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The Unit Season 4 Delta DVD Action with Nicole Steinwedell
by Troy Rogers
Three seasons into the dramatic action Delta Force
based CBS series, The Unit, actress Nicole Steinwedell
stepped into the character shoes of Warrant Office
Bridget Sullivan under the call-sign "Red Cap"
in the fourth and final season of the The Unit.
Although Nicole Steinwedell was a latecomer to
The Unit, starring Dennis Haysbert, Regina King,
Scott Foley, and Robert Patrick, Steinwedell was
no stranger to the military since both of her
parents were members of the Marine Corps, which
laid the perfect family foundation for Nicole
Steinwedell to impress series creator David Mamet
to land the role of Bridget.
With Season 4 of The Unit out on DVD and Blu-Ray as of September 29 at the same time as the 19-disc The Unit Complete Gift Set, we hopped on the covert phone lines for an exclusive chat with former cast member of The Unit, Nicole Steinwedell to learn more about her time on the popular CBS series, whether her military family background helped her ease into the role of Bridget Sullivan, if women are members of the real life The Unit, and how she handled The Unit gunplay when locked and loaded on the show.
THE DEADBOLT: When you joined the show, did it help that you were relatively new to the business, like Bridget was new to The Unit?
NICOLE STEINWEDELL: I was going to say, yeah. Very perceptive. My experience on the show was a lot like my character's. Helped is a good word for it. I would say it was an important challenge because it definitely mirrored what Bridget was going through. I definitely had to defer to the people who are pros who did this more than I did but also assert that I was there for a reason or I wouldn't be hired in much the same way that Bridget was there for a reason or else she wouldn't have been included in The Unit.
THE DEADBOLT: Was it intimidating to join a show so late in the game where everybody was already like a family?
 STEINWEDELL:
Yeah. It's like a natural thing whenever that
happens. I mean, they were very supportive but
it's hard no matter who you are. Shawn Ryan
told me that Glenn Close had the same problem
on The Shield because she was new and she's
freaking Glen Close. So for me to be hemming
and hawing over not being the best popular chick
in town, no. I think it's just part of paying
your dues and proving you are worth your salt
and just being the new kid. So yeah, it was
definitely hard. But I think it was worth it.
THE DEADBOLT: I think I would've been most intimidated by Dennis [Haysbert].
STEINWEDELL: [laughs] Yeah, he's got that voice that can just shake you in your boots and I'm pretty tall. So I'm not worried about the height, it was more the voice that really shook me up. I was like, "Wow, are you kidding?" In person, it's even better. It's even more resonant.
THE DEADBOLT: How much did having a military family help you?
STEINWEDELL: A lot, for a couple of reasons. One, when I got the show, I wrote a letter to David Mamet when I saw the character breakdown come out, and I said, "My mom was a Marine. My dad was a Marine. My mom outranked my dad and it's a part of my blood. Give me a shot." He actually read it. Because when I came to my call back - because I got an audition through my agency and I got a call back and he was there and he introduced me to Shawn Ryan - he said, "You know, Nicole's family was in the military," and made this perfect sequay for me to speak about it. I was like, "David Mamet read my letter." I felt so freaking awesome. I really did think it helped subtly because I've been around people who have this honor code and the aspirations to serve their country. But also, with my mom in particular, being a woman in power and not letting go of being feminine just to be in power and being one of the boys at the same time.
So actually, she is somebody who didn't really necessarily relate to my aspirations to be an actress. Then, when this part came along, it's not that she didn't support me, she was just, "What's this you guys want to get, the Grammy?" I'm like, "It's the Oscar, mom." But when this came along, it really brought her to life and she and I had this great discussion.
THE DEADBOLT: So I'm guessing you probably heard a lot of, "Semper Fi, do or die - Hoo Ra!"
 STEINWEDELL:
[laughs] Exactly right, and it's Hoo Ra! Then
on the show it's different, it's like Hoo Ya!
It's like they're different. But the Marine
Corps is way different than the Army. And that's
one thing I tend to agree with because these
guys technically came up from the Army and the
Delta Force, and the Delta Force can have Navy
Seals as well and all sorts of stuff. So there
were a couple of friendly competitions between
Hoo Ya! and Hoo Ah! They're very different.
THE DEADBOLT: What did you enjoy most about Bridget?
STEINWEDELL: I think it's that she has a much more mature sense of her sexuality. So she might use it as a power tool and not as something like, "I'm a sex symbol." But she can use it to be a spy and distract people to get what she needs. She doesn't see it as a threat to her intelligence. Sometimes I still get caught in that here in Hollywood [laughs]. I am still learning that trick and she was really good at it. So I'm going to use her in my little way and I had a great time with that. I mean, it's so much fun to be sexy or to play a Serbian call girl, or whatever, in a certain episode yet still be playing a character who is so bright and who is always coming out of situations with a new idea and trying to solve problems. I thought that was wonderful. You don't really get a chance to see a young girl in Hollywood do that very much.
THE DEADBOLT: In real life, do outfits like The Unit have female members? Is that true?
STEINWEDELL: Yes, this was a very controversial point. A lot of our fan base is very curious on the website, so obviously no one is going to come out and admit it. I mean, we have some Delta Force members who told us that and that's why my character was written, based on the testimony of one of our tech advisors. So definitely there are women involved in The Unit. That's just to my knowledge and what I was taught from these guys who are former Unit members. But it has definitely not been the case all along in The Unit, it's been more recent. Some of these older people who served, and Eric Haney even, who wrote the book Inside Delta Force that the show is based on, he didn't say anything about women in The Unit.
So it's a new development, and it makes sense in the first episode where she says, "Exactly. Your opponents don't know that there are women in The Unit." The show, I thought, was very smart to try and address that in the way, like I'm here and I'm going to get in your way and I'm going to mess you up and you're never even going to know I was on The Unit. So I like that. I like the covertness of what she was doing. It's just like these guys in general. A lot of these wars and a lot of these battles are fought in a way that doesn't have a lot of ceremony or celebration or publicity about it.
THE DEADBOLT: How important do you think a show like The Unit is in keeping America aware of what's going on at home and abroad?
 STEINWEDELL:
I do think it's an important show. I don't think
TV shows are always the best way to get what's
going on abroad, so I have to be honest about
that. But it was a really nice show and honest
in what it portrays. It was a really good blend
of actual missions and the humans who perform
them, which I think is an important element
of warfare to see as we get further and further
from it and send in little robots instead. They
affect people and there are plans that have
to be drawn up and careful consideration taken.
THE DEADBOLT: What was all of the gunplay like in the action scenes?
STEINWEDELL: It was so much fun. I must admit, in the first episode I had to be ambidextrous. I lose a gun, one of my mags is out, and I have to reach down with my other hand and grab my Derringer. It was like the most exciting gunfight that I had all season. I thought my character was going to be able to do things like that all of the time. Well, it turned out Bridget became, like I said, a weapon in the sense she would go undercover a lot more, be a recon girl. She was multi-faceted. But I only shoot weapons in a few of the episodes, so it was really fun. But I wish I got to shoot more of it [laughs]. We had to get training in that. I got to go to the shooting range and really show my stuff.
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