Retro Thursday: It's Your Drama, Adama
Titan magazines used to publish an exclusively Battlestar Galactica magazine. There were 7 issues in total, 6 of which are hiding somewhere in my house :). On March 31st, 2006, pageup posted a partial transcript of a Mary and Eddie interview that was published in the magazine during season 2:
Another aspect has been the changing nature of the relationship between Adama and Laura Roslin. How has that developed?
EJO: "It's changed, because of my death and my rebirth. I've grown to admire and to really understand what she's going through, especially with her vulnerability and her instability and this life threatening disease attacking and killing her. I become even more understanding of what she has had to put up with during the time period that I've known her, because she knew of her own destruction from the very beginning, before the attacks on the human species.
It gets to the point where it actually shows the feelings of the two of them much more this year than ever before. She almost dies, and during the time period when she's actually dying you actually see, it touches the emotional and spiritual centre of Adama, and that makes it very difficult for him to accept her death. It was beautiful, it was beautiful to watch. I think some of the best scenes that I've ever done for television have been the death scenes of President Roslin."
.....................................................................................
Something else that has been interesting this year has been Roslin's changing relationship with William Adama. There is a fascinating scene in Home pt. 2, where having resolved their differences, Adama says, "I forgive you" and Roslin's reply is, "I don't need your forgiveness"
MM: "I loved that moment when I read it. But I have to tell you, director Michael Rymer, and three other of our male directors, hated that. Rymer asked, "Why can't she just say, "Thank you?" and I said, "That's not the issue!" She's saying "I'm glad you resolved it. It's been your drama Adama." is what I wanted to say! [laughs] It was very wonderful on a human level, to have him shift that way, but from a point of view of a woman who doesn't need a male relationship to validate her existence, the truth is, "Adama it's been your drama, because I tried to come to you about this Arrow. I came to you very logically about it; I showed you the scriptures - everything one could possibly want. It was in your refusal to engage in anything other than you militaristic mindedness that sent me in a subversive manner to begin with." And had she not taken that action, she was letting down the whole future of the civilization. So to come full circle and then he says "I forgive you"...For what? [laughs] It’s a wonderful conundrum for them, because their points of view are so strong. I was so happy that the writers did that, I was very happy that they put that in, just very gently."
That's also the first episode where they call each other by their first names, signifying the start of a new cooperation between them. Where you happy with that?
MM: "I was happy with it because he stopped refuting so adamantly what Laura felt was central to our survival. He has from the very beginning, responded to Laura Roslin not only in terms of what she's doing but also on an uncomfortable male level. There are times when he resists what she's doing, and there’s a power struggle. So in that episode, when it was clear that something had happened to him and he was willing to absorb her as a partner and perhaps explore this thing with her-there was an opportunity to work cooperatively to get the Arrow. That, to me, was the biggest thing, the most important thing. There was now a partnership rather than a begrudging cooperation, and that was a lovely event.
Then, as I started to die, something else even more confusing happened emotionally, coming from him. I'm not sure she knows what to do with that. What I do know is that more often than not now, I have to make the tough choices in the face of his emotional ambivalence. He can't make a lot of the choices that he needs to. Now Laura is having this interesting feeling of looking at him and going, "Now what are you doing?" She feels emotionally drawn to him, but it's one of those places where a woman goes "Oh, be careful. I don't want to end up being his mother" [laughs] It's going to be very interesting. The last thing in the world that Laura Roslin wants is to confuse her relationship with him on any kind of romantic level. But his emotional energy is starting to come towards her. There's something really intrinsic now, about their relationship. Will that turn into something romantic? I have no idea. I think at the core of Laura is a phenomenally romantic woman, and she's going, "No, I can't" All hell would break loose! Who's going to make the tough decisions?
Do you agree that Roslin had to make more of the tough decisions?
Mary describes Laura as a "phenomenally romantic woman", does this surprise you? Do you agree?
Feel free to comment on anything in the article that interested you :).
Another aspect has been the changing nature of the relationship between Adama and Laura Roslin. How has that developed?
EJO: "It's changed, because of my death and my rebirth. I've grown to admire and to really understand what she's going through, especially with her vulnerability and her instability and this life threatening disease attacking and killing her. I become even more understanding of what she has had to put up with during the time period that I've known her, because she knew of her own destruction from the very beginning, before the attacks on the human species.
It gets to the point where it actually shows the feelings of the two of them much more this year than ever before. She almost dies, and during the time period when she's actually dying you actually see, it touches the emotional and spiritual centre of Adama, and that makes it very difficult for him to accept her death. It was beautiful, it was beautiful to watch. I think some of the best scenes that I've ever done for television have been the death scenes of President Roslin."
.....................................................................................
Something else that has been interesting this year has been Roslin's changing relationship with William Adama. There is a fascinating scene in Home pt. 2, where having resolved their differences, Adama says, "I forgive you" and Roslin's reply is, "I don't need your forgiveness"
MM: "I loved that moment when I read it. But I have to tell you, director Michael Rymer, and three other of our male directors, hated that. Rymer asked, "Why can't she just say, "Thank you?" and I said, "That's not the issue!" She's saying "I'm glad you resolved it. It's been your drama Adama." is what I wanted to say! [laughs] It was very wonderful on a human level, to have him shift that way, but from a point of view of a woman who doesn't need a male relationship to validate her existence, the truth is, "Adama it's been your drama, because I tried to come to you about this Arrow. I came to you very logically about it; I showed you the scriptures - everything one could possibly want. It was in your refusal to engage in anything other than you militaristic mindedness that sent me in a subversive manner to begin with." And had she not taken that action, she was letting down the whole future of the civilization. So to come full circle and then he says "I forgive you"...For what? [laughs] It’s a wonderful conundrum for them, because their points of view are so strong. I was so happy that the writers did that, I was very happy that they put that in, just very gently."
That's also the first episode where they call each other by their first names, signifying the start of a new cooperation between them. Where you happy with that?
MM: "I was happy with it because he stopped refuting so adamantly what Laura felt was central to our survival. He has from the very beginning, responded to Laura Roslin not only in terms of what she's doing but also on an uncomfortable male level. There are times when he resists what she's doing, and there’s a power struggle. So in that episode, when it was clear that something had happened to him and he was willing to absorb her as a partner and perhaps explore this thing with her-there was an opportunity to work cooperatively to get the Arrow. That, to me, was the biggest thing, the most important thing. There was now a partnership rather than a begrudging cooperation, and that was a lovely event.
Then, as I started to die, something else even more confusing happened emotionally, coming from him. I'm not sure she knows what to do with that. What I do know is that more often than not now, I have to make the tough choices in the face of his emotional ambivalence. He can't make a lot of the choices that he needs to. Now Laura is having this interesting feeling of looking at him and going, "Now what are you doing?" She feels emotionally drawn to him, but it's one of those places where a woman goes "Oh, be careful. I don't want to end up being his mother" [laughs] It's going to be very interesting. The last thing in the world that Laura Roslin wants is to confuse her relationship with him on any kind of romantic level. But his emotional energy is starting to come towards her. There's something really intrinsic now, about their relationship. Will that turn into something romantic? I have no idea. I think at the core of Laura is a phenomenally romantic woman, and she's going, "No, I can't" All hell would break loose! Who's going to make the tough decisions?
Do you agree that Roslin had to make more of the tough decisions?
Mary describes Laura as a "phenomenally romantic woman", does this surprise you? Do you agree?
Feel free to comment on anything in the article that interested you :).