Whether you like her on Once Upon A Time as Ruby, the hot goth waitress that makes every guy in Storybrooke weak in the knees, or as Red Riding Hood, the innocent young girl who transforms into a wolf during “Wolftime,” Meghan Ory is an absolute stunner in all realities. I was lucky enough to get to talk with her about the show, building her characters, and her hopes for romance (for her characters, natch).
Your character is a huge fan favorite. Are you getting overwhelmed by fans on the street yet?
Meghan Ory: I’m not actually because I don’t look anything like myself on the show. If I went out wearing red and crazy red lipstick and black eyeliner perhaps, but I’m pretty incognito right now, it’s pretty fun.
So the Amy Winehouse make up isn’t your style?
For myself, personally in my life, not so much, but I loved it for Ruby. It’s going to be nice though to see her depart from that and be more grounded and natural.
Did you realize from the start that your character was going to be this werewolf kind of creature? How far ahead could you build that into Ruby and into Red?
I found out fairly early on, a few episodes in, and it was pretty exciting when I found out, it added a really great dimension that was pretty fun to play.
Is there any chance Peter is still alive or did you definitely eat him?
I think Peter’s pretty gone. I don’t know, I’m not giving you spoilers because I don’t know, but in my opinion I think Peter’s probably gone. I think Red needs a new man in her life.
You and Graham always had this silent connection, and I guess the wolf was a part of that. Are there any love interests coming up for Ruby or Red?
I sure hope so, I think they both deserve it, don’t you?
Oh definitely. What actor would you bring in to play your love interest?
I don’t know, I think it would need to be somebody new, but you never know, there might be somebody waiting in the wings we haven’t thought about. There are so many great fairytale characters to choose from, I think someone gallant would be good for Red.
You have a lot of fantasty work in your resume, are you drawn to fantasy scripts?
I am, I’m a HUGE Harry Potter fan. When you’re acting, it’s a fantasy already, maybe it’s the costumes, I love it. It’s so fun.
It looked like you and Ginnifer Goodwin were out in the woods in the last episode. I know a lot of the scenes are green screen environments but that looked real.
That was definitely real. When we were shooting we were looking around us and it was so beautiful we thought, “I wonder if people are going to think we’re on a stage” because it was so perfect. The snow on the trees was immaculate, it was incredible.
And that was in Vancouver?
Yeah, we were on the top of Mt. Seymour, and it was actually much warmer than you would have thought because they have these stick-on body “hot shots” that warm up, so we had them all up and down our long underwear. I see people comment on how cold we must have been. My feet were cold, but other than that I was okay. They take good care of us.
You’ve done a lot of work with Ginnifer Goodwin, she’s kind of a scene partner for you, which of her characters would you say she’s more like?
Ginnifer is such an amazing actress she’s not really like either of them. I think Ginnifer just IS Snow White. When we were shooting on the top of the mountain, there were all these birds around, and I’m not even joking: one of them landed ON her hand. Everybody’s just like, “Okay, you actually ARE Snow White, the reincarnation of Snow White.”
When you first got the part, did you start doing any preparation, like watching Fairy Tale Theatre marathons?
I definitely read a lot of books on the psychology and mythology behind fairy tales, because I think that’s really fascinating and there’s a lot to drawn on there. I’m a huge fairy tale fan in my life, so it was pretty exciting. From the moment I read the pilot I was like “I want to be a part of this show, I’ll play a rock, I don’t care.”
Are you thinking about where your storyline might go next season?
We have to find out if we’re getting a next season first, I hope we will. It’d be pretty surprising if we didn’t, but you never know. I think all of us on the show want to see where it’s going to go, we’re fans of the show ourselves.
Ruby is growing where she’s planted. Have you traveled a lot?
I’m a huge fan of traveling, I was actually in the Galapagos Islands during our hiatus between shooting the pilot and the show last year, which was AMAZING. I highly recommend it to anybody who feels like going somewhere totally untouched.
Is that the place with the giant turtles?
Yeah, the giant tortoises, the iguanas that live in the ocean… it’s pretty amazing.
What were some of the psychological fairy tale connections that stayed with you?
A lot of Red Riding Hood is about warning young girls from predatory men, to see the wolf was losing your virginity back in the day, so I thought that was really interesting. I read a quote from Charles Dickens who said “Little Red Riding Hood was my first love, and I thought if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood I should have known perfect bliss.” She’s like the image of innocence and purity and all of that, before she meets the wolf and goes through her transformation, and I thought that was really cool and its an interesting history to be a part of.
Can you give us any hints about the murder case and how far that’s gong to extend?
I think it might be pretty crazy if Emma has to arrest Mary Margaret, I think that would make for a pretty crazy scene, and her fingerprints were found on the inside of the box, so I could see it happening.
Read more: http://www.tv.com/news/under-the-hood-with-once-upon-a-times-meghan-ory-28126/#ixzz1pNaEWRji
