Music: {allcanada} 'Warehouse 13': Aaron Ashmore on Steve Jinks, the Warehouse's first gay team member

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

{allcanada} 'Warehouse 13': Aaron Ashmore on Steve Jinks, the Warehouse's first gay team member

Aaron Ashmore, who won us over with memorable roles on "Veronica Mars" and "Smallville," is continuing his sci-fi career and joining SyFy's "Warehouse 13" as Steve Jinks, an ATF agent who is recruited onto the team because of his ability to tell when a person is lying, without fail.

Ashmore and series creator Jack Kenny recently sat down with Out to discuss bringing the first gay agent into the series, now in its third season. Kenny says that it was actually the network suits who first suggested making Jinks gay. "We were pitching this character and a couple of the execs are gay and said, "What if Steve was gay?" We immediately jumped on the idea -- but it's just a part of who he is, it doesn't define the character."

Jinks' action-packed life doesn't leave much time for romantic relationships. "These people's lives are crazy trying to save the world, so there's not a lot of time for love," Ashmore says. "I think when he interacts with some people, in the back of my mind as an actor, I'll decide that he thinks a guy is cute. But it doesn't play into how he does his job."

"It's the same thing with the straight characters. There's really no time for that. Last season, we tried to get into relationship stuff and what we found that we really don't have the space. They're always out in the field," Kenny adds.

Of course, even without the workaholic factor, the ability to be able to tell when a person isn't telling the truth, even with little white lies, can sometimes get in the way of romance. "That's a big thing that influences who Steve is. We all know that people lie, but when you know that it's happening every time, it makes it hard to be in a relationship with someone," Ashmore says.

Though the character's backstory isn't deeply explored as far as family life or history, Kenny does have an idea of what his life was like before joining the team. "We haven't explored a lot of Steve's history, other than we know he has a sister," Kenny says. "In the back of my head, it was a difficult coming out. I don't think his parents were accepting right away. Steve's an emotionally conservative guy and I think that came from the way his parents reacted. I think he's been in a couple of relationships and he's hurt. He's hesitant about opening himself up to somebody. These are things we'll explore as we get to know the character more, but I base a lot of that on how Aaron has played the character. It's fun to watch him fill out Steve."

Tune in to "Warehouse 13" on Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on SyFy.