OTHER TECH

She has more spunk in Season 2. She finds more happiness in Season 2. She grows in her death, as ironic as that may sound. She was pretty young when she died [clobbered by a space station's stray toilet seat at age 18], so she does in fact grow in her death. She has more fun with it, rather than being angry the whole time.

RUBE'S JOB In the commentary, Mandy talks about the pivotal scene between the two of you toward the end of the pilot. He told the director that he felt his performance should be toned down in the editing. That comment gives the viewer a better insight into how that scene plays out, and also how the editing could have made his character seem completely different. He could have come across as being vicious, whereas he really understood where George was coming from. He also had to play the boss and let me know that this was his job, and that there would be times when tough situations like that one would come up. That was my first reap - and unfortunately, it was of a little girl. That was how it was going to go - and sometimes the worst is the first, you know?

When he said, "I'm the boss, we have a job to do, we have to get things done," he kinda sounded like Paul Teutel Sr. of American Chopper. [laughs] Yeah! Rube's the rock of the family. As we all kind of play around, he's the one who keeps us in place.

On the commentary, you also say that when you were first reading the script, you were envisioning a certain style for Rube - and Mandy was completely different from that, which totally changed the way you interpreted your character. It was so completely different. The way co-stars perform with you affects your performance tremendously. My perception of my character changed as I worked with the other actors.

Mandy says that you were expecting him to be more biting or sarcastic. I thought he would have a more dark sense of humor, but he was more nonchalant about it: "This is the way it is, this is the way it's going to be, and let's get a move on." If he were more sarcastic, I don't think George would have been put into line.

MUSIC SWEET MUSIC You say you listen to music when you're trying to stay in character. What do you listen to? I listen to a lot of different things, but usually it's something where the words fit into the scene and help me get there and stay there. Mostly it's melancholy stuff that keeps me in the moment. Believe it or not, I like a lot of Mariah Carey's older music. A lot of her songs that weren't released as singles are quite depressing and very poetic, and they tend to get me where I need to be. I also listen to Celine Dion, 3 Doors Down, and some of the instrumental music that's used in films.

Did you record your voiceovers before or after the actual scenes? For Season 1, it was whenever we had time to do the voiceovers. For Season 2, we did them at the end, because I knew how the scenes turned out.

Sometimes I found that if I did the voiceovers first, the scenes didn't turn out how I envisioned them. So I started feeling like I had to do the scenes first before I narrated them.

MUSTANG MADNESS I'm a vintage Mustang fastback fan, so I totally love your ride in Season 2. Yeah! George gets a '67 Mustang [in Episode 2]. It's nice: a vintage red '67 convertible.

Tell me you got to drive it for real. Mm-hmm. Sure did. I had it for the whole season. George got rid of her bike - well, her bike was stolen, actually. So she ended up reaping a guy, then took his car keys. She thought it'd be a junker for sure, but it ended up being this '67 Mustang.

You're killing me! Did you have input on the choice of car? No, but the showrunners knew I loved cars. It was kind of a surprise to me. A good surprise.