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stargÅtefan.com : fun stuff > conventions > gatecon 2000

We got to see Amanda Tapping and Jay Acovone (Kawalsky) again in another panel. We had just seen them at midnight the night before during the charity auction and now they popped in at 10 am. The charity auction had run out of time (going very late) so they walked in while we were finishing it up the next morning. You could see for an instant the look on their faces was, "Good heavens. This is still going on?" But it was also a sort of bonding moment too. Because it was obvious that this roomful of people and these actors had now spent pretty much every waking moment for the last 24 hours in each others company and so it was like seeing someone you knew now and so they quickly settled into the routine of playing auctioneers again and joking with us since they already had a good feel for the crowd and were comfortable.

One question that was asked of AT was, since this week was MS's directorial debut how the relationship with him in this new capacity was different compared to their normal one. She said, "I have a deep respect for him. Double Jeopardy is a very big episode with so much going on it. And he's handling it very well. Also, it's nice because in this role we still bounce ideas off of each other."

Next, there was a little girl who was about 8 or 9 in the audience dressed as Sam in BDU's both days. She was absolutely cute as a button and you could just see each of the actors melt when they heard this little child's voice ring out like a bell to ask her questions (which were very articulate for someone that age I might add). AT was no different when she asked which planet was Sam's favorite one to go to. "I can't remember the binary number for it right now but it would have to be Cassandra's planet" (I think it is to their credit that every single one of the actors put careful thought into seriously answering her questions.)

AT was next asked if she ever watches the episodes of Stargate. "I can't watch recent ones at all. I tend to start second guessing why I chose to do things that way. Anything past S2 is too close. I get freaked out. But I can watch the earlier ones. Although, sometimes I see them and think, "Who did my hair?" or "What *was* I thinking with those pink lips!" I'm too critical. Also, it's strange if I'm watching it with my family or my brothers."

Q-What was the difference between her portrayal of Jolinar and herself?

A-"Jolinar was a lot stiller. I breathed into a deeper place if that makes any sense at all."

Q-Was there ever a time on the set or in a show when you didn't feel comfortable?

A-"Yes, during Solitudes we took a second unit out (she names a small crew of a cameraman, director, safety guy, and herself) to a glacier north of Whistler. We were filming the scene where Sam climbs out of the snow and so they dropped me off and went up in a helicopter to get the shot. And I heard this really big cracking sound. (She mimes clicking on a radio). "Uh, what was that?" Our safety guy comes back with, 'Oh, just an avalanche. You're not in any danger' "Oh, is that all!" (Makes face of sheer terror as she mentioned hearing the rumbling and roar of it). "I have never been so frightened in my entire life. I knew it was stupid, if they could see I was safe I knew they wouldn't have said that otherwise, but still...an avalanche. Then I told myself, hey, how often am I going to get to do stuff like this. Yeah, but I was still very frightened."

A-"Yes, once when we were shooting Bloodlines when one of the bombs went off. Daniel and I were running through the woods. He was running ahead of me and there were supposed to be these bombs going off behind me as we were being shot at. Well, the coordinator came over and said, 'Okay, it's going to be one (him), two (you), and then three the bombs.' No problem. But seem's they forgot to tell the trigger guy that there was a cameraman running backwards in front of MS. And so he saw one person run by, then a second and set it off. (She makes stumbling dizzy gestures.) I was okay, but then they yelled at me for messing it up. Me! (She mimics someone with a deeper voice). 'You should never do a scene unless you feel you are absolutely safe.' How come we're (meaning the actors) the ones who always get blamed?!"

Someone then asked how did she feel about all this. About all the fans and the convention and stuff. She responded with a voice choked with emotion. "It's very humbling. You've all come so far the United States, England, Germany, Australia, Canada, just to meet us? I just feel so humbled by it all."

A-"I think it's amazing that you're out there on the net. I don't go up on it very much anymore myself because...well...my computer sucks! I think that there has been a natural progression in the relationship. However, I think that season 4 pushed the envelope too much. There *is* a definite attraction between them. But nothing will ever happen because of the military rank, not that we don't want it to. But nothing will happen not only because of the military thing, but also because of the dynamic of the team. There is a perfect balance right now. Anything thrown into it, between two of the characters, would change the dynamic too much."

A-"Actually it wouldn't so much be that I would want something for my character is that I would like to see SG-1 go to a world similar to Earth. But an Earth where every major countries has been ruled by a woman since the beginning. I would like to see if it made a difference. If there was more war or less. More Machiavellian politics or less. Etc."

A-"Actually there's nothing. I'm always so amazed by the thought and detail of your questions that there aren't any that I can think of."

A-"Actually it hasn't come up with any of you but sometimes in interviews, they'll ask when I'm going to have kids. That's the only one I find too personal. That I don't think they should be asking me." (There is a general murmur of agreement that the interviewers have crossed the line when they ask about her personal family plans.)

Jay jumps in at the end of this with the comment that there aren't any questions he thinks are too personal but that he's always amazed of the depth of knowledge the questions reveal. He says, people bring up stuff that even he's forgotten and he was there! "How did they find out about that?"

A-(AT laughs). "Oh, she would have done a whole lot more than kiss. No, seriously, that's my answer."

A-"Yes, I do but I'm currently about 6 months behind. Some of that is me and some of that is because it may take up to a month for them to ship it up here to us. It's faster if you send it straight to the Bridge Studios address."

A-Amanda got the softest look on her face and smiled so sweetly and said to her. "You. It's you." (You could really see how much it touched her to have this little girl looking up at her with such big eyes.)

Then there a few questions that were asked of her during the autograph lines that I thought warranted a note or two.

One person pointed out that it had been noticed that MS had a split lip immediately after the fight scene between her, MS and RDA in the episode BTS. The split lip continued to appear in two episodes afterwards giving me the impression this was a genuine injury and not something from the story. I was curious if she knew what happened? AT's face goes blank for a moment and she looks like she's trying to think back. The speaker then adds hesitantly, that she doesn't think it was part of any of the storylines and that it looked real. AT agrees. Says that it was definitely real, she does remember it, but that she didn't think he got it on the set. She says he must have come in with it like that. She shrugged and laughed, "We're always coming in with scratches and bruises. The whole lot of us. It happens so often. I just don't remember why on that one."

Someone stated that they felt that the relationship between Sam and Jack had maybe gone a bit too far this season from a military perspective as well as that the relationship seemed to be hurting the relationship with the team as family, pulling attention away from it. AT leaned forward and said, "Yes, I completely agree. I went straight to the writers complaining when I got the scripts about it. Our military advisors even hammered it to them."

And then one last question was asked that it had been noticed that since the days of Jolinar that AT tended to sit more on her feet and be in more casual posses and was that a case of "Jolinar's influence" or her being more comfortable with the role. She said it was a little of both. That she did feel more comfortable in the role now, but that she had also deliberately tried to inject some changes in Sam after Jolinar too.