Brian J Smith Talks About Whats In Store For His Character And Much More

FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN STARGATE UNIVERSE YET, HOW WOULD YOU SAY IT COMPARES TO PREVIOUS SHOWS IN THE FRANCHISE?

I guess it would be hard to compare them. They set out to do something so new and so far out of the Stargate dock with this show, it’s quite hard to recognise the similarities with the franchise. Stargate Atlantis and SG1 have a very specific look and a very specific feel and tongue is very firmly placed in cheek, I would say that this show just isn’t. It’s much more a character drama. The characters are probably handled a little more seriously, but there’s still some of that great Stargate mythology.

HAVE YOU FOUND YOURSELF EMBRACED BY EXISTING STARGATE FANS?

Yes and no. Mostly, what I get are the people who say, ‘I’ve never seen Stargate before, I’ve never had an interest, but this show gets me interested. I tried to watch the other Stargates, but I couldn’t get into the Furlings, I couldn’t get into the Wraith. It was really funny, but I never really believed the stakes, I never really believed that the characters were ever in any kind of dangerous situation.’ So, I think we’re definitely attracting a new kind of audience and at the same time people who have watched Stargate for years, they love this show, and really wanted to see the writers go deeper with the characters and to not have really convenient fixes to situations and stuff like that.

THERE’S CERTAINLY A GREATER FEELING OF JEOPARDY THAN IN ANY PREVIOUS STARGATE SHOW?

That’s something we definitely set out to do, to really create an atmosphere where anything could happen. In the first episode there was a suicide, and it was Chris McDonald, who’s a pretty big actor. There was another suicide later on, there are going to be some surprising things happening, I won’t say who or what, that will come up in the latter half of the first season and certainly in the second season. So we’re trying to create a feeling of peril or danger, and that’s very, very hard to do when you know everyone’s going to be there and jolly and back to reading War And Peace next week.

WAS IT THIS MORE DRAMATIC APPROACH THAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE ROLE?

Yes, for sure, if I’m going to wake up at 5am in the morning and go to set and really, really be invested there’s got to be something that interests me as an actor. And I don’t know if I would be interested in a kind of a light-comedy type show. Even if it paid really well, I don’t know if that would keep me going, I would get bored. This show, it’s very, very challenging, the stakes are always very high, and that to me is very attractive and there’s something about the character that is really interesting to me and really, really moves me and has from day one. And I’m certainly impressed to see where they’re going with the character and certainly curious to see what’s going to happen later on this year.

TIME WAS A HIGHLIGHT OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEASON – DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE EPISODE FROM THE SHOW SO FAR?

Time is definitely one of my favourites. I also really, really like Life, which was a quiet show – there wasn’t a lot of people screaming and running down the halls with guns, but it was definitely emblematic of, “this is what we do too.” Like, we’d do the action and the adventure and then later on you’ll see the aliens and all that stuff. Anyone can do that, but doing a show that’s also about people and about sad, human problems, it’s completely in our bag of tricks as well.

WHAT IS THE MOST POSITIVE THING ABOUT WORKING ON THE SHOW?

I would say the most positive thing is just this group that we’re working with, it’s a very supportive group, it’s a very insulated group. There’s no real ego, everyone’s very much on the same page about what we’re trying to do here and we realise this is an ensemble show and my performance is impossible without someone else’s performance, and their performance is impossible without mine. We talk a lot, we hang out a lot, and also the crew as well.

HOW ABOUT THE MOST CHALLENGING THING? YOU DID SOME FILMING IN THE DESERT OF NEW MEXICO EARLY ON?

Definitely, New Mexico was a challenge. Again, it’s just one of the things with this show, you never know, you could be doing a scene back on Earth, finding your long lost son or something like that, and then you’re in the desert with other actors, looking for some chemical that’s going to save the crazy alien spaceship that you’re on. You never know what you’re going to be doing from month to month on this show, it’s challenging. New Mexico was very, very challenging, but also it was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my career. It was like shooting this big action film: They actually put cameras up on helicopters. It was amazing.

SO WHAT’S COMING UP FOR LT SCOTT IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE SEASON?

I think we did a really good job of establishing him in the first 10 episodes. I think what the last 10 episodes of the first season are about is getting into situations, into trouble that really test these relationships that we’ve established. You’re going to see some of the relationships he’s in fall apart, some relationships are going to get closer together. I think in some way he might start coming into his own, but after a lot of struggle. It’s hard to say because so much of the second half of the first season is about, ‘Okay, this is who we are, let’s go out and get into trouble.’

IN THE FIRST RUN, YOUR CHARACTER LEARNED HE HAD A SON BACK HOME, WILL WE SEE HOW THIS COMES TO AFFECT HIM?

Yes, you will definitely see the toll that something like that has. You know, Scott, he’s a funny kid, he doesn’t talk much about his problems, he doesn’t sit down and burden people with the things that upset him. He really keeps a lot of things close to himself – you’ll see that too, which is really interesting. There’s an episode I’m thinking of in particular where maybe his not talking about the fact that he’s a father has created a problem for him, and it starts to have an emotional effect on him. It’s done in a really smart sci-fi way as well, so I don’t want to say too much to spoil it.

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR CHARACTER IN ONE OR TWO YEARS’ TIME?

You know, I think he’s got a lot of potential as a military mind. I think even though he’s very raw right now, and he may not have the command presence that Young (Colonel Everett Young) has, this ability to make decisions and to lead a ship, I think this experience is actually in some way going to be good for him. I think it would be interesting to see him grow and to see him overcome things, and also to make a lot of bad decisions, and to make mistakes. It will be interesting to see him carrying out orders a lot less and start to become more of a person who’s really changing storylines, who’s really making decisions that shift how things proceed. I think he has that ability as he continues to grow.

HOW EXCITED WERE YOU TO LEARN THAT THE SHOW HAD BEEN PICKED UP FOR A SECOND SEASON?

Getting picked up was really, really great. It was awesome that we have such great support. I think there’s just room for a show like this on TV, I think it’s actually hard to watch regular TV after you see a show like SGU (Stargate Universe). I’m glad that it’s starting to find an audience, I’m glad that people are sticking by it – I think those that have are really going to have a major payoff and certainly, as we finish the first season, and well on into the second season, here’s hoping it will continue for season three.

LASTLY, YOU’RE ALSO POPPING UP ON BRITISH TV IN POIROT, WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT?

That was an amazing experience. You go from a spaceship to this art deco jazz-age train with Hercule Poirot, it was quite a transition, but I absolutely loved it. I was in London for like five or six weeks, getting to see theatre and working with these amazing actors from Britain, Germany, France and the States as well. It was amazing, Philip Martin, the director, did a great job, and I really think this is going to be something special.