GateWorld: We still have so much to see and I know you haven’t filmed the finale yet, and you’ve obviously said that there’s not going to be a total amount of closure for Andy, but with what has been shot already, is it a decent spot to leave him off with?
Kavan Smith: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, from where he was when I first got the character to where it is now, I am exceptionally happy at what they let me do with the guy and what they asked from him and what I was able to bring to the character. There was one thing and one thing only that I was hoping to finalize and it didn’t come to fruition because we just didn’t get that other six.
Andy’s certainly not the most important person on the show, so you’ve got to tie up the storylines for Carter and for Allison and Henry and Grace and Fargo and Holly and everybody else has to be tied up in a way that makes sense.
GW: Have you seen the script? Is the final going to do that?
KS: Yeah, I’ve read it, Absolutely. You’ve got big story plots, you’ve got five years of story plot that has to be wound up in one 50-page script and that’s not easy to do. You’re not going to make everybody happy but, in reading it myself, I think that it ties up the most important things with integrity, with heart and with humor and I think that it shows the fans the respect that they deserve, not just from Jaime but from the show itself. I think it’s a little nod of the cap to everybody that was involved. Reading myself, it’s really funny and for three days, it’s bloody impressive.
GW: We continue to see you in movies like Red: Werewolf Hunter with Felicia Day who’s also been in Eureka this summer. But you also did a movie called Iron Invaders.
KS: Oh, is that what they ended up calling it? They changed the title every six days, so as long as there’s some sort of reference to “metal” and “big” in there, I’m sure that that’s probably the one I’m thinking of.
GW: You played a character named “Jake Hampton” in it. What can you tell us about the project?
KS: That one kind of came to me just out of the blue. They said, “Would you like to do this movie?”
Can I tell you a funny story? The producers of the movie may not like this, but a friend of mine went for a coffee with me and he goes, “Yeah, I had this audition the other day for a show called Iron Golem,” which was what they were originally calling the movie. I’m like, “You’re a loser! You’re a loser! You’re auditioning for Iron Golem?!” and he goes, “No, no, no, I’m not even going to in for Iron Golem,” and I’m like, “Well, thank Christ! That just sounds like a pile of crap!” [laughs]
Then literally two days later, I got a phone call and they’re like, “Yeah, they want to know if you want to do the lead in Iron Golem.” I’m like, “Yeah, sure!” and I call my friend up and, “Guess what I’m doing!” So I thought that was a funny little segue.
But I actually really ended up hitting it off with Nicky and we had a great time. And the guy who played my brother [Colby Johannson] was a terrific guy. Sometimes on those lower budget movies, you don’t know what the end product is going be. You hope for the best but you never know what’s going to happen with the CGI or anything like that. Sometimes if it’s going to be bad, you’re like, “Well, I hope they’re going for campy bad and it could be kind of funny and culty.” So as we’re doing it, we just had a great time. Nicole and I just hung out every night after shooting, just because we were out in the boonies in some little town.
GW: Nicole de Boer? [Editor’s note: de Boer portrayed Dr. Alison Porter in the Atlantis Season Five episode “Whispers,” and was a series regular on both The Dead Zone and the final season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
KS: Nicole de Boer. Yeah, I call her Nicky. We got along. There was a props guy on set and the three of us were inseparable and all we did was laugh to the point where we almost got kicked off the set a few times because it was just getting out of hand. It ended up being one of the more fun shoots that I’ve been on.
And you mentioned Red as well. I didn’t know what I was walking into with that one. They just called and offered that and I didn’t know anything about Felicia Day because I’m not really an Internet person, I don’t know much about it.
GW: She’s like the Queen of Geek Media right now.
KS: She doesn’t call herself this, she said she is referred to as Queen of the Nerds. [laughs]
When I first met her, she wasn’t what I visually expected from the lead of an action werewolf movie, but then I got to know her and she is very talented, multi-talented. She’s a concert level violinist, she’s a ballet dancer, she’s a very talented actress and she’s very funny. She produces her own web series [The Guild]. She’s just always busy. So we were shooting in the middle of the winter in Eastern Canada and it’s cold as f***. And again, all we did was laugh.
Often times, when you do these movies, it can go one way or the other. Because they don’t have a giant budget, you’re not always super comfortable. They can’t afford the little things that can make it a bit more comfortable. You usually end up being outside at four in the morning in a mud puddle, so you really hope that your cast-mates are people that you can at least rely on for fun. I’d say at least 50 percent of the time, they’re jackasses.
But I got really lucky with both of those movies. Felicia and I are friends. Nicole, she lives in a different city than I do and she’s pretty and my wife probably… just trying to maintain a friendship for a long period, [puts on high-pitched voice] “Why are you friends with her?” So we just kind of went our separate ways, but I’d work with her in a heartbeat. She was fantastic.
But both those movies came out of the blue. Both those movies were sort of low budget. You don’t know what to expect from the CGI, you really hope for the best and the end product is not always in your control. But you try and have fun. You’ve got a living to make, mouths to feed at home and I really did enjoy both of those movies.
GW: Any message for Stargate fans or fans of the other work that you’re starting to be in now for people who are just discovering it?
KS: Well, I hope that people tune into Eureka. I mean, it’s the new project I’m doing and, like I said, I’ve actually really come to like this character, maybe more than almost any of the other characters I’ve played. I mean, I’ve always been sort of either the bad guy or the quasi kind of leading-guy-look type thing and to play a super keener dorky robot is so much fun that I get to bring out all of my inner nerd and keener.
They just let me do more or less whatever I want and I have such lofty ambitions for this character, so I hope people tune in and give him a chance. I apologize to Ty’s fans if they have a problem with it and I hope that they give it a chance. I certainly didn’t go out of my way to try and take a job off anybody or anything, but it’s probably the character that I’m the most — I won’t say the word “proud” but I’m certainly the most happy with in the last couple of years.
We’re just finishing shooting the final season now and I hope people tune in next year when it airs. I just signed a confidentiality agreement, literally two days ago, so I can’t tell you what’s happening, but the character development for him is so fantastic and so much fun. So I guess my message to the fans, to my fans if they can be maybe so-called, is to watch, give Eureka a shot. He’s much different than anything I’ve ever played but he’s very funny, he’s really sweet. It’s hard not to like the guy.
Interview by Chad Colvin. Transcription by Lahela.
Thanks for a great interview! I loved Kavan’s Lorne and Deputy Andy. Wish him well no matter what he does next.
It is a business, but it is also art. Art isn’t always profitable and it doesn’t have to be profitable to be worthwhile. Unfortunately too many of the business people aren’t artists and the art suffers as a result.
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