‘Once Upon A Time’ Q&A: Elizabeth Mitchell Hints At The Snow Queen’s Endgame For Emma & Elsa

Elizabeth Mitchell’s Ingrid/The Snow Queen is working on bringing to fruition her plan to make Emma and Elsa her replacement sisters on “Once Upon a Time.”

Unable to control her powers as a youth, in last week’s “Once,” fans found out that Ingrid accidentally killed one of her beloved sisters, and was locked in an urn for 30 years by her other sister (Anna and Elsa’s “Frozen” mom) following the incident.

In Storybrooke this season, she’s been getting closer to making her dream a reality, helping to make Emma think that her family can’t accept her because of her powers. So what’s next? AccessHollywood.com turned to Elizabeth to get hints at what we’ll see in Sunday night’s special two-hour episode of “Once,” kicking off at 8/7c on ABC.

PHOTOS: ‘Once Upon A Time’ Season 4

AccessHollywood.com: Obviously Ingrid/The Snow Queen wants Elsa and Emma to be her new sisters, what do you think she envisions Storybrooke to be like with her new sisters?
Elizabeth Mitchell: If you think about it from a fractured mined and you think about it like a child, instead of thinking about it like an adult who has morals and consequences and all those things, but think about [it] truly like a child, it really is just – I just have to get them to just be with me, you know what I mean? And then everything’s gonna work out. And I have to get them to see that everybody else is mean and is going to be horrible to them, except for me. So really, I’m here to save them. If you think about it in that way, then you kind of like kind of can get it, but Woof! It’s messy, that’s for sure.

Access: Do you think she wants just the three of them to just live their lives without anybody else?
Elizabeth: Yeah, I do. I don’t think she wants there to be anyone else around. I think she thinks that people are always gonna try to hurt her or capture her, or she’s gonna hurt them. There’s too much pain for her with them, but not with her sisters. That’s the only safe place and she thinks that that must be true for them too, so she’s really just trying to create a safe world for them, but doing it in really horrible ways. So, as I said, you can think of her like a child and kind of have an understanding, but at the same time, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God.’

WATCH: ‘Once Upon A Time’: Elsa’s Mad At Anna!

Access: But then there’s Henry, who is Emma’s son, and could have powers one day. So she could be like auntie if she’d be willing to embrace him.
Elizabeth: And I think that she could have gotten love from so many different ways, but she seems to have only one idea of what it could be in her head and nothing else fits. And you know, we’re all guilty of that to some extent, so it is interesting to play out on such a large scale. But yeah, you’re right. Henry’s adorable.

Access: In this weekend’s episode, it looks like you’re going to try and pit Elsa and Anna against each other, but they have a very strong sisterly bond. What kind of wrench is that going to throw in the works?
Elizabeth: I do a really great job of it, I must say. … And it’s really scary and it’s also – you just hate her so much, ’cause you’re like, ‘Don’t do this! You’re trying to take something pure and wonderful and throw it away.’

Access: With Emma going to Rumplestiltskin to ask him to take her powers away, is that going to anger Ingrid/The Snow Queen?
Elizabeth: I think it’s going to make her a little irritated, yeah. Definitely. You’re absolutely right. I don’t think that Rumple and Ingrid are done with each other either, you know? I feel like there’s more to say on all of that as well, so yeah, there’s some stuff that goes down, which gives me more chance to work with Bobby [Robert Carlyle], which is awesome.

Access: He’s so dedicated. He’s just so interesting to talk to, too.
Elizabeth: He’s so interesting and he’s so much fun. He’s such a joy to play with. We decided early on that we were gonna just play chess. Every time we would get to set it was just gonna be a chess match between these two characters and it’s just been so much fun.

PHOTOS: ‘Once Upon A Time’ Season 4, ‘Breaking Glass’

Access: I’ve seen your costume on set and it is spectacular, but how do you keep it from getting dirty because it’s delicate.
Elizabeth: It gets so dirty! And I feel so terrible, but they always say the same thing, they’re such geniuses. … We’ve had several times they’ve had to take it home, soak out the [dirt]. … It rains a lot up here, so we were dealing with it a lot. It always terrible. You’re like, ‘It’s so pretty. It should be on a red carpet and not going through the mud,’ but I think that they’re up for it. They’ve said that they’ve had crazy stuff [to deal with].

Access: If someone were to give your character a makeover – say Emma – what would you like her to wear?
Elizabeth: Oh my sweet Snow Queen? I want to her dress like an Emma, Mary Margaret casual, you know, those unbelievably soft cotton tops and those little soft like things, when they’re all cozy and having their cocoa and they’ve got the soft sweaters and the cute little leggings, that would be perfect. … It would be so cute, right?

“Once Upon a Time” continues with a two-hour episode Sunday night at 8/7c on ABC.

— Jolie Lash