John Sheppard, a “regular guy in extraordinary circumstances”
Cinema Spy has an exclusive four-page interview with Joe Flanigan (conducted in May) in which the actor discusses some of the focus of Season Five and why he believes the show is as successful as it is. “The show is successful because of the chemistry of characters and because I don’t think the show takes itself too seriously. I think that’s really important.”
Flanigan decided early on not to make Lt. Col. John Sheppard a polished fighter, but to give him a “Harrison Ford” type of approach to action. “I think the character is more regular guy in extraordinary circumstances who just feels like he’s flying by the seat of his pants and he’ll be lucky if he pulls this thing off. As opposed to that [martial artist] guy. It’s fun to have those characters on the show, but I just thought my character is not going to be like that. Chances are in his off time he won’t be sparring, he’ll be drinking beer. … Or playing golf.”
Visit Cinama Spy: Exclusive Interview: Joe Flanigan to learn more about Flanigan, his view of the show, his love of action shows, and his hatred of reality shows that feature people who scare him. (Flanigan does his best not to spill a lot of spoilers, but there are still some little plot points about the upcoming episodes “The Shrine” and “The Queen”.)
[Image from MGM Official Stargate website.]