By Colin W. Sargent<\/p>\n
Rachel Nichols is Sooo\u2026in The Loop<\/em>.<\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/nichols.jpg\" "\\"nichols\\"")
<\/a>The Pitch:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nImagine a high-concept rom-com about a handsome loner who endlessly drives the big, black Loop Road around Houston at night\u2013in search of himself and the meaning of life. When a cryptic-talking parrot interrupts the simplicity of his dark spirals, he starts to believe if only he can understand what the bird is saying and find its original owner, he might lift the veil on the universe\u2019s deepest secrets.<\/strong><\/p>\nWith the help of the drop-dead sexy assistant librarian at his junior college, naturally.<\/strong><\/p>\nRachel Nichols is thrilled to have just finished shooting her first leading role after turning heads in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra <\/em>and Star Trek<\/em>. Reached in Los Angeles, where she\u2019s shooting new episodes of Criminal Minds<\/em>, the Columbia grad is excited about the intellectual frisson generated by The Loop<\/em> and what this is going to mean for her as an actress.<\/p>\n\u201cThe Loop <\/em>is about a girl whose dog teaches her how to listen and a man whose parrot teaches him to talk,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a quirky, edgy love story. Playing Fiona was great for me, because she\u2019s a departure from some of the roles I\u2019ve been offered. For the first 20 minutes, she actually annoys you. This tall, quiet giant fascinates her, and she sort of stalks him.\u201d<\/p>\nAll The Night Moves<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s a lot of star dark where she grew up in Maine, so the existential loneliness of the setting, with its never-ending night orbits, was familiar to her, though the movie wasn\u2019t even shot in Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shot in New Mexico. There\u2019s a lot of big and dark out there, too, with even less traffic. It was really beautiful, very sweeping, gorgeous\u2013very dark and very cold, because we did a lot of night shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only was this Nichols\u2019s breakthrough opportunity as a leading film actress, it was the first time out for director Margaret Whitton, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a very successful actress, in movies like Major League<\/em> and The Secret of My Success<\/em>, and it was a privilege to participate in her directorial debut. She worked very, very closely with Jackson [Hurst, who plays Lyman, the night driver] and me, all the way to the wardrobe and physicality. Among many things, she didn\u2019t want Fiona to be a clich\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Big Bang Theory<\/strong><\/p>\nThat is, no before-and-after reveal, no shake-out of hair. Still, apart from double majoring in math and economics, how does the green girl from Star Trek<\/em> transform into a librarian\u2013superficially speaking?<\/p>\n\u201cBangs. We put some bangs on me\u2013quirky, fluffy bangs, which were the last piece of the character that made her come together for me. We stayed away from quiet, from glasses, from muted tones. I had the dark hair. We didn\u2019t have bookworm-type things, because it\u2019s Lyman\u2019s character who has the spectacular inhibitions,\u201d the former Abercrombie & Fitch model says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough you learn very quickly, Fiona and Lyman are a lot more alike than we originally suspect. They both seem to be running from themselves, but in different ways. She has this fight or flight thing and seems always to be running: new town, sets up, stays a while, then moves quickly somewhere else. Lyman has never been past the state line. There\u2019s a big arc for Fiona because she goes from being the one who\u2019s running away to the one who dares to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
Run Silent, Run Creep<\/strong><\/p>\nUsually, neurotic personalities are played by guys destined for the geek squad, so it\u2019s refreshing to see convention twisted to find Lyman played by a leading-man type.<\/p>\n
\u201cJackson [Hurst] is one of the most charismatic, sweet people I\u2019ve ever met. He\u2019s obviously gorgeous and very handsome. But he is<\/em> quiet! I remember hearing from casting, \u2018We have this guy we like. Will you come in and audition with him?\u2019<\/p>\n\u201cI shook his hand. I felt, Oh, this <\/em>is Lyman<\/em>. Though he has no trouble meeting women nowadays, he found the way to his part by overexposing his younger, more shy, awkward version of himself, maybe from junior high.<\/p>\n\u201cLyman is very quiet and clearly turned off by this awkward librarian. He doesn\u2019t talk to anyone from work. He certainly doesn\u2019t have any friends. He\u2019d have never gotten involved with Fiona if it hadn\u2019t been for the crazy quest that brings them together.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth are loners, but they\u2019re loners in a different way. Even at the end, there\u2019s a calming, quiet thing about him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Upcoming Attractions<\/strong><\/p>\nWhile Tashtego Films, the movie\u2019s producer, negotiates with the usual suspects for the most desirable release date, Nichols is gratified by the career-boosting connections she\u2019s already made by being in The Loop<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cMargaret is a great friend now. It\u2019s so fantastic that Joe Coomer is a Maine writer. He came to visit on set! He\u2019s [got a summer place] around Deer Isle [in Stonington]. [Oscar-winner] Philippe Rousselot, The Loop<\/em>\u2019s cinematographer\/director of photography who did Dangerous Liaisons, Big Fish, <\/em>and the Sherlock Holmes<\/em> movies, is a wonderful friend, too.\u201d<\/p>\nIn fact Rousselot departed to work on\u00a0 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows<\/em> directly after finishing The Loop<\/em>.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a Romanian saying, \u201cIf you don\u2019t have an old one around you, you\u2019ll invent one.\u201d As for what it was like working with Buck Henry in The Loop<\/em>, Nichols says, \u201cI never had any scenes with him. I\u2019d most recently seen him playing Liz Lemon\u2019s father from 30 Rock<\/em>. Margaret has some extraordinary friends who came in and played with us.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom Indie to Blockbuster<\/strong><\/p>\nAnd now for something completely different: Nichols is also<\/em> in post-production from shooting the mammoth action-adventure drama Conan the Barbarian<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was big budget, filmed in Bulgaria. Completely surreal. I never shot anything in Europe for three months in a row before this. I shot G.I. Joe<\/em> in Louisiana for three months and then a month in Prague.\u201d<\/p>\nNo, Not Conan O\u2019Brien<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nFar from being a librarian, Nichols plays a heroic swashbuckler named Tamara in Conan the Barbarian<\/em>\u2013your basic princess who rides horses a lot and is unperturbed by the gnashing of metal.<\/p>\n\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a week of rehearsals. It\u2019s less character driven and more story driven. If I\u2019m the goodie, there\u2019s Rose McGowan, who plays the bad girl, and Stephen Lang [Avatar<\/em>], who plays Rose\u2019s father.\u201d<\/p>\nAs for joining the horsey set, \u201cI\u2019d never really gotten to ride a horse in my life until I got to Bulgaria. I wanted to look good and know what I was doing, so I had to work at it and grew to love it.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy favorite horse was named Blanco, all white. Another one I liked was La Pizza, or at least that\u2019s what the name sounded like.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe horse I didn\u2019t<\/em> like was the horse Conan rides in the film\u2013his massive horse Rodolfo. He was so big I was petrified of him.\u201d<\/p>\nRodolfo\u2019s menacing coat alone threw her, because it seemed to change according to his mood. \u201cDark gray or potentially black. Just a threatening presence. Just having to ride as the second person on his back was quite scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Screaming as Fast as I Can<\/strong><\/p>\nEven scarier, perhaps, than the acting assignment that led to Nichols winning MTV\u2019s Best Frightened Performance award for her blood-curdling shriek in The Amityville Horror <\/em>in 2005\u2013something she still laughs about.<\/p>\n\u201cI played the babysitter. The clincher scene was in the closet, when the little girl who plays the imaginary friend comes in and sticks my index finger through the bullet hole in her forehead. You sort of see me leaving on the stretcher in a catatonic state. I was also hanged in the same movie. It\u2019s so funny; my mom<\/em> will avidly watch the bits where I die. My dad, on the other hand, has no interest.\u201d<\/p>\nComing Full Circle<\/strong><\/p>\nNot that her lucrative TV career has been suspended while her film star rises. How loop-like is it that she\u2019s twice been asked to play a recurring character on high-visibility series\u2013first on Alias<\/em> with Jennifer Garner and now on Criminal Minds<\/em>, playing FBI cadet Ashley Seaver?<\/p>\n\u201cI love shifting gears from film to TV. The schedule on TV is so different than something on film.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Criminal Minds<\/em> gig, \u201cThey invited me to come on for three episodes to join a cast that has been working together for five years. A popular character [known as J.J.] had recently departed, and there was this kerfuffle among the fans that I was brought in to replace her, though the only shared trait was we were both blondes. The first was well received by the fans, and they decided to ask me to come on permanently. I\u2019m in Episode 10, 11, 12\u2026and on Episode 15, I\u2019m back. After that I\u2019m in every one.\u201d Factoring in residuals and reruns, how\u2019s that for looping the loop?<\/p>\nRachel Nichols’s Screen Credits<\/strong><\/p>\nConan the Barbarian<\/em>, 2011<\/p>\nThe Loop<\/em>, 2011<\/p>\nCriminal Minds<\/em>, 2010-11<\/p>\nMeskada<\/em>, 2010<\/p>\nOllie Klublershturf vs the Nazis<\/em>, 2010<\/p>\nFor Sale by Owner<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\nU.S. Attorney<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\nStar Trek<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\nG.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\nThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2<\/em>, 2008<\/p>\nCharlie Wilson’s War<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\nP2,<\/em> 2007<\/p>\nResurrecting the Champ<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\nThem<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\nAlias<\/em>, 2005-06<\/p>\nThe Woods<\/em>, 2006<\/p>\nShopgirl<\/em>, 2005<\/p>\nThe Inside<\/em>, 2005<\/p>\nMr. Dramatic,<\/em> 2005<\/p>\nThe Amityville Horror,<\/em> 2005<\/p>\nWalk Into a Bar<\/em>, 2004<\/p>\nLine of Fire,<\/em> 2004<\/p>\nA Funny Thing Happened at the Quick Mart,<\/em> 2004<\/p>\nDebating Robert Lee<\/em>, 2004<\/p>\nDumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd<\/em>, 2003<\/p>\nSex and the City<\/em>, 2002<\/p>\nAutumn in New York,<\/em> 2000<\/p>\nClick here<\/a> to see Nichols\u2019s Amityville<\/em> scream<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/a>The Pitch:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nImagine a high-concept rom-com about a handsome loner who endlessly drives the big, black Loop Road around Houston at night\u2013in search of himself and the meaning of life. When a cryptic-talking parrot interrupts the simplicity of his dark spirals, he starts to believe if only he can understand what the bird is saying and find its original owner, he might lift the veil on the universe\u2019s deepest secrets.<\/strong><\/p>\n With the help of the drop-dead sexy assistant librarian at his junior college, naturally.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rachel Nichols is thrilled to have just finished shooting her first leading role after turning heads in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra <\/em>and Star Trek<\/em>. Reached in Los Angeles, where she\u2019s shooting new episodes of Criminal Minds<\/em>, the Columbia grad is excited about the intellectual frisson generated by The Loop<\/em> and what this is going to mean for her as an actress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Loop <\/em>is about a girl whose dog teaches her how to listen and a man whose parrot teaches him to talk,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a quirky, edgy love story. Playing Fiona was great for me, because she\u2019s a departure from some of the roles I\u2019ve been offered. For the first 20 minutes, she actually annoys you. This tall, quiet giant fascinates her, and she sort of stalks him.\u201d<\/p>\n All The Night Moves<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of star dark where she grew up in Maine, so the existential loneliness of the setting, with its never-ending night orbits, was familiar to her, though the movie wasn\u2019t even shot in Houston.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shot in New Mexico. There\u2019s a lot of big and dark out there, too, with even less traffic. It was really beautiful, very sweeping, gorgeous\u2013very dark and very cold, because we did a lot of night shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only was this Nichols\u2019s breakthrough opportunity as a leading film actress, it was the first time out for director Margaret Whitton, as well.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s a very successful actress, in movies like Major League<\/em> and The Secret of My Success<\/em>, and it was a privilege to participate in her directorial debut. She worked very, very closely with Jackson [Hurst, who plays Lyman, the night driver] and me, all the way to the wardrobe and physicality. Among many things, she didn\u2019t want Fiona to be a clich\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n The Big Bang Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n That is, no before-and-after reveal, no shake-out of hair. Still, apart from double majoring in math and economics, how does the green girl from Star Trek<\/em> transform into a librarian\u2013superficially speaking?<\/p>\n \u201cBangs. We put some bangs on me\u2013quirky, fluffy bangs, which were the last piece of the character that made her come together for me. We stayed away from quiet, from glasses, from muted tones. I had the dark hair. We didn\u2019t have bookworm-type things, because it\u2019s Lyman\u2019s character who has the spectacular inhibitions,\u201d the former Abercrombie & Fitch model says.<\/p>\n \u201cThough you learn very quickly, Fiona and Lyman are a lot more alike than we originally suspect. They both seem to be running from themselves, but in different ways. She has this fight or flight thing and seems always to be running: new town, sets up, stays a while, then moves quickly somewhere else. Lyman has never been past the state line. There\u2019s a big arc for Fiona because she goes from being the one who\u2019s running away to the one who dares to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n Run Silent, Run Creep<\/strong><\/p>\n Usually, neurotic personalities are played by guys destined for the geek squad, so it\u2019s refreshing to see convention twisted to find Lyman played by a leading-man type.<\/p>\n \u201cJackson [Hurst] is one of the most charismatic, sweet people I\u2019ve ever met. He\u2019s obviously gorgeous and very handsome. But he is<\/em> quiet! I remember hearing from casting, \u2018We have this guy we like. Will you come in and audition with him?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI shook his hand. I felt, Oh, this <\/em>is Lyman<\/em>. Though he has no trouble meeting women nowadays, he found the way to his part by overexposing his younger, more shy, awkward version of himself, maybe from junior high.<\/p>\n \u201cLyman is very quiet and clearly turned off by this awkward librarian. He doesn\u2019t talk to anyone from work. He certainly doesn\u2019t have any friends. He\u2019d have never gotten involved with Fiona if it hadn\u2019t been for the crazy quest that brings them together.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth are loners, but they\u2019re loners in a different way. Even at the end, there\u2019s a calming, quiet thing about him.\u201d<\/p>\n Upcoming Attractions<\/strong><\/p>\n While Tashtego Films, the movie\u2019s producer, negotiates with the usual suspects for the most desirable release date, Nichols is gratified by the career-boosting connections she\u2019s already made by being in The Loop<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cMargaret is a great friend now. It\u2019s so fantastic that Joe Coomer is a Maine writer. He came to visit on set! He\u2019s [got a summer place] around Deer Isle [in Stonington]. [Oscar-winner] Philippe Rousselot, The Loop<\/em>\u2019s cinematographer\/director of photography who did Dangerous Liaisons, Big Fish, <\/em>and the Sherlock Holmes<\/em> movies, is a wonderful friend, too.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact Rousselot departed to work on\u00a0 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows<\/em> directly after finishing The Loop<\/em>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a Romanian saying, \u201cIf you don\u2019t have an old one around you, you\u2019ll invent one.\u201d As for what it was like working with Buck Henry in The Loop<\/em>, Nichols says, \u201cI never had any scenes with him. I\u2019d most recently seen him playing Liz Lemon\u2019s father from 30 Rock<\/em>. Margaret has some extraordinary friends who came in and played with us.\u201d<\/p>\n From Indie to Blockbuster<\/strong><\/p>\n And now for something completely different: Nichols is also<\/em> in post-production from shooting the mammoth action-adventure drama Conan the Barbarian<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was big budget, filmed in Bulgaria. Completely surreal. I never shot anything in Europe for three months in a row before this. I shot G.I. Joe<\/em> in Louisiana for three months and then a month in Prague.\u201d<\/p>\n No, Not Conan O\u2019Brien<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Far from being a librarian, Nichols plays a heroic swashbuckler named Tamara in Conan the Barbarian<\/em>\u2013your basic princess who rides horses a lot and is unperturbed by the gnashing of metal.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a week of rehearsals. It\u2019s less character driven and more story driven. If I\u2019m the goodie, there\u2019s Rose McGowan, who plays the bad girl, and Stephen Lang [Avatar<\/em>], who plays Rose\u2019s father.\u201d<\/p>\n As for joining the horsey set, \u201cI\u2019d never really gotten to ride a horse in my life until I got to Bulgaria. I wanted to look good and know what I was doing, so I had to work at it and grew to love it.<\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite horse was named Blanco, all white. Another one I liked was La Pizza, or at least that\u2019s what the name sounded like.<\/p>\n \u201cThe horse I didn\u2019t<\/em> like was the horse Conan rides in the film\u2013his massive horse Rodolfo. He was so big I was petrified of him.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodolfo\u2019s menacing coat alone threw her, because it seemed to change according to his mood. \u201cDark gray or potentially black. Just a threatening presence. Just having to ride as the second person on his back was quite scary.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m Screaming as Fast as I Can<\/strong><\/p>\n Even scarier, perhaps, than the acting assignment that led to Nichols winning MTV\u2019s Best Frightened Performance award for her blood-curdling shriek in The Amityville Horror <\/em>in 2005\u2013something she still laughs about.<\/p>\n \u201cI played the babysitter. The clincher scene was in the closet, when the little girl who plays the imaginary friend comes in and sticks my index finger through the bullet hole in her forehead. You sort of see me leaving on the stretcher in a catatonic state. I was also hanged in the same movie. It\u2019s so funny; my mom<\/em> will avidly watch the bits where I die. My dad, on the other hand, has no interest.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming Full Circle<\/strong><\/p>\n Not that her lucrative TV career has been suspended while her film star rises. How loop-like is it that she\u2019s twice been asked to play a recurring character on high-visibility series\u2013first on Alias<\/em> with Jennifer Garner and now on Criminal Minds<\/em>, playing FBI cadet Ashley Seaver?<\/p>\n \u201cI love shifting gears from film to TV. The schedule on TV is so different than something on film.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Criminal Minds<\/em> gig, \u201cThey invited me to come on for three episodes to join a cast that has been working together for five years. A popular character [known as J.J.] had recently departed, and there was this kerfuffle among the fans that I was brought in to replace her, though the only shared trait was we were both blondes. The first was well received by the fans, and they decided to ask me to come on permanently. I\u2019m in Episode 10, 11, 12\u2026and on Episode 15, I\u2019m back. After that I\u2019m in every one.\u201d Factoring in residuals and reruns, how\u2019s that for looping the loop?<\/p>\n Rachel Nichols’s Screen Credits<\/strong><\/p>\n Conan the Barbarian<\/em>, 2011<\/p>\n The Loop<\/em>, 2011<\/p>\n Criminal Minds<\/em>, 2010-11<\/p>\n Meskada<\/em>, 2010<\/p>\n Ollie Klublershturf vs the Nazis<\/em>, 2010<\/p>\n For Sale by Owner<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\n U.S. Attorney<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\n Star Trek<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\n G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra<\/em>, 2009<\/p>\n The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2<\/em>, 2008<\/p>\n Charlie Wilson’s War<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\n P2,<\/em> 2007<\/p>\n Resurrecting the Champ<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\n Them<\/em>, 2007<\/p>\n Alias<\/em>, 2005-06<\/p>\n The Woods<\/em>, 2006<\/p>\n Shopgirl<\/em>, 2005<\/p>\n The Inside<\/em>, 2005<\/p>\n Mr. Dramatic,<\/em> 2005<\/p>\n The Amityville Horror,<\/em> 2005<\/p>\n Walk Into a Bar<\/em>, 2004<\/p>\n Line of Fire,<\/em> 2004<\/p>\n A Funny Thing Happened at the Quick Mart,<\/em> 2004<\/p>\n Debating Robert Lee<\/em>, 2004<\/p>\n Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd<\/em>, 2003<\/p>\n Sex and the City<\/em>, 2002<\/p>\n Autumn in New York,<\/em> 2000<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to see Nichols\u2019s Amityville<\/em> scream<\/strong><\/p>\n
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