Laura Spencer has been a little bit of everywhere this Fall season – playing Raj’s girlfriend Emily on THE BIG BANG THEORY, the latest new intern and [spoiler alert] the late Lance Sweets’ possible love interest, as well as Ichabod’s current day seamstress (rivaling Betsy Ross in quality) who like-liked him and [spoilers!] lost her life as a result.

I spent some time chatting with Laura about being busy with three hot shows and what is coming up on all three of them (PS, it’s SLEEPY HOLLOW; the dead don’t always stay that way….).  Check out what she had to say!

I’m excited to talk to you – you’ve shown up all over the place this Fall, haven’t you?
Yeah! Do you watch all of the shows, as a fangirl?

I’m one of those people who says “I’ll give you the list of what I don’t watch, because it’s much shorter!”
[laughs] Yeah!!  It’s been fun – I hadn’t really watched any of the shows prior to being on them, so now I’m a huge fan of the shows I’m on, and I get really excited about the episode I’m not on, get caught up on the story lines and everything!  I’m becoming the same way, trying to watch everything!

What can you tease about tonight’s all new THE BIG BANG THEORY and what happens with Raj and Emily?
Tonight is about, as far as I’m concerned, and our relationship is concerned, you’re just seeing more of their relationship and their dynamic together, and you’re learning a little bit more about Emily, which, seems to be a recurring theme of “Is she dark?  Is there some sort of weird, twisted thing about her?” [laughs].  They’re continuing to use that with the character, which I’m having a blast with.  Each time I get a fun little creepy thing to say, I’m thrilled! [laughs]  You get to see one of her tattoos, and it’s funny!

She is the perfect girl for Raj – she’s a little off kilter, and so is he a little bit – seem to be a perfect match! I like watching that be explored. 
Oh I am so glad you’re saying that – I feel the same way.  It’s really funny that they introduced her so innocently at first.  In those episodes, you got to see them really connect and seem to really enjoy one another.  Now that the quirkier elements are being brought out, it’s easier to go with it, because you’re seeing the baseline of getting along with them and they enjoy one another so much, and that’s what I think is really cool to see in the writing.

I love that she and Penny just do not like each other.  That has to be fun to play with Kaley –
We had a really grea tmoment on set with that.  I was feeling really self conscious about being rude on the show [laughs].  In the scene where she comes into my office and does the whole pitch, which I think she was so funny in, and I didn’t get to see all of the things she was doing because I had to look down and not pay attention to her.  In that scene, she overheard me saying something like “am I coming off to rude right now?” and she was like, “honey, you’re not capable of that; it’s okay” [laughs].  Just so sweet, just encouraging.  It was a really nice moment with her to shed some light on how fun it was to play that dynamic.  Of course, our dynamic on set is the total opposite – she has been nothing but sweet the entire time; everyone’s been welcoming me into the family, so it makes these fun little moments that much more fun to do.

They’ve introduced girlfriends so well – with Bernadette and Amy, now Emily coming in – is this a character we’ll continue to see after the prom episode? What can you say about the future?
I can say that we’ll see more of Emily, for sure.  I am in the dark every time I get a new episode.  We get our episode the day before the table read, so I’ll know that I’m in an episode, but I’ll have no idea where they’re going to take a character.  You can imagine, my first episode back this season, where I got that, like, that Penny and Emily were at odds, it was like [laughs] “Oh my god, I was not expecting this!” you know?  It’s cool, because it’s like they need to do something fun with conflict, and I mean it definitely surprised me.  I know that I’m going to be back.  From the looks of it from me, I think that Raj and Emily are going strong, and I hope that they continue to explore the relationships with the other characters as well, because I think it’s been really fun to see her play with the others – each time they do that, you’re learning just a little bit more of that personality, and they’re always teasing about whether we love her, or we’re skeptical!  So I think that’s a really fun place to play.

You mention coming into this cast, their being welcoming, so many years into the show.  You’re never sure if that’s going to happen.  It sounds like it was a great experience coming into this family that has been together so long.
Yeah, it’s one of those situations that can be extremely intimidating, but no one made me feel that.  It was really nice, on my first episode, I specifically had the scene with Mayim and Kunal, and I was so struck by how calm and normal they were behaving around me, as if I had already known them for years.  It was just enough a welcoming from everybody that gave me the confidence to feel like I belonged there.  I didn’t know that I was going to get to come back, and I connected with Melissa right away.  She came over to me after my first episode, and was like “A little birdy told me we’re probably going to be seeing you again!”  I just thought it was really nice, coming from her; she had a similar experience on the show.  She didn’t know her future and kept being brought back.  Of course, I don’t know what’s going to happen with my character, but it’s nice to have people there to support every time I get to return, and welcome me like I’m part of the family and that I always will be.  That’s the vibe I feel no matter what my future is on the show, that I will forever be considered part of the BIG BANG family, which is just crazy that I’m getting to say that in my life! [laughs]

Switching from one long running comedy to a very long running drama with BONES – what can you tease about the 200th episode coming up and what we’ll see when that airs?
I can tease that I am getting to basically live out a fantasy in this episode!  I feel like everyone must feel that way, because we’re working with a fun little concept episode.  What was really fun about it was that I got to meet a lot of the other interns, which is rare on the show, because we’re never in the same episode, so that was a really fun aspect, just getting to meet more people in the BONES family, that extends various years.  That was really, really cool.  It was funny – when they killed Sweets on the show, I was wondering what would happen with my character, because they were totally setting up a love interest there.  But I like the direction that they’re heading.  I love that they’re focusing on the dynamic between Jessica and Brennan, and how she challenges her.  That’s exciting to me.  It’s really playing on the intellect, and the personality.  To me, that’s been really interesting scene work that they’ve been writing.  I look forward to seeing how they take that in later episode.  She seems to have a knack for solving the case [laughs], so I hope that I continue to be a star player [laughs].

I love how different the Daisy/Brennan relationship is from the Jessica/Brennan relationship, not to mention all of the other interns.  It introduces a new dynamic each time they’re there.
Yeah, exactly!  I think that’s the coolest aspect of the show.  I think it’s fun that they’re still bringing in, after 10 seasons, they’re still bringing in new characters that are breathing life into the show, of a different variety.  They’re continuing introduce these still new personalities or inspire conflict with the other characters.  I think that’s it’s so cool that they’re still going this long, and producing really interesting episodes from that, with new characters and new stories.

You mentioned having not really watched either show, but getting involved later in their series runs – have you gone back to try to catch up now?
With BIG BANG, I am such a huge fan now.  Same with BONES and SLEEPY HOLLOW!  Basically, none of the shows were available to watch from SLEEPY HOLLOW when I auditioned; I was able to watch a little teaser, and I didn’t have them on TV to watch, so when they released those all on Hulu, I watched the whole first season and it was like “Oh my gosh, I’m obsessed with this show! I can’t believe I got to be on it! This is awesome, I’m so into this!” [laughs]

The great thing about SLEEPY HOLLOW is that you got to be on a show like this where a few episodes down the line, your being dead really might not matter – you could still show up as a spirit or something else!
I know!  I really actually hope that!  It was really neat-  the fans of SLEEPY HOLLOW were really upset that they killed Caroline!  I was live-tweeting at the time, and they were all saying stuff to the writers, and Mark Goffman got involved and was like “well, I guess we’ll be seeing you soon.” It was really cool.  It seems like the creators and the writers are totally game to explore bringing that character back.  I would love to be on it again, I’m such a fan of that show!  It was so fun to work on!

And then with BIG BANG, I would go on YouTube – there are so many fan made compilations of basically every episode, so I would go watch a ton of older episodes and fall deeper in love with all of the characters.  It’s so fun for me to see Raj totally different in those earlier episodes, not even being able to talk to women.  It must be baffling for people watching it now that have missed a season and are like, “what’s going on?  When did Raj talk to women, without alcohol [laughs].  What’s going on here?”  That’s been fun, being the girlfriend that most people love to see us together, and I just love that I’m part of the season where these characters are really changing, and evolving and growing, and I love that I’m a part of that arc of growth, so definitely exciting.

And with BONES, I’m already into crime solving shows, but it was just one of those shows that my parents never watched, and I sort of watched what my parents watched, and so now, I’ve gone back whatever I can online to catch up – again, little compilations on YouTube to see all of the various arcs [laughs].  It’s really been fun to see the earlier stuff, and see how young everyone is!  I can’t imagine what it’s been like to be on a show for 10 years together.  They’re so great; they all still get along.  It was like BIG BANG – they welcomed me in in what could have been a really intimidating situation, and they were just cool, cool people, and I love working on that show because it’s a totally different challenge, learning the medical terms.  It’s so fun!

Photo Credit: Joanna DeGeneres

It feels like you’ve gotten an experience in everything these past few months – comedy, drama, dramedy, horror, scary stories, medical jargon, crime solving – you’ve done it all so far.  Do you have one that you tend to gravitate towards, or would look to do more of in the future?
I think that it’s been such a pleasure to get to do all of it!  I feel like that’s a rare position to be in, where you’re getting to do not only different genres, but different characters.  I always said before I moved to LA, the biggest thing that I had a dream about is where I saw myself because I just always said I hope that I’m never typecast, and I hope that I get to play a ton of different types of people, in my experience.  Both drama stories, comedy, I just think that there are wonderful aspects to both worlds, even horror.  I think that all of them are a different tool in this world, in movies and television.  I am a fan of all types of shows, TV, film – that’s the biggest thing.  I’m basically living out this goal of mine that I’m not getting narrowed, that I’m getting to do all of these different types of things.  I hope that it never stops.

Besides being on every show that airs this fall, ha, what else do you have coming up?
[laughs] I am so seriously being kept busy with BIG BANG and BONES, which is something that I’m very pleased to say.  I’m busy with that right now, and looking towards pilot season, excited to see what’s coming out, and script sides – seeing what roles are out there next year, so that’s what’s going on in my life!

THE BIG BANG THEORY and BONES both air Thursday nights at 8/7c on CBS and FOX, respectively. SLEEPY HOLLOW airs Monday nights at 9/8c on FOX.  Be sure to check them out!