Right then, it's that time of year again. On the guest list, apart from your truly of course, were Tom McBeath, Garry Chalk, Peter Kelamis, Robin Dunne and Amanda Tapping. A group of civilized, straight laced, serious, non-hammy actors who would never resort to gutter humour to entertain the equally reserved and serious audience...bah, who am I kidding... it's a group of rabid geeks, put into a room with a bunch of slightly unhinged actors where hilarity, quirkiness and just a smidgen of inappropriate innuendo (and by smidgen I mean bucket full) occurs. And so I bring you Chevron 7.8:
First up, the amazing and beautiful Amanda Tapping. I have much admiration for this lady who was always great to watch as Sam Carter in the Stargate verse and has gone on to do some fantastic work with Sanctuary in a fast dwindling fantasy/Sci-Fi verse on TV.
Strike a pose
Asked about Sanctuary season 5 Amanda admitted she had asked creator and fellow producer Damian Kindler how to answer. It seems that someone somewhere is kicking their heels about financing the next series and that the studio in which it has been filmed has been sold (this however is not a huge issue as if you are up to date with Sanctuary some major changes at the end of the last series mean a bit of a reset anyway) there was an audible gasp in the audience when Amanda mentioned this and she took the very Magnus calming approach of "it's ok, it's ok" . She did go on to say that the series was "not dead yet" even if it is delayed or turned into a movie or mini series. She hinted that if anyone should want to start a campaign the "address could be found on the internet" and the "logos (of the financiers) could be seen during the end credits"....but we didn't hear that from Amanda so shh. I for one have really enjoyed the mythology which has been developing over the last few series and love the historical and literary tie-ins with a twist, it's just great escapism.
And of course the cameos are a lot of fun. Amanda commented that this wasn't the original plan when Sanctuary first started and in fact they had tried to distance themselves from bringing in other Stargate actors. But of course Canada is a "small community of actors" and they would often think of certain people who would be great to play certain roles. "Of course we blew up Michael (Shanks)" who now apparently tries to convince Amanda that his character somehow miraculously escaped the explosion so that he can come back.
On her onscreen relationship with Nicola Tesla (Jonathon Young) Amanda mentioned that Jonathon had developed a whole back story for their characters, but she couldn't possible tell us what happened to which some bright spark yelled "it's on the internet". She also commented about an ad-lib Jonathon made during a scene "Just like Venice" adding "...remember" which threw poor Amanda giving her a slightly puzzled and quizzical expression used in the final take.
Which I would presume looked not unlike this:
On her favourite Stargate moments she talked about having a "wow" moment the first time she walked onto the Stargate set, seeing the Gate itself was an "orchestral and exciting moment" and of course at the end of the series when the cast played out their final scenes, her and Chris Judge apparently shedding a few tears and turning to each other "wow, well that happened"
On Don S. Davis a "Beautiful human being, gracious, a complete goof, a total pro with a wicked sense of humour who is greatly missed"
Amanda has recently filmed a movie called Random Acts of Romance where she played a character who "drinks, swears is sleazy and has sex....with people" adding "not like me at all to be a boozy, swearing slut"
Her favourite Sam moments include: anything with Sam and her father, David DeLuise scenes, noting that it wasn't a relationship that a lot of fans liked (fyi anything which involves a DeLuise is okay with me) but they were a lot of fun, the alternate reality moments where she got to kiss Jack O'Neill because she got to kiss Richard Dean Anderson (at which point most of the female and probably many of the male members of the audience agreed whole heartedly), hanging out with Teryl and the episode Grace.
Someone asked Amanda about the famous 'Macgyver' outtake in which, early in the SG1 series, Amanda and RDA had been filming a scene on a freezing set, it had been a long shoot and and RDA had been sliding on the ice whilst trying to complete the shot. Amanda delivered the now infamous line "You're Macgyver, McGadget, McGimmick" looked at RDA and thought " I shouldn't have said that" continuing with " now you're McUseless". "Well if you're going to be a pop cultural icon you gotta take it right?" she reasoned perfectly. She added the she had bumped into RDA later at lunch nervously chiding " we're still friends, right?"
If you haven't seen the clip, and to be honest if you haven't you must've been under a rock for the last few years:
Asked who would win a fight between Freya and Sam over O'Neill, the person asking the question suggesting that the actress who played Freya has commented that it would be her "What are you kidding, what a load of poo, I'd snap her like a twig" at which point Amanda talks about watching scenes filmed between Freya and O'Neill noting that she was "growling like a feral dog" a crew member saying "Amanda, they're acting" Amanda snapping" yeah, but he's my acting partner" switching back to polite Amanda " next time you see her, tell her I said hello" said in the key of Fatal Attraction.
And, by gosh, that was the end of Amanda's talk and where I shall leave things for now, more pictures and fun to come.
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