 
GW: Clearly this experience fundamentally changed Teyla, has it changed you as well?
RL: Oh God yeah! Oh yeah, absolutely…absolutely. I mean, well first of all, I don't want to be too schmaltzy but why not? Who cares?
GW: Why not? We're all friends here.
RL: Everybody always says you have no idea your capacity to love until you've had your own child, and that certainly is the case. I feel like I've always been aware of what's going on globally but certainly now having a child and thinking towards the future I'm much more concerned about the world that he will inherit, and so subsequently I feel a more immediate need to be involved or useful somehow in making the world a better place.
"You have no idea your capacity to love until you've had your own child."
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That's certainly shifted and …well not that it's shifted but it's broadened, it's made it much more immediate. Yeah, I don't know, I think it's really grounded me in a way as well.
It's funny for instance ... this isn't about grounding but it's about becoming a mother bear kind of sort of. And the capacity to love. I am terrified of horror movies, I can't watch them because I've got such a vivid imagination that they will stay with me.
GW: Nightmares?
RL: Oh, please! I mean, I can't even watch trailers and I've seen like a couple of really horrendous trailers that have stuck with me. And there was a moment where I was alone with my little guy, it was a few months ago, and I started thinking about all those things again and I was like, "I'm alone and what am I going to do?"
There was a switch and I just thought, "bring it on." I was like "Bring it on! I swear to God bring Freddy Krueger in here I will rip his head off!" and I started like really wanting it. I was like "C'mon!". You know there's this image of … what is it?! I can't even remember what horror movie it is.
GW: What happens?
RL: Oh my God! It's this… I just remember the preview and it's this girl and she's kind of disjointed and she's like walking behind somebody. What is it? Oh crap! It will come to me in the end.
GW: Is it Stephen King?
RL: I don't know if it's Stephen King but it's pretty scary anyway, and I used to be frightened of it and now I'm like "You know what, just try. Just try, I will mess you up." [Laughter] So that's changed, too. In a way it makes you more, not fearful of the world, but aware of the world but also just a hell of a lot more courageous. I will take it on for him.
GW: Speaking of horror, you were involved in some pretty graphic scenes in "Doppelganger." Being a person of anti-horror at that point how did you react to seeing that episode? How did you react to the filming of the episode?
RL: Oh God! Yeah, that was pretty creepy because I was…
GW: Very graphic.
RL: Yeah, very graphic and I was obviously pregnant at the time and, you know, as to the whole element of having a creature kind of…
GW: An iratus bug!
RL: Right, exactly, coming out was…yeah, that was a very strange episode. I mean, obviously, I went with it and visually it looks very, very cool but, yeah, I'm not a fan of the whole horror thing. But it was a cool story and all is good and I survived. It was just a scary dream.
GW: Yeah exactly. What are some of your favorite episodes from last year? What really impacted you the most? Teyla episodes and in general.
RL: Oh boy what were my favorite episodes?
GW: It's like a lifetime ago, I know. Especially with a child.
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Dr. Keller's dream in "Doppelganger" delivers a graphic scene depicting Teyla giving ... birth. |
RL: I know, it's so hard. I can barely remember names of friends at the moment. I remember moments. Let me tell you instead of saying what were my favorite episodes, I will say that I was happy with how relationships shifted. Between, for instance, Teyla and Sheppard.
Because what happened with Teyla and her whole pregnancy, it made those relationships all the more meaningful and it made how we felt about each other a lot more immediate, and it gave us as actors an opportunity to dive into that side of our persona.
GW: Sheppard became very protective of her.
RL: Yeah! As did Ronon and, yeah, I just felt like we were able to solidify a little bit more who we are and how we felt about each other and I remember that, as a whole, being something that I very much enjoyed about last season. So there you have it.
GW: Obviously it changed, your pregnancy and having a child, changed your perception of the world around you, what about Teyla? What's this going to do to Teyla?
RL: Oh gosh, well in the beginning part of the season certainly she's struggling with what every mother struggles with, every working mother struggles with. She has to make a decision as to whether or not she wants to be a part of this perilous journey and return to being a part of this team that essentially puts themselves, their lives, on the line every time they step through the gate or taking care of this gorgeous being that she was so desperate to keep.
So that's the new challenge for her and that's something that she struggles with in the first little part but everybody will be happy to know that she decides to rejoin the team.
GW: I take it that Michael wanting the child, that thread is resolved at some point here?
RL: Oh no! It's not resolved. [Laughter] Oh no, he's still out there. He's still out there and he still has his diabolical plans to rule the universe. So no, it hasn't been resolved. We're safely back where we need to be but …
GW: Safe for now.
RL: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.
GW: May I ask if the child is on Atlantis?
RL: Yes. Yes, for the first little part of the season he's very much with us.
RELATED LINK:
Rachel Luttrell's official Web site
- D. Read and D. Sumner
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