North Shore News Interviews Amanda Tapping

Amanda Tapping (spring/summer of 2007)

Vancouver’s North Shore News conducted an interview with Stargate star Amanda Tapping earlier this month to talk about her career with the franchise and other endeavors.

Tapping described her character Samantha Carter, “She’s strong, she’s smart, she’s capable, she’s unapologetic for it. I like her because she’s really well-rounded. Even from the start she wasn’t a stereotypical female sci-fi character. She had a lot more going on. And over the course of the years obviously the writers have really rounded her out as a human being and as a woman. And (she was) also just so physical too, which really appealed to me.”

At the time of the interview, Tapping was filming an episode for Season Five of Stargate Atlantis before moving over full-time to her role of Dr. Helen Magnus of Sanctuary at the end of this month. Sanctuary, for which Tapping also serves as executive producer, has been picked up by the Sci Fi Channel and TMN (The Movie Network in Canada) for a 13-episode season. The show had a unique way of presenting a pilot by showing it first on the Internet. “It’s such an interesting model. And I think it is the way that things are going to be going. We were riding the crest of that wave. And I’m not going to say that TV will ever become obsolete because I don’t think that it will, but a lot of people are going to the web for their entertainment. We just wanted to try it out.”

Tapping talked about some of her career history and how it was built up slowly as she started out filming commercials. She has a theatre background and co-founded a comedy troop in Toronto. She guest starred on the Vancouver television circuit until she landed the role of Captain Samantha Carter. As far as future roles, Tapping admitted, “I’d love to do a period drama. Starting out on stage and doing a lot of classic theatre, I’d love to get back to that.”

For the two direct-to-DVD movies, Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum, Tapping was enthused about returning to the sets to work with her SG-1 co-stars. “These people become not just your friends, but your family, and such a part of your life. It was fantastic getting back together for the DVD. It was so much fun.”

Stargate: The Ark of Truth was recently released in North America (Region 1) on March 11. Stargate: Continuum is due for a July release (the date of July 29 is being bandied about, but has not yet been confirmed). Tapping explained that the resolution of the Ori storyline in The Ark of Truth “will allow for future stand-alone movies that don’t have to keep reaching back into the mythology of the show,” according to Rosalind Duane of North Shore News. Tapping told Duane that she’s looking forward to possibly more Stargate features.

To read the complete two-page interview, visit Gifted group behind Stargate’s success.