 |
Michael Shanks at Sydney Con - Saturday, September 2001
Q: (What's the truth behind the rumour you're not returning for
Season Six?)
A: Ooooh. (sepulchral tone) Troublemaker. (laugh) Yes, unfortunately
it is true. Did anybody here go to Gatecon? Okay, one or two people.
I don't know - is that a commonly known rumour or am I dropping a
bombshell..? Okay, yes it is true. Um ... Brad was put on the spot at
Gatecon. Originally I was planning on announcing that fact at these
events that I was going to because I knew it was going to be a bit of
a deal and a sad event but - um - it is true.
My reasons for doing that are simply that I felt that the show had
out-evolved the character. And - um - I know a lot of people won't
see it from the same point of view but from the trenches I realised
that - um - the show was going in a direction that - ah - didn't
bring the character along with it very comfortably, and - ah - as a
result it was giving me less and less to do and - um - as an actor
you want to be doing more all the time. You don't want to be doing
less, and that's what was happening. It was happening all through the
fifth season and about midway through I just said, "You know
something - " You know, we talked about it before, because there'd
been a discussion beforehand and you know directing was really the
thing that was keeping me in the game - as well as my contract...
(laughs from crowd).
But - um - I - I made the decision with a heavy heart and nothing
came heavier than about a week and a half ago when I had to actually
leave the show, but it was a decision that I think is best not only
for me but for the show. Because I felt a lot of the time the
character was becoming a bit of an anchor dragging behind the show
and - ah - was holding it up a little bit. Another character could
probably serve it in the direction that it was going. If you haven't
seen the fifth season then you probably don't know what I'm talking
about, but there is a certain - ah - 'military element' - um -that
is taking hold of the show, meaning that we're going off in a pseudo
X-Filesy kind of direction some of the time that was explored in the
fourth season. And I think the best way to put it is the character
wasn't being - as well as it - it wasn't comfortable for him, he was
not being allowed to slip into that groove comfortably. And I felt
that - if that effort wasn't going to be made then it was time for me
to move on.
Q: (What did you like best about your character?)
A: Ohhh... I think the joy of discovery was probably the most - the
most positive aspect of the character, that I enjoyed to play the
most. It was always - always whenever archaeology was involved,
whenever he was within his element that it was fun to play that level
of excitement. To get him out of the mode of standing in the
background, which seemed to be happening a lot more in the last two
years of the show than it did in the first three, and ah... For the
first three years of the show there was a lot more discovery, and
when I say about hanging in the background more, he was - the show -
what it did in the first three years was it created mythology, it
created worlds. And budget-wise, and story-wise for the audience as
well, the show started to move into uncovering more and more about
the worlds we already discovered... Or, or, dealing with the elements
of warfare, or stuff like that, and the character just doesn't fit
comfortably into those grooves, so it was always... Like in The Tomb,
in fifth season, or certainly Torment of Tantalus that was the most
fun for the character to play is that joy of discovery, of something
that's bigger than all of us to discover. And that's what I really
felt that the show - when the show was peaking at its strongest was
when we did episodes where that - that - that discovery was
happening, that initial 'What's out there?' and - you know - how does
it pertain to the questions we ask about ourselves in our society and
archaeology like - Indiana Jones or whatever - 'What kind of
questions of our own existence can we answer from looking out there?'
And I think that's where the character fits strongly into the show
and when it didn't go there the character seemed to fall out of
place.
(As you can tell, he felt rather passionate about this!)
Q: (Now that you've left the show, do you have any new projects lined
up to do?)
A: Not in the immediate... what the decision involved was to step away
from everything and really decide what I want to do next and... um...
Stargate is not gone away. Don't get the impression that Stargate is
- you know, you'll never see me again on Stargate because that's not
true. I've been told that (threatening hiss) 'It just won't happen'.
That I just can't get away. <grins> The door has been left very open.
It's - ah - a door that - is not, you know, engraved in stone or
anything like that. They do have a character that is stepping in to
replace me, um - which I thought was kinda poor taste? <wry grin>
But - ah - but I don't mean the guy any ill-will 'cos he's got a real
uphill road. They've got a guy when I - the episode that I finished,
they had a fellow stepping in who - um - he was a very nice guy and I
knew he had a tough job ahead of him so I wished him luck. He's only
there on trial basis right now, so I don't know what's going to
happen with 'that' particular character, or if they're gonna keep
him... But, ah, I'm just taking it as it comes right now. I have some
plans for the future that involve theatre but there's nothing in
stone right now and I'm sort of in the process of just looking at
other offers and whatnot and seeing what happens ... But Stargate is
still somewhere there, you know, hovering like a cloud over my head -
or like, you know, a halo, I'm not sure which right now, but it's
still very much there, so, um, I look forward to going back to seeing
my family again there, so...
(Crowd member - You should have your own show)
Oh, thank you, thank you very much...
Well, apparently there is a spin-off concept in the works somewhere,
but -ah - all these things, including the movie, are like - you know
- <big breath> -you don't even want to say it because in this
business nothing is secure for sure. So even the feature idea is
simply an idea at this point. Everybody is saying, 'Yeah, we'd love
to have this', but it's not for sure, spin-off is not for sure, it's
all - anybody can pull the plug at any time.
Q: (News about the Possibility of movie - is it going to be movie or
series characters - possibility of you coming back movie?)
A: As far as I know - and again, it's very funny, because what you
guys hear - through the internet or whatever and through other people
- we're oftentimes not that far in advance of hearing. So, the last
thing that I've heard about it - because this whole sixth season idea
was up in the air up until two months before we finished shooting -
so that wasn't - nobody knew what was going to happen with the future
of Stargate. They wanted to do a feature - 'wanted' meaning the
producers of the TV series wanted to do the feature - MGM is a
different entity altogether, they're the ones who put the money
forward and make the decisions. As far as I know, if there is a
second movie done it's going to involve the television characters.
How that movie's going to happen, if it's going to be a TV movie - I
don't know, I hope not, I hope it's a feature film but I don't know -
whether or not it's going to happen at the end of the sixth season is
an idea that I've heard lately but again... Nothing - when they say -
somebody said it was greenlit, and that in Hollywood terms means
'It's a go,' but that's - that's such a load of mallarkey when
somebody hears that, it's all gossip and hearsay... As far as I know,
they want to do one at the end of the sixth season involving the
television characters - I don't think it's going to involve bringing
Kurt Russell and James Spader to play those characters again, not
through MGM anyway. I know that they probably can't talk about it
right now, because -ah - up until the end of this month I believe
Devlin and Emmerich have an option on doing the feature of Stargate
2. That's why they're not probably talking about it much, because
Devlin and Emmerich can still exercise that, so shhhhh! <audience
laughs>
But as far as I know, if MGM were going to go ahead with another
feature of Stargate they would involve the television characters, and
as far as me returning for that - that's been a door that's been very
left open to me to decide if I want to do that. And, um, I already
said that if that happened, I'd love to do that, so... |
