A Conversation With Anna Torv of 'Fringe'

Anna Torv, the leading lady of Fox's Fringe, loves the way her TV show crazily blurs the lines between science fact and science fiction, between the possible and the impossible. To her way of thinking, the more outrageous, the better. "I love it when it really is 'fringy' science," Torv says. She does, however, express one misgiving about the fringiest of Fringe episodes: They tend to leave her standing on the sideline when she's eager to carry the ball. "I know that when we're in the lab," says Torv, who plays FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, "I just get to be the question machine (while costars John Noble and Joshua Jackson, who play father-and-son scientists) have fun as 'The Walter and Peter Show.'" So on second thought, she says, give her the "rough and tumble, running and gunning" episodes. "I love it when I'm motion," Torv says. Here's hoping the final six episodes of the season provide a good balance of those two elements, because that's when the show is at its best. Fringe returns to the airwaves at 8 p.m. CT Tuesday, April 7, after an excruciating two-month absence. It's the first of six episodes that will wrap up a brilliant first season.

What do you like most about your character?

"Her sense of duty. I like that I play a character where I kind of go to work and I sort of put her armor on: her dark suits and her badge and her gun. And I like her absolute ability to honor her word."

Olivia seems to be immune to gender politics within the FBI. What do you think of the fact that she's never treated differently because she's a woman?

"They never make an issue about that, which I've been constantly really impressed and happy about. The most that she'll ever say is, 'Yes, I'm sorry I wear my emotions on my sleeve sometimes.' But she never says, 'Is this because I'm a woman?' or anything like that. I like that it's not an issue."

Even though you say your favorite episodes involve pure action, what parts of the predominantly science episodes do you enjoy most?

"I love the stuff that delves into the moral and ethical dilemmas, like what people's boundaries are, what's appropriate and what's not. How far do you go in order to find an answer? And with the Peter, Walter and Olivia dynamic, it's always changing. Each week, one will be a little bit more gung-ho about wanting to get to the bottom of it no matter what it takes."

Is the season going to close with a big payoff for viewers who have been following all along?

"I'm really excited. Things start to get a little bit more cemented. We shot an episode [called Bad Dreams, airing April 21] that pushes it into a different direction but not into a different world. I'm really excited at the prospect of where the show could go. If we're lucky enough to shoot a second season, I think it's going to be really great."

There were hints that Olivia has special abilities. Might she wind up investigating herself?

"We do start to find out what was done to her when she was little. We had the episode where she turns the light box off, when you find out that she maybe has some special ability. We do get to delve a little bit into that, to work out why she has that ability of superpower or if it's something that's been done to her. I'm terrible at these plot questions, by the way, because I never know how much to give away. So it sounds like I'm being shifty, but I'm not. I'm just trying to compute what's illegal. No, not 'illegal,' but what's OK to say."

Anything else that's "legal" to share about the final six episodes?

"We start to see that the lives of Peter and Walter and Olivia begin to interlace a little bit. And we see how their paths have crossed before."

Is it barely possible that Olivia and Peter are siblings?

"At this point, no, I don't think so."

That's good, because the executive producers have suggested that Olivia and Peter could become a romantic item. What are your thoughts about that?

"A couple of episodes ago, he was chatting up my sister, so I don't know how they're going to resolve that. But I certainly hope they wait until that's sorted out! I hope that they stretch it out for as long as possible. I think that's what makes it kind of fun, when it's like, 'Oh, are they or aren't they? What's going on?' I think there needs to be a few more close calls before they start heading down that track. Because [if you rush into a romance], then you've got to break up and get back together again and the whole bit, right?"

Speaking of romance: Mark Valley played your love interest in the early episodes and then you married him in real life. Now his character, Agent John Cooper, is out of Olivia's head. Is it a bummer for you that he's off the show?

"I don't know. All the scenes that we had together were kind of odd anyway. We were always in dreamscape, so we were always sort of not quite sure what reality we were in. So I don't really feel like we actually got a chance to 'feel' opposite each other. I was always saying, 'You're a ghost,' and he was always saying, 'No, I'm not.'"

Are you ever creeped out by the show's gross dead bodies?

"Yes. Some of it is awful. We have an episode coming up where there's a crash and we end up with these bodies in the lab. Those bodies were revolting. But it was also one of the funniest moments on the set: I walk into the lab to do a scene and we've got these three bodies in body bags that we eventually open, so there are actors in there. I walk in and there are these three young kids lying in the body bags. One is lying with just his head and hands out of the bag and he's reading a book, totally out of place! Another has got an iPod and there's blood spattered all over his apron! And I'm like, 'What is this show?'"

Regarding your most unusual costar: Do you like doing scenes with the cow? Is it a strange day when the cow is on the set?

"Yes. I don't get to do that many scenes with the cow, unfortunately. Usually it's Walter milking her. But usually, when we have the cow on the set, we also have a whole lot of other animals in the laboratory. Sometimes we'll have monkeys or little hairless rats. So it just becomes a menagerie."