Bits + Bytes: Inner Techie: Aaron Douglas
By: Chris Atchison
Date: October/November 2009
Source: URmagazine
Battlestar Galactica vet Aaron Douglas loves talking tech – just don’t ask him to Tweet about it.
There’s no easier ticket to nerd immortality than a role on a hit sci-fi show. Just ask Battlestar Galactica’s much bloggedabout star, Canadian actor Aaron Douglas. But while he appreciates the attention, things get a little too weird when fans can’t separate the actor from the role. A lead part on the new CTV police drama The Bridge should help forge a new character, but not before he patches up Raptors and Vipers in the TV movie Battlestar Galactica: The Plan, due this fall. We beamed into Douglas’ world to learn why possessive fans forced him to forego Facebook, how he hustles colleagues with a Wii and why Twitter is a waste of time.
Playing an engineer on BSG, you must have some favourite tech tools.
I love my Wii, which I have in my trailer to play Tiger Woods Wii Golf against my co-stars and take their money. We play skins, so every hole is worth $2 to $5. We usually play a random 18 holes so it takes us to different golf courses around the world. I think my best score was +3. But no one’s allowed to play as Tiger Woods. It would be like picking Gretzky in your hockey pool – it’s just not allowed.
Do fans assume you know a lot about tech?
They really do. They ask in-depth questions about how Vipers fly. I just remind them I’m an actor and have no idea.
It seems as if the fans know more about the show than you do – is this a good thing?
Sci-fi fans are the best. When I’m doing a Q+A and there are 2,000 people in the audience and someone asks about the launch sequence or something, I usually say, “That’s a really good question. Why don’t we let someone else take it?” Then I let the fans answer each other.
Do you interact with fans online?
At the outset I enjoyed talking to people online, and then it got a little creepy. Some people took it too far, into some really odd places, attacking each other because one thought they were more of a friend of mine than another person. That’s why I don’t interact on Facebook anymore.
But surely you’re on Twitter now?
I will never use Twitter. This incessant need for constant updates and information on the minutiae of people’s lives staggers me. I have no idea why people would want to know that “Aaron just walked into his trailer and he’s about to have lunch on set.”
The Chief’s Top 3
He may be trading in his ratchet set for a badge, but once a Cylon, always a Cylon. Here are Aaron’s all-time favourite sci-fi flicks.
1. The original three Star Wars movies
2. Time Bandits
3. Ghostbusters
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