Women in Pivotal Roles
Mary McDonnell: I’d read Battlestar and I was deeply moved, which I didn’t expect. So to me it was very current and an opportunity to play a female president, which… I’d had a few first ladies and things like that. But never had a female leader, quite in this situation or this stature to be able to go at but also the irony that there was a female leader, who had not the ambition towards that her whole life. So it was a different entry toward evolving leadership. And it was more about destiny, having to accept the mantle rather than to go after something. And I found that really intriguing.
Ronald D. Moore:You know, the original Galactica was just very male-oriented and trying to just sort of even it up and make it more interesting some of the roles naturally just became women to make it a more interesting show. Adama is man and is the leader of the fleet. And I wanted the role of the president, because I wanted to play the civilian versus military sort of tension and it felt natural to make the president a woman as well.
Jamie Bamber: The president is a strong woman with a compassionate…a compassionate bedrock, if you like. I think, that’s what he sees in the president. I think, he sees his mother, who he’s lost, who is perhaps more emotional than his dad ever was. And the president is an emotional woman, and Lee connects with her at that level. But she has element of steel, and she can show resolve, and she can make very very tough decisions.
Mary McDonnell: That’s what’s beautiful about this in a general(?) sense, that there are so many women in it who are very comfortable with themselves, whether they are human or cylon. And that I think… particularly the role of Starbuck, I think, could be very very important role for young women. Because if they can start to get comfortable with someone like Starbuck, who basically is herself, you know, she just is, and let’s not make an issue from it. Then that’s a wonderful conditioning for this girls, who I fear at the moment are almost endangered by a kind of fashion anorexic version of what a woman is. And we are seeing all kinds of women in this particular show. And they are all pretty comfortable with who they are, you know, and I find that exiting.
Grace Park: I think it’s so exiting, to have so many strong female characters. Because we have so many. I mean, if you look at the population it’s pretty much half-half, fifty-fifty men and women. And so to have only… you previously just only male dominated. It showed one element of it. But right now is seems like the tides are changing, there is more female strength ether higher up, you name ether in government or military or business. And it adds another element, and that’s another dimension of relationships, which way they’re going, how do you deal with the sexuality of it, are we gender neutral, are we… We are not asexual, you know, we are both still sexual beings. And to add that in there just creates another sort of stir to the pie.
Tricia Helfer: Oh, I think that we have women in…in, you know, pivotal roles. It’s fantastic. It’s not normal science fiction. You know, in science fiction they are normally the eye-candy or whatever. It…again it reflects where we are in the world today. And it’s more real. You know, you have women over in Iraq, and you have… why not have women on a battlestar? In important roles.
Writing a Dark, Sexy, Political Sci-Fi Show
David Eick: Well, the initial impulse for re-imagining Battlestar Galactica actually came from Universal Television and Sci-Fi channel, who approached me and asked, if I’d be interested in taking the title and coming up with the different way into it. I was the fan of the original, but I also knew, that it represented an opportunity to do something different. Not just with the title, but with the genre.
Ronald D. Moore: I think, goal from very beginning on the redoing Battlestar Galactica, for me anyway, the only reason to do it, was to advance science fiction on television, to try and reinvent the genre, to take something which had become very sort of tired and sort of expected and become very cliché in all of its forms, and how science fiction was presented week after week at this day and age. And to really say “No, let’s try something different”.
David Eick: Why do another space opera? The world has plenty of them. They’ve done extraordinary well. The Sci-Fi channel itself airs some of them. If we are going to go back to that well, we better have a damn good reason. And I think that more than anything motivated us toward that place of going “OK, well, there is a lot of idealized science fiction, there is a lot of fantastical science fiction, is there a truly realistic approach to the genre?”
Mary McDonnell: My sensation is that… And my conversation with Ron is that the impulse to do that wasn’t the decision to be different. The impulse to do that was that he felt the story in a different way.
Edward James Olmos: You look for stories. You know, you are storytellers, so you look for stories to be involved in. And this story was very strong, very unique and very well-written.
Ronald D. Moore: There is now show unless you write it first. So it’s always about a sсript, and it’s always about getting the story right and getting the dialogue right and making sure characters are there on the page.
Michael Rymer: I’ve noticed in the new scripts, that Ron Moore will write to the rhythms of the actors now, you know. Which isn’t always a good thing. You know, actors can get into sort of tricks and bad habits. But, you know, everyone has their own personality, their own way of speaking.
Katee Sackhoff: And the writers have started to write characters in our speech patterns, like the way that we talk. Which is really interesting. So they are picking up on us as a person and adding that into the character, which is nice, makes it easier to memorize lines, because it’s the way that you talk.
Grace Park: The writers are really great, they do such wonderful work. And then if there is ether element, that we think, that’s been overlooked or that we are unsure of, they help us clarify that. We do have access to writers and producers, and they are so helpful. Because all of us want the great show.
Ronald D. Moore: It’s a tremendous cast. They have an extraordinary commitment to the material. They are very committed to their roles, they believe in what we are doing. They like the scripts, they embellish on them, they make up bits of business and stuff on their own, which just acts to the texture and the richness of what we do.
James Callis: It’s really great to be listened to. To have your concerns addressed. In many television shows the actors never speak to the director, writer or producer. They are some kind of strange invisible high rocky, and like we are not worthy or we are too stupid. I believe, all of us feel that we are part of the process. And that we are as much creating our roles as interpreting them.
Jamie Bamber: The thing about the show like this, is that nobody knows the characters as well as the actor portraying the character. And, you know, we know the whole story from this particular perspective and from no other perspective. So there is the reality there, that no matter, how good a writer you are, you can’t keep all these ball juggling, so sometimes it’s down to us to call the writer, call Ron or David and say “Listen, I just think the last time I saw Starbuck it was in this context, and I think there is room for may be something else in the scene.” At the very top of it I’m sure we can go there, with writing this down. We don’t need to be writing, but there need to be, you know, things like that. And they are by and large extremely receptive. But they are not afraid to say “Shut up, you’re wrong”
Tricia Helfer: You can call Ron, or speak to the director that’s doing it, or David and discuss it, and talk about it. And they want you happy, and they want you to feel comfortable with what you’re saying and doing. And so they’re very open.
James Callis: It’s a great opportunity for all of us to work with people, who care so much. And really have such great ideas. And I would also include Michael Rymer who was… who directed our first show, as somebody, who’s really steered this in to the century that we are in.
Mary McDonnell: See, I think, what’s really interesting about these guys… And I have to say Michael Rymer is a great part of that equation, because he cast the mini with them. But what’s really wonderful is that they wanted to and did cast really smart actors. Now that we can be such a pain in their you know what. And I’m sure we are. Because no one, not one actor in this group will let something slide. I think, that the ideas, that are the stress points in Battlestar Galactica are very familiar to us since September 11th. The fear of terrorism and its ramifications.
Jamie Bamber: There are elements in it, that are sort of lighthearted. And there is definitely humor. But this show is all about fear. It’s what it’s about.
David Eick: The show is dark, the show is intense, and the show is sexual. I believe that those are attitudes, that we haven’t seen in science fiction on television. Although we do see those very well represented in science fiction in movies and books and great graphic novels and so forth. So I don’t view those as antithetical to science fiction genre. They are very well represented in genre in other media. We just haven’t seen them on television, so I believe that it will work. I believe that it will actually flavor the science fiction drama in such a way that we haven’t seen. If it becomes too intense or too inappropriate for people, then we’ll fail. But I don’t think we will.
Ronald D. Moore: You know, the darker qualities of the show are embedded in the premise of the show. Show begins with the holocaust of the human race and focuses on the handful of survivors. By its nature it’s a dark show. Has elements [?] disturbing, and, you know, there is a constant sense of fear. And will our enemies catch us, so we all be wiped out. That will always be there. But it’s that very situation that allows the sort of stronger qualities of these people to come out.
David Eick: How is this going to be different? How is its… How at its utter guts is it going to be a change up, it’s going to be something unexpected? And as long as we keep asking that question, as long as we keep pushing in that direction then I think we got a job.