411 Movie Interviews: SDCC '09 - Robert Carlyle and David Blue

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 08.05.2009

The stars of the new Stargate Universe series speak on their characters and the Comic Con experience.

In one of the many ritzy events during this year's San Diego Comic Con, MGM threw a party atop the roof of Hotel Solamar, where many of the cast and crew of the new SyFy original series, Stargate Universe, were in attendance.

Robert Carlyle

The veteran actor, Robert Carlyle from Scotland has done it all from The Full Monty to playing a Bond villain in The World Is Not Enough. Now Carlyle portrays Dr. Nicholas Rush, the enigmatic scientist of the Spaceship Destiny in Stargate Universe. Carlyle was nice enough to speak with me at the MGM/SGU party on the rooftop of Hotel Solamar on Thursday during Comic Con:


Robert Carlyle (Center) as Dr. Nicholas Rush in Stargate Universe.

Jeffrey "The Vile One" Harris: Can you tell me about your character in this new show at all?

Robert Carlyle: Yeah. I play a character called Dr. Rush. Dr. Rush is the chief scientist of what was the Icarus expedition. Dr. Rush knows what the 9th Cheveron is which is a big deal. So he dials the 9th Cheveron and they end up on the Spaceship Destiny. This is where the problems begin with everyone and Rush, you can't trust this guy. You do not know if he's -- don't trust the guy. Rush has his own agenda, no doubt about it, probably more than anybody else in the series.

TVO: Now is this story connected to the other Stargate shows at all, or is it fairly self-contained?

RC: I don't think so. I don't think it is because we've -- obviously you can't have Stargate Universe without the other two, but there is no connecting this and the others. This piece is more about the people on that are on that ship. Its got less to do with rubber-faced aliens. These guys are not prepared to go there. They don't know they are or what they're doing. The first 4 or 5 episodes are called "Air," "Fire," "Water," they don't have any of these things. That's this is about, do you know what I mean? Without fire and water, you ain't shaving, you ain't cutting your hair.

TVO: You came to Comic Con with longer hair and a bit of a shadow.

RC: Absolutely, absolutely. They little bit cut off in the back, very little. And that's what, myself and the cast to say, this is what we do. My research point for this is actually the moon landings. When these guys came back, they all had beards, all of them. They all had long hair and beards. That's interesting. I've never seen that before in a space show, a science fiction show. So that's what we are trying to do. So from that, you can maybe tell we're trying to keep hold of the reality as much as we possibly can.

TVO: So what do you think of all this? Do you come to Comic Con much?

RC: I've never been here before.

TVO: What do you think?

RC: *Laughs* It's crazy, crazy. But I tell you what, I love the ferocity of the fans. I love it.

TVO: I know. I'm going insane. Earlier I was about ready to eat my own arm off when I couldn't see James Cameron.

RC: *Laughs*

TVO: That's what Con does to you.

RC: Absolutely.

TVO: The cast on this show looks great, with a lot of great talented, veteran actors like Ming-Na, Christopher McDonald, and Lou Diamond Phillips. How do you like working with them?

RC: Fantastic, fantastic. I get along very well with Lou. We work very, very well together. I know he went to the jungle, *laughs* I don't know what happened there.

TVO: Did you guys work on a lot of locations and large sound stages for this show, and was that hard to do?

RC: No, I mean, the shooting in Vancouver is very much self-contained. We worked on four stages in fact. The main stage is the Destiny set which is -- I mean this is no lie at all, my only experience working on something that size was Bond. Its that big, that scale. I was surprised, very surprised, pleasantly surprised. The amount of money they spent on this is on the screen . . . the show is $2 million an episode, and that shows on the screen.

TVO: How many episodes have you shot so far?

RC: We shot 12. We go back after this hiatus, we shoot another 8. And they go on next year hopefully.

TVO: Over in your homeland, are you a fan of Doctor Who?

RC: I was offered Doctor Who.

TVO: Wow. Was this when it went to Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant?

RC: No that was after Eccleston and Tennant, that was after them. Tennant left and they offered it to me, and I said no, and it went to a young boy.

TVO: Was that hard for you to do?

RC: Not really, to be honest. I love Doctor Who, I grew up with it, but to me it wasn't the thing for me. I wasn't a Doctor Who.

TVO: You know David Tennant's here this weekend?

RC: Is he really?

TVO: They are doing a panel on Sunday.

RC: Is he really? I might see that. I may meet up with him then.

TVO: You should talk to him.

RC: We can compare notes.

TVO: If you're lost in space and you can only be lost with one person, who do you want that person to be?

RC: *Laughs* My wife.

TVO: That's very sweet. Thank you so much for your time sir.

RC: A pleasure speaking to you.

David Blue

Actor David Blue portrays the character of Cliff St. Paul in the hit show, Ugly Betty. Now Blue steps into the lead role in Stargate Universe as Eli Wallace who joins Dr. Nicholas Rush in space before everyone gets lost.


Actor David Blue (Right) as Eli Wallace.

Jeffrey "The Vile One" Harris: I am speaking with actor David Blue, star of the new series, Stargate Universe.

David Blue: You looked at the wall to see what the show was.

TVO: No I didn't . . .

DB: Nah, I'm just kidding.

TVO: Do you come to Comic Con much?

DB: I used to actually because I was a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan; so I used to go to many conventions but unfortunately living in LA, I was always too busy to come to Comic Con and I always wanted to and many of my friends would always make the trek out here and I was always working at the time. So oddly enough, this is a wonderful experience because its my first time actually attending.

TVO: So tell me about your character in the show.

DB: Eli, Eli Wallace, is a civilian who is kind of brought into the show trial by fire, for essentially to help out, to see the weirdness of everything and see them from new eyes.

TVO: You get to work with an amazingly talented acting ensemble for this cast that have done tons of movies and television --

DB: They're amazing.

TVO: How did you feel working with them?

DB: They were phenomenal. I have to say everyone in this cast, I know it sounds like BS, but everyone in this cast is incredibly talented, incredibly professional, incredibly good people. I know it sounds like crap, but they totally are.

TVO: So who is your love interest in the show?

DB: Oh, who said I had one? I don't know. Do I?

TVO: Can you tell me?

DB: I don't know what you are talking about. You have to watch, October 2 on SyFy.

TVO: How did you land your role?

DB: I auditioned like any an actor do . . . I auditioned. They brought me back. They brought me back again, and next thing you know, here I am.

TVO: Now you are coming to Comic Con to show off a new series, how does that feel?

DB: It's amazing, especially this party to night, to know that this many people care, and on top of that to know that these people are going to be around tomorrow for us to talk to, its the reason why -- its not the reason why we do it. The reason why we do it is the work. Its the benefit of it, because we get to experience people who love what we do.

TVO: Now its my understanding this show is fairly separate from the other Stargate shows. Is it separate or will there be any inter-mingling with the other shows?

DB: Well I mean there's definitely some inter-mingling in the stories. These people Brad [Wright], Robert [Cooper], and Joe [Mallozzi] created the mythology of Stargate. So of course there's going to be some inter-mingling in the stories, that you will see some of those familiar characters, but they very smartly figured out that they wanted to look at things from a different perspective. And you can see from the trailer tonight, they absolutely did. Because of that, its not a different world, which is why I love the fact that the old fans are going to join us in this journey. But because its a different perspective because its from the point of view of these characters that you can grow in love, and you can actually strap into these people knowing what you knew before and discover a whole new aspect of it that you weren't aware of when they were there before.

TVO: What's your favorite Stargate besides this one?

DB: You know its hard. I love SG1. Its very difficult. I'm actually friends with Claudia Black, so I'm not saying that because I am. I love David Hewlett -- I mean the people are amazing, the stories are amazing. Honestly, I watch them all, and I don't want to choose a favorite.

TVO: Yours is going to be better.

DB: Its not even that. Its different . . . there's no such thing as better because the stories they created led to our show, so for that I'm thankful.

Stargate Universe premieres October 2 on the SyFy Channel.