{"id":12896,"date":"2010-11-19T12:57:06","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T11:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=12896"},"modified":"2010-11-19T12:57:06","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T11:57:06","slug":"interview-robert-carlyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/news\/interview-robert-carlyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Robert Carlyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now in his second year of playing Dr Nicholas Rush on Syfy’s Stargate Universe, we’re still finding it hard to believe that Robert Carlyle joined the show. Not because we think it’s bad, but because we never expected him to appear on a Stargate series. He has, however, proved to be the strongest card in a solid hand, as we discussed with him.<\/p>\n

Are you a big sci-fi fan?<\/strong>
\nI had always enjoyed good science fiction, what I would think was good science fiction. 2001 is a great movie. A classic. I love the first Alien film, the first of the three \u2013 that\u2019s a great movie as well. So that world has always interested me but I had never been involved in it until now.<\/p>\n

Was that because you weren\u2019t interested in getting involved or that just the right part hadn\u2019t come along?<\/strong>
\nLike a lot of these things, I\u2019ve played a lot of my career like that. I don\u2019t plan anything really; I don\u2019t structure it in any kind of way. When my agent and manager put this to me at first, I said, \u201cNo. I\u2019m not interested in that at all,\u201d because, to be honest, I\u2019d seen the previous shows and it just wasn\u2019t my thing at all. And they said, \u201cWell maybe you should listen to these guys, there\u2019s something interesting here.\u201d So I said, \u201cOkay.\u201d They sent me through a premise, and I was interested in the premise \u2013 the idea that nobody could come back \u2013 that was the first thing. And then when I spoke to Brad Wright and Robert Cooper [executive producers], they told the idea that Rush particularly does not want to come back, that he\u2019s got nothing else to go back for, that he feels that floating around in this rusty old bucket up there is a worthwhile thing to do, and I just thought, \u201cI like this guy. What\u2019s going on in there?\u201d [points to head]. There are so many whys then. A lot of whys to ask, and that will keep me going for a while.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most difficult thing about playing this character for you?<\/strong>
\nThe technical difficulties would be the technical stuff that he has to say; when you\u2019re talking about \u2018wormholes\u2019 and \u2018solar flares\u2019 and the time stuff, to me I don\u2019t know what I am talking about \u2013 it\u2019s like Shakespeare, trying to get that into my head. So that\u2019s a wee bit difficult. But in terms of the acting, it\u2019s very important to walk a particular line with Rush because you don\u2019t want to completely alienate the audience and it\u2019s very, very easy to do that with a character like Rush. They think, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t like this guy, and I don\u2019t like at all what he is up to. It\u2019s dishonest.\u201d All of that. So he has to have good reasons for what he does, and I think that\u2019s the strength in the character that Brad Wright and Robert Cooper have set in place, is that yes, maybe it\u2019s a bit distasteful but he\u2019s right. So that\u2019s makes it okay.<\/p>\n

Does having so many stage-trained actors \u2013 Lou Diamond Phillips, Ming-Na, Brian J Smith, Louis Ferreira, Jamil Walker Smith \u2013 affect the dynamic when you\u2019re performing scenes?<\/strong>
\nI think it does, aye it does. When Brad Wright and Robert Cooper came to me at first, the first thing I said was that I was really flattered, \u201cbut why the fuck do you want me?\u201d That was my question. And there was a silence, because I don\u2019t think anybody had reacted to a job offer with them like that before. They laughed and said an interesting thing, they said, \u201cWell, that question is the reason we want you to come and do it.\u201d What I understood by the end of our conversation was that if it wasn\u2019t going to be me, it was going to be someone like me, that kind of actor. They wanted someone who was going to shake it up a bit I guess. So therefore, when they had me there in place, Louis was then only too happy to come and join, as did various other actors who then came.<\/p>\n

That must be flattering to you?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a lovely thing, it really is. That\u2019s something that you would obviously have to talk to them about, but I feel it, and it\u2019s a nice thing.<\/p>\n

Do you see yourself staying with the show for the duration? Or is there going to be a point where you think Rush can\u2019t possibly go on being this conflicted character?<\/strong>
\nEnough\u2019s enough? I think the answers are yes and yes. I think I can continue for a bit, but there will obviously come a point where I\u2019ve played it and I\u2019ve done it. I\u2019ll know when that time is there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an incredible character. <\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s a fantastic character. And I\u2019m glad you think that, because you say these kind of things in interviews and you think, \u201cWell, you\u2019re just saying that because you\u2019re promoting the show,\u201d but Rush is, without a doubt, for me one of the most interesting characters I\u2019ve ever played. He\u2019s nothing if not pragmatic. It doesn\u2019t matter about individual sacrifice to him, if the mission or the greater good is satisfied. And that idea of \u2018the greater good\u2019 and this mindset that he\u2019s got, how he can justify everything and anything, and you never know whether he\u2019s telling the truth. I love that.<\/p>\n

Do you find that a lot more fans now want to talk to you about Stargate?<\/strong>
\nYes certainly, definitely about Stargate. Launching the show last year was an interesting one, but what was certainly interesting after that was that there was an awful lot of internet stuff. Not that I\u2019ll look at that \u2013 I don\u2019t even have a computer \u2013 but David [Blue] obviously knows a lot about that kind of stuff, so he would be telling us about what people would be saying on blogs. I was always at pains to point out that you\u2019re talking about a kid with a computer giving his opinion, don\u2019t take it to heart. But what was lovely about the panel this year at Comic-Con was the reaction we got when we walked in, because if there was any lingering doubts about did the Stargate audience like this new show, I think that was put to bed there and then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We talk to one of Britain’s finest actors about his role on Stargate Universe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[7,140,3],"tags":[1739,605],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}