Sunday, February 07, 2010

Chevron 7.4 Guest Talks: The Circus Midget & The Black Belt

Huh, so that title sounds like the beginnings of a particularly bad joke, turns out though that guest talks can really unearth a few tid-bits of information which don't always make it out there in regular interviews, whether the guests want to or not, us fans can weedle out allsorts by just being inquisative and a little on the cheeky side.
Ryan Robbins & Sharon Taylor:



I think I'm right in saying that this was Sharon's first such event and so she shared her first con talk with the adorable Ryan Robbins, whom I'd met before at P2.  And kicking off the questions was one about the pairs' best memory of being on Stargate: Atlantis.  Sharon was pleased when her passion for kick boxing and martial arts was written into her character, which meant she got to kick some ass on the show.

Ryan talked about The Eye/The Storm episode which not only was an intense couple of episodes, but also his first as Radim.  Originally the character was to be killed off but for some reason Martin Wood decided Ryan didn't suck, pointed at some other random Genii extra and said 'kill that guy'.  Ryan did an adorable impression of the 'extra' carrying off a quizzical 'huh?' expression (fans of Glee should note that Cory Monteith was a Genii extra in these episodes and should perhaps see whether he was the one who kicked the bucket).



The concept of green screen came up, issues of acting in front of and how it's used.  Sanctuary is a prime example as it's only the actors on screen who haven't been computer generated on occasion...and sometimes even then you have to wonder.  Ryan mentioned that Chris Heyerdahl likes to mess with the green screen once pushing Ryan so that he 'fell' 3 stories to his death, something he found immensely amusing.

Both actors are starring in the web series (and possibly new network series if the rumours turn out to be true) Riese.  If you haven't checked it out yet it's a sort of Fantasy/Western...set in the woods near Vancouver natch.  It's got independent film style in which the actors have more input into the series and from what I've seen so far a great dark/ lone traveller style.



Sharon had first played the part of a Replicator Technician in an earlier episode of SG:A which led to the poor lass struggling with how to describe what a humanoid replicator was with subsequent confuzzlement and ice cream headaches all round, until a member of the audience interjected with an explanation.  In the episode the ship she was on blew up prompted the response 'Oh, well, I'm not coming back' from Sharon.  Then she got the control room part of Amelia Banks and an eleatedly said 'people in the control room don't die'..hehe, tell that to some of the 'red shirted' extras who expired in the area. She was aware of her appearance having an effect on fans of a certain other technician with Ryan exclaiming 'What did you do to Chuck!'.  They had shared the role during the latter seasons and Sharon thinks that 'Woolsey liked having a girl' Ryan commented that he'd 'never wants to see Charles in drag....he'd do it'  Ryan then turned to the camera recording events 'Hi Chuck, love you Chuck'

Ryan had actually tried out for the part of Mckay when the casting had been for a very different character....'I didn't get it' deadpanned Ryan (anyone familiar will know that they were looking for a strapping black guy called Igram....oh, what a different series that would've been.) The part of Radim was actually the Genii equivalent of McKay and had lots of exposition and scientific gumpf to spout of which he'd asked David 'How do you say all that stuff'.  And after getting a tad tongue tied with the technobabble during Sanctuary exclaimed 'You're killin' me' to which Amada Tapping pointed to herself and said '10 years Ryan...10 years'  When Robert Davi, bad boy Kolya.(boo...hiss) couldn't appear in a future episode, Radim was brought as leader...allowing for much more Ryan Robbins onscreen goodiness...yay.



Sharon's character subsequently hooked up with Ronan and she wishes there had been a season 6 to develop the relationship. On the balcony screen she thinks it had been a case of 'Ronan needs a woman...quick give him a woman'..to which Ryan responded with 'I think Conan needs a woman' (referring to the recent news that Jason Mamoa has just scored the part of Conan in a new movie) someone suggested that Ryan could've been Conan, which lead to various envisagements including 'Conan the midget' and 'Conan the Librarian'



On what role they would like to play Sharon said she'd never played a cop, which would be cool and Ryan went with exploring music by doing the Jeff Buckley story or....a superhero.

Sheesh, that was a much longer post than intended, but I'll be back soon with more convention shenanigans...

3 comments:

Firefly Mom said...

Aw, I love Ryan! I'm so glad that he has a much bigger part on Sanctuary than he did on SGA. And funny that you should mention The Eye/The Storm, as we just watched those eps tonight!

I haven't heard anything about Riese. Will definitely have to check that out.

Conan the Librarian *snort*

Can't wait for the next post!

Emma said...

Ryan is a very funny and cool guy and as Henry on Sanctuary he rocks. The Eye/Storm were actually the first eps of SGA I saw and was subsequently hooked.

Since the success of Sanctuary it'll be interesting to see what happens with Riese. Until recently it was available on youtube in 10 min eps, but it seems that as there's a bit of 'offical'interest these eps have disappeared...humpf.

Firefly Mom said...

Try this link: http://www.riesetheseries.com/html/ch1_ep1.html

Hopefully you can access it.