FBI: International alum Christiane Paul is doing a different kind of crime-solving in the Apple TV drama Hijack. Paul adds some further gravitas to Season 2 of the thriller as police chief Ada Winter, who finds herself in a high-pressure situation opposite Sam Nelson (played by Idris Elba).

In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, Paul discussed if her season as Europol agent Katrin Jaeger in FBI: International helped her in playing another police officer in Hijack. She also spoke about her perspective on the character of Ada Winter, beyond just what fans see on screen. And what did she enjoy about being part of this action-packed show?

Brittany Frederick: A lot of viewers will recognize you as Katrin Jaeger from FBI: International. Did any of your experience on that show help in portraying another law enforcement official?

Christiane Paul: No, not really, because Jaeger was really different to Ada Winter. And Ada Winter is really in charge here, in a different way than Jaeger ever was.

Winter is piecing together the situation on the fly, but how much information were you given as an actor about the plot of Hijack Season 2? Or did you want any extra information?

As an actor, you want to have every information you can get, because you have to feed your character. You know how to react in every situation you’re gonna play. But sometimes we didn’t have all [the] information. So it was really like the same situation the character was in.

I didn’t know everything about what was going to happen. That was really interesting for me as well. I didn’t know what is really happening in Episode 7 or 8, and how will my character react to a situation in [Episode] 7 or 8. That was an interesting process. I’d never had that before, so it was a journey, to be honest.

Was that the biggest challenge in playing Winter, or what did you sink your teeth into?

It was that that I didn’t really know in which direction the story will evolve or will be developed, and which challenge my character will face in the next episode. That was the biggest challenge.

The other challenge was that we were trapped in that control room, and had day after day filming almost the same situation. That needs a lot of energy, and you really have to focus on what you’re going to say, what you’re going to think as a character. That was something very special, too.

Obviously, there’s not much time in Hijack Season 2 to explore who Ada Winter is beyond this specific situation. How did you perceive her as a character?

In such a show, you don’t have the time to develop every character, to see every layer of a character. For instance, that [Winter] is a mother, with a child at school who has a concert… and she doesn’t even have the time to be there, because the job is calling. So this is something you can really see of Winter, and maybe there are other phases of character, like maybe a funny phase she can’t really show in that serious situation.

There are so many talented actors in this ensemble. So what was the filming experience like? Was it equally exciting off-screen?

Absolutely it was a blast because, like you just said, we were an amazing cast. We actually liked each other a lot—the German crew in the control room, and also with Claire-Hope Ashitley, we kind of opened a little book club in the green room. We talked about literature all day long, if you had the time, and even gave each other a book to read. So it was a great time, to be honest.

Hijack streams Wednesdays on Apple TV. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Apple TV.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.