Alaina Huffman is a Vancouver native who moved away from the city at the age of 18. She now calls Los Angeles home, but Huffman has regularly returned to Vancouver to work on some of the series that have shot in the city, including Painkiller Jane and Smallville. On Stargate Universe, Huffman plays Tamara Johansen, a member of the U.S. Air Force. She talked about the depth of character to be found in the SGU women and what it's like to play a character that has faults, and even evil qualities.

CinemaSpy: Tell us about your character, and what role that character plays in the ensemble that makes up Stargate Universe.

Alaina Huffman: I play Tamara Johansen. She's a first lieutenant in the Air Force. She's also a medic and she's part of what is a special ops mission. We're on the Icarus base and we wind up — literally — getting thrown aboard the Destiny and we're along for the journey. We're on the far side of the universe and she, by default, becomes the most medically inclined person, so is responsible for everyone's health and well-being. Of course, that's a little overwhelming. She has little vulnerabilities as well, but she's a strong, capable, intelligent woman.

CinemaSpy: You've been shooting for a few months, what are your impressions. Are you feeling good about what's going on?

Alaina Huffman: We have the best producers. They are right there on the same lot as us, which is more than you can say for a lot of shows, they come by the stage all the time, and they're always telling us, "We saw the latest cut and your performance was great and the scripts are great and the show is coming along." It's wonderful to hear that. I think all of us feel really blessed to be here. The scripts that are coming out keep getting better and better and the story lines and characters are really rounding out and filling out.

CinemaSpy: What aspirations do you have for the series?

Alaina Huffman: I hope we go a few years. That's always nice, to have a job for a few years. I think we're a little spoiled. I don't know anybody else who can go to Comic -Con with a first show that doesn't air for months and pack 5,000 people in a room. It's amazing, and Brad [Wright] and Robert [Cooper], I'm so impressed with them I thought they were phenomenal in handling the panel.

CinemaSpy: How familiar were you with Stargate?

Alaina Huffman: I wasn't. I knew of it, of course, and I actually auditioned for Atlantis and SG-1 at various points in my acting career, either for recurring characters or guest stars, so I knew what it was, but I didn't watch the show.

CinemaSpy: One of the things that both Robert Cooper and Brad Wright have talked about is that there's no "big bad" on this show. What is it like to play within a genre show like this, where the evil, or the badness, comes from within the characters.

Alaina Huffman: I think it's very real. The characters have both good and evil qualities, and I think that's just human nature. It's really about us dealing with situations. There is going to be — and I want to reassure the Stargate fans — there is that big, epic thing that happens every week, and there is gunfire and aliens. There is all of that, but ultimately it's really about how we deal with it and how we, as individuals and characters, interact with each other and ultimately survive together in this circumstance.

CinemaSpy: Both Robert Cooper and Brad Wright have talked about Destiny being a character. How does that manifest for you?

Alaina Huffman: There's so much that happens on the Destiny and really it's a character that we're discovering as well. It's a humongous ship that we have yet to explore. Hopefully we have a good handful of seasons to explore it. We actually don't even know what it's capable of. We find things out along the way and we makeshift and we fit our human lives into this ship. I don't know who created the ship, we really don't know. So it manifests in every way because we try and fit into it, and we discover a lot about it along the way.

CinemaSpy: Does that affect how you play your character, thinking of the location as a character?

Alaina Huffman: No, not so much. We've got some really great sets, so now that we have a geographical reference of where things are, it does play into that. And because we're so far into the season already we have established things like "this door leads to there." Although I will say that walking onto the stage sometimes I'm like, "That wall wasn't there 20 minutes ago."

CinemaSpy: Now that you've got 15 episodes behind you, what have you learned about your character that you didn't know in episode 1?

Alaina Huffman: I think that she's a lot stronger than she thinks she is. She's overwhelmed by the situation and the circumstance that she's put in, and I think she's coming into her own and recognizing that she is capable of doing all of this. Maybe the confidence and maturity that comes along with that.

CinemaSpy: That's not unique for women leads in the Stargate franchise. But I find it curious that they are always strong, powerful women that have to discover that they are strong, powerful women.

Alaina Huffman: I think, though, that they are also, for the most part, new. It's a new experience, it's a new circumstance that they are put in, so they have to grow into it. And I think that's part of the growth and the maturity of it. Tamara wants to go to medical school and I think there was always a dream but she didn't have the ability to go, and she was doing the good ol' American thing and work her way to that point. So I think the confidence comes along with fulfilling a part of that dream as well, and maturing into her role and her profession.

CinemaSpy: There are three women and four men among the main seven cast members. That doesn't happen very often.

Alaina Huffman: And a variety. The characters have depth, they aren't shallow. They aren't "the hot female". They have a purpose on the ship. We shoot guns and we have authority and we hold a rank.

CinemaSpy: They are fully developed, rounded characters, with faults.

Alaina Huffman: With faults. Yeah. With human traits.

CinemaSpy: So what are your character's faults?

Alaina Huffman: She has made some mistakes. She discovers something about herself. She's dealing with making right and growing in this new-found career that she has.

CinemaSpy: Does she discover that she has other skills that can be of help in this situation? Or is she, because of her medical training, only doing that?

Alaina Huffman: I think she's better than she thinks she is, and that's her discovering and developing into herself and recognizing, "I can do this," and more than that, she has to. When you're used to being the second or third in line you don't have the pressure and she's discovering at the end of the day she realizes she's the only one that can do it.

CinemaSpy: One of the other things that has distinguished the Stargate shows is that they've always made sure that the people that made up there crews were representative of the world. Is that true for this one as well.

Alaina Huffman: I know it's one of the criteria. I think it's Brad [Wright] and Robert [Cooper], I think it's Syfy, and I believe it's MGM. I think it's wonderful. I think this show does have a diversity in its cast, and the best part about it, my favorite thing about the whole genre of sci-fi, is the ability to explore things, to be inclusive, and to not even mention it. It's not an issue. That is a very Canadian way, I think.