Battlestar Q&A with Jamie Bamber
Source: eonline.comAgain, as promised, the interview with Battlestar’s Jamie Bamber, who could not have been more delightful and accommodating. Sadly, though, I didn’t score the towel as it was over the phone. Next time!
Samuel: What can we look forward to for Apollo in the second half of Season 2?
Jamie: Lots of loving. Looots of looooving. Yeah, my bathrobe has been on my peg in my trailer almost every day it seems. Lots of relationship stuff. Lots of darkness. He gets into a very dark place and almost does away with himself. He gets lost in space for a bit and thinks nobody’s going to rescue him and goes to a very dark moment which then affects everything else that he does. He questions everything that goes on and holds everyone else at a distance. Basically falls apart a bit and in that, he falls into many different arms, so it’s gonna to be interesting. It’s a really good story for him in the second half of the season, and I think he ends up then commanding the Pegasus as well for a bit. He’s got a lot to do.
Tara: You have such great chemistry with the female members of the cast, especially Starbuck, Dee, and the Prez, that it's hard for a fan to choose which potential couple to root for. So, who do you think Apollo will end up with?
Jamie: It’s not hard to have chemistry with all of them! (laughs) Well in the short term he’s going to end up with Dee, Dualla. Although he falls into a couple of other arms along the way. In the long term, I really don’t know. Actually, there’ll always be something between him and Starbuck. There’s always a kinetic energy, something going on between them, but they kind of get together in the second half of season two and fireworks go off and it doesn’t quite work out, so it’s a relationship that will always be there, but whether they can actually settle into it and admit it to anyone else, I highly doubt. I think they’re too charged and too mixed up about what the other means to them and there’s too much back story and too many problems, so I’m not sure if they’ll ever get together. Other than that, I don’t know. From what I’ve learned about the character, he’s got commitment issues, so I think whoever it is is going to have a hard ride.
Paige McKinney: Your wife recently made a cameo on Battlestar. Any plans to have her come back?
Jamie: Uh, there may be. She’s actually released an album in Europe now, so she’s concentrating on that. She’s flying back and forth. So she hasn’t really got time to do any more on the show right now, but who knows in the future. It was nice to have her at work for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun, so I hope so.
Monti Shalosky: Your wife recently recorded a CD...do you know if or when it will be released? (I heard her sing...she's good)
Jamie: It’s out in Europe. In Holland and Belgium, it’s been released. I wish I knew how to get a hold of it. I think there’s a website called Alcastar.com where you can get hold of it or something.
Maureen: I'd love to know how you've managed your family life (is it right that you have a 2-year old AND 1-year old twins???) and a starring role in a new, fantastic show. Really, how many nannies does it take?
Jamie: I have three tiny, little girls. The twins are one and my eldest is two. I manage it with the help of sometimes two nannies, and a wife who’s amazingly energetic and enthusiastic. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot of help and when I’m not working, I’m playing. It’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of crazy, but in a good way.
Martin Haro: Will you sign and auction off your towel?
Jamie: Oh, well, maybe I shouldn’t admit that it probably just got washed and thrown back in the wardrobe department along with everything else! [laughs] I mean, I’ve got it! I’ve kept it. It’s at home, unwashed and ready to go until it’s price is right. We’ll see what happens to that.
Helen: How are the fans when you meet them on the street?
Jamie: They’re amazingly enthusiastic. I’ve never come across people who are so pleased to have a science fiction show that is also a great drama, that isn’t kind of goofy, and treats the viewers as adults. The other night I was at a bar and this guy comes running up to us and he was just so pleased that he’d bumped into us. It happens all the time. It’s mainly guys, I have to say. I can’t say I’ve been accosted by too many women on the street.
Jennifer: Do you and Richard Hatch get along seeing as you played the same character?
Jamie: Definitely. He sees in me, I think, all the excitement that he went through. You know, I remind him, although he went through it times ten, because it was going to 17 million people or whatever. But he loves my little version of the character. He was saying it’s great to have these sort of issues he has, relationship issues with those around him and his dad and you know, he’s not the sort of cardboard cutout sort of hero that Richard sort of played. Apollo, in the original never put a foot wrong, whereas my guy puts foot all over the place that he shouldn’t do and makes mistakes with the best of intentions. Richard’s very supportive and very excited for this show, and for his role in it as well. He’s a regular on the show now, so he enjoys it very much. And I think he’s got misgivings because he put a lot of time and effort and energy into getting his original revived and that hasn’t come to anything yet, so I think he’s got mixed feelings about it, but he’s very positive about the direction we’re going and says that he wished he could’ve gone in many of the directions that we’ve gone with his character originally.
Elizabeth Mendoza: Which Battlestar actor makes you laugh the most on set?
Jamie: We have practical jokers, but who makes me laugh the most? I would say James Callis, but I don’t get to do stuff with him very much. Otherwise Katee and I have a lot of fun, and Tahmoh too. Tahmoh Penikett is a great laugh to work with on set.
Kristin: I would imagine that since the subject matter can be dark…
Jamie: Yeah, but we have to break it, and snap out of it and have some fun. And you know, a lot of time the subject or situation is very dark, but the characters still connect in a very human and very sort of, at times, lighthearted way. I mean, they all know each other very well and there’s that sort of comraderie that happens in the military or in tight-knit situations. When your back’s to the wall, people do have dark sense of humor and that comes across, I think, on the screen and off of it too.
Darrel: Any other projects coming up for you?
Um no. I’m hoping to do something in the hiatus that we’ve got. We’ve got three months, but uh, nothing definite as of yet. And [my family’s] all going back to London, so we’re all going to pile on the plane, and keep everyone awake for twelve hours on the plane while we all fly home. I’ve got to rent a house in London for three months and catch up with old friends and family and stuff like that.
Kristin: See if you can score another towel scene.
Well I don’t know about a towel, but it seems like every other episode these days they’ve got me running around half dressed. Yeah, I spent episode thirteen in bed with some prostitute! And then Starbuck and I bang off the feeling briefly in another episode, so you don’t need towels.
Kristin: Right, so I imagine you’re not encouraging your wife to watch the second half of the season too much?
No, no. [Laughs] She stopped watching the show. She has stopped. She can’t take it.