Leaving Galactica

Nov 06, 2010 09:48




If you haven't already, I encourage everyone to go to yesterday's post to see the beautiful tributes to Lee Adama as CAG, Pilot and Commander. *sniff*

JB shared some wonderful insights into Lee's decision to leave the military and his hopes about moving into politics. And a bit of heartbreaking talk about knowing the series was coming to an end. *sigh*



When he really leaves the Galactica, in that scene Lee's face looks so overcome by gratitude, appreciation, sadness. It looks like he could almost burst out in tears any second. Did you put on that face intentionally, since it really nailed the scene?

Well, scenes like that are kind of... never easy to play because... life and art become very intertwined. When I was playing that scene I realized that I was putting a whole side of his character away forever. I knew it was the final season of Galactica. This is, you know, Lee leaving his family aboard Galactica and that was basically echoed... an echo of what we were all going through up here in Vancouver. I'm saying goodbye to a crew, a cast, a production, a way of working together. And that's very much what Lee was doing too that day. So it wasn't a case of putting on a face. It was a case of just really understanding that this was a moment that would never come again.

Yes, because that was exactly what I was thinking, it's really for you also personally looking ahead at a point to where you have to say goodbye to your character and everybody and all your colleagues. Because that's also exactly how it looked like.

Yes, yes that's exactly what it is. I mean there are a lot of things. As far as I know, Lee is not getting in a Viper again. He's not going to wear a uniform again. He's not really going to be aboard the Galactica too much anymore, and in a month's time, neither will I. So, yes, life and art in that sense, and there are lots of moments, and interplays, and interchanges, and characters dying, and you know you'll never see them again. So it's nostalgic and sad. I mean, personally as an actor, I'm actually really pleased that we are wrapping up the show and ending and moving on. But there is nostalgia in there too. Because it has been a great experience, and we've made some very good drama, and we've also made some life long friends that we won't be able to work with, day in day out, probably ever again. So that's sad.

What do you personally think of Lee's decision to go into politics? What do you think he hopes to accomplish with that?

I think he hopes to accomplish what he always hoped to accomplish, which is to make a difference and to make this strange fugitive life work, for people. To make it as full and satisfying and as sensical, if that's the word, as possible. That's what he's always tried to do, I mean, inside of a Viper, it's the same thing, it's just a more aggressive, immediate, and violent way of doing it. And in stepping into the Quorum chamber he's hoping to change, update, the way government works because the problem about this Quorum is that the representatives represent planets that no longer exist. I think Lee goes into it realizing that the Quorum is an anachronism; it's an outdated form of government. The representation doesn't work anymore because the planets don't group the people together. He's there as a... as the wind of change. He's trying to change the way government works to make it relevant to this strange peripatetic life. He's... in that way... a sort of a revolutionary and he's always been that. Even in the military, he had a different way of doing things, would buck orders and buck trends and buck the way things are normally done. That's very much his mission. He's a challenging individual, and he's also very ambitious. With his Dad in command, there's a feeling there to what he can achieve, the work that he can do as a military officer. He's a leader, so he wants to lead. With the President being in a precarious position and also being ill, there's an opportunity there. If you're looking at it in more ambitious, Machiavellian, kind of selfish terms, Lee realizes that the Presidency is going to open up soon but the Admiralty probably isn't.

Do you also think these career changes are part of Lee not really knowing what he wants? Does he finally find peace by going into politics? Has he finally found what he's looking for?

Who knows? I don't know yet. He just got into it, so you don't know. Maybe I'll never know. The thing about people who are... who strive... who judge their life on achievement, success and challenges, even if they do achieve, they probably are never content with the achievement because there's another achievement around every corner. I think that's what you've got with Lee. He's an ambitious, competitive, vigorous young man. Whatever he does, he does to his absolute limit. But when he achieves it? Does the static... sort of contentment... doesn't work for him and he needs a new challenge. He needs to conquer a new peak and that's what he's always done throughout the show. There's also a sense of trying to find out who he is, defining himself. It's very hard to define yourself as an individual when you're constantly related to a father figure and defined in terms of the father figure. So for him, yeah I think there is something more satisfying about forging a new path, being judged on his own merits and distancing himself from the Adama name.

jamie bamber, interview, 4x02 - six of one

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