Actress Amanda Tapping as Colonel Samantha Carter in Stargate Atlantis. Photo copyright of Syfy.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actress Amanda Tapping talks about her work on Stargate Atlantis as well as the made-for-DVD Stargate SG-1 feature films (The Ark of Truth and Continuum) as well as the Sanctuary web series!
For the past 10 years, life has been anything but dull for Stargate SG-1’s Colonel Samantha Carter, and the adventure is not over yet. This (fourth) season on Stargate Atlantis, she leaves the Milky Way Galaxy for the far-flung Pegasus Galaxy to begin her new assignment as leader of the Atlantis expedition. It’s sure to be a year of significant change not only for the colonel, but also the actress who plays her, Amanda Tapping.
“When it was announced that I was going over to Atlantis I had some people say to me, ‘Oh, my God, you’re going to play this character for another year.’ Oddly enough, though, she isn’t the same character; she can’t be,” notes Tapping. “Sam is no longer in a position of subordination. It’s far easier to be a lemming than it is to be the leader of the lemmings. I’m not saying that the characters on Atlantis are lemmings, but in the military it’s much easier to be a subordinate and follow someone else’s orders rather than have to make up your own, knowing that any decision you make affects thousands of peoples’ lives.
“They say, ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown.’ Sam has the mantel of looking after everyone on this base. For the first time in her career and in her life she’s in charge of a group of people, but my character isn’t focusing a great deal on the in charge part. By that I mean she’s not all like, ‘Rah, rah, rah, I’m your new leader.’ It’s more a case of, ‘OK, I’m responsible for these peoples’ lives, and along with having to make the right decisions, I also have to be aware of the fact that people are going to be following my orders, which means they’ve got to be the right orders
“So that’s the challenge for Sam, and the challenge for me when playing her is to try to temper being in charge with not abusing that responsibility and not being power-hungry, which she’s not. It’s very much a case of me, Amanda, and Sam coming into this new situation and going, ‘We’re not taking over here. We’re just being aware that everyone has their areas of expertise,’ and with Sam, she’s just the facilitator of those expertise.”
The actress makes her debut on Atlantis later this month when season four begins airing on the US Sci Fi Channel. However, prior to starting work on the show, Tapping took a trip up North, the Arctic to be more precise, along with fellow SG-1 actors Ben Browder (Colonel Cameron Mitchell) and Richard Dean Anderson (General Jack O’Neill) as well as a camera team to shoot a handful of scenes for Stargate: Continuum, the second of two SG-1 DVD adventures that are scheduled for release in 2008.
“That was one of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had,” enthuses Tapping. “Aside from giving birth and being a parent, going up to the Arctic ranks right up there in my top 10 life experiences. It was a challenge and an adventure. We were a small group of wacky and intrepid explorers and it was a total team effort. Everyone helped out with everything. Brenda [Turner] from the hair department came up with us and did hair, make-up and wardrobe. Kenny [Gibbs] from props busted his hump and was acting like an AD [assistant director]. At the end of each day we‘d go to the hooch, which were these plywood sheds we lived in, to see who needed help with whatever. It was just a really amazing group of people, and by the very nature of what had to be done, it had to be a small group, so things worked out great.
“Getting up there was an adventure, and then going out onto the ice and realizing that we were living on a moving ice flow,” continues the actress. “You’re standing there and it feels so solid in places, but, in fact, you’re actually standing on the moving Arctic Ocean. It was a neat bonding experience for me and Ben because we were there for the entire shoot. Rick came up for the last three days, but Ben and I were up there from the beginning and there were moments where we’d just look at each other and go, ‘Oh, my God, can you believe this.’
“There’s this one scene we did which was a huge helicopter shot with me and Ben walking. We had to get far away from camp and from everyone, so they plopped us in snowmobiles, dumped us off and said, ‘Start walking.’ The helicopter then came buzzing overhead, and as we were walking we thought to ourselves, ‘Man, no one ever walked here before, and no one will probably walk here again. How many actors get an opportunity like this,’ and how many actors given this opportunity would take it? They could have easily used stand-ins or photo-doubles because it’s a helicopter shot of two very tiny figures dressed in full Arctic gear, but, gosh, I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything. On the third helicopter pass, Ben and I got down and made snow angels,” chuckles Tapping. “We were giggling, honest to God, like I haven’t giggled since I was in grade school. It was so much fun.”
Following the Arctic shoot, which was in early March, Tapping spent the next couple of months with her time split between filming Atlantis, the first SG-1 DVD movie, The Ark of Truth, and the remainder of Continuum. “Ark of Truth is pretty much a continuation of the Ori story arc from last year,” explains the actress. “Mitchell and Carter are on the Odyssey dealing with the Replicators, while Daniel [Michael Shanks], Teal’c [Christopher Judge] and Vala [Claudia Black] are handling the Ori, so it felt a lot like season 10. We did the cast read-through and about a third of the way through, Ben and I turned to everyone else and [jokingly] said, ‘We’ll see you at the end of the movie.’
“Continuum is quite different because our characters are together much more. I’m very excited about it, but Ark of Truthis a beautiful wrap-up to the Ori storyline and season 10. Rob Cooper [SG-1 executive producer who also wrote and produced Ark of Truth] directed it – we called him Rob Cooperick [referring to legendary director Stanley Kubrick] – and he did a phenomenal job of giving it a huge vision. Rob took his time and really made the movie he wanted to make, so it’s big and beautiful.”
There are monsters all around us, and Dr. Helen Magnus knows that only too well. As the heroine of the Internet-based Sci-Fi/Fantasy drama Sanctuary, she has spent more years than she probably cares to remember risking her life in an effort to keep the public safe from such creatures. Playing Magnus and becoming a part of what she hopes will be a long-running series, was a real eye-opener for Tapping in more ways than one.
“Damian Kindler’s [series creator/executive producer] concept and his writing is truly astounding, as is Martin Wood’s [executive producer/director] polishing and putting together of the shots and visual representation of the entire thing,” praises the actress. “The challenge for me is creating a new character and making it believable. Helen is the complete antithesis of Carter in so many ways, which is fantastic for an actor.
“The other major challenge was working with a green screen all the time. For instance, walking into Helen’s study and having only two wingback chairs with that green all around us. After the first two or three days you get so used to it and suddenly think, ‘This is much easier. Just roll in the set pieces and start filming.’ The trick, though, for Jim Menard [director of photography] and the lighting department is to light these totally different rooms when all you have is a table and chairs and a green screen.
“Everything was quite invigorating, though, because it was new. Also, I was asked to be an executive producer, so being on that end of things was a big learning curve for me, too.
“Stargate fostered this nurturing environment where we were all given the opportunity as artists and creative people to grow, and 10 years later we can take that shared knowledge and experience and make something like this, so God bless that for helping create Sanctuary.”
Having finished work for the day on Atlantis, Tapping is waiting for the rush hour to end before leaving for home. “The episode we’re currently working on is called The Seer, and in it Carter has to deal with Richard Woolsey, who has come to Atlantis to do her three-month evaluation for the IOA,” says the actress. “Of course, we have a massive crisis and she’s got to make some tough decisions at the last minute.
“The Seer also sets up a fascinating premise with this psychic [Martin Jarvis] who sees probable futures and shows our characters certain scenarios. He shows Carter one that’s quite frightening, and it’s a question of whether she chooses to trust that that vision is going to happen now or in the near future. There’s lots of interesting character stuff, too, in this episode for Teyla [Rachel Luttrell] and Ronon [Jason Momoa].
Besides her fellow Atlantis castmates, Tapping has enjoyed working this particular week with a very familiar face, actor Robert Picardo, who reprises his role of IOA (International Oversight Authority) representative Richard Woolsey in the season four episode The Seer.
“I love Robert,” says the actress. “He’s a thinking man’s actor and he’s always got something going on behind his eyes, which means he’s an amazing person to react off of and talk to in a scene.
“Of course, his character is fantastic. Richard Woolsey is someone you love to hate because he’s such a weasel, and he has some very amusing self-effacing lines in this story. We shot a scene this morning where Woolsey says, ‘I’ve been told in some of my personal reviews that I tend to be a bit of a busybody,’ and he’s sort of fully expecting Carter to go, ‘Oh, no, no, no,’ but she doesn’t. And he’s like, ‘Oh…,’ and just the way Robert plays it, you’re trying not to laugh because he’s so funny.”
“This has been an interesting season so far, and I’m excited about what lies ahead. It’s an embarrassment of riches for me and I feel truly blessed. I get to stay in Vancouver with my family, work on the SG-1 films as well as Atlantis, and Sanctuary kept me busy during the off-season.
“Life is good,” smiles Tapping.
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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