The CW’s post-apocalyptic series The 100 is going strong in it’s fourth season. After just two episodes in, Tasya Teles had us thirsty for more intel on her character Echo, so we at OMFGTV hopped on the phone to get the 4-1-1.
“She’s a spy, she’s a royal guard to Ice Nation, and she gets challenged a lot,” Teles tells us about her mysterious character.
Luckily for Echo fans, we’ll be seeing much more of her in this chapter than in seasons past. And once the Toronto native got the news that her role would be greatly expanded, she was completely ecstatic! “When I got word that they wanted me back, I was on cloud 9!”
Returning to the series meant reuniting with the cast members she enjoyed working alongside so much. “On the first few episodes that I was in previously, I had such a great time with everybody, and I loved working with Bob (Bellamy) and Marie (Octavia) so much! So to see them again was going to be awesome.”
What she also found awesome was stepping into the Echo role once again, because “She’s a badass, and badasses are fun to play!”
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The 100 is known to be driven by strong, badass female characters, and now Echo has joined those ranks. Everything from her loyalty to her skills with a sword make her a force to be reckoned with, and Tasya is very excited about it.
“I love being a part of a show with so many strong women,” she says. “It’s such a nice change from what is typically out there [in terms of female representation on television]. It’s very empowering.”
If you’re all caught up on the show then you know Echo had a very memorable entrance in this season’s premiere. Not only did she show her ability to lead, she also showed she is a master swordsman. She slit one grounders throat and held a blade to both Clarke and Bellamy’s throats.
It seems like threatening people by putting a knife to their throat is Echo’s signature move, and Tasya agrees. “That seems to be her favorite negotiating maneuver. I was hoping spitting in people’s faces would be her signature move, but we’ll see!”
Tasya was very excited to finally have an epic fight scene in episode 2 against King Roan (Zach McGowan). The scene came out wonderfully — one of the major highlights of the episode — and Tasya credits that to their stunt coordinators. This was her first sword fight and they were very helpful in readying her for it.
She even used some mildly unorthodox techniques to better herself for the scene, including one sport to prevent her from being too stiff or awkward. “I did tennis to get the fluidity in my body,” she reveals. But the biggest help came from Zach himself. “He and I went to the park and we’d be practicing in sunshine.” Can you imagine walking by a park and seeing that?
In the second episode we see Echo try to convince the king to run things the way his deceased mother ran them, not how Lexa ran things. According to Tasya, “Echo’s mandated to protect the king so she can’t trust anybody.” But she really doesn’t trust Skaikru (except for maybe Bellamy) “because they’ve just caused so much turmoil to stay alive.”
It is Echo’s job to keep the king alive, and she thinks the best way to do that would be to return to the way Queen Nia handled everything, she feels Roan needs “to listen to [his] mom.”
Want to hear more of what Tasya had to say on her enigmatic character? Keep a look out for Part 2 at OMFGTV to see what she has to say about working with the cast, what her biggest struggles with playing Echo were, and much more!
The 100 airs Wednesdays at 9pm on The CW.