GateWorld: What were some of your first thoughts when you received the script for “The Shrine?” I think that that was your best acting that you have ever done. It was such a powerful script and there were some powerful scenes in that that just had me in tears.
What were your first thoughts? “Oh my gosh, I’m going to have to break down in this scene. How am I going to do that?” Or “I’m going to have to get through that scene.” What went through your mind?
Kate Hewlett: I think the first thing that happened was David sent me an email saying “You’ve got your work cut out for you” or something. And then he said that there was some intense acting to be done. And then I read the script and I was in tears pretty much from top to bottom from page one till the end.
I wasn’t that scared, actually. When it’s a good script, and obviously the other ones were great scripts as well. But this one in particular had great comedy in it. But it was a really great script, and that makes it easier to act well.
GW: Oh, you just don’t worry about it flowing out of you when the material’s really good?
KH: Exactly. You still do your work. Sometimes some of the work for an actor is actually trying to figure out how to make the words sound like people would actually say them. And this was really delightful because it was such a fantastic, well-written and very moving script.
I got nervous about the crying scene, the scene with David where I actually go into the room where he is and I talk to him for the first time.
GW: Was it scripted that you cry?
KH: It was. Yeah, it was scripted actually to the point of, “A tear rolls down her cheek” after a certain line. And I’m not one of those people. Some actors have a certain thing they can do that they just know they can turn on the tears whenever they need them. I don’t have that.
It’s funny, I do in real life. The tears turn on all the time when I don’t want them to. When I get frustrated I have to cry. So I’ll cry in stores. [Laughter]
GW: [Teary-eyed] “These onions! I can’t decide! Those or the peppers!” [Laughter]
KH: It’s true! It’s so true. But I don’t have that. Obviously most of my background is in stage. In stage you have to get there once every night. So if there’s some big, emotional scene, or even if there are many big, emotional scenes, you just have to do it once and it makes perfect sense in the arc of the story. You go through that journey, you step out on the stage, and for two hours or however long it is you’re on that journey.
GW: It’s your build-up.
KH: Yeah! Yeah. I never have trouble with emotional stuff on stage. Ever. And also you don’t have a camera in your face seeing whether or not you actually have tears coming down your face. All that stuff.
So I wasn’t nervous about that until the day of. It was really interesting. I learned a lot actually, because I misjudged when to let the emotion come in. Every time I read the scene I cried. I couldn’t get through the scene without crying.
David and I went through our lines together and we specifically shut off so that we weren’t really doing it. We just said the words really quickly and we didn’t work on the scene because we knew it would be better if we just saved it.
Unfortunately what I did was I got into the rehearsal, no cameras, the whole crew watching, everybody watching to see what they’re going to light where we’re going to go and all the blocking and everything. I came into the room and we started the scene and I was sobbing. David and I both. He was crying and I was crying. It felt like the best version of the scene that ever happened.
My problem, again in real life too, is I cry and then it’s gone. Shut off. Totally shut off. So I experienced the same thing. Then we go back to the trailer, you do whatever, you fix your makeup, and you come back and have to do it again, and I couldn’t. I actually have to admit that when I saw the final product I was so relieved and so happy because I thought that the scene was really good. And I was worried the day of that it wasn’t.
GW: You drained it all in rehearsal.
KH: Yeah. So I’m really pleased with how it turned out and I just learnt a lot about technique and about saving it. I just need to at least save it at least for the first take.
GW: You and I have always talked about how theater and film are just completely different skill sets.
KH: Completely different.
GW: There’s so little that carries over from one to the other.
KH: Yeah. It’s true. And I love film. I absolutely love film. I’m really glad that I’ve been doing more of that. There’s so much to learn, and in theater I understand the rules. I understand the process. It’s obviously different every time, but there’s certain things I just know. I feel comfortable up there. And with film every single job is a learning experience.
Part of why I would love to have my own series, aside from all the other reasons, is just to be able to learn every day and to get comfortable with a group of people so you get to a point where you’re not trying to show people you can do it. You’re just in a character and doing you’re job.
And I think that would be really incredible. To do a sitcom where you’re just in that character all the time and living it. And you work with the same people every day.
GW: It’s a great way to grow your skills, and it’s a very natural way, too, because not only are you living your life but you’re living this other character’s as well.
If Atlantis hadn’t been cancelled where would you have hoped that this character would have gone?
KH: This is going to sound ruthless and terrible but I’m going to say it anyway. I sort of hoped that there would be some kind of emergency in her life that meant that she needed to actually join the team. Her child went missing or something like that. Because the Earth thing is fun a couple of times but after that it’s limited, right?
GW: Yeah, “We have to go back to Jeannie on Earth. She has her own life.”
KH: Exactly. Right. And it becomes repetitive. There was something interesting about the family going missing or her getting forced to stay on Atlantis or something like that that I was sort of hoping would happen. So I could be really more integrated into the actual storyline.