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David Hewlett ("Dr.
Rodney McKay")
David Hewlett plays the "snarcastic" Dr. Rodney McKay on "Stargate
Atlantis," and producers have found many new and interesting
ways to torture
the super-smart doc this season, Hewlett reports.
There's lots of fun and games this season, there's a drugged out McKay….
They're always happy to do something gross to him,
all of that
uncomfortable, slimy stuff - you know I'm involved. They call it writing, I
call it torture. But I say keep up the abuse… if they
ever run out of ways
to [torture McKay], he'll just be silent, and he loves to hear himself talk.
At the beginning of the season, I was hanging upside down in this tree, I
thought, "This season is going to pan out really well."
On McKay getting a lot of the tongue-twisting techno-dialogue
We had to do
a re-shoot [of a technical scene] and I did not have a clue. I forgot all of
the lines. Learning it all over again, that isn't fair [laughs].
On the reaction to his character
It's amazing, the fan mail.
Not to sound cheesy, but I try to answer every one and that's getting difficult to do.
It's funny, the mail I get, a lot of it says, "I know everyone hates you,
I'm the only person who likes [McKay]." There are a lot of people out there
who think they are alone in liking McKay [laughs].
In a way, he's fun to hate. He gets to say the lines that you think of [only
after a confrontation], when you think, "Oh, I should have said that,"
whatever the snappy, arrogant answer was. But he says it. He's always got a
comeback. Certainly that's what makes him such a fun character to play. He
doesn't have the social skills or always know what to say, but there's a
certain charm in that freedom.
On the tensions of the Atlantis project in the second season
You've put your finger on what
concerns McKay. The neat thing this year is the dynamic
involvement of the military side of things.
Season 1 set up the characters and what they're supposed to do, like any
good first season. Where were going in Season 2 completely messes with that.
Rain [Rainbow Franck's character, Lt. Ford] drops off to the dark side and
comes back to make our lives miserable.
All of the sudden all the trust and
stuff built between the characters is broken down. [Up until now] McKay
could just be the guy who babbles and solves the problem and then it's
solved. What's great is this year right near the beginning McKay hits a
wall. All of a sudden he doesn't have all the answers. His arrogance and
self confidence paid off [until now] but he hits a wall and screws up.
[Various developments like that] bring back the friction between all the
characters.
Once a friend said a good man does the right thing without thinking. McKay
may know what the right thing is to do, but he's also very
good at seeing
the worst side of things. It makes it that much harder to make the right
decision. Where fools rush in McKay fears to
tread. That's overthinking
things and it can be paralyzing if you don't have blind faith that you'll
all get through it. Everyone else is rather optimistic, but he expects the
worst.
On the surprising secret of new cast-mate Mitch Pileggi, formerly of "The
X-Files"
He mentioned to me that he had
been in People's list of the
Sexiest People one year, under the heading of "Surprisingly Sexy." [So now
Hewlett's put a sign to that effect on Pileggi's dressing-room door.]
Mitch has this great character, this guy with a quest for power who's been
overlooked for running Atlantis. He's constantly butting
heads with Weir,
she's a diplomat and he'd rather just blow things up. He's constantly
looking for things that will be of use for his superiors, so every new
weapon or alien being or ancient discovery is of potential interest to him.
McKay is aware of that. He doesn't
see himself as being slimy --
surprisingly slimy [laughs] -- but he's willing to play off the military and
Weir and Shepherd and everyone else, because he thinks his ultimate goal is
to make discoveries and prove himself right. He's been an academic for so
long, he's
read all the reports, he feels he can handle things better.
Rain [Rainbow Francks' character, Lt. Ford] is taking a turn for the worse
because of a Wraith enzyme. When they feed, they inject stuff
that bolster's
the victim's immune system for a second, to keep you alive while they kill
you to get the most out of you. Inject that stuff and you end up with a
euphoric energy drink. It gives him a lot more physical strength, but it
doesn't make you terribly bright. What's
interesting is that there's now
this illicit substance in the universe that, when people use it, they're
given this Wraith super-strength.
On the new character, Ronon
Ronon is … even just physically surprisingly,
no, not surprisingly, painfully sexy. Drop-dead gorgeous.
In a way, not to make him sound like an idiot [laughs] his character is the
opposite of McKay, he's just a man of action. He doesn't worry about
repercussions. He has no fear of anything, he's survived so much. It's just
very funny how the guy who disapproves of him can't help admiring him. It's
like, how he wishes he could twirl his gun [like Ronon], but McKay's the guy
who can't even pull his gun out of the holster.
On McKay's frequent scene partner, Paul McGillion, who plays Dr. Carson
Beckett
We actually have a love scene
coming up. You'd have to do some fact-checking, but it might be the first man on man kiss in sci-fi.
McKay ends up having a person transfer into his body, a female, and she ends up with
a crush on [Beckett]. Paul teased me mercilessly for weeks in advance of the
shooting. On that day, we went for rehearsal … it would be weird to kiss
even the women on the show, I know them all so well, and more importantly
they all know me so well [laughs]. So that's why it was important to do this
well, in case I ever want to go near them again. For rehearsal, [Hewlett did
a real kiss, which McGillion wasn't expecting]. Yeah, after that, he sent me
flowers and chocolates [laughs].
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