 
GW: The character’s name is Jennifer Hailey.
MK: Do you know the actress’s name?
GW: If I sat here for a few minutes ...
MK: You know what, I bet you could. It was her first appearance on the show, as far as I know.
GW: "Prodigy," yeah.
MK: Yeah, terrific. That young bunch of folks, the young cadets. You know what, I've never seen the episode. It is hard to get those episodes. So, I guess, I’ll have to go and rent season four, like everybody else and start watching it. How did I do?
GW: I think it was a great show.
MK: Fake, that puts you on the spot.
" For [actors] we have taken about a 75 percent cut in pay over the last [few years] and instead of it going up we've been continually going down. But having said that, Vancouver remains pretty strong."
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GW: I asked for the interview because I am a fan. And Kerrigan is such an interesting guy. With Samantha Carter’s back-story, she goes to the Air Force Academy and your character introduces her to Cadet Hailey.
MK: There was a sense of history and Amanda was great with that.
GW: She was your pupil. She was your protégé who has gone on to bigger and better things.
MK: So I am her mentor. So immediately there is a connection. As so typical in TV land, we'd never met before that episode. We had no chance to rehearse. So [you] just basically on the spot invent whatever you can. We were both cognizant that there was, as you say, this back-story and what are we going to do?
GW: There needs to be some sort of --
MK: Absolutely. The occasional look. As you know, it all gets said in a look of an eye. It was a lot of fun. I wish it had gone on.
GW: One of my favorite things about that episode that I love is Kerrigan very obviously knows that Sam has become involved in something very big and very top secret and sort of teases her a bit: "Unless you want to tell me what it is that you are doing."
MK: You have me at a disadvantage. As I said, I haven’t seen the episode. I remember how we shot the scene. Very quickly, as usual.
GW: Your casting originally, that just the typical agent, submission, go in?
MK: Yep.
GW: Does anything stand out in your mind about how that came about?
MK: No, you know, that's easy for me, the high status authoritarian figures. It's just the way I look and my voice. Nothing could be farther from the truth, in reality. I am not that guy at all. Well, maybe I might be if I were in a position of authority. No, they had that decision made pretty early and there was no call back. I think they cast right off. But, they are very smart like that. Their casting has been great. I remember seeing Jacob Horn, who's a good friend.
GW: They must know pretty much everyone in town.
MK: Oh, I think so. They've seen everybody. What, with how many series now? Spin-offs?
GW: They are on the third series.
MK: And of course, Paul McGillion is a great buddy of mine and it was great to see him get that role. And, he deserves it and he did a great job. It was fascinating to see the fan base that he had to bring him back.
GW: Were you surprised when they called you back for another episode the next year?
MK: Honest to God, was it a year later?
GW: A little less than a year.
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Carter and Kerrigan deal with the latest problem child at the Air Force Academy, Cadet Hailey. |
MK: No, I was happy of course. We are always happy to work and that’s a great series. And that scene it was with Richard Dean [Anderson] and Don Davis. Don Davis is, have you had a chance to interview Don Davis?
GW: Yes, I have interviewed him.
MK: Isn’t he a sweetheart?
GW: Tremendous, tremendous.
MK: What a humble man. (deep voice) He’ll start telling you about that time. He is from the south. Is it Texas? Atlanta?
GW: Missouri or Texas.
MK: Something like that. You know it was one of those days where he couldn’t remember those lines. It’s kind of like a brush fire. He couldn’t remember his lines. Then it came around on me, and I went, "I can’t remember my lines either." Richard, I think, lost a couple of his.
You know, it just happens, it’s one of those things. For me that was a memorable day. Don was just really trying hard. The guys are great at techno babble. Teryl Rothery has got to be the best in the world at that kind of stuff, and Amanda of course. You just come in and have to start blabbing line after line and they do it every day. And they are really good at it. Don, not so good. I was terrible that day, too, and I think I only had three or four lines. I think it was at a radar screen, if I am not mistaken, that whole scene.
GW: Was there ever a sense after you came back and did a second episode as the character and there was a little bit of evolution for the character -- you have learned the secret of the Stargate program -- that you might come back again and be a little more recurring?
MK: Well, thank you. You know, I am just not sure what the -- in terms of the process that they decide to reinstate a character -- and how far that character’s arc is going to go. Certainly it was a good time and I think the work was strong. I certainly didn’t hear any complaints. Exactly how decisions , at what level they're made and why a certain character appears a lot. Or it was just been a preference and might have been something to do with Richard -- if he felt comfortable. When you are working with an ensemble like that, it is people you enjoy and people you like. If there was a connection, great, and if not that might be part of the reason.
GW: Had you auditioned for another role in Stargate prior to that?
MK: I did. Early on, I think in Season Two, I was a newscaster.
GW: That's right. You were the newscaster in "There But for the Grace of God" in Season One, which was the all-time most fantastic episode of Season One.
MK: You are kidding me.
GW: I know this.
MK: How do you know that?
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