Leverage fans may have been surprised when Gina Bellman’s character, Sophie, took an undetermined leave of absence from the show. Taking up Bellman’s place in the cast, though, is the very talented Jeri Ryan, who will be appearing as a special guest for the six remaining episodes of Season 2. I was able to talk with Jeri on a conference call recently, about her addition to the cast. Take a look below, for the transcript from the entire call.

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Hi. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. — Starry Constellation Magazine.

Hi. Thanks.

What made you want to be a part of the show?

You know what, the way they picked the character – the way it came about was I had gone in to meet with Michael Wright who is the head of TNT. And this was at the same time when, you know, they were realizing they had to find a way to work around Gina Bellman’s pregnancy.

So they were coming up with the idea of, you know, creating this additional character. And it was Michael’s idea. I guess he kind of put two and two together and thought it would be a good fit.

But the way they pitched this character to me I loved everything about her. She sounded like so much fun. The episodes that I had seen of the show were great. I love the tone of it. I love, you know, that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

And it’s a very different character than anything that I’ve really gotten to play before. So it was pretty exciting.

Did you find there was instant chemistry when you began working with the team or did it take a bit of time to develop?

You know what, they’re amazing. And I’m used to being the new kid because I’m – I joke that I’m the designated pinch hitter for TV series because Shark is the only show that I’ve ever been with from the very beginning, from the pilot.

My first series was Dark Sky that was added in the middle of that season. Boston Public I was added Season 2, Star Trek Season 4. So this was, you know, it’s nothing new for me to walk in, in the middle of a thing. But this is such a great group of people.

They’re so warm and funny and just a bunch of goof balls. And so it’s amazing that we actually got anything accomplished ever because all we did was sit around and laugh at each other.

Well did you have to do anything specific to prepare for the role?

You know what, there wasn’t any time to do anything specific to prepare for the role. It was sort of a pretty quick process from the time that TNT approached me with the idea of doing the character and offered me the role and the time that we started shooting.

It was all really fast. I mean they were still – I think it was maybe a week or two at most and there was, you know, they were still sort of developing the character. They were still writing her. They weren’t really sure who she was yet.

So I think it was, you know, a day or two before we actually started shooting that I got a really detailed character breakdown from John Rogers giving me the character’s back story and all of that. So there wasn’t a lot of time to prepare and get ready.

This was – it was kind of fly by the seat of your pants but it was amazing. It was really fun. And she’s – she’s a great skin to inhabit. I really enjoyed playing Tara.

Great. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

(Read More After the Jump)

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Hi Jeri. It’s a pleasure to be talking to you. –TheTwoCents.com.

Hi. Thanks.

You expressed a point in the previous question. I wanted to ask how do you approach joining an established ensemble. Obviously this is something you’ve done a couple of times. Especially when you’re filling in for someone that is as popular as Gina Bellman. How do you approach that?

Well you know what, I grew up as an Army brat so I was always the new kid. We always moved around. So this, again, this is kind of old hat for me. You just – you have to be very respectful. This is their home turf.

You know, this is a group that’s very tightly knit and they’ve been together for a year and a half at that point already. And, you know, obviously you can’t replace a character. You can’t – and we weren’t looking to. This was, you know, a temporary substitute while she was going on maternity leave.

So you just have to be very sensitive to the – it’s going to be awkward for people. It’s going to be, you know, you’re the new kid. You have to – you have to just be open to how they do things and sort of flesh out what the rhythm on the set is and what their working style is.

And fortunately with this group, like I said, they’re a bunch of goof balls so it was really easy.

Do you feel like a challenge at all or an interest in – as popular as she is, in coming in and even on a temporary basis replacing her, was it challenging to you at all?

Well I mean it’s challenging more for the writers to create a character that’s – well I mean I guess for me but for the audience to accept because it, you know, it – like you said, it’s a popular character.

You don’t feel that – it’s not more of a challenge as an actor. It’s the same. You know, you’re creating a character. You want the audience to accept her. You want her to be believable. You want, you know, you want to do a good job as an actor.

It doesn’t make a difference if you’re, you know, replacing a character, adding a new character, replacing somebody who’s popular or not popular. So it doesn’t change your work to develop the character but it’s just a little more pressure I think.

You’ve done a lot of TV in your career. Is that something that you enjoy doing or just kind of how your career has worked out?

No. I do enjoy doing it. I’ve done a couple of features and I’ve got to say it was tough. The pace is kind of mind numbing because in TV I’m used to doing – especially back in the day when I was on Star Trek those were seven and eight page days – script pages. That’s a lot.

A feature film is about two pages a day. So you’re basically working on one scene all day long whether that’s a 14 hour day or a 16 hour day. It’s one scene.

And so I remember asking Renee Zellweger when we were shooting Down With Love and we were, you know, sitting around between takes one day and I said how do you do this if you’ve got a big emotional scene? And she said you just have to sit in it. You just live in it all day.

You’re in your trailer by yourself and you just have to stay in that space. And I was like okay, yeah. I like the pace of TV. It’s a lot more comfortable for me. And I know that’s hard for feature people who are so used to doing features.

When they come into television they can’t stand it because they feel like it’s too fast and you don’t have enough time to whatever – enough different takes and enough time to explore things. But that’s the pace that I’m used to and I’m more comfortable with it.

Well I think you’ve been doing an amazing job and thank you for speaking with us today.

Thank you very much.

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Hi Jeri. –Pocket Express.

Hi.

Thanks for talking to me. Listen, I’m also doing this for a Chicago area paper and so they always love to have something wonderful said about Chicago. And I know you went to Northwestern and that’s where you got your BA.

Yep.

And I was just wondering how that impacted your acting.

Well, you know – oh, Chicago’s a great city by the way. You don’t have to make me work to say something great about Chicago.

Chicago’s the most beautiful city in the world. But Northwestern was amazing. I mean that’s the only school I applied to. And their acting program, you know, it’s very well known for a reason. I mean, you know, I got great training there and a lot of great people have come from there.

And that’s why I think one of there reasons that I’ve been lucky to be a steadily working actress is I had that foundation, you know, of good training to start out with. So I was lucky.

Yeah. And have you known – were you always wanting to be an actress? Is it something that you’d known from since you were very little?

Yeah. Ever since I was a little girl it was always an actress or something else. So when I was a little girl it was an actress or a veterinarian. And then in High School it was majoring – whether I was going to major in theater or major in biomedical engineering. That’s actually true.

Oh my goodness. That’s a little bit different.

A little bit of a difference. Yeah and of course…  …I’m so practical that I said oh, I think this is a much better idea. Why go into acting. But yeah, I’ve always – I always wanted to be an actress.

Yeah. When I read you were a National Merit Scholarship winner which, you know, because you’re beautiful too I think it’s totally unfair you got brains and beauty but I will go beyond that.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.

But so if you probably would have been a good fit to get into the biomedical field then too for you. Was it a tough decision?

It was a tough decision actually. But, you know, I sort of went with my heart over my head. I mean this was where more of my passion was going. So I think that would have been great and I probably would have enjoyed it very much but this – I don’t think I would have been as fulfilled as I am doing this.

I just love – I love this. And I love the fact that it’s a bit of escape. You get your real life and you get the real world and then you get to go play. And they pay you to go play and pretend to be other people and live these different lives. And it’s a treat.

I mean this – it’s really a gift to be able to be in this industry.

Great. Listen, thank you very much.

Thank you.

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Hi Jeri. –SFUniverse.com.

Hi.

Your character is pretty adventurous. I wanted to know what’s the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done.

Oh, I’ve got to admit she’s a lot more adventurous than I am. The most adventurous thing I’ve ever done – I guess it’s not that adventurous by most people’s standards but I’ve cooked in a restaurant kitchen during service behind the line during dinner.

That is adventurous.

And that was the single biggest adrenaline rush I’ve ever gotten in my entire life. It was amazing. In every way terrifying, absolutely terrifying and so exciting and exhausting and muscles hurt that you didn’t know you had.

But it – by the time you finished service and it’s, you know, four or five hours of straight intense, hard, fast work you are – I was bouncing off the walls. I mean it was midnight, 12:30 and I was literally I was so excited I couldn’t even sit down. It was really fun.

Wow. I – so I presume that you enjoy cooking.

I love it. Oh, I love it. I love it. But yeah, we’re – cooking at home and cooking in a restaurant are two entirely different beasts. And it’s – I mean the stress level in the – it’s really intense in a restaurant kitchen because if you’re, you know, it’s speed.

Everything has to be done, done, done, done, done really fast. And of course it has to be perfect because it’s going out to the public. And – but it was so exciting. It was so much fun. So I actually did that every Sunday just for fun while I was working on Boston Public.

That’s how I met my husband in fact. Yeah. I did that for a year. I cooked…

Wow.

…every Sunday in a restaurant kitchen just for fun.

Just for fun?

Yep. So that’s about as adventurous as I get.

That’s pretty adventurous. So when they do Top Chef Celebrity you’ll be all set to go right?

Yeah, right.

Terrific. Well it’s been a pleasure watching you on the show and I can’t wait…

…very much. I appreciate it.

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Jeri, I wanted to ask is there a particular project or role that you haven’t done yet in your career, that you’d like to tackle someday? –TheTwoCents.com.

Well I always said Hamlet was my dream role. But I, you know, I’ve been pretty lucky. I mean there’s not really a specific thing – I will say that that’s one of the things that I loved about this character in Leverage. Is because she is so different from what I’ve gotten to play.

She is funny and she is, you know, more street savvy and she is, you know, much less buttoned up than some of the characters I’ve played and I get to show that side of my sense of humor and that side of my personality which is a lot of fun.

That’s very refreshing. You know, she’s not a lawyer wearing a suit in a courtroom. And I don’t know. I mean I’ve been really lucky to have gotten to do a lot of really beautifully written rich characters.

So yeah, I can’t really say that there’s something that I haven’t gotten to do that I’m – I mean something specific. I’ve been very lucky that way I think.

As a Star Trek fan I have to ask. Any chance we’ll ever see you go back to doing Sci-Fi again?

Yeah. I think there’s a chance you’ll see me do Sci-Fi.

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much.

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Hi Jeri. –Raked Reviews.

Hi.

Can you tell us if we’ll continue to see your character on the show after Gina Bellman returns?

You know what, I don’t know. But I would – they certainly leave the door open for the character to come back and I certainly can see her coming in to help out on something or to come in and get their help on some job that she’s doing. And I would go back in a heartbeat.

Great.

I loved working with these people. I would love to go back and do an episode with them again just to play because it was so much fun and the character was so much fun.

And do you feel like the character that you’re playing now – the fact that it’s kind of on an interim basis gives you kind of more freedom to maybe interact with the other characters a little bit differently and maybe change the dynamic of the show up a little bit?

I think so because she’s not there constantly and they don’t have to worry about a, you know, seven season arc where they don’t, you know, she’s not so concerned about – she knows she’s not there forever with these people.

And she’s there as a job. So going in she’s got a very different take on things and her interaction I think is very different. She’s just enjoying being there. She’s having fun and you know, going her job, getting her paycheck. So I do think that frees it up a little bit.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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Hi again. –Pocket Express.

Hi.

I was just wondering who are some of the people who influenced your acting.

I was actually answering this question earlier and it’s – oddly enough it’s mostly men. It’s – I was watching…

Oh.

…yeah – classic movies growing up and it was Sidney Poitier and Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart and those guys I just thought were amazing.

And then, you know, once I was older and became actress then it was, you know, of course Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton I think are both just amazing, amazing actresses.

But early on in my childhood, it was really – it was really those men that I was watching that really made me start to love it and want to do this.

That’s very interesting. And they’re kind of urbane, sophisticated men too. Urbane.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, that’s great. Hey, listen, thanks.

Thank you.

Thanks guys.