The "Bionic" Michelle Ryan

Gorgeous British actress Michelle Ryan's giant photo has been plastered on huge billboards all over L.A. She has a cool, blue bionic eye that turns all mechanical and glows and rotates at night. Pretty impressive. When I was tiny, I watched "The Bionic Woman" on TV with Lindsay Wagner in the lead role. That series was all women's-libby exciting back in the day. Jamie held her own with guys and could kick bionic butt and still keep her great Farrah Fawcett shag hairdo from getting windblown! Now that was downright inspiring!

Well, make way for the next generation! On the 26th, NBC launches a new bionic femme and she's vulnerable, questioning her powers, wondering why she was spared from a horrible death... and, oh yeah... she kicks a lot of butt! Michelle will be relatively new to American audiences. She was a star of the popular Brit series "EastEnders" and tons of other TV faire across the pond. She's charming, funny and full of excitement for her new series. Michelle phoned us from the set. Check out the latest on this exciting new show...

TeenTelevision: Hi. Michelle. Since you're a few episodes in now, could you tell us about some of the crazy action stunts you've had to do so far?

Michelle: Wow, I've had so many incredible action sequences. We're using a Krav Maga style of fighting and the stunt coordinators, (Dean), and Will have been coming up with some really dynamic moves for Jaime. So it's lots of sort of flying spinning kicks. They had me up in a harness yesterday and then I'm on another harness today doing these sort of crazy stunts.

I'm a real adrenaline junkie, so I absolutely love doing it and as much as possible I'll do my own stunts. So there's lots of punches. There's a whole big sequence with Antonio Pope and Jaime where he tries to bring out the animal instinct in Jaime and that's a really dynamic, really sort of hardcore fight.

TeenTelevision: In the old show there was a lot of super running and super jumping, are you doing any of that?

Michelle: Yes. There's lots of sort of high-speed running and lots of jumping. I think my dance training comes in very handy because I have good flexibility and we're doing all these big flying spinning kicks and I think they're looking really dynamic and sharp on screen. And yeah, I'm just learning the fight before I go on set and quickly preparing and then we're shooting it. It's moving very fast.

TeenTelevision: I was wondering since you say you are such an adrenaline junkie, is that what attracted you to do this role?

Michelle: It absolutely drew me to the role. When I read the script I just felt I connected with Jaime on every level; the fact that she has this strength and feistiness and she's smart but she also has this vulnerable side. There is this ebb and flow of Jaime taking ten steps forward and then two steps back and I love the fact that I get to do all these stunts. It sort of gives you a real buzz as you go through the week.

TeenTelevision: What is coming up that you are looking forward to doing that you haven't gotten to do yet?

Michelle: What I haven't done, which is what I think is coming up, are some water sequences. I sort of had a chat with the writers and I thought 'wouldn't it be great if Jaime falls into the water?' and I think that's coming up so I think I should be careful what I wish for, really.

TeenTelevision: That's right! You grew up in England, did you have any contact with "The Bionic Woman", the original series, or know anything about it?

Michelle: I remember seeing a couple of clips as a child and thinking that Lindsay Wagner seemed like a very nice, very pretty lady. But that's really the only memories I have of it, really.

TeenTelevision: I think they just showed some of your TV work on BBC America; 'Jekyll' in August. That might be sci-fi fans' first introduction to you outside of Britain.

Michelle: Well, I got started in a soap when I was 16 so I spent five years there which I was sort of very well-known for doing. Then I left two years ago and worked non-stop in lots of different roles. I sort of sought out lots of different characters just because I like to keep the variety and have a challenge. 'Jekyll' I think was my first showing to the sci-fi fans and then it just happened that 'Bionic Woman' came up, which again, has a huge sci-fi element. So, yes, I think 'Jekyll' was my introduction to the sci-fi fans really.

TeenTelevision: You like the action for Jamie but what do you like about her emotional make-up? Do you relate to her?

Michelle: I think it's absolutely the human side. I mean I haven't read a script like 'Bionic'. Yes, she has these deeper abilities, but at the core of it, it's this young woman's journey of self discovery and her rise to empowerment, and I feel like I'm on that journey and I just felt like an instant connection. And she's very compassionate and she questions every step of the way. She questions everything. Jamie is just this very grounded, multi-layered character and that's why I thought, 'yeah, there's so much to play with her, aside from the action sequences and the sci-fi element'. I want to find my voice and I want to be strong and confident and I feel like playing Jaime is helping me get there. It's just like I feel like a kid getting to live out all my childhood fantasies and it's great.

TeenTelevision: There is a great fight scene between you and ["Battlestar Glactica's"] Katte Sackhoff on a rooftop in the rain? How hard was that to shoot?

Michelle: Oh, the rain was freezing cold. I mean, I love working with Katte. I think she is absolutely brilliant. She has so much energy and we just get on so well. But, the biggest challenge was just purely the rain. I mean, Katte is a very good fighter. I sort of pick up routines very quickly and I think the biggest challenge was just the fact it was freezing cold. In a way, you kind of just use all of that and block it out. We have some amazing fight sequences coming up.

TeenTelevision: Are you prepared for the sudden fame this show may bring you?

Michelle: Well having spent five years on 'EastEnders', I feel like it was the best apprenticeship because, at times, the show was watched by 20 million viewers an episode when I joined the show at 16. So I kind of feel like that was the dress rehearsal for this moment. I'm just kind of in a little cocoon in Vancouver working all hours but people have e-mailed me pictures of the big billboards. I feel kind of detached which I think is good because I can just focus purely on the work and then I come over to L.A. and do some press and I'm like' wow, this is real and this is happening and it's huge and it's everywhere'.

TeenTelevision: Is there a challenge for you to win over the original fans of the first series? How have you made the character your own?

Michelle: Well, I know Lindsay Wagner became an icon for doing it and she was incredible and I'm not trying to be her. I'm just doing my own interpretation. I love the fact that we're bringing back this strong, young female character and I think it gives a great message. I'm just doing it from the heart and hope that people identify with Jaime as much as I do, really. I can only sort of just focus on what I need to do and just put it out there and see what happens, really.

TeenTelevision: Did you have to do any research on people with artificial limbs or talk to people who survived devastating car wrecks or anything like that before you started shooting? Or do you research as you go?

Michelle: No, I didn't because I feel like, with each stage, Jaime learns something new and so do I. So I've specifically not done that because I feel like Jaime is trying to deal with her sister, she's trying to deal with a boyfriend who wasn't entirely honest with her. She's learning everything as she goes along. There's in an episode at the moment where there's this flash drive that has a lot of information on it, and so my next research will be further into the bionics. I am aware of what's going on in the world and the fact that technology has advanced so much with cloning. I've heard about a man who has a bionic hand and how it moves. A guy has sort of bionic hearing. We're reading in the media all the time about something that seemed impossible 30 years ago that is now actually not so impossible. As we go along I'm learning more all the time.

TeenTelevision: Can you talk a bit about being a possible role model for young women?

Michelle: Yeah. I love the fact Jaime is a tomboy. She's in her trousers and her jackets and yes, she's sexy and yes, you know, she's smart, but she's very much a modern woman in that she doesn't need to flaunt that. You know, she gives the guys as good as she gets and she doesn't flirt to get what she wants. She's direct and she's smart and I feel it's just great. I'm always drawn to strong characters when I watch Angelina Jolie on Tomb Raider, I feel good about myself. I feel like I want to be like that and I want to be strong. So I hope that's what young girls feel when they watch Jaime.

TeenTelevision: She's very relatable.

Michelle: I love the fact that she can't cook and she has man troubles like everybody else and, you know, she has body images issues like most women do. She has all these bionic abilities, but she's very real and she's trying her best. She puts on this sort of bravado but underneath, she's scared. She has to dig deep and find herself and find her inner strength. And I feel like that's what I'm doing, as well. I think it's very much in the writing, how she is this strong empowered young woman.

TeenTelevision: What do you do off-set in Vancouver?

Michelle: Well, I'm working pretty much all hours, so I've been out a couple of times. I went up to Grouse Grind, but that wasn't really relaxing. That was climbing up a mountain. But I just go around to the restaurants and we go out with the Ads [Assistant Directors] or some of the cast and just hang out. I love Vancouver. I think it's such a lovely place. And I just hang out in my apartment if I'm not working.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.