Stargate Information Archive's Linz and Abbey were lucky enough to chat with Stargate Atlantis actor David Hewlett about wrapping up Stargate Atlantis (as well as SG-1!) for the season and his new and upcoming movie A Dog's Breakfast in which he talks about his directorial debut and all that comes with it, the distribution process and how fun it is to watch co-star Paul McGillion get hit over the head multiple times.
This interview was conducted on October 6, 2006. This is part two of two. Part one is here.
Update: The audio recording of this part is now available. (QuickTime required.)
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A: Are you jealous of Mars' newfound stardom? (Mars is David's dog)
DH: *laughs* It's funny, we talked to some distributors and often the first response is "Your dog is great!"
L & A: *laughing*
DH: You're talking to the writer, director and leading actor of a movie and all you can say is "His dog is great"?
L: He's got a starring role in the movie too, right?
DH: He's got the title role, he doesn't do an awful lot in the movie but what he does, he does very well. He's the observer, this sort of watchful figure. My big joke with the dog was that any failings in the directing department, I would just cut to the dog if anything wasn't working. There are a few scenes that Mars single handedly saved just by looking in the right direction at the right time.
L: Who was more difficult to work with: Paul or Mars?
DH: Oh Paul. Paul is not nearly as well trained as Mars. With Paul, you can't get him to do what you want just by waving a little bag of cookies in front of him.
A: Maybe you didn't have the right cookies.
D: *laughs* It's possible we did have the wrong cookies. Some kind of haggis treat is what we needed for him.
L: Were there any bizarre or strange things that happened on the set of A Dog's Breakfast?
DH: We had a thing I've never heard up until this time, a "condor." Its this odd looking little vehicle, it's like attaching a giant crane to a Mini. This little set of wheels that has this crane thing attached to it. They use it to put up the big lights when you're shooting outside at night. It rolled off a road and into a salmon stream. Well that's not entirely true, it didn't exactly hit the salmon stream but it was very funny cause I had been told from day one, "You cannot look in this direction," because we had the entire production vehicles parked in one area of this house we rented. So the entire shoot I'm stuck, I cannot look this way and I had to work out different ways of blocking just because of the limitations of where we had to park everybody. Well when that condor started heading towards the salmon stream, every one of those vehicles moved so quickly because the fear was that if it had actually hit the stream, that we could do damage to this salmon spawning.
So my big joke was that I was just going to bring in a live salmon and hold a gun to its head when I wanted to get a shot that involved moving things around. If you want to get things done, the best way to do it is in fact to threaten a pregnant salmon. That seems to be the best way of getting work done.
A: I'll have to write that one down.
DH: That's my advice to young filmmakers. To generally have a live salmon hostage.
L: Do you think you would ever want to direct an episode of Atlantis after directing A Dog's Breakfast?
DH: I would. Yes. I'm hoping that will happen at some point. The problem is, I don't know if you've noticed or not, is that they've got really good directors. They kind of know what they're doing and so it's just a matter of if it's something we could schedule. The other thing you may have noticed is that I'm in a lot. So I tend to be there acting. It's kind of hard -- although having said that, I did that for A Dog's Breakfast and it's incredibly tiring, I don't think I would do quite as much acting in something I was directing again. It is possible.
L: What about writing an episode of Atlantis?
DH: Again, it's the time thing. I spend so much time learning lines. Generally we do about 40-45 pages for a script. I will literally have, well I had a week this season where I had 55 pages of lines. We were shooting two episodes at a time. We'd have to definitely schedule it so that McKay was struck mute for an episode or just strapped to a bed and couldn't talk or something, which would be my dream role right now.
L: So one thing that Rodney hasn't done in Atlantis yet, you'd like to just have him strapped down for an episode with no lines?
DH: Hmmm... *laughs* Strapped down with no lines. I would like Rodney to lose his voice and only be able to communicate with pictures. Or miming. Miming is good, like some kind of a miming McKay.
A: I bet Sheppard would have fun with that.
DH: And then Sheppard would be the one calling out the completely wrong interpretation of what I'm doing. It's funny, I often get asked what I would like to see McKay do in the future and I can't imagine thinking up the stuff that these guys think of. Every year I'm surprised by something they do or something that happens.
L: Like they had McKay blow up a whole galaxy or solar system...
DH: I know, who saw that one coming? I'll never live that one down. The blowing up of galaxies. That's one of my favorite lines in McKay and Mrs. Miller. "There is a war on." "Did you start it?" I don't even know if the scene made it to the final cut. I think it's the scene were we're first talking to Amanda on the computer. "You know there is a war on." "Oh, did you start it?"
L: Yeah! And then she like hits you.
DH: Yeah, she's big on the hitting. She does a lot of hitting in A Dog's Breakfast.
L: So she likes to abuse her older brother.
DH: That's it. I think she calls it "acting".
L: I never had the pleasure of siblings so I don't know anything about the abuse.
DH: Jane is ... well I was going to say single but that's the wrong term isn't it?
(Jane in the background: "It sure is!")
*laughter*
DH: Sorry Jane. You're single. Only child I guess is the term I was looking for. I refer to it as spoiled.
*more laughter*
DH: Because you haven't had to share with the rest. I had so many younger sisters, I don't even remember most of their names.
L: Did they ever dress you up?
DH: *laughs* No no. I was luckily the oldest. And that sort of brings it full circle back to the 80's again, a lot of the dressing up.
Here i have a question for you. The website, you guys run that all by yourselves?
L: I run it with my friend Adam (Arcady) who just walked into the room.
DH: Hi Adam.
(Adam in the background: "Hi David")
L: He's the more technical guy. Then Abbey (Kuwdora) helps moderate the forums, which is the main part of the site besides information.
A: Mainly discussion, the technology, culture of both shows.
L: All the episodes, what they liked, disliked.
A: it's one of the biggest forums in the Stargate fandom too.
DH: About the technology?
L: There's a lot of debate (about technology). I can barely keep up with all of it. We have about 20 moderators.
DH: I'm curious because we have a forum on the A Dog's Breakfast site and I chose originally not to moderate it cause I felt like people should say what they want to say. But something that I've learned in reading a lot of the posts, its not just about letting people say things but keeping things on track.
L: Our moderators, they do a good job. If there's for example, more adult content there has to be warnings. On the ADB forum, some of us saw the uh... picture posts.
DH: I haven't seen that. Is there stuff I should be worried about?
L: Oh, just people were posting pictures from scenes in movies you had been in and others were saying "Oh you shouldn't post those, it's his forum."
A: They were ones where you weren't wearing a lot of clothes... I don't know if that rings a bell.
DH: Oh it was the Century Hotel stuff probably. Actually I did that film because nudity absolutely terrifies me. Not terrifying, that's a strong world. But the idea of waking up and finding yourself naked in a room full of people. With Century Hotel, it also dealt with homosexuality. And as an actor you sort of go, "What are you willing to do?" Cause as an actor you play all different sorts of roles. Is it your job to make a comment about people's lifestyle? Again, I've played some horrible characters and I felt like I got away with not doing a scene where I felt uncomfortable. It was one of those films I went, "I should do this," because this is one of those great experiments where you go, "Let me see if I can sell this." That was the neat thing about Century Hotel. What of course you don't consider at that point is that people are going to capture it. Why they'd want to, I don't know.
A: Yeah, people get pretty excited.
L: Did it (Century Hotel) make it easier when you were in the episode of Atlantis, "Duet" when you are laying there in the bed and people were saying, "Rodney is naked under the sheets!"
DH: Well that was very funny because you have Peter DeLuise directing that episode and Peter is a character. We were doing this scene and we had these, I don't know what you call them, this sort of nude underwear, sort of weird nylon thing you put on. It really saves the crew. And so I had it on, but it kept showing, the underwear that is.
L & A: *giggling* (like the ladies we are)
DH: Stop giggling. *laughs* So eventually I said, "This is ridiculous," and I pulled the underwear off and we did the scene without them. In some of these situations you are going to see it. There is a fair amount of nudity, well silly nudity in A Dog's Breakfast. It's very John Cleese, very Fawlty Towers. As an uptight British man, I would say to me its very funny to watch people who do not want to be naked be naked. There's something very funny to me about someone who's obviously uncomfortable with themselves being in that situation. But it's funny, Century Hotel, a part of me that goes, "I kinda wish I hadn't done that," cause I wish there wasn't those video captures all over the place. But at the same time you go, "Well that's part of the job, it comes with the territory." If you want to play the same thing over and over again, great. I think that's always the difference between an actor and a star. Stars just play the same role over and over again. And as an actor your job is to be different people all the time.
L: Abbey has a question that has been a bit of a controversy in the McKay fan world.
DH: Alright, I'm going to eat toast while I talk to you, so if you hear crunching it's just Jane's rhubarb jam on toast.
A: Yum! So in the episode where McKay gets shot in the butt with the arrow, and he's in the infirmary with Beckett, people are wondering what the pattern on the boxers were. It kind of looks like kiwis but then it kind of looks like lemon slices.
L: And people were laughing if it was lemons.
DH: I'm pretty sure they were kiwis. I think they were kiwis or they were some kind of psychedelic looking kiwi. Kiwi like pattern.
L: Yes, that has been a bit of a debate in the past weeks what the pattern was.
DH: I will put that to rest by saying they are "psychedelic kiwi shapes".
L: Alright, that's going on the record.
DH: Another mystery solved.
*laughter*
A: Since we've seen the launch of the site for A Dog's Breakfast. Do you miss working in web development?
DH: The most frustrating part about it for me is how much I've forgotten.
L: Oh yeah, you take a couple years off and you just forget everything!
DH: I used to program in C and Java and Basic way back but I love that stuff and then got into HTML and Python and Perl and I knew all that stuff. And I come in and start goofing around with stuff now and I find it so frustrating. I had bookcases of manuals way back and when I moved down to LA I sold them all. Full time acting in LA took up way more time than in Toronto. I absolutely love it, to me, when it's over and done with, the internet will be the thing that people remember of my time on earth. One of the big changing forces people talk about that happened in my lifetime.
L: I've taken programming and found it frustrating so I admire the fact that you knew or still know C and Java and all that.
DH: That's the thing, I don't. It's like any language, if you don't do it everyday you lose it very quickly. I ended up using an open source called Joomla, its like an open source content management system. The other thing, the graphic design stuff, which I've never really played around with that much. I used to jot down ideas for what I wanted, again the little storyboard type things and my sister Moyra would look after all the design work. She was an absolute genius with that stuff. But she has two kids now and so she doesn't do it anymore. I haven't for a number of years, so I called her up the other day and said, "Um.... would you mind doing some design stuff?" and she's like, "Um... have you met your nieces?"
L: So the poster for A Dog's Breakfast, is that going to be the official movie poster? Or is that just a mock up?
DH: Just like a mock up, to see what people like and don't like. I like the idea of it. I was on the forum and I saw some of the things people were goofing around with and I just thought, let's see what people have, I mean, I'm open. One of the big things I learned in directing the film is that it comes down to getting people who are good at what they do to do their jobs and staying out of it. So for me, I'm curious to see what people have. Obviously I don't want to take advantage of anyone but I would like to see what ideas they have. And who knows, maybe someone will come up with something really cool. I have a specific idea in mind I would like to do but it involves doing a photo shoot and we would have to organize all that. And again, its stuff if we go to a distributor, we'll have to run it by them, so I don't want to spend money on that. If we do self-distribution, I've got an idea for a poster, unless something comes along that just blows me away. The reason I like the one we've got right now is sort of from a grass roots standpoint. I think the idea of having that little poster up or something similar to that, up in vets and even on road signs around town, I think it will draw attention to it. "Have you seen this dog?" I'm going to go have a look cause I'm thinking "Aw, poor dog. What happened?" and I think it's a little cheeky And I think there will probably be a couple of different ways of marketing this film. For the fans, you guys know so much about the movie already.
L: But we haven't gotten to see it yet.
DH: Exactly. So for you guys, I need to do more work on making sure you have stuff beyond just the movie. That's why I want to do the Q&As, screenings and in a non-convention environment where you can come, see the movie and chat about it. And talk about Stargate and all that kind of jazz as well. I'd like to make a day out of it. So the idea being there will be more stuff to add to the DVD, which makes it worth the 20 bucks or whatever. I don't know what DVDs cost anymore. We're like Netflix people now. Netflix is like a dream come true. A complete change of the way I watch movies.
L: Yeah, no more having to hunt around at 10 different movie stores for a movie that's in stock.
DH: Well that's it, but I didn't do that, I'd walk out to blockbuster, I'd go "Look. A monster. Let's get that one!"
L & A: *laughing*
DH: And you end up watching the movie. It's like instant gratification, you see a poster and go, "I wanna see that movie!" and I find it's very rare that you start looking through for specific movies. Or you go looking for one movie and they don't have it so you end up getting something else. With Netflix it's like a subtle difference but you know any movie that shows up your mailbox is a movie you want to see. And you may not be in the mood for it that night. We've watched more international movies and old movies. It's amazing. I hate going to movie stores where people don't know anything about movies.
DH: Movies were always huge for me.
A: What's your favorite movie or top three?
DH: I can never -- I have no favorite movies. There's definitely movies that stand out. Classics from the nerd world, you've got Star Wars and Blade Runner of course. Those movies had a huge impact on me growing up. Star WarsAlien, the original that I was too young to get in to when it first came out but I snuck in. You associate movies with times in your life as well. Like Star WarsWithnail & I was a huge influence on me. It was a tiny little British film. I watch it again now and it's funny but I don't know why it was so huge in that time of my life.
L: Some other little "fan girly" questions to wrap up the interview so we're not taking too much time out of your night. How about the first five songs on your iPod or iTunes?
DH: Hmm, I've been meaning to change the order, but it's alphabetical. So it goes through all the songs with numbers in it and then it goes into the A's. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Keane. And I'm so pissed off at the lead singer for not coming out on concert. We were going to go see him play in Vancouver but (asks Jane) he's sick? Oh. I thought he was just screwing up. Well if he's sick, alright then, fine. Wimp. I was all jazzed to go see him in concert and they're kinda fun. Blue October was one I got recently. The Killers I'm lovin'.
L: Oh yeah, they came out with a new album, I think Tuesday.
DH: I haven't gotten that one yet. That's iTunes Music Store for me. Another thing...
(Jane says in the background: Justin Timberlake!)
D: Shut up Justin Timberlake!
L & A: *laughing*
DH: Jane likes that Justin Timberlake. She's much cooler than I am apparently.
L: In an older interview, you talked about how you showed up on the Stargate set in this little compact car where everybody else was driving their big SUVs. Do you still have this little car or did you go out and buy a new sports car.
DH: *laughs* Nope. Still driving it.
L: What is it?
DH: It's this tiny little Toyota Echo. It was the only car i could afford when we were living in LA. Down there, we didn't have any money. It was the cheapest car you could buy. And my dad even helped me out buying it. I've never been a big fan of cars, it gets me from A to B, that's all I care about. As long as it's got a radio. Jane however just got a new car.
L: Ah, so Jane likes the new toys.
DH: Yes, Jane likes her cars. She's got a VW but it runs on bio-diesel so its practically running on french fries.
K: It probably smells like it too.
DH: Well its weird, cause it's a diesel-y smell but it's not the same kind of toxic smelling diesel you are used to. When I think of diesel, I think of those Mercedes that leave that cloud behind as they drive off. We just leave a nice sort of slightly fried smell.
L: How about favorite food?
DH: Well right now, it's Jane's rhubarb jam on toast.
L: Do you cook or does Jane cook?
DH: We're both pretty good at cooking. I'm not good at it but I do it every so often. You'll have to ask Jane about my cooking.
(Jane in the background)
DH: It's delicious apparently. I vaguely remember because I haven't done it in so long. I'm a huge BBQ fan so generally I throw it on fire and then take it off fire later. And that counts as cooking for me. Jane's a little fancier. I'm not so good with all the 'you gotta do so much before you get to the cooking.' Jane is much better with the preparation so her stuff tends to be a little more refined than mine. But I do make a great breakfast. They (on the movie set) had "the big dog breakfast" and it was everything. Eggs, toast, pancakes, I of course had three or four helpings of it every day.
L: That sounds like a lot of fun. So I guess we will hear more on the A Dog's Breakfast website about distribution and festivals or if you are going to show the film at conventions.
DH: Yes. There is a chance that we might be showing it in February in England (Wolf's Pegasus convention) but again, we have to figure out everything and if someone buys it, then they might not want it shown at conventions. I would very much like to be showing at some point during the next 4 1/2 months before we go back (to filming Atlantis) so I'm hoping within that time to get at least a couple of screenings.
L: That's good, so you'll have some time to rest...
DH: Rest is for the weak. We're going to take it easy, but Jane and I are not terribly good at taking it easy.
L: Well we're going to let you go now so you all can go and you probably want to rest up.
DH: Yes, speaking of cooking, we have to go buy ourselves some dinner.
L & A: Thanks so much for talking to us!
DH: Thanks guys!
To read more about A Dog's Breakfast visit the official website and check out the thread in our forums for great pictures from the movie! (Thank you Jane!) |
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