Battlestar Galactica's Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes). Photo copyright of Syfy.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actress Michelle Forbes talks about her various roles, including her unforgettable performance as Admiral Helena Cain in Battlestar Galactica.
There are certain people in the Battlestar Galactica universe that you dare not cross, one of whom is Admiral Helena Cain. Introduced in the season two mid-year cliffhanger, Pegasus, the officer is not so much a wolf in sheep’s clothing as she is a woman determined to do things her way, regardless of the cost. Bringing just the right blend of strength, femininity and cunning to the role, Michelle Forbes is the perfect fit as the icy, steely-eyed Cain. It’s hard to picture anyone else playing the part, but that could have easily been the case as the actress nearly let the job slip through her fingers.
“I passed twice, actually,” says Forbes. “It’s just that I tend to play a lot of authoritative, severe women, and as an actor you want as much variation in your career as possible, so initially this simply wasn’t something I wanted to do. God bless them, though, for being so pursuant of me. The Galactica producers sent me a set of DVDs, because I had never seen the show, either, which I watched. At one point, my manager called me to say, ‘I’ll let them know you’ve decided to pass,’ and I said, ‘No, hang on a second.’
“I’d been sitting there watching one of the episodes, and although I didn’t know exactly what was going on because the storytelling is so labyrinthine, I still felt emotionally connected to the series and the heart that is this particular group of characters. This show is amazingly good, and it’s very smart and well-written. I shudder to think I almost lost out on working with those wonderful people and on such a powerful story.”
Born in Austin, Texas, Forbes was just a child when she saw her sister training to be a ballerina and wanted to do the same. However, she eventually realized her interests laid elsewhere and decided instead to become an actor. “I was 16 when I moved to New York to start my career,” recalls Forbes. “My first paying job was on a soap opera [The Guiding Light] playing, are you ready, a schizophrenic psychologist from Venezuela. I know, don’t ask,” she chuckles. “I distinctly remember being thrilled about getting the job, but at the same time felt frustrated working within the confines of the soap opera medium. Having said that, I have an enormous amount of respect for actors who make their living doing daytime drama because the pace is so fast.”
On the big screen Forbes has appeared in such films as Love Bites, Kalifornia, Escape from L.A. and Dandelion. Along with various made-for-TV movies and miniseries, she was a regular on two shows, Homicide: Life on the Street and Wonderland, and had recurring roles on Messiah, 24 and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The actress has also guest-starred on a number of series including Seinfeld, Strong Medicine and Alias.
In the Battlestar Galactica episode Pegasus, Admiral Cain and her crew of the Battlestar Pegasus make a surprise rendezvous with the Battlestar Galactica. Initially, the admiral tells Commander Adama (Edward James Olmos) that she has no intention of interfering with how he’s been running things. However, Cain soon reneges on her promise, and it’s around this same time that members of Galactica’s crew discover that she supposedly shot one of her command staff for disobeying a direct order. Is the admiral crazy or, again, just fiercely determined? What does Forbes think?
“It’s rather tricky because Cain is such a complex individual and her story is such a complicated one within the bigger complex Galactica story,” notes the actress. “What struck me, though, about my character is that her situation is so similar to what’s happening in the real world today insofar as issues of torture during wartime and a person doing what he or she believes is right even though they’ve become misguided.
“My feeling about Cain is that she’s lost perspective. People ask, ‘Is she insane? Is she psychotic?’ I hope that’s not how she came across because that was never the intention. I think some individuals can appear to be that way, but this is a woman who did what she had to do in order to survive during very brutal conflicts. Along the way, Cain lost her sense of judgment as well as her sense of reason and rationale. That was all very interesting for me to play. Usually in TV you’re given one characteristic and you dare not stray from that, so it was neat to have such a difficult, fascinating woman to portray.”
Cain and Adama agree to set aside their differences in order to take on the more immediate issue of destroying a Cylon “Resurrection” ship in the aptly titled two-part story Resurrection Ship. It’s during this episode that the admiral and her crew reveal their true colours. “This story is far darker than the previous one, although Pegasus was certainly fueled by its own ominous storytelling,” says Forbes. “In Resurrection Ship it really comes to light the path of sadism that these people have gone down and we’re fully able to see exactly what happened to this group aboard the Pegasus. There were some pretty difficult choices they had to make, too, in regard to the Cylon prisoner Gina [Tricia Helfer] and that whole dynamic.
“It’s a really solid story all the way around. I don’t know if audiences are aware of this, but they expanded it to two parts, which it definitely deserved. It’s a fine example of sophisticated storytelling and I was thoroughly impressed when I watched my copy of the episode."
At the time of this interview (late November), Forbes was preparing to fly to Chicago to start work on the new hit Fox crime drama Prison Break. Having returned home for the holidays, she is now back in the Windy City and will be there through February to finish filming her episodes. “There are two separate parts of the show, the actual prison break story and then the conspiracy that sort of spirals off out of that,” explains the actress. “The character I play is involved in the conspiratorial political thriller arc. It’s a lot like 24 in the sense that you don’t really know what’s coming up, so you just have to trust the show. Some of the actors on 24 used to be rather nervous because they didn’t know what was happening, and I’d be like, ‘This is liberating. Have fun with it. You can’t be wrong in your acting choices.’”
When playing the hearing-impaired Susan Metcalfe on Messiah, Forbes also took on the challenge of speaking sign language. “I had six days to learn it before we began filming the first episode,” she recalls, “and that was in-between jet-lag, costume fittings, production meetings, etc. When you first take on such a challenge you tell yourself, ‘Right, I’m going to climb that mountain,’ and then halfway up you think, ‘I’m not going to make it.’
“At one point I was panicking and thought. ‘I’m not going to be able to pull this off.’ On top of that, you also have a responsibility to the deaf community and if you mess up that would be very bad. I’m not sure I ever got it right, but I absolutely loved the process of learning sign language, particularly British sign language, which is so different from the American version. It’s a fascinating way to communicate, especially as an actor, and especially doing it with someone like Ken Stott [Red Metcalfe]. He has such a powerful voice and to have to tune that out and work on a completely different level was really amazing.
“Messiah is a job that has changed my life in the sense that my family is from the UK, and I’ve built up quite a life there since I first began going back there five years ago to shoot the show. In fact, I couldn’t do the most recent one [Messiah 4: The Harrowing] due to scheduling conflicts, and was very disappointed to have missed seeing my family and friends.”
While she only did a handful of episodes, Forbes is nonetheless fondly remembered for her portrayal of Ensign Ro Laren on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The actress was offered a chance to reprise her role as a regular on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but declined to do so.
“There were all sorts of rumours about why I didn’t take DS9 and that I was quite arrogant about the whole thing. It wasn’t that at all,” says Forbes. “It was, again, about wanting variety in my career. If I’d gone on to do DS9 I might not have had the variety I’ve been very lucky to have had in my career.
“That’s not to say I wasn’t grateful for the opportunity; I genuinely was. However, I had to make a choice that felt right for me, which was a difficult one, especially as a young actor being offered quite a bit of money and a steady job.”
While 2006 will likely bring with it many more challenging job offers for Forbes, it’s doubtful that she will be reprising her character of Cain on Galactica. “As much as I love the series and its cast and crew as well as the producers, I enjoy my freedom, too,” she says. “I tend to do arcs on shows and then go on to the next project. In a different time and world, yes, it would be lovely to be able to work on Galactica every day, but that’s not to be the case here. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was an absolute joy to work with all those people.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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