 
GW: So, Woolsey shows up in "The Seed." Is that your first episode?
RP: I appear briefly, and surprisingly, at the end of the first one. I just can't remember the title. "Search and Rescue." I'm terrible with titles. I'm good with stories. So at the end of "Search and Rescue" he shows up and, rather abruptly and unceremoniously, announces that someone's going to be taking over. "And, whoops! I think it's me!"
And then the next episode, "The Seed," is quite dramatic. There are very few humorous moments regarding my character, other than his initial abruptness and arrival ... and not being capable of making an inspirational speech. But beyond that, it's quite dramatic. And regarding my character, the arc is basically him realizing that under these circumstances, he cannot simply play by-the-book, which is what he came here thinking he could do.
GW: That's who he has always been.
RP: Exactly. He's always been asking other people, "Why did you not follow protocol?" And now he's realizing first-hand ...
GW: Maybe sometimes you have to violate the Prime Directive.
RP: I didn't think we had a Prime Directive here at MGM! Do we? I thought Paramount had the Prime Directive. [Laughter] What do you guys call it?
GW: It's copyrighted ...
RP: MGM needs another name for the Prime Directive. Like "The Main Thing." I think Woolsey, he knows what "The Main Thing" is. But, I think they very much wanted to see that "all bets are off" light go off in Woolsey's eyes. And that it wasn't going to be just simply opening up the manual and following the code.
GW: -- which you got a taste of last season in "The Seer," the episode where there's sort of this questioning of Carter's command.
RP: Exactly! And what's wonderful about the show that we're doing right now, "Ghost in The Machine," is that the shoe is on the other foot. And I basically take a page from her leadership, and try to create that myself. I try to call a bluff in the same way that she did. And this is not something that's referenced in the script -- but my character's background, I think I'm very much trying to emulate a moment that I witnessed very closely, and almost single-handedly destroyed.
Woolsey takes command of Atlantis in the alternate timeline of "The Last Man," echoing the shape of things to come. | |
In fact, looking back, that could very well be the moment that Woolsey decided he wanted to be a leader himself. Because he kind of admired the calm and the strength that she had in that moment and thought, "That's appealing. I wonder how I can create that in myself." I certainly didn't have that idea at the time, but looking back, that was a major moment that he witnessed there. And I think a major lesson learned.
So in this episode, "Ghost In The Machine," you'll see him really take his first big step toward his own leadership style. In the intervening one that we haven't spoken about yet -- there's one other one that we haven't talked about ...
GW: "Broken Ties."
RP: Yes. "Broken Ties" has a very good and dramatic A-story, but there's a lot of kind of little B-story moments of Woolsey getting used to life on a remote space base. So there are some comic moments regarding his period of adjustment. And also kind of the fact that he's a lonely guy who has been married to his work. And now he's here, and has all these people that he works with rather intensely, but he doesn't have any friends yet.
GW: Did he have friends on Earth, do you think?
RP: I think that's my secret. We find out in that episode that he's divorced. He was married for a number of years, had no children, was divorced and lost his Yorkie to his wife in the divorce settlement.
You have to remember, Joe Mallozzi is a huge dog lover, and I'm a big dog lover, too. So I imagine there will be some canine thematic elements!
GW: I want to find out that the Yorkie's name is Neelix! [Laughter]
RP: There you go! You'd have another lawsuit there.
GW: Back to the command thing real quick: Are you looking forward to the scene that will ultimately be written where Carter and Woolsey compare notes?
RP: Oh, yeah! I am looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to the possibility that there will be some new liaison from the I.O.A. who comes to out-bully me. In fact, I've already thought of a couple actors to recommend for the part. All of that "the shoe is on the other foot" stuff is going to be fun to play. Because I was not exactly tactful in my approach when I was evaluating someone.
It will be interesting to see what I expect, and how I react.
GW: Now that Woolsey is not an outsider when it comes to the Atlantis team, how do you approach interacting with each of these individual characters? I imagine that Woolsey interacting with Colonel Sheppard is totally different than Woolsey interacting with Ronon.
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" I do think there is kind of a looseness, a free-wheeling quality to Stargate that really appeals to me."
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RP: It's funny that you should mention Ronon, because I've already thought that because he's the "man of action" of the show -- the man of few words -- and I'm the man of many words and formally no action, that we are natural, I think, not only comic foils but dramatic foils for the show. So my goal and my hope is that they will ... I've already talked to Joe Mallozzi about finding ways to pair us together in certain situations. And I've even made a suggestion or two of my own.
So, we'll see. Because to me, the most fun thing for the audience member is to see a character that they've already grown to love, like Ronon, thrown up against somebody who he's not only not used to dealing with, but suddenly has to deal with. And it's always fun to do new character pairings in a long-running show. I had some ideas as to how we might react together, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Ideally, you develop unique relationships with all the different characters, but because we are such polar opposites, and because I so clearly annoy him, I think it's a natural pairing.
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