Torri Higginson as Dr. Elizabeth Weir on Stargate Atlantis. Photo copyright of Syfy.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, the lovely and always gracious Torri Higginson chats about her work as Dr. Elizabeth Weir in season three of Stargate Atlantis.
Season three of Stargate Atlantis has been a difficult one for the show’s intrepid leader, Dr. Elizabeth Weir. Her ability to command the Atlantis expedition was challenged by Earth authorities and she had to fight to keep her post after an uneasy alliance with a faction of the Wraith went horribly wrong. At mid-year, unforeseen circumstances forced Weir and her team to temporarily leave the city and return home, and by the season ender, First Strike, Atlantis is on the brink of total annihilation. Despite her character’s woes, actress Torri Higginson, who plays Dr. Weir, is looking quite relaxed this afternoon on the Atlantis set and has been taking the past months’ fictional events in stride.
“One of the challenges I find with my character in general, and I think the show’s writers face a similar predicament, is that because Dr. Weir is outside the day-to-day excitement and action that her team goes through, you have to create story arcs for her that are interesting and engaging as well as part of the Atlantis world, but not repetitive. Boy, that was a mouthful,” jokes Higginson.
“So there’s the constant theme of her job being taken away from her or her wanting to resign, and that has come up quite a bit over the past three years as her basic story arc. It’s then my responsibility as an actress to find new beats to play and show the different attitudes that Weir has towards what’s happening. At the beginning there was her nervousness at possibly losing her job, and then during season two I played more of her anger and sense of, ‘It’s my right to be here [in Atlantis] and damn you for not acknowledging the work I’ve done.’
“I’ve carried on doing that this year and the trick, again, is trying to figure out different ways to play that. There’s actually a scene we shot yesterday and I said to [director] Martin Wood, ‘I’m worried that this same beat has already been done a few times. How do we find an original twist to it?’ Neither of us could resolve that problem, but, then, oddly enough, we did the scene it and turned out great. Something happened during that one take and when Martin said, ‘Cut,’ we both looked at each other and said, ‘Well, that was different.’ Somehow we found a new focus for Weir and that created for her a unique emotional response to this same old threat. So that’s been a challenge, but one I enjoy.”
In the mid-season two-parter The Return, Dr. Weir along with the rest of the city’s inhabitants have no choice but to relinquish control of Atlantis when a group of Ancients show up unexpectedly to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. This episode guest- stars Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neil) and Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey).
“I always have such a great time working with RDA, and also Robert Picardo,” says Higginson. “I especially enjoyed the relationship Weir had with Woolsey. There was the story arc with them involving my character’s ongoing battle with the IOA [International Oversight Authority] as well as the American military and Weir finding someone [Woolsey] brave enough to back her up and recognize that her intent and capabilities are very much there. It’s just that she’s coming from a non-military angle. That was a fascinating arc for her and a neat one for me to play.
“I also thought it was interesting for Weir with regard to the Ancients’ returning and she and her people getting ‘kicked’ out of Atlantis. On one hand you would think, ‘Well, she’s always wanted to meet the Ancients, so she should be thrilled they’ve come back.’ However, the way my character was written, Weir was fighting against giving up control of Atlantis, and that was a curious balance to play. I mean, there’s a sense of propriety of this city that we’ve basically saved and wanting to be part of the Ancients taking it back over, but then being told we couldn’t. At one point I think Weir became a bit too emotionally attached to Atlantis and had to reel herself back in.
“Of course, then there’s that ironic flip in part two of The Return when our characters are allowed back into the city but only because the alien race she had been dying to meet is no longer there. It was a very complicated situation and I felt that the writers did a wonderful job of keeping all those balls in the air. I really liked how these two episodes turned out.”
Fans had the chance to see a very different side of Higginson’s Atlantis alter ego when her character and several others enjoy some off-duty time in the season three episode Sunday. “Elizabeth goes on a date,” enthuses the actress. “It was so nice to see there are other people in Atlantis that our main characters have growing relationships with, and in this case Weir obviously knows this man well enough and is at the point in their relationship to say, ‘Yes, let’s go out.’
“This romance-type of situation always feels slightly strange to play. Someone who you’ve never met before arrives on set that morning and you’re like, ‘I guess we’re going to kiss in an hour. It’s nice to meet you.’ That’s kind of an actors’ challenge, but our guest-star on Atlantis, Matthew Del Negro [Bram Howard from The West Wing] is just so adorable that I didn’t mind in the least,” says Higginson smiling. “Seriously, he’s an exceptionally talented actor and the two of us got on very well. We felt extremely lucky to have him.”
With Stargate SG-1 making the transition from TV to direct-to-DVD films in 2007, Atlantis will be flying solo when it returns for season four. That’s going to take a little getting used to for Higginson. “There’s something quite nice about two hours of Stargate airing back-to-back,” she muses. “So it’s going to be up to this cast as well as the writers, directors, etc., to step it up a notch next year and go, “OK, we have to be even better now.’”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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