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Olivia Morris Shares How THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Hooked Her From Page One

The joy of The Librarians has always been watching its team members, usually quite ordinary people who love knowledge, come together to live, love, learn, and save the world. A lot. In The Librarians: The Next Chapter , the sequel series, Olivia Morris portrays resident scientist Lysa Pascal, who detours from her goal of developing multi-dimensional predictive algorithms with quantum computing to work with The Library despite her aversion to the word 'magic' and inherent skepticism of all things supernatural. We were lucky enough to connect with Olivia Morris over Zoom to discuss how she came aboard this fantastical vessel of a show, where the science and magic intersect, and how Serbia has surpassed all her expectations. And like all things to do with The Librarians , it began with reading something truly wonderful. Photograph credit: Aleksandar Letic/TNT THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER's Olivia Morris Diana Keng: We are so excited to see The Librarians back! How did you become involved in the show and this magical family? Olivia Morris: I was filming a project, and I was in Tenerife at the time. I remember [the role] coming through, reading it, thinking it sounded familiar as a show, and realizing that it was the restart. Reading the script and thinking, 'Oh, this is absolutely bonkers!' In the most wonderful, magical, glorious way. And I remember seeing my character, Lysa, and thinking, 'This sounds like great fun.' RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter She's a scientist who believes she knows absolutely everything there is to know about the world. Then, we immediately meet her, and she realizes nothing — nothing — is as she thought. It was a delight to get to play, especially that first episode. Having a character who's just baffled is hilarious. DK: But her ability to pivot is quite remarkable. OM: Yeah, I never wanted it to come too soon in the season. I think the thing is, she's not that stubborn. She believes she knows everything, but as soon as there's something new to learn, she's curious, she's excited, and she's ready to dive in. And what I liked about it is that she was never going to refuse it forever, but she really had to understand it just to accept it. Which, honestly, as time goes on, maybe I'm more like my character than I thought, because I will sometimes be on set and my lovely cast… I will be trying to understand some of the science of what I'm saying, or some magic, and they'll be like, 'Liv, let it go. It's magic.' And I'm like, 'No, I can work this out. Give me a minute.' [laughs] Polar Opposites DK: In the first two episodes, you spend a lot of time with Bluey Robinson with your character, Lysa, and his, Connor, coming from very different mindsets. How did that give-and-take balance work out? RELATED 5 Great Books About Libraries and Librarians OM: I love working with Blue. Immediately, when we both read the script, we loved the idea that these two are polar opposites. You've got him, the historian, and he believes in magic. He is ever-ready for the world to be changing. And you got Lysa, who thinks everything is black and white. There is no such thing as gray area. Connor lives in a bit of a gray area because of his backstory. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic Really early on, we realized these two have an immediate respect for each other, especially when she finds out he has, in fact, gone to Harvard. He's a smart guy. There's respect there, but I think they suss each other out, and it was great fun to play. The scripts give us everything. These writers are wonderful. Every time there's a snarky line, back-and-forth for each other, me and Blue are both like, 'Yes!' We love it. We find it great fun, and I think it works. They're a fun little dynamic. We're not immediately just happy family, happy Librarians. They are trying to work each other out and work out the situation. The Science And The Magic DK: Your roles on previous shows like Hotel Portofino and The Head required unique and varied abilities. With The Librarians: The Next Chapter , did you find yourself adding to your skill base? OM: Oh my god, the science terminology. I have played a scientist before, but I've never been quite forced to say some of the most mind-boggling stuff. I was determined to make sure Lysa seemed far smarter than me, to really nail down that science because magic and science do go hand-in-hand. The fun of the show is meeting these characters who are so smart, and our fans are so smart. If they were to go and research all these things they're talking about, they'd find that it's all real. I just want to nail down the terminology, but, god, some days on set, I go, 'This is going to be the one that I will not be able to say.' DK: With the show being a sequel series, did you go back and watch the films and original The Librarians series? OM: Yeah, I did. As an actor, often when you get a brand new script, you're like, 'I don't even know where to begin.' And then you get scripts like this and realize, 'Oh, there's a whole legacy of the show.' It's such a big world, and we are part of the exact same world. They live in our world, our Librarians co-exist. This isn't a show where their story has ended and ours is beginning. We carry on coinciding, so it was really important to watch episodes. RELATED: Dean Devlin Dishes on The Librarians: The Next Chapter 's Magical Homecoming They had FOUR seasons, so we didn't quite have enough time to watch all four, but Dean [Devlin] gave us the key ones. Even still now, whilst we're filming Season 2, I'll put on one of the episodes just to see if we're still in the same tone, because sometimes you never know how far things go. There are Easter Eggs in our show of all of it, and it blows me away. The art department, costumes, in the scripts. Everyone's got their eye on this huge world they've created, and they're not going to let it be left behind, so that's wonderful. Coming Home to the Annex DK: Tell me about combining the on-location and studio work while filming in Belgrade, Serbia. OM: Oh, it's wonderful. I mean, there is no such thing as a perfect location, whether it be set or location, because anytime you're in one place for too long, crew and actors — everyone — start to get a bit restless and a bit bored. The wonderful thing about this show is every episode is so different. You will find yourself in a castle one episode, in a theater the next, in an underground bunker … It's amazing and Serbia has been so wonderful at how many places and spaces we can find. RELATED: Find your own Magic Well with our On Location deep dive in the Belgrade Fortress, seen on The Librarians: The Next Chapter And then, obviously, we have the gorgeous Annex, which is in our studios. And that's always lovely. That always feels a little bit like coming home. We'll film the craziest episode and it will be all over Belgrade and we won't even know where we are and then we'll see on the call sheet we're back at the Annex tomorrow and we'll all be like, 'Thank god.' We're back where we know, so it's great. It's just ever-moving. It's got a relentlessness that I think really suits the pace of the show, and I think it really suits us all like a crew and as actors because it's a high-energy show, so you can't stay still for too long. Thank you, Olivia Morris. New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET. DOCTOR WHO: 5 Jaw-Dropping Moments From the Season 2 Finale Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.