Any Killjoys fan knows two things: The Warrant is All, and keep your hands off John Jaqobis or Lucy will electrocute you. That didn’t keep the crowd from showing Aaron Ashmore (Jaqobis) and Tamsen McDonough (Lucy) all the love at the “Killjoys Cast: Upgrades of Awesome” panel Sunday afternoon in the Hilton Grand West ballroom. It was clear that Ashmore and McDonough were having a lot of fun as the answers to the questions fans asked ranged from risqué to cheeky to sincere and back.
One of the first questions, asked by moderator Kevin Bachelder, was about what it was like for Ashmore to play the opposite of the good-guy John Jaqobis that fans all know and love in a recent character arc. “When they told me I was going to get a chance to go bad, I said, ‘Yes, please.’ The nice guy is fun to play but the bad guy is always more fun to play. … That being said, I am definitely glad to be back to normal Johnny because I think he would start doing terrible, terrible things to D’av, which would not be fair.”
The relationship between Johnny and Lucy is a favorite of the fans, and several questions centered around it. In one episode in Season 2, Johnny uploaded Lucy into an android body, which allowed her to interact physically with Johnny for the first time. One fan wanted to know what Johnny and Lucy would do on a date if Lucy were to get an android body again. Ashmore quipped that he was pretty sure Lucy would be in charge of the date. McDonough agreed and said that they would go to Pree’s bar, go right up to the sexers’ rooms, and “you can use your imagination.” Ashmore refused to be quite so delicate and just said, “Sex. They’re going to have sex.”
McDonough commented that she thinks one of the reasons Lucy is so crazy about Johnny is that he doesn’t treat her as just a ship. He talks to her like she’s a person. Ashmore agreed, adding that Johnny really respects Lucy. The chemistry between Johnny and Lucy has a lot to do with the chemistry between Ashmore and McDonough, even though they are not in the same room when McDonough records her lines. She said her lines are one of the last things to get layered in so they can add things for her if they need to fill gaps that happened during filming. As a consequence, she sees and gets to react to much more of the finished product than the rest of the cast. Ashmore said that for the first few episodes, he was unsure of how his interactions with Lucy would translate because he reads his lines with one of the assistant directors. It wasn’t until he watched some of the finished episodes and heard McDonough’s voice that he knew it would work and he could just trust the writing. “I think we got very lucky,” Ashmore concluded. McDonough commented that it was a little more than luck from her end. She was told that Lucy was a ship AI who had very warm feelings for Johnny. But when she saw Ashmore’s face on screen for the first time as she was recording her lines, she commented, “Oh, it’s more than warm feelings.” So the tone of Lucy’s interactions with Johnny was flirty from the start.
One fan commented that she felt it was so nice to have the non-sexual relationship between Dutch and Johnny maintained, noting that it’s not something often seen on television. Ashmore agreed, saying that he modeled his friendship with Dutch on one of his friendships with a woman in his real life. Initially the “bible” for the show left the possibility for a sexual relationship between them open, but as the characters came together, it was more interesting for them to keep it platonic.
Another fan mentioned the family feeling that seems to hold the characters together, asking the actors to comment on the issues among D’av, Johnny, Dutch, and Lucy. Ashmore said a big portion of the show is about family. He described the characters as “found family” and noted that D’av and Johnny still have issues to work out. He sees the show as being about finding people you love and connect with.
Johnny takes a lot of abuse on the show, frequently getting into fights and losing them. Ashmore joked that he thinks the writers enjoy that. When he had to put his hands in the green plasma, the green stained so badly that it wouldn’t clean. They shot the scene in reverse because they couldn’t get the green off his hands for retakes. The only time he really had to deal with serious goo was during his stint on Warehouse 13, when they did multiple takes of purple goo being dumped on his character.
McDonough said she was suggested for the role of Lucy because of her snarky character on Lost Girl. She was asked to rechannel the snark for Killjoys. When asked who would win a snark off between Delle Seyah and Lucy, McDonough immediately said, “Lucy,” thrusting her arms into the air. Ashmore suggested such a contest could last for hours, but McDonough replied that Lucy would just electrocute Delle Seyah, and then it would be “game over.”
The actors shared their favorite one-liners. Ashmore said he loved the line from the first episode when Dutch said she was on her way to kick Johnny’s ass and Lucy replied, “Roger. A$$-kicking imminent.” McDonough chose an exchange in which Johnny told Lucy to put on her “analysis pants” and Lucy replied, “But I’m a spaceship, John. I don’t wear pants.”
The fourth season of the show is currently airing Friday nights on SyFy. Ashmore shared with us that they are nearly done filming season 5, which will be the last season of the show. The audience was displeased to hear about the series being nearly over, even though the episodes won’t air until next year, but Ashmore attempted to soothe us by letting us know that SyFy is allowing them to end the series properly. He also let us know that we will be getting more of all of our favorite characters.
