Adrianne Palicki found a cathartic way to get revenge on those responsible for canceling her critically acclaimed series Lone Star earlier this season — by imagining that they were her victims in her turn as a serial killer on Criminal Minds.

“How did you know?” she laughs, jokingly adding, “Those bastards!”

Palicki, the tall beauty best known for her role as tough but heartfelt Tyra on Friday Night Lights, will play what she calls a “psychopath” on tonight’s episode of Criminal Minds (9/8c, CBS). “She comes from a very dark past,” Palicki explains. “She was abused by her father — sexually and emotionally. She met a person she feels is her equal, and they go on a killing spree. It’s kind of like Natural Born Killers.”

Still, she adds, “It’s one thing to play a killer, but to go into that darkness where she doesn’t see what she’s doing is wrong — it’s scary, but fun.”

Less fun was the quick cancellation of Lone Star. “It was a smack in the face,” she says. “It’s like being with someone who tells you, ‘I want to marry you,’ and the next day, they’re moving out.”

Though Tyra left FNL to attend college, Palicki appears in the series’ finale, airing this spring on NBC. “It was so therapeutic” to return for the show’s conclusion, she says. “I’d already ended the show. I was excited to move on, but when I’d watch it as a fan, it was that feeling you get when you’ve graduated high school and all your friends are still there: I’m missing out on everything.”

Source

Her Fox series, Lone Star, got an early axe, but Adrianne Palicki is currently shooting a guest starring role on Criminal Minds for early 2011, as we reported last month.

“It’s in the vain of Natural Born Killers or Kalifornia,” says Palicki of the killer Criminal Minds episode. “I never played a raging psychopath before so I couldn’t turn it down.”

“I’m having so much fun.”

The show’s casting moves have been roundly criticized, but between Palicki and new cast member Rachel Nichols, no one can accuse Minds of falling short on eye candy.

The actress describes her character, Sydney, as a girl “who comes from a broken home where her father molested her. She is an alcoholic who found love with a man named Ray. She and Ray get their kicks by drinking and killing people for no reason.”

Sounds along the lines of what could have happened to her Friday Night Lights character, Tyra, had she continued hanging out with the wrong crowd. Speaking of FNL, Adrianne says she will return for the series’ final two episodes this spring!

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“Lone Star” is the new drama from FOX where Robert/Bob Allen (James Wolk) is a con man leading a double life in Texas oil country. His wealthy Houston wife is Cat Thatcher, played by “Friday Night Lights” alum Adrianne Palicki, who tells Zap2it she’s excited to play someone her own age for once.

“I’ve never played a character that was my age,” laughs Palicki. “She comes from the right side of the tracks, which I’m also used to playing the opposite. She has a 7-year-old daughter. She just really interested me in those respects. And the script itself … I’ve never read anything like this. The scripts just keep getting better and better.”

Part of her wealthy upbringing means Cat isn’t used to working very hard, which is something she admires in her husband Bob.

“She sees in Bob the things that were lacking in her past relationships,” says Palicki. “She also sees somebody who is so different from the world she grew up in, which is somebody who is working from the bottom up. He doesn’t come from society, he doesn’t have money and she loves that about him.”

But something she may not love about Bob is that he has another family 500 miles away in the small town of Midland, TX, which includes another wife named Lindsay (Eloise Mumford). Cat probably would not want to meet Lindsay, but as an actress, Palicki has another opinion about if the wives were to meet.

“I think it would be fantastic,” she says. “It’s about how it’s done and I actually do think it will happen. I think it’ll be something for the audience to just really [gasp] ‘Oh my god!’ … I think those moments are what make good television.”

Palicki also teases some upcoming tension between the three children of the Thatcher family. Cat has two very different brothers in the older, more responsible Tram (Mark Deklin) and younger playboy Drew (Bryce Johnson).

“Tram kind of gets his nose bent out of joint. They have a lot of animosity because Clint (Jon Voight) really would like her to take over the family business and she really wants nothing to do with it,” says Palicki.

“And then there’s Drew,” she continues. “Their mother died years back and she’s really taken over the mother role in the household. She overcompensates for Drew, which you’ll see in further episodes. He gets into some trouble and she’s constantly enabling him.”

“Lone Star” premieres Monday (Sept. 20) at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.

James Wolk may play the lead on FOX’s soapy drama Lone Star, but equally compelling are his two loves, played by Adrianne Palicki and Eloise Mumford. We got to know their characters when the stars stopped by SELF.

Set in Texas, Lone Star is the story of “Bob Allen” (Wolk”), a con man who has built two separate lives for himself–in Houston, he’s married to Cat (Palicki), the daughter of an oil scion who he plans to clean out; in Midland, he lives with his girlfriend Lindsay (Mumford) while trying to swindle local investors.

Since it’s SELF, we couldn’t let these two gorgeous actresses walk out without telling us how they look so good. Not surprisingly, they told us they spent a lot of time working out together.
“We walked a lot while filming the pilot in Dallas,” said Palicki. “Most days, I walked six miles at leas!”

“I’m a big outdoors fan,” said Mumford, who just spent a month at home in Olympia, WA, kayaking, hiking, climbing and running. “There’s this really cool trail in Dallas called the Katy Trail that runs through the middle of the city. It’s really fun.”

Added Palicki, “I’ve been doing Zumba. It’s such a fun way to work out–I’m drenched after an hour of doing it. And it’s so much more fun with a friend!”

Self

High-school football, the state of Texas and actress Adrianne Palicki seem made for each other, especially during this new fall season.

On Tuesday, Sept. 7, ABC Family starts running Palicki’s most recent series, the small-town Texas high-school football drama “Friday Night Lights,” from the beginning.

The critically acclaimed but ratings-challenged show about dedicated Dillon High School Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) and his team, the Panthers (and later, the East Dillon Lions), premiered on NBC in 2006 but teetered on the edge of cancellation from its earliest days.

Things looked particularly dire at the end of season three, until a Hail-Mary deal split production costs between NBC and satellite-TV provider DirecTV, ensuring the show’s survival for at least two more seasons.

DirecTV’s 101 Network aired season four last fall and will air season five starting on Oct. 27. NBC aired season four earlier this year, ending on Aug. 6, but has yet to announce a premiere date for season five, which finished production last month in Austin, Texas.

Palicki finds herself in the enviable position of possibly being on two current series at the same time, provided her new FOX drama “Lone Star,” filming in Dallas, Texas, and premiering Monday, Sept. 20, sticks around long enough to overlap with her appearance in the last two episodes of what looks to be the final season of “Friday Night Lights.”

“You know what,” says Palicki, “Texas loves me, or I love Texas, whichever way you want to put it. I love shooting in different locations, and I love getting out of L.A.”

On “Friday Night Lights,” Palicki plays Tyra Collette, a Dillon High wild child who turned her life around and wound up going to college. The last two episodes of season five find her back in her hometown.

Speaking the day before heading to Austin to film the episodes, Palicki explains, “It’s Christmas, ultimately, so it’s a visit. But I get to be there when we really end the show with everybody, which is really therapeutic in a way. Then I get to go start a new life three hours away, with a new TV family.

“I think we’re going to wrap at the Collette house, which I’m really excited about. It’s going to be very emotional. A lot of people are already feeling it — me and Kyle. There’s going to be a party of course, and everybody’s going to be there.”

Asked if Tyra has changed, Palicki says, “No, she’s still Tyra, but I think that she’s more grown-up. She’s still got her cowboy boots and her jeans, but she’s not so shiny and colorful, if you will. The wardrobe is the main thing that has changed.

“She’s always been this ray of light and honesty. She’s always been aware of what’s going on. The way that she says it, though, is just very direct. She still has that.”

In “Lone Star,” Palicki plays Cat Thatcher, a Houston socialite who’s unaware that her handsome husband, Bob (James Wolk), is actually a con man with another life and another love in another Texas town.

Regarding her two Lone Star State characters, Palicki says, “I’m lucky I keep playing these very strong female characters. Their strength comes from different places, obviously, but both of them are very strong, smart individuals — one just happened to be raised in a much more conducive environment.

“They’re both very worldly, and they see things that maybe other people don’t see or try to pretend they don’t see.”

Palicki also stars in the new version of the cult favorite “Red Dawn,” in which a high-school football team, the Wolverines, fights to save Spokane, Wash., from foreign invaders.

Although the film’s release has been delayed to an as-yet-unspecified date, Palicki says, “It’s going to be a big movie. People are going to gravitate toward it, because it’s a cult classic.”

Interestingly enough, one of Cat Thatcher’s nephews in “Lone Star” plays high-school football, so Palicki can’t seem to escape the sport, big screen or small.

“Thankfully,” she says, “I love football. I seem to be surrounded by that always.”

Palicki grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where her beloved father’s favorite team was the Detroit Lions, and now it’s hers as well.

“Don’t laugh,” she says. “You’re laughing at heart. It’s OK.”

Reminded that, in seasons four and five, the East Dillon Lions are part of “Friday Night Lights,” Palicki says, “Exactly, and by the way, speaking of the Dillon Panthers, I went to Whitmer High School, and they were the Whitmer Panthers, with the exact same purple.

“The first time I went to the football game for shooting, I was sitting there, like, ‘Oh, my God, this is so weird.’ It was unbelievable. I felt like I was right back there.”

Palicki also doesn’t mind wrapping her hands around a pigskin once in a while.

“I love touch football,” she says. “That’s the sport I’m best at. Linebacker’s really good for me. I loved the episode in which we did have the Powder Puff game on ‘Friday Night Lights,’ and I got to be linebacker.

“I like to tackle people.”

From Zap2It

Ahead of the season premiere of the new Fox series Lone Star on September 20 at 9pm, the network is introducing fans to the Lone Star cast prior to the drama. In the latest Lone Star clip from Fox, fans get to know actress Adrianne Palicki (aka Cat in Lone Star) in under 90 seconds.

Palicki, a native of Toledo, Ohio who left her hometown in search on an acting career at 18, reveals her inspiration for becoming actress, three good things about her life, her hero, and more.

Say hello to Adrianne Palicki who plays Cat in Lone Star.

My favorite new fall show boasts sexy stars, drama, intrigue and a pretty amazing cast. Basically, ‘Lone Star’ is the complete package.

The show’s hot new leading man (James Wolk) will get to romance two fabulous ladies (Adrianne Palicki and Eloise Mumford) while he’s also working a major con job on an oil magnate (Jon Voight) and trying hard to get out from under his fellow conman dad’s (David Keith) thumb. It’s soapy, dramatic, suspenseful, heartwarming … oh, I’m done gushing. I’ll let the stars do it for me.

I caught up with the ‘Lone Star’ cast to get their take on the show and their characters, working with the legendary Jon Voight and being one of the sexiest casts on TV.

From TV Squad

Adrianne Palicki will soon be calling another part of Texas home to film “Lone Star,” but she hasn’t forgotten “Friday Night Lights.”

“I’m in the final two episodes,” Palicki tells Zap2it. “It was amazing … a lot of the original cast came back and so you get to really say goodbye to everybody. It’s going to be emotional but it’s going to be really good.”

“Friday Night Lights” just wrapped production on Season 5, which will be the show’s last season. The final few weeks of taping came on the heels of Best Actor and Actress Emmy nominations for Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, who anchor the show as Eric and Tami Taylor. Palicki tells us the feeling on set after the nominations came out was incredible.

“Finally! The feeling on that show once everybody got nominated was like, ‘It’s about time!” she laughs. “And to go out with that was so huge, it’s a good way.”

The final season of “Friday Night Lights” will air this fall on DirecTV and in the spring of 2011 on NBC. “Lone Star,” starring James Wolk, Jon Voight and Palicki, premieres Monday, Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.