SciFiAndTvTalk

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Victor Webster (Mutant X)

Victor Webster as Mutant X's Brennan Mulwray.

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. In today's interview, the always-busy Victor Webster talks about his electrifying work as Brennan Mulwray in Mutant X. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

When he was growing up, Brennan Mulwray lived in constant fear of accidentally – and literally – shocking the life out of those around him. As an adult and a new mutant with the ability to generate vast amounts of electricity, he began to use his powers for personal gain. It wasn’t until Brennan joined a group led by Adam Kane, the man who helped create him and others like him, that he came to realize that he could be doing good with his “gift.” On this particular day, though, Brennan is finding it hard to keep his powers, not to mention his temper, under control. The cast of Mutant X is filming a scene for the second season story Within These Walls in which Adam’s past is driving a wedge between him and his fellow teammates.

“Brennan takes over as team leader when Adam goes missing,” explains Victor Webster, who plays the show’s electrically charged wonder man. “The way the story is set up, the two characters have opposing views on just how Mutant X is being led. Adam wants to handle things a certain way and Brennan thinks they should be done another way. My character subsequently gets to experience what the burden of leadership is like. Because of this, a great deal of tension develops between him and Jesse [Forbes March], who’s also vying for more responsibility insofar as the team is concerned. By the end of the episode, Brennan apologizes to Adam, who also admits that some of his actions were wrong.”

While too much bickering in a family isn’t good, a little disagreement every so often is healthy, even in a family of superheroes. “Last season, our characters were always agreeing with one another,” says the actor. “We hardly ever argued. This year, the episodes are much more character-driven and as a result we have the occasional emotional tug of war. I think that’s terrific, and it certainly adds a further sense of realism to the relationships.

“As I mentioned, there’s definitely a competition going on between Jesse and Brennan. With Adam, my character has a lot of respect for him, and it appears as though he’s grooming Brennan to be his second-in-command. Emma [Lauren Lee Smith] is starting to distance herself a bit from the team and is becoming more of a lone wolf. That makes sense given that she can read the feelings of those around her. The closer Emma gets to someone the more emotionally attached she becomes, which is something she’s afraid of. So that’s a cool dynamic. Of all his teammates, Brennan gets along the best with Shalimar [Victoria Pratt]. However, that’s not to say that things with them will always be rosy. So it’s nice that the show’s writers are shaking things up with us this year.”

Like most children, Webster wanted to be a superhero when he was a youngster. “That’s what eventually led me to study martial arts,” he says. “A big fantasy of mine was to have the ability to save a person’s life.” Never in a million years did the actor think that he’d one day be doing precisely that on Mutant X. Believe it or not, zapping a bad guy with a bolt of electricity or facing them in hand-to-hand combat is the easy part of playing a new mutant. With the show’s first season under his belt, the actor has become much more comfortable walking in Brennan’s shoes. Now in year two, Webster has been working hard to take his performance to the next level.

”Some of the characters I’ve portrayed in the past have been subservient,” notes the actor. “By that I mean they’ve done what other people have told them. Conversely, Brennan is someone who takes his destiny into his own hands and does what he feels is right for him. He’s independent and it’s refreshing to play a guy who’s in control. That said, I want to give Brennan an even stronger sense of who he is. To that end, I’m trying to find different nuances to the character and, at times, make him a little less predictable. What I do may not always work but that’s part of the creative process, right?

“I have to tell you, though, that Brennan is a greater challenge for me to play this season,” continues Webster. “The writers have given me more dialogue along with more to do. Now it’s up to me to take all that and show them as well as the producers what I can do with it. I’m fortunate, too, in that besides the show’s cast I’ve worked with some wonderful guest-stars this season. One of my favorite episodes that we’ve shot so far this year is called The Grift. In it, an ex-girlfriend of Brennan’s who he lived with for a while comes back into his life and cons him into doing something. A very talented actress named Christina Cox was the guest-star and we had some great scenes together. There’s definitely an on-screen chemistry between our two characters and I had a blast playing that out.”

Although his character shed his bad boy image when he joined Mutant X, Webster wouldn’t mind occasionally re-visiting Brennan’s dark side. “I’d love it if we could do some flashbacks, especially with Brennan and his stepfather,” says the actor. “Perhaps his stepfather was very abusive towards him and his mother and smacked them around. It could be that Brennan first discovered his powers during one of those incidents. Maybe he zapped his stepfather in order to stop him from beating up his mom. That would be interesting to explore.

“There’s an upcoming episode where Brennan’s powers start to go out of control and he thinks he’s dying. He’s faced with a scenario that’s very much like when a doctor gives someone a diagnosis of terminal cancer and tells him or her that they only have a few weeks to live. What do you do? So my character has to get in touch with his sense of mortality. In another story we’re about to shoot, Brennan is injected with a drug that induces intense rage.  He’s forced to use all his fighting skills against anyone who gets in his way – including Jesse. That’ll be fun to film.”

According to the actor, Brennan’s fighting technique on Mutant X this season has changed somewhat. “He’s fighting dirty now,” smiles Webster. “I’m talking down and dirty street fighting, which he should have been doing all along. Yes, he’s the martial arts guy on the show and he still does plenty of it. However, he does come from a street background where anything goes in order to win. Shalimar is the one whose fighting should be very graceful and fluid, which it is. I like mine to be a little messy and gritty. I must have a deep hidden desire to be a member of the WWF [Worldwide Wrestling Federation],” he laughs.

A native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Webster did not become interested in acting until his early twenties. However, it was some time before he decided to pursue his dream. “I figured, ‘No way I’ll make it as an actor. There’s too much competition. It’ll be too hard.’ So I gave up before even trying,” recalls the actor. “Instead, I did almost everything else you can think of. I was a cook, a bartender, a pizza delivery guy, a bodyguard, a stockbroker, I sold ladies shoes, and for a time I even owned my own import/export company. I explored the whole gamut, and in doing so discovered, ‘This isn’t what I want for the rest of my life. What I truly want is to be all of these people and more.’

“So I moved to Los Angeles and began taking acting classes. I really focused on building a career for myself and five years later here I am. Everything happened very quickly for me and I’m still working hard to become even better at what I do. Mutant X is the best job I’ve ever had but hopefully it won’t be my last. So it’s important that I look five or ten years down the road and continue to hone my craft if I want to have any longevity in this business.”

In 1998, the actor got his first big acting break – the recurring role of Roger the bartender on the Aaron Spelling daytime TV drama Sunset Beach. “I was super nervous,” says Webster. “I didn’t want to screw up but I kept forgetting my lines even though I’d memorized them. Then, as soon as the cameras began rolling and the director yelled, ‘Action,’ all the words suddenly came flooding back into mind. Talk about weird, huh?”

Webster went on to play Nicholas Alamain in another daytime soap Days of Our Lives, and then landed the part of Victor Mansfield in the AMC Network’s Emmy award-winning series The Lot. “I’ll never forget that job,” he says. “There I was working with all these very talented and incredibly experienced stage and TV actors. I was the greenest one of the cast and I had all these emotional scenes to do. My character was a cattle farmer who was thrust into the Hollywood spotlight. Not surprisingly, he had a difficult time dealing with that. It was a very demanding as well as challenging role but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”

Prior to starting work on the second season of Mutant X, the actor co-starred opposite Steve Martin in the Disney romantic comedy Bringing Down the House. In it, he portrays the new love interest of Martin’s ex-wife, played by Jean Smart. “My character is charming but in a real off-the-wall way,” chuckles Webster. “I had the chance to do some physical comedy, which I loved.” When Mutant X wraps production of its second year, Webster has plans to direct his first short independent feature film.

“I’m trying to convince the producers of Mutant X to let me direct some second-unit material,” says the actor. “It’s up to me now to prove to them that I can do it. I’ve been shadowing a number of our directors and asking questions. Last year I spent every lunch hour sitting in the editing room and watching how this series is put together. It’s been the ideal training ground and I’d eventually like to take what I’ve learnt and apply it to my own projects, so we’ll see.”

He’s good-looking, talented, has a great personality and is a successful actor. Yes, Webster has it all but has never taken it for granted and is not about to start now. “I consider myself extremely lucky,” muses the actor. “I’ve got so many people to thank for believing in me, including the fans, and I’m grateful for their support. I just want to continue to do interesting and challenging work that satisfies them as well as myself. Every morning I wake up thinking, ‘I can’t wait to get to the set.’ As long as that thought stays with me then I’ll keep on acting.”

Steve Eramo

Grimm Gala Raises $804,000 For OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital

Grimm Gala 2017 : (L-R): David Giuntoli, Silas Weir Mitchell, Claire Coffee, Sasha Roiz, Jacqueline Toboni, Bree Turner and Reggie Lee. Photo copyright of NBC.

Hosted by the cast and crew of NBC’s hit drama Grimm, the third and final Grimm Gala took place on Saturday, January 28 and raised $804,000 for OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.  In total, the three Grimm Galas, presented by Comcast and NBCUniversal, have raised $1.5 million to support an endowment established by actor Sasha Roiz, who plays Captain Sean Renard on Grimm” which is set and filmed in Portland. All money raised through sponsorships, individual ticket sales, the special appeal, and auction at the sold-out event go to the Grimmster Endowment that provides OHSU Doernbecher patients and their families support for uncompensated travel, lodging and other services integral to their care and comfort. 

The $804,000 raised was a record-breaker for the three-year event, more than doubling the amount raised at last year’s Gala. At the end of the evening, Roiz announced that the volunteer group, Friends of Doernbecher, will combine its $2.2 million Friends of Doernbecher Endowment for Medical Care with the Grimmster Endowment, to create the Friends of Doernbecher and Grimmster Endowment. This merger creates the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation’s single largest endowed fund, totaling $3.7 million.

“I’m thrilled that Friends of Doernbecher has decided to amend its endowment purpose to mirror the “Grimmster Endowment,” said Roiz, who also serves a Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation board member.  “By bringing these two resources together, we can help three times the number of families.” Roiz concluded his remarks by saying, “We’ll never forget you, Portland.  And we’ll never forget you, Doernbecher.”

Rodrigo Lopez, Regional Senior Vice-President of Comcast in Oregon and Southwest Washington, welcomed the gala attendees and recognized the cast and crew members of “Grimm” as “an important chapter in the history of this region’s television life.”  He went on to observe that Comcast “believes in the healing work being done at Doernbecher as much as the Grimm cast does,” and that “being active participants in the communities we call home is a core value of Comcast’s business.”

Grimm Gala attendees bid furiously on Grimm memorabilia from the show, as well as merchandise designed specifically for the event by Nike’s legendary shoe designer, Tinker Hatfield.  The shoes, considered a collector’s item, were autographed by Hatfield and the cast of Grimm, thus adding to their value.

Marvel's Cloak & Dagger - Cast and Creative Team Announcements (Freeform)

Freeform and Marvel today announced the cast and creative team for its highly anticipated series, Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, a live-action adaptation of the popular Marvel comic.

Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger is a coming-of-age series based on the beloved comic book characters. Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson come from starkly different backgrounds, each growing up with a secret they never dared share with another soul. The series is co-produced by Marvel Television and ABC Signature Studios. Joe Pokaski (Underground, Heroes) will serve as showrunner and executive producer; Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s head of Television and Jim Chory will also serve as executive producers. Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) is set to direct the first episode.

Olivia Holt (former Disney Channel star and Hollywood Records recording artist) will portray Tandy, a once privileged little girl, who watched as her family was destroyed by a disastrous storm that uprooted her life. Now in her late teens, an unexpected encounter with a boy named Tyrone sparks a life-changing event. Aubrey Joseph (Run All Night, The Night Of) will portray Tyrone who as a young man wanted nothing more than to prove he was fearless; but when everything he held close was taken away, life taught Tyrone to be afraid. Now older and more sheltered, Tyrone closes himself off. But when he meets a girl named Tandy his life changes forever. Additional cast for Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger will be announced at a later date. 

“We are proud that Olivia and Aubrey will be the faces of Freeform’s first Marvel series,” said Karey Burke, executive vice president, Programming & Development, Freeform. “These characters were very sought-after roles, but Olivia and Aubrey were undeniable.”

“Marvel is delighted to have found our Cloak & Dagger.  Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph encompass the true essence of the characters and we are excited for the audience to see them in these roles,” said Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel Television and executive producer.

Joe Pokaski said, “The characters of Tandy and Tyrone have always stood out to me ever since I first met them in the pages of Marvel comics when I was a boy. When Olivia and Aubrey read for the roles, these characters leapt off the page. We’re so excited to see what these talented young actors bring to the Marvel Universe.”

Peter Capaldi To Leave Doctor Who

Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. Photo copyright of BBC America.

Doctor Who's Peter Capaldi first stepped into the TARDIS in 2013, and will leave the iconic role in the 2017 Christmas special after three incredible seasons on BBC AMERICA’s hit sci-fi drama. The announcement came tonight on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 2 show; speaking about the upcoming series this Spring he exclusively revealed the next season of the world's longest running sci-fi show will be his last.

Peter Capaldi said: "One of the greatest privileges of being Doctor Who is to see the world at its best. From our brilliant crew and creative team working for the best broadcaster on the planet, to the viewers and fans whose endless creativity, generosity and inclusiveness points to a brighter future ahead. I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s been cosmic."

Capaldi was unveiled to the nation as the Twelfth Doctor during a special live television event on BBC One. Peter’s Time Lord has been much loved and critically acclaimed, with season nine featuring some of the best reviewed performances and episodes of recent series. In particular, his anti-war speech in ‘The Zygon Inversion,’ and his solo appearance in the one-hander, ‘Heaven Sent,’ have been widely acclaimed as among the finest performances by anyone in the role of the Doctor.  Under his reign the show has expanded globally. He took the series on a World Tour and has drawn record ratings in America, Canada, and Latin America.  The highly anticipated 10th season returns to BBC AMERICA Saturday, April 15th at 9/8c. Peter Capaldi's final series also marks writer and executive producer Steven Moffat's last so promises to be unmissable event television.

Steven Moffat, writer and executive producer said: “For years before I ever imagined being involved in Doctor Who , or had ever met the man, I wanted to work with Peter Capaldi. I could not have imagined that one day we’d be standing on the TARDIS together. Like Peter, I’m facing up to leaving the best job I’ll ever have, but knowing I do so in the company of the best, and kindest and cleverest of men, makes the saddest of endings a little sweeter. But hey, it’s a long way from over. Peters’ amazing, fiery, turbulent Doctor is still fighting the good fight, and his greatest adventures are yet to come. Monsters of the universe, be on your guard - Capaldi’s not done with you yet!”

Peter will be joined in season 10 by new companion Pearl Mackie (Bill), and Matt Lucas (Nardole) with guest appearances to come from David Suchet and Michelle Gomez. He has starred alongside Jenna Coleman as his companion Clara Oswald, Alex Kingston as River Song, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, as well as Keeley Hawes, Tom Riley, Frank Skinner, Maisie Williams, Joivan Wade and many more. Peter's Doctor has fought Daleks and Davros, Cybermen, Zygons, new monsters like the Veil and old foes the Time Lords.

Brian Minchin, Executive Producer said: "Peter Capaldi is an extraordinary Doctor and has taken the show to amazing places. Although I'm sad he has decided to move on in 2018, I'm delighted that we have one final series with Peter Capaldi and Steven Moffat. I know what they're planning and it's going to be incredible."

Capaldi will return in the next season for 12 episodes in April, followed by the Christmas Special when the regeneration will take place.

As noted above, photo copyright of BBC America, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Makes His Vikings Debut In The Season Four Finale

Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Heahmund in Vikings. Photo copyright of HISTORY.

The deception, corruption, and bloodshed culminates in the momentous season 4 finale of HISTORY's #1 series Vikings airing Wednesday, February 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In the explosive season finale, Golden Globe Award-winner Jonathan Rhys Meyers makes his first on-screen appearance as the pivotal character, Heahmund, a warrior bishop. Rhys Meyers joins the cast for season 5 of Vikings which is currently in production in Ireland. A first-look of Rhys Meyers as Heahmund is pictured below. 

In the epic season 4 finale titled The Reckoning, Aethelwulf (Moe Dunford) finds himself subject to the Vikings’ battle master plan. Meanwhile, Ecbert (Linus Roache) remains behind with a plan of his own. Fans can catch up on this season of Vikings on HISTORY.ca, HISTORY on Demand, HISTORY Go app, and iTunes.

Vikings is an international Canadian/Irish co-production by Take 5 Productions and World 2000. HISTORY broadcasts both domestically in Canada and the U.S. MGM Television is the worldwide distributor outside of Ireland and Canada. Vikings is produced in association with Corus Entertainment.

As noted above, photo copyright of HISTORY, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Malcolm-Jamal Warner (Jeremiah)

Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Kurdy in Jeremiah.

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. In today's interview, veteran actor and all-around nice guy Malcolm-Jamal Warner talks about struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world playing Kurdy in the MGM Sci-Fi series Jeremiah. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

From 1984 to 1992, millions of TV viewers across America watched Malcolm-Jamal Warner grow from a teenager into a young man on The Cosby Show. Four years later, the actor went on to co-star in as well as produce and direct his own sitcom Malcolm and Eddie. Nowadays, he is fighting for survival as Kurdy in the Sci-Fi series Jeremiah. For Warner, the switch from comedy to drama was a welcome one.

“I’d been looking for a one-hour project in order to continue to hone my craft in that genre,” says Warner. “What struck me about Jeremiah was the fact that although it was Sci-Fi it really didn’t feel like one to me, if that makes sense. I appreciated the fact that there weren’t any half-android, half-human characters. I saw it as a chance not only to do good work but also bring something to the Sci-Fi table. After reading the script, I met with [series creator and executive producer] Joe Michael Straczynski [of Babylon 5 fame]. I auditioned for him, had a callback and then went in for the final screentest where I read with a number of different actors up for the part of Jeremiah.

“Funnily enough, it was around this time that I began to change my perception of auditions. To me, an audition is a gig. I have a captive audience and five or ten minutes in which to serve them up the best I have to offer. ‘This is what I can do. If you dig it, cool. If not, well, I tried.’ As an actor it’s hard to go into an audition without feeling like you really want the job, and because our business has such a high level of rejection it can be hard when you don’t get the part. So now I try to have a certain detachment when I walk into an audition. With Jeremiah, I think this new ‘philosophy’ of mine took a lot of the pressure off me. Maybe that helped, who knows, but much to my delight I ended up being hired.”

The Jeremiah TV series is loosely based on the comic book by Belgian writer Hermann Huppen. It is set in America 2020, where a biological plague or ‘The Big Death’ has killed everyone over the age of 15. Society is in ruins and is slowly being rebuilt by groups of survivors that are scattered across the country. The show’s hero Jeremiah (Luke Perry) is in search of the Valhalla Sector. There he hopes to find information on the disease, which could return but in a far more virulent form. Along the way he crosses paths with Warner’s character of Kurdy.

“In the comic [book] version of Jeremiah, both he and Kurdy are white,” explains the actor. “It was also mentioned in the original draft of the show’s pilot script that Kurdy was illiterate. That was an issue I felt had to be addressed even before I screentested for the role. I said, ‘One guy being able to read but not the other is fine if your characters are both white. However, there’s no way you can do a show with two leads and the black guy can’t read.’ I discussed this with Joe and he said, ‘You’re right.’ He and the rest of the producers had already decided to make Kurdy black but hadn’t gotten any further when it came to changing anything else about him.

“Having that initial conversation with Joe really helped set the precedent for our working relationship,” he continues. “Joe is all about the collaborative effort, which I think is great. I did a TV series for four years where I spent so much time arguing with the writers, producers, the studio, the network, and my fellow actors about the fact that, ‘Hey, there are other ways black people can be funny.’ I even remember watching Mr. [Bill] Cosby fighting with writers on his own show. So it’s such a relief to be associated with a program like Jeremiah where people are all working towards a common goal.”

In the show’s two-part opener The Long Road, Jeremiah catches Kurdy trying to steal his fish. After convincing one another that the other can be trusted, the two continue their journey together. It is not long before they come upon a market community called Clairfield, whose leader is the beautiful and determined Theo (Kim Hawthone). She is obsessed with obtaining as much knowledge and technology as possible. Jeremiah does not agree with her methods and wants to help those looking to escape her tyranny. Kurdy, however, initially wants no part of this.

“Kurdy has a conflict between looking out for number one and helping people,” notes Warner. “It’s been his experience that when you go to someone’s aid you usually end up getting screwed. Jeremiah, however, is a hero and heroes help people. So it takes time for Kurdy to wrap his head around that ‘concept,’ but he eventually does,” chuckles the actor. “That inner struggle was one of the things about the character that appealed to me. I also like that he and Jeremiah have become equals. I don’t think that was necessarily their [the writers’] original intent. However, Kurdy is definitely not just a side-kick, and I think a lot of that is due to that collaborative effort I spoke of earlier.”

When it came to the actual filming of the pilot, the actor could not have been more pleased. “The first week on any new program can sometimes be a little awkward,” he says. “With Jeremiah, a lot of the crew had worked together before. When Luke and I arrived on the set in Vancouver these guys didn’t know what to expect. Naturally, they were curious as to, ‘What are Luke and Malcolm like?’ I’m pleased to say that there was a warm environment right from the get-go. You can see that Luke and I like each other as well as what we do and I think that vibe filters right down to the rest of the cast and crew.

“The very first phone conversation Luke and I had prior to coming up to Canada was about the fact that he and I have been doing this [acting] for a long time. We’ve both dealt with the politics, the bullshit, the egos, etc. We decided to make Jeremiah about the work, but also make sure we had a good time doing it. That’s been our focus from the onset and I think it’s worked out well.”

In the second half of The Long Road, Jeremiah and Kurdy meet up with Marcus Alexander (Peter Stebbings), who is in charge of a secret underground base located in Thunder Mountain. Up to now, Marcus and his people have kept their existence a secret from the outside world for fear of being overrun by needy souls. It is Jeremiah and Kurdy who convince him that he must join with other groups in order to guarantee the continued survival of humanity. They agree to liaison on Marcus’s behalf with outsiders in the hope of finding out who might be interested in forming alliances. While on their first mission in the episode Man of Iron, Woman Under Glass, they meet a young man who has convinced himself he is a superhero called Captain Iron.

“When I first read this script I thought, ‘This feels corny to me,’” recalls Warner. “However, after we filmed it, I received a rough cut of the story to watch. By the time it got to end when Jeremiah dons the Captain Iron costume and goes off to fight the bad guys I had tears in my eyes. It was such a wonderful, magical episode. The overall message of the show is that in all the darkness there is light or hope. It’s difficult to get that point across without being corny. Luckily, Joe Straczynski and Sam Egan [fellow executive producer] are both able to ride that fine line rather smoothly. This was just one example of that and I was suitably impressed. The story turned out to be one of my favorites in the first season.

“Another one I really enjoyed was City of Roses where Kurdy returns home and discovers how his parents really died. As an actor you always want to do emotional scenes to prove to people that you can act. This story gave me that opportunity. Not counting my mother, I’m my harshest critic. I remember watching this episode and, although I could see the disparity between what I ended up with and what I was going for, I could also see some growth. It was the first time I was able to track progress in my acting without beating myself up. I thought, ‘It wasn’t quite what I was going for but I can see how close I got. Now I know what I’ve got to work on so that I can get to the place I want to be as an actor.’ So the story was a real turning point for me.”

Born August 18th, 1970 in Jersey City, New Jersey, Warner was named after Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. According to the actor, he had his career path figured out from a young age. “I was going to become a famous poet, a famous basketball player and a famous actor – in that order. I got the actor part out of the way and now I’m working on the poet part. I gave up on the basketball, but I figure two out of three ain’t bad,” he jokes.

Warner was only 12 years old when he made his debut in an episode of the TV detective series Matt Houston. “It was my first audition and my first job,” says the actor. “Up to that point I had been doing theatre and I remember being intrigued by the differences in stage versus TV acting. In the theatre you do the whole play or a scene right through. With film, you do part of a scene, stop, wait for the set to be re-lit, shoot the same portion of the scene from a different angle, etc. I came to understand very early on about the different [acting] muscles you use depending on the genre.”

Besides the aforementioned Cosby Show and Malcolm and Eddie, the actor has appeared in countless made-for-TV films and guest-star roles. He has also worked behind the cameras directing several projects. Currently, Warner is in Vancouver where he and Luke Perry are busy shooting the second season of Jeremiah. “We’ve had a couple of conversations with Joe and he’s told us a bit about what he has planned for these new episodes,” he enthuses. “I’m like a kid with a comic book. I can’t wait for the next issue!”

Steve Eramo

Next Week on The Expanse - "Safe" and "Doors & Corners" (Syfy US)

 Sergeant Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) in "Safe." Photo copyright of Syfy.

Next week on the two-episode season two premiere of The Expanse, Miller (Thomas Jane), Holden (Steven Strait) and the crew of the Roci deal with the aftermath of their narrow escape from Eros. We meet Martian Marine Gunnery Sergeant Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) and her platoon when the “Cuban Missile Crisis” between Earth and Mars heats up. Check out the clip below and then tune in Wednesday, February 1st for Safe followed by Doors & Corners (both with limited commercial interruptions) starting @ 10:00 p.m. EST/9:00 p.m. CT on Syfy (US).

Next Week on The Magicians - "Hotel Spa Potions" (Syfy US)

The Beast (Charles Mesure) in "Hotel Spa Potions." Photo copyright of Syfy.

Next week on The Magicians, Quentin (Jason Ralph), Alice (Olivia Taylor), Penny (Arjun Gupta) and Margo (Summer Bishil) seek a new weapon. Meanwhile, Eliot (Hale Appleman) struggles with being king, and Julia (Stella Maeve) and The Beast (Charles Mesure) find an unexpected ally. Check out the clip below from Hotel Spa Potions and then tune in on Wednesday, February 1st @ 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CT on Syfy (US).

Next Week on Face Off - "The Devil is in the Details" (Syfy US)

Face Off: All Stars contestant Keaghlan Ashley hard at work in "The Devil is in the Details." Photo copyright of Syfy.

The epic All-Star season continues on Face Off  with The Devil is in the Details as the teams work to create angel and devil characters in the first elimination challenge of the season. Make sure to tune in Tuesday, January 31st @ 9:00 p.m EST/8:00 p.m. CT on Syfy (US).

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Terry Farrell (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell).

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. In today's interview, the lovely Terry Farrell gets in touch with her alien side and playing Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax on the Star Trek spin-off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

When actress Terry Farrell accepted the role of Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax, the Starfleet science officer on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, she also took on the challenge of portraying an alien individual whose consciousness is hundreds of years old.  Dax comes from a race of people known as the Trills, a joined species comprised of two separate beings, a host and a symbiont.  While her twenty-nine-year-old body serves as host, the symbiont which lives inside her is a three-hundred-fifty-year-old lifeform resembling a short fat snake.  Although her outward appearance is that of a beautiful young woman, Dax possesses the wisdom, intelligence and knowledge accumulated from six previous lifetimes of experience.

"What first attracted me to the part is that she has lived seven different lives," explains Farrell.  "Dax is the mother, in a spiritual sense, on the show.  She's centerd, intelligent, giving and someone who knows who she is.  I thought, 'Wow, these are things that will help me grow as an actress.'  I thought it would be a good stretch for me, especially since her past personalities are male as well as female.

"At first it was frustrating because the writers really didn't know who the character is other than that she is over three hundred years old and has lived seven lifetimes," the actress continues.  "When I got a script it was sort of like, 'OK, Terry, go!'  I thought, 'I don't know what to do with this,' but as we went on the writers helped me a lot and I found out more about her.

"I think what I've gotten comfortable with over the years is that, since Dax has seven different personalities inside of her, if I want to play one episode more masculine or feminine or more introverted or extroverted, it works because maybe one of those personalities fits into a particular situation better.  There are certain Jadzia qualities that I try to keep consistent but what makes the part fun for me is that aside from those qualities I don't have to play her the same all the time."

Farrell was waiting to hear about jobs in both a film and a sitcom when she received a call from one Friday morning from her agent telling her that Paramount was interested in seeing her for a part in Star Trek:Deep Space Nine.  "I was in one of the last groups of women to read for the role.  I had read for a part in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation but didn't do that well in the audition, so, the casting director for DS9 Junie Lowry-Johnson had no interest in seeing me.  When I got the call I thought, 'They must really be scraping the bottom of the barrel.'

"I had to test for it twice with two different sets of women.  I knew Marina [Sirtis], Michael [Dorn] and Jonathan [Frakes] from Star Trek: The Next Generation before I got DS9, so, I told Marina that I'd go down to the Next Generation set to meet her after I read.  When I got down there I was told to go right back up to Rick Berman's [executive co-producer] office.  All I could imagine was that Rick was going to give me some notes and that I was going to have to read again.  When I got there he said, 'You know what?  You're Jadzia Dax.'  I fell apart and started crying.  It felt like it came right out of the blue since I hadn't expected it at all."

Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Farrell was encouraged by a family friend to send her picture to various New York modelling agencies.  Much to her surprise she received a call at home from the prestigious Elite modelling agency.  "They flew out to Iowa, said that I looked like my pictures and I signed with them.

"I moved to New York on June 4th, 1981," recalls Farrell.  "When I got there I was met by a woman, an editor at Mademoiselle, who was a friend of one of the agents at Elite.  She said, 'My God, would you come in to Mademoiselle on Monday?'  I said, 'Sure, I'll come see you,' because I didn't know what I was doing," she laughs.  "Six weeks later I was taking acting and commercial classes and had signed an exclusive contract with Mademoiselle.

"At first modelling is really exciting," she says, "then, after you do it for a year, you realize that you've become a thing.  People begin to talk as if you're not really there.  Luckily, my acting class made me feel like a human being, someone whose opinion is respected and who can have ideas about things, so, that's where I had my outlet."

In 1984 Farrell quit modelling and moved to California after having been cast as Laurie Caswell in the short-lived ABC television series Paper Dolls.  On the advice of Sean Penn, whom the actress met while he was doing a play in New York City, she continued her acting studies at The Loft with Peggy Fury and Bill Trailer.

"Then I sort of disappeared for two or three years," Farrell explains.  "I had a relationship with an actor and traveled with him for a while.  The first thing I did when I got back to California was go to the Stella Adler Studio and study various things such as Shakespeare, movement, scene study and technique for six months.  After that I just started auditioning for things, got a network pilot [Mimi and Me] and, eventually, DS9."

Before signing up for a tour of duty aboard Star Trek: Deep Space Nine the actress appeared opposite Rodney Dangerfield in the film Back to School as well as in Miramax Films' Hellraiser III.  She played the Cat in a short promotional film for a proposed American version of Red Dwarf and guest-starred on a number of television series including Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Quantum Leap and The New Twilight Zone.  "Actually, that Twilight Zone episode was the first time it said, 'Starring Terry Farrell.'  I was so excited.  I saw it in Merrimack, New Hampshire with my aunt and uncle, who, God love him, always thought I was a star and called me one before I was.

"I had so much fun doing that episode [The After Hours].  It was so exciting to work on a show that's all about what's happening to your character.  It was neat to work with Ann Wedgeworth who's so amazing and just a wonderful actress.  The whole thing was an all-around really cool experience."

The actress laughs when recalling her mixture of surprise and embarrassment when she first saw the script for Quantum Leap.  "Scott Bakula and I naked on the beach!  I thought, 'OK, fine, you've got to get past this and just do it.'  It was sunset when we shot the scene and it was freezing in San Pedro.  I had to walk out of the water - some of the dirtiest stuff on Earth - go over to Scott Bakula, trying not to shake or let my teeth chatter, and kiss this actor I'm meeting for the very first time in my life.

"Scott was a really cool guy to work with," comments Farrell.  "After we shot that scene, during which time I noticed he had something weird on his stomach, Scott came to my trailer with all sorts of antiseptic things and shampoos he got from the nurse for me to use after being in that water.  He also gave me some cream for poison ivy because that's what he had already had on his stomach!"

Turning to her work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Farrell was the last person to be cast on the show and, as a result, not only missed the opportunity to work with her fellow castmembers during the first two weeks of filming the program's pilot Emissary but was the last to finish work on the episode.  Walking onto the huge Ops set for the first time was like walking onto a stage, she recalls, and, combined with the dreaded scientific jargon or technobabble, as it is officially referred to, that Dax is required to spout off with ease, the actress felt a bit overwhelmed.

"I probably slept four hours a night," she says.  "I had nightmares about trying to remember my lines and then, when I got to the set, I didn't have anybody who I felt was being supportive of me and that was really hard.  They were so busy trying to finish the show and I was just trying to keep up.  If I had been there earlier I'd have been fine but I missed all the initiation kinds of things that you need to go through with people, so, I felt like the new kid in school.  I didn't feel comfortable with my performance in the pilot because I was very nervous and felt very alone.

"Throughout that first year Avery Brooks [then-Commander Benjamin Sisko] was the person most supportive of me.  When directors would get angry with me or be hard on me he would pull me aside and remind me that I needed to do it for myself and that I'd done it before.

"Most of what I say in the first season is technobabble.  I hardly have a normal sentence at all.  For people like Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton [Data and Geordi LaForge from The Next Generation] it's fairly simple because they can quickly memorize something and then forget about it.  For me that's very hard to do," continues Farrell.  "In Star Trek you're supposed to be extremely professional and know what you're talking about.  Dax has to be able to talk technobabble, do stuff on the computer and pay attention to what's going on.  At first all that was too much for me to try and handle and feel comfortable with.

"I was actually wishing that they'd fire me because it took so many takes for me to get my lines down," admits the actress.  "I thought I was really disappointing them and that I wasn't doing a good enough job.  Looking back now I'm so glad I went through it because I sort of weathered the storm and really learned a lot about myself."

Audiences also have been given the chance to learn more about Dax, particularly through her relationships with Doctor Julian Bashir [Alexander Siddig, formerly Siddig El Fadil] and now-Captain Sisko.  "I think they dropped the relationship with Julian too soon," says Farrell.  "They should have had it go through the entire run of the program, sort of what they tried to do with David and Maddie in Moonlighting, where audiences were always wondering, 'Oh my gosh, are they going to do it this week?'

"What Sid [Alexander Siddig] and I have tried to do, just on our own, is to play up the fact that we've become really good friends.  There's an episode we did early this season [the show's fourth] called Starship Down in which Dax and Julian are trapped in a room together and they have a kind of resolution, which, after three-and-a-half years, is kind of weird," she laughs.  "It's disappointing because I think it really added a nice flavour to the series.  This season I'm trying to do that with Michael Dorn [Worf], with whom I've been friends for six years.  From the opening moments of the first show this season Dax flirts with Worf, so, the writers are trying to work it in whenever and wherever they can.

"As for Dax and Sisko, I think my disappointment about this is in the prior relationship I was told our characters share and what's been happening to it.  We've had scenes in which we've talked back and forth and given each other advice but during this season I've probably asked him for advice more than he's actually asked me.  I think it was during the second season when he talked so much with Major Kira [Nana Visitor] that I thought, 'Hey, I'm his mentor!  She's this angry major - why is he asking her for advice?  I'm this wise old soul.  Ask me the questions.'  If Kurzon, one of Dax's past hosts, really is Ben's mentor my character would have a lot more to do with what he's doing."

Despite an initially bumpy ride with its audience, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has grown over the past four years to become the top-rated syndicated television drama in the United States.  Its cast, too, has grown, emerging as a fluid on-screen ensemble capable of defending itself against attacks from Cardassians as well as critics.  To what does Farrell attribute this on-screen camaraderie?

"When you're working with other people there's this precarious balance to be their friend but also to keep it professional.  I don't know if anyone else feels this way but it seems to me that we all respect each other's privacy and, at the same time, care about and support each other and hope that everyone is really happy in their lives.  However, although we've grown to respect and care about each other, that doesn't mean that we do everything together, because we don't want the personal/professional balance to get off the track.  I think that's how we work well - we respect each other's space and private life."

In between quoting technobabble and helping Starfleet defend the Alpha Quadrant against the Jem'hadar Farrell appeared in the NBC mini-series Star, based on Danielle Steel's novel by the same name, and starred in the HBO movie, Red Sun Rising.  She recently found time to take on yet another project requiring her to play a multitude of characters, ten to be exact, in a CD-ROM entitled Treasure Quest.  The project, which went on sale in March, is marketed by Sirius Publishing and based on Masquerade, a sensational mystery novel that took the United Kingdom by storm several years ago.  An on-line component allows individuals to team up with others to search for clues to solve the mystery and receive a one-million-dollar cash prize.

"I got to be everyone from Norma Desmond to a sort of Rita Hayworth, forties-style woman to a kooky angel to this mean, horrible Renaissance woman speaking Shakespearean English.  I felt as if I were in Improv-R-Us - 'Here's the script.  OK, here you go!'  When I found out I was going to be playing ten characters I got very excited.  It was so much fun!" she exclaims.

With only two years left on the castmembers' contracts with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Farrell is thinking optimistically about the future.  "I know everybody wants to be a movie star but I really would like to be a storyteller rather than just a working actress.  My goal is to get to a point where the stories are a reflection of how I respect and care about my work.  When DS9 ends I have to go looking for a job again, and, in essence, I'd like to think of it as starting my career again.  I'll have to go out and see people I haven't seen for a long time.  This is like a stepping stone to the next level," she says thoughtfully, "and I think the best is yet to come for me."

Dax herself wouldn't disagree.

Steve Eramo