We're here with Stargate SG-1's Don Davis... Get those questions in,
folks... Welcome, Don!
I am glad that we have an audience that is enjoying the show. We are
trying to create a mythology that we hope people are understanding and
are receptive to.
Mr. Davis, do you like working a regular series as opposed to a movie?
I enjoy working on a series. Any actor, especially a character actor, if
he's honest, prefers working on feature films. Just as any actor who's
honest prefers working before a live audience, because you have the
luxury of rehearsal, which you don't have on episodics. Plus, before a
live audience you have immediate feedback. The primary objective of
any actor is to create a believable character with as much depth to the
character as possible. And to create that depth necessitates the luxury of
time, to create and to explore. You don't have that luxury in episodic
television, except when you have a character that is developed slowly
over a season's run. That is rare for a character player like myself. It is
seldom the main character in any scene or episode. In a feature film or in
a stage play they do take more time to develop peripheral characters, and
that is why character actors prefer film or stage.
This is for Don Davis: Will they be sending you on any Stargate
missions?
I hope so. But for my character to be real, he has to be framed within the
restrictions that a general officer, a troop commander, would be framed
in real life. And regardless of what you see in a Schwarzenegger or
Wesley Snipes, or a star-driven character would indicate, in reality a
general never goes to the front lines. He's back at headquarters planning
the action. He can't do that if he is having a fist fight with the villains. In
real life, a General Schwarzkopf or Colin Powell spends his time in
headquarters, planning the overall strategy for the war. They aren't up
there fighting the individual battles with the platoon. That's what Jack
O'Neill does. He is the spearhead of the maneuvers that I am directing. I
have to rely on him and his judgment, and I have to support him, but I
can't be him. And he lives the actions that I dream about. He is like a
super marionette. I pull the strings, but he performs actions that surpass
the movements that I direct. And if he's good enough and if I have the
insight and the guidance to let him be all that he can be, the battle will
succeed. If I fail him, the maneuver will fail. The general is simply a
chess master. His troops are really the heroes. Everyone loves a hero.
But someone has to decide where to send the hero to do the deed. That's
what the general does.
What has been your favorite show?
I think my favorite so far was that episode early on in the first season
when Jack met an alien who became his son, where at the end of the
episode, he and this creature who he realized was simply representing
his son, walked back through the gate. I think you have to realize, when
you look at Stargate, that the person that I play had been a man of action
who was in the twilight of his career, who was really in a job that he
thought would allow him leisure time to write memoirs, and to color his
career experiences in a way that would reflect glory on himself, and pass
on his personal creed to any future generation that happened to read
those memories, wound up intertwined with someone who embodied all
that he admired about this military ideal that he had based his own career
on, the man of action, the hero that goes out and fights the dragon, and
then became that person's protector. That's all the general is. He's a man
of ideals who realizes that he's got people who care more about
principal, about what's right, about getting the job done, than they do
about themselves, and he loves that and tries to protect them. He's a
by-the-book character, he has to be, he's a general. You couldn't rise to
his level without knowing how to play the game. But these people, Jack
O'Neill, Daniel, Sam Carter, and Teal'c embody every facet of heroism
that he has dreamed about, that he has idealized, that he has based his
own life on. So he'll do whatever is necessary to let them succeed, to
protect them, and let them do the job.
Do you feel type-cast, playing military officers in both SG-1 and
X-Files?
Only to the extent that I play a military character. I also played a military
officer in Twin Peaks. Major Briggs. I was a Captain in the United
States Army during the Vietnam period. Fortunately, I was stationed in
Korea rather than Vietnam, so I'm not claiming that I am a battle scarred
veteran, but I was in the service during a period of great conflict,
overseas in Southeast Asia, during that period. One of the things that I
discovered, was that the kind of person portrayed by Hollywood in the
John Wayne films or those type of films, had little or no relationship to
real life, that the people who made the decisions about who was to live
or die on a hill or on any given battle were the kind of people you run
into in real life. They knew that if you put someone in danger you had to
face the consequences of what happened to them because of your
actions. And if you got someone hurt, it didn't matter if someone else
did the hurting, you felt the guilt for placing them in that situation. And if
you were fortunate enough to be the person who set forth the plan or
activity, you might get the glory, but the glory if someone was killed
because of your plan could never assuage the guilt of the knowledge that
they were killed because of your mistake, or because of your need to
sacrifice them to achieve a goal. We're all human. We all want to feel
that if we had to stand before a judge we could say that we measured up
to the mark. Because of an action that he put forth that was in the end
really unnecessary, I think that is the real horror of war. It's never as
simple as a homerun race, you know, or any athletic contest. The
problem that people face today when they deal with terrorism or wars or
injustice on any international playing field is that you make decisions that
are politically correct but morally bereft. I think General Hammond is
one of those that feels the pain of knowing the consequences of the
compromise that his position at times forces him to make. I think that it's
to his credit that he does back Jack O'Neill and Sam Carter and Daniel
Jackson and this wonderfully heroic creature, Teal'c, when their
integrity forces him to a decision that goes against the book that he
normally lives by. We all look for simple stories about cowboys and
Indians. If you are a cowboy, you're a hero for every Indian you kill.
That's the old American mythology. If you are an Indian, you wonder
who the hell these devils are that are raping your lands and going back
on their promises for some purpose that has nothing to do with the
philosophy that your whole heritage was based on. I think that's the
beauty of science fiction. It shows both sides of that coin. And lets you
know that both sides can be right and both sides can be wrong.
Any clue on the leak in Secrets, and did the General have something to
do with the reporter's death?
I don't think so. In fact, we asked that when we were filming it. I think
that both the General and Jack O'Neill knew that there was a damn good
possibility, and indeed probability, that the reporter's death was an
orchestrated accident. But I also believe, and it's the way we're playing
these characters, and the only way we can play these characters, that
both of these men, Hammond and O'Neill, are men of great integrity,
and that they had to believe, regardless of their suspicions, that it was
indeed an accident. I don't believe from the time of the original movie
through the series to date that anyone who accepts either of these
characters, could think that they would be party to cold blooded murder
of a person who was simply trying to bring out the truth. I don't think
that there is any argument that any superior could give to either one of
those men, Jack O'Neill or George Hammond, that would cause them to
sit blithely by and allow a man to be murdered. I also believe that neither
one of those men is so naive that they would fail to see the possibility
that that is what happened. I think it's one of those situations in which, if
you are in battle, and a sniper is firing at you from a tree, and you realize
that that sniper may be a wonderful person with two kids and a loving
wife at home, who is only firing at you from that tree because he
believes that everything he stands for and believes in depends on him
eliminating you from the field of battle, makes him a target that you can't
counterfire to. I think they realize that there are times when a person has
to be eliminated in war, no matter how good that person may be. And
that both of them, realize consciously how abhorrent and distasteful the
act may be. There are going to be victims in war that don't deserve to
die. They don't want to be part of their deaths, but they won't abandon
the fight because of that death. I think that the reporter's death in
Secrets, I think that was the name of the episode, became a questioning
moment for each man. I think that was one of those times when the
General became a father and said "No, Jack, that was an accident." I
don't think the General believed that, or if he did, he wasn't 100%
certain. But it was one of those times where Jack felt that there couldn't
be any justification for it. I think Jack is one of those guys who believes
that every life is sacrosanct. I think at times the General is more
pragmatic.
What's your relationship like with the rest of the cast?
Oh, I love them. I owe my whole career to Richard Dean Anderson and
Michael Greenburg. I was a college professor who was semi burned out
teaching, and starting out in the film business, and they gave me my first
break, my first guest star role, they took care of me. Those two guys
have more integrity than anybody I've ever met in this business. And I
think that Michael Shanks is one of the best young actors in this
business, and I've worked with some of the so-called cream of the
business. And Amanda, the myth they created for Doris Day, that IS
Amanda. She is warm, the camera loves her, and she can take a scene
that really should never be in public and make it ring like a diamond.
And I feel the same way about Chris Judge. You know we live in an age
in which PR is everything, and heroes are just people that somebody
writes pretty stories about. And then somebody digs beneath those
stories and you find out there's nothing there. Well, Chris is a man.
He's talented, he's got charisma, but he's got something else. He's the
kind of guy that you just want to know, the kind of guy that you hope
that your son will run into some day. Richard Dean Anderson is the
same kind of guy. He's a good guy. I'm sure it's not what you expected
to hear, and I just don't care. Richard Dean Anderson is the kind of guy
you don't hear about anymore. He's the kind of guy that 20, 30, 40
years ago would be an adventurer, or the kind of guy that you would
hope that your own kid would emulate. It's been my entire experience
with him. He's not phony. He's got charisma, and that's what makes
him a television personality. But he is the man he portrays. He's a man
that does the things that we used to think a man was supposed to do.
He's the kind of guy a man's supposed to be. I love this guy, I love
Michael Greenburg. I'm damned happy to be a part of this show, and
that it runs forever and ever, and that I get to be a part of it. My only fear
is that they're going to kill off the General. I started with MacGyver,
and I started out as the photo double for Dana Elcar who played Pete
Thornton, Rick's boss on MacGyver, who is an actor whose shoes I
could never fill. And now thanks to the largesse of Richard and Michael,
I'm actually getting to play his boss on Stargate. It makes me a happy
camper!
