Catching Up With The Hellcats: Visiting Sisters, Judging Kisses, & Season 2

Recently, KSiteTV was part of a group of journalists who participated in a Q&A with the cast of Hellcats and their showrunner Kevin Murphy. The freshman drama recently did a fantastic “zombie tribute” and now ramps up into its final run of episodes airing on Tuesdays at 9PM (ET) on The CW.

Participating in the discussion were Aly Michalka and her sister AJ, Heather Hemmens, Matt Barr, Robbie Jones, and Kevin Murphy. If the response to this article is good expect more Hellcats coverage very soon.

Today, we take a look at the effect of AJ Michalka’s Dierdre character onto the show, and also discuss Marti Perkins’ romantic life.

Read more Hellcats coverage – including photos from upcoming episodes – here at KSiteTV!

“Lots of secrets are going around Cheertown,” Aly Michalka teases about the last episodes of Hellcats Season 1. “As we get towards the end of the season, there’s going to be a lot of romance stuff with Marti with her professor [played by Gale Harold]… or not her professor at the time, just to make it PC. [There are also] some secrets between Wanda and Marti, and some secrets with her dad and that past, revealing some things that she never knew about her father, as well as AJ is being introduced into Marti’s world.”

“I’m excited,” AJ Michalka, Aly’s real-life sister who is playing “Dierdre,” says. “There’s some really cool stuff that happens between Marti and Dierdre. I think it’s going to be really exciting becuase everyone’s fishing around. ‘Well, what exactly is your connection with each other?’ and it’s going to be pretty clear right off the bat, though one of us doesn’t know.”

With all of these secrets floating around, and considering that Marti’s mother Wanda (Gail O’Grady’s character) has been lying to her about her father for so much time, does Aly Michalka know why Marti would start believing what Wanda says now? “I think that Marti is so desperate for an answer,” she says. “Because Dierdre has a connection to her father and some information that she didn’t have before, and then adding that to the information that she is able to get out of her mom, not just given to her freely, but kind of begged and pleaded [to get]… she realizes that ‘okay, my mom has been telling me this giant lie.’ There’s been some missing pieces in between here and there, and I think that Marti is desperate to find answers. Therefore, she’s desperate to have to come to her mom for answers. At the end of the day, what her mom tells her, she wouldn’t really be lying about, because it’s a terrible truth that she has been leaving out this giant side of her past, for Marti to know about, that Marti’s dad was a bad guy, and that he was an addict, and did abandon her. She didn’t want Marti to know all of these things. Therefore, I think it really resonates with Marti that ‘You know what? My dad wasn’t the guy that I thought he might have been,’ and so she is faced with those realizations.”

Although Dierdre will play a major role as the show continues on to the end of the season, executive producer Kevin Murphy has revealed that she’s not a series regular at this time. “She is going to recur, but in my heart, she’s a regular, he says, sounding confident about the show’s future. “The intention is that she’ll continue into next season. What we’re doing is we’re playing it kind of loose because she’s got a life outside of Hellcats. Obviously she’s family; we want her around as much as she can be around. We’re taking it a step at a time as we go into next year.”

The other major relationships for Marti, beyond the familial ones, revolve around her two current love interests on the series – Dan Patch, played by Matt Barr; and Julian, played by Gale Harold. A journalist put Aly on the spot by asking her which one of them happened to be a better kisser.

“I don’t know. I think there’s an age difference, so there’s a different experience level,” Aly says, squirming a little. “No, I’m just kidding. Gale Harold is 41, and he’s totally different.”

Aly does reveal who she’d like for her character to be with, though. “For me, personally, as a character choice, I like Dan and Marti together,” she says. “I always have. You almost get like – I don’t know how to describe it without it sounding inappropriate, but there’s a bit of a turn on with Marti and Dan being together. You want that. Even as a detached actor, you’re like ‘Oh! Yes! Get together! Do it!’ I don’t know what that is, but I was really excited. I think somebody one time was like ‘Why are they so excited about them hooking up?’ And I was like, ‘no, no! It’s not that we’re excited that we’re kissing in real life, it’s the fact that you get really attached to these characters and you want certain things for the character.’ You want Marti and Dan to have that kind of relationship because they are those two perfect, like yin and yang to each other.”

“‘Cause Dan’s a great kisser. That’s why,” Matt Barr interjects.

“And they would have adorable little tow-headed children,” Aly continues. “It’s good. But with Gale Harold, there’s this maturity and there’s this kind of taboo relationship between the two of them that makes it really interesting and sexy. The fact that Marti is younger than Julian, but the fact that she’s mature for her age, and that there is that connection with the intelligence level and the intellect… it makes sense for them to actually have a relationship. There are also some interesting things that Marti finds out about Julian, and some secrets that he has. The show’s all about secrets. But then she kind of comes with reality. Like ‘Wow. You know what? I actually have to grow up myself, if I’m going to be able to date a man like Julian.’ Because he has a past, and he has things that are grown-up issues, that I’m not even dealing with in my age. But if I want to be in this, I’m going to have to kind of step it up.”

Hellcats has a new episode tonight at 9PM on The CW. Gale Harold devotees should know he factors a lot into tonight’s installment. Take a look at some images from the episode!