“Van Helsing” Exclusive: Jennifer Cheon Garcia Talks Sisterhood Calling, Violet Friendship, & Ivory’s Independence
A lot has been going down for everyone on Syfy’s Van Helsing, including fan-favorite Ivory, played by Jennifer Cheon Garcia. PopWire spoke with the BC-born actress to discuss her work on the latest episodes of the fantasy/horror drama’s fifth and final season.
Ivory is a fierce warrior who has been both vampire and human. As part of the Sisterhood, she used loud, guttural screams to communicate with her Sisters. Screaming like that, especially in episode 7, “Graveyard Smash,” can be very difficult on the vocal cords, but for Jennifer, it’s a muscle she’s used to flexing. “I used to be a singer, so there was a lot of diaphragm,” she tells us.
As an actress, she often likes to tap into her raw inner feelings to belt out a good shriek. “Sometimes the emotion comes in and it goes somewhere else,” she says. “But I kind of like it because it would play into how I was feeling anyway.”
With such a large cast, Van Helsing does a good job of mixing character groups up and pairing characters that we haven’t seen work together much before. Ivory and Violet are one of those pairs. We didn’t see much of them together in Season 4, but in this final season, they have been at each other’s side for many episodes. Jennifer loved having the opportunity to work with Violet’s portrayer, Keeya King, and watching their characters’ friendship grow.
“That’s a relationship that I really loved because it was just a true understanding of one’s pain and one’s journey and respect for that,” Garcia says. She explains that the characters bonded over the tragedies of being “snatched” from their sisters. “Having that commonality and finding that common ground to come together for the bigger picture is something I latch onto and realize, we can be from different places.
“We can have different opinions; We can have different religions; We can have different skin colors; We can have different customs and be different in every kind of way. We can find that commonality, and you can also work together. That’s what I love about those characters,” Garcia continues. “They both are strong headed. They both are warriors. They both want to fight, and they have different ways for fighting, but they still find a way to make it work together. That’s something that I really love.”
The final season’s eighth episode, “Deep Trouble,” primarily took place inside of a mine. Jennifer reveals that — for the most part — the mine they used was a real one. “It’s very cold. Very dark,” she says. “It definitely set the mood for being a little freaked out.”
Some scenes were too dangerous to shoot in the mine, however, so some shots were done in a more controlled environment. “There were some parts that we did recreate for safety reasons. All that jumping on the rope and the fight scenes, that was in studio. There were places that we replicated.”
Jennifer loves playing a character who is independent and doesn’t need and/or rely on a man. With a character like Axel (Jonathan Scarfe), who is always being so masculine and taking the lead, she says, “Ivory’s like, ‘We don’t need you, dude.'” She says that Ivory doesn’t need him or his unsolicited love advice.
“Ivory made it really clear to him, ‘I’m not following you. I don’t care what you say. I’m here for my girl, and that’s it. You can pretend you know how this world works, but we left the world to you and look what the fuck happened! So please be quiet and let my girl rest and let us do our thing.’”
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By the end of episode, Ivory and Jack (Nicole Muñoz) are back together and are setting off on their own. Jennifer says Ivory is very happy about that and will do what she can to protect her girl. “She finally got her girl back, and she’s not letting that girl out of her sight.”
Catch Jennifer Cheon Garcia on Van Helsing, Fridays at 10pm on Syfy.