Question: Jada, how did you originally hear about this role?

Jada Pinkett Smith: I was approached by Jamie Tarses and John Masius who created the show. They gave the script to my manager and I read it. And it mirrored a very familiar part of my own life.

My mother was a nurse. She was the head nurse of this inner-city women’s clinic for many years and she raised me as a single parent.

And I was a pretty rebellious teenager at the time. And so I just felt like the show had a lot of heart. And I felt like it was an opportunity for me to pay homage to all the wonderful nurses I had come across and my mother. And so I just had a lot of affinity for the project.

Question: Michael, what made you want to come back for season 2?

Michael Vartan: The complete honest answer?  This will be a two-part answer.  Answer #1 is that I'm under contract and I'm obligated to come back for season 2. 

Now the fun, emotional answer is that I liked my character last year because I got to work with Jada. That's the thing I always say when people ask "What attracted you to the project?" I say, "Well, Jada, to be honest with you."  I mean, the character's fine, but I was really excited by getting a chance to work with her.  This year, that has sort of just expanded exponentially.

So, it's been so much more fun and challenging as an actor to play my character this year because there's been so much more of that needy, really sort of intense dramatic stuff to draw upon.  So, it's been very different and very fun.

Question: Can you tell us anything about season 2?

Michael Vartan: Yes absolutely.  As you know the old hospital closes for financial reasons, and they're moved to this new place (James River), which is one of the last remaining hospitals in the area. Therefore, it's very important to keep it afloat and working, but they find that it's a complete dump. They don't have the equipment they had at Richmond Trinity. They're understaffed, over populated. 

My character -- which is really cool in the story -- quits being Chief of Surgery to get away from the red tape and the bureaucracy, and he's now just a surgeon which is what this guy always wanted to do.  He's just really enjoying his life as a normal surgeon. 

The super nurse, Christina, definitely has her hands full right off the bat at the beginning of this year, and our characters are going to venture down a little romantic path which is only going to add the conflict and chaos and all kinds of wonderful intense and crazy situations in the workplace. That whole area is explored in Season 2 and it creates just such an incredibly complicated, messy, and just really heart-wrenching situation for both of them in the workplace but also in their personal life.

Of course it's television, and the writers are evil, so they throw a wrench in his plans and he has a life altering accident that is going to cause a lot of problems for him and his potential future as a surgeon and add a whole new level of intrigue and commitment, and problems with Christina and the way she deals with it. 

So, it's been a completely different feel this year as opposed to Season 1 which was more about establishing the characters and the show itself but now it feels like we've really hit the ground running and all hell is breaking loose per se.

Question: Since this season is going to focus more on the Tom and Christina relationship. Will we get to see them away from the hospital more in season 2?

Jada Pinkett Smith: Yes, you’ll be able to see them away from the hospital for sure.

Question: How does the incident at the end of the third episode, "Road Narrows," affect the relationship between Tom and Christina?

Jada Pinkett Smith: You got to wait and see. What I will say is it’s going to be a very interesting journey for the two of them. It’s going to be very interesting. You know, Christina’s got a lot to learn and a lot of things she’s got to work through.  But I will tell you this that it’s going to be a lot of ups and downs this year when it comes to Tom and Chris.

Michael Vartan: What happens at the end of episode 3 is basically the driving force for this entire season.  It opens up a whole box of all kinds of good and bad stuff.

Given these two, their history, the intense level of sort of passion and sort of feeling they have for one another – it's going to create a lot of problems for them. It also gave us the chance this year to really have a lot of fun because conflict is always more interesting than flat seas. No one wants to see happy people having fun, we want to see (flaws) and people overcoming obstacles and drama. 

Question: Michael, how has your recent engagement affected your role and your acting, especially with your character's romantic interest with Christina?

Michael Vartan: It hasn't at all.  I can see why you would possibly ask that -- it's never fun doing those love scenes.  I can't imagine it being fun for your significant other, but it is television.  So, luckily in TV there's only so much you can do and there's only so far you can go. 

You try to make the love scene as steamy and as passionate and sensual for the audience as possible, but at the end of the day, you can still only show and do so much.  So, it does remain on the tame side and I think that we're all adults here so everyone understands what's happening. It hasn't been an issue which is great.  But, it could be.

Question: Jada, how do you maintain such great chemistry with Michael Vartan?

Jada Pinkett Smith: I think you get lucky sometimes because chemistry is not something you can really create. It just has to kind of be there.

I think Michael Vartan and are really good friends. What’s crazy is that we’re like sisters and brothers. We really don’t have any real chemistry off-screen. We’re kind of goofballs together. But it works onscreen, which is amazing.

Question: How will Christina evolve in Season 2?

Jada Pinkett Smith: This year it’s all about Christina surrendering. She is going to have to surrender this year. Last year, she was so in control and so stern and strong. She was always right.

This year’s going to be a little different. She’s going to have very high stakes in her personal life in which she’s going to have to really make some hard core strong decisions.

She is going to learn to work with people versus rolling over people and working around people. She cannot do that in this hospital this year. So she has to take a much different attitude as far as how she deals with her staff and the people that she’s working with.

Question: Will the relationship between Christina and her mother-in-law continue this season?

Jada Pinkett Smith: This year? Not so much. If we come back next year, yes. But this year we focus more on Christina and Tom and Camille and Christina.

Question: Speaking of Camille, can you talk about the chemistry of your mother-daughter relationship on the show?

Jada Pinkett Smith: I think I just have a lot of affinity for women in general - teenage girls. I just raised my goddaughter who is close to Hannah’s age. That’s the young lady who plays Camille.

And so everything that I’m going through with her on the show I’ve been through already with my goddaughter -- who I just sent to college a year before -- and worse.

So she just reminded me of that relationship with my goddaughter. So I had instant affinity for her that I just placed into that daughter relationship that we have and just very much also mirroring my relationship with my mother. We were more like sisters than mother and daughter because she had me at such a young age. And on the show I had Camille at a young age as well.

Question: Jada, what's it like playing a more central character instead of being part of an ensemble?

Jada Pinkett Smith: It’s interesting. It is more central, but it’s still quite an ensemble. I’m just one that believes that ensemble is the way to go, you know? I just feel like that’s just a very strong position.

But I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying it. I’m also enjoying having the opportunity to be able to come back and play the same character again. You learn more and more about your character when you have the opportunity to live with it for as long as I’ve been able to live with Christina for two years. I never really understood that when other actors would explain that to me.

I’m actually enjoying that process of being able to sit in this skin of this character for two years. And if I’m blessed enough to be able to do it for a third season as well. So I’m actually enjoying that process.

Question: Michael, do you feel like you're a bigger part of the series in Season 2?

Michael Vartan: I definitely feel that way. I think that's mostly due to the storylines themselves. The fact that our characters are now romantically involved, obviously, just makes me more prominent in the story lines every week.  And also, I think Season 1s are usually about establishing characters and sort of introducing a show to an audience, and we certainly did some of that last year. 

So, I think Season 2, we know kind of what their deal is and let's now infuse the show with a little more intensity, a little more heightened reality, and make everything a little more messy and better really. 

I still feel that I'm her sidekick because this show is still called HawthoRNe -- it's not called Wakefield -- but I feel like I have a meatier part to play in what happens on the show. So, it's nice in that respect.

Question: Can you tell us about any guest stars for Season 2?

Jada Pinkett Smith: Mark Anthony came on for two episodes and ripped it. That was a real blessing to have Mark Anthony for those two shows. We did a really interesting episode together.

And Debbie Mazar came on who I love. Debbie and I have worked a lot together. She did ALL OF US the first season. And then we did the women together. And so she came on the show. So those were the two.

We had a couple of other guest stars come as well.

We also have a new cast member, a British actor who’s really fantastic and quite handsome I must say. He’s one of our new doctors, a new doctor dynamite that we have on the show this year.

And so I think people are going to be pretty pleased with some of our new cast members. Also Vanessa Bell Calloway came on and blessed us for eight episodes this year. She’s my nemesis this year. And so I hope people are pretty happy with what we did with casting this year.

Question: Jada, is anyone in your family going to make a cameo appearance?

Jada Pinkett Smith: My kids, Jaden and Willow, really wanted to do HawthoRNe the second season. They were begging me. I was just focused in another area. And I don’t think I’ll actually be able to get them next year because I’m almost sure they’ll be doing some movie somewhere. And Willow -- and everything that’s about to happen with her -- probably will not be available.

So probably not, but I am blessed enough to have my husband. My husband was a very, very, very, very intricate part of HawthoRNe this year. He’s what we call our ghost producer. He came on this year and with my team and I, he really put his head down on HawthoRNe and really helped us solidify the vision of HawthoRNe.

So in that way, my family is a part of HawthoRNe. And luckily enough my kids enjoy the shows because my kids have no problems telling me what they do and don’t like. So, luckily they love HawthoRNe.

Question: Jada, what are your thoughts on playing the only African-American leading female role in a primetime TV series in this day and age?

Jada Pinkett Smith: Well, it’s definitely interesting. I think that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to be in partnership with TNT because they were focusing on creating very strong leading roles for women in television shows.

I think in Hollywood, in general right now, leading roles for women are a very difficult thing. It’s a particular cycle and it always comes back around.

And I feel as though as far as roles for women and roles for African-American women, there’s always room. We definitely still need a lot of work in that area. But I feel very blessed to have this opportunity.

Question: Why should people watch HawthoRNe this summer?

Jada Pinkett Smith: I think HawthoRNe has a lot of heart. That’s one of the reasons why I love HawthoRNe. And I don’t know a lot of shows right now that have a lot of heart.

And when you see people who are putting forth a lot of energy to help other people, to me it’s kind of what part of the old classic American ideal is -- how each brother and each sister will help as a community. We just help each other live, you know.

So to see someone as passionate as our team at James River, to have people on a daily basis that we are risking so much our main character, especially Christina risking so much for others, I just think that you just don’t see that a lot anymore.

And so I think personally that that’s refreshing. And I think that this particular show you get high stakes and you get romance but you get a really feel good feeling. It’s somebody you want to hang out with. You want a friend like Christina, somebody who’s going to ride or die with you in a very hardcore fashion.

Question: After being off the air for nearly 10 months, are you concerned that HawthoRNe will seem like whole new series instead of a returning show?

Michael Vartan: That's a good question because on cable we only have ten episodes, so the hiatus, if you will, is much longer than a network show.  And to be honest with you, I think that Season 2 almost feels like a different show.  There is so much more going on, there are so many new elements that have been added -- both just simply adding new characters and the relationships between old and existing characters -- so it feels very new. 

I think it will be like any show really, we probably have our core audience already and they'll stay with us and stick by us till the bitter end.  If we can pick up a few new ones along the way this year, that'd be awesome, but I think the people who really do enjoy the show and watch the show will be glad it's coming back, and God, I didn't even realize it was 10 months; that is a long time.

So hopefully, they won't have forgotten about us, but yes, it's funny you say that because Jada and I were doing a scene the other day, and we had to jog our memories because we were talking about the last shot of season 1, and I'd forgotten that it was us walking. I thought the season ended with her throwing the ashes. 

I'd forgotten that there was little part where I walk up and we hook arms and walk off into the sunset if you will.  So, I'm sure some of the fans of the show have forgotten exactly what happened, but, hopefully they'll come back for Season 2.

Question: Jada, can you talk about the differences between doing a movie and a TV series?

Jada Pinkett Smith: It’s a huge, huge, huge difference -- a lot more responsibility on television for me with this show being an executive producer and a lead actress.

I look at television as a producer’s realm more than a director’s realm, where in film the director leads the ship. In television you have to have very strong producers to keep the vision of the show.

And so this year, Will and I with Glen Mazarra and Miguel Melendez really had to put our heads together and become very solid on the vision of the show and really push forward to make this vision happen; whereas, like I said before, usually that is the director’s job to do.

But it was a very interesting season. We worked very hard. I really think we were successful in solidifying the vision for the show.

Question: Michael, can you address the rumors of an ALIAS reboot? Would you be interested in doing it?

Michael Vartan: I heard rumors of it, and, to be honest with you, I find it absolutely preposterous.  I'm still young enough to run down a hallway, so is Jennifer [Garner]. What is this nonsense of recasting ALIAS? Wait, give us 20 years at least. How dare they.  I have heard more rumors of a possible ALIAS movie, but really not anything concrete about this new show. 

The one little thing I heard is that it would be with a new cast which I find kind of weird, because, like I said, we're still all young enough to do that but I don't know what any of that is about and don't really think much of it until I hear more -- unless you know something I don't.

To be honest with you, it would have to be the entire returning cast from the original series, and I venture to say that would be impossible to put together.  People are scattered, their careers have changed, some people are not even in the business anymore, some people are movie stars.