MegaCon Report (Part Two)
Question: Do you ever find yourself saying "frak" in real life?
JB: Frak no!
(laughter)
JB: We're not that frakkin' rude!
MMD: Frakking A!
JB: The answer is yes, it's really sad.
MMD: My son is sitting up here shaking his head
Question: When you play the character in this upcoming season, it's sort of like you've been through the fire now. Was that written in or were you saying, "Can I kick a little butt now?"
JB: Who are you talking to?
Questioner: To Mary
(everyone laughs - I think everyone thought he was talking about Lee!)
MMD: What was the question?
Questioner: In the last season you were kicked out of the presidency and now you come back with a vengeance. Was that your idea, saying that it's time I kicked a little butt, or was that decided. You've really transformed that character.
MMD: It's really hard to say. I have to say it's not really my idea. But I will say that there was a lot of discussion about how she continues, if she does not get stronger and finally start to deal with some things head-on, then what kind of a president can she continue to be under these circumstances? More recently, the episode that we called the torture episode, I'm sure that's one of the ones you're referring to, a couple of weeks ago?
Questioner: All in all, this entire season, it's been...your character has evolved to the point where you know your own mind, you know what you can do, you know what needs to be done, you're not afraid, there's no fear.
MMD: Well I think part of what happened, I was reborn. I mean I think before that she was dying of cancer and she was unsure of herself and then suddenly she had another life given to her out of the blue and I think she's clearer about her mission and less involved with the philosophical or moral reprecussions of her actions, more involved in taking what she believes is the correct action at all costs. So that's the big change, I think.
Questioner: It's really wonderful to see and really I thought really enhanced the season(something I couldn't hear)
MMD: Oh, thanks
Questioner: You've set a tone, I think, for the leadership. Everybody's more focused (and something else I couldn't hear)
MMD: Thank you!
MMD: Another waving hand (she's choosing someone to answer the next question) Everybody's going to be waving now.
JB: Next we'll pick a still hand
Question: My question is for each of you to answer. If you were writing the show, tell me what direction you would want your character to go in, starting from this point on.
MMD then looks at JB with "come frak me" eyes and points at him...and everyone cheers and applauds.
MMD: (laughing) I swear, I couldn't resist! He was sitting right here, you know...
JB: Um....okay....ah...I think I blushed! Good job I'm wearing pink!
(Laughter)
JB: Um...part of the joy about acting in a show is not to have to think too much about the direction that the character goes, you just sort of deal with the rubbish as it comes your way. I use "rubbish" because I can't...I don't want to use other words...they all get put throught the wringer, you don't want to be, in a way you don't want to be too aware of what the future holds because these characters are reacting so much to the present to whatever happens and that's part of it, but then, as Mary and I both know, when you're in a long-running situation like this you are so responsible for your character. Mary, that was an excellent question earlier, and Mary really has molded Roslin and I know how close you feel to her and how responsible you feel to a female president, something that we haven't lived through yet. Mary's created something there. And we all feel that. So there are senses in which we want to uphold the integrity and the...the truth of the characters. Now personally, with Lee right now, if I had to make a decision tomorrow about what was going to happen and pan out with season 4 I would put him back to where...to the original Apollo idea, I would get him back to that. Not because I haven't enjoyed everything else in between, but I just think he's been through so much, that...when you get pushed to these dark, difficult places, when you...the journey I'm about to embark on in Season 3 is a huge one and I end up somewhere where you'd never expect me to end up, but at the end of it, there's a kind of...ah...I don't know, there's an emotional moment where he kind of just is...is put in a corner and spews forth exactly what he thinks and after that...it's a purging, it's a purging, a moment of purging, and through that I think, I think, he'll end up, you know, being the Apollo, the viper pilot, the sort of person that people can rely on. And I think that's where he'll at least try and go. We'll see.
MMD: I'd just like to comment for a minute without spoiling what's coming up, what Jamie was referring to was a really astonishing moment for the rest of us on the set. Jamie was given a piece of work to do towards the end of this season that was...mammoth...in its scope.
JB: oh, shush!
MMD: No! I won't shush!
(laughter)
MMD: And watching him do it was an absolute pleasure and it was really exciting, because, just as he was saying, it was sort of like watching the pieces of Apollo come back together, back into his core and Jamie and Apollo taking their ground in a brand new way and yet it was Apollo again. So it was pretty extraordinary to watch. So you're in for a treat! Truly.
Question: As Jamie stated earlier, he watched the show as a child. As we all know, when it comes to remakes or reimaginations, it's a dicey (something). Are you surprised by the outpouring of support that you've gotten for the show, not just the fans, but the critics as well?
MMD: Well, I didn't know much about the other show, I never really saw it. So that wasn't an issue I was paying much attention to. I honestly can't tell you that I am surprised at the outpouring of support from the critics because I think it's that good. Honestly. And that starts with the writers.
(applause)
JB: I, on the other hand, am gobsmacked!
(laughter)
JB: Just because of the title and everything, and doing sci-fi, and being in space. I had no idea we were doing anything that grand. I knew that we had a great cast, I knew the scripts were good, I knew that we were working the right way, but when I watched it for the first time, I thought it was slow to be honest, (laughter) so I was really amazed. It was slow for the right reasons, you know you need to have slow before the end of the world happens, to compare it to the frenetic pace that keeps going afterwards. But it never ceases to be...not amazement, because I know all the ingredients are there, but whenever the ingredients make a perfect perfect result, ah, there's always a sort of amazement, if I might, I'm a terrible cook, so...it doesn't happen very often.
(laughter)
MMD: Have you ever heard anyone use the word "gobsmacked"? It's a great word!
Question: Jamie, did you enjoy being involved with the love quadrangle or did you find it tiresome that people would be acting like this?
JB: Ah, no. No. I thought it was fantastic. And it was actually at my doing that that all happened. So my apologies to those of you that hated it. You know, the end of the world can only happen so many times, and these people have been on the run for months and months and months. Life...life exists in that environment. The key to great drama is to interweave interpersonal, intrapersonal, and extrapersonal relationships and the love quadrangle does all three levels you know, it's individuals going through crisis of identity about who they are and who they want to be, it's a crisis about who they want to be with and what that person means to them and how they transform, and it's extrapersonal in that these are a;; key people in this political, this socio-political world, you know Apollo's been a commander of a battlestar, Starbuck the best fighter, and then Dualla, who's this sort of...ah stalwart cool level-headed wise woman in the CIC, these people, these people all make a huge difference in the way that the fleet functions and to have them all involved in screwing each other around (yes...he said that!) and all messed up. I just thought it was good writing and necessary, from where the characters had been going, so apologies to you if you didn't like it. But soap opera exists purely on the personal level and this, this is very much the opposite to that.
Question: This is for Mary. Your relationship with Adama has really grown and changed
MMD: Which Adama? (then she reaches over and hugs JB!)
(laughter and applause)
MMD: (laughing) I don't know what's gotten into me! I don't usually act like this! (laughter) I want to make him blush! I love the color of his sweater and I like the way it moves right up to his eyes.
JB: I think it clashes when I blush.
Questioner: I meant the Admiral
JB: One day I'll be Admiral, just wait!
(applause)
MMD: And I'll be 90!
(laughter)
MMD: (to the guy trying to ask the question) Okay, go ahead...
Questioner: You seem to respect each other a lot more than when you first started. Is that going to continue, or...
MMD: Well I think that the respect that we have for each other has grown in spite of ourselves, and I think those are the kind of relationships that last. If we haven't ended up killing each other already, we probably won't...I would assume.
(laughter)
MMD: but, but it's in a way, the closer we get emotionally, the more complicated some of the things that are going to come down the pike could become for us, so I think it's probably just going to get richer but I couldn't begin to guess as to what direction exactly it'll take.
(...more coming up tomorrow
)