November, 2007

From playing an evil alien on Roswell to being the wife of a time traveler on NBC's Journeyman, Gretchen Egolf captivates fans with every role she plays. From the time she was a young girl, Gretchen knew which road she wanted to travel and attended the famous Julliard School in New York City to get the ball rolling. After appearing in many Broadway and off-Broadway productions, she began landing role after role, eventually leading to her role as Katie Vasser on Journeyman.

I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with this very lovely and intelligent actress about her role on Journeyman, where the series is headed and working with the cast of Roswell.

Q: You attended Julliard, you must have known when you were very young that you wanted to get into this profession, was there anyone who provided inspiration?

Gretchen: "I started when I was 10-years-old. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and started in the theater, taking acting classes in the community and doing Community Theater. There were a couple of teachers in the community where I grew up in Lancaster and a couple of teachers at school and people like that who were mentors to me. I went to Julliard right out of high school, moved to New York and started all that business."

Q: I read on one of your fan sites that you were rumored to be in the running at one time for the Wonder Woman movie, is there any truth to that rumor?

Gretchen: "I don't know what that was all about. That rumor started years ago, I don't know who started the rumor.

My agents and I talked about it at the time and we've talked about it over the years and as far as I know, it didn't come from any official place. We never received any calls or talk of that sort of thing. I think that was all pretty unofficial, it was probably started by some fan. Either way, I was pretty flattered."

Q: On Journeyman, you play the wife of a time traveler, do you think you would react the same as Katie in real life?

Gretchen: "I personally don't have kids and I think their family unit is part of why she maintains such loyalty towards him. I'm not married and don't have this eight-year-long relationship and a child and I think that I maybe wouldn't be so tolerant of something like that. Katie's a lot stronger in many ways than I would be, but it's because of that bond they have. I really admire her and I admire the relationship."

Q: What's coming up on Journeyman?

Gretchen: "The next episode that's being shown on Monday night (11/19/07) is the beginning of a two-parter. It's quite exciting, I remember reading it and thinking uh oh, something's bubbling. In the second episode, everything comes to a head. It's pretty gruesome. I don't want to tell you too much, but let's just say that I'm in an intense and high-pressured situation, with my life in danger. There was some pretty heavy-duty acting with a wonderful actor named Raphael Sbarge. It reached a level of intensity in terms of the writing that none of us had seen before this particular script.

I think the writers' started to realize just how deep they could go with the convention of time travel. All of the ideas that came up in the writers room among all of those very smart people about exactly what would happen when you travel back, the consequences and how they could play with all of that has become so much more cleaver."

Q: Do you think Katie and Jack will have an affair?

Gretchen: "I don't think so. I think Dan is being tested in the past with his encounters with Livia and all the emotions that stirs up. In a way, all of the turbulence in our present day life and our marriage due to the time traveling has kind of thrown us together. I think Katie and Jack have a strong bond, but some bad stuff went down in the past in our relationship and some trust was broken and I think they're not meant to be together. Ultimately, as the series goes on, it's a deep friendship, but it was never meant to be a romance."

Q: It's very frustrating that Dan and Katie haven't told Jack the truth, will they eventually tell him?

Gretchen: "Well, you won't have to wait forever, that's all I have to say. Once that truth finally came out, we could all breathe a huge sigh of relief."

Q: By the end of the 13th episode, will viewers have a pretty good idea about how and why this is happening to Dan and Livia?

Gretchen: "They'll have a better idea. The stuff with Elliott Langley that has started to happen begins to become more and more clear. That whole storyline has become bigger, partially because viewers spoke out and said they wanted to know more about that side of things. I think episode 13 wraps things up if that what needs to happen, but also leaves things open if that indeed is where we are going."

Q: When you were on Roswell, you worked with a great cast, did you have any idea that many of those cast members would eventually go on to become big stars?

Gretchen: "It was a good cast. I remember when I was working on it, thinking wow; this is a talented group of people. In doing my final, big scenes with Katherine Heigl, I was like she's good! Of course now, she's huge."

Q: Anything to say to the fans?

Gretchen: "We have the best looking fans in primetime!"
Reed Diamond (Jack) and Brian Howe (Hugh) jokingly weighed in on that question...."Hey, do you work out?"