Stargate Universe Exclusive Interview With Robert Carlyle

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

asked before what's it like to be in interviews you've been interviews for like as far as I can tell for like 8 hours 9 hours to what's that like um I've never been asked that before but an interview um it's a early on in your career it's murder you know it's just crazy because you just you're trying you trying stupidly change it every time you know because you sort of you're frighten the boring yourself almost you know and you you know I've said that I've said that you eventually you realize actually the trick is to say the same thing all the time you know so that's a whole other problem then because it's it's just it is the bom side of it you know and it does get a bit much the biggest problem sometimes is stopping and pausing thinking I'm sorry have I just said that to you that you've been asked the same questions over God you know exactly I mean especially CU some of them I mean some some of the questions you guys have to be the same question time they're obvious you know what I mean but sometimes that can be quite difficult and the worst one I ever had to do I press junk for Angela's Ashes one of the days in Angela's Ashes New York Hotel had 51 television interviews in the day ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes 51 can you believe it you know you're just you just you s of lose the world you live by the end of that you know okay no I I I I can't believe it it's got to it's got to be mine that kills you so said that no no we're just sitting there going you know what what what's got to be like so really so what's the you know what's what is the coolest thing that you've had to do on SG what what's the what's the thing that you did that you thought you know when you did it you were like yeah this is exciting this is cool or whatever well that's an easy one actually because we've just been talking about that not the same question but um this covers the same thing we did it shot an episode in the second series um we just shot it actually couple months ago called malice and i' the year before Robert Cooper and I had been sitting on set and me chatting about this and that and I love Western that's my thing you I love western movies I said he says there anything you've ever done you'd love to do I said but I did a movie called ravenous years and years ago it's was kind of like Western you know I love that but I've never been close to that I've seen it I love that movie was a bizarre film that's the kind of film I like to watch you know but uh anyway it's a kind of semi West on that was and he said well we can do what we can do that I was like you talking about on TV but in this show and of course that's when you know realization for me is that the Wonder of Science Fiction is anything's up for GRS you know if especially with the Stargate yeah if you want to go through one week to a desert Planet shoot a West we can do that that really so anyway Robert get kind of um he's obsessed with this idea of a Revenge story somewhat in the same ve as a Searchers or something like that you know the Ford classic and he wanted to he thought what would happen if you if you consumed Rush with so much rage that he's just out for revenge and everything that he stands for everything he's been fighting for in that moment he doesn't care about anymore he only wants that typical Western type of feeling there and so he did that and he wrote this fantastic episode called malice that is a Revenge story I do go to a desert planet we filmed it in the bisty Badlands in New Mexico unbelievable location it was like a dream come true for me you know I mean and we even we had Rush carrying his little handgun the whole time the whole thing looked West and shot through the arms and stuff like that it was just wonderful it was a great experience and and it it it not only served the purposes of of of keeping us happy but this the script itself and the episode itself in my opinion this that one malice and the one just before greater good which are kind of companion pieces are the best of what I think it's great that you get uh you know I don't know if I want to call it creative input but you know you get you get input from your of yourself into the show and that that must really be gratifying that is man it's important that as well you know for that um I want to ask a a question one of your one you know I interviewed uh you know uh her uh earlier this morning and uh you had you had played a I believe you know a male uh uh stripper and play uh what do you think about the uh what what do you think about playing next to a lesbian uh Co do you find do you find do you find that that presents any any specific challenges or anything like that or or you you need push back on that or anything no no I don't I don't consider that at all I I don't have consider their sexuality is is relevant at all if maybe maybe if Rush had more to do with c r then maybe that would be something that he would I would be thinking about in terms of rush but they don't really communicate on that level you know like Rush doesn't communicate with anyone in any kind of level really he's looking for it you speak to himself basically um so in that respect no I don't think it's a problem okay just just about that from yeah uh what do you think about what do you think about doing uh you know science you know heavily uh you know science fiction based I mean you said that everything's on the on the table is there is there anything else that that specifically is exciting to you about doing science fiction as opposed to some more down toe roles you've done when you when you came out to the show did you did you get what you expected or did you certainly I mean I mean nothing's ever going to be 100% you know but uh if you can go up there in the high 80s you're doing well you know I think that's probably where we were with it um I mean when when when the guys approached me with the idea which about a year maybe before the the first season was shot I mean my I've got a fantastic manager who knows me so well cuz I'm kind of kind of different in terms of the way I handle the business and stuff like that it takes someone who knows that to cope with me cuz I say no no don't want to do this don't want to do that don't talk to this do it's when act thank you that's what it's all about um so John had said look this piece is come in starget went Noah don't want to know right away and he said no I knew you when to saying that but but have a look at his character you know cuz he knows that's what it's all about for me character a lot of actors talk about the script and the story and all of that yes all good but if I don't believe that guy I'm playing you've got no chance of believing it either right so uh that was the most important thing for me so Rush suddenly was presented to me and there was one line in a little synopsis he said he's no desire to go home wow who's that I want to know that about that guy because that then that then throws up so many why questions you know why not why is he doing that why what happened to him all this kind of things so fantastic space for an actor to inhabit right away so well you've got a great character there so what about the rest of the thing and then when they explained to me the premise the the notion of this ancient ship floating around in space and these people being thrown onto this thing no one known no one's in charge I love that there was a kind of anarchic kind of quality that they seemed to have and I think that certainly comes through in the first three or four episodes of the first season there kind of Anarchy that's going on struggle for power and all that kind of stuff and then just breaking these people down into the the sum of their parts you know what makes these people tick how do they COPE in a situation which is outside of their experience and these things are interesting for an actor you know so all of this stuff and then they sent me a couple of scripts as well I thought this is um this is not what I expected at all so I went back to my manager and said let's talk you know so I spoke to the guys then I gone to the telephone with them and had about three or four different calls over a couple of months and I was very honest you know up front the first thing I said to them was I'm really genuinely flattered that you would come and ask me to do this but why not I I kind of think it might go the other way well you know always like that you know be humble about these things and it's nice you know you have that kind of you know attention I said well fantastic but why the do you want me to do why do you want me to do this you know and they kind of laughed and they said you know your reply is kind of one of the reasons why we're com to ask q and I said I'm beginning to get this psychological kind of strange conversation we're having here but fundamentally I guess what they meant was if it wasn't going to be me it was going to be someone like me it wasn't as if they going to try let's get Robert CL I will okay we'll go back to being the first pick is nice you know what I'm saying lovely you know what I mean looking for a different type of actor or kind of action type of actor or that kind of thing whatever you know they wanted that so okay let's see what you've got and the scripts that they sent me as I said it lived up to these things that they've been talking about and what I'd read in the synopsis so uh I thought yeah I'm on board for a while here is it's it's a pretty smart show and uh you know and and and it seems to me like it would be like it would be challenging how how physical is your all do you feel you feel sometimes it can be you know we had a run of uh malice the one I was telling you about the Western that was incredibly physical that because you're in a that location though extraordinary is also really difficult you're talking severe heat and all that kind of stuff dust and not pleasant you know and and especially when you're out there in these conditions and you're wearing a you know a thermal and will invest in stuff the physical things are a problem um the the episode before that is one called the greater good myself and Lou ferera as a colel up in a spaceship and we have these suits did you see those suits that my God these things are I want to burn it man I'm going to burn these things before I leave that studio just to make sure no one else has to go through them what do you do as you know a question that I I I actually have you know some interest in in order to stay in shape for the for the role for you for the physicality you what kind of a what kind of exercise I I I practice yoga you do yoga yeah I do I've done that for years years and years I'm I'm a bit I'm bit out of practice at the moment in actual fact but that's what I do I fit no that that it suits my size and my scale you know this is this was invented in a place where most people are the size so in terms of getting yourself through your legs and all of that keeps you keeps you pretty limber well it keeps you that and it keeps you focused and yoga for me is the only I mean I know that you know years and years ago in the past when I was a teenager I would go to the gym and stuff like that and try and pick up weights and that gives you a bit of a rush of course it does but um nothing like yoga do in terms of the brain it's the only exercise a former exercise that you know Works in tandem your body and your mind and everything is balanced and it's it's a wonderful thing and I would recommend it to anyone particularly to ANS it's a fantastic place to do I I think that's I think that's a great I think that's a great uh great great quote there yeah um when you're when you're uh I guess you know when you're preparing for when you're preparing for for Sho is or anything that you do specifically to get into character you're playing a doctor do you do any research always you do I mean that have you done some reading on the side what do you do to make it to make it feel real well for me you know as I said earlier there the character is what it's all about and there and then and within that character what I'm looking for is is probably the three things I always talk about believability truthfulness and honesty this is it you know you if these things are crucial to to to to playing anything at all so you're then looking for truth believability then you need to go and research that you know so you've got a bit of Truth yourself you know a bit of honesty going in there and of course it's it's you know you don't have to go and kill somebody to play a murderer you know we know that I Haven said that you know in in the past I played a homeless person one of the first films that I ever made and um it the second or third film I made in actual fight and I'd never i' i' been homeless in fact when I was a young kid but I'd never experienced that as an adult you know and I thought well must he stop me doing this thing would experience it so I did so I left the house in London this night at 27 p in my pocket and I slept in the street for two weeks in London and that was uh you mean as as as in modern times you decided to just give it a shot absolutely this was in 19 993 or something 178 years ago and I was um no one really I was maybe had done a couple of little things that only people in the art house circuit would recognize me so I wasn't recognizable you know people going right like that a little harder today but today it would be I mean I could I think you could certainly disguise yourself enough to to get by I think you can you could probably do it but to be honest with you I think most actors I mean you see this they bring the attention upon themselves man you walk into a room with a crowd people are going to turn around and look at you you know if you go in on your own with your head down no one's going to bother I think would take some act and disguise yourself I I think I suspect if you walked in there would be a certain recognition Factor but I think but I think I think if you wanted to rid yourself for that I think you could think so I think I possible I I defer to you absolutely absolutely um so hien in disguising what it's about I did that in this movie called safe you know to try and get some kind of um understanding you know about what what it's like to to wake up in the morning and and know have a bed or about you you know anyone about it been in the rain or whatever you know the horror of that and it is fuing horror believe me um so all things I do that for and with with Rush the Stargate Universe the more Fantastical it is then it starts to become more a process of your imagination to a certain extent but I did go and speak to two Quantum physicists in Glasgow University just before I started this and I was we bit embarrassed to be honest to go to them and talk to them about this stuff you know at this thing you know and what I was asking was look you know just basically in its Essence is there any truth in this could this be a thing mhm and they both said the same thing they both laughed and went of course what really he said yes in theory technically this is what it's all about this is what quantum physics is all about you know wormholes and time travel and blah blah blah I said so this thing this flimsy little script have on in front of you here you wouldn't laugh at that and dismiss that absolutely not perfect so that gave me that believability thing that I'm talking about so I had these things you you felt grounded I felt that yeah I can be I can see these words and not feel silly saying these words I can talk about wormholes and solar flares and stuff like that in time travel and not feel like it's just coming at a comic it's actually coming from somewhere that that's very that's very that's very interesting because one of the things that that you know you know as you get interviewed for 8 hours a day you we we we interview people for several hour and one of the things that that you know seems most daunting for people is doing the technical speaking it I'm very I'm very impressed that you went and talked to these these scientist guys you know uh we have we have a jobs in the scientific Community major you know stuff like that so so you know I can see how that could actually give you the the most the grounding and stuff like that that's impressive impressive to me I don't know anything about the world of science you know so therefore it was important for me just to talk to people who did you know and um I take I look at the strangest things when something comes up in the script and they talk about say a I don't know yellow dwarf or something like that I'll go let's find out that and I'll go to the internet then and I'll use it for the right reasons and try and find some knowledge out of this thing um I I love that I've really enjoyed that there's been quite a few things through the past year and a half that I've learned about that I had no idea a bit beforehand SGU is is probably you know a challenging show in that in that respect uh outside of the the uh sort of technological you know sort of SC ephemeral SC science fiction aspects what do you find challenging about about your character about working with the cast or anything like that is there anything that you find you know on a daily basis we weekly basis when you're shooting that you you find wow this is you know this is exciting or tough to do or anything like I think that that constantly um all the way through it's really important it's been really important for me to rush is is a fantastic character to play right but you could go badly wrong with that part MH because a lot of the stuff he does is morally questionable you know and whether he's doing it for the right reasons or for wrong um it's the very very delicate path to walk playing someone that dislikable because if you go too far you're going to alienate the whole way you can't pass that moral Event Horizon precisely but I'm going to use that later on a great quote that's exactly right you've got to stay on the right side of that so that you've you not that you want to be likable I I never want to be likable in any part I've ever played I've never cared about that you know I mean the audience like it great that means it's walked in some way but I'm not going to attempt to get you to do do that and I think that he is rushes very much that kind of guy he is a real person so he's wson all with him you know he'll give you the good and the bad in the same five minutes you know and I think that's uh that's eminently truthful again and and for me a pleasure to play but also a danger every time every time I get a script and thing okay what's it doing now am I going to try and balance this somehow and um I can go back to the writers as we were talking about earlier on and and and adjust a little bit here and there but so much of it a lot of the time is in the eyes I could see that what it's all about well I think we got we got the the KN you got it's been absolutely great time