The actress who plays Deputy Jo Lupo on the hit SyFy series discusses the upcoming forth season

Actress Erica Cerra is best known to fans of SyFy's quirky hit series Eureka as Deputy Jo Lupo, a no-nonsense, gun-loving cop. The series, which has been a solid hit for the network since its debut in 2006 revolves around a strange Pacific Northwest town called Eureka. The town is secretly a government facility inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advancements. The series began when U.S. Marshal Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) discovered the city and was elected Sheriff by its people. Now, with pre-production on season four well on its way and the new season scheduled to begin airing later this year we had the opportunity to speak with actress Erica Cerra about the upcoming forth season of the series, what fans can expect, the success of the show and about the popular comic book based on the series. Here is what she had to say:

What can you tell us about "Eureka?" What can fans of the series expect from the upcoming forth season? Any big changes happening for Deputy Jo this year?

Erica Cerra: You know, the one thing I know is that I can make as many suggestions as I want but I never, ever, ever know what to expect. I have absolutely no idea. I can't give anything away unfortunately about the season premiere. The story is being flipped around, sideways, back and forth and I think everybody is going to be so excited for this season. They are doing something completely different, new, and exciting and totally taking characters I love and changing them. The show-runner called me and told me their idea for the new season. He told me the entire idea and I was like, "That's brilliant," and this is coming from someone who has been doing the show for four years now going in to our fifth season and I'm actually really thrilled. I have a new excitement and desire to film the season because there is just going to be some really cool new stuff going on and I think that everyone will be very pleasantly surprised. Like I said, unfortunately I can't give anything away but I think that it is something that everyone will be very excited about.

Are you surprised at all by the success of the show and the fact that a quirky, sci-fi comedy like this has found a loyal audience and is now heading into it's forth year?

Erica Cerra: It gets bigger. Our audience keeps getting bigger. That is just the coolest thing. No, I'm not surprised. I'm surprised that it's not even bigger. To be honest, I'm surprised that NBC hasn't picked it up because the show just keeps growing. Our show, and this is rough numbers, but I think that they've brought something like eight hundred thousand new viewers to SyFy, something ridiculous like that and that was over two of the three seasons. It was like eight hundred thousand new viewers to a station that would ordinarily not watch the show. I think our numbers keep getting higher each season. We keep going up and the audience just gets bigger and bigger.

So I can't say that I'm surprised. I think originally when I picked up the script there was some hesitation at first because I was like, "Okay, do I really want to be on a genre show?" Not to say that I don't love doing genre it's just did I want to take the chance of potentially being typecast? When you do a show like this people always remember that you are so-and-so from that show so do you want to take that chance? But I remember picking up the script and saying, "Wow, this is great." It was a really cool new concept. This show I think has done remarkable. I do wish that it keeps going and like I said the new idea for this season has even gotten me more excited about being on the show. I think that its success will grow and I think that the loyal audience that it already has will be really excited.

To follow up on the point you just made about typecasting, you've guest starred on several great genre TV shows including fellow SyFy series "Battlestar Gallactica" and "Warehouse 13" as well as "Smallville," "The 4400" and "Reaper" so what do you think it is about you as an actress that you continually get invited to be a part of these great genre shows? Are you ever concerned with typecasting and how it might affect your aver-all career?

Erica Cerra: First off there are a couple of reasons for that. I live and work out of Vancouver and it is very, very genre based. We have and always have had sci-fi shows here for years. They started with The X-Files and since then they've filmed Battlestar Gallactica and almost all of the SyFy shows. So that being said, I think that is a big part of why I am on their shows. Not to say that I'm not an incredibly brilliant actress and everyone wants to hire me but I think that is one of the main reasons why and I think SyFy is really loyal to it's casts. I think once you've been on one of their shows they love to have you move around within their series. So I think that is one reason and the other is that I really like working on shows where I can make believe. You come up with these unique characters and you just make believe. I've always been a sci-fi fan so there are two sides to it.

Finally, the show's creator, Andrew Cosby, also owns a very successful comic book publishing company called Boom Studios and they produce "Eureka" comics, so have you had a chance to read any of them and how does it feel to see your image in a comic book?

Erica Cerra: I have four copies! I remember the first time I saw one I was actually at a comic book store and I didn't know. I had heard about it, that he was going to do it and so-on-and-so-forth. I remember getting the picture, you know they sent me a picture and asked what I thought of the look and then needed my approval and so on. I remember when I got it I was like, "How cool would that be?" But then I think a year went by and I just forgot about it. I was at a comic book store with my fiancé and his younger cousin and I was just looking around and all of the sudden I bumped into the Eureka comic book. I was like, "Oh my god, I totally forgot about it." So I bought every copy there and then I was on a mission to buy all of them. Then when I went to Comic-Con this year, whichever ones I didn't have I just grabbed. So it's very cool. I can't wait till we have action figures!

The forth season of Eureka begins airing on SyFy later this year.