NBC's 'Blindspot' returns with new twists, tattoos
NEW YORK — The perks of shooting Blindspot in the dead of winter? Less time in the makeup trailer for tattooed star Jaimie Alexander.
In NBC's top-rated newcomer, returning from its fall hiatus Monday (10 p.m. ET/PT), Alexander plays a woman covered in ornate body art containing clues to a larger criminal conspiracy — meaning, the actress will sometimes spend as many as seven hours having fake tattoos applied. But filming in a frigid Brooklyn warehouse late one January night, the actress is mercifully bundled up in a bulky leather jacket and hoodie.
"Today, I only have my hands done, and those take at the very most 30 minutes, maybe 15," Alexander says, pulling up her sleeve. While they're drawn on, "we have a couple apps on our phone that we plug into the trailer and blast '90s music. We just have a good time."
On this January night, she's filming an episode airing later this season, in which her character, Jane Doe, anxiously arrives at a swank modern-art gallery. She's working with the FBI to investigate the burglary of a giant Banksy-style painting, but is visibly flustered. "She's been tasked with certain things that she needs to do, but she's very conflicted and the stakes are very high for her," Alexander says.
Jane's agitation is the result of a shocking revelation in November's midseason finale, which revealed that she may actually be working against FBI agent and love interest Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), who until then had been trying to help her solve the mystery of her identity and tattoos. In the final moments, a man from her past named Oscar (François Arnaud) turned up and showed her an old video in which she says, "This was all your idea. You did this to yourself."
Creator Martin Gero explains: "She's essentially found out that she planned this whole thing, that she is complicit in her own memory wipe and the creation of the tattoos, and might be working against the FBI, (who are) the only people she loves and trusts. It's a major crisis of confidence and conscience for her, which is really fun to watch her struggle with."
Monday's episode picks up right after the fall finale as Jane and Oscar, whom she remembers in flashbacks as her ex-fiancé, create tension in her relationship with Kurt.
"She starts to pull away from him ever so slightly — just to protect him, really — and that does a number on him, because they just kissed and it seemed to all be going so great," Gero says. "It adds a wrinkle to their dynamic, certainly, as she tries to explore what Oscar will inevitably mean to her."
Blindspot has already been renewed for a second season, and Gero calls the 10 fall episodes "a lot of setup. Now we're stretching our wings and really allowing the show to come into its own and be the addictive, serialized character drama it always wanted to be."