 
GW: So is this something that he sought out?
RP: It's something I've thought about, and I have my own ideas about. But I literally have not discussed with the writers why he wanted this. I just made my own decisions, because it wasn't pertinent to what we've shot thus far. So I just thought about it myself and [I] hope, because I know that there are guest stars with Amanda Tapping coming up, that we'll actually get to have some sort of confrontation about why I took her job, so to speak. Or why I recommended she be replaced. Perhaps pitched myself as a temporary replacement. Or the I.O.A. actually picked me as a temporary replacement. And then I just stayed on.
That's what Joe Mallozzi first told me when he approached me about assuming command, was that the I.O.A. decides to replace the military commander because of it always being a science expedition with a civilian. And in the interim, I become the commander while they are basically head-hunting. And I'm doing a sufficient enough job that I get to stay on.
" I become the commander while they are basically head-hunting. And I'm doing a sufficient enough job that I get to stay on."
| |
We had not necessarily established that, although that could be the underlying reason. It just simply hasn't been expressed in any of the first four episodes so far. But he clearly wanted it. It's not something -- I can tell by how they're writing the character -- this is something he very much wants to prove himself in. And from an actor's perspective, it's fun to play characters who are trying to reinvent themselves. I never enjoy the challenge of playing someone one way -- who is happy with the way he is. And not about to try to change or to grow.
It was one of the challenges, and one of the fun parts, of playing the character that I played on Star Trek -- that he was designed for one purpose, but aspired to have usefulness in so many other areas. I think that's an appealing thing for an audience to see a character who wants to reinvent himself, [who] realizes what his character flaws are, what his weaknesses are, and wants to try to overcome them. So, that's the part that I'm most enjoying.
And thematically, we had to play down the fact that Woolsey is not necessarily courageous in his guest appearances. We had to put that aside and whatever comic moments we're looking for in the show come from the fact that his people skills are not so good.
GW: It's one of the greatest stories in drama. The antagonist going protagonist. That journey to get there is one that is probably going to take most of the season.
RP: I agree with you. I mean, it's all about him discovering why he has this ambition and how he can rebuild himself brick by brick to succeed.
Whenever you play a character that's older than your target audience -- because I think science fiction tends to have a younger male audience -- they do hook into a character of any age who wants to reinvent himself. I think that's a feeling that you have in every phase of life. You know, graduating high school and going off to college and saying, "You know what? I don't want to be called Bobby anymore. I want to be Robert. Or Rob." Or I'm going to just change myself. Whatever I didn't like about the way I was interacting. I'm going to try to make, try to present myself as a new individual and see how I can grow into that image."
GW: So you think becoming base commander has sort of instinctively made Woolsey a protagonist? Or is that a process of development? Moving from antagonist to protagonist.
RP: Well, again, because of his weaker social skills he's antagonistic in the way he presents his protagonist agenda. I mean, yes -- "I'm here to protect the security of the base." But he's also constantly talking about "We have to focus on our primary mission, and try not to pull people back from some of the various goodwill and humanitarian gestures" that they do.
| 
Picardo says Woolsey became inspired by how Carter handled the situation in "The Seer." |
I mean, he's a bureaucrat. And to me, what makes it so much fun for me secretly is we've had it clearly demonstrated in our current administration how bureaucrats telling the military what to do, when they have no military experience of their own, can lead to some serious disaster. And part of me, rather impishly, thinks of Woolsey as a likable Dick Cheney -- if that's even something imaginable. But science fiction fans have the greatest imaginations of any fans in the world. So if you can imagine Dick Cheney being likable -- having the capacity for self-reflection and having the ability to admit having made a mistake -- then you're sort of on the way to the possibility of a bureaucrat growing into a human being.
GW: There's some similarities with David Hewlett's character, Dr. McKay. He started out as a grouchy, unlikable guy. Do you think there's a way to play Woolsey as generally likable without losing that edge of how he's always been?
RP: I wouldn't want to. I really wouldn't want to. Because that's part of the ongoing fun. When you do series television, the audience wants to feel that they know these characters. It's a funny kind of ... there's a certain duality in that the audience wants to get something they've seen before that they loved. But they always want to be surprised a little.
So you have to do that blend of "This is what you've come to expect from the character" but try to surprise them with the character still struggling to grow. But you don't want to suddenly become another character, because the becoming is always much more interesting than the state of being. So I would never want to surrender that. And suddenly have him be much better socially, and also much more courageous.
GW: That's not who the character is.
RP: No. The process of him growing into a leader, I think, is going to be a very exciting one -- to play, from my perspective, and hopefully for the audience to watch and enjoy.
|
|
|
