Adrianne Palicki already had a pretty nice resume - the original Kara on Smallville back in 2004, Sam's ill-fated girlfriend on Supernatural, a gig on South Beach and a guest shot on CSI. But then she landed the role of sweet, but troubled bad girl Tyra Collette on the acclaimed Friday Night Lights.

Below, Adrianne Palicki gives iF Magazine a look at what's new in Dillon, Texas, including Tyra's part in covering up the murder of her stalker...

iF: What are the changes for your character on Friday Night Lights this year?

Adrianne Palicki: I think everything, all the characters, have evolved. Everything started out in a very black and white area and it's continuing to get more and more gray. It's just so exciting to watch, because nothing is what it seems on our show and Tyra is one of those characters that has completely evolved and come full circle.

iF: When you were cast the show, did you think, "This could be a phenomenon?"

Adrianne Palicki: Well, on paper, it wasn't necessarily the most amazing script I'd ever read, but watching the Pilot, every single one of us was just blown away watching it and it was just the most amazing thing we'd ever seen.

iF: Has being in Friday Night Lights increased your interest in/awareness of football, the people who support football?

Adrianne Palicki: I'm from Ohio and I grew up loving football, so that's always been a part of my life.

iF: Tyra gets involved in a very deep problem this season. Did the producers discuss this with you and say, ‘What do you think about this?'

Adrianne Palicki: Absolutely, and they've been great about doing that, even with the attempted rape scene before. [Producer] Jason Katims called me up and said, ‘This is what's going to happen, I just want to make sure you're okay with it.' And I was actually - not excited, ‘excited' is the worst word to use, but I'm proud that we focus on so many things on the show like racism and religion and I thought that that's something that young teens deal with, date rape and attempted rape, and so to be a part of that was really exciting.

iF: Was that scene upsetting for you and/or your scene partner?

Adrianne Palicki: Absolutely. It was definitely intense. In the shoot, it felt so real and vivid. The thing is, as an actor, you have to separate yourself on some level, otherwise you'd go nuts, so when I'm Tyra, I'm Tyra, but afterwards I go home and I'm done with it. But it did affect me as far as, I feel like when I walk down the streets of Hollywood at 11 at night, I think I'm invincible, like nothing's going to happen to me, and so, to be in that moment of, she [Tyra] literally just turned around and got hit, and that happened so quickly, that's what's so scary.

iF: David Boyd, your director of photography, did Firefly previously. He has a style of working where he doesn't like flyaway walls, he just likes to use natural light ...

Adrianne Palicki: Everything is so natural. I think that's one of the best things about it, is that we have circles under our eyes – we don't always look glamorous. That's the greatest part of our show – it's so raw and so gritty, and none of us want to look picture perfect, because [that wouldn't be] realistic.

iF: What is the one thing you'd most like to say about Friday Night Lights?

Adrianne Palicki: That I am the luckiest person in the world to be working on our show. I think it's the best show on television, I think it's one of the best shows ever and I think people need to watch it. They're missing out if they don't.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.