GateWorld: I’m sure. Over your career, you’ve done several Westerns and you were talking about Young Guns. How was that experience, with that huge cast?
Lou Diamond Phillips: Like I said, that was the first time I thought, “Okay, this movie is kind of a watershed moment for my career.” But also, the fact that it brought all of those young actors together and I’ve formed a lifelong bond with people like Kiefer [Sutherland] and Emilio [Estevez]. I have to say, I just kind of shake my head at Charlie [Sheen]’s antics these days. It’s like, “Wow! Okay, well some of us grew up.”
GW: He’s not doing the best job staying out of the news right now.
LDP: No, no, but you know what? I don’t think he cares. That’s just kind of who he is and, like I said, I just shake my head. Different strokes, man.
GW: You were nominated for a Tony for your work as the king in The King and I and you’ve done a lot of other stage stuff besides that. Do you have a preference between the stage or the screen?
LDP: No, no, definitely not. My preference is to be employed as an actor! I’ve been very, very fortunate and the fact that I cut my teeth in the theater, not only in college theater but in professional theater in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. But also this group called The Zero Hour that was this sketch comedy group that I was with. We did this raunchy, crazy comedy at midnight in punk clubs in the early 1980’s and that same group ended up forming what was called The Front Room Company at a theater — Stage West in Forth Worth — and we ended up doing the classics.
I was doing all kinds of different things early on in my career, including industrials, including a little guest spot on the Dallas series and stuff like that. So from a very, very early point in my career, I was used to doing everything. “What is it? A mime audition? Okay, fine, I’ll go.” I developed such a love for the craft in general, just the love of acting, and that even extends to my writing and my directing as well. I think it all falls under the umbrella of story-teller or communicator. That’s kind of how I see myself and I have certainly different reasons to love each branch and it gratifies me in different ways. I’m just real fortunate that I can seamlessly go from one to the other.
GW: You were talking about the need to work, but you’re actually, I would say, at a point in your career where you don’t have to accept every role that comes your way. What criteria do you use when you choose a project that you do take?
LDP: For instance, I just turned down a guest spot on a very, very popular show, but it’s something that I had done. Yes, I will play cops and yes, I will play military guys. And there are certain kinds of roles that are going to be standard for me, but I always look for something different in them. I look for something that’s challenging to me and that helps me bring something new to the table.
The other thing is who I’m working with. Literally, a lot of the projects that I’ve taken lately or the guest star spots that I’ve done on television have been about who I work with. I did that small role in Che simply to work with Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro. Even Stargate Universe, what really, really caught my attention was the fact that Robert Carlyle was attached when they came to me. I thought, “All right, this is certainly raising the bar, acting-wise, on this show if that’s the kind of actor they’re looking to get.”
There are times when a project will come to me and I will say “yes” to it sight-unseen simply because of who else is involved. I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like I’m fairly secure in my career and I can take some chances and do some things that are just, I think, artistically gratifying. To be able to work with, like, a Mariska Hargitay and pop onto a show like that [ Law & Order: Special Victims Unit], it’s just fun. So there are certain things, like I said, I would say “yes” to sight-unseen, other things I have to take a look at and go, “Hmm. Is this something that, not only is going to be challenging and fun for me, but fun for anybody who might follow me?” If they go, “Ah, yeah, Lou’s done this,” I don’t — I’ve never been a one-trick pony and I don’t want to start now.
GW: Prior to accepting the role on SGU, had you had a chance to catch any of SG-1 or Atlantis beforehand? Were you familiar with the franchise?
LDP: I was familiar with them, but I wasn’t a follower, as it were. I think that worked to my benefit in some ways as far as Stargate Universe is concerned, because it’s a very, very different show. Certainly, we owe a great debt of gratitude to the shows that came before, especially having worked with RDA [Richard Dean Anderson] within the first season. I think it’s no secret that David Hewlett and Robert Picardo come in and do a guest spot this season. I got a chance to work with them. It’s great to feel like you’re a part of a legacy. It’s a frat[ernity] in some respects and we’re proudly carrying on the torch and taking it into different territory and doing different things with it.
I have to be honest, I was a huge fan of the film. I did The Triangle with Dean Devlin, who is a good friend. Dean and I started acting together 25 years ago in Hollywood before he became this superstar producer. I did that miniseries with him and was very, very impressed with his writing and the level of production on the Stargate film. Having said that, what Brad Wright and Robert Cooper have done to turn it into such a long-lived series is amazing.
GW: Tell us a little bit about your personal casting process for SGU and the journey to becoming Colonel Telford.
LDP: It’s interesting because they came to me kind of late in the game. It was literally a phone call. It was like, okay, it was an offer, “Are you interested in this?” I read the first three, I think, episodes, “Air Part One” and “[Air Part] Two” and the follow-up to that. Telford was not very present in that script and I literally had to get on the phone with Rob and Brad and go, “Where’s this guy going? Is there a reason for me to be there? Why should I jump on board?”
Like I said, I was predisposed because of Robert Carlyle and the writing in the script was fantastic, but, once again, there wasn’t much for me to do. I was wanting to hear from them that Telford would become a player, that there would be interesting things for me to do down the road. They assured me that there would be, so I took a leap of faith. And having said that, yes, there have been a few episodes that I think have just been really, incredibly entertaining and they’ve been an absolute challenge for me to do.
I think at this point in time, we’ve either beaten me up or killed me or stranded me [Laughter] — I’m the whipping boy of SGU but that’s okay because I can take a punch, man! I take a licking and keep on ticking! They like mixing it up with him every once in a while and, even though I’m not there all the time, when I do make an appearance, it tends to have a little weight to it, which is fun.
And I’ve got to say, I just absolutely adore this cast. Every single one of the actors that I get the privilege to work with on the show is fresh and professional and really warm, fantastic people. You could not ask for a better ensemble.
NEXT: Cast chemistry, Season One of SGU, and the “Telford Vs. Young” dynamic
Thank you for such a brilliant interview with the great Lou Diamond Phillips! Truly one of my favourite actors!
Here’s hoping that he’s back in SGU as soon as possible!
Wonderful interview.
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he is the right man in the right place in SGU