Random Googlebits, Part Neuf

An awesome photo gallery of James without a shirt on - all of the pictures are from BSG, so we've seen it all, but it's still great to see the stills. Beautiful. *drools* Also - I love how his chest hair rises so high and he has basically no hair elsewhere. It's like one unrufly tuft of hair pretty high up and then a hairless belly. Some of the pictures show a little donut belly as well. (L)! Thanks to M for the link. :)

Oy! I almost missed it! They have screenshots of the naked scene where Lucy Lawless cracked up - nice bum, James! :D If this link doesn't take you straight to it, it's in the thumbnails there. Hilarious AND hot! *drools*

Note: I wrote the rest of this post before this first bit. I didn't just casually move from naked James to other random bits. I'm not sure how well the post works, but the most important stuff should go first... do read the rest of it too though, once you're over the heat. :D

I was re-reading the Crave Online article from summer 2008, and there are some interesting tidbits:

You'd be so surprised, you show somebody a face which we call neutral mask which is showing no emotion whatsoever, half the audience will go, "He's about to go hysterical laughing." And the other half will be like, "He looks terribly sad." There's a certain element, a huge element of audience participation with any medium like this, with any mirror. I'm going a long way around to say the less said the better.

Do you ever not go a long way around it, James? :D It's a fascinating point though. I always like scenes where something is left to interpretation. Like a scene doesn't seem to make a point but it's just there. It's never explained. (Well, it doesn't always work; I'm still not sure what to make of Lee and his pigeon.)

About knowing beforehand what is going to happen:

You make up things on the moment on the day and there are repercussions to the things that you do. Then somebody's written something like, "Hey, next week, guess what? You go off and kill mice." You're like, "What? I haven't even prepared. I didn't even know." So it's really important that you get a through line and that keeps you honest.Although, with these guys, David and Ron, they don't want to tell you all that much. They're wise as well. They don't want you getting the whole thing. Part of the excitement is laying a kind of cable. It's like how much are they going to give you? Enough rope to hang ourselves with essentially.

A couple of snapshots from some Russian photo bank, of filming the miniseries. You can barely see them from the watermark, but I still love them.
James opening Tricia's bra - I love this one because he looks like he's fumbling, out of shyness or insecurity or perhaps being too turned on. Or maybe he's just being extra tender?
A tender kiss. They both look tender and careful here, like they're just getting to know each other. (Which they were.) L!!!

A 2006 con mention. Katee and James appreciated the candy they got from a fan:

They both showed they're appreciation by writing a personalised message on the photos thanking me for the candy, not some 'To X' and/or with some generic message. None of the other 4 that i gave candy to on both days did that. Not that i mind, but it really cheered me when both Sackhoff and Callis did on their own accord.

Awww, how sweet! Our considerate man! (L)

Behind the scenes photos from season 4.5:
James chatting with David Eick and Jamie Bamber - looks like they had fun. (But what's in his hand?)
And:
James riding a stage cart of some kind, looking incredibly boyish (L).
I'm too lazy to link to the individual photos, but you don't have to do too much scrolling in that link. (There's also a picture with Jamie and his wife Kerry. They look lovely together.)

Interesting mention of James:

I have simulated oral sex with Gaius Baltar...


...by way of some explanation, I should perhaps explain that this was me acting alongside James Callis when we were both EngLit undergrads at York University. We were both performing in a fab produciton of Ben Jonson's play Volpone. James was playing Voltore, the lawyer, I was playing the hermaphrodite freak in Volpone's household.

How comes he ends up playing Hollywood sci-fi parts and I'm a priest in south Essex?!?

:D :D :D WTF? We know so little about James' past... it sounds exciting and strange.

I don't know if I've linked to this before, but the Unofficial Website has an article with James, Sally Phillips and Shirley Henderson (castmates from Bridget Jones' Diary) answering some women's magazine's relationship column. Or something. They're really drunk, the pictures are hilarious, and James is hilarious (and a sweetheart). My favorite piece of advice (to a girl whose boyfriend speaks on the phone too much:

James: Or you could just say, “Do you know you’re getting excess radiation and brain-cell depletion because of how much time you spend on the phone? Since we started going out you’re getting a lot less interesting, and you’re probably in need of a frontal lobotomy.”

:D Not a believer in subtlety, it seems.

I somehow really liked this answer as well:

James: Sex is a crazy, intimate thing and people behave in different ways afterwards. Even though a guy can hint that sex is not all he’s after, sometimes it is all he’s after and he runs away or fobs you off afterwards. That’s his problem, not yours.

Maybe it's the way he calls sex a "crazy, intimate thing".

He does make a joke about golden showers, but I think he was just that drunk. :D His actual replies are thoughtful though.

And now for something truly random, which I won't link to because it's obvious spam. This came up with the search "it was James Callis", which returned nothing interesting.

"News about: James Callis"
It was james callis all you can tell. I will show you. Have you got the house the entire. Sounded calliw to the gravely
There I james callis relief sallis

I don't know about you, but it's a big relief to me that he relieves sallis. Mine is driving me crazy.

Random Googlebits, Part Sept

I was going to get this done when it was still SEPTember, hah hah, but now that joke is not only unfunny but also untrue... I'm still saying it though, because I think James would appreciate the pun.

Random James-related links is leading the poll, and I freaked out for a moment thinking I'd linked to everything I can find, but browsing through the previous random googlebits posts, I've spared some. Whew. There may be a time when I run out, but there's still plenty of material for this.

Some lovely James pictures, mostly from the 2006 Comic Con - we've got beard, cap (not the "evil" cap) and James and Aaron being very chummy once again! I thought for a moment he was wearing some kind of cape here, but then I realized it's a long-sleeved shirt thrown over a t-shirt. It must be the Jesus beard that led me to thinking he looks like a cult leader. :D

Beach Blanket Battlestar - apparently someone went to the beach while BSG were filming there, and they got to meet some of the actors, including James. Not that many details, but there's a cute little side picture where you can see James smiling.

An interview with James and Bear McCreary at the BSG concert in April 2008 here. James is very excited about the music on BSG - and the interviewer is very excited about James, so much so that he included a couple of audio clips.

I’ve been acting…professionally at least, for…twelve years, or something like that. I’ve never felt more proud about being involved with this show. It does so many things. It says so much. The caliber of performance, writing, production value, graphics, the music, it’s almost more than the sum of all of its parts. I’m also very proud to be part of something which is in popular culture but is also a cautionary tale. We are looking at a very similar society to our own who have already screwed it up for themselves. There are lessons you can learn from this. It’s quite didactic!

Nobody can take that away from us. We’ve been involved in this superb phenomenon.

Well, that's him praising BSG once again, not him praising the music, but read more in the link. I love hearing him say how much he loves BSG - it almost sounds like he's one of us fans marveling at the show.

A lovely review of said concert, including two mentions of James, here.

Towards the end, during the encore, we noticed him standing on this balcony and completely rocking out and clapping like a fangirl to the music. It was fantastic. And he SANG. He played this song he wrote on the keyboard (the band played as well) and sang this song called "Spooky". I'm pretty sure Michelle recorded it, so it'll be up at some point. James compared playing for Bear as the guy who invented Chopsticks playing for Beethoven. It was brilliant, I don't remember the last time I've laughed so hard.

We told him where we were all from (England, Texas, Louisiana, and Australia) an he just stares at us and says "Fuck." Hee! He was very sweet, took a picture with all of us. When the camera was about to go off he says "This is Baltar's dream come true!"

A TV Squad reporter met James at a party and James knew who they are:

I said, "oh, you've read us then?" and he replied with: "Yes yes. I own a ... what do you call it ... ah yes, a computer." To that I could only laugh and say, "Touché, sir. Touché."

And a picture from the same event here. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the hair gel. Let your hair run wild and free, James!

Others mentioning James...

I haven't done a lot of this yet, so let's get in some other people's mentions of James. Firstly, from a recent Tricia and Katee interview, this was a lot of fun. You can listen to the audio here. It's also transcribed here by Elizabeth White, so I'm just going to quote conveniently.

Firstly, some James love from Katee. The question was what they envied about each other's characters:

I was always envious of that and I think that working with James — I never got to work with James but I think once or twice. And he’s just absolutely amazing so…and I never had you know, but maybe fifteen, twenty scenes with him like the whole entire series. Not a lot.

Awww! I must admit I envy Tricia for that reason too. It's nice to see this for a change, after reading umpteen times how lucky James was to work with Tricia. I mean, Tricia is beautiful and awesome, but James is pretty awesome himself, so let's admit that Tricia was lucky too, shall we?

Q: If you could choose just ONE former BSG castmate to be stranded on an island with, who would you choose and why?
- Cainsrazor

For giggles, they'd pick each other, but for procreation? "The young studs" - James is mentioned by Tricia, and Katee seems to agree, so thumbs up - but which one? Who could survive in the wild..?

Katee: Trucco and Tahmoh. Yeah.

Tricia: Yeah.

Katee: None of the English boys…[laughing]

Tricia: None of the English boys…[laughing]

Katee: They’d be like…[in an English accent] “You want me to do what?”

Tricia: [in an English accent] “What is that?”

Katee: [in an English accent] “You want me to build you a fire? I can’t build a fire. [laughing] Bring out that thing you call — what do you call that? Like a zippo.”

[both laughing]

Tricia: We’re making fun of James [Callis] and Jamie [Bamber]. We love them…

Katee: We do love them but I don’t think — I’ve seen Trucco actually like fix a motorcycle, so I think I’d pick him.

:D :D :D Heee! I can just see James not making it in the wild. (How long before he'd freak out over the lack of cigarettes? An hour or two?) But if you needed a professor to keep you civilized - or a class clown to keep you entertained - he might be your pick. (I always talk like I actually know him, so I feel compelled to mention that I don't.)

Here's something from 2007: a lovely Q&A with Tricia, where someone asks about James, and she praises him:

¨James is... I adore James. He's one of the most talented, funniest guys I've ever met. He's very self-deprecating, he's very... he's very well read. It's funny cos half the time I have to ask him "What's that, James? What does that word mean, James?" He has a vocabulary that is way beyond my scope of English. But um.. he's just lovely. He's a very good actor, and I've been fortunate to be able to work off of him. I'm sure he has brought out better work from myself than would maybe just acting on my own. He's a bit of a klutz. He's the kind of guy that will get out of the van, on the way his hat will fall off, and while picking his hat, his backpack will fall off and hit him on the head. He'll trip over anything and... but he's very passionate, very focused on his work and.. he's wonderful.

He's got two cute little boys. One, he knows me, Joshua. And when he sees me on screen, he'll be like, "Tisha! Tisha!" but he has yet, in four years, to smile at me when I meet him in person. He looks at me like this, he goes, [frown] I'm sure he doesn't watch all of it, but he knows enough and he knows something... "My dad's with you but my mom's there... You know what, I don't like you!" But James is lovely."

Joshua sounds just adorable! And so does James. If you want to see him be a klutz, see the third season gag reel with him trying to get into a plane and hitting his head on the door. He's wearing a helmet so nothing happens, but it's.. heee. :D

Tricia and Lucy Lawless discuss James/Baltar here. I have some trouble hearing what they're saying, but they describe him as a "good soul", kind and generous. (L)!

I do wonder, though, why every time Lucy mentions James, it turns into the "Lucy sees James' penis" story. Tricia actually brings it up here. If you haven't seen it yet, it's in the third season gag reel - the scene, not the penis - and I think it's noteworthy that Lucy chokes up at the words "how long". It's at about 7:50, but my favorite bit has to be at 7:40 where James is lying naked on the baseship sofa and talking to the people on set: "Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the show! Tonight on Baltar's Basestar, we've got some fascinating people joining us." I wish the gag reels had more James in them.

That's about it for now. I'll save more for later.

James On the End

James (Callis), Tricia (Helfer), Katee (Sackhoff) and Michael Trucco were interviewed for Space channel's podcast. There's a download link here, and I'd link to Space's own website if I could figure it out. James' bit comes at 12:20 and on, and I'm very happy that they let him think and talk, without intruding with a hundred comments and questions. It's brief but it feels like a real interview, not just a soundbyte. Transcript by me.

Will Baltar find redemption in the end?

"I'm not sure about redemption, but there is... he starts to have an understanding of himself. And you're going to see thru the end, so many of the characters who you've followed and you've loved, you're going to see... it is actually that, all of the characters coming to terms with themselves. I think... not about the situation and the plot and everything, it's when you've been on this odyssey and the odyssey is over, you're left with yourself. You know, and uh... that can be very frightening. And uh.. what's that word, uh... It can make you feel um.. exposed. Exposed, you're like you know, this here... it's just me. And everything you've done, everything you've gone thru, has come to this point. So it's been... I can't wait til you guys all see this thing, it's been so incredible to film, I can't... I don't even know what it's going... it's going to be so fantastic. It's gonna be, it's going to totally, totally blow your minds."

How did he feel reading the final scripts?

"I'd never really read anything like it. I was so excited because, like I say, everybody... Everybody's arc has been looked after. It's not like you get to the end and "But what happens to so and so?" Everything has been beautifully stitched together, it's like the most perfect, beautiful way to finish off this... I would say a form of cinematic literature. It's like coming to the end of um... it's not LIKE coming to the end, it IS coming to the end, of an incredible saga. And so many times in a saga, the events that have taken you there have been very exciting and the end can let you down, you're like... oh well, this um.. the ending is almost the making of everything. because you're going to see a lot of people that you have not seen before, and behaving in ways that you haven't seen before. And that's been so... It's been... it's been incredible. Just incredible. Out of this world!"

He sounds SO excited. I am psyched. I'd say he's overdoing the praise, but in this case, it might actually be valid. He certainly sounds genuine. (Bonus points for not bringing up Adolf Hitler.)

To be honest, I've been worried about, like he said, being let down. 4.5 has felt so jumbled and chaotic, with so many plots to tie up and so many characters to go through. But Daybreak, Part 1 was the exact opposite: calm, unhurried, beautiful, character-centric. It gives me a lot of hope for the final episodes. Maybe it won't be a letdown. Maybe it will be frakking awesome.

James on the TV Guide Cover!

So it's obviously Sexy James Photos Week. Sorry, Google blogsearch, that's Sexy James CALLIS Photos Week. TV Guide has him in the cover, looking awesome and intense with two very sexy ladies, and his hair is looking really good this time. It looks like a very recent photo, with a similar (but better-looking) hairdo as that to the MegaCon one. See also: video above (if you find embedded videos annoying, try the direct link here) and more photos from the shoot online here.

James is really good in these photo shoots. Not only does he look great, but he can really flirt with the camera. Tricia's a former model, so I'm not surprised she feels at home in these shoots, but she and James play so well together that you'd think they're both models. I will really miss their chemistry together. They obviously like each other very much and have so much fun together. Sniff, don't break up my favorite TV couple! Give them their own series!

Tricia, Katee and Mary are all looking very classy and sexy, and even if I'm no A/R shipper, Eddie and Mary's shots together are very sweet. But what's up with Eddie's mullet? (Have I really taken up calling him Eddie?) I'm also intrigued as to why these exact actors. Eddie and Mary, OK, Tricia and Katee, OK. But, even if I love James and I know he's top seven and all, is he now more central than Jamie and Grace? This is interesting. It might be a hint of "the shape of things to come" in terms of the conclusion of the series. Or it might not be. I'm hoping Baltar will be very important, but we'll see.

Starfury Q&A - James Callis / Katee Sackhoff, Part 2

I'm sorry for the delay with this. I realized the audio files are pretty demanding to transcribe, because you can't see what they're doing, so there's context missing sometimes. There are still many question marks, but I think you can make out what they're saying. So this is about 30 minutes and on.

Asked if they get confused while acting, or something. I can't really hear this question.

James: Is this like while we're filming it?

Fan: Yeah, do you get confused and misremember what you were doing?

James: No, I mean up towards the end, when basically we were filming lots of things from lots of episodes at the same time.

Every episode's pretty nametic? and quite specific ...but it can be that you can get confused about... Oh, wait... wait a minute... Yeah, there have been situations... they're not amusing, cos what they are is like dull... So you're supposed to leave the scene with the briefcase, and so-and-so hasn't come in and given you a briefcase, now we're gonna have to go do that again. And so it is um... It can be, but that thing, I find, happens very rarely, cos there's so many people? on set and continuity and... Really it's so specific in your mind, you can walk on set, find two people arguing over how a cushion is being placed. And they've both got polaroids of it from before on their cameras. And it is like, "it's like this", "it's NOT, it's like THIS!" It's like a tiny cushion on the couch, but there's two guys being serious, cos...

Katee: That happens quite a bit, like you shoot a scene... We did towards the end, we shot a scene.. My hair has been an issue from the very beginning. And we shot a scene in the very end where my hair was down, cos I wanted it to be down, and we realized that we'd shot a scene that was occuring, like, an hour before where it was on a ponytail. So we had to figure out, whilst holding machine guns, how her hair is going to fall down. (laughter) Make it slip out of the ponytail by the end .And the script supervisor was coming over, and every scene was going... "OK.. OK.. OK.. OK..." (laughter) "Do you think it'll fall out if you shake your hair a little bit?" ? this woman would come over and she had... everything in her book... she would meticulously watch that monitor and write down everything that you did.

This is one of those things that delay my transcripts. "Every show is pretty..." nametic? numetic? Neither word seems to exist and I can't for the life of me hear what it is and it's driving me nuts.

I don't have much to add content-wise, since I've never been involved in making a TV show. It sounds like BSG has so many supervisors though, I don't know how they ever get any scenes done. I can really imagine the kind of situation James is describing here.

The next question is something like: what's it like to see yourself on TV?

(they seem to think for a moment)
Katee: I fast forward to the stuff that I've done, because I want to, like, occasionally question um... I kind of, I watch my eyes to see if I was in a moment, and I make sure um.. but I don't watch... I think I already lived it, you know, I have it in my head, the way I want it to look, and the way it should look in my head. (?)

James: I'm totally the same.
(laughter)

Not much to add here either. It sounds a bit like they're not sure how to answer the question.

A wordy but very good question. Does Katee feel she was typecast as a "strong woman" (and was her role of Sarah Corvus on Bionic Woman a kind of typecasting), and does James feel that, after such a strong character, he'll be typecast as well? This is my favorite part of this Q&A.

Katee: Um... There are worse things in the world than to go to work every day and play a strong woman. Um, I enjoy a challenge. I am *not* very ... in my own personal life, I second guess myself all the time. I am not a very confident person. I love playing strong confident women, because there's a voice in them that I don't have. Um... so that's ... that's what draws me to them. Cos I would never shoot a machine gun as my real life self.

Am I worried about typecasting? No. When it is time for me to prove to everyone that I can play someone else, I will. It's not that time yet. It's, I haven't been given the opportunity. Um... at the end of the day this is a job. I can selectively... you know, sort of navigate my way thru it, but until... you know, financially you support yourself by it. And I'd love to say that I would live in my car [to enhance playing the role that's more fulfilling to me?], but I wouldn't. I have two dogs, they wouldn't like it. (laughter) Um, so... you know, there will come a time when I can play someone that is completely different, and right now I can do what I love. Um.. and I like them all in a sense to ... the common thing in Starbuck and Sarah Corvus is that they're very strong. Another common thread in them is that they're so vulnerable and so... wanting. Left empty. Um that that is also so much fun to play, it's two completely different sides to the point. So you know...I like it um... involved with it emotionally.

James: I slightly disagree with you. I think that you're terribly strong, I think you're outrageously talented and very beautiful. And... ("awww" from the crowd) That, seriously, that's like the whole package and the whole deal. You can talk about playing strong women, but there's very few people who could have played Starbuck in the way that you did. And what I think you brought ot the party was real charm that I think if you did have somebody who necessarily was just... they can't, they don't have that pizazz.

And to me it wasn't that you're so brave, cos that's like me coming from England and like looking at GI Joe and American Hero, I have a slightly different idea about bravery. What I always saw about Starbuck and what I also see in you is that you're really plucky, and when somebody says no, it's just like.. It is not no for you, it's not no for you ever. And... that's something that then, we watch this show, and you're involved in it emotionally... You're like, it is the end of the world, it is chaotic, billions of people are dead, but there's this one girl in the mix who is holding her own. And no matter what is being thrown at this individual, they are... on some level they are always keeping it together, they are consistent. So that's my... take on that. And now to myself.
(applause)

That's beautiful. I love how he just jumps in and tells her she is too strong and does too kick ass. This is really respectful not only of Katee as a person, but of strong female characters and women in general. I just melted hearing this. This goes in, like, "the top ten moments that prove James is an unusually kind person". I should blog the top ten sometime.

I also agree with him and I think that in the above, Katee does sound insecure, but at the same time very intelligent, and her discussion of strong female roles is well thought out and competent. In other words, she sounds strong, something of which she seems completely unaware. I think what James is ultimately saying is that insecure is not the same as weak or cowardly. I agree. And I love him for it. A lot.

OK, so on to James' response about typecasting:

James: I may never work again. (laughter) But I, you know, I explore a lot of avenues and in the sense of, having to support yourself as a jobbing actor, who knows what avenues and roads. I was gonna say that I'd even think about experimenting with porn, but I have done that on Galactica, so that'd be typecasting as well. (laughter) So ... um, I'm not sure. Maybe, you know, the closest piece of like not typecasting would be to be like... An extra in Crimewatch UK, walking into a bank with (?) and shouting with a shotgun, (tough voice) "Get on the floor! Get on the floor!" (laughter) Wasn't James Callis amazing in the (? ?)
(laughter)

[Katee says something, but I can't make it out]

I had some trouble with this bit. He says something after bank and then says the same thing in the end, but I can't make it out. I didn't know what Crimewatch UK is either, but according to imdb, it's a kind of reality show where they discuss real crimes and re-enact the situations with actors. It's so... :D Imagining James doing something like that... I have no words, only laughter. Awesome. The audience seems to agree, because it takes a while for the laughter to die down. (The porn comment - I'm not even going to go there. Private emails. Ahem.)

Katee is asked about the scenes she did in Maelstrom about Kara's childhood.

Katee: The little girl that played... Oh my god, if there is a sweeter little girl in the
entire world... She was so cute. And the scene where she falls on her head on the ground... We had to lay there and stay there, so they told her that it's strawberry jelly and you're asleep, and she was like, (little voice) "okay". (laughter, awws) And she did not move a muscle for like fifteen takes. And finally, we were all ? and her little butt was in the air cos she was on her knees and it was so cute. And she was just adorable. So I had the fortune of falling in love with this child as a person, not an actor, before we shot that scene where they took her away.

Um... I've never experienced like that, so I didn't draw from any experiences of my life. But what I did say was... in my head, was... This is a girl whose mother did not love her. Who did not respect her, who really, really hurt her emotionally and physically. And to think you have an opportunity to make her world right, in a sense, and.. love something so completely and perfectly. And then to find a peace in that and then have that taken away from you... It's uh.. I can't imagine anything more painful in my entire life. So I think that was the moment where Starbuck really cracked. And she never really, I don't think she ever came back from that. So...

That's a beautiful answer. Katee sounds like a very kind, caring person. If you want to leave a good impression on me, one sure way is to talk compassionately and caringly about children. Kind people always have a soft spot for the children.

I feel a bit torn about Starbuck's childhood being so traumatic. On the one hand, I like to think that Starbuck's spunkiness is in her character, not just the result of something bad in her past that she needs to fight against, because that would sort of nullify it. I also don't think they would write a spunky male character as traumatized, necessarily. I'm not sure how others are reading this. On the other hand, I do like seeing Kara's sensitive side a bit more. I really liked Maelstrom; there were many aspects that I really enjoyed in it. The interaction with Head!Leoben, the child actor... It was beautiful.

Asked if the characters - "some of the most complex, intense characters on the show", I'll second that - got to them so much that they dreamt about them or were otherwise emotionally ensconced in them.

Katee: Um, towards the end I was ready to go see a therapist. I honestly um.. Starbuck was a very hard character to play. She was always down, she was always beaten down, she was always... She had a walk to her that was even... depressing. And so I .. at the very end, I was a wreck. I wasn't sleeping, I was exhausted, I was very depressed. And um, I realized that I was kind of internalizing her own pain (?) and taking it on as my own. Because I wanted to make the end of it... right, I wanted to do her justice and make sure that it was... complete, I guess. Um... and so I did used to dream as if I was her. So I was kind of glad when it was over.. sorry. Because she's very hard to play, a very depressed person. And I try to be happy. Thank you!(?)

James: I thoroughly immersed myself in the part, and I tried to take home as many acolytes I could. (laughter) So we could have group therapy sessions. (laughter) Everybody in the cast thoroughly... was immersed in their part emotionally. Everybody dreamt about it or whatever that you.. This wasn't really a job that... you couldn't really, you couldn't just leave it when they shouted "cut" at... whenever it was, 11 o'clock at night, most nights or something. We filmed, as it were, in an atmosphere of smoke, nearly always, like really grinding smoke makes you look good on film and grainy, it gets in your throat and it gets in your fingernails, and...what's the... Forgive me using a swearword as well, but it was like crawling thru shit on some level, emotionally. Everybody is getting just dragged through the mud. And just the fact that somebody shouts "cut!" at eleven, it wasn't like (happy voice) "Oh, we can go now!" You're not like that as a human being, because you've being (?) and thinking yourself in a different mindset all day long to being someone else. You might be surprised if anybody - and that wasn't just the actors, I'm sure the film crew as well, you're all in that arena. And I wouldn't say that I dreamt about it, but we all collectively... worried a great deal about our characters.

I hear now today about people playing video games, and how you become desperately obsessive about your avatar. It's like your creation, it's your baby, you made it... They just sent somebody to prison in Japan because she chopped off her husband's avatar, or something. It's a nice trick if you can pull it. (laughter) And in the same way, these characters were our avatars, so that you know, when they felt an injustice, on some level, we did. And when they had a triumph or they did something right, so did we. We were kind of living vicariously through them cathartically so then we couldn't really close it off.

One of the signs of a good show - or maybe just a really dark show - is that it gets under your skin. The first time I watched the first season, it actually left me pretty depressed, but also in awe. The second and third season even more so. Some of the episodes on season 4 haven't been as intense for me, but the last one really got to me again. There's always the risk of being dark just for the sake of being dark, and I know some people criticize BSG for this, but I think they've still kept the balance, because there is some humor, and there is a lot of warmth. It's obvious that the actors are very passionate and care about their characters deeply, and it's one of the things that make the show more human and relatable.

A less serious note: it's really amusing when you've just watched the mockumentary where James is swearing every other word, and then you see something where he's all "I'm sorry for using the word shit". It's not even the first time he's been tentative about using the word. I think he should apologize for the disgusting mental image rather than the word itself.

Also, Professor James is "cathartically" and "vicariously" living through someone. I must say, he really revved up the big words in this Q&A, and even if they're not malaprops - he always uses the words correctly - and it doesn't seem like an attempt to brag, it's become one of these little things that really amuse me about him. When you read a lot of books, you sound like a book. It's endearing.

One more note about that bit: you can hear someone writing notes, I think. A pen is running through paper, trying to write down what they're saying. It's a cute sound.

A question for James - very wordy, but the gist is: who would he like to play?

James: (a name I totally can't make out.) I hear he's a bit racy as well. (laughter) Baltar has been a really amazing thing to... Anybody playing this character would have had a field day. As I said yesterday, not high bound by the same parameters as other people. And because... a bit like Shakespeare and this character in it, he's been allowed to have resonances that totally, uh... fit a kind of signway? picture throughout episodes. Because his involvement in the episode, your enjoyment of him, is for episodic intensification. For that episode, he's a hero of this one, he's a villain in that one. He's still a villain, he's gonna do something... other people have a more rigid set... So I have been allowed to play, I mean, every single role kown to man, almost. I feel like I've been a clown, a joker, a scientist, a concerned parent, a worried watcher, a traitor... All of these things bound up in one man.

What am I gonna do next? Very few things will offer me that same canopy where I can run riot in my head and do something. What would I like to do? I'm actually about to do a comedy which is really funny and filthy, um... (laughter) and looking forward to that... But I suppose I'd like to do some more... something a bit serious. When you've been doing Battlestar Galactica like we have, you... I think I've became vaguely addicted to that kind of dark, political, (?), step out of your corridor, wonder about your next-door neighbor.. kind of feeling. Then you're going to other jobs, and it's like being in a Fairy liquid commercial, compared to what I want to do, so something serious.

Heh heh, "episodic intensification" AND "canopy where I can run riot"? :P

I'm actually really curious about the comedy. Is it a movie or a series? British or American? How filthy exactly... I hope James lets us know soon.

I can imagine that anything feels a bit deflated after BSG. What I'd really like to see is a new movie written and directed by him. Or, well, even the old movie written and directed by him, if I could purchase it somewhere. And I'd love to see him in something serious, preferably a longer-standing series where he gets to really build up the character. I'd love for him to have the leading role in something truly great like The Sopranos or Mad Men style show. Something where the characters are built subtly, where the writers really give human psychology some thought, etc. I do count BSG as one of those shows.

What have been some of their worst auditions, and it might be that they got the role, because some actress had gotten the part after the (in her opinion) worst audition ever..? Once again, you can ask a question without talking for a whole minute. It's a good question though.

James: My worst audition. How long, again, do you have? (laughter) (chuckles)

Fan: All night.

James: Exactly. I just... I got a few ones I just remember, quickly. One... I've only ever been to one commercial ever. I have lots of friends do this the whole time, make a small fortune. I went to ? for a beer commercial. ? in this beer commercial, I can't remember who, but there was a friend of a friend, it was like a thing about... a thing about, listen, we know that you really... It's gonna be in Holland somewhere nice, European, it's gonna be three days, it's gonna be paid a fortune, it's pretty sealed up because the director's seen your picture and you look like the part. And all you gotta do is walk on, hold the beer can, have a sip, it's like finished, and you like chuck it up in the air and you catch the beer can and that's it. I went on and I just... (laughter; I imagine he's doing something very funny. You can hear a sip-like sound.) And I didn't get the job. (laughter) That was one of them.

And then another one I just... ? embarrassing auditions... A few days beforehand for some... I dunno.. unbeknown reason, I'm not sure if it was a bet or whatever but I was, we'd dyed our hair. And I'd gone really.. um, orange. Which is actually what happens if you put peroxide on, you know, dark hair. Thinking that it would go some nice, I dunno, maybe a bit more like Katee's color. Obviously, [I was too dark for that?] so I looked like Ronald McDonald. (laughter) I had an audition. This is years and years ago, about 15 years ago. So I was quite young, and stupid, okay.

And... I was like, I really need to desperately change my hair for this next thing coming up that was like a specific thing about dark hair, whatever it was. And I just couldn't be bothered to go down the street and buy some hair dye. I'm like, that's so boring anyway. I've got some ink over here! (laughter) I just remember getting like a little brush and I... you know, it was actually working. I just went, oh sod this, and I just like... (laughter) not realizing that it would just run all over my forehead, and it was permanent black ink. I spent like hours... Not hours, I didn't have hours, the audition was like in 45 minutes, I'm in the bathroom trying to scrape off permanent black ink. And then like... I have no idea what I look like, a dreadful fly? going into this audition. They said, (worried tone) "Are you quite alright? You're leaking..." like looking at my forehead that still had, what's it, traces of the black ink all over it. That is also a job I didn't get. (laughter)

Heee! This is one of the funniest stories I have heard him tell. The laughter ripples on throughout the story, and James is also laughing himself, so I kinda gave up on the "laughter" notes after a while. But wait, 15 years ago..? So he was 22? That's still too old to be that dumb, James! :D He usually doesn't sound this amused at himself, so it must be one of his favorites. Heee.

It seems like James most enjoys telling stories where he makes a fool of himself. It's a part of the kindness, I think - when you joke about yourself, you're not being mean at anyone else's expense. Maybe it's also a sign of a healthy self esteem, though. He can laugh at the things he failed at because they didn't crush him. You move on and try something new. That's really the only attitude you can have, if you ever want to make it as an actor.

Katee: I have so many jobs I haven't gotten...

James: Basically just embarassing audition stories. Rather than, you know, I...

Katee: I don't know. Embarassing ones? There's always embarassing ones. I can't think of any right now at all. Sorry! I can't think of any! I'm such a klutz, that's like, if anyone knows me, I'm really klutzy, I drop things, I bump into things, I fall on things and... My best friend says it isn't a party til Katee breaks something. So there's been a couple auditions where I blocked in and like, you know, bumped into the camera, it falls down... (laughter) They're like, 'Well, we're gonna have to do the audition later...with the camera broken.' Things like that or like, you know... I've done that quite a bit actually, not breaking cameras but running into things, or like doing the audition without realizing that... [?] slightly raised up... falling off... things like that. Usually ends up with me hurt. (chuckles)

James is sometimes a tough act to follow, but what impressed me about Katee in this Q&A was that she had some really funny moments. I got the impression that she's very smart and funny, but also very shy and insecure. I think what happened here was that she got a bit nervous because James' story was so funny. She chuckles kind of nervously, the audience sounds to be "awww"ing rather than laughing throughout most of it.

James: I just said recently, I was just dubbing... you know, you.. samples aren't good in one take or somebody's talking and phone goes off, and you have to go and dub it. It was a scene where I was in bed with Tricia. And... uh, she's kissing me, and in the scene, I got to dub this thing where I'm like, "Hey, stop! Stop it! Stop, alright?" and I'm on the phone to Los Angeles, and they're... I'm in London, but they're listening to me and taking the best take that they want. I said, "That has to be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do." They said, "What? Being in bed with Tricia Helfer?" (laughter) I said, "No, you idiot, telling her to stop!" (laughter, applause)

Wait, was this the scene in the last episode, on the baseship, where he tells the random six to stop? Because I can't think of any other scene where he would have told her to stop. Unless there are more coming, and I sure hope not. I mean go all the way, you always did before!

Katee: I can't compete with that. (laughter)

James: Again, just like really emotional scenes, seriously or...

Katee: You know, it's not really emotional, but the scene that got me the most was...
There was a scene where, on the first day, it just so happened to rain. Then for the rest of the shoot on location, we were outside on location in Vancouver, and it's very cold. They decided to bring in rain towels. So it was freezing cold, there's a wind chill, we got rain towels, everyone else is ... They came down from Galactica, so they were prepared to the rain, I was in a sweatsuit. So I was like soaking up the water, and trying to like, you know... And at one point the medic looks at, comes over and says, "We need to get you out of these clothes." "What?" He was like, "You're falling into hypothermia" or, "You have hypothermia." I was like, "No, I'm fine, I finally stopped shivering." He goes, "I know." "Oh." And I was purple(?). I had no idea. They had to do it slowly, they couldn't just warm me up, so they had to take the clothes off, keep me warm...

James: Close you into bed with me and Tricia... (laughter)

Katee: Yes. [?]

James: [I can't hear him here. There's more laughing.]

Katee: (laughs) I didn't come down with pneumonia until a couple of weeks afterwards, but a lot of us did. Sam had it for a while, he was in ? with Crashdown... We all kinda had pneumonia (laughs) from that. That was hard.

Wow. I also heard that James got an ear infection from the Taking a Break scene where he's in water. I know they always say how well looked after they were (catering and all), but this Q&A makes their work conditions sound kind of harsh.

Again, you can tell Katee feels a bit nervous in front of an audience (I'm a bit surprised at how insecure she seemed here), and James tries to make her feel at ease. He's very caring and big brotherly. Gush!

James is asked about the cylon detector and whether it will be revisited in the new episodes.

James: I think that.. that's an interesting point, just in terms of reference points within the show. I think that was a device that got lost in the mix, to be quite honest, in the storytelling. And even up until the end, I was constantly you know, maybe unhelpfully thinking I was being helpful, coursing? to writers and directors that - hey, there's this thing, the cylon detector and like.. essentially because I had this idea that um, that the cult was actually a total front. You know, like that thing in James Bond [?] He's supposed to be this guy running an empire, actually he's somewhere else totally doing something else totally. And I suggested that that would be in accordance with a teribly smart guy who could... you know, just flip takes out and then he becomes a [voice?] and he's all around Galactica. Oh, he's held up there, but whilst he's supposed to be with these people in this cult, actually he's really doing sth else. Actually he's working on the cylon detector or trying to find out who the last cylon is. He's involved in something and that's his smoke screen. And they, the wirters, were like, with so many millions of stories being tied together right now, that just... got lost in the mix.

...Why didn't they use that idea? I'll admit that I'm missing something because I've never seen even one James Bond movie (*embarrassed grin*) but it could have worked. Somehow it would have been nice to have some explanation for the cult, it sorta came out of nowhere.

There are so many things that have sort of been forgotten and dropped with the Gaius storylines and, in the end, the storylines of all characters. It's a huge show, so many storylines, so many characters to keep tabs on, I can sort of understand it and yet it bugs. Of course, as a James fan, I focus very heavily on Baltar, and that's when you remember all the little things and ask all these questions. Usually the answer has to be "They just forgot about that."It annoys me, and this is one of those things where it can be a bad thing to be such a great show, because you do expect a lot in all respects. I know that BSG writers and directors are just human and can't do everything, but I do tend to get very annoyed with plotholes and forgotten threads, simply because I know how good the story can be.

Asked how they'd like their characters to die.

James: I can't really talk about the end of that now, cos even our projected ends could suggest or say what kind of hasn't happened or isn't going to happen in the series...

I'm sure they signed contracts that specifically state "don't reveal anything about the final events". It's not a bad question per se, just really difficult to answer. Well, when in doubt, cut to a sex joke:

James: I think Baltar would go out in an orgasm. (laughter, applause) With a smile on his face.

Of course he would. It's a big hit with the audience, and I wondered why my own reaction isn't all that strong. Then I remembered that this was quoted somewhere before, and it's in one of my previous Starfury posts. It's a funny mental image, but not his best joke during the Q&A's. I wonder why the ink in the hair story was not quoted - I thought that was hilarious.

Katee: I was gonna say that I can't answer that question cos she already did.

(The fan says something I can't hear.)

Katee: She did, though. She went out in a blaze of glory, you know.

She did! It was a worthy sendoff, and I like how they've dealt with it in the 4.5 episodes, but I hope there's a lot more coming with that, too. This is where they, rather abruptly, have to cut it off.

It was a great Q&A, and I hope you've enjoyed the transcript. I got a positive idea of Katee from this, although I'd seen her in a few interviews before. She seems smart and charming, but also shy and insecure. It's not surprising that James' behavior towards her is warm and appreciative, but also protective and encouraging. It was interesting to observe them together. More of the James and Mark Q&A coming soon!

Starfury Q&A - James Callis / Katee Sackhoff, Part 1

So, I'm very excited about this. I have been given the audio files of the Starfury Q&A's with James. Many thanks to my anonymous donator!

I have been working hard on these, and I'll be posting the transcript with commentary within the next couple of days. Since these are one-hour files, I realized that posting the entire transcripts with commentary at once might be, to quote James, "an almost Herculean undertaking", so I will do half and half instead. I'll post the first parts of both transcripts, then the second parts.

So this Q&A took place on the 7th of December in Heathrow, London, where the Starfury convention was held.

I've decided to transcribe everything Katee says as well, and might even indulge in a little Katee gushing. I like her, I think she is a great actress and she says some smart things here. James has a big-brotherly attitude on Katee here, and seems to constantly say things to reassure her or help her feel more at ease. Which was totally sweet. He also gave this incredibly sweet monologue about how much he likes Katee/Starbuck and how strong she is, but this will be in part 2.

So, applause, they come on and say hi. They remark on how cold it is, and I think Katee says the door in the bathroom was freezing. I have trouble hearing this very well, though, because the audience is still clapping and getting settled.

James: Did you all have a good evening last night?

Crowd: Yeah!

James: Did you all drink too much?

Crowd: Yeah!

Hee! He sounds amused at himself, and I'm wondering if he drank too much, because he did look much more tired in the second day photos than he did in the first day ones.

The first question is a bit unclear at first and Katee has to ask a few times what the person means. I think that in the end, it's about Starbuck being in competition with Kat, and how Katee had said it was a hard episode to play. So the question is why she found it hard.

Katee: I love the actress that plays Kat, it's a great girl. I found it hard to believe that Starbuck would ever be intimidated by another pilot. I didn't think that that was very true to form, and I also thought that if she was ever hit by another woman she would beat the shit out of them. And she didn't do it. So I kind of thought that it was an episode where... You know, and it happened a couple of times, but I think it was the first time I felt that... this isn't her. Um, and ultimately it ended up helping me find who she was at the very end. So yeah, it was difficult. It's always difficult to play those roles where you know, you... It's gotta be ? the the final five though, you play this character, you think you're one thing, you go four years playing this character, all of a sudden you realize that you're completely different. So then you start second-guessing everything you've done. So it was kinda like that.

What's interesting here is that James obviously had a lot of moments like that too, and he always contested them. Some of the scenes were changed because of his demands - "Baltar didn't just nonchalantly sign the death list in Precipice" being my favorite example that I keep bringing up. On the other hand, he did do the accent change in Dirty Hands even if he didn't really think that was true to form (more on that in the James/Mark Sheppard transcript). I'm intrigued by that "find who she was at the very end". What could that be referring to? I'm tentatively excited about the finale, and I think something very awesome might come for Starbuck - I loved that scene where she found herself dead.

[These next questions are transcribed partially based on the Youtube video file, which is why there's some commentary on how James looks.]

James is asked if he has "any desires to do a Hamlet", apparently because David Tennant is doing it. He sounds a bit like he doesn't have a real answer to this.

James: Um..uh.. maybe one day, I might... but I'm not, I dunno. I like Shakespeare, I haven't been on stage for a while. I think science fiction is a bit like, I remember somebody saying that Strek Trek is like bad Shakespeare, you had like these two [embassies] from either side, they've got a political debate, bla bla... Yeah, it's fascinating. I'd actually love to get a chance to see David Tennant playing Hamlet right now, but I imagine that... [someone says something from the audience] No, I mean that, but like totally sold out, so...

I'm not really sure if I'd like to see him do Shakespeare. For one thing, I wouldn't understand anything. I have actually read Hamlet, discussed it in class and seen a performance of it on video (as well as a modernized movie version), but I still don't feel like I really "get" it. James probably does, though.

James and Katee's singing voices are complimented, and I think the question is if they'd like to sing for the crowd today.

James: "Battlestar: The Musical. (?)"

Katee: "I always thought that would be kinda fun to do, like they did on Buffy."

They both look very amused, and the crowd laughs. It's a silly question, but it makes for a nice warm feel.(I'm glad BSG didn't do a musical episode, by the way. Those might be fun to do, but they always end up taking away from the reality of the show.)

The next question is asked for someone who couldn't be here, because they're having, and I couldn't catch this earlier, but it's "dirty weekend in Belgium". Which explains why people laugh and James says, "Great" looking and sounding like he finds this funny. Heh.

So on to the question: Speaking of David Tennant, would he be interested in being the next Doctor Who? If someone called him and said, "James, come to Cardiff, we want you to be Doctor Who, what would you say?"

James: I think it would be like that radio... phone-in hoax line, it'd be like... actually the guy from Canada who rang up Sarah Palin and pretended to be Nicolas Sarkozy. [laughter] And so... yeah, no, I um... Time travel... It's not... It's that on some level, the parts are similar in my mind, not that they are at all, but I have been a doctor or professor, whatever, in a sci fi drama. Being Doctor Who is not the right idea for me right now."

There's a ripple of (mock?-) disappointed "Awwww" in the audience. (James looks amused)

James: "Sorry. (laughter) Maybe, but I mean they could cast maybe a female Doctor Who? [Cocks his eyes meaningfully at Katee; laughter] A real kick-arse woman [like her]."

I don't have much to say about this; the Dr Who thing is really persistent and actually a lot of the James blogsearch results will always be "I want James Callis to be the next Dr Who!" Now that the next Dr Who has actually been announced, maybe this will die down a little. It'd be a cool role, but I can see why James doesn't want to do it at the moment (and I'm not sure if they've asked him either, but it seems feasible that they'd consider him in the future, if they look at the online discussions at all).

On a first listening, I thought he was saying, "Maybe they could cast me as a female Doctor Who?" That would have been funny. Kinda nonsensical, but funny. I love when James says "kick-arse" or "bad-arse". It just sounds amusing. I guess to my mind, American English is the norm and the other regional varieties are always a bit exotic.

And hee at the hoax bit! Always so self-deprecating. Somehow it feels funny that he'd bring up Sarah Palin - she's someone my girlfriend and I have often discussed (mostly mockingly), so it's odd to see the same topic come up in a James context. I realize we live in the same universe and all; it's possible he celebrated Obama's victory just like we did, but it still feels a little surreal. (I had another dream where James was elected president of the USA. Maybe it was because of writing that bit in the post.)

Katee is asked about Nathan Fillion and if there were funny pranks on set while she was filming with him.

Katee: That movie was shot simultaneously with Battlestar. So my days on White Noise 2 are filled with fog. I don't really remember much. It was also the paint episode with Callum. So it was all.. I was going from White Noise, Nathan dying, to painting with Callum. There was... he is a prankster, but the one thing I have to say is that he got me to quit smoking. So he told me a story that was so.. hard to hear about um.. I can't remember who it was about, a family friend of his who ultimately passed away from smoking, and told me the entire story from the diagnosis with cancer till the end. I felt... I couldn't smoke after that, I was like.. oh my god. So... anyway. I miss it though. (laughter)

James: And the funny story he told you was...?

(laughter)

Katee: (laughs) There's no but, there's no funny story. Nathan is a very very good guy. The pranks he pulled with everyone else, it was them more than me.

[End of video]
It's interesting that she was working on something else while doing the very intense paint scene with Leoben. That was one of my favorite episodes from season 3, and Katee was great in it, so maybe she had trouble focusing on a movie project at the same time. I could imagine that any BSG character, and definitely Starbuck, would take so much from an actor that it's impossible to do something else.

Katee is asked if Starbuck would have killed Cain, had Adama given the order. I liked this question, because it seems to go into Starbuck's personality, and also because I loved the Pegasus arc.

Katee: Of course. Yeah. Starbuck walked into that situation knowing that she wasn't going to walk out of it. She knew she wouldn't come back. And.. She is.. At the end of the day, she's a very good soldier. She always did what she was told. And I think um... even if she did it ? and whining and crying the entire time, she still did it. So she would have done it. I'm very sure.

And how would her relationship with Adama have looked after that? (A really good follow-up question, too.)

Katee: I don't think Kara would have made it out of there alive. There were too many marines? with rifles pointed at her. That was what it was, it was a suicide mission. And that's how Adama played it, that's how myself and Jamie played it. Jamie didn't go, but he was supposed to go with her, that was how we chose to play the scene, I don't know if that's how it looked, but that's kind of...

I hadn't really thought of that myself. It's true, they probably would have killed her, but as a viewer, I hadn't considered the possibility that Starbuck could die like that in mid-season (until she did die in season three, I guess). It's a very interesting point, and I like the way Katee talks about Kara here, you can tell she's given the character a lot of thought.

Silence falls for a moment, and James quips: "Do you know any good songs?" Hee. People laugh. I like James' ice-breaking little comments; he seems to be determined to put both Katee and the audience at ease.

[This, again, is partially from the Youtube file, but I've added a few things that I didn't hear there.]

James is asked about Gaius and Gaeta, by someone who met Alessandro Juliani and he had said he's not "against a romance between Gaius and Gaeta" (the audience laughs a lot at this one).

James: I just wish he'd told me, it's tragic that I found out through the grapevine now. (laughter) I think that that was something that he really had programmed into the background of his character. He's a very subtle, very clever actor, a brilliant actor. And for a while I think fell a bit... Oh, *I* felt initially that, you know, he had the rather thankless task of talking kinda technobabble in the CIC and stuff. He's quite brilliant to work with. And so really, again, totally taking his own lead. He said to me on several occasions, he was like, "You know, I just don't buy the ridiculous hero worship that you know, I'm going to..."

Because he was so clever very early on, he could have exposed me or found out that it was really... me. There's something about the computer codes and I ask him to erase them, in the miniseries, in the pilot. And I think he had the idea then that he'd have this fawning respect, based on maybe a kind of... a latent homosexuality, that would continuously blindsight him, and think about the better side of Gaius' qualities. Gaius being the rid... gargantuan egomaniac and narcissist that he is, is like.. has no idea that's going on on some level. He'd be very surprised. It adds elements to that. So I think it might have been... you know, not reciprocated on that level unfortunately."

This is a great answer. It proves that Alessandro had really thought of this from the start, and it's not just something the fans projected onto the character. There were some complaints about that recently at Skiffy, and I feel very validated now that this is obviously not just the fans' imagination running rampant. Gaeta loves Gaius! Squee!

To continue a bit on my original notes, the complaint at Skiffy was that people are "desperate" to see Gaeta as gay, and even after the first webisode spoilers and pictures came online, people were still saying this. Like, they were comparing to seeing the original Starbuck and Apollo as a gay couple. I think there's a huge difference, because in this case, the subtext is on the show itself, and not just "I want to see more gay characters on TV". (Not that there's anything wrong with that subtext either, but it does get tedious if all friends on TV are suddenly gay.)

I also like how James points out the "technobabble in CIC" thing. Yes. Thank you. I really like Alessandro as an actor; I think Gaeta's a great character, and I really think he was shortchanged in the first season doing those boring "dradis contact, sir" scenes. I've been glad to see him as the star of the new webisodes and hope for a more central role in 4.5. Addendum: his role in the season is still building up, but I'm intrigued that he seems to be going "evil" and joining Zarek. I just hope this doesn't mean he'll be dead by the end of next week's episode.

Which characters would they have liked to have sex with? (lots of laughter from the audience)

James: How long have you got? (laughter) Christ, oh. I don't know about Katee, but you know, our set was filled with just the most beautiful women all of the time. All of them happened to be, are, superb actresses as well. I was very excited to get a kiss out of Mary McDonnell. To be honest, it really wasn't written that way. It was just written that she blows a gun off in my head. We were saying, wouldn't it be... I think there was an idea about, you know, oh Baltar's kissed everybody, so [wouldn't it be funny] that in a dream... It's so unusual that Laura would kiss Gaius. And so that was the thing that we went on, cos we just shot that as a kind of thing that, oh we possibly weren't going to use that. But it was the... what was fun to me in that moment was the kind of thing about.. I knew it was a dream, because why would Laura Roslin ever want to kiss Gaius Baltar? Yes, lots of people... If only the show had gone on another year, I'm sure I could have accommodated several more. (laughter) Over to you, Katee. (laughter)

It was written as her shooting Gaius? Wow. Absolutely the right idea to keep it like this. So this is season 3, Collaborators, where Gaius has that dream where everyone supposedly forgives him and is all, "Water under the bridge", even frakking Tigh. HeadSix goes in angry conscience mode and Adama can suddenly see her. And then Laura Roslin suddenly says, "I've always wanted you" and leans over to kiss him. I thought it was a very Gaius dream - self-justifications and women randomly throwing themselves at her. In the third season gag reel, you can also see that Mary falls onto James' lap while doing the kiss, and they both laugh. It's very cute.

Katee: Um.. I don't know if there's many men on the show that I didn't have some [communal?] with... I was disappointed that they never talked about the fact that Kara and Gaius slept together, it literally just happened and was never brought up again! (laughter) I don't know if they had like a ratings dip in that scene or something? They went, "Well, that's not working!" (laughter) (chuckles) Um.. so I don't know. I always kind of thought that Michael Hogan is just a ... just a beautiful person and such an extremely good actor. And uh.. (laughter) He kinda makes me feel all special! (laughter) And of course I want to hear him go, (imitates the Saul Tigh laughter) Hoo hoo hoo! -in the middle of a sex scene. (laughter)

Heee! The famous Saul Tigh laughter! It's actually interesting that Lucy Lawless, too, mentioned in her Q&A that she's always had a thing for Michael Hogan. Maybe there's something particularly sexy about him when you see him in person. I'm not sure what Starbuck fans thought of the Gaius/Kara sex scene, but I always thought it was a good example of Gaius' ego at play: woman says someone else's name, you're wounded and driven to drink.

Asked if they read fan sites, forums or fan fiction. That's how I hear the question anyway. Katee starts to answer the question in a wider sense, like about forums and sites, and James tells her it's about fan fiction. I don't really blame him, because I have trouble hearing the person myself. (Why does James think Katee doesn't know what fan fiction is though?)

Katee: "I don't. I made the mistake of doing that in the beginning and um.. you know, you can never... win everyone. You can never..."

James: "She was talking about fan fiction."

Katee: "Oh, fan FICTION, someone handed me..."

James: "So you know, like, that somebody's written about... projective ideas of...your character..."

Katee: "Yeah, yeah yeah. Someone handed me one time...um...something about... me being a porn star." (laughter) "Um, and I was like, really offended. And so I don't."

James: "She gave it to me." (laughter)

James: "To be honest, I haven't read it. Uh... I know it's out there in the sense of on the internet, but I just feel that that takes um...uh... It's one of, you know, I play Gaius Baltar, I'm not really interested now in that kind of... What other people feel and see, it's like... My donation to the party is kind of... over, like that, and uh... So I haven't."

Katee: "I just want to add, mine was written about me as a person, not as Kara. That's why I was so mad. That's why. Sorry."
(shocked oooooh in the crowd)

I can see why they wouldn't read the fan fiction. I think James is trying to be really nice here, knowing there may be people in the audience who write fan fiction; he sounds a bit apologetic and tentative. What I assume he's saying is that it could never feel real to him because he's been inside Gaius' head. If the show is real to you as an actor, it might be harder to get in the mindset of enjoying fan fiction. Perhaps he's also referring to how many fans really misread Gaius. I mean, half the stuff in the forums is like "he's evil, has no remorse, no conscience, no empathy..." I don't know how much James has read of that, but it angers me on a regular basis that people refuse to see the good sides of Gaius' personality. I think the show needs subtitles for dummies: "Gaius is exhibiting empathy for another person." "Here, Gaius is feeling guilty even if he is also feeling horny. It is possible to feel both at the same time."

I have mixed feelings about fan fiction; I've loved some of it, but other times I've felt I could be reading a story about any set of characters, because it doesn't really have anything to do with BSG. I think James might enjoy some of the crack fic though, because it's just that kind of humor. You could even say that his own pages in the BSG book are like a crack fic written from the point of view of Gaius Baltar.

And a special message to the fan who wrote that fiction about Katee: You are a complete, utter douchebag and should be ashamed of yourself. Just because you find a star attractive, it doesn't make her your personal sex toy. Keep that stuff to yourself, dude.

Katee's asked if the fan response to her playing Starbuck affected her performance.

Katee: This is where it was... started to say before I understood it was fan fiction, I dunno... I did make the mistake in the beginning of reading the message boards, which was wrong. I should never have done it. Because... I think that people have such a love for the original series, they still do, that any... drastic change the character was going to um, kind of, you know, create this panic. And so I read that while we were shooting miniseries, I actually went to like a.. java page in Vancouver, I looked at the...website, and um... and ultimately ended up playing Starbuck way too masculine in the miniseries because of the messageboards. Because people were convinced that I wouldn't be able to play Starbuck.

And I didn't really... I knew that I was doing it at the time, but I didn't think I would notice it when it came out. But I ended up watching it and it... I guess it worked in a sense because I think my insecurity from those messageboards came through as Starbuck's insecurity. So it ended up working, um.. but that was the last time I read the messageboards. So I just um... Like I said you can't, you can't make everyone happy. That was kind of the realization I came to was that... There's always going to be someone somewhere who thinks you are horrible. And that's fine. I don't need to talk to them.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it's a shame if they don't read what the fans say about them, because there will be many people whose lives they have touched and who can't go to conventions for whatever reason. I think for them, for us, it would be nice to know that they also read what we write somewhere online. On the other hand, I can totally understand her reaction because forums can be huge and disorienting (Skiffy certainly is), and some stuff online is just plain mean. Some people don't really consider that the stars might be reading. Criticism is one thing, but you can be critical without being a complete jerk. (And you can watch the show before you start saying she wouldn't be able to play the role. Eye-roll.)

Every time I write a post, I try to keep in mind that James (or his family or friends) might find it one day. I write to the fans, but I want the blog to be a place that he would feel comfortable visiting too. If I want to discuss perverted sexual fantasies, I can do that in private emails. So my conscience is clear in that sense. (Not that I have any perverted fantasies, ahem.)

A question about Starbuck and Boomer being played by women. At this point, I can't hear very well what either the question of the answer is.

Katee: I kept reminding people that, you do remember that Boomer was a black man. And now she's a Korean female. That didn't seem to bother them much. People loved Dirk Benedict, they still do, and um... You know, had they cast a man, I think it would have been worse. So...

James jokes something which I can't hear, but that I guess is something like "Gaius would think so, certainly". People laugh. Katee says it's not "unfair", or it's not "an affair". Um, I'll edit this bit later. :P

James is asked about getting "pushed around by women". Is it him or Gaius?

Katee: He loves it! (laughter)

James: I dunno. No, I really wouldn't say it's me, at all. Um, but there's something about... uh... about that that's terribly funny and amusing. And uh...oh, dear! It's one of these things that's like .. I think a lot of people, a lot of actors would be very adverse to doing that. Because it's something about, you know, looking like a coward or being uh, being... you know, not strong, not physically strong, but in this light it's kind of uh.. I suppose I really get pushed around physically by.. Tricia Helfer, who is either an extraordinary, extraordinary robot, as the whole idea of... they push you, they can crush glass, they're cylons. Or she's a manifestation of something in my head which is equally strong, you know, you can't fight against it.

The only other woman that I'm constantly up against is Laura Roslin. And that very much is a battle of wills. And I've been on... in this series as well, they have another ? apart from playing Gaius Baltar. The way we see this thing is that Laura, she ? more than Gaius. She's right, he's not. And what we have, or what Gaius has for her, is tremendous respect. He actually likes her. Can't say that.. Cos Laura's ... more of an adult, I'm sure she doesn't like Gaius. [chuckles] It's not as mutual on that level. But yeah, being pushed around is totally... Being pushed around like that in that fashion... and being.. Are you familiar with the term "political buskin"? Buskin is a kind of... It's a shoe that apparently was worn by Athenian dramatists back in the Greek drama, ? and Aristoteles, back in the day, and the advantage of a buskin is it fits on either foot. So Gaius is a real buskin - He's like, "hey I love you, I love you", "I totally hate you"... like whatever the situation demands, I'm not uh... like that, you know.

Professor James teaches us about the buskin. (Which is a really cute word and has me in giggles, having to type it over and over. Heee, buskin!) I'm constantly learning new words and concepts - I don't think I've done a transcript yet where I didn't learn something new. Actually, this is something that's related to his profession, so it's slightly less amusing than something like "I was randomly reading a book about parallel universes..." But it still amuses me. It's true about Gaius, too. I think there are two characters on the show who have been politically playing both sides, and I'd say they're Gaius and Zarek. However, the difference between them is that Zarek has an agenda, while Gaius is just trying to survive and, if possible, get people to admire him. Of course, it looks like Gaeta is joining Zarek's side now, which will be very interesting.

What I'd like to sort of challenge here is the idea that Laura is "right" or a good person. Laura has done a lot of things that I felt were downright cruel (like taking Hera away from her loving parents). I think Gaius might have more empathy than Laura, in the end, for individual people (and definitely for cylons). Laura's actions have benefited more people and Gaius' have brought more destruction and suffering for more people. But that doesn't mean Laura is necessarily a kinder, better person than Gaius. She has higher moral ideals for sure, but I'm not entirely convinced that she's so caring. When Elosha got on her case, "You don't love people!" I was like, "WORD! Finally someone points that out!"

Some guy starts with how there are strong female characters on the show and Laura Roslin can be president and stuff (there are actually female presidents in real life too, like the one in Finland..), then goes on to suggest that Kara and Lee are a "great gay couple on TV". Um, what? I'm a bit annoyed by this question. Do people really have such old-fashioned gender roles still? People can have both masculine and feminine qualities without being gay, right? Right?

Katee: In a sense, I think... Yeah, I dunno. I think that Kara's very feminine. We were talking about this. I do think she's very feminine, she has a lot of feminine qualitites, and... I don't really... I mean she also has a lot of masculine qualities, and Jamie has... Or, you know, Lee has a lot of masculine qualities, but also some feminine. So I dunno... I think that's what's interesting is that they could have made Starbuck a man and Apollo a woman. It could have, I think that both roles could have been played either way. So I don't know. I don't uh.. I think that they very much heterosexual.

Yes, me too. Thank you. It's a good answer, and it's an interesting point that Lee could be played by a woman as well. I noticed that, at this point of the transcript, I had started writing "Kara:" instead of "Katee:". Not that I equate the actors with their characters or anything! The next question, which I can't hear, is about Lee and Kara.

Katee: I think it's just because they're kindred. You know, I think they have a relationship that transcends... physical relationship. They are emotionally... ? Lee is... Lee knows her better than she knows herself and vice versa. It's like they just.. they just are one and the same, they're almost the same person, kind of. So um... I think that's... you know.

I don't much care about Lee/Kara to be honest, so I have no comments.
Next question: Starbuck and Tigh, despite their disputes, have many similarities. How much is Kara emulating him? I loved this question, very perceptive.

Katee: I think that um.. I think that Kara is her own person. I think that Kara isn't ? ? some other person. I think she's influenced very much by the men around her she respects. Um, and.. so in that sense, I think that because she does have a respect for Tigh, which we got to see on New Caprica - it was never really explained, but she kinda regretted. They kinda, you know, she is desperately seeking someone to parent her. And she gets that from Adama, he's like the good parent, Tigh's like the bad parent [chuckles]. And then they both love her. And they both protect her in different ways. I don't know if she's channeling them purposefully any more than... I look in the mirror in real life, as much as I don't want to do that, I do. I'm my mother in a lot of ways, and the more you try not to be them, the more you become them. So I think that's kinda... why she is very much like a lot of people around her.

[Asked about the rumor that Starbuck is actually Tigh's daughter. The fan uses the phrase "child of Tigh", which amuses me.]

Katee: I thought she was for a while.

The fan: You did?

Katee: I did, until I had the...the... the stuff with my mother in the flashbacks. That's when I realized that she wasn't.

[There are some extra noises here so I can't hear what comes after this. It's not a very long bit - I'll edit this post if I hear it better.]

I think it's a very interesting point about Kara. Tigh and Kara are initially set up as enemies, but as the show goes on, you can see more and more of Kara's sensitive side, Tigh's kindness under their respective gruff/hardass exteriors. It's something that I've found both consistent and surprising about these two characters.

And I think it's really intriguing that even Katee had the idea that Tigh might be Kara's father! The fan sounds very surprised that Katee actually thought so, and so am I. I always thought it was a bit of a silly fan rumor. I apologize to those who believed it, even if apparently it didn't turn out to be true.

For James: How much did he watch the original show and base his Baltar on John Colicos' version?

James: I haven't seen it since I was eight. I didn't watch it, revisit it. I was just surprised um.. that they you know, that I would be up for Baltar, and I didn't want to play that role at all. That was very much in my mind from the very beginning. But I didn't mean to... I haven't seen it since I was a young kid.

[Something about Baltar sitting on a throne]

James: yeah. Uh... ? Do I want my own throne? No, thanks. Thank you so much for asking.(laughter)

It's interesting that he hasn't revisited it. I wonder if it's because he wanted his Baltar to be truly his own, or because, when you've seen something as a child, you are sometimes very disappointed when you finally rewatch it as an adult. I doubt the original show would be my cup of tea, from what I've heard, but I won't comment on it as I've never seen it.

To be continued in a few days!

Inside the Secrets of the Behind the Making of the Music of Battlestar Galactica Revealed

So, I have obtained the Bear McCreary mockumentary, full title in this post's title. It. Is. Brilliant. It's on Youtube, but might be taken down soon. Watch it now. James appears at about 8 minutes and on.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

I might have whined here about how little of it was on Youtube earlier, and how I craved to see the rest. I was a bit worried though. When you wait for something so long and build up expectations, it's often disappointing to see the whole thing, no matter how funny it is. But this time, the whole video was better than I had expected. It's so much funnier than the Youtube clip, which was already hilarious. Even the Gaius Baltar theme song is funnier when you see the whole thing. So now I'm glad I wasn't spoiled more than that. I cannot praise this thing enough. Funniest. Thing. Ever.

Bear McCreary himself blogged about it here. You can tell he had a blast filming the James bits!

So here's my transcript of the James part with commentary. Special thanks to M for all the awesome screenshots!

The basic premise of the video is that no one knows who Bear McCreary is. Throughout the "documentary", Bear tries to get invited into the BSG wrap party, with no success. Some writers and crew members are interviewed about the music, and there are many confused "there's no music on BSG" comments. The insanely long title shows up on screen one word at a time, to the rhythm of drums. There's also a nice parody of the "one year later" cut in the season two finale. It's all hilarious, but I will only transcribe the James bits.



James appears with his real name, but he's really playing a role here. Basically he plays Gaius Baltar - completely arrogant and rude, self-obsessed, childlike in a bad yet amusing way. And no, this isn't his real house either. While James pretends to be super rude, Bear plays the James part, being uber-nice and accommodating to his whims. I'm not sure how much of this was scripted and how much was improvised, but it's awesome. They have a great comedic timing together.

Also, I have never heard James swear this much. Just for the record: he says "fuck" 9 times and "shit" 6 times within ten minutes. Awesome.

Bear: (rings the doorbell) We're at James Callis' house, we're gonna talk to some of the cast and find out what...
James (through the door): Who is it?
Bear: James, it's Bear!
James: What?
Bear: It's Bear!
James: Who?
Bear: Uh, McC...
James (opens the door angrily, wearing sunglasses and a black bathrobe. Tries to control himself when he sees the camera.)


Bear: Bear! Bear McCreary! We, uh, we're doing the interview today about the music.
James (takes off sunglasses and stares): Music of what?!
Bear: Battlestar! (points to a Battlestar logo on James' chest)
James (looks at logo, then looks around annoyed) Umm...
Bear: We spoke on the phone about an hour ago?
James: (calm but threatening voice) How did you get my address? (forces a grin for the camera) Who gave you my address?

I must say, the captions make it look like a "serious" documentary, which makes me laugh even more. James really sounds threatening with "who gave you my address". He has this forced grin on that gradually fades off his face. I'd be scared to go in after that, but Bear's pretending to be a gleeful optimist here.

Cut to: sunny back yard, James' face as he looks incredibly bored. He's changed to his now famous suspenders outfit. Hee, suspenders! That certainly adds to the comedy.




Bear (setting up, walking around him): I'm actually quite a big fan myself.
James: (uninterested) Are you. How long is this gonna take?
Bear: Um, I'm not sure...
James (inaudible)
Bear: I really appreciate you taking a second to do this, James.
James (annoyed): Mmyeah.

Cut to: both sitting by the table. James tries to sound a lot more chipper and interested in Bear, but it comes off as fake. (Of course, he's only pretending to be uninterested, so uh.. this is gonna get really meta before I'm done with this transcript!)
James: OK, so it's Beer?
Bear: Bear.
James: (emphatically, to the camera) Bear. Bear. And you have something to do with the music of, mm, this show. You're involved in some...
Bear: I write the music of the...
James: YOU actually..?
Bear: I'm the guy behind the music, yeah!



James: Shit! (removes sun glasses to take a closer look)
Bear (nods proudly) Yeah!
James: Who'd have thunk it? You don't, uh, you don't look musical at all, do you? (chuckles) Isn't that funny. It's funny only because I actually, um, I think that that would be something I would be very good at.
Bear: I didn't know you played an instrument.
James (smoking): No, I don't play an instrument.
Bear: You must read music then.
James: Why would I bother with that shit?
Bear: What's your musical background?
James: I have no musical background. (leans closer) When you've got something inside of you, something...primitive, something... atavistic, your tubes are banging together, you've got something to give out, haven't you?



[cut]
James: I was in bed with Tricia, and I thought of this great theme that would be (looks at camera) just... a knockout...
Bear: Wait... A theme for Battlestar?


James: Fuck Battlestar! -Actually, why not Battlestar! Why not! When you... Why not Battlestar, because you've got another... (lights cigarette) ...six or seven episodes to do, and this is (looks at camera) killer, I mean you would love it! (gets up) No, listen, listen!
Bear: You know what, I... (grunts)
James: Stop, listen! It's gonna change your life! Come on! (walks inside)
Bear: Aghh...



"So it's Beer?" Why would it be Beer? :D Nice little touch there, showing how little the meeting means to him.

I heard "not Battlestar" but it's apparently "fuck Battlestar", which is a lot funnier and works well with "James"' attitude. Who cares about Battlestar, he's so much better than that show! Great touch.

I remember James saying before that if you told Gaius, "I was in a car accident", he would reply with, "Actually that happened to me..." He has to relate everything to himself, and James is clearly doing that here. Of course, he's the natural talent in composing, nevermind that he never did any of that. I think he's also mocking the idea that art is all about inspiration and no hard work or training is necessary. And of course, as soon as Bear asks if it's a theme for BSG, he takes it as an offer.

The casual "I was in bed with Tricia" kills me every time. I'm not sure which is funnier:
a) that they were supposedly in bed outside the show, or
b) that it was as Gaius and Six, but the "egomaniac James" thinks it was real for her.
Maybe b), coming to think of it.

He even smokes cockily here. As usual, I'm fascinated by his smoking, and it seems like a pack of red Marlboro there. That felt really cosmic and meaningful when I first saw this late at night.

Also: atavism. Thank you, professor James. I love that even as he plays a clueless arrogant ass, he still defaults to big words.



"nnngaaaius baaaltaaar..." He both looks and sounds like he's having indigestion. It's... :D

Cut to: Inside, Bear is playing chords on the piano, James is "singing".
James: OK so... (terrible-sounding falsetto) Gaaius Baaltaaar... and then something really strong.
Bear: Like..? (plays a strong chord)



James (screams like a madman): HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!! HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!!!!!!! (pumps his fist)


Bear (shocked): I...really don't think you can... say that on TV, James.
James (leans head on hands and looks pissed off): Motherfrakking shit, how about that, again. So start over here. (forces Bear's finger on a key) That's the one, that's the one, do that one.
Bear: Oh, OK. (plays a chord in major)
James: That's like, that's far too happy. I need it sad, tragic!
Bear (plays the same chord in minor)
James (looks at camera excitedly, points at the keys) That... that's it there! Whatever it is. The black notes... they're sad notes.
[cut]
James: (testing the keys) What's... Why are the low notes down here... What kind of a fucked up piano is this? The high ones... Well how are you ever gonna do anything like that?

Bear: James, look. The bottom line is, your theme is nice. I mean, your theme is very pretty, I don't mean to, I just, I just, I just don't think Ron would ever let[?] something like that in the show.
James: Ron loves it! I've already spoken to Ron!
Bear: You what..?
James: Ron is gonna put it in the show! Ron is gonna, Ron is definitely gonna put it in the show! If not this show, then another one of his shows when I change the lyrics! Cos I just made up these lyrics cos, you know, cos you're here, you know. But let's just try it one last...
Bear: It's gonna be...on the show?
James: Yeah. Yeah.

I think James has a childlike quality to him, and the "James" he plays here does as well. It's a different kind of childlikeness though. The real James is amazed at the world and curious about things. The fictionary James here thinks everything revolves around him and that he can do anything he sets his mind to, with minimal or no work at that. And just as soon as he comes up with a theme (and all by himself too!), Ron already loves it and is totally willing to put it on the show.



[cut]
James: Let me get my pitch, please?
Bear (plays the chord)
James: Stop messing around there!
Bear (stops)
James: (focuses hard) Thank you. (falsetto) Aaaa... OK.
Bear (plays the sad, tragic chords)
James: (falsetto) Gaaius Baalt..aar..
(shouts) HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHI... You're too late, your time's out...
Bear: Oh, alright.

James: Gaaius Baalt..aar.. HE'S THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIIITT!!


James and Bear (in unison):
Best president since Jimmy Carter,
Banged more blondes than JFK,
Well not that many since they're all the same!

´
"Best president since Jimmy Carter"

"Banged more blondes than JFK"

"They're all the saame!"

James (forces Bear's hand to another key) Saame.. saame... That one!! Whatever that one is. For fuck's sake!




Heee! I've seen this so many times now, and the song and James' facial expressions still crack me up. It seems like they used slightly different footage for the final version, and James' crazy expressions can be seen better here. The second time he sings "Gaaaius Baalt...aar", his voice falters a bit, as if he's about to laugh. I do wonder how they got thru this and how many takes it took! On the other hand, it could just be that his throat was tired from screaming!

In reality, James actually composes music and plays the piano a lot. So this is just two talented guys fooling around with the worst possible song ever. I find it hilarious that he would have a piano, but never have used it enough to know that the low notes are to the left. I can see why the distance between high and low notes would be a problem with a song like this - his voice jumps an octave lower within "Balt...aaaar".

Bear: You know what, actually I think that works pretty well.
James: (bored again) Getting somewhere, okay. That's uh...
Bear: And Ron has heard this already..?
James: Ron is in love with it! Ron actually listens to this to get himself to bed...
Bear: In that case, I...
James: ...and to motivate himself in the morning to go running.
Bear: I think we've got a hit.
James: We've got a hit in our hands. Great, well... (glances at watch) Uh...
Bear: Now if you don't mind, can we talk about my music for a second?
James (looks at the camera)



Cut to: James pushing Bear out the door.
Bear: Well, sure, but I also wanna say...
James (to the camera) You as well. Thank you.
Bear: ...on a personal note, what a big fan I am of your work, I really appreciate what you bring to the show...
James (rolling eyes, closing door): Yeah, yeah.
Bear:... and I look forward to seeing you at the wrap party, my friend!


James: (shocked) What, you're going to the wrap party?
Bear: Yeah!
James: (rolls eyes) Right. Uh, yeah, I may see you there.
Bear: Great...
James (slams door in his face)
Bear: Uh... (excited, to the camera) James Callis, everybody!!


Bear is still so starstruck after James treated him like crap. James really nails the "arrogant actor" thing here with the eyerolls and looking at Bear with such contempt. Basically he has two moods: grumpily bored and childishly excited (over his own genius). Brilliant.

In the next segment, James walks around with a handheld camera and tries to interview other cast members, who all pretend they never heard of Bear McCreary. In this part, he's himself again - he's friendly, he's got that smile in his voice that he always does in interviews, and is very polite and calm with people. It's sort of in contrast with the other part, but it doesn't disrupt the "reality" of the mockumentary that much. It's a different comedic role - James goes from being the funny one to the straight man.

First up is Jamie Bamber. Their names are confusingly similar, but I hope it's still readable.

James: What do you think of the music in the show?
Jamie: We don't really have any music, do we? We've got those drums..
James: No, there's like a soundtrack all the way.. all the way htru.
Jamie: It's like documentary style, we don't do score.
James: Bear McCreary.
Jamie: Um... Irish bear.. big Irish bear.. McCreary.
James: Um.. he's, he writes the music for the show.
Jamie: Music? Mu...
James: Yeah.
Jamie: Oh, the Bob Dylan thing.
[cut]
Jamie: So pretend like I met him..?
James: Like you really love him...
Jamie: So this is gonna be shown at the concert to all the six people that come?
James: Yeah, actually it's sold out, just so you know.
Jamie: Small venue?
[cut]


James: And here we go! Jamie, go!
Jamie: (awkwardly) Bear! Bear, Bear, Bear! Listen, congratulations on the concert. You rock! You rock! Love those drums. (waves) Hi! God, I can't, I just don't know what to say.
James: (with contempt) That is just fucking pathetic. That is like...
Jamie: Let me try again. Bear! Thank you for all your hard work on Battlestar. We love... you, we love this show, you make this show, uh...thank you Bear. How was that, did that work? Oh, breakfast, lovely. Thank you. God, I'm so hungry.
(camera pans to "Troy Scott, 3rd assistant director" - it's too dark to really see his face though.)
James: Hello.
Troy: Hi.
James: You good?
Troy: I'm awesome.
James: Okay.
Troy: What is this for?
James: Um, this is for Bear McCreary.
Troy: Who's that?
James: Yeah, exactly!

I'm not sure which one of the guys says that last line. Both are off camera and both are British, so... I can usually tell apart their voices, but I had trouble with it here. Edit: Both M and Nicole hear James, so I'll go with that.
The Jamie bit seemed awkward in the brief Youtube clip, but it actually makes sense in context - he's just naturalistically pretending to be awkward, which actually works well.

Next, a brief bit with Mary McDonnell.


Mary: What is his name, Bear?
James: His name is Bear, and he is gonna do a concert.
Mary: He's doing a concert?
James: Yeah, I just wanted you to give like a little message to him and say you know, 'great concert and have a great time' and...
Mary: Okay. I want to wish you a great.. concert to... (puts her hand in front of the camera) I'm sorry, what was his name?
James: Bear, his name's Bear, yeah.
Mary: Bear... (smiles charmingly) Bear! I... I just hope it goes well. Is that enough?

I love how everyone keeps forgetting his name, even if Bear should be easy enough to remember. Actually, rewatching this, I've come to wonder if James isn't playing a role here also - a well-meaning, but bumbling guy who has no idea how to interview his castmates.

Katee Sackhoff is having makeup done (apparently that tattoo in Starbuck's arm isn't a real tattoo, they seem to be painting it on). James can be seen in the mirror, holding a camera. She laughs and points at something, I'm not sure if it's the camera or James' hair (which is cutely scruffy on top).

James: Wanted to ask you about um.. the music in BSG.
Katee: (confused) Oh, the drums? The drums!
James: Well, the I mean...There's more going on than just um, the drums..
[cut]
James: You get into character listening to those drums...
Katee (looks confused)
James: Um... Basically, just lie. I mean, in that sense, I can cut out this...
[cut]


Katee: (smiling sweetly) I love Bear's music. He's great, his music is fantastic. He's been such an instrumental part of this show for five years that we couldn't... We couldn't do without him, I love him. (blows a kiss at the camera) I wish I was there.
James: That's beautiful, that is, that is beautiful. Thank you. Happy, happy birthday...
Katee: Thank you. It didn't look too much like I was lying on that one?
James: No no no, I mean listen, none of us have heard the music, none of us care.
Katee: Cos in all honesty, I thought it was just Eddie, like, beating on shit on set.

I think "Eddie beating on shit on set" is one of the funniest lines in this video. I do wonder about EJO, because he seems like such a character. I don't know if that line would work with anyone else. And no matter how many times I see this, I still crack up at "basically just lie, I can cut out this..." and the cut there. :D Like James, Katee's really good at this sort of naturalistic mockumentary style (see the first David Eick video blog).

There's another camera in this bit, so you briefly see James walking with the camera. Jamie is having makeup done now.

James: That was pretty good, but I mean I'm just gonna.. you know, that's kinda got a bit more ... that's real here.
Jamie: You know, it's fucking hard talking about shit that you don't know...
James: You're supposed to make it up! That's what we do as actors, you're just making up, isn't it! You know...
Katee: It's really putting people on the spot, asking everyone to do this!
James: Well, I mean, but you know...
Katee: No one knows who the fuck this guy is!
James: I know! But that's whatever... Listen, it's just a favor to me, you know who I am, don't you, for fuck's sake?
Katee (looks at camera with disdain)
Jamie (unenthusiastically) Yeah...


I love how they're pretending to not even really like him. It's like "yeah, we know who you are..." You can tell James has a great chemistry with both Jamie and Katee though.

Edward James Olmos - who I will refer to as "Eddie", because everybody else does and it's contageous - and Michael Hogan are standing around an empty stage. Hogan is smoking. They're not looking particularly busy.

James: Guys? Guys, hi! Hi! Um, Eddie, Michael, um... Uh, sorry to bother you, um.. I'm doing, um, a little...
Michael: What?
James: Bear McCreary...
Eddie: Excuse me, who? Who's that?
James: Bear.
Michael: Bear Curtis?
James: The music of Battlestar Galactica.
Eddie (laughing) There's no music on Battlestar Galactica! Enough of you, get out of here!
Michael: We don't need no frakking music!
(James lowers the camera)
James: (in a low voice) There's a guy called Bear on the show. There's a guy called Bear, he does the music for the show.
Eddie: There's a guy that does the mu.. (empathically) There's no music in the show.
James: No there is, Eddie, there is!
Michael: Can I get a toke of what you're on?
Eddie (laughs)
James: (laughs) Yeah, very good. Listen, no, listen, OK? What I mean to do... He's doing a concert, this guy, and..
Michael: Oooh, I've seen his picture on the album cover, Bear. He's that... bluegrass guy.
James: OK, he's doing a ...


Eddie. But the guy's name is not Bear. What is it spelled, B-E-A-R? Is that how you spell that, B-E-A-R?
James: All I need you to say is like, Bear's doing a concert, you love this guy, and...
Eddie: Hah! (laughs)
James: ...good luck with the concert, Bear.
Eddie: Hey Bear! Rrrrrr! All the best at you! Rrrrr!
Michael (laughs)
James: (laughs) Uh... yeah.
Eddie: If there's anybody seeing this, you've been taken for a ride!
[cut]
James: Genuinely, you've never heard the music on the show?
Eddie: I'm sorry man.
Michael: There's sound effects.
Eddie: There's sound effects.
Michael: Like kshhhhhh! [imitates shooting a gun]


Eddie: You know, once in a while there'll be a radio, there'll be source, but...
Michael: Yeah, yeah. There's radio, like...
James: No, cos there's like...
Eddie: Does he look like one?
James (laughs) You know he's...Yeah...
Eddie: He's like seven foot, rrrr! Like a grizzly?
Michael: Anyway, man, we were talking here so if you...
Eddie: We were doing stuff, alright? Get out of here!
James: Thanks. Sorry, man. Thanks. Thanks very much. Thanks.

Eddie's just hilarious here, especially when he does the bear impression. Also - "You've been taken for a ride"? Hee! I love how James is politely trying to keep this on topic, while the two guys keep going off on tangents and laughing, like they can't focus on such a simple thing.

The following bits are from the credits. These are obviously stuff they cut out. First, we see James and Bear at the piano again. This would be from the "can we talk about my music" part.

James (mockingly) Bear! Bear, go on Bear! Show us what you got... let's see, let's see...
Bear: You wanna hear some music? I'll play you some music!
James: Whatever.
Bear (plays the cylon baseship theme, sways to the rhythm) You hear that James? Yeah! This is music!
James (gives camera a hilarious look of utter disdain)


James: That is awful.
Bear: Awful?!
James: That is like dog poop being stuck down my ears. Don't put that on the show mate, nobody's gonna want to watch the show if you put it in...That's awful...
Bear: (incredulous) That's already in the show!
James: What?!
Bear: It's in your scenes! Have you ever watched the show?!
James: (puts hand on face) Oh god almighty, this is getting worse and worse by the minute. I could, whatever... I've worked with more musical cats!

Dog poop *dies* Actually, looking at the picture, he looks like he's about to laugh. And when he says "dog poop", it sounds a bit like that too. I wonder if they burst out laughing after he said the last line, and that's why there was a cut. I do think it works better the way it's cut - "can we talk about my music" - cut to James walking Bear to the door. But it's still fun to see this little bit here too, especially with James so proud of his poor taste in music. Incidentally, this theme is one of my very favorite pieces. I'm not sure if it's because I love Baltar and the cylons, or because it's just so beautiful and atmospheric.

There's another very brief clip in the end, where James points the camera at himself and says, "Yeah, I was gonna tell them that I was..." and then suddenly breaks into this incredibly cute giggle like he's being tickled: "ehehehehehe... no!" The camera shakes and you can see a few brief clips of him laughing. M was able to get these screenshots from those couple of seconds (Edited slightly by my girlfriend) :


You can see Michael there grabbing him. You can hear Eddie saying, "He's just frakking with you guys! There ain't no Bear! There's NO BEAR!"

Every time I watch this, I just get so happy. I was just incredibly happy all week because I've seen this. I'm so glad it's on the US DVD's (also booo to the Euro DVD's for not having it). I'd like to thank Bear, James and everyone else involved. This was just awesome.