Always an important part of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon — the book that introduced Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter — Freddy Lounds got a pretty notable makeover on the TV series Hannibal, becoming Freddie Lounds, played by Lara Jean Chorostecki. Gender swap aside, Freddie is still a notably ruthless tabloid reporter, just as Harris conceived, who will cross many lines to get a story.

Lara Jean Chorostecki as Freddie Lounds in Hannibal.

With Hannibal: Season 2 on Blu-ray and DVD this coming Tuesday, I spoke to Chorostecki about this past season, which saw Freddie occasionally show a kinder side (while still pushing plenty of buttons), and where things could go in Season 3.Suffice to say, full spoilers follow for Hannibal: Season 2.Well, we sometimes get our scripts a little late, and I remember I got the script for the stakeout episode, where Will catches me in his shed. I got the script in an email, and I opened it up. I sat down, read it, and when I got to the end I said, "Huh. Wait a minute..." [Laughs] I sent Bryan a text and said, "I can't be dead. I'm definitely not dead." He said, "No, no, no, no, no. Don't worry about it." Because you never know in this day and age of television, which keeps the viewer guessing at all times, but I hoped -- and I think I do have a fairly good relationship with our producers -- I thought, "They probably would have given me a heads-up if I was going to die." So I was very happy. Also, in terms of this storyline, kind of from my point of view, when you sit down and think about it, it didn't make sense -- as despicable as she is and as immoral as she is -- for Will to cross that line and kill someone who is virtually innocent. It seemed like a great thing for the audience to consider, but certainly a very wide departure from where he truthfully was at at that moment. So I had to face that I wasn't dead yet, and I was happy that I wasn't. It was a fun plot twist to be a part of.Yes! Yeah, you just kind of say, "I don't know! I did disappear. I don't know," and kind of avoid the question. I really enjoyed that time because we have such wonderful Fannibals online, and the Twitter response is always fantastic. Getting the various tweets was a lot of fun. There's a super fan, who's wonderful, who plays Freddie Lounds on Twitter . She was sending me messages saying, "We're not dead, are we!?" I said, "I don't know; you'll have to wait and see." So that was certainly enjoyable, to see people so passionate, especially people who during Season 1 who hated her so vehemently. I turned around, and suddenly they'd be sending me messages going, "No, you can't be dead! I'm not ready for that yet -- I just started to like you!" In fact, that was something Bryan and I had talked about. I know that was kind of his goal, to create this wonderful character who you do love to hate and make you think you hate her. Then she'll do something and you'll go, "Dammit, you just redeemed yourself. I'm not really sure how I feel about you." That is, to me, exciting to play, because it steers away from stereotypical roles and creates an actually fleshed-out character instead of this trope, in a way.Yeah, I think it's such a great character to play, and the writing is so intricate and fleshed-out and beautiful. Even in terms of finding character, Gillian Anderson's character, you don't know much about her either. There's a lot of characters we don't know much about, but these little moments -- and you've mentioned two of my favorite moments -- are layered in where you get this little hint of something. There's all this armor that's worn in this show, all these facades that are put on. I mean, that's kind of the nature of the show, Hannibal being an unknown serial killer that's yet to be caught. There are these personalities that we put on top of things, and Freddie certainly has a very strong one in terms of how she dresses and how she acts. When you get those subtle moments where she approaches Jack and tries to spare him from seeing Beverly -- or even in the very last scene with Will, where I mentioned very briefly where I'd started, which was as a cancer editor at a tabloid. To think how this woman has survived in this particular business -- in a business that must be incredibly isolating and lonely -- and they come together at the end there and talk about Abigail. You see that she did have a glimmer of humanity and care towards this girl. It's really an exciting character to play, and I hope that I've done justice to the writing. You know, in Season 1 she comes in kind of balls-out and is rather obnoxious to start. Then through various stuff that's happened to her, which on the surface perhaps seems not to affect her -- having Chilton opened up in front of her seems not to affect her -- but ultimately what I think is happening and what I think is written well and hopefully I've brought to life well is that this stuff is happening and is affecting her underneath. It's just this coat of armor on her is so strong, she's had to wear it to survive and succeed. Ultimately, I think she is looking for the truth. I don't think it's just a line like, "Haha, I'm a reporter looking for the truth." I think she really, truthfully is, and she believes there's some justice in that and nothing that she's doing with this moral compass that's askew is wrong, because she's doing it in the pursuit of something she believes in. Those couple moments show, actually, these things have affected her. She really, really works her ass off.

Continue to Page 2 as Chorostecki talks Season 3, Freddie's possible fate and that memorable hat.