Nina is
the secretary who is,
they say, the referee
between Dr. Albright, Jane curtin,
and Dr. Dick Solomon, john Lithgow.
And Nina has seen it all.
And they needed an edge in the office.
During the first pilot,
they had this wonderful woman
who was both the love interest and the secretary.
And they found that the aliens
were bouncing off of everything.
So they needed these two pieces of concrete,
ergo Jane curtin, simbi khali.
So that's how we came into play.
We came during the second pilot.
We had three days where everyone else had been together for two weeks.
So we both felt like Sybil.
And we came to be the wall and the reason
and the audience's response
to all the shenanigans that go on with the aliens.
So that's how we evolved.
I guess it varies from week to week.
I guess the most exciting part for me
is...
probably the table read
when we're all together just at a table.
For some of us it's our first time reading it
or the second time, depending on how our week has been going.
And I enjoy the process most
when it's just us, when it's just the family.
I mean, the publicity has to happen,
and we have to do it in front of an audience,
but we are such a family, I enjoy the intimacy
of just working and hanging out.
There have been so many.
The first thing that popped in my head
was when Dr. Solomon dressed up
to join Mary's women's group,
and he dressed as a woman.
And he just had me rolling.
- Oh, pardon me. - No, it's entirely my--
oh, my--
Nina, it's me, Dr. Solomon.
Oh.
I'm wearing women's clothes.
Ah, that's it.
And then the Christmas episode.
I mean, there are so many.
I can't just name one.
But the Christmas episode was fun,
when I got to have that really great moment with him
when he was the Grinch and I was giving him the present anyway.
Here. Merry Christmas.
- You got me a gift? - Yeah.
So you were my secret Santa?
I was not your secret Santa.
I just happen to love Christmas. Now open your damn present.
- Well, what is it? - It's a travel mug.
What's it for?
So you don't spill coffee on your lap every morning.
You noticed.
Because being an alien is like being a baby,
and everyone is, or was, or still is, a baby.
And it-- the issues are so relative
and, I think, always will be the ones we hit on.
It makes you laugh at yourself and not take yourself so seriously.
She's amused by his shenanigans,
and she's seen it all.
She's not going to let him see that he's affecting her,
even though she is.
She always wants to be in control, from what she wears
to how she walks, to her hair,
which you can see I'm not like that at all.
She's very controlled.
So when she sees him out of control,
I think it makes her want to pull in even more
because that's not what she wants to be.
But I think she's grown really fond of him,
and she really wants to look out for him,
especially in his relationship with Dr. Albright.
I think she does, even though it's really odd to her.
She likes to see both of them happy.
Her no-nonsense attitude.
When I walk down the street,
and they see me out of character--
they really think that I'm like that--
the illusion of control,
which we all like to illude, and I'm guilty of that myself.
But when people see me walking down the street
with my little scarf and my overalls and my grocery cart,
they're like, "hey, you look--"
this one guy said, "you know what, I don't know if people tell you this a lot,
but you look like that girl from '3rd rock,'
but she's so--"
I'm like, "that's me. I'm just-- Okay, all right."
But people don't--
they don't put us together usually.