Tricia Helfer has faced Cylons, demons, and everything in between, but now she’s going head-to-head with dinosaurs. The Battlestar Galactica alum stars in Primitive War, a wild genre mash-up that drops a recon unit into the Vietnam jungle only to discover something far more terrifying than enemy soldiers: prehistoric predators. Helfer plays a paleontologist stranded in the valley, forced to fight for survival alongside the soldiers who stumble upon her.
Over the years, Helfer has built an impressively varied career across television, film, and video games, balancing memorable turns in sci-fi staples with new challenges like performance capture. She told me about the appeal of Primitive War, why shooting on practical sets made all the difference, and how she’s continued to be a working actor. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full conversation in the video above or on our YouTube channel.
I saw the trailer for the film. I mean, dinosaurs, how cool is that?
Tricia Helfer: It was a lot of fun. It’s a movie that really is a mash-up of a few different genres and the dinosaurs are like icing on the cake.
It definitely has a grounded war story that then turns into a horror aspect with the dinosaurs and a little bit of a sci-fi element, but that’s what was fun to me about it was the mash-up of different genres in this movie.
I play a paleontologist that, without giving away some spoilers, has been isolated out in the jungle for almost a year and she’s had some trauma and is trying to deal with it while also trying to survive. There’s no way to get out of there, and that’s when she meets the Vulture Squad and they end up helping each other.
When you’re reacting to dinosaurs, what are you actually reacting to? I’ve seen stories where they’re tennis balls and things like that. What were you looking at?
Tricia Helfer: In some of the scenes where there’s multiple dinosaurs, where we’re getting attacked by a pack, you’re looking all over, right? And there’s people that are in the grass; they’ve rigged it so that it moves and everything.
But there’s other instances where there’s a scene where we’re all looking at this T-Rex and we have to be looking at the same place at the same time. And it’s literally an AD with a pool skimmer walking around to get the height, so we have a visual to look at. We did have one practical dinosaur for a few days when we were on set, a man in a suit obviously, that looked really, really good, so you have that to work off of.
But the biggest thing, and to me was integral and really smart of the production to do, was all our sets were practical. So, for something like this, oftentimes the whole thing is CGI. So you’re on a green screen and you’re making up everything. You’re imagining everything and that I find really hard.
So we were out in the jungle. And the topography and the climate of Gold Coast of Australia mirrors quite well Vietnam. So, we’re really trudging through the forest. We’re really trudging through the mud. We’re really jumping in the lake.
And that just makes it so much more grounded as an actor. You feel so much more grounded when you’re in the elements. And it just makes the process so much easier, and I think look better.
But on the other extreme, I’m doing a performance capture video game right now, and it’s my first time doing performance capture. I’ve done the voice for probably eight or 10 video games now, but this is my first time doing performance capture, and that is wild. I’m a little more used to it now because I’ve been filming it all year.
But the first couple of days, I was like, ‘I suck.’ It’s so hard because you’re imagining everything, but you’re also imagining your world. You’re in the middle of this massive warehouse, just open room with crazy fluorescent lighting and white walls. And then there’ll just be a piece of tape on the floor.
You’re in a suit with a helmet on with this camera that’s hanging off, it’s all rigged up. But the suit is actually the easiest thing to get used to because the other actors are in it. You get used to that quite fast. The helmets hurt your head and I don’t think you ever get used to that.
But there’ll be a piece of tape on the floor and that’s your set to work off of. So, they’ll box you in with tape and then if there’s a big desk, it’ll just be a piece of wood. And all you have to work on off of is pieces of wood and tape on the floor. And you have to imagine the entire world. And that I find really, really, really challenging.
But with Primitive War, being in practical sets and being out in the forest was huge.
I was in a Civil War movie a while ago and just being out in the fields in the middle of Virginia, it made everything so much easier.
Tricia Helfer: Yeah, you’re there. At one point, we’re being attacked and we’re fighting and then I lean back against this embankment, and they yell, “cut!” I turn to get up and there’s a spider the size of the palm of my hand that was right here.
Nope. No thanks, I’m good.
Tricia Helfer: Right? I could have done without the spiders. But it is hugely helpful to be in the elements, as you know.
You’ve done so many roles across every sort of genre and a lot of them are hugely memorable. Is there something specific you look for now when you’re deciding to take on a new project? Or does it sometimes come down to, “I’ve never experienced this, I want to try that.”
Tricia Helfer: It’s a little bit of everything. I have turned down things because they were too similar to a role that I’ve done before, or the writing wasn’t good enough. Like right after I got off Battlestar Galactica, I turned down quite a bit of sci-fi stuff because it just didn’t compare.
But it’s also a business and you’ve got bills to pay. There’s ebbs and flows in the business, and right now we’re in a massive contraction. There was COVID and then I was out for over a year with a knee injury. And then there was the strikes and now it’s the contraction in the business.
And so sometimes it’s a financial decision, it’s like I need to work. There’s only a very small percentage of actors that are at the place where they’re probably not too concerned about paying their mortgage, right? For the rest of us, you have to factor in that you don’t always get the opportunity to just work on things that you want to work on.
The fun part of acting to me is to get to play different types of characters. And you often get put in a box in this business, you often get to play very similar characters. But the fun of it is finding those times when you do get to play something a little bit different.
Going off that, you’ve been working for a while now, in film, TV, voice over and now motion-capture. How have you been able to maintain a career this long when a lot of other people who might have started at the same time as you aren’t working anymore?
Tricia Helfer: Luck. I think there’s a lot of luck. I think there’s an element of being ready.
I was married for many years and one thing that my ex-husband said, even though he was out of the business, is that in your down times… because I’m not so good in down times, I prefer to be working, but it doesn’t always work out that way. But he said to me, part of your job is in your downtime, being ready for when the next job happens; continue to be working out, continue to be involved somehow. Reading or watching other programs so that you see what other people are doing, see what else is out there. And I think that’s one thing, being ready for when the opportunity happens.
And to be completely honest, I’m probably in the toughest part of my career right now, because I’m at an age where Hollywood is sort of thinking I don’t exist anymore in some ways. But I don’t want to blame that either, because I think as we go forward, there’s an opening up of opportunity.
And it’s about not being afraid to change to different aspects of your life. I’m not going to be able to play the roles that I was when I was 20 or 30. I’m looking forward to playing different types of roles that I didn’t get when I was younger. And I think it’s just being able to be open to change and being able to navigate the ups and downs.
I’ve always been a working actor. I’ve never hit super big, but I’ve been fortunate to be involved in some really good quality projects. Even when we shot Battlestar Galactica, it was a hit, but it was before social media, pre-streaming. The quality of that show was so good that it continues to be seen and continues to be kind of a marker of sci-fi and of good writing.
And finally, what’s been your worst audition ever?
Tricia Helfer: I’ve had a lot. I suffer from nerves, I just get incredibly nervous in the room, not on set. I’m great on set. It’s like the test mentality of walking in and having one shot at it and the nerves… where if I’m holding my sides and they’re shaking because I’m nervous or my mouth gets dry, or my mind goes blank.
There was one time that I walked in and right after, I was headed to the airport for a flight. I’m very OCD, so I’m like very organized. And I think part of it was like, ‘okay, you have to make sure you get to the airport on time and you drop your car off’ and all this kind of stuff.
When I went into the room and I started doing the scene, I just completely went blank. And I was like, “Oh, I’m sorry. Can I start over?” ‘Sure’. Same thing happens.
It happened three times where I couldn’t even get through the first line. I went blank. I went, “I can’t do this.” And I turned around and walked out. I was like, it’s not going to get any better.
When you’re on set and you see somebody that starts going in a spiral, sometimes it’s better to, instead of keeping at it, just take a quick break and go get some fresh air or something, because we’re human. We’re going to have moments where our brain goes numb or, you know, for me it’s nerves.
And you’d think self-tapes would be better, but self-tapes are really hard as well because I’m not technologically savvy. I live in the middle of the country with nobody around. So often I’m working off somebody. I’ve got my iPad propped up, somebody on FaceTime, and nobody can move the camera, or they can’t zoom in and out, you’re doing the lighting, you’re doing the sound and then you’re doing your hair and makeup. You’re doing the background.
And I find it very hard to switch and then to get into character and work with somebody off of a screen.
Both have their challenges, and I find I don’t prepare as much either for self-tapes because you can do it 50 times if you need to. I mean, the person reading with you might get mad at you… I don’t really like either of them.
I’m not somebody that likes to audition. I think I’d probably do better in my career if I did. I like really being on set and the collaboration, but obviously to get on set, you have to get through the audition.
Right. With self-tapes, you’re like, “Oh, I’ll just get it on the second try. Third try. 50th try.”
Tricia Helfer: Right. But each time, you’ve got to stop the camera and start it and whatever. It’s like, can’t we just go back to the day when you’d go in the room?
Even then though, you’re sitting in the waiting room with 10 other actors, and you can hear the person in the room but then you have to deal with the nerves. Some people are just really great at it. I’m so jealous of people that are good at auditioning.
