I’m a big fan of Nathan “The Tech Guy”, the man in charge of Jaime’sbionics down at the Burket Group. The actor who portrays him, Kevin Rankin, has been speaking to MediaBlvd about Bionic Woman:

Rankin on getting the role of Nathan on BW:

“All I knew is that he was going to be the bionics guy and ultimately was sort of a test run, so nobody knew what was going to happen with the character, and I just got up there and they all responded well to what I was doing, and you know, he was really just a crap shoot.  I didn’t really know exactly how to play him.  I didn’t want to play him too much of a techie geek…because I know there’s a possibility of a romance, but it was a fine line, because there’s a dark, serious tone to the show and I didn’t want to take it too far out there, but I also wanted to give it a little bit of lightness – also ground the humor in reality somehow.”

Rankin on his input in Nathan’s development as a character:

“they’re actually letting me run free up there and do a lot of stuff, you know, just how I see it in my head, and just really run free, and I would do it as long as they would let me.”

On the writers strike and it’s impact on the show:

Rankin saysthat he believes that the show could be a lot more affected than others, because they are fairly far behind in filming. At the beginning of the season they shot about four or five episodes, including the pilot, and for whatever reason the network didn’t like a good bit of it, so they reshot about fifty percent of it. They even took the second episode and completely tossed it out. He went in and shot three episodes in a matter of days, and then they placed his scenes into what they had already shot, which made it look like he was around the whole time, even though he wasn’t. Rankin says that they are also farther behind then other shows, because it is so effects and stunt heavy, and that they have really long shooting schedules. They usually work Monday through Saturday, with Sundays off. He also said that he does not know how many scripts they even have past the one that they are currently shooting. Rankin did however say that he supports the writers.

Rankin on his hopes for Nathan:

“They’re training Nathan how to fight, and so I think they’re just really taking his character and they’re going to take him out of the underground world and just really let him be a part of the team more, as opposed to just sitting in front of the computer or fixing Jaime’s toe whenever it gets broken. The reason why they’re training Nathan to fight in this episode, is because his big brother got a little physical with him, and I show up with a black eye, and so my big brother beat me up, and I show up and ask Will [Will Yun Lee who plays Jae Kim] to train me. I’d like to see a little bit of Nathan’s home life actually and so people can get a little clue into why Nathan’s the way he is”

Rankin on the possibility of a Jaime/Nathan romance:

“I do know that Nathan, he loves his bionics, and he loves women, and you put them together, you can’t go wrong. I definitely think he is fascinated with Jaime, and I think that it’s just the combination of his two favorite things, like having peanut butter and jelly in the same jar. There was always that possibility when I came on the show that they wanted there to be some sort of trajectory there, but you never know when that ship is going to land. So, I think that if there is a romance, that you’ll always touch on it, but I don’t know how long it will be until you would actually see that.”

Rankin on Miguel Ferrer:

“I think Miguel Ferrer is just the coolest man I’ve ever met. He’s a great actor and just great to have on set, and just great to be in a scene with, and actually I’m glad that he’s taking Nathan out of the lair and kind of making me his sort of right hand man when he goes out on a mission and stuff,”

Rankin on Michelle Ryan:

“She’s just such a wonderful, beautiful young lady, and she never has a second to herself, because she’s in every scene and she rarely gets any time off, and God bless her, she’s just the biggest trooper.”

Rankin also talks about his personal hopes and his upcoming movie roles. You can read the entire interview here.