Katrina Law is the woman behind some of the most kickass female characters on television. From her previous work on Spartacus and Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and her continued success as the female assassin, Nyssa on the hit CW show, Arrow -- now in its fourth season -- Law has become a hit with the fans.
But now Law is going to be kicking butt in the courtroom in the recently announced pilot for ABC Family, Guilt starring opposite Billy Zane.
While this role may not be what fans of Katrina Law are accustomed to -- she’s also starring in the romantic comedy 12 Gifts of Christmas on the Hallmark Channel, premiering this holiday season -- it’s a change of pace for the actor who spoke with iDigitalTimes about her upcoming projects including Guilt and what’s in store for her character in Arrow season 4.
“I love doing the action and love doing the sci-fi thing and it’s so much fun to be a part of the DC universe and an honor to be a part of,” Law said. “But I’ve never truly done a straight drama and the story is so compelling and the writers have written this wonderful pilot and the possibilities of where it can go are endless.
"And to be a part of that ...there’s so much heart and soul in this pilot and was so well written that it was a pleasure to be a part of it,” she said
Law plays Nathalie Atworth, a Boston Lawyer who, by Law’s own admission, is “good at her job” but gets a phone call from her younger sister, Grace who is studying in London. Grace is in trouble and she has become the prime suspect in the brutal murder of her roommate, similar to the Amanda Knox trial.
But with Nathalie being Grace’s mother figure, it’s up to Law’s character to try and save her sister.
“I’ve been taking care of my sister my entire life….and I have a hyper responsibility towards my sister and she goes to London for college,” Law explained. “All of a sudden I get this call from her that she’s in trouble and her roommate has been murdered. My first instinct is to go out there and bring her home. But when I get out there, things are messier than I imagined and Grace is in a lot more trouble than I originally hoped.”
When Nathalie gets to London she meets with Stan (played by Billy Zane) Grace’s cocky defense attorney who revels in conflict and enjoys winning. The two will look to team up and exonerate Grace from her murder charges.
“This is probably the most congenial cast that I’ve ever worked with,” Law said. “Everybody was so nice and so excited to be working and enjoying their parts and really pulling together to make this a really good pilot. There are no ego trips and Billy Zane was amazing to work with.”
But after three weeks shooting the Guilt pilot in Budapest and London, Law has returned to Star City and has already shot episode 3 of the fourth season.
“The storyline for my character is going to be fun and I don’t know where they are going necessarily and how it’s going to end,” Law said. “But essentially Nyssa will be wanting her title as Ra’s al Ghul to be handed to her.”
Fans of Arrow will remember at the end of season 3, Malcolm Merlyn was given the title of Ra’s al Ghul after Ollie defeated and killed Nyssa’s father. And when Nyssa found out Malcolm was the new Ra’s, it’s safe to say the assassin was not very happy.
And if you felt Nyssa should have done something about it in the final episode, you may want to rethink that.
“Personally as I was reading the script and read that she had to kneel in front of Malcolm there was a part of me that had to swallow a little vomit,” Law said laughing. “But at the same time, Nyssa is a smart girl so she realizes that if she decided to challenge him right then and there the League of Assassins who essentially accepted Malcolm as the new Ra’s she knew she would have died because he would have turned them against her and it would have ended in like five minutes and she would have been dead. So that wasn’t an option.
But also, with Nyssa I do think it’s a matter of honor, tribe and tradition. She’s not going to poison him, deceive him or stab him in his sleep. If she is to take him out and become the new Ra’s al Ghul she will do it honorably.”
Besides the saga of Malcolm running the League of Assassins and the introduction of Damien Darhk as the big bad this season, a huge draw for season 4 of Arrow is the return of a crucial character. A character who has strong ties to Nyssa in particular.
Of course, we are talking about the return of Sara Lance played by Caity Lotz.
And while we know she will be joining the Legends of Tomorrow, fans of the show are waiting to see how the different characters react to her return especially once Nyssa finds out.
“There’s two ways [Nyssa] can go about it,” Law explained. “One, is she can be extremely happy because the love of her life is back and they can rekindle their love and potentially make things work. Which is what I personally hope for and I know the fans personally hope for.
But then there’s that thing of, if she suddenly comes back how does she come back? If it was by the Lazarus Pit why wasn’t it used before and if it wasn’t used before there has to be a very good reason it wasn’t. So it will be interesting to see what happens and where the writers decide to go with it. Because I think it will be epic.”
Law couldn’t reveal much about what is to happen in Arrow season 4 but she did shed some light on what fans can expect from episode 3.
“You may have seen it from the trailer but it starts with Malcolm Merlyn and I having a little fight,” Law said. “But the cool thing about that is, as much as Nyssa HATES Malcolm Merlyn you start to wonder what their backstory is because he can easily just take her out as easily as I can kill him and be done with the problem. So I think people will find our relationship very interesting.
"And….yea big things happen in episode 3 and I think the outcome will shock everyone,” Law said.
