Jaime Murray on Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: "Gaia Genuinely Loves Lucretia — She Will Stand by Her Through Thick and Thin"

UK actress Jaime Murray — known for Dexter, Warehouse 13, and Hustle — plays Gaia, a longtime friend of Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) and a seductive social climber in the Starz prequel series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, premiering Friday, January 21 at 10 p.m. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

UK actress Jaime Murray — known for Dexter (Showtime), Warehouse 13 (Syfy), Hustle (BBC), and Agatha Christie's Poirot — plays Gaia, a longtime friend of Lucretia (Lucy Lawless) and a seductive social climber in the Starz prequel series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, premiering Friday, January 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Gaia is on the prowl for a new husband and will stir up trouble in the House of Batiatus.

On whether Gaia genuinely loves Lucretia or is using her: "I think it could be both, but I do think she genuinely loves Lucretia. She doesn't really have much in the world. It's a time where women had very little power — they couldn't vote, they couldn't own property, they had to be married. It was really looked down on for a woman to be without a husband and she finds herself alone in the world and Lucretia is all she has."

On the trust required in such a physically demanding show: "So much of it relies on trust. I think to be a good artist, to be a good actor, you really need to trust the people that you're working with. In this show it has a lot of physicality, whether you're a gladiator or whether you're a scantily clad lady. I really had to look in the eyes of John and Lucy and the actors that I was working with and trust them 100%. I felt for the guys — I'd be standing off in the pulpits looking down at them. I became really close with some of them. It's a hard job and it really kind of pulls you all together."

On how she got the role: "I didn't meet anyone on the team until I arrived in New Zealand. I was filming a show in Toronto and I was just coming to the end of the shoot and I was putting myself on tape and this was one of the programs. Initially, I hadn't seen the show and I read it and I was like, whoa, what the hell is this. The language is just so rich and flowery and I had just fell in love with it. And I put myself on tape and then other actors chipped in with my little dog running in the background and that's how I got the job."

On the writing and the challenge of green screen: "I thought the writing was so great. Even though I'm playing this woman over a thousand years ago, I could still find her humanity and understand what motivated her. The most difficult aspect for me was green screen — it's when you're acting and there's either nobody there or you're imagining a fight that happened three days ago on a different set and watching a director's hands instead of the other actors that you're trying to react to. So that was the most challenging aspect. But then you see it and it's amazing how it all seamlessly goes together. I actually prefer green screen than acting opposite Dustin Clare. I do have to say that."

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