Exclusive: Marisol Nichols Talks Her New Role on Teen Wolf and More
Matt Boiselle
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Last night “Teen Wolf’s” midseason finale aired, leaving a major cliffhanger with regard to Malia (Shelley Hennig) and her mother, The Desert Wolf, portrayed by Marisol Nichols. Aside from the fact that she’s heading to Beacon Hills to kill her daughter, we don’t know much about Nichols’ character so when we were given the chance to chat with her, of course we took it!
Read on to learn more about what Marisol will be up to on the show; a little bit about her next horror project, a film titled Desert Storm; and a couple of organizations she’s involved with that are near and dear to her heart.
DC: Now, you’re going to be jumping into a series that has a very passionate fan base after many years on the air – were you already familiar with the show, or did you find yourself having to read up on who’s who in the show to ready yourself for the role?
Marisol Nichols: I actually had to start doing research on it! I had no idea, and that’s not saying much because I don’t watch much TV, so I had to catch up and say, “Wow, I had no idea that this was such a huge phenomenon right now!” So it’s a real joy.
DC: Your character, The Desert Wolf, has been built up quite a bit over the course of the last several episodes, and not exactly in the most positive of ways – were you hesitant to take on what’s likely to be a polarizing character, or was that all part of the appeal?
MN: Oh no! That was all part of the appeal – if something’s been built up, I’m more than happy to fill those shoes. I still don’t know where they’re taking her, or what she’ll eventually turn into, but all I knew about the role was that they’d been building it up for a while, and here it was, so I was actually more happy about that than having it be brand new with no setup.
DC: Any idea of who you’ll be interacting with on the show? I think the fans are going to want to see your character together with Peter, of course.
MN: Right! I have absolutely no idea, and when I got the role, I didn’t know anything about it, and I still have yet to read a whole script. It was all under wraps right up until the first day I started shooting, and I was like, “Who am I? What am I doing? Who’s my daughter?” I’m playing catch-up so they haven’t been telling me who I’m going to be interacting with or what I’m doing for that fact, so I’m going to be looking forward to that as well as we go. It’s sort of similar to when I was on “24” and I’d read a script and wonder, “Am I alive, or am I dead?”
DC: You’re attached to a new horror film, Desert Storm – what can you tell us about that?
MN: Oh yeah! That’s an independent film written by some people that I know that have put out some fairly awesome indies, and it’s sort of a military/science-fiction horror film. It should be fun, and I’m really looking forward to it.
DC: Aside from those projects, what can we look forward to seeing you in down the road?
MN: I’ll be going back on “NCIS” – I’ve sort of been recurring on that, so I’ll be heading out to shoot for that in about two months.
DC: Lastly, you’re the founder of Foundation for a Slavery-Free World and the spokesperson for Youth for Human Rights International – tell us all about both of these organizations if you wouldn’t mind.
MN: Sure – Youth for Human Rights International is an organization that travels around the world, and has for the last 11 years, educating about the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That is [a list of] 30 human rights that was put together with the help of Eleanor Roosevelt after World War II, and they’re basically rights that you have because you’re human – things like no torture, the right to live freely, the right for food and shelter, that sort of thing. Most importantly on that list is #4: No slavery. So I got involved in the organization partly because of my mother-in-law and also because I’m very much in favor of human rights and the rights of the people. As I got more involved and learned more about human trafficking, I founded my own organization called Foundation for a Slavery-Free World because I wanted to focus more exclusively on #4, so I partner with other organizations in any way that I can. I’ll be throwing my second red-carpet event in Hollywood on September 21st [at Eva Longoria’s restaurant, Beso], and we’ll be awarding other organizations for their amazing work that they’ve done in the field of human trafficking.
Our thanks to Marisol for her time. “Teen Wolf” Season 5 resumes in January 2016.
For more info visit the official “Teen Wolf” website, “like” “Teen Wolf” on Facebook, and follow “Teen Wolf” on Twitter.
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