Not exactly a roundtable…more of a walk-and-talk! Join Walter Harriman, Lindsay Novak and Carson Beckett on a Stargate-filled stroll by English Bay in Vancouver!

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TRANSCRIPT
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Paul McGillion:
You know what? I’ll say, I had no idea, I knew you were the hiccup lady on the show. But how did it actually happen to begin with?

Ellie Harvie:
OK. I had auditioned for the show a bunch of times and I didn’t get any parts. And then I hosted the Leo Awards, which is an awards show in Vancouver. And after that, they called and said, “We wanna cast Ellie!” And I didn’t even have to audition for it. It was like, “Oh, OK.” And then it was like, “Well, I better start hiccupping.”

Paul McGillion:
But was the hiccup part of the script or did you…

Ellie Harvie:
Yes.

Gary Jones:
I remember, I was in that scene. They wrote that in and it basically said that her character just can’t stop hiccupping.

Paul McGillion:
Ellie and I lived together in Los Angeles, but we never had a chance to be on camera before. Then she gets a part in Atlantis, and I never even got to do a scene with her and you did.

Gary Jones:
Wait, what do you mean? That was an–

Ellie Harvie:
Novak went to Atlantis, too. So, I did SG-1, and then I was like, “Hey Paul, they called me for Atlantis!” And he’s like, “Yeah!” He’s like, “Ah, not in the scene.”

Paul McGillion:
No, not in the scene.

Gary Jones:
So, you did Atlantis as well?

Ellie Harvie:
Yes.

Gary Jones:
I didn’t know that. I thought you were only in SG-1.

Ellie Harvie:
No! I have a life beyond you, Gary.

Paul McGillion:
And how many times did you hiccup in the scene?

Gary Jones:
It was farting. It was farting in Atlantis.

Ellie Harvie:
No, no. I fart in every scene. But I only hiccupped once in Atlantis, and it was at the very end of my interrogation. I was interrogated.

Gary Jones:
If they do the new iteration of the show, they’re probably not gonna use a hiccupping …

Paul McGillion:
I think they might.

Ellie Harvie:
… think they might, because–

Paul McGillion:
And I think if they do it, they are doing a new show, which is amazing.

Ellie Harvie:
Yes.

Gary Jones:
The fans finally are getting what they want, what they demanded.

Paul McGillion:
No, I’m happy for the fandom most of all.

Ellie Harvie:
I went to one convention that you told me about. I went and I couldn’t believe the response.

Paul McGillion:
I didn’t tell you about it, I got you to do it, I helped you.

Ellie Harvie:
You did, you helped. Because it was such a small part. And everyone was going, “Novak!” And I was like, “You saw me?”

Paul McGillion:
No, they love it.

Gary Jones:
When I first got approached years and years ago to do a convention here in Vancouver, I said, “No. No, why?”

Ellie Harvie:
That “I’m too small.”

Gary Jones:
I was like, “They don’t know me.” I used to think the camera would go by me like this, would pass by me. And they said, “No, no, they know you.” And I walked into the hotel lobby and people started screaming.

Paul McGillion:
That’s crazy.

Ellie Harvie:
It was awesome. But you know what? In fairness, when I became an actor, the reason I wanted to be an actor, do you remember the movie Christmas Story?

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Paul McGillion:
Yeah.

Ellie Harvie:
And that one elf who’s leaning over and going, “Hey, kid, come on up!” with the little hat and going down like that?

Paul McGillion:
Yeah.

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Ellie Harvie:
I was like, “That’s what I want to do.”

Paul McGillion:
You wanna be an elf? But it is Christmas.

Ellie Harvie:
I was like, “That’s what I want.”

Paul McGillion:
We can arrange that.

Ellie Harvie:
I maybe shoulda aimed higher.

Gary Jones:
I don’t wanna be Santa, I wanna be that scroungy elf.

Ellie Harvie:
Yes, it is nice as an actor that people appreciate the smaller roles.

Paul McGillion:
They do.

Ellie Harvie:
Of course they do. Yes, they do.

Paul McGillion:
I remember when I had done an episode called “Torment to Tantalus” in SG-1. And I was the first person to go through the Stargate, Ernest Littlefield. In a deep-sea diving suit, and it was back in the ’20s. Back in the day, everyone was playing multiple different characters on SG-1. And I never got to do another character after that. And I said to Martin Wood after I got out of Atlantis, I go, “How come I never went back on the show?” And he goes, “Because you played Ernest Littlefield, you were the first person to go through Stargate.” And I’m like, “So?” And he’s like, “Have you been to a convention yet?” I’m like, “No.” And he goes, “Oh, you’ll see.” And then I went to a convention, and I saw. It’s amazing. I had no idea the fan base was that huge. And it was such a blessing. We’ve traveled all over the world doing conventions and meeting fans, and I have pictures of myself holding little kids by their ankles, and now they’re taller than me.

Ellie Harvie:
I went to visit my brother in Winnipeg, went by his law office, and he said, “Oh, this lawyer wants to meet you.” I go up and this woman’s like, “Hello!” She goes, “I’m a big fan of Stargate.” And even though this was years ago now, the show still has that appeal.

Gary Jones:
What I think was the common thread between all of us on the show was they sort of knew our comedic chops. And they would give us funny stuff to do. Don’t you think?

Paul McGillion:
Yeah, both of you are hilarious. And I think the writers are smart and they see that and they just amp it up a little bit. For me, Beckett got lots of comedy and lots of drama. Now, obviously being Scottish, you get to do the Scottish-isms, which was a ton of fun. And we had a lot of laughs doing the show.

Gary Jones:
Yeah, for me, the longer I was on the show, you just kinda get to know the writers, the producers, the people. That was the thing about Stargate was that all the ADs became directors and producers, and I would go and hang out at the offices and chat with people.

Paul McGillion:
They didn’t like that.

Ellie Harvie:
I didn’t have the amount of time you guys did.

Paul McGillion:
Joanne G’s coming.

Gary Jones:
No, but you were saying that they saw you on stage being funny.

Ellie Harvie:
Yes. They saw me being funny. They said, “Let’s give it something funny.”

Gary Jones:
And they went, “Oh, let’s get her.” Because they knew what they wanted.

Paul McGillion:
Ellie, funny.

Ellie Harvie:
I’m funny.

Paul McGillion:
You’re funny.

Gary Jones:
And I found that, for me, there’s a certain style of comedy that you had to do in Stargate, which was you couldn’t take any of the laughs from RDA because he was the main guy. And we had to surf this, be funny but not too funny, but know the tone of it. It was a really cool exercise in trying to figure out–

Paul McGillion:
Trying to hold back?

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Paul McGillion:
Must have killed you, Gary.

Gary Jones:
Yeah. You can sit here.

Paul McGillion:
Why don’t you unbutton this off? This is gorgeous.

Ellie Harvie:
You have to be in the middle, Gary.

Paul McGillion:
Look at this. OK, Gary, sit here. Gary, sit in the middle. The thing about Vancouver, it rained like a monsoon yesterday and then today it’s absolutely gorgeous. Stunning.

Ellie Harvie:
So, do you think you’ll be on the new show?

Paul McGillion:
I should be, yeah. No, I don’t know.

Gary Jones:
I was in SG-1, Atlantis, and Universe.

Ellie Harvie:
You were in Universe as well?

Gary Jones:
Yeah. See?

Paul McGillion:
Gary was in all of ’em. I think it’ll be… It’s gonna be a new cast so it’ll be exciting to see what they do with the show, obviously. And every episode you go through a gate, you don’t know where you’re gonna go and that’s why it’s so exciting to read the scripts when you get them. You just open it and you’re like, “Where are we now?” It’s amazing.

Gary Jones:
They’re gonna need somebody to open and close the gate, so I don’t know what they’re gonna do there.

Paul McGillion:
No.

Gary Jones:
That’s…

Ellie Harvie:
Maybe you’ll be mentoring someone.

Paul McGillion:
No. He wasn’t very good at it.

Gary Jones:
In my career anyway, starting off, getting teacher roles and then moving to the principal and then eventually the school janitor.

Paul McGillion:
Did you start off as teachers?

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Paul McGillion:
Not student?

Gary Jones:
No. Not student. Teacher, principal, and eventually school janitor.

Paul McGillion:
I played a judge. Now, when you start to get judge, then…

Gary Jones:
Lawyer into judge.

Paul McGillion:
… that’s it. It’s over.

Ellie Harvie:
Judge is the death penalty. “I am a judge, now.”

Ellie Harvie:
And then as Mrs. Claus.

Paul McGillion:
Not Chris Judge. A judge.

Gary Jones:
Convicted felon.

Paul McGillion:
What was the first thing you did? What gave you the acting bug?

Gary Jones:
I was working in advertising as a creative director back in Ontario and I was fine and happy with what I was doing. And then I randomly took some improv classes with Second City and they hired me, which was a complete shock to me–

Ellie Harvie:
Second City was huge then. That was after SCTV?

Gary Jones:
Yeah. Then I worked with them for two years and then they offered me the job at Expo ’86.

Paul McGillion:
Did you think it would just be a hobby when you were doing it?

Gary Jones:
At first, I was just doing workshops, but I didn’t know that they were actually watching the people in the workshops to keep an eye on people who were any good at improv. And the next thing I know, they approached me and they go, “We got a slot in a national touring company. Do you want it?” And I was like, “What?” I didn’t even… I couldn’t compute it. I didn’t know why that was happening, but I said yes.

Paul McGillion:
And is that how you two met? Doing improv?

Ellie Harvie:
We met doing improv.

Gary Jones:
We met in Vancouver when I was working at Vancouver Theatre Sports and then Ellie moved out from—

Ellie Harvie:
Winnipeg.

Paul McGillion:
Were you already an actress when you moved out from Winnipeg?

Ellie Harvie:
No, I moved out here to go to the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School. So, I got my degree in political studies. I was gonna be a lawyer and then I thought, “No, I’m gonna try and be an actor,” because I’d always wanted to since I was a kid. And then I got into the Playhouse, so I moved out here. Big mistake. Should have been a lawyer. Not gonna lie. Decent family.

Paul McGillion:
I did help you. You were president of our union, too.

Ellie Harvie:
That was interesting. Wasn’t it? When I was doing theater school, we did an improv exercise and I had no idea that I was good at improv. I remember that day, I remember the scene. I was wearing all white and it was a scene about heaven and the premiere and I was at the pearly gates and the guy was like, “Am I supposed to let you in?” And I’m like, “I’m in white.” And the whole class laughed. And then the teacher came up to me after and said, “You’re good at that improv thing.” And I was like, “OK.”

Gary Jones:
You got your first laugh.

Ellie Harvie:
Got my first laugh from…

Paul McGillion:
Then you’re hooked.

Ellie Harvie:
… serious theater students.

Gary Jones:
Really your costume got you your first laugh.

Ellie Harvie:
No, but I acknowledged the costume. I picked it out, and so I’m taking full credit. I met him at Theatre Sports. Some of my funniest memories are with you.

Gary Jones:
So many shows together.

Ellie Harvie:
Can I tell you my funniest memory of Gary and then I’m gonna ask you a question?

Paul McGillion:
OK. Let me hear.

Ellie Harvie:
We’re on stage and we’re doing this scene and he was playing my daughter and…

Paul McGillion:
That makes sense. Total makes sense.

Ellie Harvie:
… and he said, “Tell me the story, tell me the story of the wolves, Daddy.” Made me his dad, and he was my daughter and he’s looking up at me and I just remember laughing and laughing and laughing.

Gary Jones:
I said, “Tell me the story of the wolves, Daddy.”

Ellie Harvie:
Daddy. Made me laugh. But what about you, Paul, because I met you when you were an actor and you were always the funniest guy to hang around with.

Paul McGillion:
Thank you.

Ellie Harvie:
But I didn’t know you were like a comedy guy on screen.

Paul McGillion:
Sometimes. I’ve been fortunate to play lots of different things, but I always say, I come from a huge family, so I was one of seven kids and then my sense of humor is from my parents, I think, mostly.

Gary Jones:
Just to stay alive.

Paul McGillion:
Just to stay alive. Number six out of seven.

Gary Jones:
It’s like, “Hello, I’m here. I’m here.”

Paul McGillion:
I remember my mom would yell, “I’ll put you down,” and start playing or whatever and she… Dinner’s ready and it’d be like a… Six boys, by the way. I’d dash, I was diving over the couches and I remember getting to the top of the stairs, feeling my brother grab the back of my pants and dragging me down and stepping on me and lining up and I’d get… I’d come last, you know what I mean? And they’d spill my milk into my plate. I’d come downstairs and I’m like, “There’s milk…” My mom would be like, “It’s all going the same place. You’re fine.” I’m like, “Oh my god.”

Ellie Harvie:
That’s a movie, Pauly. You gotta write that stuff down as a story.

Gary Jones:
Six boys running upstairs for dinner?

Ellie Harvie:
Yeah. I can’t even imagine.

Gary Jones:
That’s a lot of haggis.

Paul McGillion:
That’s a lot of haggis, Gary. My mom’s a saint. And she would make lunches for us every day and everybody had something different. We’d have our names on it. And as kids you don’t even think about that. You grab your lunch and leave. You don’t go, “Wow. Thanks, mom. Thanks for lunch, mom.” You’re like, out you go. It was like a mess hall every day. My dad and my mom barely got any time alone.

Ellie Harvie:
Can you talk about the story–

Gary Jones:
They had time alone, at least…

Paul McGillion:
Yes.

Gary Jones:
… six times.

Paul McGillion:
Seven times.

Ellie Harvie:
What about that time you found out about your brother?

Paul McGillion:
That’s right. I’m number six out of seven, and my younger brother’s eight years younger than me, Mike, and he’s awesome. But back in the day, brought up Catholic, I had no idea my mom was pregnant. None. And then one day, December 8th, when my brother’s birthday just passed, we were kids and we were in Ontario and coming out of a snow bank in our little snow suits. And my dad picked us up in the car and he never picked us up. He’s always at work. He honks the horn. I’m like, “God…” He goes, “Ray, what the hell are you doing? Get in the car.” We’re like… He looks at me and he goes, “I’ve got some… A surprise for you.” Chris and I look at each other, we’re like, “Finally, mini bikes. We’re getting mini bikes. We’ve always wanted mini bikes.” And we’re like… So, we get back in the house and he goes, “Come on upstairs, take your snow suits off.” And everyone’s upstairs in the living room we never got in. My Uncle Willie, my Aunt Ann, they’re in there. And they’re smoking and there’s a basket there on the thing. We come upstairs and he goes, “Come up here.” And we’re looking at it and he goes, “That’s your wee brother, Mike.” I’m like, “What?” And he goes, “That’s your wee brother.” I’m like, “That’s our brother?” And Chris and I look at each other and Chris looks at my dad and goes, “So, no mini bikes?” My dad says, “What the hell are you talking about?”

Gary Jones:
“No, mini-Mike, mini-Mike.”

Paul McGillion:
I looked at him for a minute and Chris and I looked at each other and said, “Do you wanna go downstairs and play?” I’m like, “Yeah, let’s go.” And that was it. And I’m like, “What?” I said to my mom, “Why didn’t you tell us?” I didn’t even know. I was eight. And she goes, “We didn’t talk about those types of things back then.”

Gary Jones:
Talked about an addition to the family.

Paul McGillion:
He actually is a doctor.

Ellie Harvie:
That’s right.

Paul McGillion:
God bless him.

Gary Jones:
You’re hilarious. He’s one of the funnest guys to hang out with.

Paul McGillion:
Both you.

Gary Jones:
Whenever I go to conventions, if I know Paulie’s gonna be at the convention, I’m like, “OK, I’m sorted. It’s all good.”

Paul McGillion:
It’s fun. And we met so many different people doing the convention. For me, one of my favorite moments ever at a convention was, I was in Ireland doing a signing at this comic book store called Forbidden Planet. I’d done a convention in London, I wanted to go to Ireland and we were in Dublin. Actually, no, we were in Dublin and then we went to Belfast. And there’s a dichotomy with the… Basically the class systems and everything there. And Belfast, they don’t have quite as much money and there’s a big lineup to come and see me and there’s this little boy and I love kids. I look over and he’s got a little toque on. Every time I see him, he’s giving me the thumbs up and everything. And finally, he comes up to me. I go, “How you doing, buddy?” He goes, “I’m grand, sir.” He goes, “Grand. ‘Cause Dr. Beckett’s my favorite character.” I said, “That’s fantastic.” And I go, “What can I do for you? What would you like?” And he goes, “Nothing, sir. It’s my birthday today. I just wanted to give you a piece of my birthday cake.” And he had a piece of birthday cake and he put it down for me and I go, “That’s for me?” And he goes, “Yeah.” And he walked by. I go, “Whoa, whoa.” I go, “Where are you going?” I go, “Did you want a picture?” He goes, “No, sir. We don’t have any money.” And then I could see his mom and I could tell that they didn’t have a lot of money, and I looked over to Mom and I said, “Would it be okay if I give him a picture for his birthday?” And the little boy was like, “I don’t know if I could do that, sir.” I go, “Yes, you can. This is from Dr. Beckett as a gift.” And I gave it to him. And the look on his face, he had the picture and walked away. And that just…It made it for me. I always remember that. The kid broke my heart and he was this little sweetheart.

Ellie Harvie:
What’s so great is that you get like a show like this with the kind of fans that gives you the opportunity to get to do something like that. And to let someone feel that way. That’s awesome.

Paul McGillion:
It’s a sweet moment. He tried to poison me with the cake. But no. He didn’t. It was a lovely moment, but I always remember that as one of my favorite fan moments. I’ve had so many, but that’s one of them. How about for you?

Gary Jones:
I’ve had so many people come to my table and say that they were going through really tough periods in their life and then they would sit down and watch 10 seasons of Stargate that got them through it.

Paul McGillion:
It’s true.

Gary Jones:
It never occurred to me that that would ever happen. That a show could impact people like that. But that’s happened so many times that it’s almost become the norm.

Paul McGillion:
Was that before or after you sold the chocolate bar that I signed?

Gary Jones:
It was Jaffa Cakes.

Paul McGillion:
Jaffa.

Gary Jones:
It was Jaffa cakes. He brought a package of Jaffa Cakes.

Paul McGillion:
No, I didn’t bring them. Someone gave them to me.

Gary Jones:
Gave them to him. He gave them–

Paul McGillion:
And he came over to my table. I’m gonna take this story over. We’re in Dragon Con. He comes over to my table and he’s like, “Are you gonna eat those?” I go, “No. I don’t really like Jaffa Cakes.” I go, “Do you want?” He goes, “Yeah.” “Like it?” And he goes, “Could you sign it for me?” I’m like, “What?” He goes, “Sign them.” So, I signed it and then he sold it at his table.

Ellie Harvie:
See, that’s the Gary I know.

Gary Jones:
He’s like, “Where are the Jaffa Cakes?” I go, “I sold them.” “What?” “That’s why I got you to sign it, plus I signed it.”

Ellie Harvie:
You’re no dummy. He used to go to Value Village and I remember one day being at improv and you’re like, “Do you want a pair of shoes? I got this pair of shoes for you.” And I was like, “Yeah, OK.” He goes, “Five bucks.” He used to buy five of them for 3.

Paul McGillion:
Gary’s a wizard. I’ve been thrift shopping with Gary, it’s amazing. He loves it, he’s got great style.

Gary Jones:
I so regret those days.

Ellie Harvie:
“I’ll bringing you in on it?”

Gary Jones:
No, no. That is so embarrassing.

Ellie Harvie:
Well, it’s a hobby, right? I mean lots of people do that on the internet. I remember my friend Mike Roberts, who played a professor in Adam’s Family. He used to do eBay and he would just buy stuff and sell it and just move it around. And he didn’t care if he made money.

Paul McGillion:
Kind of hobby sort of thing?

Ellie Harvie:
Yeah.

Gary Jones:
You know a funny story about Mike Roberts? God rest…

Ellie Harvie:
Was he in SG-1?

Gary Jones:
Well, here’s the funny story. He phones me up one day and says, “Oh my God, I’m finally auditioning for Stargate.” And I was like, “That’s great, Mike.” I go, “What’s the part?” He goes, “It’s this kind of odd, little alien, kind of anxiety ridden alien.” And I go, “Oh, you’ll be great.” He goes, “Can you tell me any tips on auditioning for it?” And I go, “Just be yourself.” I said, “It’s all in the writing. If they brought you in, they know you’re funny. Just read it.” And he goes, “OK, great.” So, he goes in, reads, calls me up, he goes, “Oh my God, I killed it. It went great. Now I’m waiting to get confirmation to get cast.” So, a couple of days go by and of course, you know within a day or so if you’ve been cast. Mike hadn’t been cast, so he’s like, “I haven’t got a call, they haven’t called me.” And I go, “I don’t know what to tell you.” I said, “But I’m in this episode,” ’cause I had the script with me. I go to shoot when I go in for my days. I walk up to Will Waring who was the director for that episode. And he goes, “Guess what? Guess who we got to play the alien?” And I was like, “Who?” He goes, “Wallace Shawn!” And I said, “Wallace Shawn? The guy from My Dinner with Andre?”

Paul McGillion:
Princess Bride.

Gary Jones:
I said, “Mike…” I said, “My buddy, Mike Roberts, auditioned for that.” He goes, “Oh! He was fantastic. But funny story. He’s auditioning for Joe Mallozzi and Paul Mullie and they’re watching him audition and Paul writes down on a piece of paper, ‘Reminds me of Wallace Shawn.’ Slides it over to Joe, Joe reads it and writes, ‘Think we can get Wallace Shawn?’” And slides it back and they contacted Wallace Shawn. And he was doing a play, but he was free one day and they flew him up and that’s how Wallace Shawn got the part because Mike Roberts…

Ellie Harvie:
Reminded them of him.

Gary Jones:
Reminded them of Wallace Shawn and I said, “You idiot! You idiot! You were so good! You were as good as Wallace Shawn!”

Paul McGillion:
Don’t play it like Wallace Shawn.

Gary Jones:
It was pretty funny.

Ellie Harvie:
He likes that story-ish.

Gary Jones:
Oh my god, so funny. So funny. And that was the other thing about SG-1 and Atlantis and Universe, they gave so much work to so many Vancouver actors.

Ellie Harvie:
They sure did.

Gary Jones:
And if they liked you, they brought you back automatically. All you had to do was do a decent job and they were like, “Oh yeah, you’re coming back.”

Ellie Harvie:
I think that’s the thing about Vancouver actors too, I just know that I’m gonna do the scene well and quickly and they’re gonna get their day and they’re gonna be done with me. We get the opportunity to work on so many things and you go, “Be good.”

Paul McGillion:
We have a great talent pool here. Amazing talent pool. We’re very fortunate and when people come up here, I think they’re quite surprised. And the crews are amazing. When it’s not raining. Look at this.

Gary Jones:
I think the thing that surprised me most about Stargate, I didn’t realize it until I would do other shows. You’d get a couple of days in between episodes, you might get a couple of days on another episodic. And you walk on and now you’re like, “OK, who are these people? What’s the vibe? I don’t know anybody.” With Stargate, it was a big family. Everybody knew each other, so you walk in, you go, “Hey, how’s it going?” We all knew each other and it was such a difference being on other shows where you have to suss it out immediately.

Ellie Harvie:
There’s so many Vancouver people, it’s really fun.

Paul McGillion:
And for us being on Atlantis and coming over and then having the SG-1 crew, people like yourself and Michael Shanks and Judge and RDA, they were so ingratiating. Amanda as well took us under their wing and they were awesome. When we’d go to Comic Con and stuff, they led by example. We had them to mentor us, which was awesome.

Ellie Harvie:
It’s really true that number one on the call sheet sets the tone. If a set is great, it’s ’cause of the lead actors. So, here’s the question, ’cause Gary and I were already doing comedy, we were kinda in the comedy world when we were kinda plucked out of that and played these roles that had a comedic side to them. But you were cast in… well, you had some dramatic stuff that led towards comedy. Do you think that they built on that when they got to know you or…?

Paul McGillion:
I remember shooting the pilot, probably 10 days into it, Martin Wood said, “Listen, can you go up to the writer’s room? Damian Kindler wants to talk to you about a big Beckett episode in episode six.” I’m like, “Oh, I’m in episode six.” So, I went up there and he wanted to talk to me a little bit about Scotland and things like that, and I had a big episode called “Poisoning the Well” and I think that was sort of the testing grounds for me. It was quite a dramatic episode, but it had some comedy in it as well. And I think I worked really hard in that episode and I think they saw that I had some chops and then they started writing more for me. I think the more you pop, so to speak, they write more for you. The character Grodin didn’t work out and then they recast and they got Zelenka, they got David Nykl, and he popped right away in, I think, an episode called “38 Minutes,” and he did a great job and he did the Czech thing and I had the Scottish thing going, and it worked. For whatever reason, it worked, and people related to the character.

Gary Jones:
I think Nykl told me that originally when they wrote his character, he was Russian. And David Nykl is Czech, so he just changed it to Czech, and then he would speak in Czech. And they were like, “Oh, this is great.” Because it was so authentic.

Ellie Harvie:
Genuine.

Gary Jones:
Rather than just a Russian accent.

Ellie Harvie:
Like we’ve done many times in that improv scene.

Gary Jones:
And I think for me, things changed when RDA had back problems, so he couldn’t do the action sequences anymore, so they decided he was gonna be the General and stay on the base. And that’s when they brought in Ben Browder to make the fourth of the SG-1 team. And God bless him. Thank you so much, RDA, that when he said, “OK, if I’m gonna be the general on the base now, I want Gary’s character to be my kind of right-hand man.”

Ellie Harvie:
That’s awesome.

Gary Jones:
That’s how suddenly I was in way more scenes from Season Seven or Eight and beyond, ’cause it went 10 seasons. I was in tons of scenes because I was with him.

Paul McGillion:
It’s cool.

Gary Jones:
And that was him. But I will tell you, in this episode called “2010” when they went into the future and the Stargate was a tourist attraction in the future.

Paul McGillion:
Was it?

Gary Jones:
Yeah, it was, and I was the tour guide and they come in from the future and they walk in and I recognize him. And I go, “Colonel?” And RDA looks at me and he goes, “Walter?” And my name wasn’t Walter. He just said, “Walter?” And I thought, “Have I read the script wrong? Is there somebody standing behind me named Walter? Why is he calling me Walter?” And of course, you can’t stop the scene. So, I just carry on. And I’m not kidding. Scene ends, they go, “Rick, that was great. Just one thing. Gary’s character is not called Walter.” And he goes, “Well, it is now.”

Ellie Harvie:
It is now.

Gary Jones:
And then he leaves and they look at me and they go, “Well, I guess you’re Walter.”

Ellie Harvie:
“OK, Walter.”

Gary Jones:
And I go, “What?” And then, I don’t know if you know this, but my last name Harriman, it used to be Davis. I was Norman Davis. So, I already got changed to Norman Walter Davis. Then in a scene with Don Davis, General Hammond, he told me to open the iris, but he called me an Airman ’cause I was in the Air Force. And he would go, “Open the iris, Airman. Open the iris, Airman.” And they kept saying that’s how he pronounced Airman. They kept going, “Don, can you do it again?” “Open the iris, Airman.” And finally, they sent him away and they said, “Well, it sounds so much like Harriman. Let’s just change Gary’s name to Harriman.” And I’m hearing this and I’m going, “Harriman? What are you talking about?”

Paul McGillion:
I thought I was Norman.

Gary Jones:
He said, “Well, you’re Walter Harriman now, because Don can’t pronounce the word Airman.”

Paul McGillion:
And it worked out for you.

Gary Jones:
And it worked out for me. And I have 8x10s of myself with the name tag Norman Davis. And Walter Harriman.

Paul McGillion:
That my friends, it’s a collector’s item.

Gary Jones:
Isn’t that crazy?

Paul McGillion:
Shall we walk?

Gary Jones:
Yes. Let’s walk.

Ellie Harvie:
I don’t know if we can tell this story. Can we tell this story? I remember…

Paul McGillion:
I don’t know.

Ellie Harvie:
I’m gonna say it. Wait for the camera.

Gary Jones:
Which is the story?

Ellie Harvie:
It’s the story you sleeping in that chair?

Paul McGillion:
That’s with Mario Azzopardi?

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Ellie Harvie:
The first episode, I get a call from my agent saying they need to do an emergency casting for a recurring role on Stargate. And I’m like, “Huh.” And then I’m like, “OK, I’ll go down and do it.” And then I get a call, “No, it’s canceled. It’s OK.” I was like, “What happened?” But I talked to my friend, Gary. And Gary tells me this story. Can I tell you the story how I remember it?

Gary Jones:
Yeah.

Ellie Harvie:
He tells me the story. He goes, “I was in the background of this scene and it was a long day and I was tired. I just put my head down for a second.”

Gary Jones:
No, I just closed my eyes.

Ellie Harvie:
You just closed your eyes.

Gary Jones:
I literally went and closed my eyes.

Ellie Harvie:
And fell asleep. And the director ended up coming right up to you…OK, I don’t know this part. What did you end up doing?

Gary Jones:
OK. So, basically, if fans know the layout of the SG, I was up in the control room and the director was down in the gate room with all these extras. And I was so tired. I’d been sitting there for hours and I just closed my eyes. I wasn’t even asleep. That was the thing. It was the one time I’d closed my eyes and he threw a nickel at the glass. And it goes “ting” on the… And I woke up and he’s looking at me and he goes… And I was like, “Oh, my god.”

Paul McGillion:
No, Chief.

Gary Jones:
He went like this… And I had such a shot of adrenaline that I was awake for… And then I came in the next day and I was like, “OK, that’s not happening again.” Then it happened again. I did it two days in a row. That’s why you got that emergency call.

Ellie Harvie:
But how did you get out of that?

Gary Jones:
I did nothing. Mario went to the producers and said, “Get rid of that guy.” And they said, “No.”

Ellie Harvie:
I could’ve been Bernice Herriman. Or whatever his name is in that show.

Gary Jones:
You could’ve been.

Paul McGillion:
And you could be hiccupping your way right through the Stargate.

Gary Jones:
And the second time I did it, he goes like this. He looks at me and he goes… Like two strikes.

Ellie Harvie:
That’s terrifying.

Gary Jones:
And I’m staring at him going, “OK, what do I do?” And all I did was stay there and–

Ellie Harvie:
Because in fairness, if it’s a scene where you don’t have dialogue, and it’s many takes, it can really aggravate you.

Paul McGillion:
He’s not even in the same room.

Gary Jones:
I wasn’t even in the scene. I was in a room outside of the scene. But he was like, “You should watch this. You can’t close your eyes if I’m directing. Watch what I do. Watch me. What are you doing closing your eyes?”

Ellie Harvie:
Did he come back years later?

Gary Jones:
He never did. No.

Ellie Harvie:
So, that was pretty much his criteria? His main criteria.

Paul McGillion:
He directed a bunch of Atlantis.

Ellie Harvie:
He threw over him ’cause–

Paul McGillion:
But you know what? I’m glad they did, because we wouldn’t be doing this really, quite frankly. It’s gonna be fun.

Ellie Harvie:
[inaudible]

Gary Jones:
It’d be great. It would be great if we just kept walking and walked straight into the water.

Paul McGillion:
Right into the water.

Ellie Harvie:
You know what?

Gary Jones:
Like Bruce Dern at the end…

Ellie Harvie:
How committed to comedy are you?

Gary Jones:
…at the end of Coming Home.

Paul McGillion:
Gary, start stripping down right now. I don’t think anybody wants to see that. It’s quite hairy. I wouldn’t do that. That’s quite Harriman. Look at this. All right.

Ellie Harvie:
You know what? The camera guys are gonna go in the ocean.

Paul McGillion:
What is that? Is that someone’s underwear? What’s going on here?

Ellie Harvie:
Can you throw it for me?

Paul McGillion:
Yeah.

Gary Jones:
Fetch.

Paul McGillion:
Attagirl.

Gary Jones:
Bring it back. Bring it back now.

Paul McGillion:
They’re improv artists.

Ellie Harvie:
All right, guys.

Paul McGillion:
This is beautiful.

Ellie Harvie:
That was fun.

Paul McGillion:
Thank you.

Ellie Harvie:
You know what? I think it’s so great that there’s this whole pool of fans that are supporting performers like me, and you guys, Vancouver performers, and that they could actually have the pull to make this series come back to this city.

Gary Jones:
That’s the thing that amazes me.

Ellie Harvie:
It’s crazy.

Gary Jones:
I’ve heard so many over the years, fans at conventions going, “Are they gonna do it again? They’re gonna…” And I was like, “How is that possible?” You can’t put lightning in a bottle twice, and here they are doing it again. It’s the fans. The fans did it.

Paul McGillion:
Listen, they brought Carson back. They can bring Stargate back. Honestly, I can speak for all of us, and all the actors who had a chance to work on the show, and the crews that have. It’s been a great show. It’s been a great journey. Watching families get together and go to conventions and grow up with them all over the world. I’m so, so happy for all of you that get to see the new Stargate. Whenever it comes out, it’s gonna be awesome. We’re thrilled to be part of it.

Ellie Harvie:
And thank you.

Paul McGillion:
Thank you.

Gary Jones:
Chevron seven is locked.

Paul McGillion:
Nice. Thank you very much. Beckett out.