"[When] we left Hellboy I, Liz obviously had taken some control of her power. I mean, you know, she saved the day at the end of Hellboy I and did embrace Red at the end of that movie. So there was only one way to go, which was to move forward and leave her sad sack of a life behind her and become a more functioning, stable woman," explained Blair. "So it was interesting to go and move forward with Liz, and play her differently. I kept wanting to play her as the Liz I knew. It was difficult for me to play her as a more stable girl. The Liz I thought I knew was really so much more hesitant and afraid, but it was great to play her as a more engaged woman in life."
Blair's character Liz has grown over the four years since the last Hellboy movie and to mark her new level of maturity Hellboy II writer/director Guillermo del Toro made a change to Liz' fire. "I originally, when I played Liz the first time, I got to choose her fire and it was blue - and I loved that. And this time I noticed the fire was orange red. Guillermo said, 'You know, she’s matured and so has her fire.' And it’s different. I guess they just didn’t want to have her engulfed in a big blue flame. It would have looked strange. But yeah, I didn’t really know that I would be on fire so much, which I think is a really cool effect. I thought it looked really beautiful."
Blair was actually surprised at how much fire surrounded her character in the finished film. "There were some times that fire was near me, and I knew when I would be on fire. But I thought it would mostly be contained in my hands so I didn’t know - Guillermo had added it later – that it was actually kind of all over my body."
As much as possible, del Toro used practical effects when creating Hellboy II which made it easier on the actors. "What was so incredible about Guillermo is that you don’t have to deal with very much CGI. I mean, just the Golden Army, really, was the main CGI thing. That was the only thing that wasn’t really there. And thank God, because once you create the Golden Army, you’re doomed. So thank God that was all in the computer," joked Blair. "The thing about Guillermo that’s so wonderful is these are real monsters that were created. I mean, they were puppets that were there. Everything was there. You know, everything in the troll market was really there. So you’re not acting against someone in a suit, like a green suit, or a tennis ball. The goblin in the trolley is really there, and the old lady that eats the kittens - that’s a real old lady! It was impossible to find! No. But, you know, when she turns into the troll – you know, that’s a real monster, little troll. And no, all those things were really, really done. It was pretty amazing."
Blair loves being a part of Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy world and enjoys spending time with Hellboy veterans Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor and, of course, Hellboy himself – Ron Perlman. In fact, her favorite scene to film was a touching one between Liz and Hellboy. "I really loved the Angel of Death [scene]," said Blair. "I loved how it was kind of… I loved having Hellboy in my arms like that, kind of a Pieta moment. I thought it was just a really strong visual there. And I also – I loved the scene – God, I loved every scene in that movie. I love every time I get to be with Hellboy. He’s such an amazing actor, Ron Perlman as Hellboy, that just getting to play with him is just such a breeze."
