CASTLE - Victoria "Iron" Gates (Penny Johnson Jerald, "24") becomes the precinct's new uncompromising Captain. (ABC/KAREN NEAL) PENNY JOHNSON JERALD, STANA KATIC
There’s a new sheriff in the Castle (Mondays, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT ABC) and she means to get her house in order.
Penny Johnson Jarald has been added to the cast of Castle to fill the vacancy left when Captain Roy Montgomery (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) was murdered in last season’s finale.
Johnson Jarald‘s character Captain Victoria Gates begins her stint with the NYPD by harnessing the unchecked behavior of her squad.
“That’s kind of hard when you’ve been used to running it your own way and you have someone who has reigns on you, to pull you back and go, ‘No, we’re going to do it this way,’ ” she acknowledges. “It’s challenging. It does make way for contentions because you have personalities that will clash and it’s rather exciting.”
And like any good guardian, Captain Gates appears to see and hear all.
“It’s kind of like you put the cookie jar out there and you know it’s full of cookies and you know it’s full of their favorite cookies. And when they’re missing, no one else is eating those cookies,” she elaborates. “Their mouths could be full of them and you’re looking at them like, ‘I know you. There is nothing you can get past me. I know.’ Not only does she have eyes in the back of her head she has them on the side of her face, the bottoms of her feet…she sees everything. They can’t get away with anything.”
Captain Gates may be gruff, but Johnson Jarald promises we’re going to eventually like her.
“I imagine for the style of the show that actually works, that romantic, light quality about it, you’ll see a morphing of that tough love into, ‘OK, I’ll let you win that one,’ ” she concedes. “I don’t think you’re ever going to lose the one in charge because the wonderful thing about Castle is you can take us out of the real world by having this novelist at a precinct, because that works in the show. But, you would never have that in real life. I real life you have someone who runs a precincts that is in charge and real things that we deal with in a homicide that are believable. I never want to lose that quality.”
Johnson Jarald is no stranger to being on a hit show, having played Sherry Palmer, President David Palmer‘s wife on the hit series 24. However, she was pleasantly surprised when the cast and crew of Castle made the transition onto the program easy. Still, she did have apprehensions.
“They definitely welcomed me with open arms and love, love and more love,” she insists. “But, it is a different monster walking onto a show that’s already been tried and successful.You’re walking into something that works and then you’re wondering, ‘OK, where do I fit in?’ I have to be careful with that change because the fans are used to something, but at the same time, you want to have another reason to keep watching it. I think it’s a fine line and a fine balance. There is a style that was created three years before I joined the show and so you have to be in tune with that and at the same time bring your newness to it.”
Johnson Jarald is walking that tightrope well and is adding just the right amount of spice to the mix.