7. She’s got an intercontinental intellect: "I worked as a travel writer for the budget travel guide Let’s Go Greece during college," Scottie told us.

6. She’s oh-so-nimble: Scottie’s not only a certified Pilate’s instructor, but an experienced ballerina, whose honed the beautiful craft in stints with the Richmond Ballet, the Harvard Ballet Company and many theater productions.

5. She’s trilingual: In addition to English and French, Scottie is fluent in Wolof, the native language of West Africa’s Wolof people. "I learned [it] while studying abroad in Senegal," she told us.

4. She’s a video vixen: Scottie’s appeared in the music videos for the Counting Crows single You Can’t Count on Me and Bon Jovi‘s What Do You Got?

3. She’s worked in all aspects of show business: In addition to her experience in movies, TV, music and ballet, she also "worked as a concessions girl in a movie theater for a year."

2. She’s got a few lucky charms: "I wear at least five necklaces from special places I’ve been, and people I know, every time I fly to keep me safe," Scottie told us.

1. She’s a believer: "My favorite animated movie is The Last Unicorn," Scottie said. "I believe in unicorns."

Scottie Thompson is Today’s girl

We chatted with actress Scottie Thompson about her new film Deck the Halls, sneaking around on the Star Trek set, and her signature drink.

Tell us about Deck the Halls, your new movie.
It’s a Christmas thriller, which is an ironic twist. It’s about a woman who’s a detective and her father gets murdered, and she has to solve the crime.

How was it?
It was tons of fun. My co-star is Kathy Najimy, and I had a great time working with her. We filmed it in Vancouver even though it’s set in New York. I really love it there. It was also a fun character to work on.

What’s been your favorite project?
I’m from Virginia, and we got to shoot Lake Effects there. So it was nice to be back there for a whole month.

You played Nero’s wife in 2009′s Star Trek. What was it like to work on that film?
It was really cool. It was this really secretive process, and we would ride around on this golf cart on the Paramount Lot. There were curtains covering the cart so no one would know what the characters looked like.

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Sharp Woman: Scottie Thompson

The Ivy League grad shares her thoughts on Bon Jovi, organic farming and tweeting @The Dalai Lama.

Scottie Thompson is doing pretty well for herself. In the five odd years she’s been in show biz, the Virginia native has been quietly climbing the Hollywood ranks, landing solid roles on popular TV cop dramas like NCIS, and sci-fi blockbusters like last year’s Skyline (Ms. Thompson also showed up, albeit briefly, in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek as Nero’s dead, though hot alien wife.) We talked to Scottie about her farming roots in Virginia, her Ivy League roots at Harvard and a potential dance-off with Natalie Portman. You could skip the reading and just get lost in her blue-eyed gaze, but then you wouldn’t really be her type.

How did you spend your Thanksgiving?
I went back home to Virginia to see my family. I pressed some apple cider with a cider press from 1905, which was pretty fun. My little brother is an organic farmer so we ate one of his turkeys.

How are your farming skills?
They’re not too high on the ladder. I’m growing vegetables in my backyard in L.A., but I’m just learning. I rode horses when I was a kid. I did grow up on a farm but I was never too involved with the goings-on.

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Scottie Thompson Talks TNT’s Deck the Halls

Mystery Movie Night on TNT is raising the bar with next Tuesday’s premiere of the holiday mystery movie, Deck the Halls, starring Scottie Thompson (NCIS). And just in time for the holiday mystery movie, I had the opportunity to speak with Thompson about the film, staying healthy throughout the holidays, and more.

Had you read the first novel in the series from which Deck the Halls is based on prior to be cast or afterwards?
No, I read it after I got the offer. Even though I already read the script and knew what was going to happen, I am a big reader. It was a pretty quick read since it is so suspenseful.

So what was your favorite element of the script, and did it differ in the book?
From an acting standpoint, playing the detective and someone personally involved in the case was the most exciting part of it. It’s not like she’s solving any case, this directly affects someone she loves. So I thought that was my favorite aspect of the script and it is the same for the book as well.

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Scottie Thompson previews her holiday Mystery Movie Night film, ‘Deck The Halls’

When Scottie Thompson was a little girl, her favorite holiday film was Home Alone. As a ballet dancer, she would spend the late fall/early winter entrenched in rehearsals for The Nutcracker, but she always allowed herself the indulgence of sitting down to watch Home Alone and just plain relax for an evening when it aired on “one of the three channels” she actually had growing up. “It’s such a classic!” She said, and we couldn’t agree more. But these days, Thompson has hung up her ballet flats and instead slips into movies of her own, her most recent project being a brand new family holiday film, Deck The Halls for TNT.

Deck The Halls is a part of TNT’s Mystery Movie Nights, blending the crime genre with the spirit of Christmas, featuring a kidnapping that hits a bit too close to home for one detective’s family. It is up to her (Thompson) and her new private investigator pal (Kathy Najimy) to crack the case of the who’s and the why’s in order to bring the victims home– safely– in time for the holidays.

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Scottie Thompson, a new member of the board, said she grew up environmentally conscious on a farm in Virginia, and now grows vegetables in her backyard in L.A. "I compost, recycle and try to bike or walk when I can," added the actress, who’ll star in the TNT movie "Deck the Halls," about a detective whose visit home for the holidays turns into a crisis when her father is kidnapped. It airs Dec. 20.

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Scottie Thompson Soars in Skyline

Scottie Thompson is a starlet on the rise with a multitude of talents and a face that can stop traffic. And did we mention she’s a local lovely and a Harvard grad? We caught up with her over four questions.

You danced with the Richmond Ballet and now you’re an actress living in LA. How did you get from point A to point B?
SCOTTIE THOMPSON: I’ve always loved ballet, but I was never the best technical performer, so it made sense that using my brain in a different way would be appealing. Going into my senior year at Harvard, I landed a role in Showtime’s Brotherhood, and I was hooked.

Tell us about your latest role.
ST: Skyline is a sci-fi thriller, which isn’t the most familiar genre for me. It’s about a couple of normal people who encounter an abnormal situation: aliens attacking the world. I loved the writers, and the script really grabbed me.

Your next project, the film Lake Effects, will be shot in Virginia. Will you get to see your family while you’re filming?
ST: Definitely! My parents still live in the house I grew up in. I have two brothers and one sister—they all still live in the area and all went to the same college.

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