season premiere?

While we dug a little deeper into the secrets Beckett and Castle are hiding from each other, but what about one of the bigger aspects of the new season, Captain Victoria Gates?

I talked with CASTLE newbie Penny Johnson Jerald (Gates) last month before her first episode aired, so it only seemed appropriate to check back in now that viewers have been properly introduced to her character…

Gates — no pun intended — just came out of the gate kicking butt. She showed them what was what — to an extent.
Penny Johnson Jerald: I am all woman, hear me roar! [Laughs]

Indeed. So what is Gates up to in tonight’s episode?
PJJ: Oh, well Monday is very exciting. We have a murder that takes place, and a vigilante person who’s out there doing it and who’s masquerading as a superhero. Which makes it kind of fun and silly and ridiculous. But she takes it seriously because it [impacts] how people are looking at her, so she wants this, she wants this case solved. And then, you have Castle with his ideas of who it is and how it needs to be solved, and she’s not buying that right away but, of course, you know how it is. There’s something to be said about a man who writes all the time who might have a bit of information that could be helpful. So we get to see if she, in fact, can be charmed by this wonderful, charming man, Castle, or not, and how she can feel safe making sure that this isn’t weighing down on her precinct.

Right. And, I mean, it seems like Gates is a very straight-laced woman, but on CASTLE, we’re used to these cases that are extreme, kind of crazy, etc. I mean, you’ve got a superheroes in this episode. How is she dealing with these bizarre cases?
PJJ: I think quite well because she is straight-laced, and she is by-the-book, so sometimes things don’t always line up with the rules, so the facts are so different and you can’t apply a rule to it. So that will be her frustration of how, you know, “Oh my gosh, okay …how do we go about this? Because there must be a rule for it. There must be a process for it.” So, you know, that’s something that, that she fights with. And then, of course, how her whole thing is, you have Beckett, who’s trying to do what she wants to do when she wants to do it and how she wants to do it, and you have to teach her that there are rules and you have to follow protocol and this is the way it’s going to be done in my precinct.

Right.
PJJ: And I won’t be embarrassed by this. So she doesn’t want the embarrassment to come down on her, and regardless of how silly and crazy these situations may turn out, so she could always try to feel safe.

Right. What episode are you actually up to filming right now?
P.J.J.: Did we just start seven? I think we just started seven.

Do you have a favorite hour that you’ve done so far?
PJJ: You know, I always have to say it’s the first. [Laughs] Because you want that to get in the can real fast.

Understandable.
PJJ: And you want to see what the reaction is, and I just love the first line that they gave me as this character because  I think that the very first line says it all about who this person is, and you don’t have to guess, and if you’ve never watched the show before, you go, “Okay, I know what this show is about.” And so, I would have to say last week’s episode was my favorite.

Well, that’s good.
PJJ: I like the words that [series creator] Andrew [Marlowe] gave me to say.

That’s that’s definitely a good thing. Obviously you mentioned the reaction and such. Have you gotten a lot of reaction from CASTLE fans after they’ve seen the premiere?
PJJ: Yes, and it’s really good. What I did, I tried to safeguard myself by having a little circle of friends come over and have a dessert party and see what their reaction was going to be before I, you know, went online or, you know, start looking at mail. And their reaction was crazy — although they did have champagne, and so I didn’t know how real it was. [Laughs] But they were, it was pretty, it was really positive because I didn’t want people to try and make her just Sherry Palmer from 24, cause that was very important to me.

You know, Sherry had an evil streak; I don’t think this woman has an evil streak. I think she’s by-the-book, and she’s a disciplinarian. And so, that is a different feature coming out of a woman who is strong, and I seem to be playing these strong women, so there has to be something that’s different at work or at least dominant in them to make them different.

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Check back with Give Me My Remote next week for more from Jerald as she answers some of your burning questions!

Related:

CASTLE Season 4 Premiere: ‘Rise’ Brings Secrets, Secrets and More Secrets
CASTLE: Executive Producer Laurie Zaks Teases ‘Rise’ and Season 4
CASTLE Season 4 Premiere: ‘Rise’ You Ask, I Answer

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