So some of what I'm describing to you I not only haven't shot yet, I haven't even read the script -- it's just from conversations with [show runners] Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie for what they plan to do in stories that are either in first draft or haven't even been written yet. One of them is an attachment on my computer that I'm talking to you rather than reading right now [laughs]. So I'm even a little behind. I could have read that and maybe told you more, but then I'd get in trouble for spilling the beans.
How many have you shot so far?
I think we are through episode -- we shot 13 of our 20. And Woolsey appears -- which I think is part of the same thing that they did, for example, with Beau Bridges as Gen. Landry -- I appear in about three quarters of the shows. So there have been a few that are completely off-base that I haven't been in.
I was going to ask you about that, because they have the new opening credits up on your official web site, and I couldn't help but notice that you're listed relatively late in the credits, compared to Torri Higginson and Amanda Tapping --
They're playing the new opening credits? I haven't even seen them yet! [laughs] So where am I, am I number four or five or where?
You're right before David Hewlett's "and" credit.
Oh. Well, I didn't even know that. That's new information to me.
Weird that you should hear it from me. -- So I was wondering if we should read into that there was a reduced role for the mission commander.
I think, certainly, with this season, it was announced early on that I would be in a series of episodes, and as it turns out I will be in 14 or 15 of the 20. And most of the other actors in all the shows produced. I don't necessarily think that Jewel [Staite, who plays Dr. Keller] is, but most of the other ones who have been there from the beginning.
I don't think that that -- I mean, certainly this is a transitional year, and if the show continues on, as I hope it will, and I know that there's a dedicated group of fans who hope that it does continue on, that I'm sure that Woolsey will be appearing more on a weekly basis. That was something that was made before I even began.
Are you feeling a sense of any pressure from outside the show that there's something you need to accomplish this year?
I think that whenever you join a new show -- well, let's go back to Star Trek Voyager, which was a new installment in a popular franchise. And I remember there was quite a bit of anxiety before we went on the air to see if the loyal Star Trek fans would accept his new cast and this new premise. And similarly, now I'm joining another franchise, and having played a successful character in another major science-fiction show, and even though the regular fan of Stargate is familiar with me as an actor there's always the question of whether they will accept and embrace you as this character in his new situation. Which is something that I hope happens, but it's obviously out of my hands.
I try to create what the writers have placed in front of me. I think they have very intelligently broad-stroked his development as a leader very quickly. There's another episode that happens early on, I think it's episode five, where he faces his first major crisis where he has to put on the poker face and call the enemy's bluff, in one of those very dramatic situations. And what was interesting for me as an actor is that it echoed completely an episode from season four where Col. Carter is making the call, and Woolsey panics and tries to assume control from her, tries to wrest -- tries to basically countermand her order ["The Seer" (4x08)].
And this time, because it was staged in exactly the same place, I walked to the same point on the set where I had "learned the lesson" from Carter, and I basically succeed in her game. It's like witnessing someone play a great hand of poker and saying, "Okay, now it's my turn." And I have to be so convincing, that I have to hide whatever fear or doubt or trepidation that I have, and win the day. So it was very nice, I think, in the way that it echoed, both in the writing and the playing and even the exact point on the set I was, that moment of discovery for him.
So there's a distinct advantage in having Woolsey there, as an established character with experiences like that behind him.
Mm-hmm. Also another value-added thing I think you get with my character -- and, to a certain extent, just generally with me as an actor -- is that Stargate has a lot of humor to it. I think with the SG-1 cast there was even more humor than there has been thus far in Atlantis. I think probably David Hewlett's character has probably carried most of the comic burden this far. And I think that the notion that they could have in the leadership character that they could have someone with the gravity to pull of the dramatic situations, and still have his own sort of personality foibles that give you comic opportunities here and there.
You mentioned in the MGM interview that you were finding opportunities for situational comedy, being new to the station and so forth, but that at the same time you don't want to make him a figure of fun.
To me there's nothing wrong with someone who is a fully competent leader -- who is developing into a fully competent leader, maybe didn't start out that way -- I love that there's so much election jargon, "Ready to go on day one" [laughs] -- I'm not sure Woolsey really was ready to go on day one, but he was by day five! -- But there's nothing wrong with the fact that the private man is little lonely, a little quirky, and the moments when you see him alone, or the moments where he finds himself revealing something about himself, even willingly, to one of the other cast members as he gets to know them, that all of that can be a little bit awkward and surprising.
Well, look at Jack O'Neill -- he's quirky and yet an unquestionable leader.
I completely agree. And Richard Dean [Anderson], I'm a big fan of him, both his work on the show and personally, he's just a great, fun guy to be around. I dearly hope that he will come back and guest star sometime so that we will get to -- we had so much fun together when we guest starred together on Atlantis. So now with him bumping up against me as a leader, it can only get better.
