An interview with Ming-Na (Camille Wray) featured in issue #32 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine.
Longtime fans of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis are familiar with the International Oversight Authority (IOA), a group of bureaucratic busybodies who love poking their noses into our heroes’ comings and goings through the Stargate.
On Stargate Universe, IOA representative Camille Wray finds herself a long way from home onboard the Ancient ship Destiny. Given the IOA’s reputation, she is trying to balance her professional instincts and compassionate nature, especially as one of the mediators between the military and civilians. It is not easy, but actress Ming-Na, who plays Camille, is enjoying the challenge.
“The hardest thing when you’re playing a strong female character is not having her come off as a bitch and someone who everyone wants to hate, and being an IOA official, that’s especially important for Camille,” explains Ming-Na. “Robert Cooper [series co-creator/ executive producer] and I had a conversation where I mentioned this, and they decided to change my character’s job with the IOA from accounting to something else. They suggested human resources and I said, ‘Oh, that would be fantastic, because then she’s a people person.’ I immediately latched onto that.
I think that makes her interesting, because she’s ambitious and you’re not quite sure where she’s coming from, which I love. At the same time, I hope the viewers like her enough to want to keep figuring her out, just as I’m figuring her out.”
An interview with Elyse Levesque (Chloe Armstrong) featured in issue #32 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine.
As an actor, it helps to have plenty of moral support and positive karma when going out for a new job, no matter how big or small. Elyse Levesque is all for that. In fact, prior to her audition for the role of Chloe Armstrong on Stargate Universe, a little voice told the actress in no uncertain terms that the part would ultimately be hers.
“When I initially got the [audition] sides [pages] for this role, my roommate said to me, ‘You’re going to get this,’” recalls Levesque. “She says that all the time, and maybe she has some crazy type of intuition, but in this case she told me, ‘This is going to happen. I feel really good about this.’
“I did the audition, and at the time I didn’t know how it went. But then I’m my own worst critic,” she jokes. “I thought, ‘I could have been better. I didn’t get there emotionally.’ So I flew back to Vancouver and two days later I was out shopping with my mom when my agent called to tell me that things were looking good. It was another two months, though, before I received the official word that I had the job.
“It’s funny, I had all these preconceptions about sci-fi and in particular Stargate. I wasn’t super-familiar with the franchise, but when I read the sides, it was like I knew this woman. Some of the things that Chloe was speaking about in the scene were, quite honestly, things I was going through at the time in my life. So I thought, ‘Yes, this is something I can relate to and sink my teeth into.’”
An interview with Alaina Huffman (Tamara Johansen) featured in issue #32 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine.
At the age of 12 most girls spend a great deal of time hanging out with their friends, going shopping, and day-dreaming about the cute boy in class. However, when Stargate Universe actress Alaina Huffman was that age, she had her heart set on other things.
I was scouted by a modeling agency, and at 14 I began traveling around the world as a model and figured that would be my career. When I got older, I moved with my parents from Vancouver to Texas, and was modeling there when an audition came up for a film [Pendulum]. I went in to read, got the job, and realized, ‘This is way cooler than modeling.’ So acting stuck, and I’m very thankful. I’ve been able to work fairly solidly since, and I have a great support system—my husband is amazing, my parents are terrific, and my kids are wonderful—so it’s awesome and I love it.”
Read the full interviews in Issue 32 of The Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis/SGU Magazine – on newsstands now!
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