FHM

The Sexy Cylon shares stories with FHM about stealing props, traveling, on-set hijinks, and, naturally, sex with robots.
Dan Reilly

2008

As Battlestar Galactica prepares to end its run on SciFi, time is running out to catch Grace Park as multiple copies of sexy Cylon Number Eight. But don’t worry – her new series with Benjamin Bratt, The Cleaner, just premiered on A&E, so you can watch as she plays a wild woman on a team of intervention specialist. Recently, the Korean-Canadian actress shared stories with FHM about stealing props, traveling, on-set hijinks, and, naturally, sex with robots.

With Battlestar ending, what can fans expect from the last episodes?
You’re going to get to see a wrapping up of all the events that have occurred and you’ll find out who survives, who dies, and who the final Cylon is. There’s another interaction between my two characters, Boomer and Athena, and there’s a lot of history we finally clear up with them. We actually just wrapped a few hours ago. It was six AM and we drank champagne at sunrise.

Wow. So, now that you’re done, did you steal anything from the set?
Yeah, there were a lot of things already stolen that I wanted, but I got my flight suit and dog tags. And Eddie Olmos had a sign near the trailers that said ““Edward James Olmos, Battlestar Parking,” that I took out to my car on the last day. I’ll stick it on my garage.

So, after playing a bunch of identical-looking characters on the show, are we going to see you in an Eddie Murphy-style movie like Norbit?
Haha, I never thought of that. I didn’t even know I’d be playing two Sharon’s. I’ve done it to the best of my ability but yeah, that’s not something I really want to revisit.

Have you ever had any awkward moments with fanboys?
I was in Starbucks the other day and some guy said “Cylon!” when he saw me. He kind of yelled at me and I was just like, “Yep, I do play a Cylon.” I found out later that he didn’t mean to do that – he just reacted that way was kind of embarrassed. It was funny.

Apparently, scientists think that humans will have physical and emotional relationships with robots in the future. What do you think of that?
It’s weird, because I’ve seen pictures of two people and you realize one’s actually a robot. I have no idea what’s going to happen a hundred years from now but if someone feels the best-suited person for them is actually a robot, well, it’s better than not having anybody. But, there are billions of people on earth, so what’s stopping them? I’m for human-human relationships, but don’t tell anybody that yet.

So on your new show, The Cleaner, what’s your character like?
My character Akani is a former drug addict who’s part of a team of interventionists that use unconventional methods. She’s a bit of a wild card. She likes to have fun, and she has an inheritance, so she’s not doing it for the money. She’s not afraid to say what she thinks.

I heard that she’s a sex addict, too. Is that true?
Haha, no. We joke that every character’s addiction is sex. She’s a sexual being but she’s not a nymphomaniac at all. We don’t see her having sex on screen, at least not so far, but she’ll have her talk and we’ll see if she’ll end up walking her walk.

So how are you and Akani similar?
I can be cheeky like Akani, and I like adventure. I don’t blow money like she does on clothes, because they’re not that big a deal to me. When I read the pilot, I liked what she was doing so much I actually told the basis for Benjamin’s character, the real interventionist, that I’d come work for him if the show didn’t happen. I’ve done enough acting that I don’t need to do it the rest of my life. I like stuff that’s fun and always changing.

If you don’t blow money on clothes, what do you spend it on?
Oh, I love traveling and I’ll go places on both the high and low end. Like, I’ll stay in the Regent Shanghai, which is beautiful, and then a tent in India. There was one time where my husband and I tried visiting the Taj Mahal and the place we stayed was so nasty that we went to bed fully-clothed. There was no nookie whatsoever, just a peck on the cheek. Another time, in Rio, we were in crowd of thousands and my husband got mugged really quickly by a girl. He was shit scared but I said, “that’s awesome.” If you always go high class, you don’t get that exhilaration. You get better stories this way.

Do you have any bad habits that you’d need an intervention to break?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a workaholic? I never thought I would be.

No addiction to candy or biting your nails?
Oh, that. I thought you were talking about my crack habit or my addiction to Croatian porn. I’m glad we didn’t have to go there.

So how is this different from being on a sci-fi show?
Well, it’s a refreshing change to be in Los Angeles in 2008. It had been so long since I did a present-day scene that on the first day I was on set there were all these fans and cops standing around in the way of the shot. They started filming and I said “whoa, don’t you have to clear the set first?” I didn’t realize they were all extras, because I’m so used to everybody being in a flight suit. I was like “wow, I’m a geek. Welcome to TV land.”

Nice. The Cleaner deals with some heavy subject matter. Do you guys keep it lighter on the set?
There’s a lot of talk of sex. I’m actually amazed by how much they can talk about it without being sexist or misogynistic. Kevin Michael Richardson, who plays Darnell, is a great voice actor, so he does all sorts of sound effects along with that. They really get their whole bodies into it. Clearly, we haven’t had any sexual harassment talks.

How do you handle it?
I roll with it. If anything, it’s almost like they’re little kids doing it. There’s a lot of talk about male body parts with a lot of exaggeration. All the guys think size certainly matters. It’s really not harassing, but Kevin has put my hand on his butt a few times. It’s all good. I think he’s a sex addict. We need an intervention.

So, does size really matter? What do you tell them?
I don’t think it matters to the degree people think it does. If that’s all you’re thinking about you’re probably lacking in some other areas like skill and application. I think it’s overrated but I wouldn’t go so far to say that it totally doesn’t matter.

Akani and Benjamin Bratt’s character have a bit of a coworker sexual tension thing going on. Have you ever experienced something like that?
No. I was actually surprised that Battlestar wasn’t like that. There wasn’t any major tension, so I’ve never done that taboo work thing. I’ve heard people say how big of a headache it can be. I don’t need that.

So, if you had to date one of your co-stars from The Cleaner, who would it be?
Hmm. I don’t think I’d date any of them. They’re going to have their share of lady fans but it’s just not for me. My character certainly has the hots for all of them but not me, not Grace.

You can catch The Cleaner on A&E Tuesday nights at 10.