The Supreme High Councilor of the Tok’ra is here! We are thrilled to welcome Andrew Jackson to Dial the Gate to talk about his career and that pivotal Stargate SG-1 episode, “Divide and Conquer.”

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Timecodes
0:00:00 Splash Screen
0:00:16 Opening Credits
0:00:45 Welcome to Andrew Jackson!
0:02:18 Previous Musical Work
0:04:56 Discovering Performing
0:06:53 Working in Vancouver
0:08:37 Divide and Conquer Was Divisive
0:11:40 The Council Robes
0:13:42 Awareness of the Tok’ra
0:16:50 Environment Can Facilitate Character
0:21:09 When Actors Go Too Far
0:24:25 An Impactful Performance: Frankenstein
0:28:51 When You Don’t Trust Your Creative Peers
0:31:11 A Method Actress
0:36:01 Colin Cunningham and Andromeda
0:42:15 Tell the Story (Collaboratively)
0:43:14 Earth: Final Conflict
0:46:03 Working on Smallville
0:49:25 Family Passions & Bewitched
0:53:55 A Talent For Talent
0:54:52 Stargate VS Dark Matter
0:56:13 Be Sincere About Your Character
0:58:27 Acting is Truth
0:59:09 Returning to Stargate
1:01:24 A More Spiritual Character
1:03:46 Beautiful and Repugnant Alien Encounters
1:05:51 The First Jaridian in Earth: Final Conflict
1:10:08 Brave Choices VS Doing What’s Written
1:12:55 Thank You, Andrew!
1:13:51 Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:15:59 End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
Welcome everyone to Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I really appreciate this episode. Andrew Jackson, who portrayed Supreme High Chancellor Per’sus in a pivotal episode of Stargate SG-1 called “Divide and Conquer,” is here with us. And since this is a livestream, I am gonna be taking your questions for Andrew throughout the show via the YouTube live chat. So, if you’re watching through YouTube right now, go ahead and submit your questions to Andrew. And in the meantime, we’re gonna catch up. Mr. Andrew Jackson, Supreme High Chancellor Per’sus, sir, it is always a pleasure to receive the Tok’ra on this show, and I do appreciate you taking time. How are you?

Andrew Jackson:
My pleasure. Thank you so much, David, for bringing me on the show. I’m great. I’m keeping busy. I’m actually gonna be doing a stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Going to rehearsals this week. I decided at this late stage in life that I wanted to try my hand at singing, and I’d been singing for the last couple years. Auditioned on a whim and got cast as Caiaphas. That really nice priest who wanted Christ crucified is the character I’ll be portraying, hence the beard, which I’ll probably have to darken, ’cause right now I look a little more like Santa than Caiaphas.

David Read:
Much more jolly than you should be, for sure.

Andrew Jackson:
Precisely.

David Read:
Have you done a stage musical before?

Andrew Jackson:
When I was a teenager, I got involved in musical theater, but it wasn’t professional. And then I was hired on at Canada’s Wonderland as a singer-dancer, and that was the end of that. I decided that wasn’t for me. But it was during COVID that I really started to explore singing, and I actually sang at one of the GateCon conventions. The last one. And I did a concert, which was rather bold and brave on my part, and I continued to grow as a singer and absolutely love it. I haven’t given up acting. It’s another facet of one’s performance creativity.

David Read:
It’s a notch in your belt. We talk a lot in this show about being brave, and stepping outside of your comfort zone. And I think COVID, this show would not exist without COVID, to be perfectly frank, because actors were forced to learn how to use cameras and modify their surroundings. That gave us access to them through this show. But when you have an opportunity that presents itself, is it really gonna kill you to give it a shot? If you have the bandwidth. ‘Cause some of us don’t always… you can’t do everything. But that’s good for you. That’s great.

Andrew Jackson:
Thank you. As you said, it’s important to be brave. I think as actors, though, and really anybody who’s in the creative field, bravery is a very important part of all of this. We learn a lot from our failures, and I think it’s important to embrace those things and move ahead. “OK, what did I do wrong? Let’s know what to explore next time, how to improve and grow.”

David Read:
Failure is so important a teacher. There is so much to learn by trying. And as I’m sure you would be able to tell us in your career, just because you haven’t succeeded in something in a particular go-around doesn’t mean you haven’t rubbed elbows with people who may become a part of your future later on. We’re all connected in various ways, and the visibility alone may give people ideas to say, “Huh, I might wanna do this. And you know what? Let me see if the person who made me also think of this might be interested in getting onboard the moving train.” So, all kinds of things like that happen all the time. We gotta make good ripples when we…

Andrew Jackson:
We do.

David Read:
… go out there in the world.

Andrew Jackson:
We need to inspire others. Shine your light and keep inspiring others to…

David Read:
That’s it.

Andrew Jackson:
… to do the same.

David Read:
How old were you when you realized that this was something that you wanted to do with your life? I’m not talking singing and dancing. I’m talking performing.

Andrew Jackson:
Acting?

David Read:
Yeah.

Andrew Jackson:
I gather I told my mom when I was seven. I pointed at the TV and said, “I’m gonna be doing that.” At one point, I thought I was gonna be a visual artist, but it was really when I did the role of the old pickpocket in Oliver in a high-school production, and I, this 15-year-old kid, they blackened out some of my teeth. In fact, I spoke to the teacher who did the makeup and the crepe beard and everything, and he said, “I glued it on your face, and you transformed.” And he said, “It was kinda disturbing.” He said, “Because this 15-year-old boy became this scary, weird old man.” And he said, “You loved it. You looked in the mirror and you loved it.” He said, “It was really quite alarming.” And people at the time said, “Hey, you’re a natural at this. You should consider pursuing this.” But it was a bit like saying I’m gonna be an astronaut, and I was foolish enough and naive enough to think, “I think maybe I could make a living out of this crazy career.” But no regrets. I followed my heart and did what I wanted to do.

David Read:
And it’s not the only thing that you have to do.

Andrew Jackson:
No.

David Read:
It’s important to have things in your life that give you joy, professionally, if you can. Even if it’s here and there. Doesn’t have to be one thing. But that’s interesting. So, you receded into the character when the makeup went on.

Andrew Jackson:
Apparently.

David Read:
Wow. There are some actors who just disappear into their performances. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are the two that always come to my mind. Unless you know that they’re in the production, often I can’t see them until…

Andrew Jackson:
Wonderful.

David Read:
… midway through something, and it’s like, “Oh my God, where do they go?” It’s just their demeanor changes and everything. So, was “Divide and Conquer” your first Stargate audition? Or had you approached for roles before? In the Stargate universe.

Andrew Jackson:
I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, it was my first. At the time, I had been living in Toronto thinking I wanted to make my way to LA and Vancouver was something I wanted to explore. I absolutely love Vancouver. I think it’s stunning. And I ultimately lived there for six and a half years. But I went there with the intent of hopefully booking some episodics, and I booked two that worked. I shot a day on Beggars and Choosers, then on Stargate, back on Beggars and Choosers and back on Stargate again. And I remember being wildly intimidated when I walked on set and saw these extraordinary designs. The studio was absolutely massive. And costuming was really impressive. I mean, having worked at the Stratford Festival where costuming and design are an integral part of every production, I was wildly impressed with the work that they were doing. I came on set, everything was moving fairly quickly, the producers were very nice, I was intimidated. But I was younger. I wasn’t one that was gonna come forward and sit down and have a conversation. And typically Canadian, I was embarrassed and shy about seeming too forward in that regard. And I remember walking on set and one of the first things they had me do was walk through the gate.

David Read:
Whoa, wow. Oh, man.

Andrew Jackson:
Which was beautiful. And it didn’t require a lot of imagination, because these sets are so beautifully built and designed.

David Read:
So, your SGC stuff was first, and then the Tok’ra set stuff was second.

Andrew Jackson:
Exactly.

David Read:
Oh, man.

Andrew Jackson:
That was my introduction.

David Read:
Wow. This episode… I don’t know how much you know about this episode in connection to the rest of the mythology. But for the first several years of the series, the first five or six seasons, this episode was considered the most divisive among all of the shows that they had put out. It’s the first time where we lose a regular guest star who is on our side.

Andrew Jackson:
J.R. Bourne’s character.

David Read:
J.R. Bourne’s character, Martouf. This was a big deal. And when it aired, it was like dropping an M60 into the crowd of Stargate fandom. And Darren talks about this much more eloquently than I do over at GateWorld, because he watched the bifurcation in the poll that he put out every week go for 50% of the audience loving it and 50% of the audience hating it, and that never happened. It was extremely polarizing, which as far as I am concerned meant that it was a great show. And I am still divided on it to this day. It’s a great episode, but did they have to kill him? I’m assuming none of that was present when you shot it, it was just another day. Or were you aware at that time that J.R. was a regular and they were knocking him off?

Andrew Jackson:
I was aware, and I can remember even looking at his expression and the conversations that he was having with one of the other players, that this was a big emotional event for him. There was a big disappointment there. But, of course, I didn’t really know the actors, I didn’t know him, but I understood what it was like to have that sense of rejection. And a loss of something that was obviously of a series of mammoth proportions. I felt for him in terms of what he was going through on the day. But, like you said, this was my first day on set, and we deal with a lot of things in this business and we have to roll with it, whatever it is that occurs. Obviously the title for the episode is rather fitting, “Divide and Conquer.” Do you think in hindsight they made the right decision? Yeah? OK.

David Read:
In war people die a lot.

Andrew Jackson:
J.R. Bourne went on to have a wonderful career. And he explored many different characters and stories, and sometimes when things like this happen, we look back on it and think, “No, maybe there was a silver lining in there.” He continued to grow and evolve, which is wonderful.

David Read:
And in science fiction, no one is ever truly gone. There was a two-parter written the following season that would’ve featured him pretty heavily, and he was unavailable. Maybe it was fitting in this case, because it’s feast or famine for actors, like you were saying. Multiple jobs a week, and then other weeks, nothing. And you’ve gotta grab what you can while you can. You have one trip through the buffet line and you might as well pile everything you can onto that plate while you’ve got it. So, tell me about the council robes. Were they heavy? They look heavy. And how much did they inform the character and your poise and your performance?

Andrew Jackson:
You sent me the episodes as a refresher, and I really appreciate that. And I remember watching it, thinking that there was a certain regalness to the way that I moved. And I definitely will have to attribute part of that to the costume. The length of it, you’re right, I remember feeling a weight on the shoulders. But because I worked at Stratford and wore period costumes, I’d had that experience, and so I wanted to move accordingly. They even padded my shoulders, which surprised me ’cause I’m fairly broad-shouldered. And in fact, I think there might have even been lifts in the boots because you gotta make me even taller. So, I felt very, very imposing, but I also wanted to take on what the character represented, which was this dignitary. He wasn’t just the head of the Tok’ra. He’s the chancellor. And he was originally written for an actor in his 50s, and I was in my 30s, so I needed to bring that sense of weight. And I’ve mentioned this before, but when I went in to audition, I decided to play the character like a character I’d played at the Stratford Festival in Julius Caesar, which is Octavius Caesar, who was a man in his 20s but he was an administrative genius. So, he had a certain posture of someone who could take command even at a very young age.

David Read:
There are some people who are just born with it. You can see those folks throughout history. Alexander the Great. It’s not exclusively people who have life experience who can make those decisions in a time of great importance and move forward. It’s certainly an asset, but it doesn’t always happen that way. How aware were you through the material and through notes beforehand of who the Tok’ra were? Or was a lot of it intuited on the day, in the performances about the war that they had been fighting for thousands of years single-handedly against a hugely impressive force?

Andrew Jackson:
A lot of that had to be intuitive on the day. I read the script, but there was a lot about the show that I just didn’t know. Which is one of the tricky things about television, because in many cases you audition quickly, can you deliver on the day in the audition, and that’s what they want you to bring to the table. There just isn’t necessarily the time to sit down and go through and explore all the history with your character like you do sometimes with theater or sometimes with the bigger film productions where they maybe work ahead of time for a period of months even in order for an actor to really ground themselves in who the character is.

David Read:
Do you feel more at home in environments where you can really slowly take in the role, or do you like the fast pace of episodic TV more? I’m curious as to where you feel the most comfortable. I know a lot of actors who thrive under pressure.

Andrew Jackson:
I feel I do generally well under pressure, but my preference would be to ground myself more in terms of what it is that I’m portraying. So, much of it becomes organic. You don’t wanna think about it. You wanna be there, be present. So, I’m gonna give you an example. I did an independent short film playing an Irish badass in this movie, and we rehearsed. We sat down and we rehearsed. I had footage from this independent that wasn’t shot particularly well in comparison to other projects, and I took my demo down to Los Angeles and they looked at it and they said, “Why did you deliver such a strong performance in something that’s not of the caliber of some of these other things?” And I said, “Because we rehearsed.” “That’s it. We rehearsed.” And the director, who was an actor, actually took us into the environment where we were going to be filming so that we had a sense of what that space was like. So, many times you get an idea in your head, OK, this is what it’s gonna be like, and then you get to set, it looks nothing like what you expect. And that can really throw an actor, or what’s being delivered to you from another character is very opposite on different levels. It could be the energy, it could be the emotion, or even something about them physically that is not at all what you read in the script. So, there’s so much adjustment that has to take place on the day when you arrive. And it isn’t like, “I’m gonna rehearse.” I’m going to film, and you’ve gotta deliver. Thank God for something called technique that you develop over a period of years. So, you learn to cope with those situations, but it’s not always the best environment for you to deliver the best you’re capable of.

David Read:
I had never thought about it that way, where the environment can be that critical in exposing you to certain facets of the character that you can access that you wouldn’t have had you not seen the space.

Andrew Jackson:
And sometimes it inspires you. It does the opposite. You walk in, you’re like, “Whoa, this is great. I hadn’t thought of that, but I’m actually really appreciating this. This is informing me of what it is that I need to do for this character.”

David Read:
But do you have time to play, to find it? Or do you close your eyes and pray that I’m gonna go make this approach with this environment, and let’s hope it works the first time? Because…

Andrew Jackson:
It’s fast.

David Read:
… sometimes you have to figure it out. It’s fast.

Andrew Jackson:
Actors are going around with their scripts, they’re still in hand, at their sides, their little copies. And as you get older, of course you can’t see the print ’cause it’s so small. Oftentimes you’re in that environment and you’ve memorized your lines, but because you got all these things thrown at you, suddenly your brain goes. So, you’re then trying to ground yourself in your lines, remember them, and then you do a rehearsal, and it’s like, “OK, let’s shoot.” That’s the norm in television. So, you get the master, then you’re gonna go from medium shots, and then you go in for the closeups. And you’re hoping certainly by the time it’s your closeup, either they haven’t shot a ton of shots so that now you’re tired, you’re exhausted, or it’s still fresh. You really have to map it all out in your head, and then jump in the ocean and hope that you don’t get eaten by something you didn’t foresee underneath the water. That’s part of the excitement. You don’t know what’s gonna happen when you get there.

David Read:
If you’re gonna be eaten by something under the water, I hope they film it. Maybe it’s good. Maybe your reaction is what they’re going for. I’ve heard situations where actors have been told, “Hey, do this to them, and we’re gonna film it and get the reaction.” And it’s like, “OK. I trust you. You’re the guy in charge. I’ll trust you, or gal. Let’s go for this, but they may wanna kill me after we’re done.” Have you ever had a situation like that?

Andrew Jackson:
I’m probably more guilty of it, to be honest.

David Read:
Really?

Andrew Jackson:
If I’m not getting what I want from an actor, or they’re not really paying attention, you have to be much more careful about this now. Anything to do with touching someone else you have to ask beforehand. But I would put my finger on their chest and talk directly to them so that they see me. There’s something very in-your-face about that. I’ve done that a couple times. I was working with some amazing actors on a show called Rogue, and they were so present. Every take was different and I had to jump in and play with these very skilled actors. And I took my finger, ’cause I was gonna do that, but I accidentally got the actor actually right in the temple. And he, I guess it must have hurt, but he was fine about it, which surprised me, but it really read in the shot. I was really happy with the scene afterwards, and I know they were very happy with it as well. There were moments…

David Read:
So, they used the take?

Andrew Jackson:
Oh yeah. Somebody else might say, “OK, cut, cut, cut. That just happened.”

David Read:
No, don’t cut if you’re getting an interesting reaction, if he’s not hurt. He’ll let you know if he is.

Andrew Jackson:
I shot a fight scene and I got punched in the head for real, and I ended up with a thing the size of a mandarin on my head and was actually told by a stunt coordinator, “Hey, you gotta get ice on that or you could go blind,” because of its proximity to the eye and the veins and everything. As I’m shooting it, I thought, “Keep going. They got it. That must look really good. He just hit me for real, hard, in the head.” I respect if an actor feels that they need to be told those kinds of things. Sometimes it’s the way you deliver. You might surprise the other actor because you give them something emotionally they didn’t expect. I might not even expect it, it just happens.

David Read:
Christopher Judge.

Andrew Jackson:
That’s living and breathing in the moment, letting it be whatever it’s gonna be.

David Read:
One of the last episodes of SG-1 is a show called “Talion.” It’s the most bloody hour of Stargate, I would have to tell you, and there was an actor by the name of Craig Fairbrass who was the guest star, a Jaffa by the name of Arkad, going up against Christopher as Teal’c. Craig wasn’t holding his punches. He was really hitting Christopher. He probably wasn’t hitting him at full force, but he was connecting with him and he was really starting to piss Chris off. Chris went to James Bamford, the fight coordinator, and said, because Chris had already asked him. And Chris went to James Bamford and said, “If he doesn’t lay off me, I’m gonna…”

Andrew Jackson:
Punch back.

David Read:
The same, yes. But with equal energy. But the result at the end of it is one of the most visceral shows that we ever had. But Christopher will definitely tell that story when given the chance.

Andrew Jackson:
I don’t do that. I don’t physically make contact and hurt people. I’m just talking more in terms of the way that I emotionally play a character with someone and then surprise them.

David Read:
That you’re not antagonizing them.

Andrew Jackson:
No, I don’t want to antagonize. Surprise an actor maybe in the context of the scene where I think it’s appropriate or feels right organically, but no, that’s not cool. You shouldn’t hurt an actor. I worked on a show called Seawolf, and this is interesting ’cause you’re talking about people making contact, and there was a lot of fight stuff and I got my ass beaten. At one point the scene was so bloody there was actually a critical review of it. It was disturbing. It was a family show. I was hearing that there were actors punching each other for real in some of these sequences. We’re out at sea, we’re on an 1800s schooner. Some of us are getting seasick and they’re filming it, you can see them throwing up over the side of the boat. We were living that whole 1800s schooner experience. So, with this punching, it wasn’t entirely surprising, but what I wanted to say was, it didn’t read well. When actors fight for real, it doesn’t work. Believe it or not, the fake punches, in terms of what the camera picks up, are far more effective. What probably worked in this case is that the actors got upset, angry, so it would be the energy that the camera’s picking up, not what was happening in terms of the physical facet of that. Because the real contact, for whatever reason, doesn’t read well.

David Read:
You had heard before shooting on this that this was a behavior, or you got that while you were there?

Andrew Jackson:
I heard it before I started shooting. I wasn’t involved in those scenes, I heard about it. But we were forewarned on that shoot, “You might die. You might die and you had to be prepared to accept that.” But this was a dream of mine. I really, really wanted to be out at sea on a schooner, whether it be a life experience or a filming experience. That was something that I was always drawn to.

David Read:
Have you had a performance… Don’t need Ginkgo on this show, just come on my show and I’ll pull out all the memories out of your head that I can. Have you ever had a performance where you did the job because you need the work, and you walked away going, “Wow, I didn’t expect to have not just as positive an experience as I had but an almost transformative experience in this role where the character or the people that I was with, this became something that I wasn’t expecting, and this is something that I can carry with me now, with fond memories?”

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah, of course. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few experiences. One of them is a stage experience. I was doing a production of Frankenstein, which is based on the original novel and beautifully written. There’s a lot of quotation marks in the novel of these monologues that the characters deliver, and I was playing the role of this genius brain and this very tortured soul character. I don’t know if you ever saw Penny Dreadful, but that particular character of The Creature gets explored, and several other characters, and the series is absolutely brilliant. Anyway, it was a wonderful, rich role. I’d suffered a loss and so I was dealing with a lot of emotions, and I would literally be crying on my way to work every day. I’d shave my head, and I had to distort my body, and it was a feast of a character. And even though I was tortured emotionally at the same time, there were moments where the character becomes psychopathic and full of rage, and then becomes very vulnerable like a child. I remember there was a preview and I’d done so much soul-searching work in preparing for this, physically, emotionally, tore myself apart to get ready for this, and I remember doing the preview and thinking, “Is that it? Is that all there is?” Because I didn’t get where I had expected to go. And the next day was opening and I just flew. It was like an out-of-body experience.

David Read:
You took off.

Andrew Jackson:
I totally took off. I wasn’t doing it anymore. The character completely consumed me and I was flying across the stage, and I was weeping and it was all the work I’d talked about doing and that I felt wasn’t present when I needed it suddenly was there. When the show finished, I remember thinking, “I could die now. I finally did what I set out to do as an actor.” I really felt proud. I actually had a playwright say a strange thing to me in the bar after seeing it. He said, “You were going for brilliant, weren’t you?” But it was very antagonistic. And I said, “Yeah, actually.” And he goes, “Yeah, I thought so.” That was it. I was like, “OK, so was that a compliment or was that an insult or…” It didn’t matter though. It was how I felt. And my mom, who’s not one to give compliments, saw the show and she said, “Well,” and she’s very matter-of-fact, “You did it.”

David Read:
Maybe your performance exceeded the grasp of the play a little bit, by everything that had happened to you.

Andrew Jackson:
I think the role calls for that so I don’t wanna think that… I think that is an extraordinary character. If you look at not the Hollywood rendition, but the actual original character in the novel, I think it is a beautifully drawn character. And it begs the question, who’s the real monster here? Is it the scientist, Frankenstein, or is it The Creature? And it’s a little of both, really.

David Read:
It’s great science fiction.

Andrew Jackson:
I love the complexity of the characters and that relationship between the two and him really being your God, and being able to defy God right to his face. It was a very intense, liberating experience.

David Read:
May I ask you about the opposite? Can I ask you about a situation, I don’t need specifics, I just want your emotional reaction, how you handled things, where you had a director that ultimately it turned out that you couldn’t trust, or you had a counterpart in a performance that wasn’t delivering and it’s like, “You know what? We’re here. I’m getting paid. I’m a professional. I’m gonna do what I have to do to get through this because what I’m putting out, they’re not picking up.” Because acting is all about reacting and sometimes, like you said earlier, you’ve gotta poke them and say, “I’m right here. Be with me here in this moment.” Or you’re led by a director or someone above you who’s like, “I know what they’re trying to do but it’s not working, but it’s my job to follow where they go.” What do you do in situations like that when it’s not–

Andrew Jackson:
Sometimes you have to imagine what they’re giving you. An acting coach will say to you, “If you don’t find anything attractive about the char… Maybe it’s their eyes, maybe there’s something, just find what it is about that individual that you’re working with that you’re drawn to.”

David Read:
Hang onto them for dear life.

Andrew Jackson:
Something positive and hanging onto that. Sometimes what they give me is intentionally designed to undermine me, and I’m like, “Oh. Oh, is that what you’re gonna give me?”… fine, I’m gonna use that. And I do. I actually see that as a gift, a strange gift. And then they realize, “Oh my God, I actually just helped him.” And that really pisses them off, which feeds me even more. ‘Cause now I’m having a dance that’s fun. I like to think that most actors are generous and giving, but the reality is that there are times when you’re dealing with an actor in an on-camera situation and you give to them when the camera’s on them and it turns around and he’s like, “Wait a minute, where is all that stuff you were giving me?” I had to direct him on that.

David Read:
“This is my thing.”

Andrew Jackson:
He reamed out the other actor because he realized, “Why isn’t Andrew delivering what he was delivering before?” He forced the actor to deliver a performance. I didn’t have to say anything. But I’ll share a story that I shouldn’t. But I think you’ll find it entertaining. I was working on a shoot with an actress. In truth, she was probably doing what she felt was right to achieve what was needed for our characters.

David Read:
So, it wasn’t a power play. This was for the role.

Andrew Jackson:
It was that too. It was all of the above.

David Read:
Oh, a twofer.

Andrew Jackson:
So, I’m playing a really vile, despicable character that I had struggled with because there was nothing redeeming about this evil, psychopathic villain. And I remember going on set one day, and she was nice to me at first. We knew each other. And then she just turned on a dime. I said, “Are you gonna be like this with me while we film this?” And she said, “Actually, I’m not gonna wanna talk to you the entire time, and I’m probably gonna hate you for two months afterwards.” And I thought, “Whoa, seriously, how am I gonna work with that?” But that was what she thought. In her head, she was going very method…

David Read:
Very method.

Andrew Jackson:
… with her approach to her performance. I thought, “OK, this is gonna be challenging.” I remember going to set one day and she was upset ’cause my name was on a chair and her name wasn’t on the chair. And being me, I said, “Don’t worry about it, your name will be on a chair the next time.” So, what she decided to do then, as we proceeded, was to always sit in my chair. She’d never sit on a cast chair or anybody else’s chair, it was always my chair. And maybe what she was trying to do is get under my skin enough that I personally would dislike this person, and she kept toying with me like this. And the chair thing was bugging me because it was all tied in, and she goes, “I don’t wanna talk to you,” and just treated me so badly. This was immature on my part but I don’t regret it. I bought a fart machine, and I stuck it in the pocket of my chair, with my little remote in my hand, waiting for her to sit in my chair. She didn’t sit in my chair, oddly enough, and she was in a car so I slid it into the vehicle where she was sitting, and no one was filming at that point, and she thought it was the crew and she’s laughing, “It’s not me, it’s not me.” I took the thing out of the car, I had my fun, and I put it in the pocket of my chair, and I had the remote in my pocket, and then she and I were in the car. And the director was having a tantrum. The reason he was upset was because we weren’t really driving. This is one of those sorta fake Hollywood moments. You think that this never really happens, but in this case it did. The producer had filmed traffic going by like this, for real. But at one point a transport truck went by and so you had this black space under the truck that looked like the footage had been sliced together.

David Read:
But even though it wasn’t, the playback–

Andrew Jackson:
It wasn’t, but it just looked that way. The director started to flip out. The thing that I have to tell you is that those devices, you don’t necessarily have to hit the button. If a truck goes by or something, it can somehow trigger it. So, he’s now screaming at the producer in front of the entire crew, and he’s saying, “I have got a big black hole! A big black hole! What the… am I gonna do with a big black hole?” And he’s sitting in my chair.

David Read:
Thresher activated.

Andrew Jackson:
They had to leave the building, and I had a stunt coordinator come and said, “Oh my God, Andrew? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever experienced on set. That’s so cool, man, that you did that.” I go, “I’m telling you, I didn’t.” “Yeah right, man. Sure. Sure you didn’t.” And I had not touched the button. The universe just decided to respond at that moment, and I never took a fart machine on set again. Never. True story.

David Read:
Because you wanna live. You don’t–

Andrew Jackson:
If I were to tell you what that show was… for a pilot for a big-name series. I’ll just leave it at that.

David Read:
Sometimes the universe blesses you in unexpected ways.

Andrew Jackson:
I don’t know if I was blessed. The producer was thrilled, the director not so much. He’s like, “Whose chair is this?” He was really upset.

David Read:
Sometimes it’s healthy to be taken down a notch. Just a notch. That is wild. Man. I’ve got some fan questions for ya. Matt T says, “When you and Colin Cunningham played Shig and Lip-sett in Andromeda–” I have not seen Andromeda. Cards on the table. “Did you discuss Stargate at all? Did it ever come up? Your characters in that show are both so different from your Stargate roles. It’s great.” He says.

Andrew Jackson:
Ah, that’s good to hear. We talked about the experience on Stargate, absolutely. I was really inspired by Colin Cunningham. Still am.

David Read:
He’s a good guy.

Andrew Jackson:
I really appreciated his take on the industry, as far as being willing to promote oneself, to connect with the audience, and to really explore a range of characters. He was forever playing the chameleon and he had access to all these amazing wigs, and I shared that passion for saying, “Hey, I wanna explore a range of characters.” And I can remember what the producer said to us with that show is that they wanted a cross between drug addicts, these very powerful, larger-than-life characters, and Ice Capades. I’m like, “What?” These were very eccentric, very, very eccentric characters. And I had some ideas, my character was very excitable and he’d clap and do these odd little things. Colin was completely open to that, and I felt we worked really well together. I had an absolute blast playing those characters. It was so over the top, and they wanted that for the show.

David Read:
There are certain performances. I dislike the new version of Stephen King’s The Stand that was put out in the last few years with a passion, because I’m a huge fan of the novel and a huge fan of Mick Garris’s miniseries from the ’90s. But in The Stand, Ezra Miller delivers a performance as Trashcan Man that is unlike anything I have ever seen. He is under your skin creepy, and you can’t deny that it’s an amazing performance. Colin has told me stories where his agent is giving him auditions and he gets the information and he’s like, “I’m not gonna play that way. I’m gonna get a wig, I’m gonna get an eye that’s grayed out or something.” Nothing to do with the performance on the page at all. He’s wanting to deliver something memorable. He’s willing to go so far as to deliver something that he would want to do. If they don’t want it, that’s fine, but obviously he’s got the bandwidth to do this in this particular situation. And the director, or whoever it was, got back to his agent and said, “What was this?” And the agent in turn turns around to Colin and says, “What did you deliver? They were so blown away.” He didn’t get the role, but he left an impression, and that’s what he wanted to do. If there’s something he studied for that–

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah, he’s great for that. A certain defiance. There’s a tendency in this business, and it’s understandable, to put us into certain slots, and particularly out of the States ’cause there’s so many actors. How do you figure out how to work with all of these people? It’s much easier if they go, “This is your specialty and this is what you do over here.”

David Read:
You go into boxes.

Andrew Jackson:
I can remember when I was young, I had troubles because of the way I looked. I auditioned for the series Highlander for a guest star, but she made me do a pre-screen and she says, “Look, that’s great.” She said, “Clearly you’re fighting your look on this. Come back tomorrow and try to mess up your look or do something.” And I was clean shaven and she said I looked like an Irish Spring commercial. There was a guy with his hair slicked back and I went looking for the washroom but there wasn’t one, it was these prefab buildings on the studio lot. I went out and stuck my head in a mud puddle, and I’m dripping with mud on my head and they’re kinda freaked out and they said, “Where’s your resume?” And this guy said this to me, ’cause I said, “Where’s my resume?” He goes, “I ate it. I was getting into my character.” So, I repeated that in the audition room. So, at this point there’s no concern about the look, it’s just that we have a crazy guy. She had a copy of my pic and res, I audition and I got the job.

David Read:
Wow.

Andrew Jackson:
I wouldn’t shave, I would do all sorts of things to try to distort my appearance. One time I was reading for an ugly-looking trapper who’d been mauled by a bear. And then I had to come back that afternoon as a lawyer. And I remember being surprised living in downtown Toronto that when I was dressed as the first character cars nearly ran me down, right downtown Toronto. And then when I came back in the suit having shaved, cars would stop. I’m talking at a pedestrian crosswalk. People perceive you based on your appearance.

David Read:
For better or for worse.

Andrew Jackson:
So, I would audition for a Russian mafia, sometimes I’d audition and put a fake tattoo on my neck ’cause that’s a really intimidating thing, and I’d watch people actually leave the sidewalk to give me room on my way to the audition. You got the lines the night before. I wasn’t trying to affect the public per se, but I wanted to make sure that I was in the mindset of the character by the time I got to the studio for the audition. It’s amazing how little things, shoes. There was a famous actor, he talked, “How did you play your character with all the transitions?” And he said, “It was in the shoes.” And it was because he was wearing work boots in the first part of the story, this was The Music Box, and in the second part of the story he was wearing running shoes, in the end he was in dress shoes. And his whole body language changed, and it was the reveal of this loving grandfatherly character becoming someone who was actually in Auschwitz, but at the dark end of things. And it was the lead character, it was her father…

David Read:
Wow.

Andrew Jackson:
… who she loved dearly, and she was defending him in court, it’s an incredible film. It was interesting. Shoes.

David Read:
So, I guess the lesson to take from this is, whatever it takes for you to get there. To A, find your place, but also B, service the documents that you have in front of you. Not for yourself, for yourself internally, but not for your aggrandizement. Whatever it takes to get there.

Andrew Jackson:
To tell the story. To tell the story, and it’s really important too because you are working with other people. So, you have to be mindful and respectful of the fact that they are doing their own process as well. You have to find a balance within that that allows you to work as a team, not just with fellow actors, but with the director, producer, people, craft service, whomever. When I wore prosthetics for Earth: Final Conflict, they were upset because I went to lunch. They just didn’t wanna have to look at my face. Hadn’t occurred to me that it would put people off their lunch.

David Read:
So, to fill in the details here, Andrew played one of my favorite characters from Earth: Final Conflict, a Jaridian. They are scales, and they are spikes, and they are completely alien to us. But pulling out that performance, because they become key later on in the show, was extraordinary. I love that performance to this day, man.

Andrew Jackson:
Thank you.

David Read:
And sitting through that makeup, I don’t know how you did it.

Andrew Jackson:
I love watching the whole process of wearing the prosthetics. We ran into some problems because we were putting in long hours, and they were putting in long hours, and your body can only take so much.

David Read:
You’re not good anymore.

Andrew Jackson:
But I was very proud of what I delivered with that show. And really, it was fascinating. I know it sounds totally ridiculous in hindsight, but I remember at one point actually going to the pet store near where I lived and studying lizards in terms of the way they moved. And that was a subtle bit of influence in terms of where I wanted to explore the sort of the alien nature of the character. And one of the earlier descriptions, which they didn’t end up bringing to fruition, was there were platelets that would shift on the body. So, there’s this pain, and it was very, very painful for the character. They were building up all these bubbles and these various different things on my body for hours, trying to figure out how to design this costume. And there was a bladder thing that they had in the head which would expand. There were many creative ideas that were fascinating, but I was the First…

David Read:
First one.

Andrew Jackson:
… Jaridian.

David Read:
We’d heard about them, but we’d never seen them. So, they really wanted it to be interesting.

Andrew Jackson:
The thing for me too was I had been exploring the voice quite a bit on a feature that I worked on before that in the lower register, and I really wanted to put that in with this character and do these strange things vocally. And I learned about this afterwards. They sat down, and they had a meeting ’cause they were gonna digitize my voice as the Jaridian. They were gonna digitize all Jaridians, not unlike what we have with Stargate. And they watched my performance and listened to it and said, “You know what? We’re not touching that.” And they said, “If we have another actor that does that, we won’t digitize it. But for the other actors, we’ll digitize the voice.” So, that was probably the greatest compliment to me, to say, “You know, we’re going with his vocal performance.”

David Read:
You provided something that they wanted over the idea they had in mind. Now that’s a feather in your cap, or scales.

Andrew Jackson:
Scales.

David Read:
Geez, that’s great. Jakub, any memories from the set of Smallville?

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah.

David Read:
Anything that stands out from the Smallville?

Andrew Jackson:
There’re a couple. I remember it was two days of shooting, and the first one, my character, he’s being injected with morphine. And that was the best thing actually ’cause I remember going to the gym, and I was working out that day, so I was a little tired. And my character’s in a sleepy stupor. So, I ask, “Can I go to the set early?” And they let me, and I went and laid in the bed and napped. Right before they called action, I took a nap.

David Read:
If it works.

Andrew Jackson:
Came in and did it. We shot it, and they said, “You know what? What you’re doing is great. We love it, but you’re a little too slow in your delivery. Can you speed it up a little bit?”

David Read:
“Who injected me with morphine again?” “You know what that does to a person?” Oh, man.

Andrew Jackson:
I really, really enjoyed playing that scene, had a wonderful actor. And then the next experience was a little more challenging. They hung me upside down in a truck in the middle of a farmer’s field in the summer. It was very hot, humid weather. And I was excited actually to be hung upside down. They harness you. Somebody offered me spring rolls. I should’ve said no because the body harness around the waist is so tight that it’s extremely uncomfortable, and they say it needs to be like that because they’re lifting you from the waist with wires to the bottom of a truck. And it was a beat-up old truck, and there was mud on the foot of the truck that was landing in my nose and mouth, and I was struggling to breathe. And–

David Read:
With the spring rolls?

Andrew Jackson:
With the spring rolls.

David Read:
Trying to digest them…

Andrew Jackson:
And I started breathing fast.

David Read:
… against gravity? Oh, no.

Andrew Jackson:
And they’re waiting, “OK,” they’re setting things up, and I tilted because I realized, “I’m gonna pass out.” I’m not able to breathe, and I’m starting to hyperventilate, so I said, “Let’s just shoot the hm thing.” They did, and we got it.

David Read:
Wow.

Andrew Jackson:
After that, I felt there was a sense of claustrophobia every time I’d do a stretch exercise and roll my knees up over my body. I’d go right back to being inside that truck where…

David Read:
You’re developing a new complex.

Andrew Jackson:
… I was like, “That was not what I expected.” I thought it would be cool hanging upside down, but if I’d been hung upside down in a room with good ventilation, that probably wouldn’t have been an issue at all. But it was the dirt from the truck, and–

David Read:
The corset.

Andrew Jackson:
But I loved the show. And I loved my character, and the people were very, very nice. And they had one of the best craft services of any place, because the actors had to look good, and so they had all these really good quality protein bars, and I know that sounds ridiculous, but some sets you go on, all there is is junk food and maybe fruit. So, it was appreciated.

David Read:
It’s the little things.

Andrew Jackson:
Exactly.

David Read:
And sometimes you do have to suffer for your art. Yes. Oh, man. Lockwatcher says, “You starred in a short-lived series, Family Passions, that had some interesting guest stars from Bewitched. Anything that you recall or anything that stands out about the guest stars in that series?”

Andrew Jackson:
Ooh. I wasn’t aware there were actors in that from Bewitched. How cool? So, the show shot for eight months, it was a Canadian-German co-production. I had already worked on a soap opera, which was All My Children. He said Family Passions, right?

David Read:
Yes. Apparently Juliet Mills, who played Tabitha. That’s Passions though, that may be something different. ’99 to 2008.

Andrew Jackson:
1999 to 2008. OK, then that’s not Family Passions.

David Read:
Sorry guys, Google AI is screwing me up. But go ahead.

Andrew Jackson:
Name of the show?

David Read:
Apparently Family Passions is the project that you were in, he’s saying.

Andrew Jackson:
So, I worked for four months. I was under contract, and I would have gone longer, but the show ended. They didn’t continue on with the series. It’s interesting, the studio became a very important studio in Toronto, and originally they found a dead coyote in the studio, and it was full of doves cooing. And for the first few months they actually had to edit the sounds of the cooing doves. They were shooting them killing the doves in this old, worn-down building. But series like Earth: Final Conflict and others actually ended up working in that same space after they had completely modified the structure. But we were the pioneers of working in that space on Eastern Avenue in Toronto. And I was playing a character who was Swedish named Jön Futing, and I guess they dubbed us into German for Germany. There is one thing I’d love to share, but I can’t.

David Read:
Andrew, you’re with me. How far do we go back?

Andrew Jackson:
No.

David Read:
Abridge it, find some way. Massage it into–

Andrew Jackson:
I’m thinking, it was my agent, who was wonderful, who came, and it was a party that they had, and it’s sensitive, but it was– How do I put this? She’s Jewish. And a wonderful person. And we had a rock band in Lederhosen playing and doing a show, 80% of the funding was coming from Germany. And let’s say that she was feeling very oddly uncomfortable.

David Read:
I understand.

Andrew Jackson:
From a cultural vantage point, it was quite interesting, having German… But when I worked on Seawolf, for example, that was a production where we had wonderful German actors involved on the set, who were fantastic. Sebastian Koch for one, and the British actors, Tim Roth was on that show. But we don’t often get these co-productions. They’re complicated from a producing perspective. It was a bit mad working on that show, because there was a lot of very talented young actors who went on to have big careers that started out on that show. And now that you mention it, J.R. Bourne was on the show. J.R. Bourne worked on, I don’t know, it was two, or three, or four episodes, and I can remember being introduced–

David Read:
In Christian Sands.[inaudible][53:04]

Andrew Jackson:
And he was studying business. There was this guy who was a business major, decided he wanted to be an actor. You go take a look at the cast from that show and I think you’ll be shocked by the number of actors who sort of found their way along that early on in their career and went on to do other really big things.

David Read:
Wow.

Andrew Jackson:
Or relatively big things.

David Read:
I’m recognizing some names on here for sure. But you never know who you’re gonna rub elbows with, and you see them a few years later, it’s like, “Wow, look at that.” No one would have ever thought that with Jason Momoa playing Ronon in Atlantis, he would have exploded into the mainstream. But I think life is great that– Laurie Holden– I think life is great that way.

Andrew Jackson:
Look at the career she’s had. But with some of these people you could see the potential was certainly there. But so much of this business isn’t just talent or look. So, much of it is circumstances, or being in the right place at the right time, or who you manage to develop a relationship with in terms of the business and networking. There’s so many factors. Or what is that expression? You have to have a talent for talent. So, you can find somebody who’s remarkable and you think, “They certainly deserve that career,” but you just don’t know.

David Read:
And sometimes it’s not the looks at all. Steve Buscemi was a fireman, and I mean, he’s just so magnetic, you can’t take your eyes off of him. The parts that he gets and goes for and gets, is like, wow. You always know that you’re gonna be in for something interesting if he’s involved. Krisztian Unpronounceable, that’s their name on YouTube. Any memorable differences between Stargate and Dark Matter, Joseph Mallozzi’s other show?

Andrew Jackson:
It’s a completely different concept in terms of the show. I went on to play the commander in that show, and I think the story and certainly the character that I was portraying as the commander was much, much darker than some of the characters that I saw in Stargate or the character that I had to portray. Trying to find the justification of why he chooses to do things the way that he does, which were extreme from a political-military point of view. But he wholeheartedly believes in what he’s doing, and that was interesting to explore.

David Read:
Sci-fi lets you access facets of personalities that normally wouldn’t fit in conventional situations and you can explore their humanity in ways that a lot of other genres wouldn’t allow in the process.

Andrew Jackson:
In this particular case, because it was so political, I had to draw on my own sort of personal experience as it relates to something that was very, very political. I was able to really find that quite accessible for me in terms of my own story as it related to the character. It really helps to like the individual you represent. You can be playing the baddest of characters, but if you can find something, some glimmer of something that offers some light, I think it makes playing the role so much more appealing.

David Read:
I have watched performances of people who, as far as I’m concerned when I’m observing them, it’s like, “OK, they’re playing a dislikeable person, at least a person that they clearly dislike.” They have not given any… There’s a lot of political shows and things, “Oh, they’re playing this type of person.” The person that’s playing the character clearly does not like this kind of a person and they’re cranking it up to 11. And I feel that takes me out of it, because you’re not even trying. And if you are trying, you’re doing a very bad job because all I’m seeing is you taking a great deal of personal satisfaction in eviscerating something that you don’t like. So, you may be a bad actor, but when you can attempt to relate to a character, to be sincere about a character’s performance in the moment, you can be whoever you wanna be when you’re not in front of that camera. But I think it’s so much more relatable as a viewer when the performer at least, as you say, tries to find something about someone who’s awful that may be redeemable. They may love their children. Whatever it is, you gotta try to find something. Otherwise, I think audiences are good enough to tell that a performance is insincere. And if it’s insincere, it doesn’t work.

Andrew Jackson:
Acting is truth. I remember when I was working on the soap operas, somebody came up to me, “Why do you tell lies for a living?” yelled at me like he was mad. And I was like, “I don’t.” “Yes, you do.” And the friend who was with me at the time, he didn’t understand acting, said, “Yeah, you do. You lie for a living.” I go, “No, I don’t. I tell the truth.”

David Read:
You’re playing a role. If you wanna call that lying for a few hours of the day, sure. But if there is truth in the page, you’re always attempting to find the truth, so… Sometimes you may not succeed, but at least you’re trying. Raj Luthra, “If Stargate were to ever return, and it’s just a question as to when Amazon gets around to it on the roulette wheel…” that’s not their words, that’s mine, “would you be interested in returning either as Per’sus if they continue to go in Brad Wright’s direction or to take on something new? And if you did want to return, what would you like to do?”

Andrew Jackson:
My goodness. First off, yes. Yes and yes.

David Read:
We got that out of it.

Andrew Jackson:
I thought about looking at Per’sus because I obviously had a very different body. What would you do with that? I would be interested in either exploring something completely new and if I really had my way I’d say, “Can I do both?” But that’s being greedy. That’s being an actor.

David Read:
There’s makeup.

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah, absolutely. No, I would love to. And what would I want to play? I’m open to playing anything if it’s a well-constructed character who has something to offer with a really interesting story, with some complexity, the answer is a definitive yes.

David Read:
I think that there’s something for everybody moving forward with Stargate. If Amazon plays their cards right, they should be offering something for people who are brand new, who are interested in the show- and people who are legacy fans of the series. And if they do it right, they’ll be doing that for the folks on the backend as well, for people who have been a part of it in the past and for people who are coming to it for the first time.

Andrew Jackson:
That’s wonderful. I love hearing that, and thank you. That offers hope to those of us who–

David Read:
My lips to God’s ear. Because right now, we don’t know what’s going on, so I’m basically saying this as someone who’s, the plane is coming toward a fiery crash into the ground, I’m like, “It’s OK. It’s all right. We may be able to pull it out. It’s not that bad.” But sometimes it feels that way because Amazon’s had the property now for so many years and they’ve still not done anything, and all of us are demoralized at this point. With the size of the franchise, something will happen. It’s just a question of when, and that’s fact.

Andrew Jackson:
So, the question that was asked, suddenly the channels in my brain are going and I’m thinking it’d be fascinating to do something different with a character that has a spiritual element to it. Something, maybe they’re not 100% physical. We think of this as being a solid, and that we all live in these physical bodies, and then we move on into the spirit world. But if there was something that was almost a blend between physical and spirit that is unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed or seen in this physical world, that’s an idea that came to my mind, creatively, and it would affect the movement or the way that you physically appear, maybe almost morph in and out of physical form and then nonphysical form. An idea.

David Read:
How familiar are you with video games?

Andrew Jackson:
Not overly.

David Read:
Half-Life? Have you heard of Half-Life?

Andrew Jackson:
No.

David Read:
The antagonist is a being called the G-Man, and he always had a really strange cadence of speech. He comes in at the most critical moments of the gameplay, and I was always like, “Why does he talk that way?” And I stumbled across, just a few days ago, an interview with the actor who said he talks that way because he’s accessing and experiencing multiple dimensions of reality simultaneously. And so his bandwidth is divided, and there’s a lag between the realities. So, he’s carrying on multiple simultaneous conversations, and I was like, “That is brilliant.” Up until that point, that was irritating. You never know what a performer is thinking. But it makes sense with the character that that is happening to him because he’s completely mysterious for the last 26, 27 years. No one knows anything about this guy, and a performer must make certain decisions so that they can pick a degree of attack in a direction. You have to give them something. Otherwise they come to you and it’s like, “OK, why are you playing it that way?” You don’t have the ability to say, “I don’t know.” You don’t have the ability to say that, and if you do say that, “I don’t know,” you have to have a reason for everything in terms of your performance, so that makes a lot of sense.

Andrew Jackson:
There was a scientist who said that if we were to meet an alien race, there would be something about them that we would find very beautiful, and something absolutely repugnant to us. And it could be a cultural thing, it could just be something about them physically or whatever. So, those are interesting things to think about in terms of what you could write for a character that’s outside the box of maybe what one normally would expect to see of an alien in television. It’s those quirky things. I think audiences often get very drawn to those things that differentiate the various different races.

David Read:
In Enterprise there’s–

Andrew Jackson:
I did Star Trek…

David Read:
Yes, you did.

Andrew Jackson:
… Strange New Worlds, and I played Captain D’Chok. It is a huge legacy that follows with anybody who’s played a Klingon. Exploring all those things and the way that they behave, and they’re so militaristic.

David Read:
Honor.

Andrew Jackson:
Yes. Something that’s sadly very lacking in today’s society. There are certain things that we can find attractive. When the race first started appearing, they were a pretty disturbing and scary-looking race. But appealing enough that you had people that wanted to dress like them and literally designed their entire home around. I remember hearing a story about two fans who loved the Klingons and they allowed their daughter to have a room that she wanted, and so she made everything pink, but the rest of the house was apparently Klingon.

David Read:
Was Klingon.

Andrew Jackson:
And they hated her for doing it, but she at least had her own space.

David Read:
There’s a true story of a hostage negotiator who was called in, it was some kind of a holdup, and the guy who was holding the gun would only speak to someone who spoke Klingon. And I don’t know if they had to call Marc Okrand in, who invented the Klingon language, but it was one of those situations where it’s like, “OK.” “Guess we’re getting someone on the phone if he wants to be…”

Andrew Jackson:
That’s hilarious.

David Read:
… spoken to in Klingon.” Man.

Andrew Jackson:
The only thing I had to say was the toast, which many fans are familiar with, and that’s the “iwlij jachjaj.” With Spock and drinking the blood wine.

David Read:
Last question. William Arends, “How was it for…” kinda touched on this. “How was it for Andrew to be the first Jaridian seen on screen in Earth: Final Conflict? Was there any special pressure to establish the image of an entire race in that character?” Because it sounds like, already, you were a guinea pig in terms of figuring stuff out. I would imagine the makeup was the same way.

Andrew Jackson:
It happened through stages. So, as I mentioned before, when I stood there for hours and they were building this costume, they were telling me the pain that the body is going through, the various different platelets, and then they decided, “OK, no, we’re not actually gonna do that,” ’cause they would’ve had to move and I would’ve physically had to respond to that. It felt a bit like wearing a ski doo suit with rocks in it from a physical vantage point, so it was very restricting, limiting. And not unlike a Klingon, it was a very warrior-like character. And I remember now, one of the women who played a lead in the series, she didn’t see my face ever, ’cause it was always in prosthetics, and she said, “You remind me of a lion,” which I thought was the way I moved, whatever it was that I was doing physically. I loved all the various ideas they were throwing at me. Here’s the thing about acting. As actors, we get to wear a mask. So, the more interesting and complex the mask is, the more freedom there is within that for you to explore a variety of things. We rarely represent, say, a dad character in a series and you wanna portray the truth of that. You want things to be real, you want them to be present, you want to create a relationship. You’re creating an alien character that’s completely new? What a gift. Because there are so many different things that I could explore and think about outside the realm of anything you’d ever play. So, imagination kicks into gear big time. And the time that I spent even watching the lizard, that informed me of something. Watching them apply the makeup, and how did that make me feel about myself in terms of seeing my face in the mirror, and that’s now my physical appearance? And then all the voice stuff that I was doing and the way that I would breathe, ’cause everything very much is based on the breath. And when we’re terrified to perform, the first thing they say to you is, “Don’t forget to breathe.” Same thing applies to singing. So, I really got into it. It was something I really embraced. And the thing now that I mentioned singing is the opposite. Singing, you’re naked. And that was one of the scariest things about singing was that I had to be vulnerable. I had to be me and sing from my heart, versus covering, and allowing all my truth, all my emotions to come through, but I was less exposed, which allows you to be, in a way, more naked, more exposed, because you don’t feel exposed, if that makes sense.

David Read:
It’s always scary to be putting yourself in a situation where you could be rejected. And people now, especially online with social media and everything else, and Twitter and X and BlueSky and all of this, no one wants to be putting themselves in a situation where they can come off looking really terrible. But at the same time, you cannot box yourself away from finding the truth now more than ever. And sometimes the truth’s gonna hurt. And I would also argue, sometimes the truth can come from people that I completely disagree with, but there’s part of me that has to be accessible and open, and that’s my job. Because boy, it’s sure easy to hate. But when you’re finding a performance, or an avenue of truth in a performance, sometimes that avenue’s gonna be making you expose a part of yourself that you’re not always comfortable with.

Andrew Jackson:
You’re right. And I remember, you were talking earlier about Colin Cunningham and how he was always exploring various different characters and looks and everything else, and really trying to twist the minds of casting or the director, whomever, to show that he was willing to come up with something outside of whatever it was that they’d created. And I was talking to a young actress, and I was young at the time, and she was often a reader at auditions. And she said to me, “You’re that guy.” I’m like, “What?” “You’re that guy that always makes brave choices. You do these bold things in your auditions.” And I said, “Yeah, I guess I do.” And I said, “Do you?” “No, I do what’s written on the page.” “Oh, and how’s that working? Are you working a lot?” “No.” I said, “Well, I am working.” So, it’s OK. It’s OK to make bold choices. If it fits with your instincts. You don’t just impose it on something; you do it because it feels right. And I know with Colin, he did it because that’s what he felt he needed to do. For whatever reasons, creatively that was his voice, and that’s what he brought to the table. And you bring whatever that is, ’cause what’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen is they’re gonna go, “No, we don’t want that.”

David Read:
That’s exactly right.

Andrew Jackson:
So, you walk in there and I would always say, “Go in there to please yourself.” If you’ve walked out going, “I did really solid work there.” And the other thing too is, the moment they say, “OK, I like this, but don’t do this,” let them play with you. Be the clay putty that they expect of actors so that they can reshape whatever it is that they’re trying to put together, so that it’s a collaboration of creativity as opposed to, “Well, no, this is what I wanna do. This is my character.” And it’s not done until it’s done, until it’s in the can.

David Read:
And if you feel that you have something to deliver, but no one’s got a parachute for you, but you think that you’ve got it figured out based on the information that you’ve been given and the direction that you’ve been given, and Colin does this in spades, part of you has to be willing to jump out of the airplane without a parachute. Because…

Andrew Jackson:
It’s like…

David Read:
… something is gonna happen.

Andrew Jackson:
… an itch that has to be scratched. It gets to a point where you’re like, “I know that this is risky, but I have to do this. My inner being says, ‘this is what I need to do right now with this character.'” And honestly, most of the time when I’ve made those kinda choices ’cause they instinctively felt right, it’s paid off.

David Read:
And anyone listening can apply this to whatever it is that they work in except for skydiving.

Andrew Jackson:
I almost did that.

David Read:
I’m planning on it this year. Andrew, this has been fantastic.

Andrew Jackson:
Thank you.

David Read:
I appreciate the time that you have taken to share vulnerable aspects of yourself in performances from wacky to mundane. And it’s been a real treat to sit down with you. I’m sorry that it’s taken this long for us to have a one-on-one. That’s on me.

Andrew Jackson:
Aw.

David Read:
But it’s been a pleasure, sir.

Andrew Jackson:
It’s been an absolute pleasure for me, so thank you so much for doing this, and I look forward to the next one down the road, and here’s to the series, as you say, coming to fruition and a number of us both who’ve worked on the show, and those who have not had a chance to explore this amazing world, interdimensional gate world.

David Read:
Absolutely. Thank you for taking the time, and I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up on this end.

Andrew Jackson:
All right. Thank you.

David Read:
All right, sir. Andrew Jackson, everyone, Supreme High Councilor Per’sus in Stargate SG-1. My name is David Read. You are watching Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. Really appreciate everyone who came together to pull this episode off. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, give us a like. It makes a difference with the show and will help us to grow. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend, and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click subscribe. And clips from this livestream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. My tremendous thanks to my moderating team, Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia, and Raj. I couldn’t get this show done without you guys week in and week out, so I really appreciate you. Thanks to my producers, Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, and Linda “GateGabber” Furey. Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb keeps DialtheGate.com up and running. We’ve got more episodes heading your way for the next few months here. I’m gonna try and go from four to three every weekend, and maybe three to two, so we’ll see. I kept on barreling ahead, and it is taking a toll on me. So, we’re gonna dial it down a little bit. But The Wormhole X-Tremists are about to start in a few minutes here, and I’m gonna get another bottle of water, and we’re gonna proceed ahead. Craig Veroni has been rescheduled, so all of that is on DialtheGate.com. And I got confirmation Patrick Currie and Alex Zahara are gonna be joining us here on the 31st of March to talk about their roles from the likes of “Space Race” with Eamon and Warrick and with Iron Shirt and Chaka in “Enemy Mine.” And we’re gonna talk about a bunch of other stuff as well, but two excellent actors. I appreciate you tuning in to our episode. Thanks so much to Andrew for a great show. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, and I will see you on the other side.