 
GW: I myself find personally that the characters that you don't know if you can trust or not are the most interesting.
RR: Me too. I mean I find those interesting as well. Again, going back to comic books, I like the anti hero. I like the characters that maybe one day they're good, maybe one day they're bad. They kind of have their own agenda. I find that really, really fascinating.
They don't have an allegiance to anyone. I tried to bring that to Ladon, I tried to bring that to the Genii people so that they could call on us if they needed us but then we might pop up as an enemy. But hey, it's not personal, it's just business. That's kind of what I thought was interesting.
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Ladon signals his fellow soldiers to travel through the gate, not realizing he is about to be ambushed by John Sheppard. From "The Eye." |
But again, they'd already developed these other potential storylines and when they knew they had to bring it to a close, I understand, you've got to tighten it up and draw your attention to one thing so that it doesn't feel too scattered. Who knows what will happen? There's talk of a movie and you never know. I still know those guys. [Laughter]
GW: Do you feel the episodes of Atlantis that you did gave Ladon enough depth in character? Are there any shades of personality that you wanted to personally put into him that you weren't able to?
Like a haircut? [Laughter]
RR: Yeah, I'm growing it back. I like characters to have secrets. That's why I like Henry. I think everybody's got secrets. I like to have something to hide when I'm playing certain characters. I presented in my storytelling of Ladon some secrets that I gave him.
It would have been nice to sort of see those a little bit, hints of those a little bit here and there. I think that Ladon was looking for a queen, sort of speak. I think he was "wookin' pur nub". You know what I mean? [Laughter]
That would have been sort of fun to complicate things if maybe he'd fallen for someone on Atlantis. That's sort of something that I was trying to disguise. It helps you figure out -- you not know if he's good or bad.
GW: When you're a guest star on a show that you may come in for -- for a year, once a year or something like that. How do you negotiate your situation where you have an idea for the character but you ... do you ever feel that it's ... How do you negotiate the situation where "It's not really my place to tell them where to go with this character?" I mean, "Who am I? I'm just the guy who comes in and does this, but I really want to tell them my idea for this."
RR: It really depends. You have to sort of feel it out a little bit and see.
GW: How receptive the producers are?
RR: You start with the director. How receptive the director is. Then producers and writers. On Atlantis, they're quite present. I was fortunate that I worked a lot with Martin Wood and he's quite receptive.
One of the things that happened was Ladon becoming the leader. As most people know, it was supposed to be Kolya. Robert Davi wasn't available so they rewrote it for Ladon. The intention was still written for Kolya. So when I got to work, I was talking to Martin and I was like "You know, we've only ever seen that guy as a scientist, I'm not sure how it translates for him to suddenly just be this ruthless leader. Is there a way to find a middle ground?"
Of course they were very receptive to that. That's how Ladon's version of a leader came to be. And then in the following scripts, that was more the tone. And then Ladon became the sort of ambiguous "What is this guy up to?" thing.
GW: It gave the character depth!
Believing his sister is beyond help, Ladon commits himself to a dangerous series of events that will reshape the Genii leadership. From "Coup D'etat." | |
RR: Yeah, you got to think of it. He's a scientist. He's not a general or a ruthless leader. He's not any of that. He's out of his element, somewhat. And I liked to show that a little bit. I liked that he was a little out of his element and trying to behave as though he wasn't.
It depends. I've done shows where I've had ideas that I thought were great and the director is like "Yeah ... No, just stick to the words," "OK it's cool." You just don't know. It also depends on the tone of the show. You don't know the tone on the show, but I did know the tone.
GW: Would you have suggested something for you character on Battlestar Galactica as opposed to Atlantis?
RR: Oh yeah.
GW: Are there certain shows where you get the vibe from the staff that they have this completely in hand and there is nothing that I can do to suggest anything? That's off limits.
RR: On Battlestar Galactica we did talk about it. We did try certain things. They loved the idea of my character but no one ... Battlestar Galactica had so many characters and so many story lines. And then, here is this new character that they really like and saw a lot of potential in. They want to keep him around so that they have the option to use him eventually. They're just not sure where and what for.
They know they like the character. We all get along. I know all those guys, so "let's keep me around." Go from like resistance fighter to bartender. OK, so how much resistance fighter am I embodying in the bartender? So we made choices. He's just grateful to have a room again. He's grateful he's got a job. He's trying to get his life back on track so he can be happy. At least he's got a fresh start now.
And then there's the reminder of Baltar, so we did have to discuss that. For them, they have all these actors coming up to them going, "What about my character 'this?'" All the actors are very involved and everybody cares so much about that show. All the actors want to put their input in.
For me coming in [an] episode here, episode there, I am equally as passionate about the show. I come in they're just like -- it's either "Yeah go ahead, give that a shot" or "You know what let's just keep this." I wanted to be on the show more, so I'm trying to figure out ways to create something interesting.
When we did the first episode of season four, that stuff with Baltar ... James [Callis] is awesome to work with. If you remember the scene when I'm telling him to go ahead and scream.
GW: Yeah, in the bathroom.
RR: He was supposed to scream. And James didn't scream. He just didn't feel like he would scream. So, we're doing it and he wouldn't scream, wouldn't scream, wouldn't scream. James and I work pretty similarly. We're pretty intense, we kind of get into it. We were battered and bruised at the end of that episode but he wouldn't scream so I screamed for him. And literally threw him to the ground
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" I like characters to have secrets. ... I think everybody's got secrets."
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He's like "Throw me harder, throw me harder, come on, you can do it!" I literally screamed and I was so mad because he wouldn't scream, I screamed at him, threw him to the ground and it was "Cut!" And there was this moment and pause. He kind of looks at me with this cheeky smile and we started laughing and there was this [clapping] "Oh that was awesome."
So there were those. And then when the girl was beating me with the handle and Michael Rymer is directing. "Not so hard, we don't want to people to think he's dead. He's not dead. You're not killing him." It was never intended to seem like I was killed, but that scene was so intense, everybody just got caught up in it.
Everyone was sure I was dead. I was never meant to be dead. Because I was like, "Please don't kill me, Michael. I don't want to be dead, come on man."
GW: I thought he was dead the first time I saw it.
RR: I was like, "Oh I don't want to be dead, man! Please don't kill me." They left it kind of open. And then it was like episode 15, 14 episodes later. You get this call. "You're back on the show." I'm like, "I knew I wasn't dead!"
GW: Just been in a coma for a few weeks.
RR: Yeah, and not a scratch on me when I came back. Not a mark on me.
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