Family Reunion

Kate Hewlett is the actress sister of Atlantis star David Hewlett and also plays his characters sister in the series…


When she was in the fifth grade, Kate Hewlett appeared in a school production that helped fuel her dream to one day become an actress. “We did 10-minute versions of ‘The Sound of Music’. The story lost something I’ll admit,” she chuckles, “but I was absolutely hooked”.

“My high school had an amazing acting programme, which I participated in, but then I lost my confidence a little bit. It [acting] seemed like such a difficult business. I was going to University and though ‘Why do that if I already know I want to be an actress. Perhaps while I’m at university I’ll explore some more options, which I did. However, halfway through my second year I did a school play and that’s when I finally decided to seriously pursue an acting career.”

Hewlett made her big screen debut in the 2005 feature film Dark Water, directed by Walter Salles. On TV she has guest starred on Kevin Hill and is a regular on the Canadian drama series 11 Cameras. This past May, the actress was cast as Jeanie McKay, sister of Dr Rodney McKay, in the third season Stargate Atlantis episode McKay and Mrs Miller. Kate is, in fact, the real life sister of David Hewlett (Rodney McKay) and the role of Jeanie was the result of another happy coincidence.

“Last summer I did a Toronto fringe show that a group of friends and I wrote together,” says Hewlett. “One of the people in the cast was Brendan Gall, who is a friend of Martin Gero [Atlantis writer/co-producer]. Martin came to see the production and not long after I received a phone call from my brother David who told me, ‘Martin loved the show and he wants to write a part for you [in Atlantis]’. I wasn’t sure though if it would actually happen, but then it did. So I put my audition on tape here in Toronto, sent it to the Atlantis producers a week prior to the start of filming and all of a sudden I had the job.”

Twenty four hours before she was scheduled to begin work on Atlantis, Hewlett spent the day shooting another TV show then jumped on the red eye to Vancouver and arrived in the middle of the night. “I slept for two or three hours before my 5.15 call in the morning,” she recalls. “When I got to the Atlantis set my brain was mush, but happy mush,” chuckles the actress.

“All the scenes we shot that day were of my characters first time on the Daedalus and meeting an alien for the first time. Funnily enough, in some ways it really didn’t take much acting on my part because I was just so amazed. The sets are so convincing that you don’t feel like you’re in a studio at all. You actually feel like you’re on a spaceship and Hermoid, the little alien [Asgard] is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I had to do a scene where I’m staring at him with my mouth open and part of me wasn’t pretending.”

“That first day I worked with David as well as Amanda Tapping (Colonel Samantha Carter) who is just so lovely. What a perfect person to meet right off the bat. Amanda was very welcoming and treated me like we had known each other for years. So it was a really good start for me.”

In McKay and Mrs Miller, Jeanie comes to Atlantis to assist her brother Rodney and his team mates with a complex scientific problem , but shortly after her arrival its obvious that there are some unresolved issues between the siblings. “My understanding is that Jeanie and Rodney were very close when they were younger and are quite similar in that they’re both extremely smart,” notes Hewlett. “However Jeanie chose a life with her husband and daughter over her career and Rodney was furious because he felt like she was wasting her life by not becoming the scientist she could have been. So they haven’t seen each other in something like four years, which is a really interesting place to start the episode. You can tell though that they really love and miss each other, and as the story unfolds you get little glimpses of them sort of coming back together as siblings.”

Atlantis was Hewlett’s second time performing alongside her brother. “In January I worked with David on A Dogs Breakfast, an independent film that he wrote, directed and acted in”, she says. “That’s was our first time collaborating as actors and it was so much fun, but David was incredibly busy. He was focused a lot on the directing so we weren’t really able to just hang out together on set as actors. That made Atlantis even more fun because we got to play off each other, tease each other and get the crew to side with one of us. I had a great time, and David is such a talented actor, but don’t tell him I said so,” jokes the actress.

If given the opportunity would Hewlett like to reprise her role of Jeanie? “In a second,” she enthuses.
 

Thank you to McKayRocks