Indigo Nichols

Vaneeta James doesn’t have time for your whining. She couldn’t care less if you want to be her friend. And don’t give the single mom with a Zulu tattoo unsolicited advice on how to raise her baby, or she’ll snap like a dragon.

On Showtime’s "Weeds," halfway into its second highly funny season, 22-year-old "Buffy" veteran Indigo portrays Vaneeta, the daughter of marijuana matriarch Heylia James. While Heylia deals with clients out of her kitchen, Vaneeta can always be found sitting at the table filling baggies, nursing her newborn and letting rip righteous verbal assaults on the characters who come and go.

We talked to Indigo as she drove to the gym in Los Angeles about stalking the "Weeds" message boards, her cool career path and who she thinks Vaneeta’s baby’s daddy is.

Q: I found you on the "Weeds" message boards, where you’re known as "IndigoN." It was hard to believe an actual actor from a super-cool show would be posting with the little people.

A: I’m in this business, but I’m not of it. I don’t view myself as being above conversation with anybody. I never understood how people can make it and treat their fans like crap. I’ve always enjoyed knowing what the fans think, because the fans make you who you are. Initially when I went on the "Weeds" message boards, I was just reading — I wasn’t posting anything. The only reason I started posting was because there was a chat thread about a character who rides a Segway, and my father actually knows him. So I posted and people started calling me out and saying I was lying about who I am.

Do people still think you’re a message-board poseur?

Some of the regular people on the message boards know me now. And I talk to one of them on MySpace now. They can verify I am who I say I am.

How did you get cast?

The same casting directors that cast me in "Buffy" were the casting directors for "Weeds," and I got to bypass the first audition because they knew me already and they trust my work.

How do you achieve such perfectly peeved facial expressions?

I’ve always been very expressive. I was always one of those babies and one of those kids where you always knew what I was thinking. It’s not even something I’m really cognizant of. I’m just getting into the moment and getting into the character, and if I feel like the character would be annoyed at that point, I look like I’m annoyed.

Does Vaneeta ever get high?

I was pregnant the first season, so that explains why you didn’t see me smoking then. And then I’m breast-feeding this season. I suppose that they push the envelope in a lot of other areas, but that might really upset people if they showed a pregnant girl or a breast-feeding girl doing drugs.

Who do you think may be Vaneeta’s baby’s daddy?

We were just on set just joking (and) we noticed that every time (loser stoner character) Andy came over to Heylia’s house, Vaneeta wasn’t there. Maybe Andy is really the baby’s father. Maybe Vaneeta disappears every time he comes around because it’s an uncomfortable situation for her. That would be a very interesting plot.