What is it thats kept you hooked into the Stargate world all this time?
I love the character.
At the end of the day she is fun to play, shes interesting.
The writers keep giving me new angles on her.
Its never become really boring.
AndStargatewas easy to stick with for ten years because it was fun.
It makes it so worth it to be there.
A, I had fun.
B, I loved the character, and the stories and the mythology, so why would I leave?
A lot of actors would say werent you bored, werent you bored.
And no, I wasnt.
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It wasnt a static character, though…
No, not at all.
She kept growing and evolving and they would give her relationships that would change her.
The relationship with her father really informed who she became as a woman.
And her relationship with her team mates.
So there was always something.
They were always doing something with her that kept it interesting.
And then there was the move across toAtlantis, which allowed you to explore another side of her…
It felt like playing a totally different character.
She was trying hard to sit back and out of her comfort zone completely.
Wait a second, this is weird!
Was it out of your comfort zone as well?
Yeah, I would say.
It was a little bit out of my comfort zone, yeah.
But I have to say the cast of Atlantis honestly couldnt have been more welcoming.
They were really great, and made it that much easier.
And were friends, we all know each other, we work on the same lot.
We were so lucky, when we shot the pilot we knew we had the 44 episode pick up.
It was basically would our characters survive the pilot.
That was the big thing for Michael, Christopher and I!
Its an astounding gift when you have that much time to drive the storyline of your character.
Youre not just trying to jam every piece of information into two or three quick episodes.
Could you input into to?
To a degree, yeah.
And they always listened to the suggestions that the actors made and the thoughts that we had.
I was never afraid of them showcasing that.
What I was afraid of was that she would become a bit too linear and single-minded in her thinking.
And they were like no, no, no!
What do you need?
So I said can we do something where we talk about her relationship in the past or her history.
And they brought everything to the table, it was amazing.
Yeah, it does.
It started way back.
Gene Roddenberry introduced female characters, like Uhura.
She was unprecedented on television.
Sci-fi has always done that, theyve always put strong woman out there.
Now youve got the chance to bridge the twoStargateshows withThe Ark Of Truth, and close offSG-1to an extent.
The budget clearly transcends the television show by an awful lot… You could feel it on set.
The sets were bigger.
On the TV show where wed have 30 extras we had 80.
When youve got thirty ships firing at each other in space its like woah!
And you say that with a huge smile on your face!
I do, yeah!
The Air Force brought in F-15s, we got to play around in those.
The scale of the shoot was massive.
And its a really nice, standalone piece.
General Hammond, Don Davis is back.
It has a nice familiaral sense to it.
Whats the position with further DVDs?
Our fingers are all crossed!Ark Of Truthselling as well as it has bodes well.
It was going to be a show that was going to live entirely on the web.
We shot the pilot in January of 2007.
Put out eight webisodes.
But its hard to monetise this kind of show, on the Internet.
Especially a show of that calibre.
The budget was huge and it was an entirely virtual show.
We hadnt yet, so it was a massive leap of faith on my part.
If I walk away fromSanctuary, it dies.
All these people who put their money and time in, it goes away.
If I stick withSanctuary, then theres a better chance of us getting a broadcast deal.
It was a really difficult decision, long talks with Joe Mallozzi, long talks with theSanctuaryproducers.
And eventually I just had to make the leap of faith.
It wasnt that I was sick ofStargate, it was that I had to giveSanctuarya chance.
Was it by choice then that youve kept your feet in theStargatecamp as well?
Im hugely grateful that theyve kept the door open, and theyve been very gracious about it.
Maybe Sam could come back toward the end of the season.
Was that always the intention, and is that interaction important to you?
First of all, I cant even say enough about the fans.
If it werent for them,Stargatewouldnt have lasted ten years.
Theyve been incredibly generous with us.
The nature of the show has changed because now networks own a bit more of it.
Our ideology behind it was very pure, the vision was very pure.
Lets make it interactive.
Lets start an energy and get the social online grid really moving behind the show.
Our intention was quite pure, but its a very hard thing to make work.
It sounds like you enjoy it, though?
You seem to land a lot of Doctor and Professor pop in of roles too?
[Laughs] Its just the way its happened!
I dont do bimbo well, which I guess I should be grateful for.
But even as a blonde starting out I was never comfortable doing that.
Do you think thats whats helped it to endure as well?
I never felt comfortable playing the pretty card, I never felt like that was something I could play.
For me it was I know that Im smart, so lets make that work.
Because Im not really comfortable doing the other thing!
Completely unrelated: apparently you founded a comedy group?
Yep, thats how I started out.
Comedy is really my passion.
I started out way before television doing sketch comedy with other women.
Thats how I started out.
Do you have an urge to go back to comedy?
Oh my God, yeah!
Thats whySG-1was such great fun, because we all had such great senses of humour.
Even though the character I played wasnt funny, I had a lot of fun playing it.
Comedy is definitely where my head is at most of the time.
And whats next from you?
Sanctuarycoming to ITV in the fall.Continuumbeing released in the summer.
And thats sort of my next year.Sanctuary, thirteen episodes.
And of courseArk Of Truthout now, go buy it, thank you very much!
Amanda Tapping, thank you very much…!
