Interviews with Ben Browder, Claudia Black, and Gary Jones
Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Times is helping her readers gear up for Stargate SG-1‘s impressive ninth season, premiering Friday, July 15, at 8PM Eastern on the SciFi Channel. She had the opportunity to interview three of SG-1‘s cast and get their take on their new and evolving roles.
Concerning his new character, Lt. Col. Cameron Mitchell, who takes command of SG-1 and puts the team back together, Ben Browder said, “From my standpoint, Mitchell’s still a work in progress. Until I see the final cut and stuff goes out to the audience, I don’t want to be saying who this guy is. Quite frankly, TV is a highly collaborative medium, and everyone — the viewers, the writers, the editors, the actors, the directors — will have a view of who the character is and what he is. I have an opinion too, but I don’t want to be judged as failing to achieve what I want to achieve, so I’ll let the audience make up their own minds.”
Browder relates his first experiences on the set and how welcoming everyone was. “I have to say, everyone has been very, very nice up here, the cast, Michael Shanks, Chris Judge made my transition to the show very easy, Amanda Tapping didn’t come on ’til the sixth episode, but those guys made my transition easy.”
For Claudia Black, who recreates her character named Vala from Season Eight’s “Prometheus Unbound”, the opportunity to play in six more episodes was a gift. “Vala is instrumental in kickstarting the story for the season. I was very spoilt in that regard, it was wonderful to be in the eye of the storm as far as the story was concerned and also to be given so much comedic work to do, it was such a joy for me to do those scenes with Michael Shanks, who is a fantastic comic sparring partner.”
As far as Vala’s returning for additional episodes after her first six, “The window isn’t closed on Vala. That’s for sure. It really depends on if I’m available, and they can get what they want [storywise]. It’s a nice position to be in, to be in love with a character you’ve played, who may live on again, who you want to go back to. I’ll leave you with the image of the australian coat of arm, which has the kangaroo and emu on either side, two animals that are incapable of walking backwards. I as an actor am incapable of going backwards. It’s been an interesting challenge first on “PK Wars” [to go back to Aeryn], it’s nice to know Vala could [come back as well.]”
Gary Jones, who plays the ever-popular Chevron Guy (Sgt. Walter Harriman), is also quite enthusiastic about the new season. He’s seen his character go from being a background character to one who drives part of the action. “Now my character is a little like Radar O’Reilly [from “M*A*S*H”], he knows how things run and he’s handing [Beau Bridges’ character] files before he needs them and doing stuff for him before he knows he needs it done. They gave me a promotion to Chief Master Sergeant, it’s the highest rank I think you can be without being an officer.”
Jones will also do an episode of Stargate Atlantis, “Critical Mass”.
To read all the interviews, as well as one with David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay of Atlantis), where Hewlett kisses and tells about his character’s love scene with Dr. Carson Beckett (played by new regular cast member, Paul McGillion), just click here.
[Thanks to Sueb45 for the tip — DeeKayP]