Holy Ground

Ellen Dubin's three-year investigation of the Devil is over. Her fate is sealed. And now, The Collector lives on, only on DVD. As reporter Jeri Slate, she takes a keen interest in Morgan Pym, once a German monk who, centuries ago, made a deal with the Devil to collect the souls of others in exchange for 10 years with his one true love. In the present day, he spends 48 hours with each of his employer's intended "victim's", helping them seek redemption. If they fail to do so, that person's soul ends up going to Hell. The actress makes her debut in The Collector in the first season opener, "The Rapper", in which Morgan must convince his client, a rap star, that his past 10 years of success carries a steep price tag.

Besides being a journalist, Jeri Slate is also a widow and the single parent of an autistic son, Gabriel. "A number of my character's scenes were done talking on the telephone and those are always challenging when you have to do a lot of solo acting," she notes. "I also worked a great deal with Aidan Drummond, a wonderful young actor who played Jeri's son. I watched him grow from six years old to eight, and while I obviously couldn't replace his real mom, I became his on-set mom. I'm not a parent in real life, but I am quite maternal, so I always felt very protective of Aidan and I think it came across in our work."

Having been around for a while, Morgan knows how to handle himself when people start asking questions about him and his otherworldly dealings. At the same time, Jeri Slate is certainly determined to unravel the mystery surrounding him. This creates an interesting dynamic between the two. "My character and Chris Kramer's are caught up in a game of cat and mouse," explains Dubin. "Having said that, I find playing adversarial roles fascinating, and it just sort of happened with me and Chris. We both have a mischievous quality to our acting, which sparked our onscreen chemistry, and I think audiences responded to that". After months of trying to figure out just who Morgan Pym is, Jeri Slate's curiosity about him intensifies in the second season of The Collector.

"Every time Morgan is in the room, something weird happens," notes Dubin. "She's starting to get close to the truth that something is not right with him and that we're dealing with darker issues in terms of the supernatural. Jeri doesn't know if it's the Devil, Hell or what exactly; she can't put her finger on it." The game of cat and mouse between Jeri and Morgan takes on a new dimension in season two's "The Campaign Manager". "In this story, I'm constantly chasing Chris Kramer's character and getting very close to the fact that there's something really not right with this man. Jeri is starting to realize that Morgan may have ties to the Devil, and the two of them have this long and slippery chase scene during a cold and rainy Vancouver day." The Collector may have ended production, but thanks to it being aired in 65 countries, Dubin still receives fan mail about her work in it. "I hear from fans in places like Serbia, China, Japan, there's even a Russian fan club for the show."

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