SCI FI PI

Christopher Judge is a man who's quick with a laugh, and with a deep resonant voice, it's a booming one at that. Booming. He's not shy of the occasional considered opinion, either.

But for all his success, he is laid back, relaxed and personable, and holds no airs or graces - in fact, the most refreshing and surprising thing about him is his utter candour - as you'll see in Part Two of SCI FI PI's epic interview with the man who is Teal'c.

In this installment, he speaks about (among other things) race relations, Stargate:Continuum, the war in Iraq, Michael Shanks' uncanny impersonations, golf, and why he should have been fired from Stargate SG-1. Something for everyone, really.

Grab another cup of coffee, and read on.



Christopher Judge today. An actor reflects. Again.

TEAL'C AT HOME

When you're on hiatus, you get time to watch movies, eat food, have a drink...
Only if I'm willing to go without sleep to do it - I've got four kids! And a lovely fiancee, who puts up with stuff... she'll go to bed around twelve and I'll go out and carouse with the boys and come home as they're getting up.
(laughs).
But the level of trust that she gives me and the understanding of the manicness at which my brain works - for me to find her - it was a godsend.

Is she a science fiction buff?
She's more of a religious historian.

Obviously!
(laughs!)
She was a history and English lit major, and that's her thing, to research anything that's off the beaten path. I'm trying to get her, at least if it's not writing scripts, at least to get some stories down, so I can adapt them.

In the States you don't hear about the Elizabeth Bathorys of the world, for example. To do an historically accurate version - it's so - get out of here - come ON! And for it to be true!

Hollywood gets so caught up in the showiness - but some stories just stand on their own, you know. She just has a ton of stuff. I think I've convinced her to do Pope Joan.

SPORTS MOVIES

So what other projects are you working on besides Rage of Angels?
I've got some sports films I have to do when I get back to the States. One I have coming up is Joe Louis. About six years ago, Michael Greenberg, who is the brother of Ross Greenberg, President of HBO Sports and HBO Sport Films, attempted to get the rights to Joe Louis, and at the last minute Spike Lee swooped in and took the rights but didn't do anything with it, but now we can do it.

But first, we're going to do a movie about Hollywood Henderson. If you don't know about the heydey of the Dallas Cowboys, he was the first really flamboyant character of the NFL. He would put on mink coats on the sidelines - but he was also All Pro. The League did everything they could to black ball him. He was a heavy cocaine user, and took some of the shimmer off the Dallas Cowboys with his antics - he ended up going to jail for using drugs and having sex with underage girls - when he got out he was clean. So now what? So he basically went back to Houston Texas and started getting youth shelters up and running.

And then he hit the lottery. 32 million dollars. Basically, he gave 28 million back to impoverished youth. To this day he's a city councilman and has been accepted back by the NFL as a spokesman.

Wow.
Yeah. Great story. It just so happened I went to the University of Oregon with two of his brothers.

THE U.S. IS NOT A MELTING POT - IT'S A BOWL OF M&M'S

Obviously you'd be drawn naturally to football stories (Christopher was a star college footballer), was it something you were peppered with when you first started acting?
Back in the 80's, there really weren't that many sports movies, so if you were a black actor you were pretty much Thug #1 or Thug #3. Because Thug #2 had to be white! (laughs heartily).
You had a lot of black sitcoms at the time. But, it was never about leads. You had shows like LA Law, where they had a black guy on the show, but he was fifth or sixth banana, so there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity. Then Boyz In Tha Hood hit, and that kind of changed things around. But I've ever actually played a black guy - a guy who was supposed to be black, that was written for a black guy.

Sci Fi really then, in many ways, has changed the way people watch television.
Yeah. Associated Press did an article just over a year ago on me that I'm the most recognisable actor of colour in the world. So when a network says 'we don't know if we can get a window overseas', well, they can't use that argument with me! (laughs). So it's made that part of it a lot easier.

But still, if you look at the landscape of television generally, you still don't see that many people of colour, especially not on US shows. I mean - it's gotta change - at least be representative of whatever cultures are in the United States.

They say that America's a melting pot, but it seems to be more of a bowl of M&M's - the colours are all together, but they don't actually mix.
That's exactly right! Even Denzel, I think Will Smith got out of it quicker than Denzel, who's done great work for three decades. And it's still perceived that these guys are the the anomaly. You know - 'Will's a great guy - and he's not so black!' (laughs) It's still very interesting.

Golly - race, politics, religion...
Oh, I'll always steer it there!

SPEAKING WITH THE TROOPS IN IRAQ

It's kind of weird that a country with so many issues still sees itself capable of fixing other country's issues.
Yeah. Iraq. It's another Vietnam.

The scariest thing of course is the 'if you don't agree with the war, you're a traitor' thing that's been going on.
Yeah. A lot of that's died down now. I did a USO tour in the 'top secret' staging area in Qatar. I got to spend ten days with the soldiers and they knew from the beginning 'these people don't want us here - they don't need us here' - 'they know what they need'.

The soldiers knew then it wasn't going to go well. And here it's all come to pass. It's terrible. If someone says 'hey, we need your help, we want to be a democratic country' - fine! But to go to all these places where you're not wanted, when there are all these other places where all this money could go - it's shameful, it's really shameful. Hopefully, November will change that. But the choices aren't great.

Of course, if America were to pull out, lock, stock and barrel - well, civil war would seem to be the most likely scenario.
Well, you know, there seems to be plenty of that going around already. And if that's the natural progression of it, well, America did it some 200 odd years ago.

And, it wouldn't have been like that if America hadn't installed a madman in the first place! I wish it was 'we caused this, we've got to fix this' but it's much more insidious than this. 'Get the f*** out, let us work this out ourselves!' 'Let us continue being at war or let us come to our sense, but with you here, that's never going to happen!'



Teaming up with SG-1.


Did anyone in Canada ever hassle you for being American?
Oh god no! If you're a person of colour, they almost feel sorry for you for being an American! 'You're in a much better place now, eh!'
(laughs)
Canadians don't hate Americans, they hate the American Government. They love American people, they're very loving, but they're being f**d over by the American government - but they don't make that an individual thing. Canadians are very savvy about what roles governments play, they don't hate the citizens. It's never been about that.

GOOFING AROUND WITH MICHAEL SHANKS

Speaking of Canadians - tell us about Michael Shanks and his James Spader impersonations!
(laughs) Oh, I gotta tell you this one! The first read through. We had a really good day at testing for the pilot, but I'd never seen anyone's performance and so the first day at the first read-through, well, we'd gone out the night before, and I can't speak for them, but I hadn't slept much...
(laughs)
...so we'd been up there a few days and really bonded, and we were going out every night and really tearing it up, so at the read through, Tea'lc doesn't appear until 30 pages in, so I was kind of hiding behind my script, dozing (laughs) and I hear... James Spader.

And I'm like, 'what the f***, did they go get Spader?'. And I kind of sat up and I'm looking around kind of bleary-eyed and I'm still hearing James Spader. So now I'm looking past Shanks really, really looking for Spader!
(laughs)
And then it hit me - he was talking. It was so much like James Spader it was unbelievable! The job that he's done since then... wow - coz, I was like, 'I don't know how you're gonna get out of this, because there is only one James Spader' - but the job he's done of making Daniel Jackson his own over the years is quite commendable, because he had that thing down. It was fantastic.

Does he do any other impersonations?
He does a pretty good Shatner!
(laughs)
His favourite thing to do when we drink, he has this photographic memory when it comes to movies - he can quote ENTIRE movies and do all the actions. We would always watch Apocalypse Now, Se7en and Pulp Fiction. He'd get drunk and do Brando's monologues from Apocalypse Now - and he had 'em down pretty well, pretty well.

We'd get bored on the Stargate set and we'd reenact entire scenes!

So you'd be in full SG-1 get up and discussing foot massages?
"Yeah man, got my technique down and everything, so it don't even tickle!" (laughs) We would go on these entire half hour performances! His memory is just absolutely incredible.

STARGATE:CONTINUUM, UNIVERSE & FEATURE FILMS

Comes in handy as an actor. For you though at the beginning, not that much of an issue - although as the show went on, you had to remember more and more lines.
When Rick (Richard Dean Anderson) slowed his schedule down in Season 7, when Lou Gossett was on, and Teal'c became an orator, I would look at this stuff - 'this one scene is more than Teal'c talked in three seasons!'
(laughs).
It was weird, because that muscle had kind of atrophied, and it took me a while to restimulate it. It was tough for a while.

What was it like 'going back' to Continuum? Did you have to return to a 'bad guy' place?
Well the perception of Teal'c before SG-1 entered the scene was that he was a bad guy, but he had been talking to Bra'tac for years (about rebelling against the evil Goa'uld), but he had to keep the facade of the status quo in order to have these back room machinations going on - so in Continuum it was much the same thing - only Teal'c aligned himself with Ba'al, because Ba'al offered him a chance to free his people. So it's still the same endgame, just a different route to get there.

Obviously Ark of Truth is going gangbusters, and Continuum is going to be huge.
We just screened Continuum, and it blew me away. I went to Brad after the screening and said, 'ooh boy, this could have been a huge feature film!'.

I kind of think these two movies were an audition, if you will. I mean, let's face it, we started twelve years ago, so it was more to see if we were still a viable product, if we still had fan support, and I think they've pushed us a lot of the way to finally get to that next level - of doing feature films.

Now with Universe coming along, we're at to the point where Stargate is no longer the 'retarded cousin' of the Star Trek franchise, but stands on equal footing.
It wasn't ever that we were ever cowed by the Star Trek legacy, but we were always respectful of it. Finally as years went on, and some of the lustre was knocked off the franchise and we stopped being the 'red-headed step child'.
(laughs)
It's amazing how we're perceived now. But - one Star Trek movie will bring it all back!
(laughs)
But Continuum is not really shot for TV - everything is bigger. It's made to fit BIG screens. The Stargate feature films - it used to be something that was whispered about, but now I know it's being talked about.

Have you heard anything about Stargate: Universe?
No. No. They're being really really tight about it. And I play golf with them!
(laughs)
Brad and Rob have been playing it very close to the vest. But it is a go.

Do you watch Stargate at all?
I find I watch it now more and more. I never watched it during the run of the show. So there's episodes that I don't even remember shooting... 'hey that's pretty good!'. (laughs)
We were such a tight-knit family - even guest stars, you would never go more than a month without seeing someone, say at conventions, but now it's been, well, now I'm mostly in L.A. - it's more about the nostalgia of it. It's changed a bit for me.

ACTING AND ACTORS ON THE STARGATE SET

But as an actor, you are indeed itinerant, which is the curse of it.
Exactly! It reminds me of a story about Kurt Russell (the original Stargate film's Colonel Jack O'Neill), who was at some awards show, I don't know what it was, something like the Blockbuster Awards, where he was picking up a lifetime achievement award, and he wasn't taking it that seriously. So he told a story, about this man who shaped his life, and taught him everything about being a man, taught him how to behave, how to respect people, this whole story and he ends it "...and I haven't seen him in 30 years." and it was Charles Bronson!

So did anyone do that for you?
(laughs) No, they just say 'I haven't seen him, but I can still smell it!' (laughs)

We did have chat with Beau Bridges, who spoke how his dad taught him about respect.
Isn't Beau a lovely man? So lovely. He had difficulty at first, because he's the consummate professional, but he has a wicked sense of humour. He's an old school guy, whenever he's on set, it's about business, when we were on set, unfortunately, we didn't have that!
(laughs)
So when he first go there, our antics were really throwing him. So I got a talking to about reigning it in when Beau was on set. And I said 'yeah, I understand that, but I think he'll be okay, because he has this wicked sense of humour'.

So finally, Lou Gossett came on, and Lou and I had been friends probably for twenty years, but he and Beau had worked together and been friends since 1969, and really loved each other. But Lou's a cut up. Everyone's afraid of him when he comes on set - but I'm like 'oh, just watch'.

And Lou doesn't give a damn if action's called and he's telling a story - he's gonna finish it - but that's kind of how Rick set it up in the beginning. If you've got to fart or something, who cares if we're rolling?
(laughs)
And Lou was just on Beau unmercifully. And every time Beau would drop a line or something Lou would wisecrack about it for about two minutes. And you could see Beau just 'let it go', 'let it go'. And then he got to the point where he too was cutting up all the time - so it was really great, that he allowed us to have that side of him, that he felt at home enough to relax and have fun.

He says that when it comes to practical joking he didn't dare go up against you.
(laughs)



Christopher in Ark of Truth with Beau Bridges and an evil Ori priest.


Was Ben Browder very chatty about Australia?
Oh f***! Couldn't get him to shut up about it! (laughs) If you tell me one more f***ing Australian story!
(laughs harder)
He and Claudia are still so reverent about Farscape. And we'd be giving him a hard time - "So which one of these f***ers was real? You weren't the puppet, were you? (laughs)

GOLF

Golf's a big part of the Stargate world. So you play golf, Joe Flanigan does. Obviously Jason Momoa doesn't. Who else plays and who has the best handicap?
The best two are Brad Wright, who is between a 4 and a 6 handicap and Mark Davidson, who's one of our Set Decorators, who's around there as well, but Paul Mullie's closing in fast. Pretty much everyone golfs.

Although I did stop Shanks from playing golf. I said 'look, it's not hockey - if you want to get lessons, I'll pay for them. If you just want an excuse to go out drinking, we'll just go out drinking - don't bastardise this golf course with whatever the hell you're doing!'.
(laughs)
We all go on two to three golf trips a year. The one coming up will be our thirtieth trip, and we'll be in Phoenix, Arizona.

So what clubs do you use?
Taylormade.

Not a Callaway fan?
Nope. Never have been. Taylormade's always been very good to me.

You have the R7s?
Yeah.

It's quite the visual image - Teal'c at the tee.
I tried to get Rick interested, but nope.

When he came back, was it strange, or like a school reunion?
Oh, it was great! I mean I loved the old fella. Up until the final years I was with him in every episode, so I was probably around him more than anyone else. We got on famously. When I get back to LA we'll go out to dinner.

So the secret of a good golf game - don't have four kids?
Or - give all your kids a set of clubs for their first birthday! They all have clubs, they all know the rules of golf. Even my littlest who's three, she has her own set of pink clubs which she loves, and she wants to go and play - 'lets go play daddy', and I'm saying 'we have to go practice first because you're too little', and then she'll have a fit! (laughs)
So I do take her to the range quite a bit.

HOW TO ALMOST GET FIRED FROM STARGATE

So that's your down time when you're not carousing these days?
Well, I don't carouse too much anymore. Actually...

...they should have fired me!

Especially the first three years. When you shoot in LA, your call time is almost like an expiration date on milk - it's a suggestion. With the traffic, you can't ever tell if anyone's going to be on time. So that really gets ingrained in you. Not being a dick about it, but that's the reality and you'd be like oh, 'I was only five minutes late', 'only ten minutes late'.

But in Canada, it's not like that. And I just got more and more lax about it. And finally I showed up three hours late one day and I got a talking to, and then for the next five years I think I was late twice.

It was time for me to become more serious. If I want to be here, then I can't be out at night, screwing around and doing whatever, I need to be working, and that pretty much started opening all the doors.

So who gave you that talking to?
That day I got taken to the 'how come?' room.

The bad thing was that no one talked to me until lunchtime. None of the producers came down, the director really didn't say anything, Rick wouldn't talk to me. And I was as like 'oooh boy'.

So sure enough the Assistant Director comes up to me and says 'you've got to go to the 'how come?' room'.

So I sat there. And they didn't come in all together, they came in one at a time!
(laughs)
It was the longest lunch of my life!
(laughs)
Basically they said, 'we've been very lenient, but it's got to stop now - you've got to get to work on time'. So I took it to heart. It's more about not wanting to disappoint them than being on time for me though.

Still to this day, for me, time is not that relevant. But when it comes to other people expecting me... even writing - I can't have them say 'we want you to write a script, just turn it in whenever', because I'll never do it. They'll always give me a date to have it in by, and usually the closer the better. And I will ALWAYS turn it in early.

My mind just works like that. I don't know why.


Well, Christopher, it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so much for your time.
A pleasure for me too.


For Part One of this interview, please click here.