 
GW: Was it a difficult acting challenge to approach the character from that [perspective] the first time?
DH: The makeup was so beautiful that honestly I think there's a tendency ... the danger there is to act too old, because you're so enthralled with what they've done to your face. I think the key there is to try and not flail around the place as much as you did when you were a "young" man. You know, just keep throwing my back out.
"'Trio' was absolute hell. I'm not afraid to say that."
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I was going to remove my teeth every so often. I wanted to lose my hair. I told them, "Come on! You've got to recede it back to nothing!" Because that's just the ultimate depression for McKay. And myself. Or just have a really, really bad rug. Be really old and have this dark brown (toupee) that he sort of takes off to think every so often or something.
Surprisingly, they didn't go for that. They went for poignancy. I saw comic possibilities. A galaxy of possibilities.
GW: What about "Trio?"
DH: Mmm.
GW: Now that we can talk about it. Now that it's aired!
DH: Yeah. "Trio" was absolute hell. I'm not afraid to say that. You were in a box that moved. With cranes and dust. And we were strangely miserable to the point of euphoria. Like we got to the point where it was ... I've got to admit, there are worse things in the world to happen to an actor than to be stuck in a dark box with Jewel Staite and Amanda Tapping. I don't think you get a lot of sympathy from people on that. And they were hilarious.
It was so tough and so technical -- because it was so much stuff. You know, it's funny, because I did this film, "Cube," which was all based in these little boxes. And then, all of the sudden, here we are on a set which is basically the same thing. Only they had a bigger box and it actually moved. We had to do all the shaking ourselves on the "Cube" stuff. We couldn't afford for hydraulics and things.
But I think Amanda and Jewel and I came up with an entire dinner theater musical version of Atlantis that we would do. I think when the show is finally put to rest, you will probably see a quick little dinner theater production.
GW: Parties and bar mitzvahs!
DH: You got it. And then a very shaky video camera edition of it released on DVD maybe at some point. So we had a lot of those numbers. We were driving the crew crazy with that. And they're just so good. I don't know how they do it.
I mean, Amanda's been doing this for so long, she has every right to be the biggest diva on the planet. I'm the biggest diva on the planet. I'm the only one who lost his temper the entire time. It was me. And it was just so funny because ... here's a couple of examples:
There was one where I was supposed to ... I can't remember what it was exactly. It was a fall. I was supposed to do a fall. I leap out of the way, because of the fire thing. And I leap out of the way. So we have this stunt man who does all of the dangerous stuff. All I have to do is leap into a big pad. So we do the first take and I leap. And all of a sudden I realize that my trajectory is completely wrong. And I've missed the pad entirely, and I land on this big thing of rope. And it ... oh my God, it was total agony.
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McKay is the last one out in "Trio." |
And I look up. And there's Amanda and Jewel trying so hard to look like they were worried about me -- but just tears streaming down their faces. They're giggling their little faces off. So there was a lot of that type of stuff.
And then, I lost my temper at one point, and I have been quoted back what I said. Jewel, everyday, pretty much comes into work and quotes it back. Martin Wood had asked me to do something, and it was something I was frustrated with. And I said, "Well, sometimes it's called directing, and sometimes it's just bullying!"
GW: [Laughter]
DH: And that gets quoted back to me by the bloody Jewel Staite on a regular basis -- who is in Australia right now, I should add! While we're all here slaving away, she's swanning around in Australia. I did as much as I could to alarm her with tales of funnel web spiders and ... what are they called? The drop monkeys that don't exist.
The thing about Australia ... I love Australia. I literally had dreams about the colors in Australia. The first night I was there, I slept. And I had these weird dreams about the colors. Because you don't see those colors here.
And the other thing: everybody there is a crocodile hunter. You're talking to a guy on the street and they'll go, "Ah!" and suddenly disappear, and they'll come back holding a spider. "This is the most dangerous spider there is! This bites you and you're bloody dead!" And you're like, "Why are you holding it?!" He'll go, "I just thought you'd want to see it." But it's a dangerous spider. And he goes, "Yeah! You don't want to be eaten by those."
And the other one was, we went for a walk in the jungle -- this jungle "thing," for want of a better word. It was a rain forest, I guess. There was this beautiful little place we stayed at, and there was this little path you could walk up. And so, me being McKay-like in a way, I went up to the visitors service and I went, "Look, we're going to go for a walk and I just want to know: Is there anything we need to be looking out for?" And they're like, "Nah, nah. You're perfectly safe. Perfectly safe. Stick to the path and you're fine."
And I'm like, "Stick to the path. Okay. Fine. Is there anything I shouldn't touch?" They go, "Nah, nah. You're totally fine. Totally fine." And as I'm walking out, there's this picture of a small child smiling at this giant boa constrictor that's in front of him, that has just swallowed a pig. So there's this massive lump that's bigger than the child. And the woman goes, "Oh! Don't touch anything that looks obviously dangerous! And I said stick to the path, right? The water's fine, 'cause it's too cold for the crocs most of the time."
So I did nothing. I walked along the path elbows-in the entire time. And let Jane go first.
GW: Back to North America for a minute ...
DH: Mmm. That's where we should do a Stargate. In Australia. We need to do some location stuff. They got to go to Antarctica. I say let's go somewhere warm.
GW: Not quite like the desert in "The Last Man," but ...
DH: We need a real desert. The effects department blowing stuff in your face is just not the same as the Sahara.
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