‘Black Sails’ star Jessica Parker Kennedy on Max, her rocky relationship with Eleanor, and hopes for a ‘Secret Circle’ movie!

MM: What’s one personality trait you share with Max?

JPK: That’s a really good question. I think her obsession with clothing. If you notice, in every episode she has a different dress and different hair or maybe not always different hair but different clothes and this season it’s the same thing. Everyone else in this TV show is kind of wearing the same thing over and over again because they’re pirates where Max just constantly has the opportunity to be in different clothes. I’m obsessed with clothes and shopping. I’m obsessed with Max’s dresses. I want to take all of them home and just wear them around the house while I’m cleaning. I get so excited. I do more costume fittings than anyone else on the show and I get so excited every time because we have the most amazing costume designers and constructors here who are making the most gorgeous dresses. They’re incredible in season two but they’re even more epic in season three. Just truly, truly stunning.

MM: Oh yes, I agree that the costumes are breathtaking. I always think they are so awesome. I want to travel back in time and wear some of them.

JPK: Yeah. The only thing that breaks my heart is that people can’t see them in person because they’re beautiful on screen but they’re so amazing in person. The details on them are just — every tiny detail is perfect. They are perfect, perfect dresses and made perfectly and I’m just completely wild about them. I get so excited even talking about them.

MM: Next fan event you’re going to have to come in full costume so you can show everybody what it’s like in person.

JPK: Oh my god. I was thinking I want to get all the dresses I’ve ever worn, by the time the show ends, up in a line. There would be like 30 dresses. It’d be so cool and everyone could come look at them.

MM: That’d be awesome, make it happen Jess. Let’s talk about your accent on the show. You do a wonderful job of portraying your character. What did you do to prepare for it and have you face any challenges when it comes to staying in character?

JPK: Well, in terms of accent, I grew up in Canada, so I speak French. That helps kind of settle into the French accent. The only thing is in Canada, the Canadian French accent — we wanted to do something a little bit more European French but we didn’t want it too thick and I’m around Brits all the time so it has a British feel to it. It was just a matter of exactly where we wanted to place the accent and then consistently keep it there. I have an amazing dialect coach in LA who helped me so much in the beginning, helped me through the audition process and then I brought her to the show with me because she’s incredible. It wasn’t a huge struggle but it was still difficult and then once I found it, it sort of stayed there and now I’m kind of able to find it myself. My biggest thing is hoping it’s consistent and when I watch it back I like the sound of things, obviously. That was a big struggle kind of in terms of accent wise and then settling into this character that is so incredibly different from who I am and finding out who she is. You don’t just start one day and go I know it, it’s there, I know what it is. You kind of have to do a couple of episodes and see what the writing is like for you and the choices the writers make for the character before you figure out who this person is and if you’ve made up a backstory for her and they write something different for you when you’re talk about who you you are in the past. You have to be ready for that. I’m still in a lot of ways, discovering who she is deep down. I feel like I have a really good understanding her but every time I read a new script, I’m like oh no that says something else about who she is. It’s beautiful and complicated every time and I feel really lucky to be playing someone like her.

MM: She’s such a layered character. I think she’s one of the most layered characters on the show and you do a great job so you can pat yourself on the back.

JPK: Aw, thank you. I will. (laughs)

MM: Black Sails was renewed for another season, thank the pirate gods. What would you say to people to get them to tune in?

JPK: I think the stakes in every season have really raised. Season one I loved but season two I’m like oh my god, just get through season one so you can watch season two because it’s brilliant and it’s amazing and everything is bigger and crazier. Season three is exactly the same. There is stuff going on here that I’m so beyond jealous I’m not a part of like crazy stuff happening on the shps. I just wish I could tell you everything but I can’t tell you anything. It’s just really, really cool in terms of the life and the scary things that can happen on a ship in the middle of the ocean. A lot of that stuff is happening. The stakes are higher. We have a lot of new characters that I think people will be very excited to see on the show. A lot of things are changing with different people. It’s really a season where characters’ places have sort of shifted and changed and I’m being incredibly vague, as happens in every season. It’s so hard not to give things away. There’s really big, big changes brewing and alliances that are forming and alliances that are splitting up and new characters that are coming to make new partnerships with people and complicating everything. The show is really developing and it’s kind of it’s own train. It’s gaining speed and going forward and going and going and going. I certainly hope that if people do decide to watch season three, which they should, at the end of every episode I want them to go “oh no! Now I have to wait a whole other week for the next one!” I think that’s the ultimate goal I think, of working on a TV show is you really want people to be really excited to tune in every week.

Watch Jessica as ‘Max’ on Black Sails, Saturday’s at 9pm on Starz.