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Witness Recovery with Nicole Hiltz and Joshua Malina of 'In Plain Sight'
by Troy Rogers
 After
a successful first season inside the dramatic
witness protection dynamics of the USA Network
series In Plain Sight, actress Nicole Hiltz has
stepped back into her role as Brandi Shannon,
the drug plagued, black sheep sister of Mary McCormack's
lead character, Mary Shannon. With In Plain Sight
finding its second season identity along with
its weekly audience, the WITSEC cast welcomed
former West Wing actor, Joshua Malina to the secretive
branch of the witness protection program as the
recurring recovering alcoholic character, Peter,
whom Nicole Hiltz as Brandi connects with after
an A.A. meeting.
With In Plain Sight now heading into its sixth Season 2 episode, "One Night Stan", on May 31 at 10pm that sees a witness turn up dead, we recently went undercover on a conference call with actress Nicole Hiltz and new In Plain Sight cast member, Joshua Malina to learn more about their show relationship and where they'll be taking things in the second season of In Plain Sight.
THE DEADBOLT: I was checking out the forums on the show’s official site and I noticed a lot of fans hate your character and Jinx [as mentioned earlier]. I was just trying to figure out; do you take that kind of thing to heart or is it confirmation that, as an actor, you’re playing Brandi perfectly?
 NICHOLE
HILTZ: I want to go with the second. It
is challenging. It’s hard sometimes to play;
I know already in the script that she’s screwing
up. How do you back this up and how do you fight
for it? But I had to learn quickly not to take
it personally. It makes my character more complex
and it’s something to fight against and makes
it more of a challenge.
Sure everybody wants to be loved, but they’ve
given me such great stuff this year, the stuff
with Josh, has been really, really fun and has
brought a lot of integrity, I think, to my character.
Thanks, Josh. At the same time, if every character
is perfect and always doing everything right
then we don’t have a show and it’s not as interesting.
It balances out.
THE DEADBOLT: Josh, what’s your personal view of Peter? Is he somebody you’d want to hang out with?
JOSHUA MALINA: That’s a great question.
I think for at least the first two or three
episodes Nichole and I would talk about [that]
I was just called Mr. Bummer. Like what is that?
My god, a self-righteous recovering alcoholic.
That being said, I like people like that; I
enjoy hanging out with people who are a huge
drag. That’s just me. The greater overview as
David Maples and the other writers have written
him, I actually think there’s a lot to him.
I think he is the kind of guy I’d like to hang
out with, in part because I think we’ll discover
he’s got a lot of money, too. Maybe I’m not
supposed to say that. I certainly enjoy hanging
out with the rich.
 To
be more serious now about answering your question,
yes, I think there’s a lot to him. When we first
see him, it’s in a very specific situation.
The guy’s at an A.A. meting and this really
cute girl crashes it, tells this amazing story
and then he immediately finds out that it’s
all a lie. So we’re not seeing him at his happy
best. He’s definitely feeling kind of taken
advantage of and sort of bummed out. What I
can promise is that we’re going to see these
guys start to enjoy each other more.
THE DEADBOLT: Nichole, how do you think things would have panned out if it were Brandi that killed Chuck instead of Mary?
HILTZ: If it didn’t go down the way it did and everybody survived and just became a murderer and on my own killed him? Or if it happened the way it went for Mary in a kidnapping situation?
THE DEADBOLT: Yes, if you became a murderer.
 HILTZ:
That’s another whole avenue. I guess if I was
avenging my sister then I’d be in a whole different
load of trouble, but I think she actually does
mean that. I think if she didn’t know the way
things were going to turn out -Bandi’s not somebody
who always thinks the entire situation out -
I think I’d be in jail, so I don’t know. I’m
glad it happened this other way. It’s shocking
that she would get a second chance at all, so
I do have the opportunity to see her unravel
and how she grows like that. I’m not sure really,
it scares me. Especially about Brandi murdering
people.
THE DEADBOLT: I’m curious ... will Wanda be in the next Trailer Park Boys movie?
HILTZ: So far no offers; I don’t think so. I did have fun working on that and I wish them all the best of luck. It’s a fun show, fun film. Thanks for asking.
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