Beckman is played by Bonita Friedericy, a talented character actress who recently talked to us about sharing screen time with the Candyman, having a husband who excels at playing creepy guys and what it was like being in a Bobcat Goldthwait movie about bestiality.

Where are you originally from and where do you call home now?
That's an interesting question. I'm originally from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginians are fiercely independent, shall we say? I actually even have, it looks like a little credit card that's my birth certificate – you can carry it around with you wherever you go and it's from the Commonwealth of Virginia. I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.

We moved out here when I was five and I call Las Angeles home.

How exactly did you get into acting, and when did you decide this is what you wanted to do for a living?
Have I decided that yet?

Perhaps we are assuming too much –
(Laughs.) No. Let me think, I come from a kind of odd family where there were a lot of puppets and playacting that occurred. For some reason, we put on little plays when I was a little kid, which I think my brother wanted to do. And my brother, he was gay – he passed away – but he would always play like the witches and things like that. We would do like Hansel and Gretel and he'd play the witch and my sister would always play the princes and I had to play the little princesses. And everybody would yell at me because I would pick my nose and basically not behave because I didn't understand what was going on.

And then, when I was 10 years old, my brother did the play Fiddler on the Roof at his high school and they needed a little girl, so he brought me with him and I did my first play. And I continued doing theatre from that moment on.

I think I decided I actually wanted to make a living at it about nine years ago. That's when I started doing TV and film.

How tough was it to break into the business when you decided to pursue it nine years ago?
Well, it's funny, I think because I started older, it's hard when you are a middle-aged woman just because there aren't a whole lot of parts out there. However, I was very determined and I was older because I started at about 36. Pretty quickly I was making more than I was making doing theatre, which isn't saying much.

I still think I'm trying to break in to the business, I have to say. (Laughs.) It's not easy.

You've had guest spots on a wide variety of popular television shows. Do you enjoy the variety of your work or is it tough to constantly be bouncing around to different sets?
You know, it's interesting. For years, I was a substitute teacher because it would supplement my theatre earnings, and it kind of does remind me of being a sub. It is kind of funky to pop around because you don't quite belong and your job really is to know your lines, not bother anyone and be fun to work with. I do like the variety, I have to say. I'm a character actor and I think being able to play a general one week and a horrible mother the next week and then a secretary on Drew Carey or something, that I really like a lot. I like the variety.

My husband is an actor, too and we talk about it sometimes because he's been on a number of series. And I think the idea of being able to go to the same job and getting to work with actors that you get to see on a regular basis and writers and things like that and developing a character more deeply has its own merits too. I just sort of figure you do whatever comes your way.

So do you get treated pretty well when you show up to the different sets?
Like I said, it is kind of like substitute teaching and I think there's probably nothing more painful than going from one East LA middle school classroom to a Central school and being faced with anywhere from 30 to 50 children per class who really don't want you there.

So do you think it's tougher to win over the classroom full of kids?
Who could potentially hurt you physically and also where you have no books because the teachers have locked everything to keep them from you because they don't trust you.

It actually prepared me very well to go from set to set. It depends on the set, I have to say. If you're on a show that's not doing very well it can be really intimidating. Years ago, I worked on Payne, which was a John Larroquette show. It was Faulty Towers, they were trying a remake of it and it wasn't doing very well and it was really terrifying because nobody was happy and if you crossed your eyes the wrong way, you got the feeling you'd be fired. So stuff like that, it's not so good. But ones where the show is doing really well – and I have to say, Chuck is just a wonderful set and a lot of that is because of Zachary Levi, he's a really nice guy and he's very fun to be with.

Speaking of Chuck, you play General Beckman on the show.
General Chuckles Beckman. (Laughs)

How was the character explained to you initially and will we be seeing more of General Beckman in future episodes besides just your cameos on the television screen at the Buy More?
You mean the Charlie of Charlie's Angels? You know, I really don't know what they have in mind with that, quite frankly. I'm sort of curious myself. I mean, every so often I run into a writer and they were pitching around at one point having Beckman getting married and having an assassination attempt on her and there's been murmurings of back stories and things like that and I have to say, it's developing a little bit. So I'm kind of curious because there's this whole storyline now that they're rebuilding the computer that got blown up that Chuck represents now and the basic riff is that as soon as the new computer is up and running, she's going to have the Adam Baldwin character do Chuck in.

We don't think Chuck will die though. It wouldn't be very good for the show.
Hey, it's going to be called Beckman after that. (Laughs.)

So it will just be a spin-off about the adventures of General Beckman?
Well, I think so. Don't you think? You can just have like a blog with her where she just comes up on the screen for the entire hour.

And Tony Todd could be your wacky sidekick.
Particularly since he's 6'5" and I'm 5'3", which is frankly why he's always leaning on my desk because they can't fit us in the same frame. I'm usually sitting on five cushions. I think they conceived Beckman as being a little bit bigger than I am because we try different things, we try to have me walking around my chair and stuff like that, but the chair's twice my size, so I always end up sitting in it. It's kind of funny.

And I love Tony Todd, but I think it's hysterical – when I stand next to him, I come up to his waist. You know, he actually is the Candyman. People come up to him constantly when we're working and get this "in awe" expression and say, "Oh my God, you're the Candyman," which I've never seen, but I guess you say his name three times in the mirror and he comes and gets you.

So even though it's a small part right now, do you enjoy playing General Beckman?
I actually really like this part a lot. I like the fact that she sort of has a weird wryness to her. I really do call her Chuckles Beckman because her response to just about everything is to not register it and then shoot some mortars out there.

And frankly, I just want to stay in the show. Because, I don't know if you realize this – I don't think anyone knows this, I'm not the original Beckman. In the pilot, that's another woman. They don't show a whole lot of her, but we kind of look similar and actually I was at the premiere screening of it at McG's and a number of people came up and said they liked my work and I kind of said, "Nope, wasn't me."

What I think is kind of interesting is the gal who was in the pilot, her name is Wendy Makkena, she actually – I played my husband's wife on the show The Nine, he left me after several episodes and in the unaired episodes, he started dating and the woman he started dating on the show is Wendy Makkena. It was actually down to the two of us for Beckman and they couldn't make up their minds and eventually went with Wendy and then, I don't know what happened but after the pilot, they called me up and had me come.

So is that your way of getting her back for stealing your husband away?
I think so. (Laughs.) Actually John loves her. I've never met her, but he liked working with her very much. So I was just minding my Ps and Qs for a couple episodes just to make sure I would keep coming back.

You mentioned your husband John Billingsley, who is known for playing Dr. Phlox on Enterprise, and we know you even appeared on an episode of the show. What was it like working with him on that show and what sort of encounters does he have with Star Trek fans?
That's so much a part of our life. We really enjoy it. Star Trek fans are actually some of the nicest, kindest people you'll ever meet. It's a part of why they're attracted to Star Trek. I don't know if you realize what goes on, I guess particularly in the original Star Trek – you had Uhura, a black woman with a major role, you had George Takei and you had Chekov. I think with all of the different aliens and things like that, this whole idea of acceptance and to be different is acceptable and it's the kind of world we're striving to have – that speaks very loudly to a lot of Star Trek fans. They're very kind people and very accepting people and we love going to the conventions and getting to talk to them. My husband is a very, very nice man and he's very, very generous.

That being said, working with him, we just like scream at each other, hit each other, throw tantrums, basically work out all of our marital problems on the set – no, actually we really like working with each other. We also did a terrible Christmas movie, the 12 Dogs of Christmas together.

We would also just like to say that your husband plays a creepy guy very well.
Doesn't he? Did you see Cold Case? I loved him. It sort of bothered me, but in a really good way. I'm his biggest fan, by the way.

But I was sitting next to him when we were watching and it was like I didn't want to be sitting next to him. He's kind of sexy creepy too, I think. We joke about the fact that he's played quite a few serial killers, child molesters – there's an old NYPD Blue that he did where he is a child molester and god, it's just so frightening, it's just so good.

"You were a really good child molester" has got to be a weird compliment to give to your husband.
Yeah, it is, but what are you going to do?