Recently, Atlantis actor David Hewlett (“Rodney McKay”) sat down with SciFiAndTvTalk’s Blog to discuss the final year of the series and his character, which got its start back in Season Five of SG-1 in the episode “48 Hours.”
“That was a lot of hair ago on SG-1. I don’t know if I actually lost the hair or if I’ve just expanded so that it looks like I’ve got less hair,” said the actor. “It’s weird because McKay seems like a different guy now.”
“I think what happened in Atlantis was that we began to see the cracks in the character’s armor,” Hewlett continued. “He came into SG-1, I feel, fully protected. McKay had inch-thick armor around him, which made him incredibly prickly from the very beginning. And it’s not so much that he warmed on Atlantis, but rather he cracked a bit.”
Hewlett also made note of the differences between McKay and the other characters on the show — and how he felt that may be a reason that the character resonated with fans as much as it did.
“He’s unlike the other characters. You’re learning about them as you go along, whereas with my character it’s as if you’re deconstructing him,” Hewlett said. “We already knew what McKay was like, and later on we got figure out why he’s like that. After five seasons, we’d deconstructed him enough to roughly know what his deep dark secrets are, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there are a few more. So as a character he did evolve. McKay’s own personality finally began to shine though, which was a real joy for me to play.”
For more from Hewlett, including his thoughts on some of the final season’s more McKay-centric episodes, check out the full interview. And keep your browser locked to GateWorld for more Stargate news as it happens!
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Love ya David. I'm so pissed that the same jerks who pushed out Conan work for the same company that is holding up our movies. I for one am done with NBC, Sci-Fi and Universal until they give us just one damn thing we out here paying the bills wants. You played a great character, something missing in that new show. If one of the lead doesn't suck you in then no one watches. You and Joe were the reason I watched Atlantis and even more exciting when Connor was on. I had my Trek guy and my StarGate men all wrapped up in one quirky show and am very saddened by the loss of Sci-Fi on American TV. The Brits are doing some filling in. Why not try to get some guest appearances on one of their shows?
*sigh* I so miss seeing characters every week.
Love ya, David! :D
Err.. that would be characters of *substance* every week... no morning coffee yet. ;)
I miss them sooo much :( The only comfort for me is Sanctuary, where I get to see some of SG and SGA people.
So where the hell are the promised movies??? Personyl, I would take one SGA or SG-1 movie over ten seasons of SGU (like flmatthew said - if the characters aren't captivating, the series suck. And it does for me, sorry)
I miss SGA all the time. Especially since I for one feel like the ending was unsatisfying (I'm sorry, but I did NOT want Atlantis to end up on Earth!) and they need to fix it with movies they're apparently not going to do. It makes me mad that the powers that be apparently feel that it's perfectly fine to screw over the fans who've been with them for ten years.
yup, makes me all the more nostalgic for SGA.
i miss this dude and i miss all of them to bad the show is over my tv screen doesnt look the same with out sheppard on it or the atlantis team. i hope he goes to the la convention.
Oh how I wish SG:A was still running :(
I wish Atlantis was still going I hate stargate universe.
This so called "New and fresh stargate" that seems more like a battlestar galatica rip off even in the way it is flimed.
I am still waiting for the part where "it would be an insult for fans to do the same thing" but I guess it is ok to copy battlestar just like 2 years after it goes off air on the same network....
Atlantis ended too soon Mckay got tons of growth and it made him awsome but everybody else did not get a chance too.
Oh and I must say battlestar made me depressed most of the time to watch but It was still good and then it was a nice change to sci-fi.
and we still had stargate Atlantis that always put me in a good mood.
Now stargate universe is so dark depressing %99.9 of the time it just gets annoying and now that caprica is on it is just plain overload of that style that Stargate universe is trying ripoff and I am getting kind of sick of it already.
But if I had to pick between the two I would go with the original who did it first and pick battlestar and caprice anyday of the week.