Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Interview With Elizabeth Henstridge, “Jemma Simmons”

Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres tomorrow night (September 24) at 8PM on ABC — you’ve all come by our forum countdown, right? — and continuing our string of pre-show interviews, here’s what Elizabeth Henstridge had to say about her new role on the show.

Henstridge plays “Jemma Simmons,” half of a duo of young scientist/gadget types who are part of Phil Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. team in the Marvel Universe. The other half of the duo is Leo Fitz, played by Iain de Caestecker in the Joss Whedon-helmed pilot. Although Fitz and Simmons work together closely, Henstridge is quick to assure that romance is not in the cards — at least “not right now.”

“They have a brother-sister, an ‘old married couple’ relationship,” Henstridge says to describe the Fitz-Simmons relationship in the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot. “They can bicker and argue, but then they’ll forget it two seconds later. They’ve come up together, spent all their time together, lived in each other’s pocket. It’s a really fun relationship. No romance,” she adds.

That gets us thinking: If Fitz and Simmons are like brother and sister, could that mean that sparks will fly between Simmons and Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton)? “I think that she’s not that impressed with him straight off the bat. I think that she’s kind of not bowled over by his incredible good looks and great fighting skills. Although, I think she’s very focused on what she wants to do,” Elizabeth explains. She does add that Jemma may potentially have “a bit of a girl crush on [Melinda] and maybe Skye,” though when pressed if that means Jemma Simmons might be into ladies, Henstridge just answers with an open-minded “Who knows.”

“Don’t rule it out, but I haven’t heard anything to that effect,” she says. Regarding other life choices for Jemma’s future, Henstridge has trust in the writers to know “exactly what she should do.”

“I’m very interested to see how she interacts and works as a team. I’m interested to see some tricky situations that she has to deal with, [as] socially, she can be quite awkward,” she says.

All in all, getting the Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. role was “unbelievable” to this very gracious actress. “I still can’t really believe it! It’s crazy, but it’s been amazing the whole way through. There has not been any point where I’ve felt unsupported or too overwhelmed by it all. It’s amazing. It’s one of those calls that you can never imagine yourself getting. Obviously you hope for it. But I just kept going through the audition process, having a good time while I was doing it. It was one of those jobs where I was auditioning for it and I genuinely thought ‘you know, if I don’t get this, then I’ve had the best time and I’ve learned so much’,” she says.

If you’d like to read more about Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., check out some of our other interviews, see images and trailers at our S.H.I.E.L.D. portal, come by our forum for the show, or follow our S.H.I.E.L.D.-centric Twitter feed! Our thanks to Elizabeth Henstridge for talking to us!

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