In our portion of the interview, Andee talks about keeping up with Stargate Atlantis on her own accord. She asks her own questions about the Wraith as a society, and discusses the interesting dilemma of always returning to play brand new characters who have few, if any, identifying factors.
Be sure to grab the rest of the interview in the September/October edition of Stargate Magazine, available at your local bookstore now!
Are you asked to watch all the Wraith-centered stories?
No. Not at all. That’s my interest in the show, and then a small portion of interest in my character development. I like to see where the show’s going so that the next time I do go on I can have background story. But I’m also interested in the show. I’m a sci fi fan myself.
Do you think it’s for better or worse that you’re always coming back as a new character every time you’re seen?
I think that there’s positives and negatives to it. Negative in the sense that there’s particular characters — actually “Allies” — I really liked that particular Queen. I thought that she was great. She used a lot of the feminine wiles to get the trust of them, and then she ends up deceiving them. I think she would’ve played a really formidable nemesis continuously. She seemed to be much more evolved, in that sense, technically evolved. She was thinking “How do we get in with these people?”
I would’ve liked to have seen how she would have developed in other episodes and how she would’ve been played. I really enjoyed that — and that would be a negative thing. But a positive thing about it is that I get to explore and change all the time. So it’s not the same character — “OK, this is who you are, so your objective is to do this all the time.” I get to change. This time you’ve got to get this way or that way or you’re this or you’re that. That’s an exciting positive of it. Coming back each time I get to explore a whole new person. Well, a whole new alien.
Because it’s always someone new you aren’t really able to build up a history with the core cast.
Exactly. Well, the thing is being the race that I am that’s already established. Even when I’m not on the episode they’re dealing with us, trying to protect themselves against us, trying to figure out who we are. We’re always on their mind. They’re building a relationship with my race. So as soon as I step on we’ve already established a history, even if I’m not on every single day. They still have to deal with me, mentally, every single day.
So I feel that there is a history already built up and as I watch the episodes I can see how that’s developing. So when I’m recurring I’m able to say “I know what you guys have been doing.” The retrovirus, for example. I knew that they were developing that. Even though I wasn’t on the show I knew that they were developing it. When I came on I had the history of knowing what the have, so I’m using my “alien wiles” to get in there and get some of it. So the history is built with me even though I might not be there every day.
What would you like to see with some of these characters that hasn’t really been explored yet?
One of the things that I would find interesting, which has been brought to me by a couple of fans, is to see the culture of the Wraith. As an actor we can create our own concept of culture, and then apply it to our character and to the screen. I think it would be really interesting to see what the hive ships do. How is their structure situated? There’s a scientist. What’s he studying? [Are] there schools? Just to evolve a hierarchy, a social structure, because even if we take insects like bees — there is a structure. And they have a colony. The worker bees, this and that.
I think it would be interesting to go into the Wraith — and not from the Atlantean point of view, but from the Wraith’s point of view, of their own race. And to me I think that would be awesome for the show to go that way. I think it would be really interesting
You must have enjoyed “Common Ground.” It almost humanized the Wraith.
Yeah, a little bit. I just think having much more of a culture — like we’re not just nemeses flying around in the air and we just “boogie-man” on what’s happening. We actually have a structure and a concept of what our hive wants to accomplish. Yeah, I think that would be interesting.
Visit Andee’s official Web site at AndeeFrizzell.com!