In advance of the premiere of Sanctuary on Sci Fi, star and executive producer Amanda Tapping talked about her own interest in sci-fi, producing and acting, and finally moving on from Stargate ("It's sort of like cutting off your arm and going, 'Okay, how do I move forward now?'").
On why she chose to work on Sanctuary: When I first got approached with Sanctuary, I didn't know what the future of me and the Stargate franchise was going to be. This was January of 2006 -- I was going to be doing Atlantis and I didn't know what was going to happen with SG-1.
So we shot this little test scene and then we got the funding, and in January 2007 decided to do a web series which didn't seem at all to conflict with Stargate or how that was going to work. The timing worked out perfectly.
And then when it came down to -- I had finished Season 4 of Atlantis and I got offered Season 5 and it was a really lovely contract. And it would've been very easy to say yes.
But I had to sort of make this enormous leap of faith because Sanctuary was waiting in the wings. We didn't have a broadcast deal yet. We had a lot of interest from different broadcasters around the world and we were hoping that we would get picked up.
And so had I said yes to Atlantis, I would've basically killed Sanctuary where it stood because I wouldn't have been available to do it, and it would've gone away. And I felt really strongly -- so many people had put their time and effort, and money and support behind it that I thought it's time to make this leap. And I love the character. I love this show.
Stargate was very gracious and understood my need to sort of move on. The fact that there was still the possibility of Stargate movies and that I would definitely be involved in them made it sort of a soft landing because I wasn't actually saying good bye. I was saying see you later.
But I did make this enormous leap of faith whereby I said okay I have to stand beyond this project. I put my money in it. I put my name attached to it and I'm executive producing it. So I took the leap and shortly after turning down the Atlantis contract Sanctuary started to get its broadcasts picked up around the world. So, "phew" was basically the word of the week.
On working in green screen: It feels more like doing theater than anything else. And that was my training so it actually feels like you're putting on a play half the time, because you don't have a huge set to play with and you really do definitely have the fourth wall.
But initially the hardest thing with shooting an almost entirely virtual show is getting a sense of the scale. You know, we've shot in the catacombs under Rome and we've shot in huge chapels, and the Sanctuary itself is this massive structure. And it's really hard to get a sense of just how big it all is.
And so when we're starting to see now the fully finished effects, you're like oh my, wow the Sanctuary really is huge. But that's the hardest thing. The hardest thing is just getting a sense of the scope.
I think we're probably at about 70/30, 75/25 to green screen to practical. We built some practical sets. Like Helen Magnus' office, for example, is for the most part a practical set except for the ceiling and what you see out the windows.
On her involvement as executive producer: I'm very hands-on; more so than I probably should be. I took the mantle very seriously so part of my job, I felt, was to go out and try to get us the funding to continue to make the show.
So I'm in touch with our financial guys on a regular basis and that's kind of my job, is to go and get beaten up. Why does television cost so much money? And I have to answer those questions.
I'm involved in the casting and editing, and making sure that the crew is all put together. Now I'm doing post production, mixing shows, color correcting and the sound and everything.
This is a whole new learning curve for me. And I literally found that I do not have a spare minute in my day. As soon as I get to work, which is usually a couple of hours before crew call, if I'm not sitting in the makeup chair or actually acting on set then I'm in a meeting or a conference call.
So my appreciation is that I think actors are wimps. Now I used to think that I had the hardest job in the world. Sam Carter was a really intense character in terms of the volume of dialogue that I had.
And I used to think, "Oh my God, I've got ten pages of technobabble today. I'm working so hard." And now I just laugh at that and go oh my God, there are days where I just want to be an actor again.
On playing a new character after eleven years of Stargate: It's a weird disconnect that you have to do because Sam Carter was so much a part of me. I mean, the line between Sam and Amanda became pretty blurry at times. And she informed so much of who I was becoming and I informed so much of who she was becoming that, you know, it was a very difficult disconnect.
When I finally decided to not go back to Atlantis -- I ended up doing two episodes this season, the very first one and the very last one of the season, which was great -- but when I said no and I finally had to walk away, I was a massive emotional mess and my husband was like, "Come on seriously, 11 years, sweetheart, move on." I was like, "You don't understand."
It's sort of like cutting off your arm and going, "Okay how do I move forward now?"
But then after awhile, the -- I mean, for me as an actor the whole joy of discovering a whole new character and of creating this woman -- you move on pretty quickly. Like I said, it's been a very soft landing. If Stargate had been canceled and I didn't have anywhere to go, then that would be I think a lot more difficult to let her go.
But because I had somewhere, you know, really exciting to leap into -- the hard part for me was last week where I wrapped Sanctuary on September 12 and the following week I was shooting Stargate Atlantis. I was like "Oh, Sam Carter, Sam Carter, find Sam Carter, where's Sam Carter?" But I put on the army boots and there she was. It was good.
