Sofia Pernas Is Feeling Empowered and Kicking Ass in Hollywood and on the CBS Show ‘Blood & Treasure’

For you, what was the draw of the show?

Besides the name? Honestly, as soon as you see the words — “Blood and Treasure” — you kind of already have a feeling of where the show is going to go and then you open the pages and you go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was absolutely right.” And I love every minute of it. So I think that’s exactly what it is: the adventure. It’s the danger. It’s the adrenaline. I like to say it’s got flavors of what you’d like to see in every summer blockbuster that you’ve ever loved, except we’re trying to bring it from the silver screen onto your couch and hopefully get you tuning in and loving every minute every Tuesday.

We’re obviously in the age of binge TV, but what’s interesting is that serialized storytelling is usually very heavy, dark and conspiracy-laden, and this is a breath of fresh air in that it’s very light-hearted in a lot of ways.

Exactly, and we’re trying to remind people every week that we never take ourselves too seriously. When it’s over, you’re not gonna want to just stare into a wall blankly and think about your life and your existence in an existential crisis. Like what Black Mirror does to me. Every time I watch an episode of that show, I’m, like, “Oh my God, what’s my name? Who am I? What I am doing in life?” Blood & Treasure is a beach read. We’re popcorn; just a summer show.

Earlier you said you were sucked in just by the title of the show. When you actually read that script and saw the character of Lexi, what was the draw?

The empowerment of a strong female character like Lexi and getting to play her for six months and however long I get to play her in the seasons to come. But I think as a woman, and now in this climate of stronger female characters on TV, it was such an honor for me to get to play one of those. Growing up, I always wanted the opportunity to do it, but there just wasn’t a lot of it back then. I mean, all you had was Xena: Warrior Princess back then. If you look at all the Indiana Jones movies, every one of the females, from Marion to Willie, were pretty helpless. The character of Shortround was more useful in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom than Kate Capshaw’s Willie was. We loved those movies and I’m such a huge fan of them, but there was always that moment as a woman watching those films where you’re like, “Oh, come on, Willie, run! Just put one foot in front of the other for the love of God.”  When that dynamic shifted on Blood & Treasure, it was a refreshing take. And it’s not like the Danny character is a Willie, you know. We both have our respective bag of skills. He’s the chess player and the one that’s, like, crashing through the skylight when he’s, like, “Listen, there’s a better way to do this. Just calm down, think it through. Don’t get so emotional.”

Over the course of the season, how would you say Lexi and the relationship between her and Danny have changed?

As the season unfolds, just like it is in real life, when you spend a lot of time with with a friend or a significant other, you start to adopt the better parts of their character and I think that’s no different than what’s happening here. Lexi and Danny, with how much time they spent together and how much they respect one another, they’ve started to sort of, not copy, but in a way take the their favorite pages out of each other’s books. As we go forward, you’re going to see Lexi get more vulnerable. She doesn’t feel so weak exposing her vulnerability. It’s more, like, “There’s strength in showing that I’m vulnerable and that I care.” And Danny gets a little more renegade as the season goes on, believing, “You know, maybe there is a little more panache crashing through a skylight versus walking through a door.” So you’re going to start seeing both of them walk in each other’s shoes.

In the tradition of shows like ‘Remington Steele’, ‘Moonlighting’, ‘Cheers’ and many others, when it comes to romance between the lines, how tough is the line to walk between “will they or won’t they”?

It’s tough. I mean, we ask the writers, “Have you ruminated on when you want Lexi and Danny to hook up, because this could get old news real fast and they could turn into an old married couple before you know it. The Casablanca episode — episode seven — was when you see them come together for the first time, and Danny’s the one who’s, like, “Was this too soon?” The way we’re approaching it, there is no formula; we’ve done it in a fresh way and I feel like we’ll come together and pull apart in a way that’s not manufactured. At the same time, there’s nothing unrealistic about coming together, especially a couple that are as oil and water as Lexi and Danny. I mean, they really are on opposite sides of the spectrum with so many things and on the same side of the spectrum with some things. But I think as the season goes on, they’re gonna realize that they’re more alike than they would like to admit.

How have the physical aspects of the show — the fighting, the stunts — been to deal with?

I’m still walking off an ankle thing. My stunt double does some of the crazier stunts, like the motorcycle chase and that awesome jump frm one side of the marketplace to the other, but with the fight scenes, Matt Barr and I really insisted on doing as much of it ourselves as possible, because it looks so much better when the actor is doing it. You take a few hits, but they build character. It was challenging, but I always like to challenge myself and I knew Lexi would be a challenge.

Obviously the show hasn’t been on for that long at this point, but has there been any impact of it on your life

I get messages from women all the time and, just walking up to this building, a couple of people walked up to me to tell me they loved my character: “She’s so amazing and, God, I love Lexi and, her empowerment.” It’s been incredible in a way that the projects I’ve done before have also been, but this one’s different, because, A, she’s a lead and, B, she is the female lead. So it’s like we really get to see all of the layers and all of the flavors that she’s got.

How hard was your personal journey from saying, “I want to be an actress,” to actually becoming one?

God, it was tough for sure. I mean, barrage of rejections that you get from one of the spectrum to the other: “You’re not ethnic, you’re too ethnic, you’re too thin, you’re not thin” — it’s like you’re never enough. That’s the hardest thing to accept and it’s something you have to learn how to shake off, because if you let it fester, you’re never going to move forward and you’re always going to be doubting yourself. But it was definitely a slog through all of the rejection and all of the roles that I wanted to get and couldn’t.

Was there a moment where that changed; where you realized you were pursuing the right thing?

The first time I got to work with Danny Glover, I was 21 and I was saying to myself, “You know what? I’m working with one of the greats. This is what I’m supposed to do.” And she was really strong character and she was everything that I wanted to do in this industry. But I think the real moment came for me when I booked The Brave on NBC. I think every actor has so many hurdles they’ve got to overcome before they finally feel like they’re doing better. When I was playing Hannah on that show, I was really satisfied with what I had done thus far in my career. And just last week I got this film playing a detective with Nicolas Cage that we’re shooting on Baton Rouge in a month. And that was on the heels of the season two announcement for Blood & Treasure. There’s been a lot of fist-pumping and dancing going on.

Why should people watch ‘Blood & Treasure’?

Because you will feel good every time you finish an episode. You’re going to go on a ride, we’re going to take you around the world and you’re going to have fun. You’re going to get the little nuggets of pop culture we leave for you and if you do, and you’re going to feel it’s like an interactive experience with the cast, the characters and the show itself. It’s like a summer blockbuster for your living room or your bedroom or wherever you want to watch this, and you’re gong to have a great time.

When you first read the script and then shooting the show, what was your expectation compared to the reality?

I think this is one of those rare occurrences where there was an almost complete eclipse of where my expectations were with what I wanted, with what reality actually was. I had no idea we were gonna get to shoot in some of these places that we’ve gotten to shoot in.

Movies or TV. What’s your preference?

It depends on such a big scale on what kind of TV you’re doing; whether it’s procedural or something else, you know? But this movie that I just booked playing a detective, I’m so excited about and I know I’m going to be super fulfilled by that, but at the same time I was just having a conversation with Matt Barr where I went, “Oh my God, could you imagine if we get to seven seasons of this show?” I’ll never be bored, because we’re shooting this show like it’s an anthology, so each season is a new story and in season two we’re gong to take you to Thailand and Russia and all of these other places.  And we hope the audience is on board, because they’re constantly giving us flaming hoops of fire to jump through to keep us and the audience interested and entertained. But both films and TV are fulfilling, because in a movie you get to play these crazy characters sometimes for a month or six months, taking your time to build that character and then saying goodbye when it’s over if it’s not a trilogy or sequel. Then you move on to something new, so you’re never bored. But with a show like Blood & Treasure, you just get to do so many things so you’re definitely never bored.

Do you have a grand plan for yourself or do you go by the seat of your pants?

The latter, for sure. I’m a gunslinger, if you know what I mean. I like to live that way where you have no idea what you’re getting from one day to the other. That makes me sound like I’ve got multiple personality disorder, but I don’t. I just like to do everything and anything. If something interests me, I’m going to do it. And I don’t like to limit myself in any way.

Blood & Treasure is airing Tuesday nights on CBS.