Quantum Leap: Caitlin Bassett on Her Favorite Moment of the Show

Brandon Routh: You know, dramas are never my first choice usually. Most people probably don’t believe it or don’t know it, but comedy is my first choice. I have the most fun with it, and it comes more naturally to me than the dramas. I’ve really been concentrating and working to build dramatic muscle, and to do less is a big thing to become more authentic. This was really a great opportunity to practice that. When it’s well written, that makes it much easier. And when you have fantastic actors around you–not pulling faces and doing too much–that all helps you stay in it. I think in talking with Dean Georgaris before I took the role, I really understood how important this character was to the lore and to Caitlin’s back story and future story. From that moment, I kind of had locked him in–his sincerity and his genuineness in wanting to do the right thing whether it be for his family or for his country, so I just held onto that. 

Your range really came through too because Addison set us up that her father was very stoic and hard, and then it was really the opposite of that.  

Brandon Routh: Stoic and hard are two adjectives to describe the character, but what’s what’s the emotion behind that behavior? Then you can kind of start from there rather than just labeling it. You know, it’s more that are the events that would lead to that kind of behavior?  

How is Addison feeling right now about things? Apart from the tension around Addison and Ben’s relationship and the fact that he rogue leaps, how does Addison feel about being the hologram and doing all the things that she has to do in that role? 

Caitlin Bassett: In so much of season 1, she’s just holding on. There’s a necessity that continues to drive behavior, and how she feels has to be secondary to what she has to do to get Ben home. It’s very reflective of military service, which is why this episode in particular was especially wonderful to play as an actor because the stakes are even more personal. It’s everything about who she is on the table. If we had ever gotten a chance to meet our parents at the same age, we would probably have a much deeper understanding of what they were going through because you have now gone through enough to have more empathy. To me, playing that moment was maybe one of my favorite moments, if not the favorite moment on the show. Especially as a daughter of a Vietnam Veteran myself, I talk a lot about the intergenerational aspect of service and war and to have been able to have a conversation like that in that way from one generation to the next, dealing with things, I felt like I was talking to my dad. 

Ziggy is on the fritz lately and yet there’s so much human ingenuity that seems to be really what’s shaping the leaps and what’s making things happen. For instance, Ben’s calculations by hand in “S.O.S.,” I think this is the first episode where math has saved the day, which was really cool to see. How’s Addison feeling about Ziggy right now?