William deVry, who played the Tok’ra operative Aldwyn in three seasons of SG-1, joins Dial the Gate to talk about his Stargate experience and take your questions LIVE!

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome everyone to Episode 326 of Dial the Gate. The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read, and I appreciate you tuning in for this live episode where we’re talking with William deVry. He’s gonna be joining me in just a few seconds. If you have questions and you are in the live chat on YouTube, I have a team of moderators standing by, ready to take those incoming questions and they will get them over to me. But let’s not keep him waiting any longer. William. Aldwin in Stargate SG-1. Three seasons, sir. Welcome to Dial the Gate. How are you, sir?

William deVry:
Very well, thank you. It was… Although it may have been three seasons, it felt very brief.

David Read:
Oh, for sure. Absolutely. And gone too soon but we will get there in a jiffy. How are things going in your world and what’s going on?

William deVry:
Well, our world is going through a little bit of a moment of contraction and rediscovery so we all have to be patient and know that this too shall pass. The auditions are frequent, which is good but everybody’s available right now in Hollywood and across the world. There’s just not enough work for everybody right now. So, the contraction is real. 60 percent. But everybody’s that’s available is a discount right now. I’ve got a partner and we’re starting to produce, starting to pitch shows, features. [We] got about four series, six features, one [Movie of the Week]. It’s an interesting time because I think when you start these new ventures, I think as human beings you have a tendency to go to what’s familiar, people that you know already. And I’m not… It’s still not clear to me if that’s the right choice. I think you have to go outside your comfort zone and go to people that in a million years you never thought you’d be sitting across the desk from or sitting across the coffee table from. And I think that’s where I’m kind of at right now, pitching with people that two months ago I never thought would even dream of being a possibility, much less a reality. So, here we are. It’s been an adjustment but I’m pretty proud of the way I’ve been able to take it in stride, and everything’s for a reason.

David Read:
Yeah, I believe that.

William deVry:
There’s a lot of us in this business who have really had really good runs. So, I’ve got nothing to complain about. It’s just [that] I’ve got more of a story to tell and for 35 years I was able to just get hired, job after job, so this is really the interesting part of my career that’s just a bit of adversity rather than slipping back into a comfort zone, I’m, like, “You know what? Let’s try to advance things and go somewhere where I didn’t think possible maybe last year, two years ago or three years, whatever it is.” Instead of slipping back into a familiar spot that I’ve been in, I think it’s, for me, I’ll be happier moving forwards and not backwards or staying still. So, it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve learned a lot and I’m just at a point where I’m just super happy about where things are leading.

David Read:
I’m glad to hear it. I remember having conversations two and three years back with the strikes and everything else, and I’m on the record on this channel, saying, “This industry is gonna be cut in half when this is all said and done.” I remember saying that. And here it is and it’s, like, “Oof.” And now with the geometric acceleration of AI, it’s, like, “Leave some room for the humans.”

William deVry:
Yeah, interesting. Five years. And that’s really not… That’s just one tiny slice of it. We’ve gone through a couple of reckonings even before COVID, and we’ve gone through some corrections in different ways, all of which I’m for. They’ve been difficult for me, personally, but I think overall, it will lead us to a better place. But I’ve had to make peace with a few things and then besides COVID and the strikes, the contractions, everybody’s scared right now. Nobody wants to put any money towards anything. I was reading an interesting article this morning about Nate Bargatze, how everything’s kind of niche. You need a genre. There’s not really much in the way of something for everybody like there used to be. And he gave a bunch of examples of movies that people go back to time and time again for decades that the whole family can watch. And that’s obviously more what he’s interested in, and we talk… He was talking about how Succession… Everybody, allegedly, has watched Succession but really, at the end of the day, only three million people watched Succession, even though they were loyalists. He’s, like, “Well, that’s not really a big number. I want more of the family… Where everybody sits in front of the TV. I’m looking for 10-12 million people because he believes that that can happen again. I think, we’re just… We’ve gone to such a degree that people don’t believe that families don’t watch TV together because they’re all on their phones. But he’s also saying, “But you’re giving them something to watch right now. You aren’t giving them something the whole family wants to watch.” It’s not that you can’t do it. It’s just that you’re not doing it. You don’t think it’s there when it is. I like where he’s coming from. I sort of enjoyed that. It was a big article today on Yahoo, and it was quite a long read for most people. They like things over in 30 seconds these days. But that was kind of his point, and I really enjoyed the article. The comedian. We’re talking about the comedian Nate Bargatze.

David Read:
No, he’s right here. I hope that he’s right. Oh, yeah.

William deVry:
What’s that?

David Read:
I hope that he’s right. 12 million, though. We’re awfully atomized. You can get probably 12 million families to sit in a room together. I just don’t know if they’ll all be watching.

William deVry:
Well, at this point, I think, he’s trying to build on, I guess, his Netflix special or whatever, brought in five million people. He just thinks that the audience is there if you do give them something. Listen, we all like to have a pie in the sky idea of what we’re capable of. But he was kind of harking back to… Walt Disney was originally u by a guy that really cared about the product, and cared about the families, and everything was so personal to him. And now, it’s just run by a guy that’s basically…

David Read:
Suits.

William deVry:
Yeah, money pinchers. I found a really inspiring article, actually, and when you think about it he’s really came along into his own two years ago. The article said that just two years ago, in October of ’23, when he became… When he did SNL, the number one search was, “Who is Nate Bargatze?”

David Read:
People can come up really fast. They can get taken out even quicker in terms of the cultural zeitgeist. But I think he’s right about things that the family can enjoy, and that’s where I first saw you, originally. This is a very important show to me. It was not always written the best, but I didn’t care. I loved it. And the first time I saw you was on SeaQuest. Tell me about that show. Anything that you remember?

William deVry:
I remember quite…

David Read:
And getting to know Peter DeLuise.

William deVry:
That’s where it all sort of started for me. People ask how’d you get involved in acting. I never thought I was gonna be an actor. In fact, I’m quite grateful that I started out going to college for business. And I thought I was gonna be a big real estate guy, which… When I became a young actor, I did some real estate as an investment tool for those dark days. I took some acting classes in Orlando, and didn’t really think much of it but… Did workshop. Agents approached me. Auditions started coming in and people may not realize but back in the early 90s, Florida was up and coming spot. We had, which is big today, tax breaks and stuff like that. So, SeaQuest DSV had its first year running in Los Angeles, and Orlando offered them a sweetheart deal. They went to Orlando and everybody came. And the pilot or, excuse me, season premiere of Season Two Brian Spicer directed, who went on to do a great many things, including Hawaii Five-O, and NCIS: Hawaii. In fact, he’s up and left LA, and just settled into Hawaii. [He] just loves it there. But anyway, everybody auditioned for this. Like, everybody. For SeaQuest DSV. It was a big thing. And casting director… I remember I got done with my audition and it was one of those times where, I haven’t really told this story before, but I was sitting in my apartment with my buddy and we both put ourselves on tape so we could watch it on the VHS 100 times. And I did it until I believed what I was watching, and I was no longer watching myself. I believed the character all of a sudden. There’s kind of a difference. People say, “Oh, do you like watching yourself?” Well, not particularly but hopefully, if I’m doing my job, I feel like I’m not really watching myself, if that makes sense. So, I did these VHS tapes and then we went in to read for the casting director, and we got done, and he sort of became really silent. I wish I could remember his name off the top of my head. It was a black gentleman but a credit to his casting directors, for sure. He kind of stared at me, like, “Man, I’ve been waiting all day for this kind of thing.” And so, they put me forward and Brian flew out, we had a callback, and it was a great experience reading with Brian Spicer. And then we got the call a couple of days later, and it was kind of a dream. You’re just… Basically your first job. We shot a lot of it in St. Petersburg and stayed at the hotel out there on St. Petersburg Beach, and at the studio in Orlando, at Universal. Peter and I became friendly, and he said… We were talking and I said… Well, I’m originally from Montreal and even though I’m American, my mother took me straight to the American consulate when I was born in Montreal because she’s American. And he said, “Well you should…” There’s a lot of stuff, of course, Peter had done. 21 Jump Street with Johnny Depp, up in Vancouver. So, he said, “You should go to Vancouver. I’ve got an agent up there.” Deb Dillistone, who is a big agent still to this day, for that matter. And he says, “Before I call Deb and let her know you’re coming,” he goes, “How do you say “Sorry?” And I said, “Sorry?” And he goes, “Oh, OK. You’re good to go,” fully expect[ing] me to say “Sorry.” So, now I bet… He’s been up there so long, I bet he says, “Sorry” now.

David Read:
Probably.

William deVry:
So, I wanted… I literally… We shot that in August. It premiered in October. By November 1st, I was gone. I left Florida. Again, just packed my Jeep and went to… I went to California first. I was there staying with a friend for about two weeks, and I just realized that man, this is just… You can get lost in this town quick. And it was hard to find somewhere to study, much less getting an agent.

David Read:
It can really subsume you out there if you don’t know what you’re doing.

William deVry:
And especially if you’re impressionable young actor and you don’t really know what you’re doing, and all of a sudden, the car that you drive or where you live, and the ZIP code becomes important to you more than the process. And so, I was, like, “Man, I better hightail it out of here.” I met some good people, small community in Vancouver back then. I arrived there November 26th of 1994, and got into some good classes, and at the time I was studying with Ivana Chubbuck, who taught Elisabeth Shue and Halle Berry and stuff like that, and it was a really good process for me just to really immerse myself and started working right away. My first gig up there was with, actually, on Poltergeist TV series. That was my first gig up there.

David Read:
Great show. I loved it. Another MGM property.

William deVry:
Great show. Molly Parker was my fiancée on the show, and it’s just… My first two gigs, you’re [a] young guy and you’re making $10-15,000, and I just thought, “God, why doesn’t everybody do this?” And then, of course, at some point reality comes in. So, Peter had gotten into directing and I went in to read for Stargate at one point. I did the audition, and I wasn’t happy and it was one of those moments where… It’s not something you should do all the time but I’m like… That wasn’t really my work. I was trying to impress somebody rather than do my work. So, I just went back… I asked, “Can I go…” I didn’t ask for permission, actually. I said, “I’m gonna go back in. I need to do that again.” And I said, “Peter, I gotta do that again. That wasn’t me. That wasn’t my work.” He goes, “Yeah, man. Go ahead.”

David Read:
What do you think happened? What do you think happened the first time through? What was rattling around in your head that it wasn’t an honest version of you?

William deVry:
I don’t specifically remember what was going through my head, but I do remember walking out of there going, “Oh, that wasn’t my best work.” Again, I think there’s a difference between going into a room and trying to impress somebody, “Oh, let me jump through the hoops that I think they want me to jump through.” And that can be really dangerous. And I think probably I fell in. That’s a huge trap. I think I might have fallen into that trap, and so when I walked out, I go, “Man, that wasn’t me. That was just a version of me trying to impress somebody.” And so, I went back in there and did what I wanted to do, which… Sometimes when you take risks… I don’t wanna say that was a risk, but it was a risk. I don’t wanna say my choices were risks but going back into the room and saying, instead of apologizing and just going, “I’m coming back in and I’m doing that again.” That’s a risk. I don’t necessarily recommend that for every audition. You’ve gotta be damn sure you know what you’re doing and not just trying to pretend like you can jump in the saddle and do this. But you’ve gotta know that you didn’t do your work and now you’re gonna show them your work. And if you’re sure of that, then yeah, take that risk. So, I did it and I got the job, and it led to a recurring role for a few years, and I remember… I don’t remember a ton to be honest. It was so long ago. But I remember being on sets. I remember versions of it. I remember working with Peter, and, of course, Michael and I… Shanks and I had auditioned for a lot of the same stuff. I auditioned for Daniel. We all did. But obviously he was perfect. I think at that time he could be cool, but he could be kind of nerdy. He was a good actor. He knew what he was doing, and he knew what it took to be that actor. And I think he played it differently than James Spader did in the movie. But he was perfect for it and it’s not very often where I’m envious of somebody for getting a job because I… When you look at their work and you go, “Yeah, man. That guy deserved it.” And Michael was one of those guys that deserved everything he got, which isn’t always the case. But it’s nice when you audition for something and you go, “I should have gotten that,” and then you see the guy that got it, you go, “Oh, all right. That’s cool.” So, that’s what I mean. I’m not very… I’m not an envious person because I can see… He worked his ass off and deserved it and deserved his run and probably wanted to do something different after eight years, left for a couple of years and came back. So, I get that. It’s a struggle. This business is a struggle, and you don’t wanna get too complacent, which is how I started this whole interview. Complacency. And I learned that from some actors that I worked with over the years. Don’t get complacence. Don’t get comfortable with the paycheck. Because you can easily get into a lifestyle that is… You’re addicted to the lifestyle and now you’re beholden to the lifestyle. You basically made a deal with the devil. You gotta be careful with that in this business.

David Read:
You have to be… Before you can start putting on the clothes of other characters, putting on their skin, it’s probably a good idea to be really comfortable in your own first. Sounds like it’s a lot of what you’re saying. And be sure of what it is that you want, and not what other people say that you should want.

William deVry:
I think that’s true. After I studied with Ivana, I moved on to Larry Moss, a good friend of mine. Well, he wasn’t a friend of mine at the time but big actress by the name of Laurie Holden, who probably many people know from The Walking Dead. She was Andrea the first three years in The Walking Dead. But she was my neighbor in Vancouver. But Laurie was very sort of, “I’m just tunnel vision as far as…” Even walking down the street. We didn’t have phones back then, but she was just sort of had her objective and anything to the left or right was not noticeable. But I knew who she was, and she’d done X-Files and all that stuff. She was a good actress. And one time I was on a plane, and we happened to be sitting together, and we talked the whole time, and the next day she dragged me into Larry Moss’s acting class that honestly saved my life, my career. But one of the things he said to your point was, “It’s hard to be an actor.” I come from a lot of trauma, if you will. I didn’t do drugs or drinking or I never became an addict or anything like that but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t suffer a lot of trauma as a young man, young boy. But he’s, like, “Look. You cannot move forward unless you take responsibility for this trauma.” And a lot of people don’t take responsibility because they wanna blame other people. It’s never their responsibility. But it’s a weird thing taking responsibility for trauma that you experienced as a child. And you don’t need to know how to take responsibility. You just need to be willing to take responsibility, know that we all carry shit in our life. And we all carry trauma. But the second we just accept that, basically take responsibility for the fact that you take responsibility for where you’re going, you don’t owe anybody anything and you need to do what you need to do, and you’re only gonna get as… You can’t be somebody else. You have to be yourself and you have to do what you want. Going into that room, you need to take responsibility, do what you want, and I think we spend, as actors, again, way too much time trying to figure out what they want. And I think… Perfect example of that is… I was watching a scene in one of Larry Moss’s classes, and these very talented actors who fell into that trap were doing a scene and he kind of stopped them after just a couple of minutes, which he usually doesn’t do, and he said, “Well, you’re basically off base of what the play’s about because…” They said, “Well yeah but Larry, we did it like a thousand different ways.” Because these guys that do Larry’s class, they’re in there… Before they put it up, they’re working for a good, solid 40 hours of doing this. They don’t just, like, “Oh, I’ll do this the night before and put it up tomorrow.”

David Read:
They’ve been really drilling it.

William deVry:
They’re drilling this model. So, they came in and he stopped them, which is totally so disheartening. But he stopped them, and he said, “Look, you’re off.” And they go, “Yeah, but Larry, we did it like a thousand different ways.” What was genius about him is that, “Yeah, you tried it a thousand different ways, but you didn’t pick one. You need to pick one.” And I remember one time, separately to me, because I worked with him quite a lot alone, he said, “It doesn’t matter if you make the right or wrong choice. In fact, the director doesn’t care if you make the wrong choice. He just wants to see you pick something. But if you commit to that one thing, that’s better than 99.9% of the people that walked into that room that day.” Because you picked something. May have been wrong but you picked it, and you committed to it. You put your shoulder into it. So, then the director might go, “God damn, that was totally wrong, but he committed to that.” And so, he goes… The director might go, “Do it this way.” And if you can do it that way, it’s because you did it a thousand ways but then you picked one and then you entered the room. That’s the difference.

David Read:
You can take directions, and you are moldable. They can work with you.

William deVry:
As long as it’s a collaborative effort and you commit to it… That doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna have disagreements with the director because the director’s job is to basically take what’s on the page and what the actors have to say and try to find a common ground between those two so he can tell a story. But I don’t think actors get as much credit as they probably should for being a part of that collaborative effort. But at the same time, good directors don’t get enough credit as well.

David Read:
I wanna go back to Aldwin. There are a couple of scenes that really stand out to me over the seasons. One of my favorite was… There was a great sequence of scenes between you and Christopher Judge in an episode called The Devil You Know. Aldwin is representing the Tok’ra High Council on this mission. “I’m in charge of this ship. This is our ship. This is Tok’ra ship. This is what we’re gonna do, and this is how we’re gonna do it.” And Teal’c is, like, “If I agree.” At one point, Aldwin’s, like, “OK. We need to get out of here. Otherwise, we’re all dead.” And Teal’c is, like, “No. We’re gonna go down and rescue them, and we’re gonna get them out of there.” And Teal’c locks him, basically in the trunk of the car, in the cargo hold of the cargo ship. Do you remember anything about that day?

William deVry:
I do remember those moments, and I remember Christopher well. He was quite the personality. Big personality. I hope he’s doing well. I haven’t seen him since I did that show. But I remember that show. Like I said, I don’t remember a lot of stuff but when you bring it up, I’m, like, “Oh yeah, of course I remember that.” But that was a lot of fun. That was a good budget for the show. You felt like you were in a story book environment. And I was a big fan of Star Wars. Not a Trekkie but I’m a Star Wars guy, so I loved all that kind of sci-fi stuff. I’m a real big fan of it so it was such a dream to be on the show. I wish it could have lasted longer, or Aldwin could have stuck around longer. But hey, I ended up getting my own baseball card out of it.

David Read:
Hey, there you go. And I’ve got one. They’re great. This character… The Tok’ra, they had a specific position to fill in the series, and a lot of the ones who were brought in were brought in to move the plot forward. It was a lot of exposition. There was a lot of technical stuff in there. Have you ever had an issue wrapping your head around the material or do you just jump in with both feet and go?

William deVry:
No. I think exposition, as you said… There’s your lead actors and then there’s some actors that are really brought in to do the exposition and move plots forward, fill in the gaps. And that’s a hard, hard job. I don’t love it, but I love the challenge. And daytime… I obviously have some daytime experience, and I think some of that exposition comes in at daytime. But again, it’s a trap because you have to live that story that you’re telling. You have to have experienced that and that’s where I think good storytellers come into play, and I think that’s the kind of guys that get hired. I know J.R. Bourne pretty well. I think… He’s a wonderful storyteller. I think that’s important is not just yadda yadda yadda [but] it’s believing the story that you’re telling that draws the audience in and makes us more interested in what’s gonna happen, and what has happened. It’s a gift to be able to do that stuff.

David Read:
There is a Season Five two-parter called Summit and Last Stand. The show has not been greenlit for Season Six on Sci-Fi yet. Showtime is nearing the end of its contract with MGM to produce SG-1. They had four seasons out of the gate and then a fifth very quickly, and a movie or some form of something like it is on the horizon for SG-1. And there’s a big bad coming. His name is Anubis. And what the writers are doing is, they’re knocking off all of our allies left and right so that we will ultimately stand alone to face him. And the Tok’ra are almost completely wiped out in the process. And this culminates in a conflict on the surface and under the caves of Revanna where we lose you. And I remember a very powerful scene. There’s a stunt where it’s kind of like one of those jumping stunts. Did you get to do that at all, or did you watch someone else do it for you? And what do you remember about your death?

William deVry:
I don’t remember much. I gotta be honest with you. I don’t… I generally try to do my own stunts, and I remember those well. So, I’m not sure if I did that one. I’m gonna say 80-90 percent I didn’t do my own stunt on that. Because I just don’t remember it. And I do remember vividly doing my own stunts. Let’s see. I think… I’m trying to remember if I did Nash Bridges before that but I remember specifically being disappointed that they wouldn’t allow me to get shot. I get shot at the end, and I land on a table, and I guess that was… Even though I felt like it was a small thing, being an athlete growing up, you wanna do your own stunt. Probably… I don’t even remember going in… It’s just I don’t remember going in that day. Did we see my face at all in that scene?

David Read:
He turns around and he falls and breaks his neck. He falls on the top of his spine and he turns around, the symbiote’s eyes glow, and you’re gone.

William deVry:
I’m gonna have to go back and revisit that and go, “Oh, man.” Sorry. I might jog a memory that I just…

David Read:
There was a hill. It was up a hill at one point. You guys were looking over into a pit where everyone’s landing. I thought I sent you the episodes. But it was a good death, and it was a sad death. But hey, at least you have a beginning, middle and end. How often on big shows like this…

William deVry:
Not everybody gets that. Maybe I was just pissed off that they were killing the character and I chose not to remember. Honestly, it’s so funny that I don’t remember that. It was one of those jobs where… You’re always sad where you love going to work and then it’s ending. It’s not a fun day. You can’t… You’re still gonna go in there. There’s nothing that drives me more crazy than actors that sort of refuse to play, give everybody a hard time because it’s their last day, in a bad mood all day. That’s not me. I’ll be a professional to the end. But I just don’t remember that scene at all.

David Read:
Wow. You’ve wiped it. No, I don’t blame you. Especially when you’re working with the likes of DeLuise, and all these amazing performers. There’s a piece of yourself that gets left behind in the work but at least you were there for it.

William deVry:
There was a gentleman on our show, on Stargate, that also did another show I did, that started on General Hospital, and he said to me… He goes… I asked him about something. He goes, “I don’t remember the 80s.” He’s joking but probably not. So, that for me the 80s or the 90s, even though I wasn’t doing drugs or anything like that, I’m, like, “Man, I can’t remember that far back.”

David Read:
Was that De Lancie? It’s some good stuff. I loved the character. I have a few fan questions for you if that’s OK? Lockwatcher, “You worked on a number of series, a number of different sets. Did Stargate compare at the higher end of some of the sets that you’ve worked on? Any challenges working within the set itself?” The Tok’ra sets are one of the coolest, with all of the painted bales of hay, and crystalline structures. There was some cool stuff there.

William deVry:
It was a great… The art direction there… The art… Set designer. Probably underrated, for sure. But it was a great set to work on. It was a great show to work on. Does it compare? It was one of the nicer venues. Again, in the 90s I feel like money… There was no object to it. Whatever you need to do to make this happen. I don’t know. Some time in the last six years, maybe seven years, where money became a big thing, prices doubled, and everything… Talking at ABC, they’re, like, “I don’t know. Everything went from 5 million dollars an episode to 12 million dollars an episode,” literally overnight somehow. I don’t know. COVID or supply chains or tariffs or strikes and wages. I have no idea but that’s part of the reason why we’ve gone from 22 episodes to 10. So, money at some point became an object. But it didn’t feel like that in the 90s, and Stargate definitely didn’t feel like that to me as a young actor. So, I appreciated that, and things have changed for sure since then.

David Read:
Raj Luthra, “Did you get to sneak away any souvenirs from Stargate?”

William deVry:
No, I’m not a big souvenir stealer.

David Read:
OK. Krisztian Unpronounceable. That’s literally their handle. “Stargate… At some point, Amazon is gonna do something with the property, and who’s to say if they’re gonna bring back some of the original people to work on it or not. But if you were tapped to return in some shape or form, not necessarily as the same role, would you be up for the challenge? Or is Stargate in the past?”

William deVry:
Well, yeah. I think now… Again, I’m not trying to say I’m some big star that can make my own choices anymore, but I think I’ve just kind of come to a comfortable place in my life. Separate from acting in my life that… I’d love to see what the challenge is. I’d certainly be openly looking at it. I remember Beauty and the Beast. I did Beauty and the Beast for WB. They killed me off but then they called the next… I don’t know. It was, like, three years later. They were, like, “Hey, what’s your availability?” It didn’t happen but still, they were obviously thinking about… I might sneeze here.

David Read:
You’re fine. It’s all right.

William deVry:
So, they were obviously thinking about bringing back the character.

David Read:
God bless you.

William deVry:
Even though the character… Thank you. Even though the character died. If Amazon was resurrecting the rights to Stargate and wanted to talk to me, which I doubt they would do… They wouldn’t… They would just probably make me audition and go, “Wait a second. This guy was on. He did this show. He can’t do this show now.” But if they were to go trying to find a link between the old and the new, and I was one of their links, I would absolutely be open to looking at what they were proposing or what they were thinking about. Absolutely.

David Read:
Awesome.

William deVry:
Again, there’s a history to it that will be everlasting. So, why wouldn’t you wanna go back and at least be open to that?

David Read:
At least take a look at the material. I wouldn’t wanna do it if it’s, like, I’m looking at this on the page… Even if it’s an amazing series, “I’ve done this before. Can I do… I’ve done exactly this before.” Whatever the material is. I would feel, as an artist…

William deVry:
I’d wanna be challenged. I wouldn’t wanna do it just to do it. But then of course, if Scorsese called and said, “Do you wanna do this just to do this,” I’d be, like, “Of course.” But there’s other situations where if I’m gonna do this, I wanna be super challenged and feel like I’m going toe to toe with someone who is the man. So, that’s just where I’m at now. I wanna go toe to toe with people. I don’t wanna spend my life doing the exposition.

David Read:
No, for sure. That makes a lot of sense. And I suppose if someone you were inspired by creatively said, “Hey, I’d like you to do this with me,” And you’d not worked with them before, that could be something new as well.

William deVry:
You mean if somebody that I hadn’t worked with before, who approached me with a project that I admired? Absolutely, yeah. And that’s, I think, where we all aspire to be, and it can feel… But to your point… You’ve gotta fight to get there. You’ve gotta… Again, it’s like being obsessed with something without letting it take over, take control of your life. How do you really achieve anything in life without a certain amount of obsession? You gotta have that but then, of course, you gotta be careful, you gotta be good with rejection. It’s gotta… For me, it feeds me. I’m like Michael Jordan that way. If you say no, it’s just… I kind of take it personally. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be going into the rooms with the best actors. I know that’s sounds a little bit douche in a way but you’ve gotta have that belief in yourself that you deserve to be in the room. Doesn’t make me mad but I take it personally.

David Read:
If it was unearned, I would agree. But if you know what’s in your secret sauce, and it’s good stuff, people enjoy it, I agree.

William deVry:
You want that opportunity and if you feel like you’ve worked hard enough, then you deserve that opportunity, then good for you. You should be going for that if that’s what you think. Nobody should discourage anybody from going anywhere if that’s what they wanna do, which unfortunately… Our world is full of discouraging people because that’s just they feel more comfortable discouraging people from going after their dreams.

David Read:
Last question for you from Lockwatcher. “Your great-grandfather founded DeVry University.” Is that correct?

William deVry:
That is correct, yes. My great… Congratulations for getting the “great” part.

David Read:
Great-grandfather. “And invented many things. Any interesting stories about your great-grandfather?”

William deVry:
Well, I never met him. My mother loved him. In fact, I think she was closer to her great-grandfather than she was to her own father. He was just a super interesting guy, and took an interest in people, and had an interest in humanity, and wanted to advance our society forward, and for the better. Sympathetic, empathetic. All the things that I think we sort of lack in the world today. And not… People talk about lack of empathy and sympathy in Hollywood. I’m, like, “That’s not true.” There’s a lot of great people in Hollywood. Just like there is in medical field or any other field, or teaching. There’s some teachers that change your life and then there’s others that are discredit to their profession. So, it’s the same thing in Hollywood. Thank you for the question, and yes, Herman deVry.

David Read:
Did legacy come up a lot in your house?

William deVry:
Pardon me?

David Read:
Did legacy come up a lot in your house? What you’re leaving behind?

William deVry:
No, it wasn’t a big thing. I think that can be dangerous. To a certain respect, it can be dangerous. It can… If you’re not… It’s a slippery slope to entitlement. Again, I think a lot of people fall into… It’s another dangerous trap, is entitlement. Just because I’ve made a living as an actor for 35 years, doesn’t mean anybody owes me for another job tomorrow. And again, that’s kind of where I’m at. You’ve gotta… At some point, everybody’s gonna hit a point in their career or their life where you’re just slamming your head against a wall. And it doesn’t matter how talented you are or how deserving you are, but you cannot ever go to the entitlement because first of all, it’s ugly and it’s gross, but it doesn’t push you forward. It keeps you somewhere in the back and in the past. And so, I think legacy is a dangerous word in a way.

David Read:
Well, I appreciate your insight. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, and…

William deVry:
This went by quick.

David Read:
I know. It tends to happen that way. It meant a lot to have you, and I really appreciate coming by and sharing some time with us.

William deVry:
David, you’re a standup guy. Thank you for keeping this show alive and it was a real nice surprise to hear from you via Peter DeLuise.

David Read:
Oh, Peter.

William deVry:
So, it was a good excuse to reach out to Peter again and touch base with him. So, thank you for that.

David Read:
Absolutely. There are few as good and true of hearts as he and his brothers.

William deVry:
There’s that. You are right. But again, it’s not just Hollywood. I think every industry in our universe, there’s always a few good people and he is definitely, definitely one of them, and thank you to him for really jumpstarting a path for me that still… The carpet’s still being rolled out today.

David Read:
We don’t get through this alone. When we come across people who help shape our careers or help shape us personally, you never really forget them. And he’s definitely one of them, for sure.

William deVry:
Very well said.

David Read:
I’m gonna wrap up… You finish your thought.

William deVry:
Yep. No, I’m good. That was what I said.

David Read:
I’m gonna wrap up the show on this side. Thank you again for stopping by.

William deVry:
David, thank you for having me. Any time.

David Read:
It’s a pleasure. William deVry. Aldwin in Stargate SG-1. This is Dial the Gate. My name is David Read. I appreciate you tuning in. We’ve got Season Five continuing to roll out over the next few weeks here. My tremendous thanks to my production team but before I get to them, Dial the Gate is brought to you every week, pretty much, with a wonderful help from the people behind the scenes. If you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, please click the Like button. It does make a difference with the show and will continue to help us grow our audience. And please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, Linda “GateGabber” Furey, my producers, thank you for making this show possible week after week, as well as my moderating team, Jeremy, Lockwatcher, Marsha, Raj, Antony, Kevin, you guys make the show possible as well. I’ve got, I think, the next coming week is already mapped out on dialthegate.com. There’s a couple of pre-recorder shows. We’re gonna start to sneak in there, including one with French Stargate fans, which was a hoot. Don’t shy away from it just because half of it is in French. It was fantastic and hilarious. So, I won’t say no more about that. My name is David Read. I appreciate you tuning in to Dial the Gate, and I will see you on the other side.