Castle

The Season 4 premiere of Castle is so close we can hardly stand it, but we've got even more dish from the awesome Tamala Jones (Lanie Parish) to tide over the legion of fans, if such a thing is possible.

In Part 2 of our exclusive Wetpaint Entertainment interview (Part 1, here), Tamala tells us about the tension that threatens to tear apart Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas) — not to mention Esposito and Lanie — what the future holds for Alexis Castle (Molly Quinn), and how she thinks Lanie should get along with Captain Victoria "Iron" Gates (Penny Johnson). Plus, why Nathan Fillion (Richard Castle) is hell on wheels!

Everyone is psyched for the Season 4 premiere, "Rise." Is there anything you can tell us?
Get everything that you need before the show comes on because you're not gonna want to miss it. Not even a second of it. It's exhilarating. It stops your heart. It'll have you crying. There are so many different turns, emotionally. It's epic. If people said the season finale was epic, well this is part two of the "epic-ness," if that's a word.
                   
Will we be seeing a lot more of Alexis this season?
Ah, yes. And I think it's great the writers are doing that. The thing I love about the writers is that they write very naturally. Alexis is having hormonal changes, she's getting ready to go off to college, she has a boyfriend. You know, she's been talking to Grandma [Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers], she's been talking to Dad. She's getting advice from Beckett [Stana Katic]. But really, for her, in the study of human behavior, it's really up to Alexis to figure these things out. And allowing Molly to actually act those things out, I think, is therapeutic for her because that's the stage where she's at right now.  Along with giving the teenage audience that watches the show, and loves Alexis and loves Molly, it kind of helps them through it as well. So you're going to see a lot more of Alexis going through her growing pains.

How has the dynamic on the set changed now that there's another woman in the cast?
Well, I love Penny. I've been a huge fan of hers since before What's Love Got to Do With It? I've watched her all the way up through 24 and the other things she's done. She's amazing. Everyone really is excited that she's there. She's playing the hell out of this character. She's hard-core. She's strictly by-the-book. There's no getting around the rules with our new captain and I think she executes that so well.

How does Lanie get along with the new captain?
We haven't discovered that yet. There haven't been any scenes between Lanie and the new captain, but something that I pitched to Andrew [Marlowe, show creator] was maybe Lanie knows the captain. Where, you know, everybody else is trying to figure out how to get along with her because she's not really for the Beckett and Castle teamwork. She's wondering what the hell Castle is doing at the crime scene, so there's that tug-of-war between her and Beckett and Castle. And I think that if Lanie were to know her, she could come in and kind of like ease the tension between all of them. I don't know. We'll see. I can pitch stories all day. Andrew is a genius and he will figure it out.

Seamus told us there was going to be tension between Ryan and Esposito this season. Has that kicked off yet?
No, it's very early on right now. We are just about to complete our fourth episode for the season, so we haven't gotten into that sort of dish. I think that what happens this season is that there will be some of that because Ryan is getting married and it's all about wedding planning for him and color schemes. And Esposito is like, "Come on, man, we don't have to talk about that at work!" So I think with him getting married, Esposito might feel a little intimidated that he's going to be replaced a little by the new wife. And then that would bring in the tension between Lanie and Esposito, because maybe Lanie wants to get married. You know, now that she sees what's going on maybe she's like, "What's going on with us? Are we gonna do this or what?" [Laughs]

Has Nathan brought any new toys to the set?
No. He's not brought any toys yet. He's acting like he's on his best behavior, but the last scene I shot with him, he's revving up. We're going to have some pranks going on soon. I think the toys and the pranks will be incorporated this season, because he has a motorized scooter that he likes to drive through the set every once in a while and he can drive right past you, do something, and you're looking the other way.

Are there any other shows you're looking forward to this fall?
Yes! Oh, my God. Game of Thrones. I'm loving True Blood already. Of course American Idol because I love my J-Lo. And I want to see Charlie's Angels. I grew up watching it and I love beautiful women who are strong and kick ass. And I love that they have a brown-skinned angel! Love that!