Valorie Curry has steadily been building up her acting credits in both the science fiction and fantasy genres. She’s played a vampire in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 and has been hunted down by a witch in Blair Witch. Now she will be diving into the superhero genre and will be playing Dot Everest in Amazon’s The Tick.

Screen Rant got a chance to talk with Valorie at San Diego Comic Con 2017, where we discussed what attracted her to the role of Dot, how much research she did to prepare for Dot, and what it was like to play opposite Arthur.

Talk to me about Dot and what attracted you to the role of Dot?

Valorie Curry: Well, Dot Everest, Dorothy, she is Arthur’s sister and she is the carry over from the comic books. She’s been in every version of it. It’s definitely the most fleshed out version of this character and what I love about her and what really drew me in when I talked to Ben about her is, on the page and even in previous versions, she has been a bit of a device. She has definitely been the straight man. She’s a little bit snarky. She’s a little bit sarcastic. Kind of always like, I don’t want to say looking down on what’s going on, but a little bit. And what I loved is that Ben really wanted this version to be a very human person and for her to be driven very much by empathy and for the stakes to be very real because she has been Arthur’s caretaker for their entire adult lives. And he has been the center of her life and maybe there is some resentment about that but, at the same time when he doesn’t need her anymore, what does she have to anchor herself? And so that was a journey I found really interesting and the idea of someone who’s driven by passion, driven by heart, but has always had to put themselves last and maybe does have some lingering anger that they haven’t dealt with. These kind of complexities and having a character be introduced to me in that way in the context of a half hour superhero satire comedy was like, “Yeah. I want to do that. I want to do a show like that that also treats the characters with that level of seriousness.”

Griffin Newman and Valorie Curry in The Tick

That is an amazing answer. Actually going deep into Dot’s actual character. Now how much research did you do for the character since its been in every iteration of the comic? I believe it was in the animated series and in the old TV show. How much research did you do on that stuff?

Valorie Curry: I really didn’t look to the previous versions of Dot. I pretty much wanted to start fresh with her because I believed there would be a tendency to connect to those kinds of humor, that sarcasm, that cynicism. And that’s exactly what I didn’t want her to be. I don’t want her to be the straight man who’s judging the world around her because there is a real temptation to do that when you are the straight man in an absurd world. So, for me, it was more about the human research with the relationship with Arthur. The fact that she is an EMT. She is a med student. She is also a badass at a sport that I can’t wait for you guys to see. She is somebody who has to constantly be doing something. So it was more about who this person that she has to constantly be moving, that she has to constantly be useful. She is endlessly capable, but often underestimated. So it was more about gathering those pieces as a human and also creating a real relationship with Griffin, who plays Arthur, so that history between them is clear from the beginning.

Wow. That’s insane. I know this is a superhero satire show, but it is a very grounded Dot than we’ve seen from previous incarnations. How was it playing alongside Arthur because that seems like it would be so much fun to do?

Valorie Curry: I have a wonderful time and Griffin and I have had an incredibly easy chemistry and relationship from day one, which is a real gift. But it helps that you have this multi-tonal quality that I think makes it really unique where it can shift on a dime from incredibly absurd and otherworldly to very grounded and very realistic, even like dramatic moments. And it has to turn on a dime. And I think Griffin as Arthur is really the linchpin of that, so he does a beautiful job and he definitely helps me in terms of connecting Dot into those scenes where the tone is constantly shifting.

MORE: How Arthur Grounds The Tick's Satire

The Tick premieres on Amazon on August 25, 2017