Kevin McNulty’s “Dr. Warner” is synonymous with the early years of Stargate SG-1, from his fateful surgery attempting to save Charles Kawalsky. Join us for a sit-down with the actor to discuss the SGC surgeon, “Chancellor Lycus” from Atlantis, and his career.

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Good day, everyone, and welcome to Dial the Gate: The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I appreciate you being here for me for this one. Kevin McNulty, he goes back to the first season of Stargate Atlantis [sic] as Dr. Warner in a very memorable episode called–it’s escaping me right now–of course, “The Enemy Within.” Gosh. And he played that character for the first three seasons of the series, and then went on to play Lycus, Chancellor Lycus in Stargate Atlantis Season Two’s “Inferno” as well. But we’re also on here to get to know him a little bit more, and some of his backstory. Kevin McNulty, welcome to Dial the Gate. Thank you for being with me, sir.

Kevin McNulty:
Hey, nice to be here. Nice to meet you, David.

David Read:
Absolutely. And I told you this beforehand, but I was like, “You know what? I really need to share this for everyone.” We just had Alex Zahara on, and he told me to tell you hello, and he hasn’t forgotten that you killed him in Cold Squad, so…

Kevin McNulty:
That’s funny. I haven’t seen him for a long time.

David Read:
Vancouver is full of people who worked on this series for 17 seasons. I can’t imagine the number of people that I’ve had on. You could probably go down the list. I know them, I know them, I worked with them, I worked too much with them, I know them. What does Stargate mean to that community up there, do you think?

Kevin McNulty:
That’s exactly what I did. I IMDb’d Stargate, and I looked at the cast. And you get down to people who have done one episode, and there’s, I’m gonna say, hundreds. And you go through the list and you say, “Oh, there’s so-and-so, there’s so-and-so, there’s so-and-so.” And it’s– I’ll say this right now is that this podcast or YouTube cast is a living history of film in Vancouver. It melds all these stories of all these different actors, and producers, and writers, and directors, and all that. And if you listen to it, there’s an amazing amount of detail that gets filled in and filled in. It’s really quite incredible, and congratulations.

David Read:
Thank you, sir. That means a lot to me. That was the intent all along. And the number of people who made the show possible over the years is quite extraordinary. No one rowed in a boat alone in order to get this one made. You all created something pretty phenomenal. And you go back, really, to the very beginning. And I wanna get into that in just a couple of minutes here. But I’m gonna spring one on you. I hope you’re OK with that. But I’m looking at your studio behind you there, and we do show and tell sometimes on this show. Is this some of your work behind you here, and is there anything that you’re willing to share, if so, that you’ve made? I’m just looking at the space that you’re in.

Kevin McNulty:
Yeah. This is my shed. So, that’s my piano back there. It’s buried right now. But no, I’ve morphed into an artist in the last couple years, and I think I was always more of an artist than a musician. I remember in the seventh grade before you go into high school, there was electives and you could choose music or art. And I played piano at the time, and I thought, “Oh, I’ll take music,” because that’ll be an easy whatever. I was 13 or something thinking that. But I should have taken art. I really should have.

David Read:
Should have been brave. It’s so easy to look into our younger selves and say, “You know, you could have been brave there.” It’s like, “Yeah, I know, but I didn’t.” But do what you can now. So, it sounds like you found it.

Kevin McNulty:
That’s exactly what I’m doing, and I’m enjoying it. It’s rather meditative.

David Read:
Is there a piece you’d be willing to share?

Kevin McNulty:
Not really. No, not offhand.

David Read:
I’m not gonna put you on the spot.

Kevin McNulty:
I could– I have pictures of things. But…

David Read:
No, it’s all right.

Kevin McNulty:
I don’t think there’s any real piece right here.

David Read:
No, I wanted you to have the opportunity though, ’cause I– Tom McBeath I’ve had on, and Tom, the whole wall behind him was filled with things from First Nation and all– His wall behind him was a portrait of Vancouver, so we must have spent half an hour going through every piece through the YouTube channel.

Kevin McNulty:
Nice.

David Read:
Gary Jones was the same with him and his son’s paintings.

Kevin McNulty:
In my shed right now, I have an ashtray that Tom McBeath gave me, because he worked with my wife, who said Kevin was looking for– It’s the old-style standup ashtray that sat on the floor, it had a whole stand, and the size of the ashtray is about this big and it’s black glass. And he found one and he came over for some reason, and he said, “Oh, I found this a couple of months ago. Here, have it.” I said, “Are you kidding?” Small world.

David Read:
Thoughtful that way. When did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in acting? When did you realize that, “You know what? I think I may have something that I can give back here?” You were already performing, I guess, piano at a fairly young age it sounds like. But what spawned that direction?

Kevin McNulty:
I’ve thought of this for a while because I wasn’t any kind of a film buff. I didn’t have any film idols or anything like that from very young. I remember one of the earliest memories I ever had was playing El Kabong, and I think the neighbor kids had a Zorro outfit that came with a cape and a hat, and probably the visor thing. There goes the dogs.

David Read:
It’s okay. We had dogs in the last one too.

Kevin McNulty:
I realized that it comes from Quick Draw McGraw and that Quick Draw McGraw, who is a white horse sheriff cartoon, would go around and find the bad guys and kabong them with a guitar, and that’s how he’d capture them. He’s like, “You’re under arrest. El Kabong.” And we did this. I’m thinking I’m five, six, seven years old, and I remember doing it and I was the one who was dressed up and doing the kabonging, and we would do it like 20 times in a row or something, and just laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. I remember that. That’s a very specific young memory.

David Read:
You weren’t smashing any guitars, were you? Smashing the splinters.

Kevin McNulty:
No, no, no. I wasn’t injuring any fellow children either. Apparently. Around the same time, another distinct memory I have is, I wasn’t one for throwing fits as a child, but at this particular time, I was told to do something and I didn’t want to do it or something, and I actually threw a fit. I remember the kitchen floor, the family, so it’s me and at least four siblings. I think one wasn’t born then. And I remember throwing myself to the floor and kicking and screaming, and I was so upset about whatever, I don’t even remember what it was, and the crowd laughed. They laughed. And I registered that. And I swear, I might have been five years old or six years old or something, but I registered the laugh. And then moving on, when I was six years old, I started piano, and that lasted until puberty, I guess. So, I was constantly playing piano. In the fourth grade, so I believe I was 10 years old, the family up and moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, don’t you know. We were only there for six months. My dad had something going on. And I joined the St. Anthony’s Boys Choir, which was the school I went to and the church that was a part of it, because they have Catholic schools in Calgary, or they did at that time. Anyway, I loved– My mother sang in the choir in church, and so that was a big part of my growing up. The choir in Calgary were taken into a studio to record a commercial. So, this is my first professional gig at, I believe I would have been 10 years old, maybe 11. 10, I think, and we sang a jingle for The Bay’s 295th birthday. “Come to the celebration, 295 years, da, da, da, da, da, da, at The Bay.” I still have it in my head. And I was a very solid soprano. That was my first professional gig. Moving on, I did some community stuff where I grew up in small-town Rossland, British Columbia, Canada. And another thing I remember is, in grade 10, I failed grade 10 and I had to come to Vancouver to go to summer school, and I stayed with a social worker who was a friend of my mother’s. And she, one afternoon, had this client come over, and this kid was, I don’t know, in his 20s I’m sure. I’m like 16 at the time. And he was high on something, and I didn’t know that then, but he was quite lively and– Anyway, I must have told him that I wanted to be an actor. So, that is when I finished grade 10. That’s in my head somehow, because he started to improv. He says, “OK. You’re gonna get on the back of my motorbike and we’re gonna drive down to LA and we’re gonna get you an agent. OK? OK? So, OK. I’m gonna–” So, he started improv-ing. He said, “OK, I’m gonna be the agent. You come into the room and you talk to me.” And I’ll always remember that. But it indicated to me that I did have in my head, at that time, that I wanted to be some sort of actor. So, there’s that. And then my high school music teacher, I asked him– Because I was interested in music as well, because of the piano, and I played tuba in the band. I said, “Where would you go if you wanted to go into either music or theater?” And he said, “Well, if you wanna go into music, go to the States.” He was a trumpet player, and I think he was very good. At the time, I looked into it, and at the time Washington State had a reciprocal agreement with British Columbia, and I could go to the States and pay in-state tuition. I wasn’t a foreign student, for whatever reason. And I looked into Washington State University, and I went, and I majored in theater, which I think they called speech for some reason, but my minor was in music, and I spent all my time in the university choir. Oh man, I just loved it. So, my first year there I was taking general university requirements, so I had a little bit of acting stuff, but not much. And at the same time, a good friend, Jerry Sylvester, was the dean at Langara College in Vancouver, and there was a program there called Studio 58. And my mother kept saying to me, “Kevin, you should go to Langara, because there’s apparently an amazing theater program there.” And I said, “Mom, it’s a community college. I am university material. I don’t do colleges.” Seriously, I said that, so I lasted at Washington State University for a year and a half, and I ran out of money basically, even though in those times, the BC government gave you grants and there was student loans and I think, as a student, there was a lot of luxury around me. Anyway, I couldn’t afford it, and I indeed auditioned for Studio 58 and started there in 1980, and in those days, you could do two straight years, six terms in two years, which I did. So, I graduated May of ’82. I tootled around. I got an agent. I didn’t even have to get an agent. An agent picked me out of theater school. Didn’t have to do that, and then I did a little bit of theater, and shortly thereafter I auditioned for Stratford. I went to Stratford in ’84 as an apprentice, a serious spear carrier, and then was bumped up to the young company in ’85. And so here’s one. So, it had to be before I went to Stratford, because I was a background extra in The NeverEnding Story, and it came out in ’84. So, I guess that it would’ve been ’83, sometime shortly out of Studio 58. I was a background extra, and you can see me in the opening scene of that show. It’s a shot in Gastown, and I’m a pedestrian. I’m wearing a beard and a tan trench coat, and I just walk across the screen. Almost 10 years exactly later, I was the kid’s dad, so a supporting lead, in NeverEnding Story III. So, that is really the arc of my acting career, to get from sort of zero to 100, and that would’ve been the middle of the ’90s, where I was quite busy in the middle of the ’90s with a lot of sleazy lawyers and bad people, stuff like that.

David Read:
Ugh. But not in Stargate, you weren’t.

Kevin McNulty:
Was there anything else in there? Yeah, that was my whole acting thing, but I really have a hard time thinking– There wasn’t one thing that said, “Oh, I’m gonna head out there and be an actor, because that looks good.”

David Read:
It was pieces of things that fell together. Had you heard of Stargate? Had you seen the feature? This thing’s coming to Vancouver. There was some buzz around it, from what I’ve been told. How did this percolate into your brain?

Kevin McNulty:
No, zero, none of that. I’m no kind of sci-fi nerd. I probably would’ve heard– Let me tell you right now that I looked this up, and MacGyver shot 94 episodes, and I bet I auditioned for at least 50 of those and never got one.

David Read:
You and Tom. Tom didn’t either.

Kevin McNulty:
Is that right?

David Read:
Yes.

Kevin McNulty:
But boy, tried really hard, and then after that I got an audition for Stargate, and I don’t remember, but I’m sure I would’ve heard that Stargate was going on. But no, it was the first episode. But I remember, I went in for Dr. Warner, and the scene for the audition was operating…

David Read:
On Kawalsky.

Kevin McNulty:
On Kawalsky. And I remember very distinctly– I’m actually operating, eyeline and all this, and in the middle of it, I don’t do this very often, but I said, “Nurse, could you scratch my nose?” And it wasn’t a written line. And Carol Kelsay, who was casting, laughed. I remember she laughed when I did that. And I’m pretty sure that had something to do with me getting in there. Seriously.

David Read:
This tense situation. A character that we’ve been attached to from the pilot, which is the only thing at that point, who’s– This is carried over from the film. And part of me wishes that they could have kept something like that in, had you gotten it past the audition. But also at the same time, it would have been, I can see why. But for the audition, that’s great.

Kevin McNulty:
I’m not one to, ’cause usually I try to do word perfect, and I’m trepidatious about straying very far from there.

David Read:
What do you think happened? Can I analyze that for just a second here? What flitted its way through your brain to where it was, “Oh, I’m going for it.?” Was it the ease of the room at that particular time? Because especially with really more technical roles like this one, you’re saying a lot of stuff that’s in some cases, gobbledygook. You have to have an interpreter to sometimes help you understand it, just so you can believe what you’re saying. Where is it on an instinctual level where part of you just allows yourself to, in that situation, go with your gut? Because as an actor, you have to do that a lot. You have to feel your way through a performance as well as say it.

Kevin McNulty:
I shy away from a lot of that. But I know that I was comfortable with Carol Kelsay for sure because I had seen her for quite a bit of time up till then. And also, I was pretty comfortable because I often got scientists and stuff who have two pages of gobbledygook, you need a translator for it. But I would have to memorize that on set. And I was actually quite used to big chunks of that kind of stuff. So, who knows why that came into my mind, but I’m happy it happened.

David Read:
It’s terrific. This episode was a very, very early example that this show had legs. It is a favorite of mine, even though it’s basically the only episode that exists after the pilot at this stage. And it hits home just how dangerous these things are, that we can’t get them out. There’s something very scary about that. And Warner is confident that he can do the procedure, but he doesn’t know that this thing has the ability to mimic and do all kinds of strange things. I’m curious. In looking back on that episode, do you have any other takeaways from that episode?

Kevin McNulty:
No. David, I don’t have that brain to think like that. I really don’t. I did notice some bad acting in there. But no, the whole revisit of Stargate, I remember a couple of situations. I remember being up in the control booth. I don’t know if that was a part of Episode 1, but it was when some–

David Read:
Teryl Rothery?

Kevin McNulty:
Yes. Something serious had happened to her.

David Read:
“Legacy.” You’re teaching people how to separate blood from plasma with the centrifuges.

Kevin McNulty:
That’s right. So, I sort of remember that being in the control booth up there. I don’t remember very much else. But looking back, I remember Charles Porlier, the special-effects makeup guy, beautiful man. I remember sitting in the makeup room with him. I mean, I think we’re hanging around. But he was actually making the Goa’uld that I believe came out in the operation, that slimy little thingy. He was making that. So, that was pretty cool. Revisiting it, it reminded me of all the people that I met, like John Smith, for instance. I barely saw him on Stargate, but in 1988, we did a beer commercial where I played the discoverer, Simon Fraser, going down a river. And it’s such a fun little spot. But he was in charge of the boats. And I remember him quite well. And I don’t know if he was also a producer on the movie, because I know that he had done some stuff. But it was sort of fascinating to rethink some of that. And another one is Don Davis. I’m not sure if we connected very much on the show. But we ended up going to– We both got this commercial for John West Fish out of Australia, and it shot in Ketchikan, of all places. So they flew us up to Ketchikan and we had a wonderful, I’m gonna say two days, three days maybe. But it turns out that he was a woodworker, like an artist in his own right. But he did some really precision kind of woodworking, and I was and still am into that. So we had a ton in common. And what a beautiful man as well. He was the greatest. So, yeah. It’s some of the people like that. And of course when you’ve done this as long as I have, you watch the crews come from puppies, being assistant PAs, directing people in the parking lot to become directors of series. And guys on the camera becoming DPs over time. It’s a pretty cool journey to remember that everybody was young. Everybody was …

David Read:
We all have to start somewhere.

Kevin McNulty:
And because the community is fairly small, you get to revisit them every time you go on a different set. The crews are changing and you’re changing. And then they’re watching you at the same time too. So, very cool.

David Read:
Your Don Davis story is great because I remember him telling me once in an earlier interview, “Years ago, before I decided I wanted to be cremated.” And that’s how he continued. He said, “If I ever had an epitaph on my tombstone, it would be, ‘He was good with his hands.'” He loved woodworking, he loved carving, he loved drawing. He was a master with it, and I so wish I could’ve had one of his pieces. I do have– Down here in this little pyramidal box is George Hammond’s, one of two wedding rings that Don wore throughout the run of Stargate. So I do have a piece of him, as it were.

Kevin McNulty:
Oh, good.

David Read:
Salt-of-the-earth Ozark man.

Kevin McNulty:
Loved the accent. There’s one other one in– I did Schmigadoon! in 2020 that came out, the first season of Schmigadoon!. And after it aired, they invited me to go to New York for a panel for the Screen Actors Guild. I think it was a nom– It was to be nominated for a Screen Actors Award. So they flew me, I think, two nights in New York. So it was a business-class ticket, which I split with my daughter. So we went down and did the event, and then we spent four or five days after running around, going to theater. In New York, as I was wont to do at the time, after we finished seeing whatever theater we saw, I went looking for a bar. And we were close to Times Square, and I found this bar, and I think it’s called Ralph’s Bar. And I go in and I’m sure it’s 10:00 or 11:00 at night to start. And I’m thinking it’s a very small bar. And there’s one guy behind the counter, and he’s entertaining some women at the bar. And I sit pretty close to them, and I listen to the banter. And the women are actually quite foul, the language they’re using. And I’m thinking, “This is quite entertaining.” And I watch for a little while and I talk to whoever’s next to me. And I talk a bit to the bartender and this and that. And an hour or so in, he says to me, “Hey, you got a birthday coming up.” And I said, “What? How would you know that?” And as it turns out, he is a Stargate kook. And he recognizes me. And then he– I put my tab on a credit card. So he sees my name, googles my name, I’m sure, all while I’m sitting there, and realizes who I am. And anyway, I just thought that was incredible. I spent the next few nights at that bar having a wonderful time. He also did a mean rap kind of karaoke behind the bar.

David Read:
Did he ever give you a free drink? Come on.

Kevin McNulty:
Yes, yes, yes.

David Read:
Your birthday’s coming up.

Kevin McNulty:
Yes, yes. And I promised him a Stargate card because I’ve had to sign cards and stuff, and I had some kicking around here, but I never did find it. Anyway, I don’t know if he’s a nut, and nuts watch this show, he could be watching. And if you’re out there, Andrew, here’s to you.

David Read:
During my Ben Browder interview, I relayed the one time that I could remember being spotted in public by someone who heard my voice and knew who I was through GateWorld, the channel that I was on all the way back in 2002. And I mentioned this to Ben, where I was at a subway, and this guy recognized my voice ’cause he listened to our podcast. Lo and behold, a couple of days later, in the comments section, it says, “David, I’m still here.” It’s like, “My God.” It was clearly him. He responded a little bit more, and it is a small world. You never know where you’re going to find a Stargate fan. And yes, we are everywhere, including behind bars entertaining folks.

Kevin McNulty:
Nice. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I think there would be live viewers, but there’s also people who’ll pick this up later, and hello to all of them out there, your viewer listeners.

David Read:
Absolutely. And we’ve got some fan questions coming together for you right now. Should I dive into those, actually, while we weave through the rest of the conversation?

Kevin McNulty:
Yes, for sure. Fan questions.

David Read:
Yes. Raj Luthra wanted to know, and I need to frame this. My understanding is that, when they needed Warner, you would just get a call, or when that character fit into a situation, they would ring you up because it is a base. There is a consistency in terms of– There is some, obviously, attrition and turnover in any facility, military or not, but they did wanna bring in some consistency to that universe. Did you know if there were potentially plans to bring you in after Season Three for more episodes, or was it, “I’ve got a call. It’s for this episode and this scene. I’m going in to do this job?” Was it just one after the other when you would get them and, “They’ve called me up. My name is up again, so here I go?”

Kevin McNulty:
I’ll be honest. I can’t remember. But I’m gonna bet that what would happen is, I would hope that they’re gonna have him back. “He’s a good doctor. I’m sure they’ll have him back. He’s important to the story. I’m sure.” That’s what any actor hopes for anything. And I’m sure that’s how it happened. I mean, I might’ve had some heads-up for some of them, but I don’t know.

David Read:
For sure. Jakub remembers the episode “Spirits” where you briefly played an alien who looks like Dr. Warner. This was an episode where everyone was in an alter ego situation. There was a wolf on set during that time. Did you get to see any of that?

Kevin McNulty:
No.

David Read:
OK, very good. It’s a great performance because you don’t often get to play characters who are playing other characters, except in science fiction. And a couple of other genres.

Kevin McNulty:
And I actually just watched that, and I kind of enjoyed my little thing as an alien, ’cause I would tip my head like, “Oh, that doesn’t–” It was really quite subtle, but I kind of enjoyed it.

David Read:
And making people disappear by waving hands, doing this kind of thing a lot. They were doing a lot of this. It’s funny. Kevin Weaver wants to know, do you have any memories from Snakes on a Plane? A little bit more recent.

Kevin McNulty:
Yeah. I was in the control tower, so I had kind of zero to do with the plane, and I didn’t even meet the stars other than the people that I knew in Vancouver. It was kind of a lonely little role, but high-profile because of the movie.

David Read:
For sure. No. I have yet to see it, ’cause snakes really creep me out, generally speaking, unless my buddy, who’s a handler, is specifically with me. Then I can deal with it. But I’ve heard many things about– I remember Samuel L. Jackson, I think, one of the reasons– He did the dubbing for the television version because he insisted on doing it– Sorry?

Kevin McNulty:
‘Cause of the swears.

David Read:
The swears, exactly. “I’m sick and tired of these darn fricking snakes on this Monday through Friday plane.” It’s so absurd. Gosh. It was so funny.

Kevin McNulty:
It seems to me that it was called …

David Read:
It had an alternate title.

Kevin McNulty:
… Hawaiian Air. What was it called?

David Read:
It had an alternate title, but I don’t remember what it was.

Kevin McNulty:
It was like Hawaiian Air Heavy or something, to denote a 747. And I think–

David Read:
Pacific Air Flight 121. That’s so generic.

Kevin McNulty:
OK. It seems to me that I heard Snakes on a Plane before it was even announced or even suggested that it would seem to be the natural name for that.

David Read:
Just go for the jugular, guys. Come on. The things that get stuck in our heads. Bernd Backhaus wants to know, “Are you aware that you were credited as Kevin McNaulty, M-C-N-A-U-L-T-Y, in a Stingray episode, or was this a typo by the studio?”

Kevin McNulty:
I gotta assume it’s a typo by the studio.

David Read:
OK. Aw, Come on guys. You have one job for the tiles.

Kevin McNulty:
And I get alerts if the N isn’t capitalized. And then there was also an actor, and I think he must’ve been in Vancouver. His name was Kevin Clifford McNulty.

David Read:
Oh no.

Kevin McNulty:
And I never met him, but he was on something, and it ended up on my IMDb. And I tried to change it. I don’t know if you ever tr–

David Read:
I have tried to change things. They’re very hard to do.

Kevin McNulty:
They’re very hard to do. And I think it might still be there. I don’t think he got any credits after that, but whatever.

David Read:
I’m happy to try on your behalf if you send me an email, because they also allow you to send documents, submissions as proof. If you email me afterwards about that, it takes three minutes for me to go in there and forward the correction. I’d be happy to do that for you ’cause I have an IMDbPro account.

Kevin McNulty:
Nice. I might do that.

David Read:
Absolutely. Tip of the hat to you for making sure the right people get their due. Interestingly enough, N. John Smith has had that problem too, because there is another producer by the name of John N. Smith. And not only have they crisscrossed a couple of their credits, they also get each other’s mail. Small world. “Do you remember anything from working with Brad Wright in Travelers?” Lockwatcher wanted to know. Another great sci-fi show.

Kevin McNulty:
No. I’m sure I would’ve met Brad Wright once or twice. But I would never be hanging with him or anything. I actually probably didn’t know who he was, even when he was introduced around Stargate.

David Read:
OK. I enjoy the fact that you have all of these characters that we get to build a relationship with over the course of, in SG-1’s case, 10 seasons of television. Is there anything that you have enjoyed about carrying on a performance, even if it’s little bit parts here and there over the course of several episodes or seasons or years of programming, where you get to come back and revisit this character and maybe add a little something more or, like, “Well, the script is going that way in this episode. I didn’t think that the character could do that, but let’s try it on and see what happens.” What is it like approaching returning to a character every couple of years to take another stab at something, and do you ever feel more of a kinship towards those characters that you get to revisit?

Kevin McNulty:
That’s pretty rare that you even get that opportunity. I’m trying to think, Stargate, you’re suggesting that my work on Star–

David Read:
You did three years on that.

Kevin McNulty:
It was three. That’s sort of incredible to even think of. See, I don’t remember that. But there’s obviously a certain comfort to knowing that while you’ve been there, and you’re this guy, and you do that again, so there’s a level of comfort to start there. I did three seasons of Arctic Air as number three on the call sheet, and that’s my comfort zone. That’s where you go to work, and it’s not new faces every day. You get to know people and you get to know yourself and the situations that your character is going into and stuff. It’s funny ’cause just looking at my resume brings back stuff too. Robson Arms too, doing a little tiny chunk on Robson Arms. There’s some stuff– I don’t know about–. That’s very rare. I did a couple of things on The X-Files too. I actually played Agent Fuller, and then in another season, I believe it would’ve been another season, I played Agent Fuller again, but it was a different Agent Fuller.

David Read:
Seriously?

Kevin McNulty:
Yeah.

David Read:
What are the odds of that? It’s not like Jones or– Interesting.

Kevin McNulty:
I don’t know why, but I think it was known at that time.

David Read:
So, they knew what they were doing and they did it anyway. Interesting.

Kevin McNulty:
Yeah, actually, I don’t know if anybody’s mentioned Frank Garcia in town. He does your demo reels. He has done my current demo reel. It’s probably ancient. But anything that comes up, he has access to all sorts of stuff that’s out there way, way faster than somebody like me. So he sends me stuff. He sent me something about one of the writers on X-Files. And I listened to it. I thought, “That’s sort of fascinating.” And then he sent me this book. It’s right here. It’s the– something about the X-Files, but it’s not the condoned version. It’s not through the studios or anything.

David Read:
It’s unauthorized.

Kevin McNulty:
Unauthorized. There’s a whole little section on me. And there’s some stuff that I had never seen before about–

David Read:
Fuller?

Kevin McNulty:
About X-Files stuff. And some it makes it sound like I’m telling the story, but I had never heard this story before. But there is one where I couldn’t– I had signed up for some theater gig and X-Files came back. I think this was the second Agent Fuller. And it ended up going to the guy who had worked on my house two weeks before or something, Ryan Michael. He’s a carpenter himself.

David Read:
Isn’t that a small world?

Kevin McNulty:
Yeah.

David Read:
Now, X-Files has a ravaging fan base. Real conspiracy buffs go down that rabbit hole. Even Jeandiata Smith is a fan of Arctic Air. She brought that up as well. She said there were a number of Stargate talent that appeared on that show. You just crisscross each other throughout your lives. There’s Tom McBeath again. I just went up and saw Tom in March. He did A Doll’s House Part 2 live. Man, he’s good live. Extraordinary. I feel a little bit like I’m kicking a dead dog with moving on to Chancellor Lycus with Atlantis. This was a number of years later. It’s technically the same universe, but it’s a different series. This was a volcano episode. You were a leader of another world. Brandy Ledford was kind of a lieutenant. She’s been on the show. She’s wonderful. Was it a little bizarre to be back? “I’m in the Stargate world again, but I’m not.” It was kinda funny. Was there any reticence to taking that on?

Kevin McNulty:
No, my goodness, no. I wouldn’t even put the two together. This is a whole different thing. So, I looked at that one and I thought, one of my big memories about that show is that Peter DeLuise directed, I think, that whole thing and what he would do. And with that gang of the stars who– Isn’t there four of ’em that are roaming ar– They’re all on set. Something happens. I don’t know if the volcano is about to go and things are shaken. There’s gotta be 20 people on set, moving actors. And the scene would be perhaps two minutes long. And they would do it, shoot it, and then you would hear him yelling from somewhere, “OK, we’re still rolling. Everyone back to ones. Everyone go, go, go.” And everybody would go back to ones.

David Read:
Starting position.

Kevin McNulty:
Yes, and we’d done the scene maybe five times in a row. And I thought, “Does that suggest that that’s the first time that the digital cameras, you could just leave ’em running and it really didn’t matter?” I don’t know. I hadn’t seen that on set before. And it was mayhem, just mayhem, because you’d– How do you fix things? How do you give notes? “Well, do it like this.” None of that. I’m sure there’s technical things going on. Anyway, I really remember that. And the other thing is, on Atlantis, is that I see this actor. And I think, “Who is that?” And it’s Jason Momoa. And I thought, “I’ve worked with–” I didn’t work with him, but I’d been in the same scene as Jason Momoa, and I didn’t even realize that. I don’t pay attention. I didn’t at the time.

David Read:
Going back and rewatching now, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve seen that guy in movies and TV.” You never know who’s going to catch fire.

Kevin McNulty:
I know. Another fascinating thing about revisiting that whole world.

David Read:
It’s a small one, yet it’s a significant one. This is a show that ran for 17 seasons of television, over 350 episodes, in that neighborhood. And it’s continued to have an impact on so many people. I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “Why do you think it’s continuing to be a success in streaming?” And I would like to ask you the same thing, not necessarily as a science fiction fan, but as a fan of arts and entertainment, why do you think something like that can sustain itself with the fan base over decades at this point, with generations of people still watching it. Are we all insane? We could be. Seriously.

Kevin McNulty:
I have no idea. I really like, though, the first time Richard Dean opens his mouth, he– Doesn’t he make a joke?

David Read:
Pretty much every time, yeah. Very often. He’s whimsical.

Kevin McNulty:
That’s very attractive to an audience. Especially in “The Enemy Within,” you just jump in, it’s a cold open into there’s people banging at the gate and we’d better do something about it. It’s a tense situation and he’s cracking jokes, so I think that’s very attractive for an audience, stuff like that. And I don’t know, even looking at it now, I’m buying the Gate as a– It’s as technical as I need when you’re looking at stuff. I go, “I’d buy that.” It’s gonna open up, there’s this filmy stuff that you can go through, why not? I get all that, so I can see why people are still interested in it. Great characters.

David Read:
What is your plan, are you still acting now? Are you planning on retiring any time soon? I like to ask this, especially of folks like Tom, Jay Brazeau… I’m gonna be frank, the days ahead are fewer than the days behind. At this point what is it that you want to focus on a little bit more in terms of any work that you do? What has time taught you about expending energy on certain things that are valuable to you? Is there anything that you can leave us with to chew on in terms of how we allocate our time for the future?

Kevin McNulty:
First of all, I don’t think actors are allowed to retire.

David Read:
OK. Jack Nicholson would disagree, but I think he’s wrong.

Kevin McNulty:
I don’t think you’re really allowed to. Talking about Brazeau, I just played Doc in West Side Story because Brazeau dropped out. Because he just got a pacemaker put in his body and he’s fine now.

David Read:
Thank God.

Kevin McNulty:
I got the benefit of that little adventure. This, the whole pandemic thing that switched an audition in the room into an audition at home, it changed things. In some things, it’s a good way. I like to audition at home because you can do as many takes as you want and find your finest one and send it in. The downside is that you can’t interact with the people who are in the room.

David Read:
Can’t take any notes, prove that you can pivot.

Kevin McNulty:
But the other thing is that with the auditions on tape, casting is looking at 100 instead of 12. I find that since the pandemic, there’s still auditions. Obviously they get fewer as I get older. But I’m not getting the callbacks, even if it was a Zoom callback, I’m not getting those like I used to, because the field is so much larger, and I think that kinda turned me off, that I’m thinking, “Oh, I’m doing a lot more of this.” And as a good actor you still wanna memorize your stuff and you wanna be as– You gotta spend some time to do those auditions. That’s changed, but things are gonna keep a-changing. People are worried about AI, and I kind of think we will adapt to anything, doesn’t matter what happens. Even if the industry goes away completely, something won’t. I think people will always want real performances. It might be fun and it might be kitschy to see some AI-generated complete film, say, but there’s gonna be something missing in it, and people will always want that. And I think you get that, you really find that in live theater, that it’s amazing. You don’t even know, you could be watching a film, but the idea that that person is over there and in the same room as you and they’re telling their story and you get to feel it, that is a whole thing that has to be live. And I think it’s the same thing in film, is that you have to believe that there’s a real person under there, even though you know that they’re a character and they’ve got their lines written for ’em. Some actor is making that real, and the way somebody in the audience engages is by believing that and getting into the role, and that won’t change. I’m not sure that clever computers can imitate that. I really don’t think so. I believe we will adapt, and I believe there’s great hope for all of us.

David Read:
A couple of things to that. I’ve been hearing a lot– I can’t remember who it was who made the comment, and I’m pretty sure it was on my show. I may have watched it somewhere else, but I think it was here, where someone said, like you said, “The industry as it currently exists now may be completely gone, but always something will remain.” I think the other thing is that live theater will always, and perhaps even more so moving forward, become more relevant because it’s in front of you and you know that it’s real, and you’re getting a visceral experience. Just going and seeing Tom made me realize it’s been a while since I’ve seen something live this intimately with this few people in a room. It’s a little bit more expensive, but the payoff is so much rewarding because he’s right there. I could spit on him. Just his whispers go straight to the back. The other thing is I think it’s cultural. So, in Japan, they’re big on anime, and they project these 2D characters on a glass plane, and everything’s pre-recorded, and the characters appear to be on this stage, and the Japanese audience goes nuts over it, absolutely nuts. They do the same thing here with an audience, and people are looking at this like, “What the heck is going on?” As cultural norms shift, the acceptance for certain things is going to change as we move forward. We’re seeing now these kids that have more in common with their devices than they do with each other in person. It’s a cultural thing. It’s what you’re used to. It’s what we allow them to be useful. And it’s gonna be really interesting to watch how the culture transforms in terms of not only how it interfaces with entertainment and media, but what it wants from it moving forward, and I think that you’re right. I think that there will always be a place for real, and real may be, in its various forms, more relevant than ever before as AI takes over more and more for us because them’s the breaks. That’s just what’s gonna be happening.

Kevin McNulty:
I agree. People are gonna– It’s gonna be so much in our lives, and it’s also– It’s starting already. People are gonna say, “Oh, no. I’m gonna take a break from this. I’m gonna find something real, dammit.”

David Read:
That’s it. My car drives for me. It does, and it can do it for up to five minutes. My dad calls it two-wheeled therapy. There’s nothing like getting on my motorcycle and driving until they take it away from me. For the same reasons. You cannot beat the visceral tactile sensation, I don’t know if you’ve ridden, of being in control of a piece of equipment. And there’s an illusion of having control of your own fate, your own whatever, but I think it’s a piece of being human to have connections with people and things. Like Don would carve, and it’s more than just tapping a panel and getting a pretty result.

Kevin McNulty:
That sort of brings up the younger generation of what they’re gonna expect in the next 5 and 10 years as far as their entertainment is concerned. I think it’s fascinating, but I have no fear that we will adjust and it will all work out.

David Read:
I think you’re absolutely right. Kevin, this has been a treat. Thank you so much for taking an hour with me to share your experiences and painting the picture of your road that led you to the show and beyond. Anything you wanna leave us with?

Kevin McNulty:
No, but really, thanks for this, and I’ll reiterate that it really is a living history of film in Vancouver, and I think that’s a real treat, and I hope– It’s new to me. And I hope more people appreciate it. It’s very cool. So thanks for doing this.

David Read:
It’s one of those things that has a slower burn. I find people all the time who are finding the channel, and the nice thing about this particular format, because it is an archive channel, is that all of the episodes are perpetually relevant because we’re talking about something that’s of such importance to us, but it’s in our past and it can still be enjoyed now. Generations of Stargate fans have grown up around this thing, and they will continue to find the show, I believe, after we’re gone. So it’s important to lay those seeds to grow into great trees whose shadow we will never stand beneath, but Dial the Gate, I’m hoping, will be one of those legacies for science fiction and television.

Kevin McNulty:
Good for you, David. Thank you very much.

David Read:
Thank you, Kevin. I’m gonna wrap up the show on this side.

Kevin McNulty:
Amen.

David Read:
I appreciate you being a part of it.

Kevin McNulty:
Peace.

David Read:
Be well, sir. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. Hope you’re enjoying our ongoing series. We’re in Season Five, and I think that I see the end of the tunnel coming for the channel, in terms of the people that I’ve had a chance to communicate with. I’m hoping that it’s not the light of a train. But I’m really getting a sense that we’ve gone over the peak, and it’s just a matter of picking up steam and getting a chance to communicate with some of the folks that I haven’t gotten around to yet. Because, at this point, there’s a number of people who have just said, “Glad you’re doing what you’re doing, but not interested at this time.” And Lou Diamond Phillips, we have tomorrow, he said no a few years ago, and now he said yes. So there is a little bit of that. But I’m looking to move the show in a different direction moving forward here, so we’re gonna have to see how things go. But Kevin was very astute in tapping into that. My tremendous thanks to my producers, Antony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, and Linda “GateGabber” Furey, for continually having my back and making this show possible. If you enjoy Stargate and you wanna see more content like this available on YouTube, please click the Like button. It helps the show continue to grow our audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate fan, 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 thanks to my moderators, who kept everyone busy on the backend here, in terms of submitting questions, Antony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marcia, Raj, and Jakub. Can’t do the show without you guys. And Frederick Marcoux over at ConceptsWeb keeps DialtheGate.com humming along. I hope to see you guys tomorrow for Lou Diamond Phillips at 11:30 AM Pacific Time. We’re gonna be talking about Colonel Telford in Stargate Universe and his Tinderbox book series, and I’ve got another hour in my audiobook, so that’s what I’m doing next, finishing that up. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate. I appreciate you tuning in, and I will see you on the other side. All right, sir. Kevin, you’re not gonna be able to see me, I’ve got the end credits going, but thank you again.