LOS ANGELES – Sex, death and mind games are just another day on the job for Tricia Helfer, the honey-haired actress who plays Battlestar Galactica's skin-job Cylon Six.

Her character's intensity – and Six's propensity for dying horribly brutal deaths, only to be reincarnated, Cylon-style – might intimidate fanboys who spot Helfer at sci-fi conventions. But she's really just an easy-going Canadian farm girl made good, far from the angry and erotic part she brings to life on the show.

At a recent party at Electronic Arts' Playa Vista headquarters, Helfer showed up in skin-tight blue jeans, a red silk tank top and 4-inch stiletto heels to promote the videogame Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (she plays Gen. Kilian Qatar in the game's videos). Settling into a lounge chair, she chatted with Wired.com about sci-fi fanboys, sex, Six and Battlestar Galactica, which begins its final season Friday on SciFi Channel.

Wired: On Battlestar Galactica, you're pretty tough. Do people get intimidated by that?

Tricia Helfer: It's almost like they don't want to come too close – I'm sitting there smiling, being friendly, and it's as if they don't really want to disturb you, like I might actually be the kind of intense, angry person I play in the show.

Wired: You make a lot of appearances at sci-fi conventions. Do you enjoy meeting fans up close and personal?

Helfer: Science-fiction fans and gamers get a bad rap. I find they're highly intelligent and generally really nice. Sometimes I feel like I'm letting them down because I don't have a lot of the answers about where Battlestar is going. But I love the Q&A sessions, aside from the occasional odd person who's just trying to grab you and kiss you. It's just like, "Whoa dude, I'm married!"

Tricia Helfer shoots the breeze at a Battlestar Galactica convention.

Wired: Six is one overheated Cylon. How do you relate to the whole sex-symbol thing?

Helfer: I'm not the type of person who thinks I am who I play. Obviously, you don't walk around in a rage or being a real seductress.

Wired: But getting to perform some of those dark scenes for the camera must be gratifying for you as an actress.

Helfer: If there's really a tense, angry scene, it is fun getting to bring out those little bits of your own personality, almost like going to a therapy session. You get it all out so you feel relieved at the end of the day.

Wired: Actors love doing death scenes. Playing Six, you've gotten killed many times. Can you count the ways?

Helfer: I've blown myself up with a nuclear device. I've gotten shot in the forehead. I've gotten shot in the back. I got knocked off of a two-story building. I got impaled by steel rebar. Most of my death scenes have been abrupt and brutal.

Wired: And you keep coming back for more. Which version of Six is your favorite?

Helfer: I really liked Gina. She'd been gang-raped, beaten, tortured and starved, so she was a lot darker and a complete departure from what I had been playing. In that respect, it was fun to get into what was almost a whole new character. That's much more interesting than just playing the pretty face, which would get really boring.

Wired: You and your three sisters grew up on a farm near Donalda, Alberta, Canada. Were you into sci-fi TV shows back then?

Helfer: I drove tractors and fixed machinery. We had a garden and chickens and a grain farm, so I had after-school chores that took up most of my time. There was no TV in the house. I can go for weeks without the TV turned on.

Wired: I know you like to ride motorcycles in your free time. Other hobbies?

Helfer: I've always been an animal lover. I have three rescued cats. Bella and Delilah are sisters and they're New Yorkers. Bug is from the streets of L.A.

Wired: You've posed for Playboy, and Six has had some pretty intense love scenes with your Battleship Galactica co-star James Callis, who plays Dr. Gaius Baltar. Does your husband get jealous?

Helfer: No, he was supportive of the Playboy shoot and is very cool when it comes to kissing scenes with James. It's just a day at the office. He totally gets it.