Exclusive Interview: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA'S JAMIE BAMBER FOCUSES ON RELATIONSHIPS- PART 1
By: Sean Elliott, Senior Editor
Source: ifmagazine.comAccording to the actor, Adama is the Queen and Apollo is Prince Charles
It’s been an interesting roller coaster ride for Jamie Bamber who plays the role of Lee “Apollo” Adama on SCI FI Channel’s hit series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. First he had to grasp and grapple with the familial relationship between his character and Edward James Olmos’ Admiral Adama, then came the on again off again love affair with Katee Sackhoff’s Starbuck character. Following that there has been a marriage, fat suit, and a lost command for Lee Adama, but Bamber takes all of these changes in stride and tells iF MAGAZINE how he looks forward to the more challenging things the series has given him to do over the years and in up coming episodes.
iF MAGAZINE: What have been the most interesting things they have thrown at you over three seasons?
JAMIE BAMBER: My character has always been about his relationships. I supposed the most interesting things have been the characters that he has had the relationships with; the arguments are similar and yet they keep being fresh and realistic and they cease to boor. A relationship between a father and son in real life tends to re-iterate itself constantly because all such relationships are formed during a childhood of some sort and your stuck in a repeating circle. The interesting thing for me is that the stakes don’t diminish and we don’t get bored with it. Every season there is something new to play with, especially with Starbuck and Adama, and this season has raised the bar. I was talking to Grace Park yesterday and she asked, “ How can you do the same thing every year? You almost get with this girl [Starbuck] and you almost get on with your dad and then you break up.” [Laughs] That’s kind of true and I find that informative about life. I think that’s very much how we are. I think it’s very hard for people to change and to move on in a relationship whether it’s with your dad or would-be mistress/lover/whatever she is.iF: With the characters on the show it has to be tough since everyone is running for their lives, they probably don’t have too much time to stop and introspect about what needs fixed in their lives?
BAMBER: Exactly. I don’t think we have a great time to contemplate, instead it’s more time to react and get on and do things. The most interesting thing for me this season is a new character that is being introduced right now who is a breath of fresh air for Lee. He’s an insight into a whole way of being that is entirely different than everything he has been exposed to. He kind of represents the grandfather figure, this champion of humanity and all that it means to be human the squalid as well as the noble. Lee goes off in a different direction at the end of the season. A very different direction. That’s kind of been brewing for a little while. Where the character is concerned the military has had a question mark attached to it, and that question mark has been what else is there? What else might I have been? How much have I been meant to follow this path and how much have I been railroaded into it? Lee gets to finally open his intellect and his way of think with the influence of this character that gets introduced towards the end of season three. I think that’s an interesting departure. I don’t think he’s had an external influence like that at all. Zarek was a potential one, but he pretty quickly turned out to be a bit of a nutter and Lee didn’t go down that road. Roslin was an influence for a while and he still respects her, but she and Adama are an item basically this season. She’s very much in harmony with the Admiral. They represent the establishment. They are the new structure to humanity.Lee is in a unique position where is kind of party to everyone. He knows everyone. He’s done more jobs than anyone; he’s been a commander, he’s been a CAG, he’s been a Presidential Advisor, he did a stint as a marine and as a security guard. He’s done everything and he’s a young guy who needs a challenge and he doesn’t really have one. In a way I liken him to Prince Charles in that his dad is the Queen until death, and he’s almost the heir apparent but he’s got no prospects of promotion or challenge really. Other than the challenges of getting through on a day-to-day basis as a pilot. It’s really only in season three that new avenues open up to him and he’s kind of in a position to change things.
iF: Season two we got a little bit of background on Apollo. I know we’re getting some more background on Adama, will that mean more of your character’s story as well?
BAMBER: Yeah. There’s a whole revelation about Lee’s life and family. Basically how Adama was really in denial about what he had at home and what kind of relationship he had with his own wife and what kind of mother she was to his two boys. There’s a scene I have yet to see which is basically Lee telling his dad what reality was, and how Adama has been deluding himself. It’s a very interesting season for Adama. It’s the most interesting season for Adama. You find out that this is a man who finds refuge in his job and in the military; it gives him absolute certainties where he had none in his personal life and in his life as a father. You see that he’s kind of a shell and all of this weight and gravitas and conviction that we’ve been witnessing from the beginning is lifted and it’s embarrassing. I think it’s embarrassing for any son to see that side of his father and have to accept it.