Grace Park as Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on Battlestar Galactica. Photo copyright of Syfy.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Hawaii Five-0 star Grace Park talks about playing two versions of her character of Lt.Sharon "Boomer" Valerii on Battlestar Galactica.
On the old Battlestar Galactica it was always easy to tell the good guys, the humans, from the bad guys, the robot Cylons. However, on the re-imagined version of Battlestar it’s far more difficult. There are Cylons who are exact replicas of human beings, and in many cases there’s more than one copy. That’s true of Lt. Sharon “Boomer” Valerii, a human Cylon. One version of her has been serving aboard the Battlestar, while a duplicate has been pretending to be on the run from the Cylons on the planet Caprica. They may both look identical but there are differences, as actress Grace Park, who plays the Boomers, explains.
“The version onboard the Galactica was uploaded with a program of friends, family, a complete memory of her childhood and growing up, etc,” says Park. “So she has this chip in her head that made her think she was human, but every once in a while in season one it would go into sleep mode. That’s when Boomer’s Cylon programming would take over and make her do some not-so-nice things. She’d then ‘wake up’ and have no memory of what she had done.
“Meanwhile, the Boomer on Caprica has always known exactly who she is and what her purpose was. Her goal was to get Lt. Helo [Tahmoh Penikett] to fall in love with her, but along the way she inadvertently fell in love with him and then became pregnant. Yes, that’s what the Cylons wanted, but they never expected that her feelings for Helo and their as-of-yet unborn child would make her turn on her own people. This Boomer wants to survive as a family with her child and, I’m assuming, Helo.
“It’s been a challenge so far playing two versions of Boomer because I’ve had to make them similar and yet give them differences that would allow viewers to look at them and think, ‘Yes, they’re different people.’ It was tough at first but I think this [second] year I’ve become much better at it. Thank God, because I have a feeling we’ll be introducing more copies of Boomer and I’ll have to do more than just give them each a new accent or a twitch,” jokes the actress.
When Park first auditioned for the 2003 Battlestar miniseries it was for the role of Petty Officer Dualla (which ultimately went to Kandyse McClure). The actress was then asked to fly to Los Angeles to read for the part of Lt. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace.
“I was one of the first three people to arrive for that audition,” she recalls. “There was Katee Sackhoff, a blonde, another actress who I believe was Hispanic and had dark hair, and me, a Korean. We all looked at one another and were like, ‘Wow, they really don’t know what they’re looking for.’ More actresses began arriving and each of us went in and did our thing. Ultimately, it came down to me and Katee.
“By that afternoon they still hadn’t made their decision, so they sent us home and said they’d let us know. I went home and began chewing my nails in anticipation until one day when my agent finally phoned. I found out that Katee had been cast as Starbuck, and I’d gotten the role of Boomer. Naturally, I was happy, but also a little bummed. I thought, ‘Boomer, I don’t want to play her.’ I didn’t even remember her because I was so focused on the Starbuck character. However, lo and behold I’m now Sharon ‘Boomer’ Valerii and I wouldn’t trade her for the world.”
In the Battlestar miniseries, Boomer and Helo are among those pilots helping evacuate human survivors from Caprica after the Cylons invade the planet. Because only so many people can fit aboard their Raptor, a lottery is held to decide who goes and who waits for the next ship. Helo gives up his seat to Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) and Boomer must take off and leave her friend and colleague behind. Working on those scenes, and the days leading up to their filming, are especially memorable for Park.
“One of the first scenes I actually shot for the miniseries was a kissing scene between Boomer and Chief Tyrol [Aaron Douglas] in the Galactica tool room,” she says. “For some reason I was a bit unfocused that day and after a couple of takes, the director [Michael Rymer] asked me to try a little harder to concentrate on the work. I said, ‘Yes, of course,’ and then I asked him if he could maybe give me a gauge of where he felt my performance was at that day. Michael was totally professional and courteous when discussing my work, but what he told me was a bit of a blow. However, it was the best thing he could have done for me.
“For the next two weeks I absolutely hated Battlestar. I didn’t want to go to work or be on-set. Then suddenly one day I finally managed to wrap my head around the problem and, boom, everything was making sense to me. The following morning we began filming the lottery scene and I was so excited. The work itself just seemed really succinct and I felt like I was hitting the nail on the head in terms of my performance. We spent two days on-location shooting those scenes and they were absolute joy for me.”
The Boomer flying the Raptor makes it back to the Galactica and in the first season of Battlestar she carries on with her duties onboard the ship as well as her romance with Chief Tyrol. On Caprica, the Boomer there convinces Helo she came back to rescue him, but the Cylons now have her Raptor. While trying to evade capture and find a way off the planet, they make love and Boomer later tells Helo she’s pregnant. Boomers’ relationships with Helo and Tyrol go in very different directions as the show’s first year draws to a close.
“The Caprica Boomer is completely manipulative with Helo. However, I honestly believe that she has real feelings for him,” explains Park. “Of course, the whole pregnancy thing is completely unexpected on Helo’s part, but nonetheless he wants to do right by my character and take care of her and their baby. Sadly, with Tyrol, suspicion as to whether Boomer is, in fact, a Cylon drives them apart. There’s a clash of prides and a hurt of not wanting to open up to each other and really surrender to what’s going on. That pain still lingers and they haven’t as yet really resolved their relationship.”
Helo learns that Boomer is a Cylon in Battlestar’s two-part season one finale Kobol’s Last Gleaming, while the Galactica Boomer reveals her true identity when she attempts to assassinate Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos). Needless to say, both Boomers lives change a great deal this year beginning with the show’s season two opener Scattered.
“There’s going to be more heartbreak for the Galactica Boomer this time around,” explains Park. “If you’ve seen Scattered you know she’s been thrown in the brig. She could be tossed out an airlock next, or perhaps be dissected and then used for study. No matter what it doesn’t look good for her, and although she’d previously been in deep denial about her origins, now everything is out in the open. So this Boomer’s head is pretty much on the chopping block, but the thing is she didn’t have any awareness of what was going on and the fact she’s really a Cylon. That’s what seems so heartbreaking to me.
“With the Caprica Boomer, the dynamic between her and Helo has changed because Starbuck is now on the planet as well. So Helo is split as to where his loyalties lie. However, Boomer steals Starbuck’s ship and takes off for a while. She eventually comes back, but the problem is now that her Galactica version has been outed, everyone on the ship knows she’s a Cylon. The Caprica Boomer starts running into other members of the Galactica crew and must go to great lengths to convince them to keep her alive.”
Prior to the Battlestar summer hiatus, Park shot an episode and some scenes involving the Caprica Boomer that proved especially challenging acting-wise. “In this story, my character is experiencing pregnancy problems,” says Park. “I’ve never been pregnant in real life, so I did plenty of research in order to help me imagine what it feels like not only to carry a child inside you but also if that baby’s life is somehow threatened.
“At one point, Boomer is on an operating table and screaming like mad. I read the script, did that scene, and I put everything I had into it. By the last take my throat hurt from all the screaming, but I still felt as if I had missed something. Boomer’s situation is a desperate one and I wasn’t sure if I’d brought that out in my performance.
“The director, however, was pleased with the final take, but I would have loved one more crack at it. As an actor you always think of something more you could have done in a scene once the cameras have stopped rolling.”
Given how important her character has become in the Battlestar story, Park couldn’t be happier to be playing Boomer. “It’s one of the most challenging roles on the series, and a rewarding one for me,” she says. “The miniseries and the show’s first season were like a ‘nest’ for me and I felt like I was nurtured as an actress. Now this year I feel like I can fly and I’m so grateful for that.”
Steve Eramo
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