Batwoman: Rachel Skarsten talks Alice’s character and playing complex women

Batwoman star Rachel Skarsten discusses Alice’s true identity, her relationship with Kate, and her history of playing complex women during a press roundtable at NYCC.

One of the most shocking twists during the series premiere of new CW drama Batwoman was the revelation that the villainous Lewis Carroll-quoting Alice is actually Kate Kane’s presumed dead twin sister Beth.

The complicated nature of Alice’s character is one that promises an intriguing season-long arc, as Kate must both fight against her sister in the name of protecting Gotham and figure out whether or not she’s someone that’s possible to save.

Rachel Skarsten, who plays Alice, sat down with the press at this year’s New York Comic-Con to talk about her character’s big secret, her connection to Kate, and how she feels about playing such complex women all the time.

“It’s been a secret that I’ve been keeping for quite a while, that they’re twins,” Skarsten said about her character’s true identity. “Alice is Beth Kane.”

“I’m really excited to explore that relationship further,” she continued. “I think it makes them very interesting foes now.”

According to Skarsten, Kate is not just Alice’s nemesis – she’s also her biggest weakness. And that fact will come into play in interesting ways as the season goes on.

“I think there’s no one else Alice really loves in the same way,” she explained. “For any evil character, love presents a particular dilemma. And I think that love, albeit twisted, is the underlying thing that drives Alice throughout this entire season, and probably has driven her throughout her entire life. Especially since [she and Kate] parted.”

“Without giving away too much, it’s been very interesting to see these flashes in Alice, where [love] is definitely her Achilles heel, and I think the same is true for Kate and Batwoman. Because they should want to destroy one another but they can’t.”

Alice is hardly Skarsten’s first foray into the world of complicated, complex female characters. From playing Elizabeth Tudor in Reign to Tamsin in Lost Girl and plenty of other women in between, Skarsten’s professional speciality seems to be messy, problematic women who nevertheless manage to be appealing anyway.

“I’ve been very lucky, I think, in my career. And I wish  I could say it had been by some master choice I’d made the whole time. I mean, really and truly, I’m just grateful to have jobs,” Skarsten elaborated. “But I’ve been really lucky to play all these complex – and aren’t we all complex?? – women. And I’ve gotten to play them in many different incarnations, and many different time periods, and many different worlds. So, I feel very blessed.”

In her way, Alice is a similar figure, though much more overtly evil than some of Skarsten’s previous roles.

“Alice is definitely the most complex, because she was very broken as a child, and that now affects who she is today,” she said. “And I think she still carries a lot of who she was with her.”

“She has real genuine moments, where you see who she was – but then she has moments where she’s just downright evil. I mean, she’s bad. There’s no two ways about it. So it’s dancing between those two [things]. I always say it’s like choreographing a dance with myself. And so we’ll see how it goes.”

Batwoman airs Sunday nights on The CW.