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Exclusive Interview: David Hewlett
The Atlantis veteran on damaging the image of Canadians
David Hewlett is the de facto
veteran of the Stargate Atlantis team. He’s not only got more credits
than his ensemble cast-mates, but his character of Rodney McKay appeared
regularly on Stargate SG-1.
On Atlantis the character of McKay has expanded beyond being a comic
foil or trickster-obstacle. He has become less annoying and more
sympathetic, less pathetic and more flawed, an understandable transition if
audiences were expected to sympathize with him as a main character. The fact
that Hewlett, also a veteran of the Canadian film and television scene, gets
to play McKay as a Canadian brainiac is something he derives a winking
pleasure from.
At Vancouver’s Bridge Studios in May, Hewlett sat down with a group of
journalists to talk about the pleasures and pitfalls of being a co-star on
Stargate Atlantis and what it’s like to work with his sister, Kate
Hewlett, who plays Rodney McKay’s sister, Jeanie Miller.
What does it mean to play McKay as a Canadian?
It’s fun, for a change, to do some damage to people’s
opinions of Canadians. Every time you see Canadians on television they’re
always the sweetest, nicest, not terribly bright people. They are often
Mounties who, by accident, rescue people. It’s nice to play the genius
astrophysicist who’s actually a complete asshole as well. I think I’m doing
some permanent damage to the image of Canadians, and I think it’s always fun
to mix it up a bit. Especially now that I’m actually living in the States.
Even though a lot of genre shows are shot here and the
actors may all be Canadians, very seldom do they actually play them as
Canadians.
It is pretty rare. I think the Canadian film and
television scene, a large part is about pretending not to be Canada. I
remember them coming in to Toronto and trying to mess it up so it looked
more like New York and they’d go away and come back and someone had cleaned
up overnight. It is all about pretending to be somewhere else. Changing the
road signs, and I had my Canadian accent sort of knocked out of me from the
beginning because, god forbid you say “about” the wrong way. ‘Cause the
Americans are on you. I can’t even say it wrong, now. But it’s kind of
funny, especially in a sci-fi show, to actually get to be Canadian. But
what’s nice about Atlantis, though, is that it’s an international team, so
you get a little. . . . And that is so Canadian. Canada is, what do they
say, American is the melting pot, Canada is the cultural mosaic. That’s very
much what Atlantis has become.
McKay has always been this self-absorbed character. How did
you feel last season . . .
It’s a subtle thing. There are layers and layers of
self-indulgence, yes.
How did you feel last season when he started to develop
that relationship and the whole marriage proposal and where that went?
It was neat. First off that episode was so funny
because I called up and said, “Look, here’s the deal. You’ve got a beautiful
botanist in a little tropical paradise on Atlantis and what do I do? Panic?
C’mon, give McKay something.” That’s what they are so good at doing with
McKay, I think, is that they put him in situations where anyone else would
either enjoy themselves or excel, and it was nice - you don’t want those
things to work out. It’s like Moonlighting. Once the relationship
works out there’s no tension there anymore, so McKay single is a much more
dangerous and entertaining character than if he was comfortably in a
relationship with Katie Brown [Brenda James]. Although I’m hoping it will be
revisited because it was such a final thing for her, I still think McKay
hasn’t figured it out yet.
Didn’t you chase her off the base, basically?
Pretty much, yeah. It’s a bit like high school, again.
There’s a few people who can probably sympathize with her.
Talk about what it’s like to act with your sister as your sister.
It’s funny, actually, one of the notes that we got
from [director] Martin Wood when we first worked together was, “Don’t forget
you guys are brother and sister.” And I was like, “But we are brother and
sister.” What’s funny is that we’re horrible to each other.
You need to contextualize that. You, in real life, are
horrible to each other?
Both. As the character and as her brother, David, I’ve
teased her mercilessly since the moment she was born, basically. And she
gives it back in spades. I remember the incident when I realised my littlest
sister was probably going to be my arch-adversary. I had quit high school
and there was this terrible . . . the family at home was very upset about
it, my father was very angry about it. We came down for the first breakfast
after I told them that I wasn’t going back to high school and we’re sitting
there in dead silence. Everyone’s eating their cereal. And my little sister,
who at that time was about nine years old, started singing “Beauty School
Dropout.” I just looked over and thought, “Okay.” I did my best to talk her
out of acting, I really didn’t want her to do it. I was like, “It’s a
terrible profession for women. You don’t want to do this. Don’t do it. You
suck. It’ll never work. Don’t go to theatre school. Why did you go to
theatre school? You didn’t learn anything.” And now I’ve got to say she’s
amazing. She’s amazing to work with. She’s really, really good. And I hate
her. It’s funny. We have a very combative relationship. It’s total love. I
think. I know she adores me. But it’s very - people can get quite offended
by it, because I say the most horrible things to her. And she just gives it
right back. You always leave a conversation with Kate [Hewlett] feeling a
little depressed. Because she’s usually hit a few key things. Usually
hairlines and waistlines and that kind of stuff. But it’s a pleasure. There
was a line written in the first season about a brother that I didn’t get
along with, and I just said, “Look, I’m not asking you to hire my sister, or
anything, but I have five younger sisters. I would love to say sister
because I think it would be funnier, later, to bring it up.” And [writer and
producer Martin] Gero was nice enough to change that to sister and then
ended up hiring her because of a play that he’d seen her in in Toronto. One
of those fringe plays I told her not to do. So basically she’s ignored me
the entire time and has done very well by it, I think. I should write a book
on what to do as an actor and everyone does the opposite and probably does
quite well.
Could you have had the same chemistry - you’re professional
actors, so clearly your job is to . . .
Fake it?
. . . make things work with others, but there seems
something very natural with the two of you on the show.
There’s no work to it. What’s nice is that, with any
relationship with the acting thing you’ve got to fake it most of the time,
and with Kate, we don't have to work on any of that kind of stuff. There’s a
familiarity and a kind of casualness to our relationship - and a casual
abusiveness to our relationship - that I think would be very difficult to
replicate. It could be done, but it makes it nice. And it’s fun. Stargate
has a certain family feel to it just in the shooting anyways. We’re one big
giant dysfunctional family with a large dog called Jason [Momoa, as Ronon
Dex, who at this point had walked onto set for the first time, bellowing],
who is the Marmaduke, the big Great Dane, of our family. It was really nice
to have real family in there as well. Gotta get the dog on next.
How have the changes been? You talk about the family, and
this year Amanda’s [Tapping, as Samantha Carter] not here as much, you’ve
got Robert [Picardo, as Richard Woolsey] in the show. It’s nice, I’m sure,
because it keeps the show feeling fresh, but at the same time it’s a lot of
transition and getting use to the new dynamic.
It’s a bittersweet thing. Change is always nice on a
show because it gives you something else to play, and at the same time, I
miss Amanda. Amanda is the reason I’m here. If she hadn’t given me the
freedom she gave me to play McKay the way I did back in SG-1, this
just wouldn’t happen. I owe her an awful lot. And, selfishly, I just really
enjoy working with her. One of my favourite episodes last season was Trio.
With the two female icons of sci-fi, as far as I’m concerned, and me. I was
like, “I want more of these. In a box.” From a character standpoint it’s fun
to mix that stuff up. I’m hoping we’ll see some more of Amanda anyways.
Can you talk a bit more about the beats that you like
between McKay and Carter last season? It’s such a fun relationship. And how
does he handle Woolsey coming in to replace her?
Well, the Woolsey thing is interesting, because I
think McKay has had more alternate reality run-ins with him than he has
real-life run-ins. Somewhat with Amanda, as well. Amanda. I use them
interchangeably. Samantha Carter, with McKay, there was quite a change with
that, because originally it was full-on lust and there were blinkers on. Now
you’ve got [Jennifer] Keller [played by Jewel Staite] involved. There was
this weird need, in every scene that we did, and we would do this, every
single time Amanda and I had a scene we would sneak off to a corner and go,
“That’s probably going to offend your character, so we should . . .” back
and forth and make sure that this stuff that relates to what’s come before.
The other thing that’s really funny is she caught me a couple of times, I
would say something and she’d be like, “You know that I don’t know that,
right?” I’m like, “What? What do you mean?” “Remember? I was imaginary in
that episode.” I was like, “Oh, right, of course. You were a figment of my
imagination. So I haven’t seen you in a bra. Okay, never mind.” But she’s
very good about that kind of stuff. I can’t believe - she did this for what,
ten or eleven years? And still to be that good about taking people aside and
working on the little nuances that make all the difference. But with these
shows, when you run for this long, we’re into the fifth season now. It’s got
to be about the characters, it’s got to be believable. Otherwise it doesn’t
know what monsters you throw at them, no-one cares. I can’t wait to see what
they do with Sanctuary. I think it’s so great that she’s actually
managed to go off and do her own thing like that. Even if it means leaving
us alone.
So does McKay roll out the red carpet for Woolsey then?
Not so much. Woolsey brings paper to Atlantis,
which both David and McKay are shocked and offended by. The future? Paper?
Paper’s gone. So he brings his little files and his officious nature. But
the funny thing is that Woolsey and McKay are very similar, just in
different ways. Woolsey is officious, where McKay is academic. Woolsey is
very similar to what McKay was like when he first showed up in SG-1.
I think what’s neat is this season you get to see him start to make his
changes so he can work as the leader of a team. In a strange way you don’t
have to persuade McKay to protect himself and that’s generally what
Woolsey’s always doing. He doesn’t want anyone hurt and doesn’t want to take
any risks. McKay strangely finds himself agreeing to some extent. Well,
disapprovingly agreeing. What’s nice about Woolsey for McKay is that he
makes McKay feel a little more macho. He’s like, “Well, at least I’m not
Woolsey. I got cooler by one increment just by Woolsey showing up.”
Don’t the two
geeks have to be friends?
I don’t know about friends. Geeks never get along. I
work with so many geeks and even the best friends of geeks are arguing the
whole time. “That is not a 40.” “You rolled twice.” You know. Dungeons and
Dragons reference. Uh, nerds that I know, anyway.
What have been some of your favourite things that you’ve
done so far this season?
This season? Are we talking Season 4 or Season 5?
We’re doing 5? Being trapped under a large building with Kavan Smith
[playing Evan Lorne] was kind of amusing. ‘Cause boy that guy can give out
the abuse, too. Let me tell you. I haven’t had a lot of chance to work with
Smith, so I hope there will be some more Lorne stuff. He’s very funny. And
the opposite of McKay, as well, which is kind of fun. We’ve done a bunch of
stuff. We just worked on an episode which was basically Keller, Ronon, and
McKay, and with Ronon and McKay basically hanging out in the woods together.
Which is always amusing. So it’s been a lot of - it’s always fun when they
take the odd-coupled characters and stick them together. And the great thing
about McKay is that he doesn’t really get along with anybody, so they are
all odd characters. It’s McKay and anybody. There’s always something he
doesn’t like about somebody. “They’re too good looking.” “They’re not good
looking enough.” “They’re not smart enough.” “They are too smart.” They’ve
been having a lot of fun with that. Again, you end up with Lorne in small
confined space. You end up with Ronon in a forest with traps and Wraith and
all sorts of things. And a lot of running. God. I had no idea how unfit I
was until I had to run through the forest for a week.
How did you prepare for the character of McKay as a much
older person in The Last Man?
It was funny, someone came up to me and said, “Wow,
the makeup’s amazing and the way they gave you a little pot belly and
stuff.” And I was like, “I just let my belly out a bit.” Getting up the
stairs, frankly, by the end of the season, I was just so creaky and sore
anyways. Generally it’s the best thing to play at the end of a season
because you’re so tired by episode 20 that you look like a thousand years
old anyway. Basically I just allowed myself to move slower and complain
more. That was another funny Lorne one, because Lorne and me - Kavan and me
- as old men, we’re just the crabbiest suckers on set anyways, so the two of
us as old men it was like shooting Grumpy Old Men in Space. It was just kind
of fun, because all those - as you get older all those little aches and
pains you get to play that stuff up. I think I was born to be old. Some
people were born to live free, die young. I was born to die old. I quite
like the excuse for being a little grumpy and a little slower in getting up
the stairs and all the doddering things I kind of enjoy doing. That and
also, what was funny was that my kid was born the day after we finished
shooting. The whole time I kept thinking, “If my wife goes into labour now,
I’ve got four hours of prosthetics that are going to drive across the border
with me. Will Nexus [an automated border crossing kiosk] work? Will my Fast
Pass card work at the border if I’m a thousand years old?” How do you
explain that one in the secondary check? “Sir, are you wearing a disguise?”
What was neat about that is that I was so beautifully distracted throughout
that entire episode that I think - again, that adds to the - the things that
are the least enjoyable to shoot are often the most fun to watch. You can’t
help it, you pick up that uncomfortable - that’s why I find a lot of the big
big budget films sometimes they lack that wonderful edge you get from the,
“Oh, my god, we’ve got one shot at this! Go!” I think The Last Man
was one of those where there was a lot of dialogue to shoot in a short
period of time, and so much going on. For other people. I just talked. I
talked and became invisible when sand went through me. I think the
circumstances for that one really helped to get you into the old age thing.
The problem now is actually getting out of the old age thing. Season 5, I’m
walking around like I’m a thousand years old. Still. But I hold my belly in
a little better.
You said McKay doesn’t really get along with people, but I
would argue that his best friend was Carson [Beckett, played by Paul
McGillion].
Another abusive relationship, though.
What did you like about the way they handled his return
because there was so much hype about it? And can you talk about some of the
beats with him this season.
He’s like a cockroach. We blew him up; he still comes
back. He makes a really cool reappearance in that episode. What’s neat about
him now is that he’s not even really back. He’s a clone. So there’s this
wonderful combination of loving this guy - this is your best friend who you
kissed, for god sake - and yet at the same time you know he’s the product of
this evil Michael plot. So there’s again this great tension there. You get
lost in the, “Yeah, I’ll look after your turtles,” and then you’re going,
“You mutant space whatever you are!” Because no-one else can trust him.
Woolsey, quite rightly, is like, “This guy’s a clone from our deadly enemy.
He make look and sound and act like your best friend but that doesn’t
necessarily mean he is.”
And yet Rodney does trust Beckett.
Completely.
Which is counter to his nature.
Because he’s a suck. The reality is that as much as
the armoured shell that he tries to put up, he’s the biggest sap. He falls
for that stuff. He hates kids but you can see that he has to force it at
times. It’s more a fear, that stuff is more a fear of being rejected. He’d
rather reject them in advance than have them not be as good a friend to him
as he is to them. I think in those situations, he is very foolish. To a
fault, I think. More so than the other guys, as well. Where he’s normally,
“Screw everyone else, this is the safe way of doing it,” when it comes to
his friends he makes stupid mistakes because of it. And we’ll see whether
Beckett’s return is going to be one of those mistakes. The other thing is
it’s just so nice to have Paul back. He’s just a lovely guy and he’s been in
L.A. so he’s tanned and thin, so we can tease him about that.
Grill him for Star Trek details.
You know, I got some. The first one being I’m not in
it. I asked if he mentioned me during the shooting, but apparently he
didn’t.
Did it help you
as an actor working with many of the same people on Stargate and on
Sanctuary for your appearance on that?
Well that was just fun because it was doing something
different. We talked about a couple of other characters on that and I really
wanted to do that one [Larry Tolson is the character Hewlett played]. First
off, from a time standpoint, I could only pop in and pop out, and
contractually I’m not allowed to do much more, but just getting to play
something completely different. I don’t think you can get much more
different than a raving psychotic. McKay to raving psychotic is kind of a
fun hiatus.
You were very good at it, actually.
Oh, thank you. My mother always used to say - I used
to call up and say, “Oh, I’ve got a part on ER.” “Oh, I love ER.
Fantastic. What are you playing on that? What do you have?” “Well, I have a
son that I abandon.” And she’s like, “Oh, why don’t you ever play any of the
nice people?” She goes, “Do you die in this one?” I was like, “No.” “That’s
nice, that’s a change.” Because normally I’m shot for trying to kill a child
or something. It was nice to do something completely different. That’s what
I try and do. This hiatus I got to go off and I did this little indie film
called Helen, which was kind of fun.
When you guys signed on to Stargate you signed on
for a five-year contract, is that right?
It was first season and five. That was mine. So six,
basically.
Do you see yourself going past that and what do you feel
about McKay? Would you like to have that longevity that Stargate had
and be around for ten years?
I love it. I make no bones about the fact that I’m a
sci-fi nerd and this is what I - when I was a kid, it wasn’t specifically
McKay, but this is what I wanted to be doing. So I’m here for as long as I
can be, frankly. Of course, when it comes to money, then I’ll go back and
forth. “I’ve got many other things I could be doing.” I'm incredibly
pessimistic about these things, so I’m convinced I’m going to show up one
day and they’re going to go, “Oh, didn’t they tell you?”
You really keep your hand in independent Canadian stuff
too, though.
I try to, yeah. We made our film [A Dog’s Breakfast,
which Hewlett wrote, directed, and starred in] in the hiatus. I believe very
strongly that independent films are the only way to go as an actor. Yeah,
you can do the big budget stuff all you want, but the reality is from a
career standpoint, the indie stuff is the only option for actors these days.
And especially with Canada. It drives me crazy that Canada’s not making more
independent stuff. I get so depressed hearing people say, “I’ve got this
movie we’re going to do if we get this grant.” Well, screw the grant. If you
get the grant, make the movie. If you don’t get the grant, make the movie.
We’ve got to start doing more independent stuff.
The money has to come from somewhere, though.
Yeah, but again, we could make all these little
movies. I made my movie for $120,000. A lot of people can raise that kind of
money and make a movie. No, you’re not going to compete with Iron Man
- which was great, by the way - but that’s the kind of stuff that we could
be putting out. It just takes a couple of those to hit. Look at Once,
great example. A little Irish movie that was made for 100,000 Euros and wins
an Oscar for song. I’m not saying we need to start looking small, sure try
to make a $1 million movie, but there’s so much potential for these little
indie films. Especially with the technology that’s out there these days.
That’s how Sanctuary got started. That was entirely independent. They
looked around for money and got it and now they’ve got a TV series. Damn
them.
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