James Morrison as Lt. Colonel T.C. McQueen in Space: Above and Beyond. Photo copyright of the Fox Network.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, multi-talented James Morrison talks about being cast as Lt. Colonel McQueen in the Fox Network futuristic drama Space: Above and Beyond.
“My father was in the construction business,” says actor, writer and director James Morrison. “He was an office manager in Anchorage, Alaska and from the time I was fourteen he always gave me jobs as a labourer on the road crews building the highways through Alaska. It was hard work but I appreciate my father for doing that because from it I certainly developed, I think, a strong and valuable work ethic.
“When I was in my early twenties I decided to become an actor and since then I’ve held all sorts of jobs as most actors do - truckdriver, waiter, furniture stripper, landscaper, all that stuff. I haven’t had to work a civilian job like that for a while. I’ve been lucky enough for the past ten years or so to be making my living as an actor but with varying degrees of success. For me Space: Above and Beyond is by far the most lucrative opportunity I’ve had.”
After nearly twenty years performing in award-winning theatre productions with some of America’s foremost writers and directors, James Morrison is finally realizing his dream: having his work reach a worldwide audience each week in Space: Above and Beyond. As Lieutenant Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen, code-named Queen Six, Morrison leads the 58th Squadron into battle each week to defend the Earth against insect-like aliens known as Chigs.
Back in 1989 Randy Stone, now 20th Century-Fox Television’s senior vice president of talent and casting, first spotted Morrison playing “an ugly American type” in a stage production of El Salvador. The play was particularly memorable for the actor. He won not only the Dramalogue and Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards for his performance but also the heart of his future wife, Riad Galayini, who played a prostitute in the play. In addition, Morrison discovered that he had gained another friend and supporter in Stone.
“He saw the play, I think his estimate is thirty-five times, something like that,” says the actor. “Since then he’s been a supporter of mine and would bring me in to audition for things whenever he could. He happened to be casting Space: Above and Beyond and called me in. I met with Glen Morgan and James Wong [the creators of the series] and then had to read for the network.
"In the show’s pilot my character has a monologue he delivers to the troops in the last third of the script. That was my audition piece. When I read for the network it was in a room filled with around twenty to twenty-five people. I delivered the orders directly into their eyes, as it were, so, it sort of gave me an advantage. I think it actually put me in a position of power because it was as if I really were their commanding officer.”
The network obviously was sufficiently impressed with Morrison’s commanding presence because the actor was offered the role of McQueen that night. When Space: Above and Beyond first began McQueen was a bit of an unknown quantity. Although audiences eventually get the opportunity to look behind the character’s steely gaze and find out more about him, it was this sense of mystery which first attracted Morrison to the role.
“He’s the enigmatic badass, if you will, who emerges from the fog, shakes things up and then splits,” chuckles the actor. “This type of characters has appeared in literature throughout history, certainly in more recent genres like westerns. I’ve always been fascinated by the guy who comes down from the mountain, saves the town and then goes back up the mountain and no one ever hears from him again. He’s the archetypal silent stranger of few words. That’s what appeals to me about McQueen and that’s what I saw first.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of the Fox Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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