Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Interviews with Paula Malcomson and Esai Morales

With the Caprica DVD a month away, Esai Morales and Paula Malcomson both talked to the press recently about the show. SCI FI Wire interviewed Paula (a couple of quotes below):

What can you tell us about your character, Amanda?

Malcomson: Amanda! We'll have to find out. I'm just finding out, you know? In the first two hours ... I don't want to say too much. I don't want to give too much away about her, but she's a complicated woman. Most of my stuff [in the pilot] is with Eric Stoltz, who plays my husband [Daniel Graystone, creator of the Cylons]. He's great, and we'd worked together before, luckily [in the 1997 short film The Rocking Horse Winner]. So we knew each other, and playing husband and wife, I think that really helps

What's the timeline here? What have you shot so far, and when do you go back for more filming on Caprica?

Malcomson: We've only done the pilot, which is two hours long, and we shot that in May/June last year. So it's big, big gaps in between. The writers are writing right now, and I guess we're going to do 18 [more] episodes. So we go in July until however long that is, I suppose until February. We'll be cracking away at that. So I'm excited to get in there and see what they're doing. We don't know. [SCI FI Wire]

And io9 caught up with Esai:

When you found out you would be related to Admiral Adama did you practice the low voice at all?

I thought about that [laughs]. They told me I didn't have to imitate him. I was prepared to have at least half of my genetic material compared to him. It's a thing that I really evolve into... I don't want to start right then and there with the gravity. I start this character very light, before certain things happen in the very early parts of the pilot. The stress that makes him so intense isn't there [yet]. So I start him different, and by the end of the first season, you'll see something of where he gets that intensity from. But Edward [James Olmos] has put his own stamp on this character. I think it would [be bad to] limit myself to his wonderful work - I have to find characteristics that make sense, that he then picks up.

From the brief previews I've seen there are plenty of intense moments between you and Eric. What was it like filming these moments?

Believe me, the fireworks are there. And that's what I love about Ron, David and Remi, who created the show. [They] understand the special effects aren't that special, unless they come from a human context. For example if you see something blow up, it means nothing, unless you know what's in that explosions. The emotional effects are really what take this show off the ground.

Who has been your favorite character to go off on or argue with thus far?

I can't say. Really it's Eric and I, that's where the passion comes out. I love my brother Sasha Roiz [Sam Adama] - who technically looks nothing like me, so I guess mamma had a little affair. But we're brothers in spirit, and in heart. We share a heritage that he handles differently than I do. I want to go through the system while he skirts around the system.

Since you're on Caprica long before the big attack - the futuristic world that we never really get to see that much in BSG - what was your favorite futuristic gadget or machine that was used in Caprica that we should get excited about?

The first cylon. I was blown away. I don't want to give it away, but the ending is haunting. It's so funny because I finally saw the pilot and I was scared, because I'm afraid to watch my own work because all I see is where I missed my mark. But I was very impressed, the technology is amazing. I like the butler, the robot thing, that's cool. But it's so similar to how we're living today, it's so similar. It's eerily like today's world. I like the games [such as] Pyramid... Oddly enough, I saw something and I want to approach the writers about it, there's a game now called slam ball. It's basketball with three trampolines on the basket, that looked like somewhat to me like some sort of space-age game. I loved that. [io9.com]

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