 
GW: The fans have seen a lot of fantastic stunts on both series, ones that you've coordinated and ones you've performed yourself. Do you have a favorite?
DS: Favorite stunt on all of Stargate? No. It's hard to be definitive, because there's cool stuff like fire. Fire stuff is cool, because it's really dangerous. And a lot of wire stuff is cool, and we've had those hundred foot gas mortars exploding. Those are cool. So I just think all of it. I think big battle scenes where you've got air rams and ratchets and stuff blowing up and so on. Those are cool where a whole bunch of things are happening.
"All you're concentrating on is hitting your mark or not anticipating the punch or not having your squibs go off early so you look like an idiot."
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GW: Has there ever been a particular stunt that was planned that was either cancelled or postponed because there was no way to pull it off either practically or safely?
DS: No, because we'd know ahead of time. We'd have our concept meeting and production meeting. You can do anything. It's just whether you have the time and money to do it. We generally pulled everything off.
We did a car gag that was pretty cool, a nitrogen ram where we slide the car and you press a button and the ram propels the car and it was in this tiny little intersection out by Boundary Bay airport. And that was pretty cool, but it was so tight. On the day the E brake wasn't working. They never seem to work, these E brakes, and what you need to be working to lock up the tires and slide the car. So we were throwing sand and stuff down on it to make it actually slide, and it did slide and it was all cool, but those things are fun.
GW: How did you end up in front of the screen as Siler?
DS: There was just an audition and I remember, I went upstairs, and I started joking around. Brad was in there, and Martin Wood, and I thought, "If you're trying to be funny, they'll like you and give you the part." The problem was, the guy was a computer geek, not funny. And so Greenberg gave me hell. Michael Greenberg. He said, "You fool, you have a chance to get this part. What are you doing, you blew it." And I thought I did good because they were laughing. Well, it was a serious role, so he made me go back and do it again, and spew out the techno-jargon, and I got it.
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Large explosions like the ones from "Lost City" are a big reason why Dan loves the business. |
GW: Since the end of SG-1 you've also, as you said earlier today, taken on the role of Stunt Coordinator on Psych, on USA.
DS: Yep.
GW: How different is that environment? Are the stunts easier there because the show isn't necessarily so science fiction based?
DS: No, well, not easier. It's just that there's not as many of them. See, when it was Stargate and Psych, it was kind of difficult because I was driving across the bridge trying to go to meetings at both places and trying to be in ten thousand places at once. But Psych, although they don't have as many of them, when they do, they do some pretty cool gags. We did this civil war thing, we did this high fall, we've done car stuff and motorcycle stuff, and so overall, so to speak, it's still the same deal when we do stuff.
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