GateWorld: Do you have a preference at all, between stage or screen, as far as where your heart lies more?
Brian J. Smith: Oh, stage. Hands down. You can’t even compare it. When you’re working on a series, I don’t know, I haven’t figured this out yet. I don’t know if Stargate was just special, if that was just an anomaly because I loved that so much. I loved all the people that I worked with and we had such a great experience making that together. But as far as the acting side of it, you can’t even compare.
You basically have to condense three weeks of rehearsal into a fifteen minute blocking session before you shoot the scene. Then they turn on the cameras and you’re going for it. You just hope to God that the editor picks the good parts and leaves the crap out, because it’s like 90 percent crap. At least that’s the way I see it. You have no idea what you’re doing.
I always tell directors I’m a four-take actor because by the fourth take I’ve gotten a lot of the crap out and I’ve relaxed into it a little bit. The more time I have with something, the better. The more time I can spend with the character or with the script or with the moment, with the lines, just everything. It’s just better. I’m not one of those people that can just show up and look at the script not having read it the night before and just deliver. There’s a lot of people who can do that, you’d be surprised. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s not me.
GW: Let’s go back and talk a little bit about Red Faction and how that all came about.
BJS: Well, Red Faction, I actually owe a really big debt to Erika Kennair, who was our Syfy rep for Stargate. They were developing this project, they’d been developing it for a little while, they had this partnership with the folks that made Red Faction, the Red Faction games. They wanted to go into this multi-platform concept where you’ve got a TV movie or possibly a TV series that’s tied in with a game that’s currently being made. Red Faction, I think, was something that fit really well it.
But Erika knew me pretty well from Stargate and put my name around and we sent over a reel and it just all kind of happened. It seemed to be a really great fit. He was similar enough to Matthew Scott that they knew that I could pull it off and he was different enough from Matthew Scott that made me want to do it. It wasn’t just a rehash of what I’d been doing on Stargate.
The character had a lot more confidence. He definitely had his demons and definitely had stuff he was dealing with, but there was a sense of self-possession and a sense of knowing himself that was very different from Matt Scott. A subtle difference, but it actually made quite a big difference to the story-telling.
GW: It was quite the cast in that, too. You’ve got Robert Patrick, Gareth David-Lloyd.
BJS: Yeah, yeah! Kate Vernon, Mama Cylon right there! She’s the one I geeked out big time about that. Robert Patrick, of course, but he’s just such a good guy it’s just like, “Whatever.” She’s a cool gal, but I’m probably the biggest Battlestar Galactica fan out there, so when she showed up for the first day of work my upper lip was sweating a little bit.
It was a great cast, but really, the star of that show was Michael Nankin, who directed it. This was not an easy shoot, in Bulgaria in the middle of winter. I’ve said it a thousands times in other interviews, it was a really hard shoot. But he kept this ship afloat, it was unbelievable. He probably needed another month to do it right and probably another couple million dollars too, but he got it done. Considering the resources that were at our disposal and the time we had…
GW: It’s a solid film.
BJS: It’s a really solid film. And that’s why I think there’s so much promise behind it, because I think if you keep this group of people together and you give them a shot…
GW: Give them the resources that they need.
BJS: Really give them the resources and let’s shoot this not in Bulgaria, please! Somewhere else. Anywhere else. I think that there’s a really solid foundation there for a really cool series. And I’m not just saying that because I had a big part in it. It was a great group of people I’d love to work with and I think that the story has a lot of potential and I think that it could fit in very nicely into Syfy’s programming and really fill a need. Something that I think is missing on it right now.
GW: Well, your latest role is actually on the CW.
BJS: It is indeed.
GW: And you are on Gossip Girl. Honestly, I don’t watch it, I have no plans to, so I’m just going to ask, are you kissing up on Blake Lively yet? [laughter]
BJS: Oh, I can’t say! [laughter]
That’s all very much under wraps. I don’t watch it either, I haven’t watched it and I won’t watch it. It’s not my thing. But look, the thing is, you can’t just do sci-fi all your life. You’ve got to break out, you’ve got to do stuff that’s different. One of the reasons I ended up doing this was because I really didn’t want to do it and that told me something. I’m like, “Why do I have such an aversion to doing this?”
We got the news and I said “No” three times. I told my agent, “No.” They called me, they’re all excited, I’m like, “No. I don’t want to do it.” But why? And I didn’t really know why. Was it because I cared what other people thought that I was doing? Was it because it was a style that was really foreign to me? Was it just that the concept of the character made me nervous? I had to go on there to find out.
It hasn’t been the most comfortable working experience of my life. I’ve got a few more days of work on it. I’m definitely not going to miss it the way that I’ve missed Stargate, but it’s an experience that I’m really glad that I had because actually I think I learned a lot. I learned more doing this, probably, than I did on two years of Stargate. Because when you do something that kind of scares you that bad, trust me. It’s really scary and really exhausting to spend 12 hours a day with people who are that perfect! [Laughter]
People who were like engaged to Leonardo DiCaprio, you know what I mean? It’s exhausting. And very, very frightening.
GW: It’s not because you’re playing a chef, right?
BJS: No, no. We never really see him cook, which I always thought was a little bit odd. But, okay, whatever. I guess that someone chopping up pâté or carrots just isn’t palatable for 14 year old girls, so I guess I can understand why they didn’t put it in. But like I said, it was an experience.
I’m glad that I did. It was kind of a bitter pill to swallow, but I learned a lot from it. At the same time, things are bad out there right now, it’s a bad economy. Just to say that I was working is pretty awesome.
GW: It’s been a whirlwind three years for you, obviously a big chunk of that was Stargate. What do you take away from the two years that you had on set?
BJS: Don’t take experiences like that for granted. Because it’s rare. When you have the kind of family feeling we had on that set and the kind of connections you have with people, don’t take it for granted. Ever. Having spent some time on some other sets, I can guarantee you that what we had going on that show is insanely rare. Maybe once in a lifetime you get to work on something that makes you feel that way.
GW: Is there any single defining moment over those two years that you’re most proud of? Whether it was something onscreen or off.
BJS: You know, we went to Innerspace, they screened, I don’t remember the name of the episode but it’s the episode where Eli finds out that Rush knows about the bridge and all that stuff. They did a screening for the audience before we came out and did the interviews and we all stood behind the curtain and just listened to the audience watching the show and they were laughing and they were going, “Ooooh!” when something crazy happened and clapping at certain moments.
When you make a TV show, it’s not like theater because you don’t get that immediate gratification of seeing people react to it and knowing how it’s coming across. When we stood behind that curtain and listened to people [watching] the show and enjoying it that much and buzzing about it, that was really incredible. We all felt so connected to the fans and we’re so gratified that despite a lot of the nasty stuff that was in the air and a lot of the feeling like we were being attacked and stuff like that, to hear that and just see people being so hardcore about it, was awesome. Moments like that make it all worth it.
GW: Any regrets?
BJS: That I didn’t take more video. [Laughter]
I should have done a lot more videos of behind the scenes on set, because I just can’t stress enough we had such a great time.
GW: Any message for fans? Not just of SGU but everything else that you’re starting to be in now. Hopefully we’re going to continue to talk you throughout the years as your career continues to grow, but any message you want to give fans?
BJS: It’s like that Sinatra song, the best is yet to come. There’s still a long road ahead and career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I think that Stargate was an amazing experience, but there’s still so much more out there to explore. Of course, I always want to thank the fans who I’ve met on Twitter or even that I met at conventions who just from day one have been supportive and happy to have us as part of the Stargate family. We appreciated that so much, so, so, so much. There’s a little bit of distance now, I think everyone’s kind of scattering, going their own ways and we’re all ready to move on to the next thing, but those two years — I will always look so fondly on them.
Interview by Chad Colvin. Transcription by Lahela.
good interview! I think he hit it on the head, one of the things missing in SGU was the wonder. Which given the story, struggling on a ship in space, it wasn’t always about the wonder, but about them getting through life. Again, beaten to death, but maybe that’s part of what it was.
p.s. I was at the inner space thing! I was the guy from Ohio! haha, they acted like it was such a long drive. But I live 3 hours from my family and I drive that a lot, so 5 hours to Toronto was nothing. Plus I’d never been, and the whole experience was amazing! I have his autograph!
I liked red planet, I think Syfy would be stupid if they didn’t pick the series up. But it is the Syfy channel we’re talking about.
I watched every SGU episode from day 1, and I miss the show, and I agree with what BJS was saying. Too many “stargate” fans didn’t watch SGU and jumped ship when the show got cancelled. Anyway good luck.
p.s I hope Syfy pick red faction up fingers crossed.
Great interview! :) I too was at the SGU Innerspace special in fact I think I was right behind you in the line for the autographs as I remember people commenting on it. I would however disagree in regard to the wonder in SGU, to me SGU was more about the wonder then either of the previous shows as it was the core of the show, What is the Destiny, what is it’s purpose, why did the Ancients build it, Why didn’t they ever go to it? All of these to me at least are all about wonder.
Never was a fan of SGU but good luck to Brian in his future.
Sadly, I think Red Faction is dead. After the game was released to a ho-hum reception and if I remember right, that TV-movie didn’t get all that great of ratings. THQ pretty much killed it as a franchise. Which is pretty sad as a fan of RF:Gurella and the older games. Armageddon was a big misstep.
@DustoMan
You’re right in saying the last re faction game was a little bit lame.