‘Found’: Danielle Savre on Playing Sir’s Sister & Lena’s Opinion of Gabi

“Hi, sister.” That’s how Mark-Paul Gosselaar greeted Danielle Savre at her trailer on the set of Found.

Savre joined the show for Season 2 as Heather, a lawyer who is Trent’s (Brett Dalton) love interest then represents Sir (Gosselaar) even after his brother Christian (Michael Cassidy) supposedly shot her. But after a run-in with her, Margaret (Kelli Williams), using her Margaret vision, realizes she’s really Sir’s half-sister Lena.

Now that the truth is out, TV Insider caught up with Savre to talk about that reveal and what’s to come. Plus, watch a sneak peek of Lena and Trent from the April 10 episode above.

The truth is out. Heather is Lena, which I had thought was the case.

Danielle Savre: [Laughs] Yeah, I was going to say, you knew the whole time.

When we spoke ahead of your first episode, you said you knew nothing about where the character was going. How much did you really know?

I really knew nothing. I know that Mark-Paul showed up at my trailer and said, “Hi, sister.” And then I really didn’t want to know because I wanted to respect the fact that NK [Nkechi Okoro Carroll] did not want to tell me yet. And so I didn’t know much. What’s crazy is the crew of Found was really taking bets on who do we think you are because of all these things and they had had all the previous episodes I didn’t. I didn’t have anything really, so I kind of got a lot of things in my head about what it could be, but I also didn’t want to get my hopes up because we all know in television, scripts change, that editing can change things, you just never know. And this was my first episode, so I was like, let me get through my first episode and see if I make the cut. So I didn’t know a lot, but there was a lot of ideas and theories circulating that of course got into my head. But yeah, I really didn’t know.

Mark Hill / NBC

And then it got closer and closer, and I was like, “Oh, I actually think I’m his sister. Oh, this is happening.” And then NK called me right before this last episode and was like, “Okay, obviously you got the script. It’s about to come out. Let’s actually discuss.” And so I was able to ask all these deep questions about where this came from and kind of character development. It was nice because I was finally able to put the pieces together myself.

What can you say about what we’ll see from Lena and Sir’s interactions now? How would you describe the siblings’ dynamic?

I think you’re really going to get to see this power dynamic between them. I think you got a little bit of it before, but you weren’t able to see full force because they were keeping the secret from the audience at that point. But I think you’re going to really get to see who’s in control with the two of them, and does that switch? Right now, she’s the one outside the prison, he’s in the prison, but at the same time, he basically did, in a sense, mold her into who she is. He was her brother and obviously he did that to Gabi or tried to do that with Gabi. You’re just going to get to see more and more of that power dynamic between the two of them. And maybe Lena wants more power than he’s willing to give her, but what’s he going to do about it? He’s in prison. [Laughs]

So how exactly would you describe Lena? Because when we talked before, it was all about the ambition.

I think ambition is always there, but it’s a little bit of her trauma and hurt and almost trauma bonding in a sense. Her and her brother really bonded over the trauma that they grew up with as children. So there’s a connection there, but it’s a really messed up — talk about a messed up family. And so I think the motivating factor now is, this is her brother. This is the only person in the world she loves or knows what love is. So there’s kind of this love dynamic, family trauma bonding thing. It’s going to be interesting because I think what’s being questioned is, does her brother love her as much as she loves him and does she really know what love is?

Did she get something from Trent that is making her think maybe love is something different? I don’t know. That could be a stretch. We never really saw that relationship on camera, but it feels like she has a connection with Trent that is deeper than just using him. But I think with Sir, it is a little bit of a protecting her brother now situation. I mean her main goal, it is ambition and determination to get her brother out, to save her brother, to make sure that Gabi, this horrible villain, doesn’t destroy her brother. Because I think the truth is she believes these lies. She believes that her brother is completely innocent. Why wouldn’t she? She’s been brainwashed her whole life. If anything, was she Sir’s first victim?

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I was going to ask: Did Lena have any real feelings for Trent?

I think so. I think she absolutely did. I don’t know if he did. I think he was trying to — I can’t speak for him — distract himself and move on from Gabi. But I think he will always love Gabi. I think Heather really did connect with him and not realize she did. I think she’s such a closed-off, cold person that even having relationships was something she never did. And in this situation, she’s pretending to have a relationship to help her brother, and instead, she actually gets wrapped up in it a little bit. At least that’s my way I’m playing in the background because I think she really is hurt by him. She really is like, “Why are you leaving me? I don’t understand.” In her mind, her brother’s innocent, Gabi’s the villain, why can’t you just see things from my perspective? I’m trying to save my brother, who’s completely innocent, and I have feelings for you, and Gabi’s the villain here.

Speaking of that, because she thinks Gabi is a villain, the thing is, she knows what Gabi means to her brother. So what does she think of Gabi because of how much she means to Sir?

I think there’s a lot of jealousy there because how dare my brother loves someone more than he loves me? I think that’s rooted in jealousy more than anything. And I guess it goes back to hurt, too. I don’t think she’s figured out until this next episode that her brother really loves Gabi more than her. I think that’s when it finally clicks, is this next episode.

Found, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC