THE DEADBOLT: How do you feel towards the rabid fans of the show?

COPPOLA: I’ve been doing this going on two decades and when I first started off I was on MTV on a show called Remote Control and we had a cult following on Remote Control. Then I went onto Another World, now your soap fans are pretty renowned for being incredibly loyal. So I thought that was fantastic, but then I get onto Jericho and again having had a couple of series and guest-starred on numerous ones and recurred on I don’t know how many, to get on Jericho and think, ‘okay this is just another show.’ Then when we got cancelled I thought, ‘oh well, it’s not like I’ve never heard that before.’ But to then see what these fans did and to see how much they loved it. Usually when we go to work we’re just basically doing it in a sound stage, which is pretty much akin to a vacuum, you don’t know, you just don’t know. Then of course the episodes air and most of the time you don’t really hear any feedback, you might get fan mail, but you don’t really hear feedback. In the case of Jericho, not only did we get feedback, instant feedback from our fans on the message boards, but look at what they were able to do. These people coordinated themselves, came together and figured out a very creative, out of the box way to get CBS to listen to them.

I was just on the message boards this morning and I noticed that one of the people put up an e-mail address so that the fans could contact CBS and let them know that although they’re not a Neilson family, they’re watching the show. So yet again, somebody was able to find this e-mail to let the fans know how to write in so that their vote is being counted. It’s so neat and I always say as an actor I’m lucky to have a job and I’m lucky to get a job and then I’m lucky to keep the job and I’m lucky if anybody out there watches the job that I’m doing. But then to have these people who not only are watching it, but love it enough to send twenty tons of peanuts and to figure out a way to infiltrate the infrastructure of CBS.

THE DEADBOLT: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned so far working on the show?

COPPOLA: I think what I’ve learned is in the instance of ‘what if’, what I’ve seen in the characters of Jericho is how they’ve risen above and really have each other’s back and are protective of their town and its inhabitants. I think that’s what I’ve learned, that people can in the face of great strife really become the best that they can be. I would hope that everybody in real life in the ‘what if’ situation would act as brave. I also learned that I don’t think I’d actually want to kill a chicken. I learned that killing a chicken is not something I ever want to do.

THE DEADBOLT: Will Stanley be changing his stance now that Bonnie is gone?

COPPOLA: I don’t know what Stanley’s stance is going to be. I mean I think, obviously he’s devastated because his sister has just been brutally murdered. I think Stanley is feeling really backed into a wall with his whole entire…I mean this happened to him once before, his life came crashing down when his parents died. So now it’s kind of happening again, I can’t even imagine what he must feel, other than it might be similar to how Mimi felt the day that she finds out that DC is completely gone and everything she’s known and loved is destroyed. To these people threatening her family with the bogus contract and the fact that she had to go and argue Stanley’s point with Jennings and Rall.

THE DEADBOLT: I was skimming through your resume and I noticed that you’ve played quite a few authority figures from FBI, cops, and military. Is there a reason you play so many of these types of roles?

COPPOLA: I think I have a certain strength in my looks. You know, my stature, I’m tall. I’m a woman, not girl-like. Maybe it might just be my stature. That’s part of my personality, the strong steady hand. That’s one side of me and I feel comfortable with those kinds of things, then again I also feel comfortable playing crazy serial killers, so don’t listen to anything I’m saying. (laughs)