Rachelle Lefevre goes ‘bad-ass’ as Under The Dome returns on Channel 10

FLAME-haired actress Rachelle Lefevre reveals why she is a new ‘bad-ass’ Julia as the second series of Under the Dome starts on Channel 10.

SHE transformed from practical, sceptical journalist to the ‘monarch’ who just might save Chester’s Mill in season one of sci-fi hit drama Under the Dome.

On the eve of season two, Rachelle Lefevre is relishing unleashing a new ‘bad-ass’ Julia on the world.

And with Stephen King — who wrote the book on which the series is based — the writer of the first episode of the new season, it seems Lefevre’s Julia is in good hands.

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Last season, Julia got herself trapped under a mysterious dome, found out the bloke she was falling in love with (Dale ‘Barbie’ Barbara, played by Mike Vogel) had shot her husband, got shot herself, managed to avert an earthquake, and then was chosen as the ‘Monarch’ who just might be able to save the town of Chester’s Mill from the dome holding it hostage.

So where on earth do you go from there?

“Thankfully, I don’t have to write the show,” Lefevre laughs.

“But somehow they (the writers) found a whole lot of adventures for us. They just blew the doors wide open again.

“Things don’t calm down. It’s business as usual — or unusual.”

Not again ... Big Jim (played by actor Dean Norris) in a scene from Under The Dome.

Lefevre says King’s wish to write the first episode of season two instilled calmness on the cast.

“The first season was so intense and we were like, ‘how are we going to keep that up?’,” she says.

“Then Stephen wanted to write first ep. It put us all at ease because we knew that he was gonna really go for it.

“His episode was never going to be mellow. And sure enough two characters die in the opening episode, and it’s one of our darker offerings.”

Wrote the first epidosde of the second series ... Author Stephen King on set of Under the Dome.

King’s presence may have made the cast feel the show was in safe hands — but not necessarily their characters. Lefevre laughs.

“When I was made the monarch I felt like I had job security, maybe for at least this season, but nobody is above the guillotine on this show — no one is safe,” she says.

“I was fishing for storylines and said to one of the writers ‘I guess some of us are feeling like maybe we could be around for a long time, because, you know, aren’t we integral to stories?’ He said: ‘did you stop watching Game of Thrones when they killed Ned Stark in the first season?’ My whole face was just like, ‘shit’.

“When they offered me the job and were telling me what Julia would be, they said in the second season she would more bad-ass and have more action sequences.

“So when we got picked up for second season I said ‘you guys made me a promise, you said I could be tough, and Julia is tested from the very first episode.

“She’s in a new place, because once you realise what you are willing to sacrifice, I think that changes you. So she has a different approach.”

Under The Dome fans have speculated wildly as to what is behind the mysterious dome that has trapped the residents of Chester’s Mill, and while Lefevre teases ‘anything is possible’, one of the many theories, ‘that it’s all about aliens’, may be wide of the mark.

“The theory that it’s going to be an alien show is one of the big ones,” she says.

“There were things that were other-worldly last season, so lots of people are asking ‘so who is casting all the aliens?’

“And I’m like ‘calm down, that’s not necessarily it’. Anyone who thinks it’s suddenly going to morph into V (the 2009 alien TV series) is going to be seriously disappointed.

“Nobody peels their face off to reveal the lizard underneath this season.”

Now a “bad ass” ... Actress Rachelle Lefevre who plays Julia Shumway in Under the Dome.

There are a few ‘new faces’ in Chester’s Mill this season: Sam (Eddie Cahill) a ‘crazy drunk who lives alone in the woods’ and is a brother-in-law of Big Jim (Dean Norris); and science teacher Rebecca Pine (Karla Crome), who is on a collision course with Julia.

It begs the question — where on earth did these new faces come from? Did they sneak in under the dome?

“Chester’s Mill is small, but it’s not that small,” Lefevre says. “And you have to remember the dome has only been over about three or four weeks.

“Some of the characters you just haven’t met yet. Others appear and the question gets asked — where did you come from?’ – that’s part of the mystery.”

UNDER THE DOME, TUESDAY, 8.30PM, TEN