Most of us in the sci-fi circles know Matthew Bennett from his portrayal of the Cylon Aaron Doral in Battlestar Galactica, but he has played two roles in Stargate SG-1. We’re happy to discuss these parts in detail and explore his love of photography in this LIVE broadcast!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:03 – Opening Credits
0:32 – Welcome
0:39 – Guest Introduction
1:20 – Matt’s Studio
2:10 – Matt’s Photography Business
6:30 – Matt’s Clients
8:38 – Pursuing Photography
12:39 – No Feedback in Zoom Auditions
15:02 – Market Saturation
19:08 – Practicing Your Art
20:01 – Pretty Girls in the Philippines
24:00 – Matt’s Hardware and Process
26:32 – Willie Garson and Ernie Hudson
29:18 – “Point of No Return”
31:13 – Exploring People
33:20 – Jared Kane, “Icon” and “Ethon”
37:47 – Dark Themes
39:45 – Stargate Did Something Right
43:41 – Aaron Doral in Battlestar Galactica
47:00 – Rewind Pilot
49:00 – The Cylons Were More Human
52:33 – Not a TV-Watcher
55:14 – This Point in Matt’s Career
1:03:22 – Thank You, Matt!
1:05:42 – Post-Interview housekeeping
1:08:14 – End Credits

***

“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read:
Hello everyone. Welcome to Episode 317 of Dial the Gate. The Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. I am privileged to welcome an actor I have been following for quite some time. Matthew Bennett, who played Jared Kane in the eighth and ninth seasons of Stargate SG-1 but you probably know who I’m talking about. That suit wearing smarmy Cylon. I know him best as Aaron Doral in Battlestar Galactica, one of the three sci-fi television series in the last two decades. Matthew, welcome to the show. I appreciate having you. Thank you for being here, sir.

Matthew Bennett:
Thanks, David. It’s great to be on your show and thanks for the invitation. It’s a pleasure.

David Read:
Where are you? What is all this stuff behind you?

Matthew Bennett:
I am in my studio in Toronto. I have a photography business. A studio that I started up January of 2020. So, two months later COVID hit, and it was a consequently slow couple years there. But it’s up and going now, and it’s really how I spend most of my time these days. I do still work as an actor. I do still audition. However, I’m a little more careful with what I’m auditioning for these days. I don’t really have to take everything that comes at me. And I’ve kind of found this love as an artist in my studio, and it’s been really amazing to be here and to sort of shape my artistry, I guess you could say, over the past five years.

David Read:
Well, let’s start there. I have always been fascinated by photography. Your portraits are beautiful.

Matthew Bennett:
Thank you.

David Read:
Do you use different cameras, or do you have a specific one that you use and just switch out lenses? What is your secret to capturing a person’s spirit or a person’s soul? You’re not just taking a picture of a face. You’re trying to get… And you may say, “David, that’s complete BS. I’m taking a picture of their face. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But I get the impression looking at this that you’re trying to capture a piece of them and waiting for the right split second that them comes out, as it were. Or am I just completely BS-ing?

Matthew Bennett:
No, you’re not. You’re totally bang on. I feel that when I started this as an actor, I’ve had about 10 headshot sessions myself. Some were good, some were not so good. And I pulled whatever information I could from those experiences and decided that this is how I’m gonna approach my photography and taking pictures. Overall, I treat every session like being at a cocktail party, to a degree. It’s a very intimate experience to have your picture taken. There’s just two of us in here usually. Sometimes there’s a makeup person. And it’s not, like you said, just hitting the trigger. It’s really about a conversation and cutting people open a bit. There has to be a level of trust. I think my job as a portrait photographer, especially for actors, is to get people to stop on your picture. Whether you’re right or not for casting, if a casting person… Or if you’re trying to find an agent, I want people to spend time with your photograph. And there’s gotta be something there. I call them destination photos. So, you probably see them if people are too smiley or furrowed brow or that kind of thing, you sort of taking us somewhere. And I don’t think it’s as interesting as being a little more open. And I think in my photos, my objective anyway, is to capture people and there’s a question. Everybody’s thinking something. They’re all thinking something. And if you’re looking at those and going, “What is that person thinking,” then it’s a win for me, because I’m getting people’s time. And time is the most valuable asset you have and if I can make that happen in a photograph, then I’m doing my job. And it’s a challenge. And I think everybody should have a really good picture of themselves.

David Read:
Do people…

Matthew Bennett:
And I don’t…

David Read:
Go ahead.

Matthew Bennett:
I don’t use background and stuff. I don’t distract. It’s just about the person. This is my studio behind me, and so I’m limited to a degree. But one of the things that I felt I needed to do was to make everyone’s photograph as unique as them. So, there’s similar setups. Even those three photos right there, they’re kind of against the wall while the guy on the right’s not but that’s paper. But I approach from a different angle, and I light everybody differently because everybody’s face is different. And it’s pretty amazing, too, when you start doing things like split light and backlight, rim light. These things introduce a different element and it’s… As a photographer I feel more like an actor than I do as an actor, quite often. In the purest sense, when somebody comes in here with 10 wardrobe changes, we’re literally building a story, and it’s just us. There’s no director, there’s no writer, there’s not makeup… Maybe there’s a makeup person, but you get what I’m saying. It’s very limited and it’s really pure acting. It’s a conversation and direct communication and hopefully a win. I haven’t had… I’ve had a couple [of] people come back just because we didn’t cover enough but other than that it’s been really great, finding that thing in everybody that makes them happy.

David Read:
Wow. Are you exclusively an actor photographer or can people come to you and say, “I want you to see me?” And you know what I mean by that.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. I do. I have some corporate clients which is kind of bread and butter and it certainly helped me during COVID. [With] actors, it’s all very cyclical. We went through… We had COVID here so nobody’s really acting. Then we had a SAG strike. And then had a writer strike. Or maybe it was writer strike [and] then SAG strike. I don’t know. But in Toronto, that stuff really affects us. We do a lot of American production[s] up here. So, if there is no stuff going on, people don’t have money, so actors aren’t coming in. So, I do have corporate contracts, and I do some fashion. I do models. Models need portraits and I’m sort of branching out and expanding into that. I’ve always enjoyed fashion and it’s something that I feel like… I started out as an actor 33 years ago and what I did…

David Read:
Wow.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, it’s a long time, man. [I’ve] done it longer than I haven’t. And when I did, headshots were literally, you know… It was a shot of your head.

David Read:
Yeah. Black and white often.

Matthew Bennett:
It was all black and white.

David Read:
Black and white.

Matthew Bennett:
Totally right. Yeah. Color wasn’t… It was, like, “Uh, you got money, you got color.” We used to have to go to the agency to pick up scripts because nobody had fax machines. It was, like… And then people started getting fax machine [and] it was, like, “Oh, you’re a successful actor. You have a fax machine.” And then if you were really successful, you had a plain paper fax machine. Because everybody would show up with a thermal paper.

David Read:
That’s right. Yes.

Matthew Bennett:
And [would] have to straighten it out, and the then you’d be highlighting it, and it would all go brown.

David Read:
That’s so true.

Matthew Bennett:
I’ll never forget that. I don’t know. Maybe it was even Michael Shanks. Being in the North Shore Studio and you would see… Because you’d have to show up and there’d be, like, eight other guys in the room, and somebody’s getting a job and you’d look around [and] it’s, like, “Oh, he’s working because he’s got a plain paper fax. Look at that. It’s gonna be a problem.”

David Read:
For sure. I usually save the fan questions till the end, but Lockwatcher wants to know, “What led you to pursue this in addition to your acting?” Was it, “I need more things to fill my day, I need a little bit of extra income?” Or was it, like, “I think I have something here artistically that I wanna share with people, and the sharing is actually extracting things out of people and presenting them to the world?” Where did this really jumpstart for you?

Matthew Bennett:
Well, so, I’ve always… When I was in Grade — so 12 years old, my mom put me in this summer school where we did these photo courses through the Toronto Board of Education. And I had that experience, like a lot of photographers do, where you go out, you shoot, you process your film, you hit the enlarger, your paper goes into a tray, and all of a sudden, this image is there. And it was magic, man. I was blown away. It’s, like, literally stopping time. And I went, “This is so cool.” And I’m kind of a solitary person. I spent a lot of time by myself. I’m not a big crowd guy. So, it really fit. And for the longest time, I was a photographer who focused on landscapes and cityscapes. And then my partner, her name’s Karen LeBlanc, was on a show called Ransom, shot in Budapest… So, we were there for just about a year on two different occasions. I’d been on the show in the first season. But my friends were coming through. So, I’m, like, “Day off. Let’s go for lunch.” And I had my camera with me, and I started taking portraits. And then people started using them as head shots. And I thought that, “This is cool. This is really great.”

David Read:
“I need a kickback, please.”

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. Well, it was just, like, “Here, how can I help you? If you like those, totally use them.” And I feel, like, that’s… Ultimately what I’m trying to do is… I like actors. I don’t hang out with a lot of actors but I’m an actor and I understand how difficult it is to do this job and be successful in this kind of environment. So, if I can do something that’s gonna lift you up, I’m totally gonna do it. But what I found was that I was learning things about my friends that I never would have known if I didn’t have the camera and we weren’t doing that. If we [had] just gone to lunch, the conversation wouldn’t have been the same. And it was kind of this odd introduction to people that I thought, “Wow. This is cool.” Because I’m a very curious person and I’m fascinated by people’s stories. How they got to where they are. Who helped them. Things that have brought them up. Things that have taken them down. People are totally fascinating and we’re all very similar. It’s interesting that way. So, that was sort of the start. And then Karen said, “Hey, you should get a studio and do this.” So, she found this place for me. It’s just a very short walk from our house and it’s become very much a home for me. As an actor, you’re an artist but literally 99% of the time you’re not doing anything. You’re just sitting.

David Read:
It’s a lot of waiting.

Matthew Bennett:
You’re waiting. And now, in this environment, where… Like I said before, we used to go to the waiting room and meet people. “There’s the director and there’s the producer and they’re right in front of you.” And that doesn’t happen anymore. So, there are more auditions now. You self-tape at home and it’s kind of a very much a vacuum and difficult. And we’re artists, ultimately. And so, we’re artists who don’t have the opportunity to practice our art, per se. If I was a musician, a guitar player, whatever, singer, I could go out in the corner. You know what I mean? But you can’t really do that. I guess you could go out in the corner and do monologues, but you might look a little weird.

David Read:
For sure. But the thing I think that most of all frustrates me, based on the conversations that I have had with actors, is that with Zoom, you don’t get to take a note on the spot and pivot and show, “Oh. Let’s try this.” Because the casting director wants me to see if I’m flexible, wants to show if I’m willing and able to take direction. And instead, you don’t always even get a thank you for submitting your video anymore. And God knows how much of it they’re actually watching.

Matthew Bennett:
I have some stories. I won’t get into them but yeah, it’s difficult. When the people were in the room, you would… It was assumed that if you’re in the room auditioning, you can act. So, it’s not about, “Can you act?” It’s, “Do I like this guy? Is Matthew smart? Is he like… Does he have some interesting questions? Can he take an adjustment? He’s gonna be… We’re looking for a series regular on this. We’re gonna spend six months together. What’s it gonna be like with his person?” And now, we’re not there. And everything is so protected, it’s… You don’t get scripts. There are shows where, like, Star Trek was called Tennessee Honey. And they were literally writing scenes that had nothing to do with the part of the show. Because they’re so concerned about things getting distributed online. And I understand that. However, it makes things very difficult because it’s, like, “We don’t know what the characters are.” I don’t know. Some of these things are brand new shows so, there’s nothing to reference. You don’t get the script. You’re not even getting the scenes. “Is this even a real character,” or just “Do we wanna see this guy in front of the camera?” It’s hard. And then once it goes out, it’s out. And I talked to my friends and people [who] used to have one out of 12 average are now 45, 50 auditions.

David Read:
Oh, gosh.

Matthew Bennett:
Because people… You can see a lot more people. Because you don’t have to set aside that two-hour window to see eight people.

David Read:
They’ve cast a wider net, for sure.

Matthew Bennett:
Absolutely. And so, it’s interesting. I don’t know if it’s improved anything. I don’t really see an uptick in the quality of television of the acting. In fact, we live in an odd time. It’s shifted. We create content now. And we’re trying to… All the streamers are just trying to grab the audience, grab the subscribers, and so you need to be generating new stuff all the time. When I was in high school long time ago, they would… There wasn’t a lot of TV but the season would go from September right through. Christmas, they would have some specials. There was 24 episodes. One of my first jobs was a show called Total Recall 2070, and it was a show that went 24 episodes right off the bat. There was no pilot. It was, like, “No. We’re shooting this thing.” And those days… Now, we do six, three [or] four. Slated for six [but] it’s not working [so] we’re cancelling it after two. But shows used to be, well, “If it’s not working, let’s move it from Tuesday to Thursday. Let’s get a new cast member in there. Let’s replace this. Let’s see what another director’s like.” They would make things… I think they were a little more careful with what they were developing. Maybe not. Maybe I’m just making all this up.

David Read:
No, I think… There’s less of a willingness to try to show something mercy before we give it a knife. I think there’s something… Or the axe. I think there is a loss of willingness to try to make something work. Star Trek, 1960s, Lucille Ball had such great faith in the idea they ordered a second pilot. That never happened then. It certainly never happened now. And now, if you don’t bring in a certain number of eyeball[s] with a certain completion length on, for instance, Netflix, you’re cut.

Matthew Bennett:
That’s right.

David Read:
I think we’ve really lost something. And I’m waiting for the adult to come in the room to say, “Being able to see this many people is great. What has it gotten us? How have things improved? I think we need to sand down this filming from home thing, get people back in to see one another [and] see if they can take direction in person.” Because I’m hearing stories of actors who only know their experience and then they’re going into the production, on the set, and they’re freezing. And they’re having to unplug the whole thing because they haven’t had a… This is their first moment in the frying pan. And I don’t know, man. I’m not necessarily convinced that it’s all sunshine and rainbows with these changes.

Matthew Bennett:
It’s nerve-racking to walk on a set and there’s 60 people staring at you while you deliver. In fact, Ethon, that second episode I shot there, that opening scene was, like… I haven’t been there for two years. That’s, like… They’ve got the camera set and, “It’s OK, Matt. Deliver.” And that’s, like, three, four pages of exposition. That was my first day. And that’s nerve-racking. And the main cast is staring at me. They’re sitting down and I’m standing up and it’s really hard. And if you haven’t done that before, I think it’s totally unfair to throw somebody into that kind of environment. You could emotionally crush somebody. It’s difficult. People think it’s… Acting… I think not everybody but there are a lot of people [who] think it’s a very easy thing and it’s not. It’s incredibly demanding and difficult, to go in and… Your objective and your job as an actor is to move the camera, You’re just a widget in the story. There’s not a lot you… Literally, somebody else is telling you what to say. Somebody it pointing where you should go, “Matt, can you point to the TV here because we need to cut away. I’m gonna do a VFX shot.” And somebody’s feeding you, somebody’s putting makeup on you, somebody guiding you to a set. There’s very little that you actually do as an artist. But you deliver. You deliver. I kind of lost my train of thoughts. I was gonna back to the first question, actually, why I’m a photographer, is because I’m an artist that… As an actor you don’t have a lot of opportunity to practice your art. And if you are an artist, I think that most actors are, people come in here and I’ll ask, “What else do you do? Are you a painter? Musician? Writer? Photographer? What do you do?” Because if you’re a real artist, you have this thing that you need to express. And as an actor, you’re not really doing that. It’s, like, you’re kind of limited. You’re delivering dialogue. Your job is to move the camera and get it out in one take and move on. Because time is money, especially on set, like, “Let’s go.”

David Read:
I had a friend… I made a friend when I was living in the Philippines for a while. We went to a place called El Nido. Probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been [to] in the world. This lichen on these giant, gray slabs of rocks just jumping out of the ocean. If you fell on one, you wouldn’t get up too quickly. And I was photographing her all day with my stupid little iPhone. Gorgeous girl, inside and out, in here bikini. And she was with one of these other buddies that we met. And I really got into her personality and by the end of the day I wanted to take some shots of the two of them together with the sunset. And I had her turn profile view and she’s covering up her nose. She doesn’t like the shape of her nose. And she knows that’s being completely accented by the sunset. And I’m, like, “Why are you doing that?” And I’m not saying this because obviously she’s… Something about her that I admired all day was driving her batty. And I would imagine, correct me if I’m wrong, that if when you’re seeing things in people and wanting to bring them out, there are some circumstances where they don’t want those things to come out that you’re digging. Those are probably traits of themselves that they don’t necessarily wanna share more vividly. Or is that not the case with you? You’re seeing certain things from someone in a portrait that A, they’re generally coming to you willingly and openly, so they know what this is gonna be. But have you ever accented or brought into greater focus a part of a person’s physical nature or personality that they didn’t like? They’re, like, “No, I don’t care for that.”

Matthew Bennett:
I think it’s inevitable when you look at somebody. People ask me, “Can you help me with my selects? Can you help me pull pictures out and what’s good?” And I always say no. I never pick the same photos that my clients pick.

David Read:
Wow.

Matthew Bennett:
I see different things because I’m not them. One of the things I’ll do is I’ll always look at a person’s Instagram account. See if they’re doing this kind of [inaudible].

David Read:
What are they curating?

Matthew Bennett:
What are they favoring. And what I recognize in that, and I get it, but your experience observing yourself is limited. You’re not lit. I use strobes, man. There’s a little window behind me but it’s not really enough to shoot. And it has bars on it because we’re in Toronto here and so, everybody looks like they’re in jail. So, I can’t use that. It’s like, I fire light at people and shape their face and show them positions that they haven’t seen before. Angles of themselves that they haven’t seen before. I’m very careful about what I… I don’t shoot tethered which means that I’m not connected to a monitor and I do that on purpose. I feel like it slows down the flow, number one, and number two, I don’t want people to see what’s going on. Because if they see something and it’s something that they don’t like, I can’t get them back into the environment and get some good shots. And often, if I have the time, the things that they think may not be attractive, they’ll see that it’s attractive [and] it’s interesting about you. It’s unique.

David Read:
They have to give you the chance to find it.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. You just gotta… It’s, like, “Look…” And the thing is, most people are taking pictures with their phones. It’s like, phone is not a camera. It’s a camera but it’s not a camera. You can’t control… Well, you can control the aperture to a degree but even the lens itself and the depth and the… It’s a different deal.

David Read:
They’re not there yet. No.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. They are awesome. The cameras are fantastic but it’s not a studio camera. It’s not real professional glass and it’s not a professional mechanism to take photographs which you can do so much [with].

David Read:
Canon? Nikon? What do you use?

Matthew Bennett:
I use Nikon and Canon. People are, like, “What?” But I use Nikon. I shoot… My main studio camera is D810 which is an old camera. They don’t make them anymore. I don’t even know if they service them anymore. I don’t buy new gear. I refuse to buy… I have two new lenses. I have a Z system as well. I have two Z6s so I could shoot video for corporate events. But they’re, like, the mirrorless… I like the weight of the camera. I have a grip on it, so it becomes a box, and I’ve got two lenses that I… More than two but my 24-70[mm] [f]/2.8 [and] my 70-200 [f]/2.8. Those are the things that are on my camera. And they’re heavy and it makes me feel like I’m doing something. It’s a weight and participating in this thing. And I like the sound of the shutter. I love that sound. When I started out, if you were doing it as an actor, if you were on a cool TV show, like, you were shooting 24, you were shooting real 35mm film and you could hear it going through the machine and it did something. It sort of elevates everything. You can hear that film running. And I do… I use my mirrorless cameras outside, but they have a fake shutter sound.

David Read:
Really?

Matthew Bennett:
That sounds like… Yeah. It’s, like a “tss.” It sounds like a cheap…

David Read:
It’s an aesthetic?

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, it’s aesthetic. And it’s because there is no shutter. It’s mirrorless. And the thing is…

David Read:
I see what you’re saying. That sounds awful.

Matthew Bennett:
It sounds like a silencer in a bad movie, like, on a gun. It’s just, like, “Eww.” And it’s light and smaller and it’s just… I don’t know. I love to be connected to the thing. And I find that… So I’ll always have a DSLR.

David Read:
You know have to have a good time, don’t you?

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah.

David Read:
I apologize to everyone out there. These two guys are, like, “OK. Enough with the photo[graphy].”

Matthew Bennett:
Enough of the camera talk!

David Read:
I love it. I’m sorry, folks. When did you learn about Stargate? Obviously, you’ve got Total Recall 2070. That’s a Bridge Studios production [and] MGM property if I’m not mistaken. It’s one of the things that Stargate came out of along with Outer Limits and Poltergeist and a couple of the other [shows]. When were you first aware of it? And tell me about your first role, named Ted in the script, in Point of No Return, SG-1 Season Four, with the beloved late Willie Garson.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. That was kind of cool to work with him. You have these experiences as an actor, like later on, Ernie Hudson. He was in the…

David Read:
Oh, God.

Matthew Bennett:
When I was Jared Kane, like, “Oh my God. There’s Ernie Hudson. “I’m with Ernie Hudson.” And you kind of geek out a bit. It’s, like, you grew up watching this guy and there he is. Stargate was a show… I spent time in Vancouver, obviously. Well, not obviously. I spent time in Vancouver. And when Stargate started it was a pretty big deal. It was a big show. And I finally got on it, and they were casting Canadians because [for] a lot of American product, they bring up Americans. Especially in Vancouver because it’s just a two-hour flight. It’s nothing. It’s like traffic in Toronto. I was out in Mississauga today. It took me hour and 15 [minutes] to go 25 kilometers. What’s that? 12-13 miles?

David Read:
Yeah, around there.

Matthew Bennett:
You know what I mean? You can just fly. You fly down to L.A. It’s the same amount of time. So, they were hiring people, and it was a big show. At the time… And you sent me the episodes and one of the things that impressed me was that the effects were cool. That was dope. That was good stuff.

David Read:
It’s not cheaply put together.

Matthew Bennett:
No. A lot of it still holds up today.

David Read:
Especially by Season Four, the production is…

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, a lot of it still holds up. There’s a couple thing where you go, “OK. I can it’s of a time.” But that was a pretty big deal. So, I got on the show and I was Ted. Ted the alien. You sent me that. I didn’t watch the whole thing. It was really weird because that’s like, 25 years ago. And I didn’t even recognize myself.

David Read:
“That’s not me. No.”

Matthew Bennett:
In a weird way, I felt like I looked older even though I could plainly see that I was younger. There was something about my haircut, the clothes they had me in, like, I had that trench coat. Because you wouldn’t know I’m an alien.

David Read:
Right, exactly. “We’re deserters? We’re deserters? We’re humans.”

Matthew Bennett:
Right.

David Read:
Wow. Any memories of working on Point of No Return?

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. I worked with my friend Mar Andersons who I met on that show, and we became not fast friends but good friends, and every time I’m back in Vancouver I will look him up. And really great sense of humor and we’ve shared a lot of beers and laughs and conversations over the years. It’s always amazing when… I find in my career, if you look at my resume, I play a lot of bad guys, and I’m usually alone. I don’t get those jobs where I get to hang out with, you know, there’s a partner or something like that. I’m just always alone or they’ll give me three thugs who are background performers, and they don’t let us hang out. They make them go… They separate us. So, it’s really cool when I’ve had those opportunities to work with people and spend time and make friends with other actors.

David Read:
It’s interesting. You were talking about your solitary nature. Something about that is coming out in how you project yourself as well. People look, like, “We can put this guy in a corner and then call on him when he’s needed.”

Matthew Bennett:
Interesting. I haven’t thought of that.

David Read:
There may be a connection there that you’re not even aware of.

Matthew Bennett:
Probably, yeah. I’m gonna think about it now.

David Read:
Jonathan Frakes said the same thing. Before he was cast as Riker, he was, like, “I’m… These awful human beings. They’re making me murderers and pedophiles and rapists. Thank God for Riker came along.”

Matthew Bennett:
I just think a lot of… I’m just a very curious person and I observe a lot so, it’s sort of… I can talk to anybody, really but I just kind of… There’s something about just checking everything out that’s sort of fascinating to me. It’s just who I am.

David Read:
Yeah. And I think when you’re one-on-one with people, that’s when you can best uncover who they really are underneath. I think as a portrait photographer, if I was placed in your shoes, I wouldn’t just wanna go in and go for it. I would be, like, “OK. Let’s have the person talk with me and that will pull them out a little bit. That will inform the magic that we’re gonna make together.”

Matthew Bennett:
Absolutely.

David Read:
You have to pick a direction. You can’t just be random.

Matthew Bennett:
It’s the same. And that’s what it is. It’s finding that common ground, commonality, exploring who they are, trying to draw something unique about them out, and then capturing that. And I’m shooting digital, but I treat it like film. I don’t fire away a thousand shots. It’s, like, “No.” It’s very careful and planned. And it just makes it more of an experience. I’m not fast. I don’t move quickly. If I ever get going and I find that it’s not quite happening, I’ll just stop. Just stop and we’ll have a cup of coffee and hang out and reset, like you would on set.

David Read:
Are you typically an hour with them?

Matthew Bennett:
Oh, no. I’m more than that. Actors, I’ll spend… I’m just hanging out. This is like the best job. It really is.

David Read:
For sure.

Matthew Bennett:
And we’re making something. It’s like the best acting experience. It’s like we’re making this stuff happen. So, I’m… An hour is, like, a couple setups. I do four or five setups, six setups.

David Read:
Wow.

Matthew Bennett:
Ane everything sort of… You bring in your clothes and we start, like, “Oh, check this out. Let’s shoot this. Let’s try that. Let’s change you here and let’s do this.” And “What’s this look like?” And “Oh, that’s cool. Let’s go here.” And “How about if we think about this, and what’s this experience like for you?” And then you capture it. My job is to make the selection process very difficult.

David Read:
That makes sense. Not predictable.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. It’s, like, I want you to have a hard time choosing your photos. That means that I’ve done my job.

David Read:
You have tremendous success in Battlestar Galactica, and I’d like to talk about him later. But Jared Kane was introduced in an episode of Season Eight called Icon. A home planet of Tegalus. And it is a planet where the people have… They’ve kept the Stargate secret if I’m remembering correctly but the crap really hits the fan inside of and outside of the Rand Protectorate, when knowledge of this thing exists and it brings the people to nuclear war. Who was this guy to you? Especially with his wife. We saw a lot of that side of the story through Daniel. And what do you recall from that first episode?

Matthew Bennett:
That was probably the first episode of TV where I really felt I was doing something special. They made the uniforms for us. That had never really happened before. It was literally taking our measurements and making us stuff from fabric, cutting, sewing.

David Read:
Wow.

Matthew Bennett:
And so, there was that vibe, and just the uniform itself. And the fact that there was this sort of historic bent to it. If you looked at our rifles, there’s something very practical about that. That was, like… Again, that appeared sort of in Battlestar, right? And what the Battlestar was, this sort of… It survived because of its history. I recognized the story. It’s not uncommon. It’s around the world. There are uprisings like that all the time. There are wars like that all the time. And there was this character that was out fighting for the people, essentially. It was a great job. It was the first time I’d worked with Michael. He was awesome to work with. We had a great time, spent a lot of time hanging out. The stuff. We did a lot… There was a lot of walking and talking in that show. A lot of walking and talking. But we were outside for it, which was great, and I remember the days very… There was two days where we did it all, and it was very late Spring, early Summer. And it was one of those moments where you go, “This is just an incredible job. I have the best job.” Overall, between action and cut, acting is wicked job. I can’t think of anything better than it. It’s a pretty amazing job. There was a lot of other things about it. There was the shootout scene, that sequence.

David Read:
Very violent. Close quarters. Earplugs.

Matthew Bennett:
There were a lot of earplugs in there. It was, like, we shot 10,000 rounds, and you don’t see that. That’s what sort of struck me, actually, when I watched it recently is, how little of that we saw. We spent a half day just firing and it was all in studio, and it was very loud, and we all smelled like gunpowder, and it was pretty hardcore. It’s, like, anything with filmmaking. A lot of it hits the floor. It just doesn’t make it into the cut.

David Read:
For sure. There’s a lot going on there. I’ve had a pleasure of getting to know Rob Fournier rather well.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. Rob’s a great guy.

David Read:
And the amount of stuff that has to go into this is just mind-blowing. The amount of stuff, like you say, that doesn’t get seen, that ends up on the proverbial cutting room floor, to make the final piece, it’s outrageous in some cases. 10,000 rounds? I’m not surprised at all. That’s a lot of money. You had to load all those.

Matthew Bennett:
They had the machine guns and all the stuff. It was just a big deal. It was a big deal. They had set still photographers out as well. So, you always know. It’s, like, “This is kind of an important episode if they bring photographers out to shoot on set.” That was all happening. There was just so much about it. It was just a very cool experience.

David Read:
Did anything resonate with you in terms of the story? Both of these episodes are really dark, especially the second one, with how the second one ends. You have a people who are basically trapped by the people at their border. The Caledonians if I’m not mistaken. And then in the second one with the Ori coming from above, giving them advanced technology but ultimately, they could use it to destroy their own planet. I love sci-fi as a metaphor for turning things back on us and showing us just how bad they can be if we take one inch of a wrong turn and just a plunge into a terrible direction. And we see that come to life in this one.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. It’s, again, something that’s very prevalent today. You just have to look around the world and it’s… Like you said, it’s a great thing about science fiction. It’s a mirror. And unfortunately, the stories really don’t change over time. They just continue to repeat. We don’t seem to learn as human beings. And how hard fast we’re stuck on whatever particular religious leaning we have, or our ideology. And it’s, like, if you’re thinking something else, then we cannot be friends and you’ve gotta go. The absolute refusal to co-operate I guess you could say. And it’s happening today. It’s remarkable. It’s just remarkable.

David Read:
Ron Moore put it into Battlestar, and he told it from… He said he stole it from Peter Pan. All this has happened before, and it will happen again. That resonates a lot with me. I think about it all the time. When you look back on these episodes, do anything stand out in terms of the production value, the quality of the folks that you were working with in terms of what it was they were creating? Eighth and ninth seasons of a 10-season show. They’ve really refined their craft. Did you pick anything up along the way?

Matthew Bennett:
When something’s running that long, it’s obviously found a rhythm and a bunch of things that work, including an audience. And it’s not that audience… Audiences… If you can create and hold a fan base, then you’ve got something and you’re doing something right. So, that’s what I knew about the show at that point. It’s, like, “This is a big deal.” I’ve done some… I’ve been to some conventions and it’s a very powerful unifier. I did a bunch for Battlestar. I did some for Battlestar, and my takeaway from those was how a lot of those events and these shows are things that bring people together. And so, the sci-fi convention was an opportunity for friends from different countries to come and see each other, and they have this common bond. And I met… And it’s not just, like, people… You meet people from every walk of life, from every kind of possible job, and they have this thing in common. And it’s amazing. As a film actor, if you’re in front of the camera, you’re working in a vacuum often. You don’t know who’s seeing this. You don’t know what their reaction is. You don’t know how important it is, if it’s important at all to them, whatsoever. So, to go into a show that’s, like, Season Eight, Season Nine, you know that it’s important to people. So, that’s cool. It’s significant. You hope that you will have a positive effect, [and] your character will, it’s not about being liked, but will resonate, and have a positive effect on people and maybe help people see things. That’s all really storytelling is. It’s the human experience, and you’re trying to relay that, and bring comfort to people, not only entertainment or distraction, but education to a degree. You know what I’m saying. It’s, like, “I wanna educate you.” But maybe you’ll see something in this story. These themes were relevant and they’re current. And so, you [go], “Oh, this is a problem. If this is still happening today and you’re talking about it then this is something that I need to look at.”

David Read:
They’ll making you aware of different ideas. Not because necessarily your ideas are wrong but maybe there’s another way of doing something. I think that sci-fi is best when it’s not beating you over the head because, “You’re that way and that way just can’t be.” It’s, like, “OK. Well, let’s open up the doorway for some questions. What else can there be?”

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, absolutely.

David Read:
“What else can we do?”

Matthew Bennett:
Introduce the idea of critical thinking and perspective. And to show a balanced story, which I think both of those episodes did. Maybe in the second one a little heavy-handed but it’s, like, “Here’s a point of view. Here’s what’s happening.” And that’s the ticket, if you can, and I don’t wanna use the word educate, but if you can show people that there is more than one angle to things. Then, I think you’ve got something and you’re succeeding as a storyteller.

David Read:
When you got the role of Aaron Doral, if I make take a Battlestar tangent a little bit here. It’s a miniseries. They’d hopefully wanna go to a series, like the original did. Did you know that you were auditioning for a Cylon, or did that come later? Was it a surprise to you in the script when you got to the end of it and he was suffering from radiation sickness from the Nebula? I’m curious of how you were exposed to that.

Matthew Bennett:
I didn’t know until I had read the pilot script. So, I was… Here’s a little fun fact for you. I had auditioned… That’s [casting directors] Heike and Corrine in Vancouver. I’d auditioned for something. I don’t know what part exactly. My callback with Michael Rymer was for the part of Baltar. And I walked in the room, and he said, “Yeah, that’s been cast. But I really like what you’re doing. Can you read this?” And so, he gave me the part of Doral. And the audition was the whole opening sequence which I had never seen before. So, he’s, like, “Go outside. Let us know when you’re ready.” And it’s literally two-page monologue.

David Read:
It’s a walk and talk.

Matthew Bennett:
Oh, man, I was sweating on the day. That’s a lot of pressure. That was a oner. And they were shooting film and that guy with the steady cam, he’s a big dude, and he was carrying, like, 100 pounds of film. And it was all… I was setting the tone because everybody had a cross so, I had to be in certain places, so things worked and blah blah blah.

David Read:
For those who are not familiar with the [pilot], the opening… It’s not the first shot but the first look at CIC and the surrounding corridors. It is one take, and people are doing this for about five minutes.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, and it was all on set and just continually moving around and I was kind of leading the show that way. So, the audition… He said, “Come back in.” So, I went back in and man, I had a good time. I’ll never forget it. He was just such a generous and kind person. Was? He is. Talking about like he’s… He’s not dead. Michael’s still around. He’s, like, “Do it like a circus performer. Do it like this. Try it like… Let’s do it like this. Let’s try it like that.” I spent 45 minutes in the audition room, and we were just doing it all these different ways. When I came out, the waiting room was filled with people. It was filled and everybody was giving me that–

David Read:
With Aaron Dorals? Pardon the pun.

Matthew Bennett:
No, no, no. That’s just it. They weren’t. They were all there for other parts, but everybody was looking at me, like, “Why are you taking so long in there, man? What’s going on?”

David Read:
It’s Rymer. He’s historically… He’s known for going long… Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff have talked about 18-hour days in some cases, and you got how many pages in? It was a different pace on that. I don’t know how he got away with it with all the overtime.

Matthew Bennett:
Well, he made the show. He totally made the show, and you could… As an actor, I’ve been on a few shows where you walk on set and the camera starts going and you’re, like, “Oh, this is special. This is a really special thing.” I did a show called Rewind. It was a pilot. I think it was CBS. It was a time travel show. And Jack Bender from LOST… He’s been around since the 70s. And I thought… There was a couple scenes… I was the bad guy, and they were gonna be chasing me through time. And being on that set, I’m, like, “Oh, this is a show. This is gonna…” And it actually didn’t go. So, I was wrong that time but other times I have been right, and it was like that on Battlestar. It was, like, “This show. There’s something really special about this and it’s gonna translate and people are gonna watch it and it’s very cool.” Just because of how it was approached, and the set and everything. Again, they made all the clothes, like all those suits that I have.

David Read:
Those darn suits, man.

Matthew Bennett:
Awesome, right? The teal suit. Now, I fit in that suit for five seasons. So, that’s something there.

David Read:
That’s not easy to do folks.

Matthew Bennett:
No, it’s not. The silk shirts, those were… That was, like, vintage fabric that they got from New York.

David Read:
Wow.

Matthew Bennett:
It’s just this stuff fits you, and you just… When you have clothes fit you like that, it helps so much. It helps so much in what you’re doing.

David Read:
Battlestar was a completely different speed. I remember for Stargate, I sold the stuff for Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis when it was completed, and every episode, everyone had new costumes, new clothing. For you guys [it] was one or two, and that was it through the entire run of… I think… I’m sure it wasn’t a cost cutting thing. It was probably just to show the wear and the age of things as we move forward. Not necessarily for the Cylon because they can reproduce ad infinitum for most of it. But the show is wearing everything down as it moves forward. The freaking ship dies just before the end. And that was just a different energy. Is there anything from Battlestar that you take with you to this day that was just so profound, that meant something to you?

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. I thought overall that the Cylons were the coolest characters. We were supposed to be the bad guys but I felt, like, we weren’t. I felt, like, we had a direction, and we were all, in many ways, more human than the humans. We… If you look at Edward and…

David Read:
Mary.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. They were bad people.

David Read:
You could make… Under certain circumstances, yeah.

Matthew Bennett:
They did some bad things.

David Read:
The Cylons also wiped out 50 billion people.

Matthew Bennett:
Sure, like, “Yeah, you gotta go.” We were steadfast in what we were doing. And I also recognized that it was a show for a family. When I had people coming up to me, it would be, like, every… People stopped me on the street. It was everybody in the family was watching the show.

David Read:
Were you pinching yourself during those five, six years?

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah, man. Absolutely.

David Read:
Gosh, it took off. Holy cow.

Matthew Bennett:
It’s, like, I’m part of this thing. And I had… It was enough. It wasn’t, like, it was overwhelming. It got me to a lot of conventions to meet people. It got me to travel. It pushed me as an actor. I felt like I was part of a family which sometimes is difficult in environments like that. We were making something. Everybody on the show. Nobody was really a star when it started out. And through the years, it’s, like, the sort of… You can tell how big the show is or how far the reach is by how many executives are standing behind the monitors. And when it started out, there was just a couple [of] people and the throughout the year[s], it sort of grew. There were more guys standing there with their arms crossed and everybody wants their little piece, and it’s, like…

David Read:
The cooks coming into the kitchen.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. That’s totally it. And sometimes it destroys a show. I’ve watched all of the episodes and there was a couple that were sort… They were OK but overall, it’s, like, “Wow. That is an amazing body of work, and quite an accomplishment to do that in the face of success. Because, like you said, cooks in the kitchen, things get boiled [and] watered down and become fragmented and off focus and off story, as everybody tries to please all the different people who are putting money into it. And it didn’t happen with that show, which was great. A lot of power there to Michael and keeping control and dipping in every once in a while. And who they hired as well as directors, and the fact that they gave people multiple episodes. I don’t think that there was anybody really who showed up and just did one episode. So, they were very careful about who they were bringing in.

David Read:
For sure. I love the show and it’s timeless. I always think back to Tricia’s line, “Are you alive?” And you’ve got Ryan Robbins. I think it was Ryan Robbins say, “Yeah.” And Tricia says, “Prove it.” It set the tone for the entire show. It really did. I could talk about that for an hour, but I’ve got a couple more before… Are we good for a few more minutes?

Matthew Bennett:
Sure.

David Read:
Marcia Middleton, “You were in some episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation. Were you a watcher of the original and anything specific from that production?”

Matthew Bennett:
No. I saw a couple of episodes. I’ve seen a couple of episodes. I don’t really watch a lot of TV.

David Read:
OK.

Matthew Bennett:
I kind of… I like to be doing things, and I find it difficult to sit down. I don’t have attention deficit or anything. I just… I don’t know what it is about watching TV. And I don’t watch myself. I don’t. The only time I’ll watch something is if I think, “OK. There might be something for me demo reel. I need to see this.”

David Read:
That’s fair.

Matthew Bennett:
And I don’t do that because I found nine times out of 10, when I look at the end result, it does not match the experience that I had on set. And it’s, like, I did that a few times and went, “Oh, I don’t feel so good about it.” Not that it was a bad thing. It’s just, like, my experience was different from…

David Read:
So much more profound.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. It’s, like, when I watch Battlestar and myself, it’s a little underwhelming. There’s something about being there and having that visceral and… That experience is pretty awesome and it’s easy to pull away from that.

David Read:
Well, with Galactica, you gotta six-year masterclass. My gosh with those performers. I apologize. Go ahead.

Matthew Bennett:
No, absolutely. And that was the other thing, too. It was just so easy to work in that environment. Everybody was just so good. They were just so good. It just upped your game. So, Degrassi, I’d seen a few episodes, and earlier episodes as well. And that was, like, what… When I got there, it was… You talk about a well-oiled machine. It was pretty remarkable how quiet the set was, how well it ran, and what really struck me was how polite everybody was. The kids. I’ll call them the kids. The kids were super polite. It was kind of unnerving. They were just so polite and nice. And it was just kind of weird. It was unexpected. And I saw it’s, like, “Oh, this is why the show’s successful. This is why this sort of translates.” And these kids translate because this is them. They’re not acting. They’re just there. It was a great job. Two episodes, I think we shot it all in one day. I’d been out for it a couple times. I think that was my fourth or fifth audition for the show, which happens every once in a while.

David Read:
Are you happy with the place that you’re in now in terms of balancing the passion projects that you have? Going back and forth between photography and then… If something… I love how you say, “If something really pops at you, if something really comes up that you wanna go for, then you’ll go for it.” Are you happy at this point in your life with how everything is in place? Or is there something that you’ve just not attained yet that it’s, like, “You know what? I’m waiting for something else to come along that I really can sink my teeth into. But right now, I’m really content where I am until that happens.”

Matthew Bennett:
That’s a great question. It’s something I’m [sic] actually have had conversations with Karen about, and something I’m thinking about often. As a photographer, I’m certainly fulfilling a certain part of myself as an artist, a big part. And I find like I’m really creative in here and I’m allowed to express myself and create things with people. I’m interested to see where things go in the future with regard to film and entertainment, and AI, and how it’s changing things. And I believe that there’s probably gonna be tiers of entertainment. At some point Netflix will probably have a subscription base that’s $6.99 but it’s all AI, which is inevitable. I had this idea that the real golden ticket in, like, 10 years will be live theater. Because will be hungry perhaps for a human experience, and you’ll know you’ll all be in a room together and you’ll know the people up there are real [and] they’re not… Because some of this stuff is good, man.

David Read:
You can’t tell some of this stuff anymore.

Matthew Bennett:
And that’s within a year. You used to be able to check the mouth and go, “That’s not moving right.” And now, you’re, like, “I don’t know.” And the voice sounds the same. It’s perfect. So, where does that go? And unfortunately, I’ve read… They were talking about Spotify and how the algos are, like, “We’ll pull what people are listening to and create music that becomes successful.” So, there’s no real human behind it. It’s just this thing that’s created. And what struck me was that people overall when they were pulled, they were, like, “We don’t care,” which is, like, “That’s dangerous to me.” And here we are. We’re at this point.

David Read:
It’s true.

Matthew Bennett:
Back to your question, I feel like as an actor after all of these years, I’ve never really been tested. I’ve never reached my full potential. And I don’t know what that job is, but I think that if you take not my whole resume but the majority of it and piece things together, different parts, it sort of speaks to almost of all of what I can do. But I don’t think that I’ve seen that script where I went, “That’s totally not only my wheelhouse but I can excel at that to a huge degree.” And I don’t know if that will ever come up. I, realistically, have to look at my age now, what stories are out there, what’s being told, what’s popular. It’s difficult to get things made. People are, like, “Well, why don’t you make your own stuff?” It’s not that simple.

David Read:
Yeah, sure. But no, it’s not that straightforward.

Matthew Bennett:
It’s not that simple. The technologies out there, and that’s a remarkable thing, like, you can go to your local camera store and buy something for under $10K Canadian that Netflix accepts. It’s a total… And that’s, like, “What?” Like I said, when I started out, if you were on a successful show, you were shooting 35 millimeters. If it wasn’t a successful show or was less budget, it would shoot Super 16 and do a blowup. And those film cameras and the lenses and the processing. That all cost money. And now it’s just not the same. Sound is not the same. It’s all what you can do on your laptop is remarkable.

David Read:
The medium in some cases now is largely irrelevant. Flow, the Oscar winner, was made in Blender. One guy did it. I forget how long but is the artistry there and does it have something to say? But only does it have something to say, is it something that resonates with people? Because you can… The perfect role may come along for you, and it hit you like a cinder block as soon as you read [it]. It’s, like, “That’s the one.” But does it necessarily resonate with people, and does it get in front of the right audience? These are all things that are in flux.

Matthew Bennett:
Absolutely. And you need audience. You need people to see. I guess… I haven’t seen anything for many years where I read it and went, “I will fight for this.” You hear those stories of guys that are, like, “I went over to his house, and I made this special tape.” I haven’t seen that. It’s something that I find a little disappointing about the business overall is that there’s a lot of… It’s the idea there’s only seven stories. But there’s variations on them. But I see a lot of things that are very similar. When stuff comes through, audition-wise, I often go, “Well, I’ve already done this. That was this job here, and that’s this part here.” Even with shows that you have audition for, like, “OK…” I’m not taking away from Reacher here, but there’s a genre, and there’s characters that are… You plug in these characters, and they make the show work. So, it’s, like, I’ve had three or four auditions for Reacher and quite frankly it’s just kind of the same guy.

David Read:
People eat it up.

Matthew Bennett:
Oh, for sure. Absolutely.

David Read:
I’ll never forget Stephen King talking about, in his book on writing, how test audiences drove him nuts. Because he’s got an idea and he doesn’t wanna test audiences to come and say, “Well, it’d be greater if they did this.” And he admits it the last line, “The funny thing is, unfortunately, test audiences seem to work.” And it’s like with the AI now. You’ve got a test audience built in because based on whatever inputs you feed it, it’s gonna spit out. “Well, give me the next big movie.” It’s gonna spit you out something that were you actually to go and create it, it’s probably right.

Matthew Bennett:
Yes, it’s probably gonna work.

David Read:
But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has any substance a year after it’s come out.

Matthew Bennett:
True. But maybe within that scope of that, you can make an adjustment that does make it stand the test of time. If you look at Psycho, Hitchcock killed the lead in the first 10 minutes. Nobody had ever done that. They’re, like, “What are you doing?” And it totally worked. I don’t know if AI… Maybe AI has the story and then you just put that twist into it. I’m not too sure. But interesting times ahead. That’s for sure.

David Read:
That’s for sure. We’re all gonna go through it together. I think we just… I think we need to stay vigilant, and I think we need to be brave, and not lose out humanity. Because it’s gonna be very easy to… More of these kids are more associated with their devices than they are with us.

Matthew Bennett:
Yes.

David Read:
I fear for that. I fear us truly becoming Cylons. But there’s certain things that you just can’t stop. So, I am grateful for the time that we’ve had together. I really think I’ve gotten to take your photo a little bit here and tap into you as an artist, and I am thrilled that you have this outlet to continually explore your discovery of humanity one person at a time. That’s really cool, Matthew.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, David. It is very cool. I’m having a human experience.

David Read:
Absolutely. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the show on this end but it means a lot to me that you took the time to come and stop by and share yourself and your art. And really appreciate your time.

Matthew Bennett:
Thank you for the invitation, David. It’s been great speaking with you, and I wish you best of luck with the show. You’ve done… That’s a lot of work, man. You’ve done a lot of work there.

David Read:
People are continuing to tune in. Something’s working right. This is my creative passion, is getting… It’s not unlike what you do in terms of getting the substance of someone out and sharing it with the world. And it’s not easy. But if God gives you a talent, you ignore it at your peril, especially if it’s something that… You would do it for free.

Matthew Bennett:
Yeah. Just don’t tell them.

David Read:
That’s it. Exactly right. Thank you, sir.

Matthew Bennett:
Alright, David. Thanks a lot, man. Take it easy.

David Read:
Be well.

Matthew Bennett:
OK. Bye-bye.

David Read:
Matthew Bennett, everyone. Jared Kane in Stargate SG-1. That was cool. Often, when we get talent to come on, they have a different facet to themselves that they are willing to explore with us. And in this particular case, with Matthew, he’s got a clear path in another neighboring industry to this that is just… That fits right in and allows us to explore him a little bit more. And plus, I love photography if you haven’t figured that out. So, I apologize for taking so long on that. That was a really awesome discussion. I appreciate you all tuning in and joining us for this episode. We’ve got another couple of shows heading your way tomorrow, and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. But, before I let you go, if you enjoy what you’ve seen in this episode, I would really appreciate it if you’d click the Like button. It makes a difference with the YouTube production. On the production side of thing will continue to help us grow our audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend, and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe, and giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. And that’s basically what we’ve got for you. Clips from this live show will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. My tremendous thanks to my producers, Anthony Rawling, Kevin Weaver, Linda GateGabber Fury. These are the folks that make this show continually possible. My moderating team, Anthony, Jeremy, Kevin, Lockwatcher, Marsha, Raj, Sommer and Tracy. That list gets longer. It’s because I need them. And big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb. He keeps dialthegate.com up and running. Claire Rankin, Dr. Kate Heightmeyer from Stargate: Atlantis joining us tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. PT. And then, Gary Chalk, Colonel Chekov, is back for Stargate Trivia 11, I think. We’ve got about 12 or 13 folks involved in this one, half of whom, nearly half, you’ve never seen these people before. We’re gonna be moving through all these trivia. We’re gonna make them sweat. If you ever watch one Stargate Trivia episode on Dial the Gate, this is it. Come back because we’ve got some surprises in store in terms of how this is gonna be structured, and we’re gonna have a really good time. And I’m throwing myself into the meat grinder as well. So, hope you can join us for that tomorrow. Dialthegate.com has the complete schedule of all the episodes and some amazing people are getting together to make more shows with us here. Patrick McKenna and John Billingsey, “the other guys” themselves are gonna be joining us in early May. But the complete list is available there. My thanks once again to Matthew Bennett for being so open and sharing so much of himself. I appreciate everyone for watching. Thank you all for tuning in. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, and I’ll see you on the other side. Bye.