Series News: Interviews

Danny McBride Talks Eastbound & Down

Thu, 1 Oct 2009 18:36:00 GMT

Screenrush: So we're talking to you today about Eastbound & Down, now we tend not to get shows until about 5 years after they've come out in America so it's great that we're finally getting to see it. How would you describe the show?

Danny McBride: "Well we made the show 32 years ago and you're getting it now, which is good. It's about a guy who's lost it all in this lame attempt to keep this self-image of himself, of who he thinks he should be but beyond what the reality of who he really is."

Kenny Powers, well, he's not the nicest guy - in my notes I actually described him as a prick - like many comedy characters, but you made him particularly unsympathetic, why did you go so far?

"You know, it was one of those things where in a lot of sports stories, it's about a good guy, the underdog and you're there rooting for him. It was something we've seen a million times before, so it was appealing for us to take a character and figure out a way to find some redemption or to find some way for the audience to get behind him. That was tough but that's what was interesting about writing it. I think that's where a lot of the comedy comes from, just following this turning of this guy that you're not really sure if you should be rooting for."

On the surface it seems like it might be a comedy about baseball but you soon realise it has hardly anything to do with baseball whatsoever. So how did the character come about?

"He was kind of drawn from a lot of different people. Jody Hill and myself, and the guys who create the show, we're not jocks, we're not guys who know a lot about sport or anything and really not a whole lot about baseball - I don't even know how to throw a goddamn baseball as you can tell from the TV show. When I was growing up; there were kids that were really into baseball and collected the baseball cards, they looked up to these players like they gods and then when I got older I could see there were always these allegations about people who were once looked up to, whether it be steroid use or gambling charges. That just seemed like the type of character we'd like to do and it was also our way of making fun of the jocks that fucked with us when we were kids."

Payback?
"Yep."

Now Kenny drinks, he does drugs, he swears at little kids and yet somehow he still manages to be a hit with the ladies. Is that wishful thinking on your part or do women just love bastards?

"I've definitely been in situations before where a girl went with the total asshole. Some women tend to like these kind of jerk offs but with Kenny, I kind of think he's a big fish in a small pond and to a lot of the people the fact that he's pretty high mark compared to some of the derelicts who are hanging around."

Kenny spends a fair amount of time listening to his own audio book autobiography, it's hilarious. Are there any actual gems in there that you would live your life by?

"Erm, pretty much every single one of them. We had a lot of fun writing those too because we were just stood around and just getting the worst shit we could think of. I do think I have to agree with Kenny, there's two things I do hate, it's losing and getting cancer, there are probably the worst things that can happen in life."

It's a good philosophy to live by. There's certain jokes you make on the show that haven't been done on telly before. You really are kind of pushing the boundaries with that. Did Will Ferrell's involvement as producer help you get away with what you've got away with?

"You know I'm not really sure how we got away with the whole load of the stuff. HBO were really great to work with because they really stayed off our backs, they trusted us, they trusted our vision and I think having a big brother like Will on there kept them at ease. But definitely when we first started turning in the first few cuts of the show, we were met by just silence and we were like, 'Oh shit what does this mean?' and I definitely think HBO was a little shocked at how dark we got with it but it was one of those things you know they never really pushed us too hard to water it down."

That must have been a career high for you, shocking HBO?

"It was great, at the time it was very stressful. We weren't seeing the billboards in town and there was this moment of like, 'Oh I think they might bury this', but they got behind it and they put it up there and were surprised it found a following so it all worked out in the end okay I guess."

Now the title, I'm not quite sure where it comes from or what it means?

"Eastbound & Down? So it's the direction Kenny's career was going in, he was leaving from Seattle heading east going down which is North Carolina going south. But it really comes from the theme song to Smokey And The Bandit. When we went into production we didn't really know what the title was going to be. We were like it needs to be something like an old Burt Reynolds kind of spiel, like it needs to be something like Eastbound & Down and we just put it on the show as just a filler."

I'm assuming and hoping that you're returning for a second season?

"We are yeah, after I get out of bad and beautiful Belfast [Danny is currently in Northern Ireland filming Your Highness], I'm heading back to Los Angeles and we're going to go ahead and get this next season done."

Do you think he'll mellow at all in the next season? Is he going to change at all?

"Oh you'll have to see. You know we were never really sure whether we'd have the chance to do another season so we really designed the first season so that it could stand on its own, as its own deal but we definitely had an escape route of where we would go if we were allowed to take it there and so yeah we're going to push it ever further next year."

I'm tempted not to ask as I've already called him a prick but is there much of Kenny in you?

"Hmm no, I mean I laugh at Kenny I don't think I'm really Kenny. He says the kind of stuff you can't really say to people but I don't think there's too much of Kenny in me other than the fact that I created and invented him. Well, maybe a little small inch of Kenny..."

Eastbound & Down is currently showing on FX every Thursday night at 10pm.

Glen Ferris

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 1 October 2009

Andrew Garfield Talks Red Riding

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 17:35:00 GMT

The year is 1974, the place Yorkshire and paranoia, mistrust and corruption rule the streets. Andrew Garfield fills us in on the first installment of Channel 4's gritty new crime trilogy, Red Riding, adapted from novel series by David Peace.

How would you describe Eddie Dunford and his role within the film, 1974?
Eddie is a journalist reporting on crimes in Yorkshire and he finds himself writing about the disappearance of a young girl in the area. Through the film he has an amazing journey. He starts off very self-centred. He's ambitious, but he's never done a good thing in his life and he's very aware of that. He wants to make his mark and is looking for his own fame and fortune. Gradually, as the story unfolds, he finds a real sense of purpose and he becomes something of a hero, but not in a self promoting way, it's more he sees a lot of injustice and ugliness that he wants to reverse.

Why do you think Eddie goes so far in his investigation into the missing girls?
This is the first story Eddie has tackled on this subject. He's got a very vivid imagination and underneath the hard exterior he is a very sensitive person. He's a lost child within himself really. He has a real empathy for the darker shades of life because there's a lot of darkness in his own life that he's inflicted upon himself.

Is he aware of the dangerous world he is being drawn into?
Not at all. Every single day comes as a new development and a new shock.

Have you ever considered journalism?
I did want to be a journalist at one point and part of me now is still very interested in investigative journalism. As research for this role I worked at the Yorkshire Post for a bit, which was really interesting. It was fascinating to spend time in their office and to see a big bunch of people with their fingers on the pulse of what's happening in our world, country and city right this second. It helped me to understand what draws people to a job like that. I'm a very curious person and I do find aspects of journalism really exciting. I'd still really like to do travel journalism at some point in my life.

Some of the scenes you are involved in are quite disturbing. How intense was the actual process of filming Red Riding?
I found it very intense. The scenes weren't easy to film and they weren't fun but they felt real, which is the most important thing. It was a struggle to throw myself into something so dangerous, particularly in the scenes where I'm being tortured, but it was scary and exciting at the same time. You have to try and make a joke in between takes otherwise there's a danger of taking it all too seriously. There was a real sense of community on set which helped everyone. We had a good balance between enjoying what we did and being very serious about it.

What was it like going back to the Seventies?
That was fantastic. I wasn't born until 1983, so it was great for me to explore that period of time. I was fascinated by the cars, the clothes, the adverts playing on TV, the daily ritual and all the things that were so different. I also got to drive a 70s Vauxhall which was great.

You are involved in some tricky stunts including falling out of a car, a shoot-out and being beaten. What were those scenes like to film?
It was all really good fun. I enjoy that stuff. It's good to get out of your head and be in your body and throw yourself around. I find that easier than doing too much talking.

How do you think / hope viewers will respond to 1974?
I've tried not to think about it too much. It's going to be an exciting thriller and it will be disturbing but there's also hope in it, which is good.

Red Riding starts tomrrow at 9pm on Channel 4.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Tuesday 3 March 2009

Whitechapel: Steve Pemberton Talks

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Steve Pemberton tackles another eccentric type in ITV1's latest crime thriller, Whitechapel - a bombastic Ripperologist who lives with his Mum! The Benidorm star fills us in on Jack the Ripper, filming in the spookiest corner of London's East End, and his new project with former The League of Gentlemen partner, Reece Shearsmith...

Your character, Buchan, a Jack the Ripper expert, is quite an eccentric. Was he a funby character to play?
Buchan is actually quite pompous, he's not really a humourous character, he's not cracking jokes, he's too self-important for that. You get a sense of Buchan not having much of a home life and really being quite obsessed, not only with this murder but with other unexplained mysteries as well. What really attracted me was not only was it a great story and a great proceduarl thriller, but the characters ar every well drawn. And in fact, Rupert [Penry-Jones]'s character Chandler, he is an outsider in this world as well, and the police give him very short thrift, in the same way they that they give Buchan short shrift. So an unlikely sort of partnership develops between Buchan and Chandler.

How did you prepare for the role?
One of the first things we did was we were, all the cast, invited to go on a Ripper tour with a gentelman called Donald Rumbelow, who is one of the foremost Ripperologists in the country. And I was the first one to arrive actually, so I had a good chat to him. I didn't tell him I was playing a Ripperologist in the show, because I didn't want him to be wary of me. (laughs) And I was just really fascinated to see, not only the facts of the case and to go to the locations, but to talk to him about Ripperologists. I'd never even heard that word before.

Is he a bit like the character that you play?
He's an ex-copper, so he wasn't theatrical or sensational, although you did get a sense that he was rolodexing through his script. There has to be an element of performance, but Buchan in this show does enjoy the theatricality of it, he does enjoy building up the mystery.

Why do you think that, 120 years on, people are still fascinated Jack the Ripper?

Well, I think there's obviously two things. One is that he was never caught and so we can never put a face or a name to Jack the Ripper, so he's just an icon. And secondly it was the ritualistic nature of what he did. If it had just been five women who'd been strangled that [would be] very different, but they were mutilated in this way, and with increasing savagery as well. So it's not knowing who or why. And I don't think we'll ever know, unless there's some new information that comes out of some vault somewhere.

How does Buchan react when he realises there's a copycat killer?
I think what was interesting is that my character, Buchan, was talking about it in a very academic way, until faced with these real murders and these real crime scene photographs, and that brings him up short really. It becomes not a study of history, but something that's really happening.

Did he do it?
Well, certainly he becomes increasingly involved in the investigation, and there are twists and turns within it, which of course I don't want to spoil.

Did you read all the details about the murders? How did that effect you?
Of course you can't look into this story without coming across that. The Ripper tour that we did wasn't very graphic because, as Mr Rumbelow pointed out, you are standing in public places [unlike] Buchan, who sensationalises the actual murders and the mutilations. I think it just speaks for itself, even if you talk about it purely anatomically � where these wounds happened and what he did with the insides of these women, it is so graphic, you don't have to sensationalise it.

How was it filming in the EastEnd, specifically around Whitechapel?
I think you actually had to be there, you couldn't have cheated that, it's a unique part of London. You've got cobbles, you've got these really dark alleyways, and I had to march up and down this very dark passage way, which we imagine hasn't changed very much, it still
had gas lamps in it. It was a very very narrow little passageway that they'd found, and it has this very strange sort of skull insignia embedded in the top of it. What it signifies I have no idea, but it was very creepy. But then you turn around and you see the gherkin or you see neon signs and the Indian takeaway. That juxtaposition was fantastic. But when we were filming, when I'm doing the actual Ripper tours, we were held up by the real Ripper tours who wanted to be doing there bit where we were standing. So I think they were a bit annoyed with us that we were filming on their patch!

Where was the alleyway with the skull?
I can't remember exactly. It was when we were filming the Mitre Square sequence, which happens in episode 2, because there's an event in Ripperology called the Double Event, which is when Jack the Ripper killed two people on the same night. The theory goes that he was disurbed when he was killing the first one and he wasn't sated so he went to find another victim. There are lots of theories about this double event, but when this actual night comes in 2008, the police don't know what to do. They don't know which theory to go with or where the killer will strike. Buchan has his own theories about what's going on, and if the police don't believe him he's going to go to the place where he thinks the killer will strike. So that's when we were filming me coming down this spooky alleyway.

Can you tell us a little about Psychoville?
Yes, that's for BBC2. IT's a dark comic mystery which I've written with my league of gentlemen colleague Reece Shearsmith. And we have a variety of different characters who all receive a letter on the same morning saying "I know what you did". So it's a mystery that unravels over 7 episodes, it's a kind of hybrid of a comedy, but also we wanted to have a strong mystery thriller element to that as well.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Saturday 31 January 2009

Robert Carlyle Talks 24

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Are you a 24 fan?
Robert Carlyle:Yes, I am. I've known Kiefer for many years. We did a film together years ago and got on really well. At the time of the film I think he was reading the very first script and since then we've kept on touch and he kept asking to me come and do it. So I've had no choice but to say, "Okay Jack Bauer".

What can you tell us about 24: Redemption?
This bridges the gap between seasons six and seven and it tells you where Jack's been and where he's going. He's in exile and there's a subpoena out for him in America which he's ignoring because he's in the fictional country of Sangala with Carl Benton. Carl and Jack trained together and Carl used to do the same job as Jack, but he's turned his back on that life and is running a school in Sangala. When you see Jack and Carl together you think that Jack has found something to give him a way out of his problems, but, of course, trouble follows Jack everywhere.

Why has Carl turned his back on his previous life?
He did the same job as Jack and has had many similar experiences to him. He used to torture people and he's killed people. But as he tells Jack, he got it wrong. He misjudged an incident and that punctured, if not killed, his humanity and he ran away from his life. Before arriving in Sangala, Carl was in the exact same place as Jack is at the beginning of the Redemption story. He was lost, but then he built a new life for himself.

How does Jack change during his time in Africa?
When the story begins, Jack's already been there for a few months and he's helping Carl to build a school. It's the school Carl's head of and it's a school that saves children from been press ganged into armies. Carl's mission is to save these children in danger and Jack is helping him to do that. Jack becomes emotionally involved with the children and we see a different side to him.

If you could play one of the recurring characters in 24 who would it be?
There's only one part, I'd have to play Jack Bauer. There are some terrific characters in the show and some brilliant actors, but Kiefer's so charismatic, both as a person and an actor, that'd he makes you want to play his role.

Would you ever want to play a villain opposite Jack?
I'd take him on no problem. They cast me as Jack's friend and not as a villain because they knew I'd do him!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 21 November 2008

Hanging Out On The Bones Set!

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:10:00 GMT

Bones Season 3 is out on DVD today! Screenrush caught up with the ever-dashing David Boreanaz and show creator, Hart Hanson, while on the set of series 4 premiere was being in London this August. The duo dished the dirt on Brennan and Booth, filming in our fair capital and getting into altercations with black cab drivers...

Screenrush: Why are you in London?

Hank Hanson: It started out just as a nice notion to go to a different place, Fox, our network in the states, is doing a two hour opening for the series in September, so we kinda pitched the idea of going to London, or going somewhere else and London was our best bet, and they just responded really well to it, and no one is as surprised as we are.

David Boreanaz: Yeah if you take the characters and you put them outside the lab or in any kind of environment, you see them really kind of click, and operate together but in opposite views of things, so if you put them in London then you get somepretty interesting, great, funny conflicting clicky moments, and there's lots of stuff to disagree about, it's great. It wasn't just like 'Hey, let's go here'. It makes a lot of sense for the characters.

Does it have any relation to the bombshell in season 3?

HH: Oh you mean with Zack [played by Eric Millegan] and everything? There's a brief reference to it at he beginning and how it's affected Brennan's view of the world that that happened to them but it hasn't got anything to do with The Gormogon or anything like that, it's just a great season opener.

That came as a bit of a shock. Zack is a very sweet guy. Was this always the master plan?

HH: No, part of what that is was to do with the strike [the Writers Guild of America strike between Novembe 2007 and February 2008]. We had two episodes to finish our season instead of eight, and.. the original plan, was actually that Zack would be a victim of the The Gormogon, but to do that we'd have to set up who the apprectice was and who the The Gormogon was and this seemed to us 'I'm getting my ass kicked, I'm getting my ass kicked', but this was the best solution to solving the The Gormogon serial killer and [to] dealing with Zack.

DB: Hart, No more serial killers!

HH: There's no more serial killers.

DB: Thank God

HH: We had to finish the The Gormogon this season because it's an immensely complicated back story and to reset it in season 4, I had no interest in [that], I'm sure you didn't...

DB: I'm just more interested in my relationship with her [Dr Temperance Brennan], played by Emily Deschanel], I kind of look at every episode as getting into her space, pushing her buttons, getting closer to her.

How is it panning out? Are there going to be any romantic developments?

DB: Well that seems to be what's happening since the pilot. We're arguing, there's tension, there's two of us having a specific view on subject manner - you can look it as a married couple that works together in order to solve whatever they're working on together. People ask 'when are they going to get together?' but they are together, you just haven't seen them in bed actually doing it. I mean in their mind, possibly, you could do that. Maybe in season 4 you could take the liberty to do a fantasy episode, maybe give the audience something in return, cos I know they've been waiting for that specific moment. We've kissed, we've played in each other's head in our mind, about what could be the possibility of that, so that's been going on since the pilot.

HH: You will see them in bed in season 4.

DB: Wow!

HH: They will be together in bed, in a shared situation.

DB: They could have two single bed and push them together!

HH: Like in the Mary Tyler Moore show!?

DB: Yeah and they fall through the middle.

There's obviously parallels to the Mulder and Scully love affair that kind of was but never was. Are you concerned that if you got them together properly you'd lose some of the sexual tension?

DB: But if it's done right, the way [Hank]'s gonna do it I'm sure it would be great. Like he said, you'll see us in bed but how that happens, what the story's all about, that's for you gutys to wait [and see]. It's not gonna be... They did a great job with the Christmas episode, you guys wanted to see us kiss, and the best way of presenting that was both characters knowing that it was coming and how they would react at that specific moment, and that's an element of surprise that, again, the writers consistently do, and build the characters rather than: 'well if we do this then the show's over cos they've done it'. I think they're much smarter than that.

HH: We worry about it all the time. It's one of the issues; how do you keep two people the world wants together apart in a way that doesn't make people mad at you.

DB: You do a great job, like in London.

HH: So far so good

DB: Like with Inspector Pritchard, the other forensic anthropologist.

HH: There's a lot of sexual tension in this episode. Him and his counterpart...

DB: It makes them stand up for each other and fight for each other. I think you guys get that.

What happens in this episode?

DB: Booth is here lecturing to Scotland Yard on how to work with forensic anthropologists and Booth is at Oxford lecturing to a bunch of forensic anthropologists on how to work with the cops, and surprisingly while they're here in London a murder occurs and there's a British forensic anthropologist and a British cop who are their counterparts and the four of them work together to solve the crime.

HH: That's all we're gonna say about it.

Where else have you filmed?

HH: Greenwich, Tower Bridge, Lamberts Bank... the top of the skyscraper, Oxford. We were at Oxford yesterday.

DB: Down at the hall today, Guild hall. Inside Henry VIII's hunting grounds. You guys have the third oldest tennis court here.

HH: They started it.

DB: The oldest tennis court is in France

They stole it off us.

DB: If you guys started it then why is the oldest tennis court in France?

We don't know!

So has it been easy filming here?

DB: I think it's been great!

HH: It's been absolutely fabulous.

No one chasing you in the street?

Both: No!

HH: But it is shocking how close the public are to shooting compared to back home. There's a death zone in LA. David had to do a very complicated stunt driving the wrong way on a roundabout in a mini, and we had sixteen seconds before the actual public came in and I think it was about eighteen seconds before they came in, and somewhere in there you lost track of who was a stunt driver.

DB: I thought the cab driver coming at me was a real cab driver, I came out and I felt really bad, and he swore at me so I swore back.

HH: It was raining civilians, that would never happen in the states, there'd have been 50,00 stunt men, they wouldn't have let you drive.

DB: I would have drove anyway

Were you expecting it to be raining?

HH: We're from LA! We thought that it was cold a million times!

DB: This is a nice time of year. The weather's great.

HH: Every other time I've seen Wimbledon they're pulling tarps over it

DB: As far as sunshine, at this time of year, you're at your peak at this time of year.

HH: We've been rained on twice.

DB: Yeah we've been very lucky.

Interview conducted by Glen Ferris

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 14 November 2008

The End Is Tigh

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 06:00:00 GMT

SPOILER WARNING!

If you're like us (and by that we mean living, breathing human beings and not a frakking Cylon), you'll be a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica. The sci-fi series has been lauded for re-inventing the genre and congratulated for taking on challenging issues in new and imaginative ways, but now it's reaching the end of it's five-year run and the end is nigh.
We got the chance to chat to the gruff, grumpy and decidedly monocular XO of Galactica, Col. Saul Tigh (aka Michael Hogan) at the MCM Expo in London recently and were pleasantly surprised to discover that his real-life demeanour is far more personable.
Read on to discover more about the man, his choice of eyewear, his reactions to fans and the big themes tackled in the closing season....

Screenrush: How Have you enjoyed meeting the show's fans?

Michael Hogan: It has been great. I just did a Q&A which was fine but I'm not one for using microphones because I'm a stage actor. I would much rather stand there and talk because mics just feel kind of disembodied.

Have you been happy with fan reaction to the series?
Definitely happy with fan reaction to my character, yes. Well, at least until the whole Cylon thing anyway! [Tigh was 'outed' as a Cylon at the end of season three]

Ronald Moore and David Eick [BSG's producers and writers] have always picked up the phone whenever I've had a concern over the five years and the reason they've picked up the phone is because I very seldom call. So every time I have a real argument with something that they're going to do with Tigh, they listen - for example I disagreed that they should send Tigh down to New Caprica (at the end of season two) because he would never leave the ship and I have very good reasons why he would never leave the ship - but they always seem to know best. I mean look at what they set up in season three, as an actor you couldn't get a meal better than that, it just kept coming.

Someone told me that on the web prior to that announcement that there was this poll which people voted on about who was most likely to be a Cylon and Saul Tigh was the second to last. So with this Cylon thing, although I did initially think it was a cheap shot, I knew they had both really thought it out and although I tried to argue it, I didn't have any facts to argue with.

Do you miss the eyepatch now that filming has finished?
Now when we shoot a flashback or if I'm involved in a shoot without the eyepatch every now and again, I think �Oh shoot, I can see things properly'. I hated wearing it, mornings weren't that bad but by the afternoon I'd had enough of the damn thing. You can imagine when your depth of field and your sense of balance goes. But that was another brilliant stroke by Ronald and David.

When we're on hiatus, I go off and do other things or just get my head completely out of it and then you think, �Okay, we're going to start shooting Battlestar again next month I'd better call and see what's up'. So I called David and asked what's shaking for the next season, what have you got in mind? He's like, �Okay, well we're down on New Caprica and Tigh's going to be tortured by the Cylons'. I'm like �Ooh, wow'. And he's like, �Plus we're thinking about maiming him'. I say, �Oh, well if you decide you're going to maim him, phone me right away because I need time to research and I need to do it properly'. Well he's like, �Okay, we're thinking that he might lose an eye!' And I go, �An eye? Okay but as soon as you decide, give me a call'.

Three weeks later, I get the script and it opens with Dean Stockwell and me in a prison cell and I read �Tigh... No eye!', so I call up David and say, �Hey buddy, you've taken an eye away'. He replies by saying, �Well, we talked last, I spoke to Ron and he said that you're chuffed at the idea!'

But Ron wanted something that was permanent, something that after all the number of years you could look at Tigh and instantly remember the occupation. We had to try on a bunch of eyepatches; we spoke a lot about how we were going to shoot it and how it was going to look. It's uncanny how you can shoot it from any side and it doesn't take over but it serves as a subtle reminder.

What turned out to be me saying, �What the hell are you doing?' turned out to be a real gift. I think the simple design is just perfect.

The first half of Season Four ends on a real cliff-hanger. So where do we go from there?
I will simply say that it ends. Normally when you're doing television it's episodic by nature, but you have to imagine that Battlestar Galactica is just like one long movie.

I've asked Ron a few times over the shooting of the show, �You said there's always going to be a beginning, middle and an end, are you still sticking to that?' He simply said, �Yes, that's the plan and we're sticking to it'. He always intended to have an arc and finish the show, even though it's a licence to print money for the networks. It's very nervy of the networks to let them pull the plug on the show even though we all had a year left on our options.

It's over, the story of Battlestar is over and what we've got planned is like, �Wow'.

Do you think there will be a return to the "Battlestar Galactica" universe at some point in the future?
They're not going to go beyond the story but they can go back to stuff that happened in the five-year timeframe and shoot little stories that run off the main trajectory of the show that give glimpses of the stories behind the stories.

In the meantime, though - and while they will always be rumours to the contrary - they have pulled the sets down now. It was amazing to go and watch them pull those sets down, the CIC especially, because you didn't realise how much a part of your life that show was until you saw it torn down. But you can never say that the show won't ever come back, because you can't discount the power of dollars and cents.

Did you take any souvenirs?
I didn't, no, but there were some people who did. They had a network auctioneer who, when the scene was over, he'd grab a prop and catalogue it and put it away for auction. They have auctions for these shows and they make a lot of money for the studio, so no you just could not get any souvenirs or get away with anything.

Battlestar Galactica returns to UK screens in 2009.

Glen Ferris

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 3 November 2008

Catching Up With Katherine Mayfair: Dana Delaney On Screenrush!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:01:00 GMT

Screenrush series : We read that you were offered the part of Bree three times and you turned it down. When you saw how big the show became were you kicking yourself?
I did have a couple of three o'clock in the morning moments of "what have I done?" Mostly because they all got so rich on it! (Laughs). But besides that I try not to have second thoughts about things, y'know regrets, because I think things have their own timing, and I got to play Katherine so it all worked out, it's a happy ending.

And how did you feel when you the offer to play Katherine?
Well Marc Cherry], the executive producer] called me about a year ago and said to me "Are you ready to come on the show now?" and I said yes immediately, and he said "Do you want to hear about the character?" and I said "You can tell me but it's still going to be yes." I mean just knew I wanted to come on. I was really impressed with what he has done with the show, because I don't think anybody knew what Desperate Housewives was going to be, and he's somehow managed to find that tone, that people have tried to do before of mixing comedy and drama. And they've never been able to pull it off, and somehow he has. I don't know whether it's because he comes from a sitcom background or why, but, whatever reason, it works. And then including the mystery to it also.

Do you think that's the secret of it's success, the mix of comedy and drama?
Yeah I do. I think that you pull the audience in with the comedy, and then you kind of hook them with the drama. It's not too serious and it's not too funny. You know, people keep saying to me "Why do you think the show is such a success?" and I don't really have an answer. It's one of those mysteries that might be better left alone.

So did you watch the show before you came on it?
Yeah, I watched the first season mostly.

How did the existing Housewives welcome you on the set?
Well, y'know it's so funny, even my friends said to me "What was it like on set?" - they were all expecting a cat fight. But it wasn't, it really wasn't. Whatever problems the women had between themselves early on in the show [that were] written about, I think it's settled and they all get along fine, and they're very professional. And I knew all the actors before hand, just from working over the years. The only one I hadn't met was Eva [Longoria, who plays Gaby], because she's younger than the rest of them, but I'd worked with, or met most of them, and even the husbands too, I'd worked with most of them. So it was more like I showed up the first day and it was kind of like "Oh, hi," you know?

Talking about the other housewives being the same age, there's a lot written about how there aren't a lot of parts for middle-aged women in Hollywood, and here we have this big show starring middle-aged actresses. What has changed?
Believe me, I'm just grateful that it's there! It is unusual, and that's to Marc's credit. I mean he could have cast it younger, he could have made the housewives in their twenties, but they wouldn't have had the experience, I guess, that the characters have.

They wouldn't be desperate.
They wouldn't be desperate, exactly. I mean I'm just happy, I mean that was another reason I wanted to do the show. How often do you get a show with women who are middle-aged � although I hate that phrase, "middle-aged," it sounds so old! (Laughs).

Come up with another word...
I don't know. (Laughs) But, yeah "women of experience," and they get to be the leads and they get to look good. The lighting on the show is really wonderful (laughs). And, we're at an age now where people, like, directors of photography aren't trained like they used to be to shoot women well. It's not like the old studio system where women were lit very carefully. Now with all the hand held camera, and the digital, and high-def, it's really hard to look good. And for a lot of shows it's a badge of honour if you don't look good, y'know, that means it's more real. So to be on a show where they really take the time to light you well, and each actress has their own hair and make-up person is really unusual. I mean, my first day on the set, my jaw dropped because I'd never seen such a big make-up and hair trailer, it's gigantic.

And how long do you have to spend getting your hair and make-up done?
Well, because there's so many worker bees, not that long, the average is about an hour and fifteen minutes, not that bad. And those girls have it down, because they don't want to sit in the chair. I don't mind, but they're like - Marcia [Cross, who plays Bree] will blow her own hair out in her trailer, or she'll come to work with it half way done, because she wants to spend time with her family.

What are your plans for work in the near future?
Um, I tend to be kind of reactive, which maybe is not great for the career,. I'm kind of intuitive, I just sort of go with whatever comes up. But I'm going to be on Desperate hopefully for at least next year.

Do you identify with Katherine at all?
I know people like her, my mother (laughs), for instance. Y'know, I think my mother was a desperate housewife. I think, growing up, watching her, being a wife and mother was not really satisfying to her. I think she found it kind of constricting. So I never wanted to be like that, hence never married and don't have kids. And I personally thought that time had passed. I though that that was the '50s. And I was really surprised at the reaction to the show that so many women still feel that way.

Does having seen the experience of your mother help you to connect with the character?
Yeah, I basically keep recycling my poor mother. (Laughs). Yeah, and I feel for her, I mean I feel for Katherine. I think that underneath her bitchiness is a really damaged person and she's just self-protective.

Can you see her changing?
Yeah, I think that by the end of the season [4] you saw her pain and you saw what she was going through. It was very funny because in the beginning my character was so mean that people would come up to me in the street and tell me they hated me, and then, by the end of the season people would tell me they loved me. So that was a good sign that people were starting to understand who she was.

Did you have fun playing a mean character?
I did! In the beginning I was a little taken aback by it, I thought, "Why am I being so mean? This is so..." I didn't understand why she was being so mean, because she only knew Susan before, and she was being so cruel to everybody else. But then Marc explained to me that he saw her as this uber-housewife who needed to be in control and needed to sort of be the alpha female on the block. So then, once I got that I realised "oh, okay," and then I started to have fun with it.

Would you like to be meaner in your own life?
No, no. I'm not interested in that. I think our job as human beings is to be kind to each other.

Does the fact you get to be mean at work help you be nice the rest of the time? Is it cathartic?
Does it? No, I feel kind of icky actually at the end, I do. I fell like... You know, people who are mean, it's all tight and it's all held in and there's not a real release, and I think they carry that bile within them, so it doesn't feel very good.

READ MORE!!!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 17 October 2008

Dominic Purcell busts out on Screenrush!

Thu, 4 Sep 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: At the end of Season Three, did you have a good feeling that there was going to be a Season Four, were you thinking, �Who knows how long the writers' strike will go on and whether we're going to have an industry at the end of this,' or were you somewhere in between?
Obviously, with the strike, it was precarious for all of us. I was shocked when they cut Season Three to half [of its original episode order], but now we've come to Season Four and the concept for Season Four is amazing, so I suspect and I imagine the show will just keep going.

Were you glad that the production and the storyline relocated to L.A.? Do you miss Texas, where "Prison Break" was filming for the last two years?
I don't miss Texas at all. I'm happy to be in L.A., very happy to be in L.A., [which allows] the simple thing of just being able to be with my kids whenever I want.

Were you happy with the way things were left at the end of Season Three? If that had been the series finale, would you have been okay with that as far as how things were left for Lincoln?
I thought the ending for Season Three was great. I think it wound up really cool. I don't know -- I think there's still a lot more of the story to tell, so I'm happy that it's continuing.

Last season, Linc was sure he'd seen the decapitated head of his brother's girlfriend Sara in a box. A lot of what Linc and Michael's actions sprang from believing Sara had been murdered. Now Sarah Wayne Callies, who plays Sara, is back on the show and it turns out Linc made a mistake. What does he do about that?
You've got to deal with it.

Are you getting to do anything differently this season, either physically or emotionally, that you haven't gotten to do in the past three seasons?
I'm just continuing with the theme. I'm continuing with that explosive energy that Lincoln has. That's what Lincoln's about, that simmering volcano. He brings the energy, the spark, the fire, the masculine grunt to the show.

Are you looking forward to the brothers eventually reconciling, or are you sort of having fun with Linc doing stuff on his own for awhile?
The brothers have reconciled. They're family, they have a deep sense of loyalty and respect for one another and there's no animosity or feelings like that. We're happy. Lincoln just wants to get to his son and get his life back, and he'll do whatever it takes to do that.

When is "Town Creek," the horror movie you made with director Joel Schumacher, coming out?
November or February.

Do you have any other films in the pipeline?
Not yet. I'm not even looking. I'm not even interested, to be perfectly honest with you. I'm just focusing right now on what I've got to do on Prison Break and when I get close to my hiatus, I'll start looking for that.

Anything else you can say about "Prison Break" as the Fourth Season begins?
Just to the fans, that you can expect the show to keep getting better and better and better, and it does. It's just amazing to me how the writers can keep coming up with these ingenious ideas. So yeah, it's exciting.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 4 September 2008

"Stargate:" An audience with Amanda Tapping!

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: What are your favorite episodes of "Stargate SG-1?"
Amanda Tapping: "Heroes" I think, the two-parter, probably stands out as sort of one of our finest combinations of everything in one story, and the way that it was executed. For me personally, I liked episodes like "Grace", where there was a bit more of an emotional stretch, or a bit more diving into the background of my character. I mean we shot over 200 episodes (laughs) But I do think honestly that "Heroes" was one of our best efforts. That had everything in it.

What are your best memories of the series?
Laughing. When I think about it, we just laughed every single day. And that, for ten years running, is an incredible feat. No matter what was going on with people, no matter what the dynamic was, we always found laughter. And I just think, y'know � I thought after the first season that to be able to laugh every day was this incredible thing. When I look back at ten years of that show, and filming the movies, and we still laughed. Every. Single. Day. (Laughs) I think it's remarkable!

Ben Browder also mentioned that you had a lot of fun on set.
Oh yeah, yeah. Just amazing. I mean for Ben and I too... Just the special memory of travelling up to the Arctic with him [to film Stargate: Continuum (V)]. Like, things like that that you never [thought you would get to do] � flying in helicopters to shoot these crazy shots, and going to the Arctic. And, because of Stargate, being able to go on a U.S.O [United Service Organizations, an NGO that that provides recreational services to members of the U.S. military worldwide] tour in the Middle East right after 9-11, which no normal person would ever have the opportunity to do. So it afforded incredible life experience opportunities.

Can you tell us a bit about filming "The Ark of Truth?"
It was fun. What was interesting was, we had finished season 10, the show had been cancelled, we were all, y'know � the last day was so emotional. And then we came back with the opportunity of shooting these movies, and it was so much fun. We had a lot more time, the budget was bigger, [we were] filming on 35 mm, the whole thing felt big. The set, the way that Rob filmed it � everything was big. And it was a quick little gig, and we just had a blast doing it. It was like the band got back together and did a little mini-tour, it was great, it was perfect.

The DVD of "The Ark of Truth" has sold really well in the U.S. Do you think that the producers might think about making a new series or more films ? Would you be prepared to star in them?
If we did more SG-1 films, absolutely, I think all of us would. And there has been talk. I mean, after we shot Stargate: The Ark of Truth (V), we shot Continuum, a completely different story. And I think it will pave the way for more SG-1 movies as well, in that [they're] these great little stand alone episodes, and they feel sort of like the early days of SG-1. But most definitely I would, absolutely. It becomes your family, I mean, I worked with these people for so long that I refer to Stargate as my home.

Do you still get to see each other?
Yeah, I just saw Chris [Christopher Judge, who plays Teal'c] a few weeks ago. I'm filming a new show right now [, for the Sci Fi Channel], so I'm a little crazy busy, but yeah we do.

Was it difficult to leave the role of Samantha Carter after playing it for 10 years?
It was surreal. I mean, for me, it was actually quite lucky, in that I was carried on over to the sister series, Stargate Atlantis, for a season. So, even though it was a complete reinvention of the character in some ways, I didn't have to say goodbye to Stargate. But the last day of filming Stargate SG 1 � that last week � was very tender for all of us, and Rob [Robert C. Cooper, executive producer of the series] shot the last episode. And he chose to make the very last shot of the very last day of filming a shot of the team going through the gate. And it was incredibley emotional. Christopher Judge was crying so hard that we had to keep stopping the camera. It was just one of those [moments].

And when we finished, I think what was really cool for me is that Michael [Michael Shanks, who plays Daniel Jackson] and Chris and I kind of snuck away, and the crew members stayed -- I mean, it was two in the morning or something ridiculous � and people up in the office came back to watch it. My friend Christopher and I stole ourselves away and went up to the briefing room and looked down on the Stargate. And that's how we started the show back in '97, touring the set, the three of us, sneaking through the Stargate set, y'know, like "Oh my god, look at the show we're on!" So we took this moment, the three of us, just standing there staring down at the gate and went: "Wow, well, that happened!" (Laughs) "10 years, wow." It was crazy, it was beautiful.

Ten years is a long time. Did you ever feel like quitting the show?
Well, honestly... No. I think there were times when I thought, "Oh my god, what am I doing?" With life, and my career. But y'know, I have a lot of friends who are actors [who would] give their eye-teeth to be able to do what I did. And honestly, like I said, at the the end of the day, if you go to a job � no matter what you do for a living � if you go to a job where you have the opportunity to laugh every single day, you'd be an idiot to walk away from it. It's a fun group of people, it's an amazing crew, there's a real, true sense of family, and, [you] sort of give your head a shake whenever you get to those moments where you think "I can't do this anymore." You go: "Wait a second. Don't be stupid. This is an amazing gig" (laughs) "and we're having fun." What more could you ask for in life, right?

Why didn't Carter get together with O'Neill in the end?
Well, we don't know that she didn't. (Laughs) I don't know, it's one of those � you know, it's really funny actually that you should ask that, because yesterday I was flipping through the TV channels and I found an old, old, old episode of Stargate, and it's sort of that our memories have been erased. O'Neill and Carter are kind of an item but they don't really know who they really are. And I was watching the chemistry between Rick [Richard Dean Anderson, who played O'Neill] and I, and I was thinking, "Wow, man, we really should have gotten together at some point." But, y'know, maybe there's an opportunity for that in one of the movies. There's just so many beautiful moments between the two of them, and I've watched a bunch of fan videos, y'know, that people have put together of O'Neill and Carter, and I think it would be fun. If anything, just to get rid of all that sexual tension. For once get together, for goodness sake.

So you think it would do them good, just to get it out there?
It would do them good, exactly. I think they could just walk away and go "Okay, phew, got that out of our systems!" (Laughs)

What do you think about the Samantha Carter/Cameron Mitchell relationship?
I think it was just � there was just a huge mutual respect. There was never any sexual tension between the two of them. And I think it would have been a huge mistake if we had gone that way. I mean, Ben [Ben Browder , who plays Mitchell] and I certainly talked about it, but it wouldn't have made any sense for Carter and Mitchell to get together. Although he's incredibley cute.

Is he as sexy in real life as he is on screen?
Honestly? He's sexier. I swear to god, when we were up in the Arctic, you know, which was just such a surreal experience for the two us, Ben and I [were] the only two actors up there for the first little while, and... He looks at you with these blazing blue eyes, and this perfect smile, and you melt. And I'm like, "Damn it! What are you [doing], stop!" And he's like (in deep voice) "What, what am I doing?" And I'm like, "You're looking at me, stop!" Seriously. He's way sexier in person than he is on camera, if you can believe that.

Whose more intelligent, Carter or Rodney McKay from "Stargate Atlantis?"
Carter. And I'm not just saying that because I play her, and because I'm clearly more intelligent than David Hewlett [who plays McKay]. (Laughs) Carter's intelligence � not only is she really book-smart, but she's people-smart, and McKay is not as people-smart. Carter uses common sense and reads the situation and knows how to handle it in terms of handling the people as well as the situation. Whereas McKay just barrels through with his ideology, and that's all there is to it. So I think that, in terms of true intelligence, Carter's more intelligent.

Whose stronger, Teal'c or Ronon?
Oh, I have to go with Teal'c because he's my guy. He's bigger.

Can you tell us a bit about "Sanctuary," your new series?
Yeah, we're in pre-production right now. We got picked up for 13 episodes by Sci Fi, and in Canada, and we're waiting for our European deals to come into place. But it's an entirely Green Screen show. My character's a 157 year-old doctor from Victorian England who runs a sanctuary for all these abnormal, disparate creatures around the world. And not only to protect them, but also to study them, because she believes that abnormals are the evolution of our race, and the key to the evolution of our race. And she brings [in] this psychiatrist, played by Robin Dunne, who's wonderful. And her back story is pretty crazy. [As] people who've watched the show on the Web know, she was engaged to Jack the Ripper, had a child by him and, yeah, (laughs) she's got a pretty intense back story.

But the look of the show, it's something that has never been done on television to this scale before, ever, and I think that Sci Fi's really excited about that. Because it is entirely Green Screen, so [it's got] that Sin City sort of feel. It's not entirely photo-real, so it's got sort of a comic book-y, game-y aspect to it, but it's visually stunning. And the story is incredible. So we're thrilled that we've actually � y'know, we started out on the web, and we're thrilled that we got picked up for TV.

Did you expect such a success on the Web?
We were hopeful. I mean, we put a lot of money into it. Our pilot was the most expensive show that had ever been produced for the Web. We got into the Guiness Book of Records for spending a lot of money. (Laughs) So we were hopeful that it would be a success. The Web is an interesting animal, only because you can't hold on to your content. Once it gets out there it goes everywhere. So you sort of have to let that baby go after a while.

But the Web was a great forum for us, because sci fi fans live on the Web, there's a social network of sci fi fans, that I don't think is unique to sci fi fans, but I think that they're one of the strongest driving forces of it. This social networking of the forums and the websites... While they're watching the show they're talking about it on the Web. So we thought just, go to where a lot of the fans spend a lot of time, which is on the Web, and present it to them right there. So it makes sense. But I think TV is a good place for us too. And I think that there's still a place for us on the Web, but I think TV is still where we want to be.

What are your favourite TV series?
Honestly, I watch a lot of British television. So I'm like a huge fan of Little Britain, and a huge fan of French Saunders, and anything that's on Britain. I've started watching Jam & Jerusalem. And, honestly, the shows that I watch at home are The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

If you could invent a character for "Stargate," what would it be like?
Oh man, oh man! That's a really hard one. If I could invent any character? I think they've all been invented, I mean we did 200-something episodes, didn't we cover every single kind of being on the planet? (Laughs) I like the idea of the evil version of Carter, but we did that. I think our writers kind of covered everything that I could have come up with. And I'll probably come up with a great answer right after [we finish speaking], but that always happens.

Well you'll have to save it for your own series now...
(Laughs) Exactly!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Wednesday 20 August 2008

Chucks Away: Zachary Levi on Screenrush!

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Chuck is kind of comic paranoid show, because the threat on every street, round every corner, in every store. There's a tension transformed in something comic.
Yes, almost definitely. Clearly, because the root of the show is action and comedy. I mean there's a little bit of everything else with the drama and the romance and the mystery and that I think really fills it out and makes it a well rounded show. But, because the action and the comedy are the two biggest things that we hit and, you know, that are the root of the show, you've got endless possibilities with the bad guys coming out of the woodwork...

In the first episode obviously the threat is mainly my two protectors and then as they settle into their roles of protecting there are, oh I don't want to ruin it for you, but basically any foreign country that's got a bad guy is coming after me in some way shape or form. Or, they're not necessarily coming after me but they are, there's some kind of terrorist plot somewhere to assassinate somebody else or to blow something else up and because of the information that I have, I end up getting us all dragged into it to try and thwart their plans. So, whether they're coming after me or we're going after them there's trouble around every corner and therefore I never feel safe or comfortable in my own home, in my own workplace, and you're right, around every corner around every place. And what's interesting about that is the Chuck that you meet in the pilot, that's the last time you ever see him, because once he knows what's happened to him, once he finds out that this is all the government secrets and that his life is forever changed. There's never that kind of relaxed, happy-go-lucky Chuck. There's no time to relax, you can't relax anymore. And so, so much of the comedy is based on, so much of the comedy and the suspense and the action, whatnot is all based on that very kind of paranoia.

Chris Fedak (co-creator of the show) has said that you nearly won the part during the audition, just by saying "Don't screw this up." Is that true?
Yeah, I guess it is. I didn't know that until later when, in fact, I think I might have read it in a publication. They didn't tell me a lot of that stuff before I got the job or just after I got the job. It was all stuff I found out later, that came out later. The casting director, when I had gone for the first audition put me on tape, which is what Chris is talking about I think, and apparently he had called Josh Josh Schwartz, who was shooting the last episode of The O.C. at the time, and he said -- and they had a hard time finding Chuck, apparently -- and so the casting director called Josh and said "I found our Chuck, I'm sending the tape." And then they watched the tape and, I don't really remember it, but I guess I kind of murmered to myself "Alright, I hope I don't screw this up," before I even went into the scenes, and so they knew that "that's our awkward Chuck right there."

That was your best line?
Apparently. I'll do it more often if it gets me jobs.

One of the funniest things about the show is that you look at some clich�s of spy movies, or action movies, and you use a lot of music reminiscent of those genres...
Oh yeah, almost definitely. The composer we have for the show, and our music supervisor and everyone they're very good, and Josh is also a big music buff as well, so a lot of the indie rock and whatnot will sort of work its way into the show. But the soundtrack to it definitely plays to that. It plays to the movies that Chris and Josh and the rest of the writers are all big fans of. Chris is a huge fan of Die Hard, Total Recall, all of the great action '80s movies. And there's also a great affinity for just plenty of other genre and pop culture stuff that ends up working its way into the show be it through the music or the dialogue...

There's some stuff in the script, like in one episode, there are these two agents from the CIA and in the script -- and they have no lines and so therefore, you never know their character names necessarily -- but they're Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson and so they're Johnson and Johnson. And that's a direct reference from Die Hard. But an audience might not ever know that those guys were ever named Johnson and Johnson. Only the people who read the scripts, the executives, the cast, the crew, whoever [know] and so it's a little just treat for us to look at, and I love that they do that. In my acting I like to throw in a lot of homage to, either to other actors or characters or movies, or you know different things that have affected me or ment a lot for me, and so I'll pepper them in from time to time and if somebody picks up on them they do or if they don't they don't, but to me it's fun and creative to do that kind of stuff.

There's two Chucks in Chuck, there's 'normal Chuck' and then there's 'super Chuck' and the relation between them's not always good, right?
Yeah. What's interesting is, I don't really know that there's a super Chuck. I know that there is the Chuck that tries to act like super Chuck, and the Chuck that is always being used for the information in his head and so he's jumping into these situations trying to be a hero, I guess, but he really is just Chuck. That's again where so much of the comedy comes out. I wish it was a as easy, or I guess Chuck wishes it was as easy, as being a Clark Kent/Superman or a Peter Parker/Spiderman or something like that. But he doesn't have the like, the kind of awkward photographer and then the superhero. It's the awkward computer fix-it guy and then "oh yeah" and then, "I'm an awkward superhero" as well. So it's when he's trying to transfer in, because he doesn't actually have any superpowers, other than all this information in his head. It's never an easy transition, it's always rough. Anytime he fixes anything, anytime he ever saves the day, it's normally always through some kind of a bumbling way that he gets it done. Sometimes he's using the talents that he has, of knowing electronics or the wiring of how to diffuse a bomb or to pilot, or going on to the internet and feeding a virus onto the computer. But that's all the fun, clever stuff that the writers come up with to always keep it somewhat in the realm of believability where Chuck doesn't just all of a sudden do something that would be outside of character of someone who works in an electronics store.

Words have different meanings when they're heard by Morgan or by one of the agents, so there's a lot of importance put on dialogue...
Oh yeah, most definitely. Trying to keep that balance of that... Adam Baldwin's character is now working at the BuyMore and Sarah's character also, or Yvonne's [Strahovski] characther, Sarah, ends up working at this place the Wienerlicious, which is like this hot dog stand which is across the parking lot in the same shopping area. So they're always in proximity, they've become a part of my world and so we'll sometimes be having a conversation that all of a sudden Morgan will pop into and [we have to] try to keep that secret and whatnot. But that's all a credit to the writers. The writers do a great job in working in the comedic element and how sometimes they'll butt up against each other, and then the secretive kind of covert element where the writing will take a turn or something like that. But then, I think the cast is very talented in making sure that that's sold and not just, "well why would he say that in front of this person, why don't they understand?" and that's a credit to both, I think the writers and the actors.

Why do you think there are so many shows about nerds and geeks?
You know, I think that they're overdue. I think that there are more Chucks in the world than there are Bryce Larkins, the guy who sent me the email, clearly there are. There are more, just everyday people who are working everyday jobs, and who dream of bigger things and being a part of something that's bigger than them, but tend not to be and tend to you know -- you go on and you live life and you do your thing. And I also think, especially because of technology, and how prominent technology's become in society as a whole, you have more people that are interested in gadgets and computers... And so I think that, more and more a premise like this and a hero like this becomes relevant, and people can connect to this on that level. And, I am that guy, you know, I love my videogames at home, I love my gadgets, I love these things. So I know that I can identify with Chuck, and its through that, that's how I portray him. And I hope that I do it justice, and I believe that I do based on the feedback that I get from people like me, that are into that world, of comic books and pop culture and whatnot, and I think that Chuck gives them kind of an everyman hero to sympathize with and to root for and not just the typical "hero, hero' who's you know, Jason Bourne, who's good at everythng who can disarm a guy with his pinky and kill a man just with a stare.

Is Casey Chuck's friend or foe?
Well, that's all part of the mystery. At the end of epsode two I believe, you come to find out that the CIA, the government is working on rebuilding the destroyed intersect. So there's always been something kind of brewing behind the scenes of, when this new intersect, when it's done and if it works properly, then of course the walking intersect becomes obsolete. Now, what they do with that walking intersect then, we don't know. But we know that it could be something dark and dreary for Chuck. At the end of episode eleven, we definitely leave a little cliffhanger for the audience to chew on. Casey, Adam Baldwin's character, is certainly assigned to protect me, while I am the only source of this information, but once there becomes another source of information, he's a government man before he's my friend, if he's my friend at all. That's all part of having to stay with the show and watch the show and find out what happens.

The two agents have an influence on Chuck by bringing him onto the field, but it works the other way around, Chuck teaches them things, he shows them "normal' life.
Oh, yeah absolutely. I think that's part of the charm of the show. You've got a fish out of water, Chuck, in the world of espionnage. But you've got these spies that probably haven't lived a normal life for a long time, in Adam Baldwin's case in a long time since he's been a grizzled, veteran spy for a some time, and you've got Sarah Walker, Yvonne Strahovski's character, you know, who knows the last time she got to just go on a regular date, or have a regular friend, or use her real name, or just go to a football game and root for her team or whatever the case may be.

So it's in that that you find a lot of the charm, a lot of the heart, and I think it's also what endears Chuck to his protectors, and it's a much longer process with Adam Baldwin's character since he is so grizzled and so jaded. But I think it's what gives the Sarah character pause, in that Chuck's kind of a goofy, awkward guy, but he's different than any guy that she's ever known. Any guy that she's ever, you know like, Bryce Larkin... You kind come to find out by the end of the pilot that there was something with them. You know he was a super spy, he's Jason Bourne, and I'm "Jason Bumbling," barely making it through the day. But because of that there's stability, there's not like, "I'm here one minute and I'm gone the next, I could die on the next mission I go on." I think it's where those worlds collide and where they cross over where you find the whole world of Chuck.

The idea of Chuck's catatonic reactions when he has the flashes, was that in the script?
No, not necessarily. The Chuck flashes themselves were in the script but all it said was "Chuck has a flash' there was no actual description of it. So, when I got the job I sat there for a little while trying to think of "How do I want to portray this? How do I want to go about acting [it]?" You know what would your face look like if all of a sudden your brain turned into a hard drive and you're accessing files that you didn't know where in your head? I've always had this ability to shake my eyes a little bit, and so I thought, maybe kind of the way you hear like hard drives and processors "eeh, ye neeh" that kind of thing. And I would imagine that would take over every kind of bodily function that's going on, everything's kind of going to your brain, you lose motor skills, your mouth might kind of drop open a little bit, you're not really breathing, almost as if you've just blacked out, a complete blackout and all that's going on is this and you come out of it with an incredible headache or something. That's kind of where I went with it and I just started doing it and nobody said "Stop" so that's what I kept doing. However, I do think, one thing I have thought about, I think that as the series goes on, it's something that will become easier and more controlled and less of a hardship on Chuck to do. I feel like maybe on Season 5 it'll be [clicks his fingers].

What are your favourite series?
Well nowadays, I like watching Lost, Heroes... But back in the day, MacGuyver, Three's Company you know...

Oh, "Three's Company," do you like John Ritter?
Oh John Ritter, I miss him so much he was such a genius.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 4 August 2008

Chatting with Chuck Bass!

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: How did you get the part n "Gossip Girl?"
I was in the United States, out in LA for the pilot season, February [2007] and y'know, I came across the script and I auditioned and I got the part, and it's been a rollercoaster so far...

How would you describe your character?
I play Chuck, who's kind of the bad boy who's been thrown out there. He's kind of the one who's up to the mischief and scandal and going to manipulate people. Bad boy is the label by which to describe him, definitely. [He's got] a ridiculous level of wealth, y'know, he throws around his money, he's kind of got this "keys to the city" attitude.

Do you like playing him?
I think I do, y'know. I get get to live out this kind of fantasy element of being the bad boy. We get to drive around in limos and wear all these fantastic expensive clothes -- fashion is an important part of the show, it's an important aspect of it. And it is a lot of fun. I don't feel guilty necessarily, but y'know, it's a really lucky situation. Often you can be playing characters who'll be part of shows where it's portraying just the opposite side of life; the dark, the not so glitz and the glamour side of life. But in this, in Gossip Girl, we are showing the glitz and the glamour. It's a lot of fun to be part of.

How do you relate to it and how does it compare to your own experience?
I would say there are a lot more differences than there are similarities. Y'know, he comes from this level of wealth which is incredible. I didn't come from that, so that's my kind of basic difference. He seems not to have this close relationship with his parents, which is something that I do have. I had a kind of very family orientated growing up and everything like that, and Chuck really doesn't have that, it's just not present, and that kind of filters down into the way he is with people. He seems kind of -- he is very disconnected from understanding people's feelings, maybe, very selfish. Y'know, he lives in the hotel which his father owns, but what 17 year-old kid does that, just has a bedroom in a hotel? There's no sign of his mother, so he's got this kind of very fragmented relationship with his parents and I think it shows in the way he is. I have this good relationship with my family and I think that kind of gives a foundation always.

How diid you approach playing the bad guy?
I think the script, when I first got the first script, the pilot script, it really came off the page for me. It really came alive. I think there was a lot there that kind of enabled me to construct my Chuck. So, credit to the writers, they gave a lot. And I think we've all come across people in our lives who are bad, who are on that kind of side of the road. So, just drawing on experiences that I've either had with people and, y'know, times when I've been bad. We all know how to be kind of a little bit of the bad guy when we want to be, don't we?

So what's the most bad boy thing you've done?
I don't want to be bad, come on! I, um, oh man, I don't know honestly, it's been a while since I've been bad. I can't remember. There you go -- I'm a good boy now, I'm straight and narrow.

How do you think "Gossip Girl" compares to other teen shows, like "The OC?" which Josh Schwartz also created?
With The O.C., The O.C. was in LA, while this is in New York, it's a different style of money. The O.C. kind of thing I think was about new money and younger money, in terms of the parents and things like that. The Gossip Girl thing's about New York old, more sophisticated, older East Coast money... More tradition and things like that, y'know we see that with the debutante ball, just all these kind of traditional things and East Coast society and Upper East Side kind of things. I think it's kind of built into a different kind of aspect of American society. At first glance it looks sort of similar because there's money, but once you understand the families and the backgrounds, it's very different from the families that were The O.C.. And we've got the fashion aspect, that we incorporate in, which is a very important part of our show. You won't always find that with other teen kind of things. So there's that, and I think the characters are different as well.

Why didn't you go down the British TV route? What made you decide to go to the States?
I think it was probaby something to do with representation really. I kind of at the time had developed representation out in the States as well. So I think they were eager, and I think my English representation were eager as well to see what was out there. Because there's a lot of potential in America, there's a lot of kind of ambition in terms of TV and things like that. And there's a lot larger market, there's a lot more going on, so there's a lot of opportunity for someone like me, for a young actor. So it was those reasons as I say. I had the opportunity, I had the right opportunity out there, I felt the time was right for me to go out there and see what I could be part of.

It's quite a brave move though, isn't it?
I think you have to be brave sometimes, you have to take these leaps. Y'know, if it fails you can say "at least I tried" and if you don't go, if you don't do it, then you never know do you? Either would be good, y'know, hopefully, and I'm healthy and having fun.

You're in a band as well, aren't you?
We're based in the UK, it's friends that I've known for a while, and we've like and indie kind of rock 'n' roll sound.

Which do you prefer, acting or music?
I enjoy them both so much. They're both that creative kind of thing and they both give something different. If you're on stage performing a song, at the end of the song you kind of get your award, you get your applause. If you're doing TV or something like that you don't always have that direct contact with the audience. So they're both very different in what they give to me. I enjoy them both very much.

Is it true that one of your songs was used in "Gossip Girl?"
Yes, they used two songs, in episode 12 I think it was. Two songs from my band. And they kind of all came together pretty well. It was kind of weird to see me and then hear them in the background, it was kind of an "Ed Westwick" thing.

Do you write the songs?
I write the lyrics and we all kind of chip in...

How did you get such a good American accent?
Luckily it's one of those things that I've found pretty easy to do. Not easy, cause that sounds, y'know, but I didn't have to see a dialect coach for it. I'd like to say I had an ear for it. And, y'know, being around Americans and finally moving out there and being around the whole American warmth, I was able to practice and it just became more kind of second nature

How was it working with Alfonso Cuar�n when you did "Children of Men?"
It was very brief, y'know I had a very small part in Children of Men, but Alfonso Cuar�n was fantastic. It was a blessing to kind of be around people like that and a director of his calibre. And Clive Owen was also there on the day I was there. Y'know, just to be around these people and kind of pick there brains and watch what they do -- they're very meticulous and very good at what they do. So it was good for someone like me who's very young and kind of impressionable at this stage, and wants to learn as much as I can, it was good for me to be around these people and look and learn.

"Gossip Girl" has been really successful. Is it stange being on such a big show?
Yeah, it's surreal, there's been kind of a few times shooting outside the people we used for the school, there was like a school right next to it, and of course they all loved Gossip Girl, so some of them would like skip their last lesson to come down and watch us, and they were all doing that whole kind of screaming fan thing. And it's kind of funny, but it means that there's people watching the show and it's getting attention...

Have you had any scary encounters with fans?
I mean, I think the whole Gossip Girl thing is mainly aimed at the younger age group. So if I go out it's not like I'm going to come across young 13, 14 year olds on a Friday night. If I did then I'd be scared, "where are the parents?" But I think people are respectful, if they come up to you they're not going to go nuts. Usually it's somebody telling you that you're doing a good job and they like the show, which is good to hear whenever.

Does it ever bother you, being recognised?
No, it's all very new as I say. The whole novelty hasn't worn off yet, so it hasn't become annoying or anything like that. There has't been anything where it's been too out of control and I've thought "Fuck, this is just a bit too much really," or anything ike that, y'know. It's been pretty kind of mellow, it's just been people saying that they enjoy the show and things like that.

And have you had much fan mail?
There've been a few. Like I said it's the same thing as when people came up to you, they're writing saying "we enjoy the show..." I don't think of myself in that kind of light, and I mean it's all very new to me so I'm just kind of taking everything in my stride.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 28 July 2008

Investigating Inspector Barnaby!

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:00:00 GMT

What do you think the secret of Midsomer Murders' appeal is?
John Nettles : The big point to make about Midsomer, which explains part of it's appeal, in fact most of it's appeal to be truthful, is that we use very good actors. English actors. From a particular English tradition. We don't use people from soap opera or people whose only experience of acting has been on television. We tend to use actors who've come through the classical theatre in some way. And we've used everybody, I think. We've used over 1, 1000 actors in the eleven years we've been going. And we've had some wonderful, wonderful actors. Like Donald Sinden, George Cole, Richard Briers. We've had Miss Moneypenny from the James Bond movies, Samantha Bond.

Do you think Barnaby has changed over the years?
Yes, not because I chose to change him. He started off as quite a cheery bloke, and he's turned into a right grumpy man of late I've noticed, really bad tempered. I suppose it's a matter of getting old or whatever... So I've made a conscious effort, particulary in the [current] series, to lighten him up a bit, give him a sense of humour. Lord know he lacks it. Cause, he's actually not a very good policeman. This is the other joke... It takes him two hours to solve a murder when the obvious suspects happens in the first five minutes, everybody's going "Oh look, that's him, why can't he see that, come on, come on!" Consequently, the viewer feels very superior, feels very self-satisfied and is happy with life. And this pepares him for Monday morning. You see, this is the idea of the character. It's social therapy, that's what it is, not drama at all! (Laughs)

How have you found it working with his different partners?
Yes, the sidekick, the partner It's always a problem with television shows, because they way actors work, they don't like to work with anybody most of the time. We're all egocentric, narcissist self-seekers to a degree.(laughs) So it's always difficult... David Jason [in] A Touch of Frost, has had more sidekicks than there are leaves in autumn. Every week he has a different sidekick. He can't work with them. I like to work with the sidekick and they've brought very different things do it. There was Daniel Casey , who started off with me as Troy. A lovely, tabloid reading thick Englishman, y'know. And they don't come thicker than thick Englishmen, believe you me. And we had a great time, we had a lot of laughs. He was followed by John Hopkins. He was fresh from the RSC. And he got bored with playing it (laughs), I think, and he went off back to the theatre to do great acting on the stage. And Jason Hughes [the current one] is Welsh -- a difficult nation the Welsh! (laughs). He's a wonderful, wondeful actor. Also a pop singer, among other things. But we have a great chemistry, for want of a better word, and I like that, I like that very much indeed.

Do you think we'll ever see Barnaby leave Midsomer, maybe on an investigation?
We are. Not this season, but in the next season we're going to Honfleur... Problem is, production companies don't like filming in France. When I was doing Bergerac we did two years in Provence, filming down there. And of course, [the French] take two or three hours for lunch (laughs), and once you get an English camera crew stuck in front of the trough, they won't get up and the whole day goes by, y'know So we lost a lot of time because of French eating habits. (laughs). And I also remember in the Bergerac days, they made the awful mistake of having the unit base in a wineyard. Well it was in a farm where all of the grapes were harvested and so on. So we were drunk most of the time. It was lovely! I don't remember much about it, but it was very very enjoyable.

Do you know what will bring Barnaby to France?
Love of good wine, good food and beautiful women will bring Barna by [to France]. I mean I know he looks boring.(Laughs). [But] underneath that suit beats a very passionate heart! I think he'd enjoy that.

So do you think he could have an affair with a French woman and run off and leave Joyce?
Any day of the week. Most beautiful women in the world...

Midsomer is broadcast in 230 territories. Do you think it gives foreginers an odd impression of the UK?
Yes it does. I get letters from the Ukraine. They obviously think this is how we live! But my favourite letter of all came from a policeman in Chicago. And he said "Dear John, I admire your police methodology. I admire the way you investigate crime" (Laughs hysterically). He goes, "I follow much the same pattern when I investigate a crime" and you think, no wonder they have so many murders in Chicago! I've got it framed on the wall, it's lovely, lovely. Because it is true that no rule of forensic procedure is followed by Barnaby at all. There's a body lying in a woodland, he walks in with his boots, all over the place, prances about, turns it over, touches it -- no gloves, nothing like that.

You don't have a technical advisor on the show?
He's committed suicide! There was a competition in a magazine to compare and to judge the comparative procedural excellence of individual television programmes, detective dramas. How good we were at the actual job of policing. And we got nought out of ten. And we're trying to address that... Barnaby, in the series we're making now, wears forensic gear, the boots and the gloves so on. I don't half look a prat! (Laughs).

I tell you, there's been a shift in the sensibility of the audience watching detective shows. They're very clued up now, the audience, into forensic procedure. You've got CSI's all over the place like a rash, and they [the viewers] know how a crime scene works. Even in a mythical, very very fictional detective series like ours you've got to make some gesture towards coming up to date a little bit. Otherwise people are just going to laugh in the wrong way. I might make him a good detective after all, you never know...

You're very ironic about poor Barnaby!
I think irony is the essence of the English sensibility. Yes I am. Not really, in the sense that I believe in him and I do it as seriously as I can. I join in the story, so to speak, I tell the story, in fact. And I quite like him in his bumbling, middle class, English way.

READ THE REST OF OUR REPORT!!!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 24 July 2008

Hot Gossip: Blake Lively talks to Screenrush!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:15:00 GMT

Screenrush Series : How did you get the lead in " Gossip Girl?"
I actually did a movie before, The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants -- it was my first job -- and when fans of the book had seen the movie-trailer, they had put on the message boards and the blogs that they thought I would be right for the character of Serena, I don't know why. Maybe because I have long blonde hair (laughs). But the creator of our show [ Josh Schwartz], when he decided to adapt the books into a series, he looked up all the information online, and was researching it, and [he]kept seeing my name. So he watched my work, because he thought "What on earth is this all about?" And, I guess he agreed [with the fans] (laughs), because he sat down and we met and we talked and it sounded appealing... so, here we are!

How did you feel about playing the role of Serena van der Woodsen in "Gossip Girl?"
I did some reasearch on the books when I found out I was to have the meeting, and there were certain things that worried me about it. The [novel] series does get a little crazy, because when you start at such a high level of drama, and it just keeps progressing, it just gets to a point sometimes where it's a little [over-the-top]. One of the characters, Chuck [Bass, played by Ed Westwick] has a pet monkey, and they wear matching outfits. I said to our creator: "Is it gonna have that monkey with [the] matching outfits? Because if it is, it's a different type of show." And he said, "No, no, no, we're not gonna do that." But, sitting down with our creator[s] Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, they're so passionate about what they do. And you meet with so many executives, and a lot of them are older, and they just sign their name off on something, and they couldn't care less about the product... But they were so involved, they were so passionate about everything. It made me excited, it made me hungry and [made me] want to be a part of that, and work with that.

How would you describe Serena?
Serena is a little bit of the "bad girl gone good." She was a little wild. But I think that she suffers from the syndrome that a lot of young girls suffer from -- a lack of real parental guidance. So she's made mistakes on her own, she's been raised with a silver spoon in her mouth, she's been given everything her whole life, like all of her friends, and I think that allows them to feel very entitled and selfish. So she ends up sleeping with her best friend's boyfriend. But I think she's a good enough person at her core that she is able to step back and realise "Woah, I've gotten a little, out of control, and selfish." So she goes away to boarding school, to step away from that whole world for a year, and try to really reform herself, and comes back under a lot of persecution from her friends, �cause they don't know why she left. And they want her to still go out, and still party, and still do all of this, but she is trying to walk this new straight narrow path. And she meets this new character, which is Penn [Badgley, who plays Dan Humphrey] and he is very morally grounded, and they don't really like him �cause he's poor.

Do you like playing Serena?
Well, the clothes are pretty fantastic! (Laughs) That's a big plus to playing Serena!

Do you get to keep some of them?
A pretty good amount! These wonderful boots are Serena's boots. (Laughs) Yeah, the clothes are fantastic. But I like playing Serena because she is a young girl who's strong, she does go against the norm in order to do a good thing... I think that she's a very interesting, fun character to play also because she's the real parent. Her mother is very kind, but she's just kind of not there. She wants her to wear the cute, sexy outfit, and go live her life, and grow up to be this privileged Upper East Side woman that marries into wealth, and has this life of luxury that's just easy and secure for her. But [Serena] doesn't want that. She wants happiness, she wants to travel, she wants something different. Her brother tries to commit suicide [and] her father's not present... so she really is the leader of this family at such a young age.

How similar are you to Serena?
Serena is very different from me. But I think that both of us at our core want to be good and want to do the right thing. At school I was involved in a lot of clubs and activities, so I was putting myself out there in the public eye of my school a lot. And when you're in front of people, people talk, people gossip. So, I've experienced some similar things [to] her, where people make up things about you for no reason. So I think that we can come from a similar place in that, experiences and feelings with that, and just having to turn a blind eye to it... And also, sometimes Serena can get a little too dramatic with herself. (Laughs) So I try to make her, you know, a little more fun and bubbly, because I think she takes herself too seriously.

Having been gossiped about, how do you feel about being on show centred on gossip?
My personal opinion is it's better to watch fake gossip than it is to engage in the gossip rags that make up these awful things about peoples lives just for the sake of entertainment... Half of the things you read in these gossip rags are nowhere near true. My manager called me and said "You didn't tell me you were in Los Angeles last week, why didn't you tell me?" I said, "I wasn't in Los Angeles," and he said "I read on Perez Hilton that you were making out with someone in the corner of a party in LA." It's like -- I was in New York! So I think it's better to watch a show based on gossip than it is to talk about it with real people. We cater to that, but I think that the production quality is so high, that we really give [the show] a lot more credit than that... You know, we do talk about things that kids are dealing with, so I think that that's important. We do cover alcoholism, and drugs, and sex, and date rape, and suicide, bulimia. Tons of things.

So what other gossip have you heard about yourself?
Oh my gosh, there are a ton of things. There are always things. I don't ever read those magazines or look on the websites, because it's just -- there's no point, it's like reading a fairy tale. But not as exciting because there are no wings (laughs). I have made the vow to not talk about my personal life, especially my love-life, because people will make things up anyway. So there's no point in even talking about it... But when you don't talk about it, it's just like this huge platform to people to make up whatever they want. My publicist will call me sometimes and say "Just so you know, this is out there." And I don't even want to hear it. You have to live your own life and do your own thing. Luckily we work 5 days a week, so you don't really have time to worry about it. The most recent bit was the party in LA -- that I was able to make out with someone [there], while I was in New York. I'm really talented to be able to make out with someone [in LA] from New York!

Maybe you have a twin?
(Laughs) I don't know. Or maybe Perez Hilton had nothing else to write about, he was like "Hmm... Blake!" I don't know.

Your family all work in the entertainment industry. Have they given you any advice?
There hasn't been any specific advice anyone in my family has given me. I do have four older siblings, and my father, so I've just grown up watching them on set. My father was an acting coach, so I grew up in his acting classes for a while, just because I didn't have a babysitter, so I would just go for fun. But I think that they have just lived by example for me more than any one, specific bit of wisdom they've imparted upon me... The way that acting is just a job for them and not a lifestyle, I think is so important. Especially growing up, for me, in Los Angeles -- they're all from Georgia -- but I think the LA lifestlye, its very easy to let work become life.

READ MORE!!!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 30 June 2008

"Stargate:" Ben Browder talks Sci Fi!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:15:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Which was your favourite episode of "Stargate SG-1" to film?
Honestly, my favourite Stargate episode to film was Stargate : , the movie, for various reasons. That's probably unfair to the series, because on the series you don't get to go to the Arctic, and you don't have huge refridgerated sets and things like that, y'know. But on a pure fun to film level, as far as my experiences on Stargate SG 1, it would have been filming Continuum. Just for the wow factor.

Do you remember what was like starting out on "Stargate?" What are your memories?
I do remember. Is it a question of do I actually remember, or [of] what I remember � (in vague tone) "Yeah, yeah, there was that day..." Yes I do, I remember very clearly. My first day had work I had to do a walk and talk scene with Christopher Judge [who played Teal'c] where Chris had to do all the talking. Which was a complete break from him saying "Indeed." And I thought, "Well, this is a different show," because the in show that I watched Chris didn't talk that much. Teal'c was a fairly taciturn, quiet character, and suddenly he's an orator, y'know, what in the world happened? (Laughs) So we're doing this long walk and talk, and he's got the bulk of the dialogue! I thought, "This is good, I like this show! He's got such a lovely voice." He's got a voice like, like buttering bread, y'know, fantastic. What a way to wake up in the morning � it just rolls over, and butters bread for you. Except that I don't really want to wake up anywhere with Chris Judd...

How was it filming the two television movies?
It was great to be back with everybody. The cast and crew � the cast in particular � has a good time. You see them together [and] you realise, "these people are having a good time." It's a very fun and lively set, the Stargate set. So that's the first thing. The odd thing is that, when you're doing the movies, by the time you've finished the two movies, you feel as if you've just started a season... so it was wonderful but it leaves a taste in your mouth going "Let's do more of these, these are fun."

The DVD of "The Ark of Truth" has sold really well. Do you think that after its success the channel and the producers will make more films, or even consider relaunching the series?
I have very little clue. I am under the impression or understanding that the film is doing exceptionally well. Whether that means we're going to do more of them? I don't know! Y'know, from a personal stand-point, it'd be great � if I'm involved. It would be horrible from a personal stand-point if they made more SG 1 movies and I'm not invited. That would not be as good as actually being invited to do more. So yes, it is doing well. I would hope that they're considering doing more, but if they're doing more, I would hope they're thinking of including me in the process. �Cause it's a great place to work, it's a fun job, it's a great combination. It's a fun job � you should try it sometime!

Tell us a bit about the development of your character, Cameron Mitchell, throughout the seasons up to the film.
Well, whatever development that the character of Cameron goes through is a primarily a product of writing and storytelling... What can you [say]? If someone watches the show, they'll either perceive the development or they won't. So anything that I say about his development, which I have said before � I end up boring myself when I talk about Cameron, I end up boring myself when I talk about myself. But what I have said before is that he's much more relaxed in his job, he's more integrated with the team, he's at ease with whatever authority it is that he has within SG-1. But he still enjoys his job. So that's the short answer.

But I think if people watch the show, then they may already know that, or they may decide that that's not the case at all, that he's still uncomfortable, he doesn't fit in on the team and that he shouldn't be there at all, bring back O'Neill, [the original commanding officer in the series, played by Richard Dean Anderson] y'know... (Laughs) Those people are saying, "I hope they do more movies and that O'Neill is there and not Mitchell!"

What can you tell us about "Continuum," the second Stargate film?
What can I tell you about Continuum? Well I can tell you is that it's larger in scope than anything that I've seen in an SG-1 experience. Probably even going back to the first movie, the original movie. The fact that we were able to shoot in the Arctic, and that's not even the biggest part of the show (laughs). The script is written by Brad Wright and it's big, it's bigger. And at the same time it's good yarn, it's a good story, it stands alone as a story. It's not intricately connected plot-wise to the series. Though the texture and the feel and the characters obviously are. So I don't know that I have anything really spectacularly new to add about the fact, other than what a tremendous experience it was to shoot it. Everyone should have so much fun at work. I'm sure that you do...

How was the wrap party on "Continuum?"
I missed the wrap party. I missed the wrap party. Completely missed it, or did I? I did miss the wrap party, I had to make a trip home that weekend. I mean it was one of the things while I was working in Vancouver, if there was any break in the schedule, I was heading home.

Can you tell us a bit about the first Stargate movie, the "Ark of Truth?"
You can read in the blurbs that The Ark of Truth is a continuation of the Ori storyline, which is a coninuation of seasons 9 and 10 of Stargate. On a personal level, I had a great time shooting on The Ark of Truth, for a couple of reasons. One is that we were shooting back on film, 35 mm, which I think looks great. It was great to go back to 35, it just looks tremendous. We [were] moving the camera in ways that you don't usually see on the series, it gives it a more filmic look. And three, I get the biggest ass-whoopin' as a character that I [got] on the entire series. So I had two full days of being slapped around and bloodied up, and what a tremendous way that is to spend your work days. (Laughs) Y'know, not to be really beat up, but honestly, when you're doing that kind of fight stuff, I don't know how people train for it barring actually going into mixed martial arts, and going into the octogan or the cage or the ring and getting the crap beat out of them. After two days of filming that kind of stuff, and hitting the concrete, I'm covered in bruises and I can barely move. And it is the most satisfying feeling as an actor, (laughs), to have a couple of days of work like that.

Was their more pressure doing the films than the series?
No.

How similar to you is the character of Cameron Mitchell?
Gosh, I don't know. I'm a little... I'm less restrained than Cameron Mitchell is, in a weird way. I'm less restrained. I think I'm smarter than Cameron Mitchell. (Laughs) Cameron misses the obvious sometimes. I only miss the obvious when it happens to involve women. (Laughs)

Talking of women, there's real chemistry between Samantha Carter (played by Amanda Tapping) and your character. Do you think their relationship could develop into something more intimate?
Not while they're still in the Air Force. Not while they're still in the same chain of command. I think both of them are very professional. Now, if it was an alternative time line, or another dimension...

(Click here to read Screenrush's interview with Amanda Tapping!)

Are you going to appear in season 5 of "Stargate Atlantis?"
Am I going to appear in season 5 of Stargate Atlantis? Haven't been asked! They're still filming, but I don't think that they're planning on including me. I think they're including everybody but me. No, I take that back, Vala [played by Claudia Black] I don't think has appeared in Atlantis either. Landry [played by Beau Bridges] has appeared, Carter [played by Amanda Tapping] has appeared, O'Neill has appeared...

What are the points in common between your roles in "Stargate SG-1" and "Farscape." Cameron Mitchell is much less expressive than John Crichton, your character in "Farscape." Was that difficult to act?
The answer is that they're very different characters. It's true that Mitchell is far less expressive than Crichton was, but Crichton was half-insane half the time. He was. He was half-insane and he was passionately dedicated to having some kind of personal life, so, everything was personal with Crichton. Whereas Mitchell is a little more business. But it wasn't more difficult... Playing Mitchell, it was kind of refreshing to be less angst-ridden, to be less volatile. Playing a more restrained character is actually quite enjoyable.

How did you get the idea for your upcoming mini-series "Going Homer?"
The idea for Going Homer came from two sources, from three sources really. The primary source came from one of my children, who is completely obsessed with Greek mythology. The second source is the fact that you can't throw a rock without hitting a Greek building, or a Greek reference, or a classical Greek mythology reference, in the United States, or really anywhere in the West. And the third was sort of this abiding love of everything that you remember as a kid watching, y'know... Jason and the Argonauts, Jason fighting the skeletons. You remember those so fondly that you sort of want to roll that together and do it again in a slightly different format.

What do you like about science fiction and projects like "The Ark of Truth?"
[With] The Ark of Truth, they did offer me a job, and that's always a big attraction for an actor. When someone offers you a job it's like, "Hey, this is great, I like this." It's one of those things � I will always speak kindly of people who offered me a job. A wonderful, wonderful event.(Laughs) Seriously, it doesn't happen every day! Trust me on this. It may be happening every day to Tom Cruise, but it doesn't happen every day to 99.9% of the actors out there. The fact [is] that I love science fiction. But the fact that I ended up doing two science fiction series in a row and doing, tremendously fun stuff like going to the Arctic, and tremendously fun stuff like this huge fight scene in The Ark of Truth, that's a real bonus to me because I happen to like the genre. But it wasn't as though I went out and pursued the genre. Me and science fiction is more kismet than it was anything by intention or design. I wish I could say "Yes, I planned everything good that has happened to me," but I didn't. Nor do I think it's even possible.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Monday 30 June 2008

Torchwood Confidential: Burn Gorman!

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:17:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Well, you're our third Torchwood interview so far. After you we only have two more to go before we've interviewed the whole team.
(Laughs)) Is that right? Well, you wouldn't be the first, I can tell you that much.

In season one, Owen changed a lot as a character. What was that journey like as an actor, to have to go through everything that the writers put your character through?
If I'm honest with you, the scripts came in maybe two or three weeks before we started shooting the episodes. When I was first introduced to rest the Torchwood team we rehearsed for a few days and then we got shooting on episode one and episode two, but in terms of the character I had absolutely no idea where it was going. Owen was involved in some fairly dysfunctional stuff as a part of the team. He's a bit of an ass, really let's be honest, and he's arrogant and says the wrong thing at the wrong time. So as an actor I tried to look for things in him that would redeem him as a member of the Torchwood team. For example, he's really passionate and dedicated to his job as a doctor. He's taken the Hippocratic Oath and he takes it very seriously. I also think that as a member of the team he is able to go into morally grey areas that others can't. Captain Jack [played by John Barrowman] is the hero figure and he can't get into certain situations. I had difficulty with some of the stuff Owen did, but at least he's a very human character. Like all of us, he messes up big time but at the end of the series he is genuinely apologetic and really sorry and wants to start over again. Jack sort of says that he's OK and can remain a part of the team, and that's the best thing that could happen to him. I hope that in series two he's a changed man.

I did notice from just the first episode of the new series that the team is working together a bit better, everybody seems more comfortable, and maybe Jack's leaving wasn't such a bad thing
Yeah. It's one of those things where you only miss what you've got when it's gone. We didn't talk much about the time that he was gone as actors, but you get a sense that the characters had to go on because alien technology and the rift activity doesn't stop when Jack goes. I think Owen's really glad to have him back honestly. Obviously Gwen [played by Eve Myles] has kind of taken charge and is overseeing what missions we go out on, but I think the heart has gone out of it. Certainly in terms of Owen, he really needs a leader. No matter how cocky he comes across, he actually needs someone to tell him what to do. As a team, I think we've definitely gelled more. It's much more about us doing missions successfully as opposed to us ripping each other to shreds and having all of these personal crises. Which I think is more interesting honestly.

I read an interview with somebody where they were saying that all of the angst of the writers and creators was translated onto the screen for the first series of "Torchwood" and now the second series is far more relaxed and fun.
I really think that sounds right. As a sci fi fan myself, and you'll know this, when you create a world you create your own boundaries, but because we were entering a world that already existed in the Doctor Who world, there was kind of a set of rules already set up. Even though it was an Earth based alien investigative team, it had the legacy of Doctor Who to contend with. I would agree that some of the angst of what can we do and what we can't does come over. Hell, it's a new sci fi show and everything has its teething problems, and I'm really glad that the passion for it, with the writers and the actors, has not diminished, which is really good to be working with.

The ratings on "Torchwood" would certainly prove there is a fan passion out there for the show as well, and maybe some people watch it because it's far more adult than "Doctor Who."
I would agree that this is a really adult show, indeed. I would agree with you. In the States it would be nice to think that Torchwood is seen as a stand alone show. To be honest, we're so glad that people have been watching it and the reception seems to be great. Really, it's all good.

We know lots of people who love Torchwood, who have no interest in Doctor Who whatsoever, even though we've told them that to get all of Captain Jack's story you have to watch both series.
Well, that's one thing I like about the character of Owen, [he] doesn't know anything about that world [of the Doctor] and I kind of like that. I like that he's involved in this Earth based team in Cardiff, and so he's part of the time shifts and towards the end of the first series he didn't even know about Jack's immortality at all. He wasn't party to any of that stuff, besides the hand bubbling away in a jar.

But nobody really knew what that was until season three of Doctor Who
That's right! (Laughs) I'm sure we were told to leave it well enough alone. Well, it's great to be associated with Doctor Who. In England it's got such amazing fans and the legacy is a huge thing to contend with.

Were you a Doctor Who fan growing up?
Always. But, I was brought up in a kind of alternative lifestyle. My mum and dad moved into a commune and threw the telly out the window. I was definitely aware of Doctor Who, and Tom Baker and Peter Davison were my Doctors. I've always been a huge sci fi fan since Star Wars really as a kid, it just blew your mind. Star Wars has always been the one for me, but I'm a huge sci fi and comic book fan.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 30 May 2008

Inside "Torchwood" with Eve Myles!

Fri, 30 May 2008 17:19:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Does the series opener featuring James Marsters set the tone for the second season of Torchwood? Is it going to be a bit lighter and funnier?
That's absolutely what it does. It also kind of sets pace of what the second series is all about: It's fast and sharp and quick and sexy and dark. There's not so much squabbling in this one. They've worked very hard and had to work close together to make Torchwood carry on and be productive without Jack's [played by John Barrowman] leadership there. So, they've become a very tightknit group, but there is a lot of comedy that bounces around between them so you've got a lot to look forward to.

Since Gwen was in charge of the team while Jack was out gallivanting around the end of time with the Doctor, I assume there will be some head butting between them for the rest of the season?
Oh yeah of course you will, but that's what partners do don't they? The reason that they're partners is because they both deliver very different things to Torchwood, but salt can't go without pepper and pepper can't go without salt most of the time. It's lovely when you get the mixture of a strong female challenging a strong male, and the strong male challenging back. That's what makes for a really hot drama.

I know you can't give spoilers, but what sort of vague hints can you give about the upcoming season?
You can expect to see beautiful love stories and the team being tighter than ever and working really well together and being put into some extreme circumstances. There are some major shocks, and that's pretty much all I can say about that before I go blabbing away for too long. (Laughs)

How was having Miss Martha Jones (Freema Agyemen) from Doctor Who joining the team this season?
Oh Freema and I get along famously! It was an absolute joy to get some more girlies on set because it's so male oriented. It was nice to have another girl with us and to have someone that Gwen really admires as a smart, brave modern woman. Gwen can see that she has a lot in common with her, and she's also had a past with Jack. So Gwen is very intrigued by that because the more she can learn about Jack the better and they get along very, very well. Plus, it's lovely to see the character of Owen [played by Burn Gorman] being challenged by a female that is slightly better at his job than he is.

So when new actors like Freema come on the show, does it change the dynamic at all?
Oh it has to, naturally. Every episode you get a guest lead, because that's the nature of the show, and it changes the dynamic all the time. It's a healthy thing, because it makes the episodes fresh and turns in different directions and shocks the audience. We never give the audience an easy ride into thinking something is going to happen, because the dynamic changes all the time and that's what is exciting about it.

Will we ever see a more developed link between Torchwood and Doctor Who?
I've not heard of anything like that yet, but there is always the possibility on down the road.

I remember seeing you in the first season of the new Doctor Who, did Russell T. Davies just keep you in mind from that point in time when he was putting together Torchwood?
Yeah, Russell had been aware of my work for years, and when I was cast in Doctor Who, I think that was my biggest audition for Torchwood. He wrote the part for me so it was mind-blowing, completely mind-blowing; so that's my Oscar and I could retire next year and be happy with people knowing that's what he did for me and I'm really, really proud of that.

At the end of a shooting day for Torchwood, are you covered with scrapes and bruises?
(Laughs) Yes! I get bruised to the hilt. When you go home and your partner sees all the bruising on you, you've really got to come up with some really good answers because they all look slightly dodgy and are in slightly dodgy places. (Laughs) It's not like you were bumped in a queue or something, you've got dodgy marks all over and on your bum and using Torchwood as an excuse is only going to work for so long. So yeah, you get bashed about and you get injured but that is all within the fun and nature of the job.

So the cast all get Torchwood purple hearts at the end of a season?
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. (Laughs)

What is your favorite thing that you've gotten to do with Gwen so far on the series?
It was what I got to do within my favorite episode which was the "Countrycide" episode for series one. I got to get shot and it's kind of funny making that sound like a good thing, but it was lovely to experience having to do all that. We were running around the Brecon Welsh countryside and adapting the Torchwood team to a totally new situation. They had to be very different than they were in Cardiff, they were in mountains and there weren't a lot of monster special effects except for ones involving the human race which is the biggest monster of all. So that was my favorite episode in terms of everything I got to do.

I've heard rumors that there are Torchwood toys coming?
Yes. Yes. Yes. (Laughs). You won't have to wait too long.

Excellent news! That confirmation will make a lot of toy collectors happy. Thank you!
I just want to say thank you so much for your support and your encouragement; you guys have given us a whole load of confidence.

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 30 May 2008

"Torchwood:" Tosh Under the Grill!

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:28:00 GMT

On the Internet Movie Database you are credited as being Dr. Sato on Doctor Who. So is that official then, that you were playing Toshiko back then in series one?
Yes, her character was called Dr. Sato which is the same family name as Tosh. There's been a lot of feverish speculation as to whether she is the same person and I can now officially say that it is the same person. It was a nifty bit of infiltration from Torchwood. So she was there from Torchwood. I didn't not know that then because Torchwood didn't exist in the real world. (Laughs) It was more of a surprise when Torchwood the series happened and I got a call from Russell [T. Davies] that he was going to be doing a new show. So it was an amazing opportunity to be called back.

Was your situation similar to Eve Myles in that you both were on Doctor Who first and that was sort of an audition for what would later be Torchwood and roles he wrote for you?
I guess. I had no idea. It's kind of embarrassing because I didn't know what Doctor Who was when I got the script for Doctor Who. (Laughs) Purely because I never grew up with [the original] Doctor Who like everyone else did. I grew up in the States and in Japan and we moved to England when I was twelve. I remember hearing about Doctor Who but I had never seen it, so when I got the first script when I was on Doctor Who I came across words I didn't understand. I looked up the word "Tardis" in the dictionary and it wasn't there, which apparently is really pathetic of me. I didn't know what it was so I phoned my agent and told them that there was a word in the script that I didn't understand and it wasn't in the dictionary and I wanted to know what was a Tardis. He laughed at me so hard that he put the phone down, but I still got the job. So that was really my first thing getting into sci fi. It's been a huge eye-opener, and I'm kind of getting into it now. I'm a beginner and I'm on a beginner's course of study. When I've spoken to Russell since and he told me I was great on Doctor Who and so he wanted me for this and it's been brilliant because he was one of the people that I had always wanted to work with. I have a huge list of things I want to do before I die and working with him was towards the top.

Since the Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who premiered I've been going back from the very first episodes and watching the original series, or at least as much as can be found on DVD and VHS. Any chance you are going back through the classic Who in your sci fi educational travels?
Wow. Gosh. Now having heard what you just said I don't think I'm anywhere near that, I've been watching the recent ones with David [David Tennant]. Of course you're talking to someone that didn't realize the Police Box and the big round inside thing were both the Tardis. I didn't realize they were the same until someone pointed it out to me during the filming of our first series of Torchwood. Our Hub set is right next to the Tardis interior. I asked someone what it was and when they said it was the Tardis, I told them that the Police Box was the Tardis and they said, "Oh my God don't you know anything?" (Laughs)

When do you go back into production for series three?
I have no idea, but I presume if it's the same kind of timeline, last year we went in May or the end of April for seven months and then we finished in November.

Do you film side by side and at the same time as Doctor Who?
Yeah we do since we're all on the same studio lot.

And then you all go to the Blue Box Cafe?
Yeah. How did you know about the Blue Box Caf�?

It's on the series three Doctor Who special features.
Ah I see. (Laughs) So basically we have the Torchwood sets and Doctor Who is filmed there and The Sarah Jane Adventures. All three shows are filmed in the same place.

How is it shooting everything on the same lot?
David is such a "back to work" kind of guy that we all forget sometimes how big Doctor Who really is. We're in the studio and it's a big family and you kind of forget how big the phenomenon is. Elisabeth Sladen [aka Sarah Jane Smith] is lovely, she's a wonderful person and she's really a lot of fun.

So far everyone I've talked to from Torchwood is crazy, but in a good way.
We are. We're very stupid, you should see us together. You'd be horrified actually because we are really like children. We're always getting trouble and we're always getting told off on set for being too loud and having too much fun.(Laughs). Torchwood Declassified, which is behind the scenes, has the worst time. They are always saying, "GUYS!" A lot of us running around and doing things off camera [that] aren't fit for broadcast. They get upset and tell us they can't use any of it.

Everyone besides Gwen seems very unlucky in love. Do you get tired of Toshiko never getting a happy ending?
I love Tosh and I love playing Tosh and sometimes I look at her and wanna kick her because she is saying and doing things I don't agree with. It's all part and parcel with her and it's what makes Tosh, Tosh. I think what happens with people who have been very academic tend to let their personal life fall by the wayside because they're concentrating so much and I think that's typical of being that kind of person. She's a late bloomer and perhaps she is now going through, not really puberty or her teenage years, but she is developing and coming out of her shell like we all do in life. Yes, it's been one disastrous relationship after another and she's learning and she still battles on. She's really been trying, but she has been very unlucky at love. I do feel for her.

It's interesting this season because she seems more focused on Owen than she did in series one.
I think with her, in the first series it was more of a school girl crush. More importantly, she knows there is a warm soft side to Owen [played by Burn Gorman] deep down. He's like the kid at school who always seems mean and pulls the girls' hair and is cocky. I think she has the utmost respect for him and on a very deep human level she does care for him, well, she cares for everyone on the team. But yes her feelings towards Owen have shifted and she still does push the boat out and nudges Owen and tries to get him to go out on a date. It's more mature and, more than a romantic thing, I think she just wants to connect. I almost don't want people to think it's a fluffy romantic situation; there are genuine feelings there for him and a genuine love. Hopefully people see that as well.

The way the structure of the story is written it seems that being a part of the Torchwood team would be very lonely and isolated, so who can blame the characters for wanting to connect?
Really! It's a 24/7 kind of a thing that they can never get out of, and at least with Gwen [played by Eve Myles] she has an outlet with Rhys [played by Kai Owen]. That, however, would bring in a whole other set of issues and headaches for her. It's an intensive environment that's like a hot house. Like Tosh says, "there's no one else to talk to."

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 30 May 2008

Our "Hero": Tim Kring talks to Screenrush!

Fri, 30 May 2008 11:22:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: There were high expectations of "Heroes" before it was even aired. Was that scary?
Yes and no. I had always intended for the show to be... I had always intended that the show was going to be big. And by big I don't necessarily mean high in the ratings because you never if that will be the case or not. But... I have worked with the networks for many years so I had lots of relationships with people in the network and I had seen what worked and what failed and what attitude worked with the network. And I realized that one of the attitudes that works with the networks is to be bold and very confident, knowing that most of your ideas that are bold are going to be squashed. So if you have an idea, it's better to aim her (indicates a point far away) knowing that you could get squashed all the way back to here (indicates a point close-by).

So I decided that I was going to present a show that was not just big, but huge, and that would take up a lot of space. Come in and pretend like we were a big giant mega hit. So I talked about Internet content, DVDs, merchandising... And I think they just saw this thing and thought "He has a huge idea... We'd better get out of the way" And that's the way I presented it. It was a very bold because it could have failed and I would have looked like an idiot. But I also felt that I had an idea that -- every angle that I looked at the idea, I couldn't find how it wasn't going to work. I actually couldn't believe that nobody else had had the idea because it seemed simple. And I think that's the way it is with all really successful ideas. They seem very easy.

How did you choose the actors? Milo Ventimiglia definitely has the shoulders of a hero, Masi Oka is so well liked by the audience and Adrian Pasdar was such a clever choice...
We had a script that was very... Every actor in Hollywood wanted to do this. We had the choice of everybody. Usually when you cast, you say "I wish we could get somebody like Milo [Ventimiglia; who plays Peter Petrelli] but he's not interested," but everybody we were interested in was also interested in us so we didn't have to choose second choice on anything. Now we read, everybody read -- we didn't cast anybody who didn't come in to read. I was looking for actors that were very well known. I wanted the audience to have an experience that was transparent between the audience and the TV show. In other words I wanted them to see themselves or see their friends or see... so when they look at a character to think that they know that guy or that they went to high school with that guy, or that he was their next door neighbour. I didn't want the audience to say that he was the guy from Prison Break. I didn't want you to recognize people as a TV star because I felt that it would break the illusion that they were ordinary people.

So it was important to not cast big stars. And as it turned out I didn't know that some of them... like Milo was a star for teenage girls, I didn't really know that. Or Hayden [Panettiere ], who plays the cheerleader [Claire Bennet], was a big star for kids. She has done several movies... if you were a 10 year-old girl, you knew who she was, but I didn't know. The day that she came in to read, somebody told me to be really nice because she was coming, I had no idea who she was. All of them, it's hard now to see or to picture somebody else because they are so much associated with the parts now.

Which idea comes first, the character or the power?
It's always the character first. The character's powers were born from the idea of the characters. For example the character of Nikki [played by Ali Larter], the single mother who's raising a child of mixed race. She's having trouble paying the rent, the electric bills, she's having problems getting her son who's very very intelligent into a private school because she can't pay for the tuition and she's not very educated, all she has is her beauty. So [for] this character I decided, wouldn't it be great if there were two of them? One of them was pure, a protector, would take care of the other, and the other could be strong, immoral, sexual, all of the things Nikki can't be. A character like Hiro [played by Masi Oka] feels trapped in his circumstance working at a job in cubicle, a sea of cubicles, trapped in a life that has no adventure. His power is his ability to teleport himself out of his life into a life of adventure. A cop who is the lowest on the police force [Matt Parkman, played by Greg Grunberg], he's actually directing traffic in front of the crime scene, they won't let him in the crime scene. All he wants to do is to rise up the ranks of the police force. And I thought the greatest power for a cop to have would be to hear other people's thoughts to know who's lying, who's telling the truth, where the money is buried, all of that that would be something that you would be able to use to rise up the ranks.

All of these powers came out of the characters. Somebody like the painter [Isaac Mendez, played by Santiago Cabrera] though, I wanted somebody to have the power of prophecy because I knew I was going to play with the idea of time, future and past. So I wanted a character that could tell the future but in order to do it he would have to do this very self destructive thing, like shooting up heroin in order to do it. But most of all it's out of character.

What is the strangest power you thought about?
You know all of them ... We have a character that... we created on the internet, you know about the comic books? This was a character created on the internet with the idea she would then come on to the show. So the character was launched on the comic books. So it's a character that we call Wireless (her name is Hana Gittelman). For me it's the most post-modern kind of super power. She has the ability to intercept or to pick up wireless information. So anything on the Internet, anything on a mobile phone, she can hear it and understand it and she can communicate with computers and machines. So she has sort of post-modern power.

You're not a comic book specialist. Having people like Jeph Loeb creates a balance between a fresh look -- yours -- and an experienced one. Was that important for you?
There's not just Jeph, there are several of them. I'm surrounded by the geeks (laughs)! It's been very good to have them and it's also very good for them. They talk often about how good it is for them to have me because without me in the room, it could drift of into a real over-the-top genre sci fi. A key to the success of the show is that I was not [a sci fi fan], I came direct from a place of character development, and I was always a little skeptical about the super powers aspect of it and wanted to keep that in the background. But yes, I use them all the time for references and [to know] what to stay away from. Jeph Loeb tells a story about the day that I went to see him when I was writing the script. And we went on a walk together to talk about the script. And I said to him in the middle of it "We should have a guy who's magnetic, he can pick up a car and throw it" And Jeph turned to me and said "That's Magneto !" And I said, "Magneto, is that a person or a power?" And he just couldn't believe that I didn't know who that was (laughs)! A part of the success of the show is that I was not afraid reinvent the wheel, over and over again, beause this show deals with such big archetypes. It's okay to reinvent things.

The special effects require time. Does that influence the writing of the show?
Absolutely! We try to do a lot of our effects in camera as much as we can. And there are certain effects that we know about early on and we plan for them knowing that they're going to take 10 days to do. And we do tests even before we shoot the actual scene. We have flames coming out from someone's hand, we've talked about it for hours and hours: "What does the flame look like..." There are all sorts of discussions you never thought you would ever have (laughs)! Like, "What does it look like when you walk through a wall?" and you have ten people in a room talking about, "What it would really look like to walk through a wall?", people trying to demonstrate. We're trying to keep special effects down to a minimum. First of all because they're very expensive and, second of all, because they take a lot of time. We shoot an episode in about 10 or 12 days, and sometimes our post production time is very short, maybe 4 or 5 days is sometimes all we have. From the time you wrap shooting to the time we're on the air, it can be less than a week!

For the season finale, will there be more special effects than in a normal episode? Are you already working on them?
Yes, we're already working on it. I can't tell you a lot but I can tell you that there's going to be an explosion, that needs to happen (laughs)! I think there's also going to be more flying... The explosion in episode 2, we started working on that two months before we aired it!

ON!!!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Friday 30 May 2008

Spotlight on the "Heroes:" Masi Oka Interview

Thu, 29 May 2008 18:09:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: Looking at your background, if you had known that it would all work out for you as an actor, would you have switched to a Theatre major and put the Computer Science and Maths as a minor?
I wouldn't know. I mean... I love doing computer science and all the mathematics, I love using that side of the brain. And acting as profession kind of came more after time, I never really thought of it as something that I would pursue... You know, [acting is] definitely a dream... But I think every choice you make, whether it's good or whether it's bad -- I mean mistakes I've made have led me to where I am now. So I think, if I had changed it, I bet something would have completely be different...

What it's like for you to be out in public now? Are you getting a lot more people coming up to you?
Yeah, definitely. I mean it's a great thing to have fans come up to you and say, "Oh my God, we love your show." I am getting "So what's going to happen now?" a lot more, especially with the [hiatus] and stuff. It's pretty cool though, it's great to be able to go out and just meet your fans and just feel their passion for the show as we have for the show as well... There was a guy walking by with a cell phone and I was just walking past him and he noticed me and he kind of turned his head and opened his mouth and he dropped his cell phone, which I thought was a cool thing because I had the power of a hot woman at that moment. I had that effect on a guy. And I've had girls just come up to me... they would walk by and they'd recognize me and they would come and hug me, kiss me and say, "Oh my God, I love you," and then run away, [at] which I'm like, "Wow. Wait, wait. Where are you going? Don't run away..."

What has excited you most so far when you've opened a script and seen what they're going to do with your character?
Well, you know what? Every time I open the script, it's always been amazing, you know, because you do start to conjecture, in terms of what's going to happen in the future and it's like I want to know if this is going to happen. And at times I thought about pitching ideas to the writers, but I mean the biggest mystery of the show is how the writers keep on coming up with new stuff and keep on topping themselves week after week after week.

What's been most challenging for you as you've developed Hiro? In terms of figuring out who this guy is has it been hard trying to give a performance that's really open-ended for whatever they throw at you?
Right. I mean that is definitely a big challenge. I think one of my main challenges -- actually, this is two-fold. One is technical in terms of accent reduction because he has spent some time with Charlie for an undisclosed amount of time... Right now it's kind of open-ended. It could have been three weeks. But he could have been lost, you know, for three years. We don't know within that time period, but he definitely learned some English. So I can maintain kind of a like a level of accent that's still a Japanese accent in English and I have to scale down the level a little bit. Because Hiro's learned English.

And I think the second thing is also to make sure not to lose the essence of who Hiro is in terms of [his] innocence and his, you know, giddiness, his enthusiasm and passion for life. With that, when you start to bring in that realistic dark track, you know -- Charlie has abducted him so you can't be all goofy and jokey all the time anymore. But there is a sense that Hiro's supposed to be the comedic relief... So that's the hardest thing to maintain, that aspect of realism and comedy grounded in truth, and [to] find opportune moments where it would be real for Hiro to come out and be kind of like funny at a certain point without pushing the funny.

What's been your favorite moment of going "Oh my God, I'm on a great show?"
I don't know. I think every day is kind of like that, you know? Every day I discover something new, whether it's going on in the street and meeting your fans or just going out and having these amazing new family members. You know, going out with Milo [Milo Ventimiglia, who plays Peter Petrelli] and then going go to see a team who's dealing with him or having dinner and celebrating my birthday with Kristy [Kristen Bell, who plays Elle Bishop] and Greg [Greg Grunberg , who plays Matt Parkman], Milo, those guys, just having them all there...

This is definitely a dream come true in many ways because you never thought you'd be doing something like this at such a high level with such a great, great and amazing show... I mean I wish I had Hiro's power. I'd love to just like stop this moment in time right now and just enjoy it for the rest of my life. But unfortunately, I don't have that power.

Hiro has really emerged as the heart and soul of the show, your performance has really energised him. Do you consult with the writers and producers and give your input?
Well, thank you very much. And yes, I do do that. I believe all of [us] do that as well, because the writers actually have told us from the get-go, "In the first five minutes you play the character you're going to know a lot more about the character than we do know about writing it." So many times, because the writers have so many things on their minds and they have a bigger picture [in mind], you know, there's some small things that we love to collaborate on... [E]verybody is definitely weighing in, and it's great because, because I think that's what's great about this industry -- it's about the creativity and the collaboration.

And the writers have been so generous with their words and so generous with being open-minded about collaborating, which is very rare, you know, with a hit show like this... There are many times that the writers are absolutely correct and we're wrong. And there are times that we have a great idea that the writers didn't think up. That's I think the secret of making the show where it is now and the success of it, just we see a collaboration of the creative vision and input from all sides, whether it's acting, writing, directors, even our prop people, they come up with some great jokes and stuff...

Have you checked out much of the online fan community?
I try to stay away from it as much as possible because, as much as I love the fans, they're very vocal, whether it's pro or con about the show, your character, your fellow cast mates. I do see things that my friends send me. They send me links... But I try to stay away as much as possible unless the links guide me to somewhere and then of course that link guides me to somewhere else and then that link guides me to somewhere on YouTube.

Would you like to become more involved in the special effects and things like that in the show?
I think they're doing an amazing job given the TV budget and the timeline, because I come from a film background where we have oodles of time and oodles of money. You try things out, you know, and consistently take time whenever you want, versus the TV production is always -- it has, you know, it's a machine, you have to get things done at a certain time and make sure you come up with great quality, which they have.

So what I would love to be getting involved in, hopefully by Season 3 or 4, I would love to be directing an episode show to learn more about the production aspect of TV. In fact, I think, if there is an episode that I might not be in, whether it's this season or next season, I would love to maybe chat with our director and learn more about that aspect. I'm always fascinated with behind-the-scenes stuff as well as in front.

In real life do you believe in the dynamics of possibility of time travel, that in the future we may be able to do certain things?
Well, I'd like to believe so, you know. It's going to very difficult and I'm not sure what paradox we'll be fighting, we don't know if it's going to be the DC theory or the Marvel theory of, you know, the time-space continuum, but I believe it's possible... In my mind, you know, it's a six-dimensional thing... [There's] a great book called Flatland by Edward Abbe, who talks [about] living in a two dimensional world and they see one dimension -- we can see that two dimensional world from a third dimension... And it's the same thing: We live in a three-dimensional world. We only see three dimensions. So, I believe that there's actually a fourth dimension which is time and a fifth dimension which is alternate reality that there has to be a way to kind of like pull yourself up dimensions and go to the sixth dimension and move to another reality and time and stuff. But I don't want to bore you with those details. Just need to find a flux capacitor and you'll be fine!

READ ON!!!

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 29 May 2008

Spotlight on the "Heroes:" George Takei Interview

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:32:00 GMT

Screenrush Series: When you took the role of Hiro's father on Heroes, did you know it was going to be for more than one or two episodes?
I knew it was for two episodes and they were going to stretch that out. In the first episode that I appeared in, I just got out of my limousine and glared at my son. Then the main part of that was going to be the second episode. The production team there doesn't let you in on what's going to be happening too much, because we do interviews like this. They don't like us to inadvertently spill things, so they keep the actors in ignorance. I had no idea it was going to be a recurring character. I thought it was going to be a two episode guest shot.

Did they at least let you know that you would be returning for season two?
Yes I did know that. However, before filming on season two began I got a phone call from Tim Kring [creator of Heroes]. He used a phrase, "You might think this is a grim reaper call," and I thought "uh-oh." Then he said that I would be surprised by the first script I would get. He wanted to alert me and didn't want me to learn via the Internet or some other buzz. He told me I would "see a scene that would open my eyes, but that nothing on Heroes is what it seems on the surface," and he was right.

I saw that you were going to be coming back in the upcoming episode.
Yes. I will be heard from a great deal more. (Laughs)

In the training montage from season one, where Hiro is trained by his father to become a sword master in order to kill Sylar, it seemed like an awfully short time to learn how to use a sword with proficiency. Did Hiro bend time and make that session last for as long as they needed?
I quote Tim again about nothing being as it seems. Reality is either elongated, compressed, or bent on Heroes. It's true that one does not become a master swordsman in the amount of time I spent with my son. If you are a Heroes fan you know that Hiro working on time is more than likely the case.

What else can you tell us about your time on Heroes so far?
There's a lot of intrigue that you need to keep at the front of your mind. If you saw the episode "Company Man" from the first season, you [will know] that Noah Bennet [played by Jack Coleman] speaks Japanese. In fact he is so proficient in it that he thinks in Japanese. Did you catch that? Matt [Parkman, played by Greg Grunberg] tries to read his mind and he couldn't because he was thinking in Japanese. Now, I'm not giving any spoilers because you did see that scene. HRG [as the character of Noah Bennet is also known as] has a profound and deep connection to speak and think in Japanese and what was that all about? What was my part in giving him Claire [Bennet, played by Hayden Panettiere] as a foundling to raise?

There is also the connection where your character had an affair with Petrelli's mother.
That's right, and she's a very attractive woman. Imagine her in her first blush of youth and me in my full virility. (Laughs) I'm planting seeds of things to go back and look for.

Which is good. We've seen the first season a few times in introducing friends to the show.
That diffuses the story a bit though doesn't it, and makes it difficult for the audience, I think particularly a casual television audience, to get a hook on. That's why I think it was smart of them to come out with the DVD set so quickly. In fact one person told me he had gotten sick and was bedridden for a while. He had the DVD set bought for him and he watched it in one fell swoop in about two days.

Returning to things to look for, there was a Hiro story in the online comic where he leaves and is at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial swearing on the memory of his grandfather to not let something like that happen again...
This second volume is called "Generations" and that too gives you a clue to how deep this goes. Interestingly my mother's maiden name was Nakamura and my grandpa and grandma Nakamura came from Hiroshima in my real life. So there is an interesting parallel. As a matter of fact, my nephew Scott Takei, has two children and his son, who was born years before Heroes, has the Japanese middle name of Kaito. [Laughs] And none of them had met Tim Kring.

I know that the writers on Heroes are enormous Star Trek fans so how was it coming to the series as a former Star Trek actor?
It's not just the writers. Did you notice the license plate on my limousine is NCC? It turns out the props master, Richard Clark, is a rabid Star Trek fan and when he was planning the license plate he seized on the opportunity to put in a very subtle connection to his passion for Star Trek. Star Trek fans are everywhere. The sword fighting scene was [because] a writer named Bryan Fuller, who now has his own series , remembered that Sulu had that fencing sequence, and thought it would be fun to have Kaito Nakamura in a sword fighting sequence. So it was all Bryan Fuller's inspiration.

So did you have anything to do with Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhura in the original �Star Trek� series) coming on this season?
That was Tim or somebody in the "powers that be" sector of Heroes.

Were you surprised when you found out that she would be joining the show?
Yes, I had no idea. Tim made that announcement at Comic Con [International, a comic fan convention] that there would be additions to the show that would be as "spectacular as George Takei's introduction into the world of Heroes." I thought it was going to be some sci fi actor, but I had no idea it was going to be Nichelle and she never let on.

So even that was secret?
That's right. We talk on the phone quite regularly and she never mentioned it. As a matter of fact, we had her over for dinner once and we had a great time, but she never dropped a hint. And she's someone who can't contain herself when she gets excited. (Laughs)

>> Real the whole article | on Screenrush - Thursday 29 May 2008