Canadian supermodel Tricia Helfer first made waves as Number Six, a slinky Cylon on “Battlestar Galactica.”
The lanky 39-year-old then popped up as a guest star on many series, including “CSI,” “Supernatural” and even NBC’s “Chuck.” In 2008, she starred as Michael Westen’s nemesis on Season 2 of USA’s “Burn Notice.”
This time around, she’s the star, playing Texas Ranger Molly Parker on “Killer Women,” ABC’s new Tuesday night series.
“I loved this script from the get-go,” says Helfer, who’s gotten pointers about playing the role from Marrie Aldridge, the first female Texas Ranger. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how fun Molly would be to play. I also loved the different take on the cop procedural and being all about female killers with a strong female lead investigating the crimes.”
The series arrives in the US from Argentina, very loosely adapted from a trilogy of novels by Marisa Grinstein and the series “Mujeres Asesinas,” which also has been adapted for broadcast in Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador, among other countries. “Modern Family” bombshell Sofia Vergara and her producing partner, Luis Balaguer, brought the show to America via Ben Silverman’s Electus.
“Killer Women” ’s showrunner, Hannah Shakespeare, purposely never read Grinstein’s books nor saw the Argentinian adaptation. “I started from scratch with a show about the psychology of women who snap,” she says. “I love that title, ‘Killer Women.’ There’s a cheekiness to it that’s just up my alley.”
Helfer’s Molly Parker is a tough-but-tender Texas tomboy. She’s going through a rough divorce from her politician husband and has found comfort in the arms of a sexy DEA agent, Dan Winston (Marc Blucas). She’s a woman of many talents, from roping cattle and sharp-shooting to playing the mariachi trumpet. But her primary focus is her job, tracking down criminals across the Lone Star State.
“As soon as Tricia put the rig on — the gun, the boots, the belt — she dropped right into Molly’s walk,” says Shakespeare. “She’s really athletic and having that athleticism was really important to me. I wanted someone the audience would believe could sprint after a suspect, fire a gun and ride a horse with equal skill.”
And Helfer embraced the physicality of the role with abandon, although of course insurance concerns restrict her in some cases. “She wanted to do every stunt,” says Shakespeare.
As the title suggests, “Killer Women” focuses only on women who have committed murder. Women kill less often than men, and their motivations are different, says Shakespeare.
Parker will chase down murderers during the series’ run. “It’s not a whodunit, it’s a whydunit,” says Shakespeare.
“Women are motivated by issues of power or lack of power,” says Shakespeare. “Women don’t kill out of hate; they kill out of love. Women snap because of abuse or financial issues. They are highly charged emotionally. If they choose to stab their victim, they’ll stab until they can’t lift their arm up anymore.”
Women also “don’t get caught,” says Shakespeare. “On average, it takes eight years longer to catch women who are serial killers.”
On the flip side, women tend to make good interrogators and the Texas Rangers are some of the best in the world.
“Women interrogators are different than men, and Rangers are different than cops,” says Shakespeare. “Women tend to stand on a very equal emotional level with whomever they are interviewing and do this ballet. Rangers use this phrase: They are there to help you ‘unburden whatever is burdening you.’
“If you are aggressive, they get slightly more aggressive. If you are passive, they get passive. Women are good at doing that anyway — they are slightly more emotionally attuned to what’s going on.”
Although “Killer Women” starts as a procedural, it eventually delves into its central story — Parker’s investigation of her brother Billy’s (Michael Trucco) possible criminal activity..
Says Shakespeare: “By the end of the season, the chase and the personal story are the same.”