She was Key Make-Up Artist for ten seasons and two DVD movies! Now Jan Newman joins Dial the Gate to discuss some special memories of being a part of an extraordinary team of people for over a decade. She will also take your LIVE questions!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:19 – Welcome and Episode Outline
00:48 – Opening Credits
01:18 – Call to Action
02:30 – Guest Introduction
03:55 – One of the Stargate Crews
06:36 – Formative Years
11:38 – Getting Into the Industry
18:39 – Production Schedule For SG-1
28:03 – Working with Amanda Tapping
32:32 – Working with Michael Shanks
36:43 – Christopher Judge on Jan Newman
38:59 – Don S. Davis
42:00 – Anyone Jan was Excited to Work With
48:55 – Working on “The Ark of Truth” and “Continuum”
50:32 – Challenges on Stargate
53:55 – Who was quickest to prepare?
56:49 – Birthdays On Set
1:01:10 – “Unending” (SG-1 10×20)
1:02:25 – Pushing Yourself to Achieve
1:04:33 – System Lord Makeup
1:07:52 – Thank You, Jan!
1:10:02 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:13:49 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Welcome to Episode 45 of Dial the Gate. My name is David Read. Thank you so much for joining. I hope your Saturday is wonderful. We just wrapped up with David Blue, and we’re going to be moving on to our next guest, key makeup artist Jan Newman, responsible for makeup for Stargate SG-1 from Seasons One to 10 and Ark of Truth and Continuum. Jan is one of the best people that you’ll find anywhere, and it’s a delight to sit down and talk with her. But before we bring her in, if you like Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click that like button. It really makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend, and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click that subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. This is key if you plan on watching live, and clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next several days on both the Dial the Gate and gateworld.net YouTube channels. So, before I bring Jan in, you can submit questions to the key makeup artist yourself at youtube.com/dialthegate. There’s an open chat right now and we have moderators standing by. So, big thanks to Summer, Ian, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, and Reese for making that happen. Linda “Gate Gabber” Furey, my right hand, she’s in there as well, and Jen Kirby. Those are the people who bring Dial the Gate to you. And without further ado, she’s been standing by so patiently, Ms. Jan Newman, key makeup artist for Stargate SG-1. Hello.

Jan Newman:
Thank you so much. I think I will correct you. It’s Mrs., not Ms.

David Read:
Oh, Mrs.? Thank you. I apologize.

Jan Newman:
No, I don’t know if he’s embarrassed by me saying that, but anyway, it’s all good. It’s OK.

David Read:
How are you, Jan? How are things?

Jan Newman:
I’m very well. Very, very good. It’s a pleasure to talk to you again, David.

David Read:
It’s so wonderful to have you on the show. I was so grateful that you agreed to come on, and the Stargate fan community is such an amazing thing, and it allows people of all different creeds to come together for a show that they love. And I never would have met you had it not been for Gatecon. So, I must give huge thanks to Richard and Friend and Allen and all the people at Gatecon for connecting us originally and then getting to know you through the various parties and events and dinners that we’ve had. It’s wonderful to have you back.

Jan Newman:
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be back with all the wonderful Stargate fans and people who are interested in what we do.

David Read:
What is it that you remember most fondly looking back on that huge journey that was Stargate with Rick and Michael and Amanda, and all the people that came together to make that happen? Fond memories, I’m trusting, are there in that past?

Jan Newman:
Extremely fond memories — I have to say, David, it was, and I’ve quoted this quite a few times… there’s nothing like having a job where you don’t mind getting up at 4 AM or 5 AM going to meet your family, because it really is just like going home in many, many ways, to the point where, I guess we cut our own personal families a little slack, but there we go. And it is really a pleasure. I think if I’ve got the question right, I think the most overwhelming thing for me was that very first episode, “Children of the Gods.” It was so huge. I had no idea how big it was going to be in terms of its storyline, but also just the whole logistics of all the tattoos, and all the caps, and all the Jaffa. All I could say is that thank goodness for all my wonderful makeup assistants and hairdressers and effects people, because it just would have gone straight over my head.

David Read:
Christina McQuarrie had a tremendous job.

Jan Newman:
Yes. And you know, it’s interesting, David, because when we’re doing this kind of a job, you don’t just do it by yourself. You read the script, you take your notes, you go to a concept meeting, and you meet everybody who is actually going to participate in what you do. And so, we have to make sure that we can share our ideas with them and backwards so that whatever starts in the art department, often it shows up loudly and also in the costume department, the hair department, and of course the makeup department follows through on a lot of these things. And I’m very, very grateful to have been part of this early nucleus of these teams.

David Read:
Tell us a little bit about you. Where are you from originally? What did you want to do with your life when you were younger? And how did that pave the way to what you ultimately did with Stargate?

Jan Newman:
It goes all the way back to Australia. I was born in Australia, in New South Wales, and I literally grew up in the bush, west of Sydney and the Blue Mountains. And it was just a wonderful childhood I had. I was the eighth of nine children. So, I had lots of brothers and sisters, playmates. We had a lot of playmates there but I’m very, very grateful. You talked about heroes. My family are my heroes because without them, I’m probably not the person I am now, ’cause I was extremely shy. I used to hide behind my mother’s skirts when people came by, so very, very scary. Because there were two nurses in my family, it seemed like either you become a teacher or a nurse. So, I went into nursing training for four years at the Sydney University Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and I graduated from there, but somewhere within that time period I wanted to be a flight attendant.

David Read:
Really?

Jan Newman:
Yeah, and in those days, or at least in Australia, if you didn’t have a nursing certificate or advanced first aid, they wouldn’t really look at you. So, when I applied for it, I went into nursing school when I was 17 and I graduated four years later, and at that point I was ready to go for an interview for the airlines, which I did. And I was very, very fortunate to get a job with Australian National Airways, Ansett Australia. And it was quite a small airline, just within Australia. But once again, family. I just fell into my big family at home, to family of flying, and flew all over Australia. And by the time I had spent three years finishing training, I decided I wanted to travel a little bit. And my girlfriend and I decided, “Oh, we’ll go to Canada.” Every Australian kid goes to England. And I said, “No.” And so, we did. My eldest brother, Don, trained for the Air Force in Canada at, I think Fort Macleod or down the south of Alberta. And so, I had read his early diaries, and it’s a really interesting place. So, my friend and I, Joy, decided we took a ship to Vancouver, and we thought we wanted to fly for Canadian Pacific. Didn’t quite happen like that, but I worked as a nurse at the Vancouver General Hospital for a little while and she worked for a doctor’s office and then we decided, “Ah, let’s just move on.” So, we went to Alberta. I took the train to Alberta and got off at Lake Louise. Beautiful place in the world. And little did I know that three weeks later I met this gorgeous man with blonde hair and blue eyes, and that’s it. So, we’ve been married for 56 years. So, there you go. But it was an amazing education to be in the Rockies with all of those wonderful tourists. But I didn’t have that luxury because I got a job in the coffee shop for the drivers and the cowboys. Anyway, from there on I ended up going back to Australia. And we got married there. And I’ve lived in Canada ever since. I go back to Australia every two years if I’m lucky. With this COVID virus.

David Read:
With everything going…

Jan Newman:
Not gonna happen in a hurry, but anyway.

David Read:
Gotta keep on praying that we’re gonna be able to return to normal at some point here soon.

Jan Newman:
Let’s hope. Let’s make sure this virus gets shot down by these …

David Read:
Vaccines.

Jan Newman:
… injections.

David Read:
Yep. Where does makeup enter the picture? And the film [and] television industry? Where is the road that leads you to MacGyver?

Jan Newman:
I don’t think it entered my mind — When we were flying, we used to have to have makeup lessons and deportment lessons and all that sort of what have you. But it wasn’t until my husband and I, he was a music teacher in high school, and we moved to Edmonton in Alberta, and I was very, very fortunate to meet a wonderful woman by the name of Jenny Dement who was the makeup artist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. But she was also the makeup artist in charge of the Edmonton Opera Company and musical theater. And of course, there was a lot of that in Alberta at that time, and I was feeling a little restless with nursing because they didn’t want anybody full time, just part time. I said, “OK, OK.” So, she offered me a chance to come and work with her in the opera doing some background performances and the chorus and what have you. And I got to the point where I really enjoyed it. She paid me to have fun. And she was just a wonderful, wonderful woman, and some of my friends to this day are still makeup artists or former makeup artists that we met in those days. So, I could honestly say that having gone from theater into television news and broadcasting into doing feature films in Alberta, it was just a giant leap. But I managed it. Got through it. I worked in a couple of movies in Alberta, and then when things were a little bit slow, I decided I would — Because Vancouver was really jumping with film at that time. Tell me to shut up if I’m talking too much.

David Read:
No, you keep on going. We’re going on the path I want to.

Jan Newman:
So, when I came to Vancouver and brought my resume, a couple of resumes, and went to a couple of places. Now, I’ll never forget, the first office I went to, the production manager looked at it and put it in the garbage. So, I thought, “Well, he doesn’t know who I am. He doesn’t know anything about me.” But I said, “OK, well that’s the answer. I’m not gonna be doing this.” But it happened to be the script supervisor was working on the show, and I had worked with her before in Alberta, so we just clicked and I stayed with her and got my next job which was… I’ve forgotten. Hitchhiker. I think the original Hitchhiker, the second season, and then I went on to 21 Jump Street.

David Read:
Now, were you assistant makeup in this, or were you makeup key?

Jan Newman:
No, I was key. We didn’t have a lot of makeup artists in British Columbia at that time, but certainly it’s grown since we’ve been fortunate to have schools and a lot of huge, huge productions coming through, and we all learn by doing and by helping others out. And you learn so much by just working with somebody. Just one little thing, you know, you might learn, sort of, what kind of eyelash adhesive to use. That sort of little thing. And then you just sort of bloom from there, and I am extraordinarily grateful for all the people I’ve trained with. Even though I was key, you don’t just run it by yourself. You have to have lots of people around you. I’m extremely grateful for the people who were in Vancouver working on films. Probably about eight or nine in the union here, and I didn’t have any hope in heck of getting into the union. But I just plodded along and I got a couple of feature films as assistants to other makeup artists, and I think I met Brad Wright when I was doing Hitchhiker. Hitchhiker was one of those low budget kind of things that you do. Was it Hitchhiker? Anyway, it was lots and lots of fun. And no, it wasn’t Hitchhiker. It was…

David Read:
That you were working with Brad on?

Jan Newman:
No, I think he was production, or producer. I’m Just trying to think who–

David Read:
He was doing Outer Limits for a long time.

Jan Newman:
Outer Limits. It was Outer Limits.

David Read:
Was it?

Jan Newman:
It was Outer Limits.

Jan Newman:
And that was wonderful, once more, meeting all kinds of people. We didn’t have much in that time of makeup effects people, and so I think it was Outer Limits where some of our people moved from straight makeup into makeup effects. And we have, to this day and age, some of the very, very best makeup effects people. I first met one of the best makeup effects people on a MacGyver that we aged Richard to 100 years old.

David Read:
In MacGyver?

Jan Newman:
On MacGyver.

David Read:
Really?

Jan Newman:
And I think Dave was from Los Angeles, but we had a lot of other people training with him. Because my assistant decided to go over there and help him, and that was good. Little things like that can open the door, and somebody comes in and things change. Having been very, very fortunate to have been able to open those doors and go in and do what I do, I couldn’t be happier. Now that I’m retired, I’m scared that I actually did what I should.

David Read:
Jan, you guys started on “Children of the Gods” 1996, ‘97. I mean, it’s like 22, 23, 24 years at this point. Did your schedule with Stargate remain fairly consistent throughout the 10-year run in terms of the time that you would get up and be there on set, getting the makeup trailer ready, bringing the actors in, getting through to the end of the day?

Jan Newman:
Compared to later on?

David Read:
To Season 10

Jan Newman:
Honestly, David, it was so overwhelming to work on those first few episodes because, I don’t know if people remember, but we had a lot of women with tattoos.

David Read:
Yes.

Jan Newman:
And that was something that I think, I would have to say, that I wasn’t expecting that. But when the costume art department decided that they would look like they all looked. We had these very pretty tattoos made for them, or mostly just almost like stencils. And it was overwhelming. I think at one point I had 10 makeup assistants doing just the women. And it was a great place to meet makeup artists, and also, I think for them to get more of a feel for a big company, with also big numbers of cast and background performers, and very, very lucky. Most of those people now I’d say, David, are very, very highly trained, very much in demand makeup artists. I have nothing to do with it. They came to work with us. But I think because I have a tendency to be rather shy, I think it was a bit overwhelming in many ways. But I was so grateful for their input into everything that I was doing as well. It’s not a one-man band here. It’s everybody. Everybody helps.

David Read:
Everybody has their part to play. Jan, you said that you would get to Bridge at about 4 AM or 5 AM?

Jan Newman:
Depends on what we were doing, what location we were at. But if we were at the Bridge Studio, I’d probably be there by 6 AM, set up the trailer for the first cast coming in.

David Read:
What did that entail?

Jan Newman:
Sorry?

David Read:
What did that entail?

David Read:
Setting up the trailer. So, you’re the first one into that trailer.

Jan Newman:
Well, there was the hairdresser and myself. Yes, we set it up. I always had a first assistant, sometimes a second assistant. And when we would go in, we’d set up, and I’d get all the makeup out and all the hair, and all that sort of thing, all set and ready, because the hair department had wigs to deal with, and we had tattoos to deal with. Different colored — for instance, Apophis was gold and Christopher was… you know, Judge…

David Read:
Chris was dipped in gold for a while too.

Jan Newman:
He was, until he became part of SG-1. And that was one of the things that I’ve often said was that between Richard not wanting to sit in the makeup chair for more than six minutes at a time with Christopher Judge, whose makeup actually took almost an hour every day, we would start with Christopher and some of the other actors, and then Richard would come in at the last minute after blocking, sit down, go to back to work. And I can’t say Richard has not changed in all the years I’ve known him. He’s just a big kid, truly. He was, to me, just like one of my kids, but lovingly, and he was a bit naughty too.

David Read:
You have to have a little fun. I want to get to the cast in a moment. What I’m trying to do is get a picture of what your typical day was like. So, Chris would take the longest, about an hour. Shooting would begin, what, at 9 AM?

Jan Newman:
They’d usually go for a rehearsal between 7 AM and 7:30 AM. And then come back while they’re getting the lighting set up and all the background things, we’d probably go to camera about 8 AM.

David Read:
8 AM. OK.

Jan Newman:
And then In our department, because we would start, I would say, probably an hour, an hour and a half before the rest of the crew. I mean, the grips and electrics would come in and do their thing as well. But I don’t know, it was just for me one of those things that had to be organized. We had to have a plan. And once they left the makeup trailer, we would probably go to breakfast for a quick meal. And always somebody would have to be on set when the actors were there. And so, that filled up the good part of our day. We had wonderful meals, so we were very lucky. I’d send one of my assistants to go and get my lunch so I could have time for lunch.

David Read:
Your catering was amazing. I remember it.

Jan Newman:
Yeah. Well, the thing was too that we, at most points, we only had a half-hour lunch break. If you didn’t get to it, that was it. But over the years, that changed because we could have breaks, break our assistants, so that they could come back at a different time. At any given time, or certainly on “Children of the Gods” in those early episodes of Stargate, I probably had maybe four or five makeup first assistants and second assistants. And often, because our trailers in those days were quite limited in the number of trailers we had, we would set up tents for them. And the background performers and the stunt people would probably often go to work with our assistants in the tents. And certainly, the background performers were almost always in tents. So, that was just the norm for that. And I think it probably still is to some degree. But getting back to my daily, I would probably clean up the actors, you’d put makeup on, but you always have to clean them up. So, I think probably we’d leave the set by 8:30 PM, 9 PM. And the cleanup was often very, very elaborate often because we’d have to take care of the tattoos and the caps — which was the bane of my existence, those caps.

David Read:
The Jaffa skullcaps?

Jan Newman:
Ugh. Anyway, I’m glad they took them off after a while. But we had to take care of them. So, all of the little bits and pieces we’d send them out the door at 7 AM had to come back and be prepared for the next day. I remember having a conversation with Andy Makita once, about one of our directors, that sometimes at the end of the day we’d get home, and I don’t know how I got home. If somebody had stopped me on the bridge going home and said, “Where are you going?” I’d say, “I don’t know.” Simply because it was so time-consuming and very exhausting in many ways. But, David, if you love what you do, you deal with it.

David Read:
It gives you the power that you need. And the people that you’re going there to play with. I mean, Richard Dean Anderson, like you said, big kid. He’s not at work. He’s having a great time.

Jan Newman:
He is.

David Read:
And he’s giving the lines, and he’s hitting his cues and everything else, but you know what? He’s not there to work. He’s there to play.

Jan Newman:
Can I say this at this point in time? It’s the 23rd of January, and it’s Ricky’s birthday. So, happy birthday, Ricky Dean. I love ya.

David Read:
Happy birthday, Rick. Absolutely. Tell us about Amanda.

Jan Newman:
What can I say? She’s my sister, my daughter, my aunt, everybody. I adore her, and actually, it’s interesting, David. I met her before I knew who she was.

David Read:
Really?

Jan Newman:
I had come from the production office, and I was going back to the makeup trailer and Amanda came, she had quite long hair, and she came by. I can’t remember what I said to her. She said, “Oh, I’ve gotta do makeup and hair.” And I told her who I was, and both of us started crying because I was so overwhelmed by meeting this woman who was so gentle and so relaxed, but she wasn’t relaxed, if you know what I mean. She, like most of us when we do something, there was indecision and tension. But honestly, by the time we got into the makeup trailer, and she’d had her hair done and we figured out what her makeup was, it was just being with a kid sister. She is probably one of the most amazing women, not just actors, I’ve ever met. I think as well, Amanda is not just an actor. Amanda is an honest human being, truly a humanitarian, I would say as well. We became even better friends when Olivia was born because…

David Read:
Right, Season Nine.

Jan Newman:
She used to bring Olivia into the makeup trailer and have Olivia right here, and I couldn’t have been happier. That beautiful baby. But getting back to who she was and who she is to me, she’s still a good friend. We still meet for tea once in a while. And especially with a couple of my other former assistants who we bonded completely, and I think Amanda would probably say the same. How can I say this? It’s not rare that you can meet people and bond with them to a degree, I bonded to Richard since the first day on MacGyver. That, for me, was easy. He’s such a charming person. And some of the other actors who came on to Stargate, I had worked with before. So, it was once again like going home. As far as Amanda’s concerned, I would simply say she’s 100% gold.

David Read:
She is the definition of a star.

Jan Newman:
There’s no question. No question.

David Read:
Absolutely. There is not a fake anything about that woman. She is completely genuine and everything that everyone says about her is true. And that’s so rare anymore. I mean, not so much now, it’s gotten a lot better with transparency, with social media and everything else in terms of, you know, there’s fewer shenanigans that you can get away with. But Amanda, from the first day I met her, she remembers who you are. That brain in that skull of hers keeps track of so much information, and everyone that I talk with says that she’s an exceptional director.

Jan Newman:
No, she should’ve been a Rhodes Scholar as well. Her IQ is way up there anyway, but that makes it even better because she’s so humble. With her ability to do what she does, and it’s not just doing the job and saying the words and everything, she’s juggling so much else into her day. Whether it’s at work or whether it’s at home or doing some of her charity work, she just gives it all. I don’t know how else to say it, but she’s a champion.

David Read:
Michael Shanks?

Jan Newman:
Michael Shanks, what can I say about Michael? He was sort of more the mischievous kid.

David Read:
He was pretty young when he started the show.

Jan Newman:
Very young. I think he was just out of university. Oh, he’d been at Stratford, I think, prior to him coming to Stargate. But a consummate actor, always knew his lines. There were times when the way that the script was written was a little bit shocking for him, and for us in terms of — I would have to say when he’s aged, or whatever he was in — I can’t remember the name —

David Read:
There was an episode where he played Ma’chello and it was actually Michael under all that makeup. He was like 100 years old.

Jan Newman:
It was. And I wish I could tell you who did the makeup, but I think it was probably Todd Masters. We had a lot of very youngish, in terms of years of experience, but very talented makeup effects people. But a lot of them who made the prosthetics for Richard and for — Oh, Dave DuPuis did that one, I remember, ’cause he was an Academy Award winner from Los Angeles, and he was just really lovely. But I think Todd and Chris Penny, who was one of my makeup assistants at one point. Rachel Griffin was makeup, Holland Miller, just so many wonderful young — I’d say very inquisitive about how they would approach their prosthetics and the designs. Of course, the art department [inaudible] always had their idea of what was going to be, and if it was a character of historic purposes, then they already had the work pretty much planned out for them. But I was always amazed at some of the Tok’ra and…

David Read:
All the different Goa’uld.

Jan Newman:
They were so lifelike, and you just didn’t want to walk up and pat them on the head and say, “How are you doing today?” But does that answer what my day was like?

David Read:
Yeah. You had all different kinds of things going on. That scene of Wormhole X-Treme where you’re standing by the green aliens with Willie Garson and Willie Garson says, “Oh, they went with green. OK.” And you had your cameo. That really was what the show was like, or a lot of what the show was like. In the background, you got people walking with the mannequins under their arm.

Jan Newman:
No, that’s interesting. I mean, it’s interesting that you should say that because many of us working on the show had walk-ons, you know, I was carrying a …

David Read:
Wedding party.

Jan Newman:
Exactly. That was beautiful. But not just big scenes but, sort of as you say, walking behind carrying somebody’s legs or somebody’s torso or a wig on somebody’s head that shouldn’t be there. Things that we did that were such a treasure and a pleasure… I just wish my memory was better. It’s short, but it’s not too bad.

David Read:
You remember the important people. I did another series, short-lived, called Dialing Home. And it was with Christopher Judge, and Christopher always had wonderful things to say about you and how patient you were with him because he could not be more of a prankster and you wanna talk about a kid in an adult’s body — I mean you could definitely say that for Rick but, for Chris tremendously as well. I have rarely met a person who loved life as much as that man does.

Jan Newman:
I first met him on MacGyver.

David Read:
He was a pup. He’d had a guest-starring role.

Jan Newman:
He was a football player, whatever it was. But anyway, he–

David Read:
He was really young.

Jan Newman:
I think he’s learning… MacGyver was teaching him something about levers and stuff like that, and he was a little bit of a naughty boy then. But he was very young. I used to smack him about the face.

David Read:
He told us about a time where he destroyed Teryl’s makeup job by wrapping her up in duct tape.

Jan Newman:
What? I don’t remember that. Teryl?

David Read:
You don’t?

Jan Newman:
No. I was probably out to lunch that day.

David Read:
They had been arguing about something, so she decided that she was going to ignore him. And he would talk to her and she’d be like, “What is that sound? Do you guys hear that really irritating noise?” So, he’d had enough where he duct taped her to a chair. And the makeup had to be reapplied.

Jan Newman:
I didn’t do Teryl’s makeup in those days. My assistant always did all the… I did her makeup a few times, but I think that Christopher and Dorothy did most of her makeups. But lovely, lovely lady. Lovely lady. Enjoyed …

David Read:
Absolutely genuine. Tell us about Don.

Jan Newman:
About?

David Read:
Don S. Davis.

Jan Newman:
He stole my heart. Once again, I’ll have to tell you that I’m not supposed to be talking about this. I met Don on MacGyver.

David Read:
Dana Elcar’s double.

Jan Newman:
It turns out that way.

David Read:
Yes.

Jan Newman:
I think I’ve probably mentioned this before, but we had to put Dana into the water, into a pond or something for whatever reason. We didn’t have time for a stunt double really, and to put a bald cap on a stunt double, and it happens that Don was one of the characters running through the bushes chasing everyone, And I said to the producers, “Could we just use Don as a photo double?”

David Read:
You did?

Jan Newman:
So, Don Davis became a stunt double a couple of times, mostly just for him. Don was a university graduate in art and science and all those things. He’s a very good actor and is a gentle soul. So, to see him on stage doing his artwork from theater and then seeing him running through the bushes following a hairy creature. He was so unlike what you would see the man on the stage or in a theater or in his office. Seeing him doing all this, he was very lovely.

David Read:
I miss him a lot. Hammond was… No one else was in contention for that role. They made that role for Don.

Jan Newman:
I think so. I agree. There were many lovely gentle people on our shows, but Don was charis–

David Read:
Charismatic.

Jan Newman:
Charismatic in a gentle sort of way. He’d just catch you up… that was Don. I found that every time I got to work with him was a real treasure.

David Read:
Was there anyone over the years of that show that you just pinched yourself that you got to work with? You had some heavy weights in that series. You had Mel Harris, you had Lou Gossett Junior, you had Beau Bridges.

Jan Newman:
I worked with Beau before, and with his father, Lloyd. So, If you wanna get out of theater for a minute: President Clinton.

David Read:
You’ve done makeup for President Clinton?

Jan Newman:
Yes.

David Read:
Really? All right.

Jan Newman:
Yes. And for Pierre Trudeau. A lot of big wigs. But yes, I think that Clinton was here during the G7.

David Read:
Summit.

Jan Newman:
And I think I was working with John Lennock then. Was it? Trying to think. Anyway. It came down to the fact that they needed a makeup artist because he’d been out jogging in the morning and he was very sunburnt or something.

David Read:
So, he needed some adjustments.

Jan Newman:
So, I went down there and escorted by the RCMP and a few other people to… Of all places, I got to make up the wonderful former president of the United States in the women’s washroom at the airport. At the Pan Pacific Hotel. A very tall man.

David Read:
I would suspect so.

Jan Newman:
Yes, but there… My goodness. I can’t name them all because there’s so many wonderful surprises. Richard Gere. I ended up doing Richard Gere’s makeup for a little while when his makeup artist had to go back to LA for Intersection. But talking about people on Stargate: you’re right. Lou Gossett Jr. and Dom DeLuise and–

David Read:
Oh, Dom. “Urgo.” My gosh. What an episode. And being directed by his son.

Jan Newman:
Do you know I first met Peter on 21 Jump Street?

David Read:
That would make sense. What a great human being.

Jan Newman:
A lovely man. Just a lovely man. And one of the things I remember about Peter is that he’s got a photographic memory.

David Read:
Oh, really?

Jan Newman:
And when we had to have a question about something through the art department and the producers for the tattoos… Because, as you know, there are 100 different tattoos for all these different planets. And I often would go to Peter and I’d say, “What do you think?” He would say, “Well, this, I think this. Let’s go to the art department.” And because they would do the designs for us. And if they weren’t a Goa’uld, we would just stencil them on. The art department would make those for us. And we had at one point, we got to the point we needed the Goa’uld ones, but we didn’t have time to do sculpting. And the wonderful art department came up with a handmade tattoo, but it was in layers. So, we would have to make them– My lovely Dorothy Deitchman had the job of laying the Goa’uld inside of all these pieces and then pulling it apart, and there was our tattoo. And that was one of the challenges by the time we’d sort of worked our way through all of those things.

David Read:
There was a lot of work to that. You just think, “Oh, it’s just a tattoo.” Well, no, not necessarily. Teal’c’s. Originally, it was in a number of different pieces, and then you created a whole disc to put on that.

Jan Newman:
That’s right. It’s interesting because Charles Porlier, who was in makeup effects at that time, did the first few. And it was turned over to me to make them. And they were in three pieces, and you just put them on and then fill in. And I don’t know how to talk to many people, but my lovely assistant Monica Hubert and I were going through– It was very early in Teal’c’s life when he was in SG-1, and we had a situation where we had to do it in a hurry. And Monica and I looked at the dailies and we both started laughing. And I said, “Do you see what I see?” And I went to Michael Greenberg and I said, “Well, do you got our pink slips ready, Michael?” “What are you talking about? What are you talking about?” “Did you see the dailies?”

David Read:
“Did you see what direction the snake was pointing?”

Jan Newman:
Oh, and I mean, we laughed, but thank goodness we kept our jobs, Monica and I. Just kept our jobs and kept going straight.

David Read:
There is one episode, I can’t think of the name of the episode, where the serpent’s upside down. But you know what? Hey, makes for a great story and a great Easter egg.

Jan Newman:
I think we talked about this at the convention, didn’t we? Somebody asked a question about Teal’c when you interviewed people.

David Read:
I’m sure. I wish I knew which one. It was one of the earlier episodes for sure. And I just remember watching, “Is that right?”

Jan Newman:
But it was the first time I think he was out of his Jaffa outfit and became part of military sort of–

David Read:
So, he was in kind of a military…

Jan Newman:
And I just shudder now seeing…

David Read:
Oh, it’s all good.

Jan Newman:
… that was the end of my career.

David Read:
I know. That was just the beginning of a long run.

Jan Newman:
But Michael was so forgiving Because when I worked with Michael on MacGyver, it was one of those treasures when he had these little kids around him. He was such a different man with babies.

David Read:
What was the pace like for Ark of Truth and Continuum? Was it a little bit more relaxed because the shoots were–

Jan Newman:
Yes, it certainly was, and I think that the timing of it worked better for us in terms of it was over a longer period of time, and there was a new aspect. One point we were on a ship in the Arctic, but I didn’t go to the Arctic. I had outgrown my insurance days by then. The fact that we had to recreate a lot of it back in the studio was great because we had the film footage to be able to adjust but that was much more relaxed, should I say. Well, Continuum. I don’t know. It was one of those scripts that I think that it took a lot more adjusting to than some of the others.

David Read:
I have some fan questions submitted.

Jan Newman:
Some which?

David Read:
Some questions submitted by fans.

Jan Newman:
I thought you said “band.” I know nothing about music.

David Read:
I haven’t been in band since fifth grade. I have some questions submitted by fans that I wanna share with you.

Jan Newman:
OK. Let’s hope I can answer them.

David Read:
A couple of them I can. Ezsparky, “Jan, what was one of the more challenging makeup jobs that you had to do? And what was it that made it challenging?”

Jan Newman:
In what way? Was it on stage or in film or Stargate?

David Read:
Let’s keep it focused on Stargate.

Jan Newman:
Of course. That’s what we are talking about. I’ve mentioned that Christopher’s makeup took a long time, and it was one of those makeups that was done by me and by Christopher, having done his research for what he thinks it should look like because he came as an alien, and we had to decide if it was being somewhat an Egyptian attachments to it. Also, Apophis was another one, but how would we create the Goa’uld from the [inaudible] into the makeup that since they were little had been developing. Do you know what I mean? Christopher had a lot to do with his look. The eye makeup and the Goa’uld was very much a joint plan with Christopher and also, and of course all the producers. You don’t do anything without producers and directors having their say and thank goodness for them because it gives you a bit of a better sense of direction. A lot of it’s already in the script, so you have to have a base–

David Read:
You can lean on that.

Jan Newman:
I would say that’s the answer to that question. The two of them, Apophis and Teal’c.

David Read:
Steffan Ames asked, “Is Teal’c’s loss of his Goa’uld makeup because he started using Tretonin?” So, in Season Six, he started getting those injections instead of having the symbiote in his belly and he started being more human-like because he wasn’t relying on his junior anymore to be a Jaffa.

Jan Newman:
From what I have gathered from when we did that, I really think that when he joined SG-1, he decided that the important part for him was… I’ve forgotten what they call it, but where he’d light the candles and-

David Read:
Kelno’reem. He would meditate.

Jan Newman:
Kelno’reem. He’d do his meditation, and I think the basis of it was that he didn’t need that ritual anymore to prepare himself. He still had his tattoo but didn’t need the continuity of his Goa’uld in his eyes and he just became a man, human, I mean as best you could be.

David Read:
As human as he could be. Jett Ison, “Who was the quickest to prepare?” I think you answered this, that Rick was in and out.

Jan Newman:
That’s a no-brainer. Eight minutes mostly for Richard; it depends on whether or not we got into a discussion about something. He always had an opinion about something, and a couple of things I always remember about Rick was that he definitely had an opinion, and I would say, “But never.” And he said, “There is no such thing as never.” I just remember that, but being an English major, and then his dad, with his upbringing, I think he probably was able to rewrite a lot of the scripts and stuff in his own head. Does it make sense?

David Read:
He would often change, I don’t know about often, but he was allowed to suggest dialogue. And sometimes on the set, it would come out. Like him with Tom McBeath and Ronny Cox. “I’m Starsky, this is Hutch.” That’s Rick, that wasn’t in the script.

Jan Newman:
He had such a wonderful imagination anyway, and you’d think that depending where we were shooting sometimes, he’d look around whether in the sand dunes or up in Red Rock Canyon, and something would jump out at him. And he’d add that to part of the, “Oh, can you see this?” Or, “What do you think about…” He probably wrote half the script himself.

David Read:
I think it benefited from his… Spastic is not the right word, but there was an inattentive quality to him that made Jack very childlike and, “Oh, that’s interesting.” “I’m gonna comment on that.”

Jan Newman:
Do you think ADHD had anything to do with it?

David Read:
You know him better than I do. I wasn’t gonna say anything.

Jan Newman:
No, not really. But distraction is very much part of Richard.

David Read:
He gave that to O’Neil. That was one of the things that they obviously shared.

Jan Newman:
He was distracted. And often it would come down to the fact that he’d just had a phone call from somewhere or something and he’d just… His mind was there, but he’d say his lines in almost always perfectly. But with a twist.

David Read:
Absolutely. Hey, give the editor something to chew on. They don’t have to use it. They can go with another take.

Jan Newman:
That’s true. That’s absolutely true.

David Read:
Peace Rider, “Hello Jan, I’m so glad you’re doing this interview ’cause I missed your Q&A at Gatecon.”

Jan Newman:
Who is this?

David Read:
Peace Rider is their handle. “Since it’s Rick’s birthday, what did you guys do on set for birthdays for the cast and crew?”

Jan Newman:
A cake. One of…

David Read:
Traditional.

Jan Newman:
One of Andrea’s cakes. Always she had the most amazing chef. I don’t know. Depends on what level of birthday it was, I think.

David Read:
If it was a ten-digit birthday or–

Jan Newman:
A big one.

David Read:
A bigger one.

Jan Newman:
It’s interesting. I don’t particularly remember any one special birthday. They might come to me in my dreams somewhere. Often it wasn’t just a birthday. It was a celebration of something, whether it was the camera department winning something…

David Read:
An award.

Jan Newman:
From their union or whatever. We were nominated for quite a few things over the years, and at one point somebody came into the catering truck and said to me, “Oh, congratulations.” And I said, “What congratulations?” “You’ve just been nominated for a Leo Award.” And I said, “No, I haven’t. I don’t know anything about it.” And I didn’t at that point, but we did win two Leos.

David Read:
Oh, wow.

Jan Newman:
And the cinema, the television film community, we won an award for. But I can’t think of any special occasions. Truly, I can’t.

David Read:
I know that there were barbecues. They would bring in the families, and there were those.

Jan Newman:
I’ll tell you something that does jump to mind now. Every Friday afternoon they’d have a hot dog day. And it was always a joke with me and John Smith because I don’t eat hot dogs. Not for the life of me would I eat a hot dog. I used to say to John, “Listen, why would you want to eat gristle and interior parts of a pig?” Or, “Why did that appeal to you?” And he said, [inaudible]. He loved munching down on them just to tick me off. That was John Smith. He’d always get us somewhere along the line. David, it was such a wonderful, comfortable… I have to use the word family because it was so comfortable. You could take a joke out on a producer or a director or an actor or someone, and they don’t hold it against you.

David Read:
Take it in stride.

Jan Newman:
They just, “OK, well, you’re feeling like that today. That’s OK.” But it always felt comfortable except for those couple of times it didn’t feel comfortable.

David Read:
Christopher said, in terms of giving jabs at others and keeping it light and friendly, he said to me, “If you had a thin skin, you didn’t last long on Stargate.”

Jan Newman:
No, you’re right.

David Read:
There was no kowtowing, and that’s really what made the show.

Jan Newman:
I was called into the principal’s office a couple times, but it was because I had something that I thought should’ve been done but wasn’t.

David Read:
Hey, ten years. Absolutely. Every now and then it’s not gonna be perfect.

Jan Newman:
And it’s as you say. It’s how you sort of wake up in the morning or get caught in traffic or what’s going on; that’s nature. It’s the way we are as human beings, and it can chop us up.

David Read:
I wanted to ask you, if you’re willing, about one of the more interesting times. “Unending,” the last episode of the show, everyone was aged– do you feel that that came off as well as it did? Do you think that was one of the…

Jan Newman:
It’s probably not one that I’ve seen. I just don’t remember that.

David Read:
OK. Everyone was stuck on board the ship and you aged them all 50 years.

Jan Newman:
Yes, yes. Well, there was a combined effort on everybody’s part, especially costumes and the art department. Hair, it wasn’t any one department that created those looks. We had to age people and put contact lenses in them and things like that for a good ending, I suppose. Is what you would say. I don’t know.

David Read:
For the last episode of the show, for sure. Akos wanted to know, “How often did you feel that you were pushed to your creative limits as a makeup artist? We’ll try this but I’m not sure how it’s gonna come out,” or something along those lines.

Jan Newman:
David, we were very, very fortunate in that we had enough time to prep some things. And we did have drawings from, well, the producers would give you the idea and the costume department would have their drawings, so it was a combined effort really, I would say, for most of those things. But I just can’t think of any one thing that caused problems if I couldn’t do something properly or creatively the way the producers wanted. I have to think on that. No, as I said, it’s a combined effort with every aspect of filmmaking, and if you really screwed up, if you really messed up, then you really messed up and it’s your fault. But we would always have previews too. If we were going to do something special, we would do it and bring the producers, or bring it to the producers, and say, “Is this how you thought of it?” Often, I’ve said before, you can do makeup, but if the costume doesn’t work with the makeup and the hairstyle doesn’t work with the makeup, or vice versa, you have to do your job and then combine it to make sure that the visual is very important to the producers and to the show, and to what it creates, what it gives to the show.

David Read:
What was that whole process like in the beginning with Christina McQuarrie and the others creating all those different looks for all those different System Lords? Teresa wanted to know. And the System Lords that came later, the different Goa’uld with all the different cultural backgrounds and everything else, how did you guys pull that off over the course of all of those episodes? Creating the different designs representing all the different cultures of the Earth?

Jan Newman:
When it comes to my department, I would have to say when it comes to the tattoos and the skull caps, we would talk to costumes. And the art department as to see their vision of it. I recall many times, Peter, as I said to you before, Peter DeLuise has a photographic memory. And he could tell you which tattoo was on which, whatever.

David Read:
Which belonged to which god.

Jan Newman:
And so without having a picture in front of you, he really was pretty amazing. And I would say, I can’t think of any one thing that would create… I really can’t think.

David Read:
It was a real collaboration.

Jan Newman:
Always. It always, from the get-go. When we started SG-1, we met many, many times for meetings, and each department, or hair and makeup would have their meeting and costumes would have theirs, and so there were times when I would go to the art department and say, “What, in your opinion, what is this look going to be? What color? What skin color,” or whatever. And they would always come up with some good ideas, and we’d take it to the next department, and that’s how Apophis came to be. To be honest with you.

David Read:
Peter Williams, the original bad guy for Stargate SG-1.

Jan Newman:
He sure was.

David Read:
What a cool guy.

Jan Newman:
And he was… And I’ve worked with him on many other things before. And his wicked sense of humor. One point, with his costume on and his makeup was finished, he said, “OK, I want you to–” What did he say? “I want to see the abs.” I had to put abs in. And they’ll never be seen. But he said, “Oh no, what happens if I flip,” and just painted abs on him.

David Read:
I think you see them in “Children of the Gods.”

Jan Newman:
No, that was Peter. I mean, he had them already, but I just had to enhance them, put in better lighting.

David Read:
Jan, this has been so wonderful to have you on, and I really appreciate you, and the fans appreciate you taking the time as well.

Jan Newman:
It’s been a real treasure, David. But I hope I’ve answered most of the questions for you in some sort of an understandable way.

David Read:
You have. Very cohesive.

Jan Newman:
I’ve been told that my accent hasn’t left Australia, but I don’t know.

David Read:
No, you were great.

Jan Newman:
But thank you for doing that. I love the fans asking questions. I think that that is something that really, really helps the machinery go when it comes to making productions. You can’t do these things without fans.

David Read:
If you don’t have an audience, you don’t have a show. And this audience has proven that it just won’t die.

Jan Newman:
Do you know what? I don’t know if it’ll ever come back, but it might come back in some other form, but I honestly don’t think you could recreate any of that any other way.

David Read:
Brad is working on a fourth one.

Jan Newman:
I heard that. I heard that, but only Brad and Coop and all those people can try.

David Read:
Absolutely. Joe and Paul, those are the ones that know how to do it. Thank you again.

Jan Newman:
I’m very grateful to them for their input into my department too, because there were times when I wake up in the morning and say, “I’ve got a new script. What am I gonna do?”

David Read:
Exactly. “How can I possibly hack at this in a different direction?”

Jan Newman:
And I’ve done that before, but how can I change it?”

David Read:
Exactly, it’s been such a pleasure having you.

Jan Newman:
Thank you. Thank you very much.

David Read:
All my best to you and to Art, and you guys take care of yourselves, and I’d love to have you back on in the future in some round-table discussions.

Jan Newman:
Namaste.

David Read:
Namaste. Be well, Jan.

Jan Newman:
Bye-bye. Thanks, David. Bye.

David Read:
Bye-bye now. Take care.

Jan Newman:
Bye-bye.

David Read:
Jan Newman, everyone. Key makeup artist on Stargate SG-1. Thank you so much for joining us this Sunday. It has been a wonderful three shows. Before we let you go, I have a cute piece of art that I found from NymphTale. “Recently began watching Stargate,” Nymphtale says, “And apparently it’s pretty fun. Really do love the characters, especially Teal’c, always looking fierce with his eyeliner and eyeshadow. Probably will upload another picture without the accessories. Bit too happy with how the face turned out to only show it with a hand in front of his whole cheek.” But this is really cute. Our sponsor, actually not a sponsor. I wanted to let everyone know that one of these communication stones is up for grabs for the month of January. Dial the Gate is giving away the replica communication stone on the right here. The left is a prop. So, to enter to win it, you need to use a desktop or laptop computer to visit dialthegate.com and submit trivia questions. Scroll down to submit trivia. Your trivia may be used in a future episode of Dial the Gate, either for our monthly trivia night or for a special guest to ask me in a round of trivia. There’s three slots for trivia, one easy, one medium, and one hard. You only need to fill in one, but you’re more than welcome to submit up to the three there. Please note the submission form does not currently work on mobile devices. Your trivia must be received before February the 1st, 2021. If you’re the lucky winner, I’ll be notifying you via your email right after the start of the new year to get your address. So, next week is gonna be pre-recorded shows. We’re gonna be bringing you an interview with director Andy Mikita, who is gonna be at 11 AM Pacific Time on the 31st, followed by production designer and art director James CD Robbins at 1 PM Pacific Time on the 31st. And then Gary Jones will be returning for an interview with a fan by the name of Colleen at 3 PM Pacific Time. Actually, Andy has already been recorded. James is gonna be recorded this coming Tuesday. If you do have any remaining questions for James CD Robbins, you can get them over to me before Monday night on [email protected], and I’ll be sure to get those questions answered to him. And next week, we are launching our merchandise store, so T-shirts, hoodies. We have some custom Stargate-themed artwork that we will be sharing with you, so big thanks to Linda “Gate Gabber” Furey for making that happen. Also big thanks to my moderators Summer, Ian, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, and Reece. You guys make the show happen. Linda, thank you for pinch-hitting today. Could not have pulled this off without you. And to Jen Kirby as well for helping with the social media front. That’s all I’ve got for you. I hope you enjoyed the shows. Thank you so much for sticking around and continuing to help Dial the Gate grow. If you did like the episode, be sure to like, share, subscribe. It really does increase the odds of this being shared with other members of the Stargate community on YouTube who have not yet found the series. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you again to Jan Newman. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I’ll see you on the other side.