Thursday, August 28, 2008

An Interview With the Hybrid

The cylon hybrid is an interesting part of the show - she's sort of involved in everything that goes on, yet sort of just living in her own world with no connection to the other characters. It might be easy to forget that there's a person behind the role, but when you do think about it, it's pretty impressive. The role is challenging, with all these lines to remember, most of which are on the surface gibberish and yet have deeper meanings that fans will analyze. Galactica.tv has an in-depth interview with Tiffany Lyndall Knight who plays her. She seems like an intelligent actor who reallys think about the character and her lines.

I especially liked this quote where she talks about the hybrid's speech as poetry:

I think actually my background with Shakespeare made a big difference because the trick with Shakespeare is, again, it's all obscure language for most of us. You have to be absolutely clear as the actor what you're saying and if your intention is clear, then the audience will hopefully get the gist of it. That was always the way I approached the text with the Hybrid. I'll break it down like a piece of poetry and find the connection for myself, so I can learn it. It doesn't really matter, I suppose, if anyone else can make those connections? But if I don't, it's just gibberish. I have a whole storyline that goes underneath all that stuff that's unique to me, that makes complete sense in my mind.

To make this a bit James-related, here's what she has to say about working with him:

He was very kind to me. He didn't try and mess me up, because I had a lot to juggle already. We would talk in between shots. We'd talk about theater a lot because he had a theater background too. That was really interesting and he, of course, was performing in England, in the West End and whatnot. That was most of our conversations. Like I said, I would do a lot of observing, watching the series regulars. Seeing their dynamic off camera is so fascinating because I was introduced to them as characters before. It's a real treat for me, just as a Battlestar Galactica fan, to watch them being just people and then turning on these characters. It's fascinating.


I love that when the other actors are asked about James, there's a genuine warmth to how they talk about him. I also love how all of the actors seem to be fans of the show.

Galactica.tv is going to have an interview session with James in December. I'm really looking forward to it - they seem to have a great feel of the show and its characters.

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