Interview: Nicole Tubiola from Wildfire

Wildfire is an imaginative series that follows a young woman who finds excitement and romance at the horse ranch where she works and has become one of the network’s highest-rated original programs.

We had a chance to sit down with Nicole Tubiola who plays Danielle Davis and chat about the series, what will happen in the upcoming season, and what she thinks about the current writer’s strike.

Can you start off telling me a little bit about Wildfire and the character that you play?

Sure. Wildfire is a story about a trouble girl that ends up working for a horse racing farm. Basically Wildfire is about horse racing and the families that are involved in horse racing. Specifically, two families, the Ritter’s where Kris, the trouble girl comes to work. And then there’s Davis’s farm, the rival horse racing farm, which is the family that I’m in. And, you know it’s just basically about the trials and tribulations of those two families. Davis farm is, you know, the big rich horse racing stable and Ritter’s Farms is, Raintree Farm is kind of the underdog stable if you will. And I play Dani Davis. Dani Davis is the daughter to Ken Davis and sister to Jr. Davis and love interest in Matt Ritter of Ritter Farms. And she’s kind of a woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to say it and is a little fiery and its fun.

Now have you guys started back filming the new season yet?

Yeah, we filmed the fourth season actually way ahead of time. We finished filming the fourth season in June and it doesn’t start airing until January. I think it’s that first week in January is when our fourth season comes out. Then were waiting to hear about a fifth season pick up. I figure they wanna find out how fourth season does before they air or pick up a fifth season. So, you know, hopefully we will get a lot of viewers.

Now, are there going to be any, changes with your character in the new season? I know that there was talk about your character possibly having her own vet clinic?

Yeah in season four. In season four there are a lot of changes. At the end of season three everything kind of ended for Dani. Her brother sold her out, and she was asked pretty much to leave Davis Farm, which is where she stayed pretty much during third season. So, at the beginning of fourth season takes place six months later and she’s just trying to figure out a way to get her racing life back, get back into horse racing in general. So she opens up a vet clinic in hopes of meeting some important people and helping horses in the, you know, making a good impression on those people who think she might have screwed up, even though she didn’t really, but they don’t know that.

So yeah, she has, she opens a vet clinic there’s love interest and there’s all kinds of surprises just in general for Dani as a character. I think she softens a lot. I think that she’s taken a lot of hard hits, and I think that people may be surprised at the direction of the character this year.

I know that fans thinks that your character and Sheik Omar, that they’re really hot together. Now is that going to be the new love interest?

Yeah fans are interested in that Sheik O. thing. I wish that I could say that, that, that was gonna go some where. But he’s actually not Dani’s new love interest.

We do a fast forward a little bit. You know that at the end of season three they actually cut out another scene to with Sheik O. which could have shown that they were going to work together. I think that they just kind of decided that they weren’t going to be working together. So, there is no Sheik O. love. I wish I could say there was, but no.

Awe. Is there any chance that Dani and Kris will combine forces this year or are they going to still be enemies?

Dani and Kris, I think, are a lot alike this year in a since in that they’ve both been out-casted. At the end of season three they’re both kind of put out on their butts. So, if they have a lot in common they’re really the only two that would understand that. You know, it’s like I said, there are a lot of changes that are in the air for wildfire in the next season.

Do you have any funny stories from set that you can share?

Funny stories from set. Uh, you know what’s funny about set is Ryan Sypek, who plays Jr., he and I are truly like brother and sister, so we love it when we have scenes together cause we just goof around. But we have the Nintendo DS, so we have wars with our Super Mario Brothers and we basically are just playing our DS’s all the time. If there is any down time, we are playing our DS. And you know what, at first Ryan used to beat me all the time because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing, and now he’s scared to play me. I’m just putting it out there that I’m way better at it now than him!

That’s a fun game! I’ve played it my self.

Yeah I know! In Mario vs. Luigi, yeah, I’m always Luigi. I now win.

Your husband has been on the show some as well right?

He was on the show in season two. He played Carry who ends up being bad and stealing the Ritter ranch winnings from Kris.

How was that working with your husband?

Oh, it was great. We didn’t really, actually end up having a lot of scenes together. We were bummed because they end up putting Carry with Kris. We would cross paths every now and then. We’d be in the background of some scene and we’d pretend to talk or have something interesting to say. But our characters never really crossed paths. But you know, he and I, we bartended together before so we certainly have a lot of fun doing what we love to do together, which is act, so it was good!

Now I read you just had a son in September. Congrats!

I did. Thank you. His name’s Quinn Hutchison. He was born September 5th. He was 7lb 4oz. He’s so much bigger now. He’s growing leaps and bounds. He’s definitely keeping us busy in our off time.

How is that, balancing motherhood with an acting career?

So far its been fine, because I haven’t had to balance too much. It’s basically just been motherhood for me. Now I’m just starting to audition again. But, I’m not worried about it. I think that you can definitely do both.

Acting is a different kind of job. He can come to set. He can do all sorts of things. Until I get the next job, I’m pretty much just auditioning, so he hangs out with me at the auditions.

Now do you have any future work lined up right now?

There’s a few things on the table. Um, I might be working with ABC Family again. We’re going over scripts and what not. There are some things in the works but nothing I can officially confirm.

Do you think that the writers’ strike is going to have any effect on any of those?

The strike will absolutely have an effect on everything. You know, hopefully it won’t last very long. But the funny thing is is that once the writers’ strike gets over then the actors’ strike is supposed to begin in June.

Oh, really?

Yeah. The writers, they’re forging ahead for us so that the actors won’t have to strike because the deal will be made. It sucks for right now because everything is pretty much shutting down they can’t really do anything for the shows, or for movies, or for any of it so the writers aren’t really having a good impact on acting as well, but it’s all for the best in the end.

Right, now if the writers strike comes to conclusion soon do you think that’s going to take care of what the actors would be striking for in June?

I think that they will definitely forge ahead for us, cause at least we will know what they got and what would be fair from there. So we’re all dealing with the same people.

Would it be about the same rights that the writers are asking for?

DVD sales and the internet is really changing everything, I mean I know that Wildfire is on iTunes and now they wanna do like mini shows on the internet. Like 10 minute shows. Which is for promotional use and is all fine and good, but you can’t really expect actors or writers to just do this stuff for free.

Right now it is what it is. It’s all about the future. Who would have known how big DVDs would be? Everyone should just get their fair share.

What do you think about the fans coming together online and discussing the show and the characters and really getting into it?

I love that! I’ve checked out fan sites. I’ve looked around a little bit seeing what people think. It’s actually kinda scary at first, well it was for me at least cause Dani was such a brat and people are saying such mean things. I was like uh, I can’t even pay attention to this! I couldn’t look for very long because I would get my feelings hurt. But, I love that the fans have a voice and you know I think that I would have loved when my favorite shows were on if I could have you know gone and said what I thought and actually have the power to be taken seriously because whether our fans realize it or not, I think that the studio and the network they all absolutely want to hear the feedback, and they want to take the show in the direction that the fans would like it to go. And when things don’t make sense the fans are more than willing to point it out.

So, I love that the fans! That means they like it! If you have something to say, then you like the show. So that’s good! I’ve actually been to FanBolt and looked around to see what the fans have said.

Yeah, we have quite a lot of fans on there of the series, especially the spoiler section. They’ve all been talking about what’s going to happen in the next season and figure out last season.

Who’s in the car?

Yes! We’re all trying to figure that out. You can’t give us any insides on that, can you?

I can’t, I can’t tell you that. I wish I could tell who was in the car but I’m sworn to secrecy!

Interview By: Emma Loggins

 

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  1. Season 4 really was the best season. I loved Kris and Dani’s new found friendship and I just loved Dani in general. She put a huge smile on my face all throughout season 4. I loved the addition of Noah who was hilarious. I thought he brought in a lot of comic relief that was so desperately needed amongst all the animosity with Jean and Pablo for the first half of the season. I also loved the addition of Calvin- I thought he and Kris could have formed a really strong friendship had there been a 5th season. Re-watching Season 4 the last few days, I love it so much. I hated it when it originally aired but I love it so much now.