Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Secret Invasion.

With only two episodes of Marvel’s Secret Invasion left, the stakes are getting higher all the time — but Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has more problems to deal with than just a global threat. There’s also the surprise reveal that his wife, Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard), has actually been a Skrull disguised as a human this entire time.

It’s a fact that isn’t unknown to Fury himself, but it still presents an interesting wrinkle for their marriage when it’s revealed that Priscilla, aka Varra, has also been working for Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Spy hijinks ensue, Fury sneaks a surveillance bug on Priscilla to find out what she’s really up to, and a confrontation between husband and wife plays out with the two finally sitting down to have it out face-to-face. While Fury knows that Priscilla has been tasked to kill him by the Skrull currently impersonating Rhodey (Don Cheadle), will he be able to shoot someone who’s become more important to him over the years than even he’s willing to admit? Naturally, the reality isn’t as simple as pulling the trigger.

In the aftermath of Episode 4, “Beloved,” and prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Collider had the opportunity to chat with Woodard about playing such a pivotal connection to Nick Fury in Secret Invasion. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Woodard discusses the process of being cast in the Disney+ series, how much she knew about the role in advance, the benefit of getting to play those flashback scenes opposite Jackson, filming that tense kitchen standoff scene, where her character’s loyalties really lie now, and more.

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COLLIDER: Before we dive into episode specifics, how did you first become involved with the show? What was the initial process like for you?

CHARLAYNE WOODARD: I had a Zoom meeting with an executive producer. I didn’t know what it was about, I didn’t know who I was speaking to. Then I had a Zoom meeting that lasted an hour and 15 minutes, and when it was done, I was hired.

That’s always a nice way to end a meeting.

WOODARD: I could not believe it. At one point, I was talking at the end, and I was touching like that [gestures], and I wondered, “Why am I feel–?” You can see yourself feeling your chin. Well, there were tears that were rolling down my neck, but I wasn’t weeping. But I’ve never been given such a gift in all the decades of working and being a journeyman actor. To be handed this gift after an hour and 15 minutes on Zoom… it was amazing, and it was a blessing, a gift.

Image via Disney+

Speaking of gifts, the inclusion of your character has infused the Nick Fury story with such a fascinating element. We get to see this emotional connection between him and someone that he has shared this with over the years. How much did you know in advance about the role and what that arc would be before you signed on?

WOODARD: I didn’t know anything. I knew nothing. This isn’t a role I went running after; I didn’t know it existed. Once I was hired, I waited for months, and went, “Who is she?” Just from reading it, it was up to me to figure out. You see, there was no job description, character description, so I realized, “Okay, I think I could just use myself. This is Sam. He’s a friend. She’s a human being.” I was hired to be a human being. She evolved into a Skrull. I was hired to be a very complicated human being — a wife. A wife, a safe space for him. Creating a safe space for this hero, this iconic husband, because she married this man who promised to save [the Skrulls], to find [them] a home. So, that makes it complicated, and the fact that I was a Skrull wasn’t there at first. I had to go back and look at that afterward.

Something that I really appreciate about the show is that we’re getting these flashback moments between your characters. How beneficial was that for you to have those scenes in the script, on the page, rather than having to make those details up for your own purposes?

WOODARD: This is why I wanted to play this role, because she has a beginning, a middle, and an end. She has a past, a present — it’s right there, and beautifully written on the page. We find out so much about her just sitting there reading a book of poetry, waiting for him to come into a diner, and then sharing that poetry. For him to pull that out years later, go back to the past, and snatch that poem out of the air… [it] makes it so difficult for me to do the job I have to do to save my own life. I can’t do the job. I love it, but the past comes flying into the present.

Image via Disney+

I’m so glad you brought up that scene. In Episode 4, Fury and Priscilla confront each other. They take a seat, guns on the table. It has such great tension, but the history is there too. What did you enjoy most about getting to play that?

WOODARD: The day we did that scene was the day we came on set and found out that there had been a killing on a set in Mexico with guns. So, there was that tension because the armorer was being very specific — “Here is this weapon. Here it is, like this…” — and that added a level of madness to an already-mad scene.

Then, the fact that [Fury] really throws [her] with that poem — which is just truth, truth, truth in that moment. It’s one of my favorite scenes because it was quite complicated and full of tension, a tension that you don’t have to pretend at all. There’s a gun on the table, and I’m going to use it. It was pretty tense. Then, of course, he comes back with a joke, and we laugh, and we go on. I’m my most vulnerable ever, when I ask him if he would love me if I didn’t have this form. Then he says, “Oh, to be continued.” [Laughs] Basically. A gut punch, a very complicated scene.

Heading into these last couple of episodes, it really feels like we’re reaching a boiling point in terms of the conflict. Where do you think Priscilla’s loyalty ultimately lies? Or does she not even know?

WOODARD: She doesn’t know. She’s befuddled at the end of it. What just happened was cataclysmic, and not, and then what he said was as intense as what we just lived through with the weapons. So it leaves her in a very conflicted state. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen because then you’ll know as much as I know.

[Laughs] Fair enough.

WOODARD: You don’t want to know as much as I!

New episodes of Secret Invasion premiere every Wednesday on Disney+.