David Blue: Even amongst his friends, he’s divided. For the first time, the one person that he thought in a million years would not affect … have you watched “Divided?”
GateWorld: Yeah.
DB: OK, I don’t want to ruin it for you. The one person who he never thought in a million years [would betray him], is the one person that he’s like — “I don’t know if I can trust you anymore.” And that’s a huge thing. I think it’s making Eli grow up, and start to realize maybe he needs to stop slacking, he needs to start taking responsibility for his own life. I love that about it.
GW: There’s been this Young versus Rush dynamic since the beginning. And Eli seems like, for the most part, that he’s tried to play both sides of the fence. He’ll answer to Young but, at the same time, Rush still kind of has Eli in his back pocket from the technical side.
DB: I think it’s more that he respects Rush. Because he kind of — other than his personality — kind of can imagine himself becoming him. But it’s also a warning story. Eli doesn’t want to become that guy, so I think more than anything Rush is someone to look up to, but Young is somebody to respect.
GW: What are some of the challenges for you, as an actor, in adapting your [acting] method style to a genre series? You’re a long way now from Ugly Betty.
DB: Although I do have a few fans that like both series, which is kind of cool.
GW: Were you saddened by [Ugly Betty‘s] cancellation?
DB: Very much so. I’m still friends with a lot of the cast. And Becki Newton already has another show. So I know they’re all going on to bigger and better things.
GW: Did they want you back for the finale?
DB: A few times over the past year, they’ve called me for episodes. They would pitch things and I was totally up for it. I even talked to the Stargate people and MGM and they were really excited. They said, “Go ahead, do some more episodes.”
And then, I don’t know if the writers changed their minds or something just hadn’t worked out, so it just never happened. I was a little bummed. I would have loved to have come back to wrap up that storyline, because I loved playing Cliff. They’re a great group of people.
But as far as the acting — no, we’re lucky. I think it’s part of the reason we all get along – literally get along – as friends and family. And this cast … we all come from a theatre world, a really well-trained world, so everyone’s crazy prepared. Everyone shows up ready to play, change their ideas on the day, and really get some fun and interesting things you wouldn’t expect. I find myself coming home a lot of the time going, “You’ll never guess what Bobby [Robert Carlyle] did! It was really cool.”
GW: We’ve had a little bit of an advanced warning that this year’s cliffhanger is not going to be a fun one for us as viewers.
DB: You mean by Brian?
GW: I have not talked to Brian yet!
DB: OK, but I think that’s where it started.
GW: Would you care to clear that up? Give us just a tid-bit, not a spoiler, but something to …
DB: I will say – having seen episodes 11 through 20 on DVD, I will say that I love it. I really do. But watching the second part of the two-part season finale, I found myself getting angry that I had to wait to see how it got resolved. Which is ridiculous because we were shooting it at the time! So I knew how it got resolved. But watching it … I even went up to Andy Mikita and I congratulated him because I thought it was so beautifully done.
It is, not terrifying. It is shocking. It is crazy. It brings you right along to the point.
One of my favorite things about LOST is where you watch and then you realize that you have five minutes before the commercial that ends the episode, and you get really pissed off. You’re like, “No, oh no, don’t leave it right here!” And I feel like we do that in a really good way.
It’s going to leave people very excited to come back for Season Two, and I think that’s great. I’m curious to see what everyone thinks, though.
And when you have been IN the role, if SGU lasts 10 years, for several years, how realistic do you think it would be to stay innocent. Come on.. Daniel Jackson evolved and matured. It would be pretty silly otherwise, much as I adored naive Jackson.
Eli is one my favorite characters on SGU. David brings a lot to the character and much needed humor to the show.
he wasnt saying he didnt think Jackson evolved. he was saying after 10 years he became skill’d and stuff, which is true. sounded to me like he was just sayin he knew eli was created to bring the innocent thing back to some stories.
DB, you hold the future of the nerd-hero image in your hands (ignoring those producer/writers/etc).
Do us proud man.
Has DB lost weight during the production of SGU season 1? He seemed a little less “plump” in Incursion (Part 1) then he did in Air (Parts 1, 2 and 3).
He is still awesome though!
We need a rousing intro sequence like SGs past!
Look, ST Enterprise tanked and I had to mute the intro it was so schmaltzy. Intros matter!
I crank it up for Stargates orchestral movements.
Eli would look cool in an action intro piece! Don’tcha think?