Aaron Douglas GALACTICA.TV interview
Interview By: Martine Voppen
Transcript By: David Jimerson
Date: August 5, 2006
Source: Galactica.tv (Click HERE to listen to the audio of this interview)

 

At the Galactica Two Convention in England, held August 4-6, 2006, our reporter Martine Voppen spoke to actor Aaron Douglas again. This short interview is a follow up to the big interview you’ve just read.

 

This is just a follow up on an earlier interview we had with you. For example you said that the Chief was like a brother to Cally and you didn’t want their relationship to develop any further

(Aaron laughs again when he hears this)

 

Have you gotten over that or did you have a shouting match with Ronald D. Moore or any of the other writers?

(Aaron laughs when hearing “shouting match”)

No, we certainly didn’t have a “shouting match”, but I was surprised that they were going to go that way. It… Yeah, I was really surprised that they actually went that way. We sort of saw it coming. I think we had an inkling that it was going to happen, but I was a little, sort of resistant to the inkling when it was brewing a little bit. I think Nicki spotted it certainly before I did and yeah it’s kind of weird because it really is the big brother little sister relationship and even in real life it’s like big brother little sister for Nicki and I. I love her to death and I’m fiercely protective of her and the Chief is the same thing for Cally and now they’re together. I don’t know.. once you get past the paedophilic nature of it all (laughs again) I think it’s okay. You know it’s so weird, because all the fans were just like …that guy is an old guy and there’s this teenager, and oh… it’s sort of like Jerry Lee Lewis and…

 

She’s not really a teenager…

No she’s not. No, she just looks really young, but she’s older. She has been in the military for a number of years. So yeah, the Cally-character, I think, is sort off in her early to mid 20’s and the Chief is sort off early 30’s, so it’s not THAT out of the realm of possibilities, but… No, I’m perfectly happy about it. The writers are always writing really good stuff for me and I trust them to do whatever. And if it doesn’t make sense to me at the time, I ask some questions and they either explain it away or they just assure me that it will be revealed in the upcoming episodes or it’s the beginning of a story and there a true line and an arc to it. So, you just trust the writers, that’s all I do.

 

 

Talking about writing good stuff. Are there any deleted scenes you wish they had included in the final cut that didn’t make it?

Of the entire series so far?

 

Yeah.

Yeah, there is a great scene with Nicki and I where she’s just fantastic in, from the Mini-Series. Where she confronts me about fracking Sharon and that one got deleted. Usually the other ones don’t get deleted, they kind of get edited, to shorten them up a bit. But that’s the one that really stands out in my mind and I wish… I would like to see that one somewhere and I think it’s probably on the deleted scenes, I haven’t looked for it yet. So, I definitely have to look for it.

 

And about Boomer actually, fracking Sharon and all. Will it get mentioned or be brought up again or in other words do you actually get some sort of closure this Season [3] ?

No, they don’t really refer to it or talk about it at all. It just seems to be…

 

Really? (surprised)

Yeah it’s .. it’s just kind off… You know, it’s referred to by… Cally and Boomer have an amazing scene in episode 1 or 2 or 3… [of Season 3] Well, somewhere in there. They have a great scene, in which they talk about it a bit. I have a scene with Grace, where she just congratulates me on the baby. But no, their relationship is over. It kind off moved on. She’s now with Helo and the Chief is left dealing with everything he has to deal with. It’s nice that they moved on and they don’t drag it out and beat a dead horse.

 

So, is everything working out for the Chief in Season 3?

I have no idea! (Aaron pulls a teasing face). It’s brutal, the stuff they got me doing is brutal. It’s great! …but it’s brutal.

 

Final question. Do you have any other projects lined up?

No. No, I did a couple of days on the new Pierce Brosnan movie Butterfly On a Wheel. I didn’t work with Pierce, I worked with Gerard Butler and Callum Rennie who plays Leoben on our show and that was a lot of fun.

 

Did you have connections? [pointing at Dan Bacon, his good friend who was a reader for that film and who’s sitting next to me]

Eh, yeah! Actually’, he was on set because he was the off camera reader for Pierce Brosnan’s stuff. Dan is everywhere I go, I just can’t get away from him.

 

You don’t want to write anything yourself or…

Eh yeah, I write shorts, it’s just that… I don’t have… I do have the time, but I just don’t have the… I don’t know. I need somebody to sort of organize. I’m an idea guy and I just need somebody, the follow through person, who sits down and does the nuts and bolts of it. But I have great ideas and have great stories and I have great scripts written, but I just like somebody else to do them and then I’ll act in them or direct them, but nothing so far.

 

Okay, thank you very much… Again.

You’re very welcome.

Hail to the Chief: Interview with Aaron Douglas, Battlestar Galactica’s Chief Tyrol
By: Carole Gordon
Date: July 23, 2006
Source: Eclipse Magazine

 

Aaron Douglas, ‘Battlestar Galactica’s’ Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol, is not a fan of remakes. If something is really great to begin with, he thinks they should just leave well enough alone. No doubt that sentiment was echoed by many fans of the original version of the 1970s cult science fiction show. But, as Douglas explains to Carole Gordon, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is different.

“I don’t think the original ‘Battlestar’ had the run it deserved,” Douglas says. “I certainly don’t think the writers brought the story to fruition. And combined with that they were going to re-imagine it, I thought ‘Okay, it will be different enough; it will be that in name only’.”

Not that he doesn’t understand fans’ concerns about taking such a beloved show and giving it a new, and in some ways controversial, twist.

“I was a little bit torn,” he admits. “I understand people’s frustration and anger but, for me, it’s like ‘Lord of the Rings’. ‘Lord of the Rings’ was such an amazing series of books, and really to do them justice the movie needed to be 47 hours long! You just have to see that they are two separate entities along the same theme – let them stand on their own and say that they are both great for their own reasons.”

Douglas attributes the international success of the re-imagined show to the strength of the writing, the excellence of the acting across the board, and the topicality of the show’s storylines.

“It hits a lot of themes of what’s going on in the world right now, particularly in the US, and puts a little bit of a spin on them. It reflects what’s taking place and people can identify with that. It’s sci-fi genre, but it’s really a human drama; it just happens to take place on a spaceship or a planet that’s not called Earth.”

Douglas’s character has been in the thick of the action from the start. He has fought the Cylons, fallen in love with one and had nightmares that he was a Cylon. This might not sound much like human drama, but the themes echo those of conflict, relationships and psychological demons that plague characters in most drama, whatever and whenever the setting.

“I really like the Chief,” Douglas says with enthusiasm. “If somebody said, ‘Which character would you like to play?’ I would probably pick him. He’s a blue-collar guy who just works really hard, is especially loyal to his friends and family and to his workers. He has his flaws and his foibles but they’re not borne out of any sort of narcissism. He’s not an egomaniac. He’s just doing the best he can and he makes mistakes and pays for them and he’s repentant.”

He finds that the character strikes chords with fans of the show too, particularly those in the military.

“When I run into military people, a lot of them say, ‘He’s just like a Chief that I’ve served with, or I am serving with’ and they really appreciate the fact that it’s so real. That’s what I really like about him.”

The character’s relationship with Cylon Sharon definitely falls into the category of “mistake”. But is Tyrol really over her?

“Yes,” Douglas says, “in that he is able to function and able to see her without it affecting his day-to-day life so much. No, in that I don’t think anyone ever gets over that depth of love and betrayal. I think if he lived another hundred years, he still would have some lingering effects of it. But as time goes on he certainly isn’t dealing with it every day; it’s sort of at the back of his mind now.”

Also at the back of Tyrol’s mind is the fear that he might be a Cylon, a storyline explored in the two-part season two finale ‘Lay Down Your Burdens’. The episode featured veteran actor Dean Stockwell as a priest, Brother Cavil, in whom Tyrol confides his nightmares. Douglas was thrilled to be working with Stockwell.

“I’m sitting there across the table from a guy who’s been doing it for 63 years,” he says. “I was just like, ‘You’ve been doing this since you were a kid!'” Douglas’s talent for mimicry kicks in and he gives a pitch-perfect impersonation of Stockwell’s gravely voice. “‘Yep, seven years old! Seen more than you will ever see!'”

Even though Stockwell in his long career has played opposite all the great names in the movie world, Douglas says that he didn’t act the big star – and he came in completely prepared.

“He was the nicest guy,” Douglas says with admiration. The scenes between Tyrol and Cavil in episode 19 were all shot in one session, but this didn’t faze Stockwell.

“It was twelve, thirteen pages of dialogue and he had it all absolutely down, he was totally ready. I said, ‘So you have been doing this for ever.’ He said, ‘There’s four people on the planet that have been doing this as long as I have and I’m one of the four. There’s me, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Blake.’ I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good company because two of them are completely insane!’ He laughed and said, ‘Which ones are you talking about?’ It’s amazing – the guy’s just an absolute icon. So, yeah, that was a real treat for me.”

At the end of season two, Tyrol is about to become a father and is helping to settle the new colony – until the Cylons turn up yet again to enslave the colonists. Season three picks up the story a few months later.

Without giving too much away, Douglas says, “We’re just dealing with the Cylon occupation and Tyrol is really a centrepoint for a lot of that story of dealing with the Cylons and trying to get away from oppressive occupiers.”

“This is the best season ever!” is too often the PR refrain going into a new run of any show. Yet Douglas is convinced that, in ‘Battlestar Galactica’s’ case, the writing and storylines really are stronger than ever.

“I was saying last year when we were shooting, those of you who liked season one, wait till season two, because it will blow your mind. Season three so far is just unbelievable. The first two scripts I sat down and I couldn’t move. My phone was ringing, people were bugging me and I just completely blocked everything out because I got so involved in reading these first two scripts. It’s ridiculous how good these first two scripts are.”

At this point, Douglas doesn’t know precisely what is planned. But he is confident he can trust the writing team to do right by Tyrol. Well, he trusts them on all but one small matter.

“I don’t push them, I don’t really bug them. The only thing I ask is ‘You’re not killing me, right? I don’t die do I?’,” he says with a laugh. “I have the promise that I’m not going to die until at least episode 17, after that they won’t tell us anything!”

Douglas considers this role has enabled him to do his best work so far in his career, because of the quality of the storylines he has been given.

“They’ve really given me juicy meaty things to do and they let me ad lib and improve and do all the things that are my strengths so I am fiercely, fiercely proud of this show and my work on this show. It’s really well received and to be a part of it is an honour, so I’m thrilled.”

Douglas also has a small role in the up-coming movie ‘Butterfly on a Wheel’ as a desk sergeant at a police station. He plays a scene with Gerard Butler and Callum Keith Rennie (Cylon Leoben on ‘Battlestar Galactica’), who Douglas refers to as “one of the most talented guys I’ve ever met”.

Aside from occasional movie roles, Douglas likes to spend his time away from ‘Galactica’ travelling, playing hockey and golf or reading. He’s also a big hit on the convention circuit. What does he get out of attending these events?

“Oh, every convention I go to is a real treat,” Douglas says with conviction. “I love going to them. I think I’ve been to England four or five times for conventions. I love meeting the fans, and then sit around and have a beer and talk about the show or talk about life or whatever. They are the neatest people. They are so sweet and warm and welcoming and yeah, it’s an amazing group of people to hang out with. They are all there for a good time and it’s just a good laugh. Ask the people that go to the Wolf events, I’m always the last one out of the bar, so I must be having fun!”

That fun – the result of a life-changing decision – started the day he married his (now ex-) wife. At the wedding reception, he announced that he was quitting his job and going back to acting school. An amazing set of coincidences had come together at that event to present him with an omen.

“Here beside me was my wife, Deborah Kerr, and sitting at the head table, there’s my father, Michael Douglas, and his girlfriend Linda Hamilton, so I said I have to be an actor! The universe is telling me!”

Sort of his own personal – and very special – remake.

Accidental Actor
By: Jennifer Chancellor
Date: June 25, 2006
Source: tulsaworld.com

 

After two ‘Battlestar Galactica’ rejections, Aaron Douglas talked his way into a role

Aaron Douglas’ smart mouth has helped make him famous. And smart, in this instance, can only mean intelligent.

In a recent phone interview from downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he cracked jokes and waxed enthusiastically about literature, sports, his upcoming guest spot at this year’s Trek Expo 2006 and his role as Chief Galen Tyrol in the Sci-Fi Network’s “Battlestar Galactica” series.

“I’m really looking forward to coming down and checking out this convention and meeting everybody and sitting around, answering Q&A, talking and meeting fans. If they can’t find me, go look for me in the bar,” he joked. “And if anybody wants to talk sports, I’m their guy.”

His trek to sci-fi stardom on “BSG” started a little rocky, but his gift for gab eventually lead him to a prime position with the series, he said.

He got involved with “BSG” in 2002, after he heard that a resurrected, revamped version of the classic 1979 sci-fi series was in the works. “I knew it was something that I’d love to be a part of, and so my agent got me an audition and it just sort of snowballed from there.”

Well, “sort of” is right. He originally auditioned for the role of Capt. Lee “Apollo” Adama, and didn’t get it. It went to Jamie Bamber.

Then, Douglas was called back to audition for another role. He didn’t get that one, either.

“They really wanted to put me in the show somewhere and they picked this role, Chief Tyrol, and asked if I wanted to do it. I said ‘Yeah, absolutely!’ and it was really just a smallish character.”

And, he said, that’s when he started talking. His role in the series took off.

Douglas ad-libbed his way from a role as a “ship mechanic,” as he jokingly called it (his character is actually senior NCO, or noncommissioned officer, on board the Galactica battleship), into a prominent lead on “BSG.”

In just a couple of seasons, Douglas’ co-characters on the show also have developed into a loyal deck crew, he said.

“One thing I’m good at is making stuff up on the fly,” he said. “Normally, TV shows say, ‘No, no! You have to say it exactly as written.’ But they started letting me do scenes . . . and now I’m one of the regular leads. I’m very pleased.”

And his fans love Douglas’ rugged, honest, realistic take on Chief Tyrol’s character. “He’s really relatable. When I meet fans, particularly people who are in the military, they all say that the Chief reminds them of a Chief they are serving with, have served with, or know well — the guy who sticks up for his men and he’s really loyal. And that’s what I like about him, too.”

Douglas is a self-proclaimed war and military history buff, and doesn’t mind telling people about it. “Right now I have three books on the go. My big thing right now is war history — I read a lot of those books, like (author) Stephen Ambrose, and a lot of books written by individual soldiers. I think they’re absolutely fascinating.”

He also light-heartedly admits that he has no military training. “I’m Canadian, so we have, like, four guys in our military, and they all share the gun.”

Douglas did “a little bit” of acting in school productions as a child, a smattering of community theater gigs after high school and a year of acting school at age 28, “but the most schooling I have is for floor-laying. I’m blue-collar,” he said.

“I think my background also helps me relate to my audience. I think I probably work that kind of life perspective into my character on ‘BSG’ whenever I can. I worked construction for four or five years. Not that I’d ever want to do it again — my knees are shot.”

“Physical labor is rewarding but it’s also real, true work, you know? One nice thing about that kind of job is that you can just take off your toolbelt and your day’s over. Actors, I get off the set and I’ve got to go study my lines for the next day.”

But, Douglas said, it’s not always work, work, work — even while in the midst of shooting season three of “BSG.”

During his time off, he often travels from his home in Vancouver to Las Vegas, or plays golf or hockey. But he also enjoys “lying around and reading. I like to sit quietly,” he said, and laughed.

His breaks also allow him to meet his fans at conventions like Tulsa’s Trek Expo 2006, which runs through Sunday at the John Q. Hammonds Arena, 6836 S. Mingo Road.

“Now I’ve got a couple of episodes that are nice and lean for me, so I’ve got some time off.”

“It’s my first time in Tulsa, or anywhere near Oklahoma for that matter, so I’m really excited about seeing what that part of the country looks like. You say it’s flat? I’m coming from West Coast mountains, so everything’s flat to me,” Douglas said.

He’ll be at the Expo on Sunday, and he’s looking forward to meeting — and talking with — his fans.

“Battlestar Galactica has such a huge fan following, and sci-fi fans are so eager to meet the casts and to talk about stuff like this.”

“I get to do things like buy a house and have a life and do something that I love, thanks to the fans, the people who watch the show. It’s a real treat.”

Spare A Screw
By: Michael Ricci (aka aeolus)
Date: April 14, 2006
Source: Sci-Fi Brain

 

Battlestar Galactica’s Chief Tyrol is a mechanic who can turn screws into space-ships, but Aeolus finds out why Aaron Douglas believes there is more to this man than just nuts and bolts.

Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol has gone through a myriad of character development since the breakout series, Battlestar Galactica, debuted back in December of 2003. The character fell in love with a Cylon-infiltrator, has been accused of being one himself, was stranded on an alien world, accidentally killed a superior officer, and nearly did the same thing to the mother of his unborn child. And all of this occurred up until the end of season two. So, where does one start? Why, the beginning, of course…

“I am not like a lot of actors who do this whole write out,” Aaron Douglas, the actor behind Galactica’s Tyrol, says about his character’s yet revealed history. “I am more of an in-the-moment [type-of-actors]. What is taking place? We know that his father was a priest and his mother was an oracle and he is from Gemenon. He is, or was, very-very religious. And, um, an only child—I think. That is what I am going with. He has been in service for along time. Sort of against his parents wishes. He was going through the ranks quickly and something happened on another ship where he was demoted. [He] sort of had to start at the bottom and was shipped off to Galactica and became Adama’s favorite regardless of his past.”

While the character’s religious beliefs have only been hinted at, it is certain that Tyrol has a strong sense of spirituality. When asked if that belief system played an important part of the character, he agreed. “Yeah. You don’t see him praying all the time like Starbuck, but I think that he is drifting from it though.”

The Vancouver-native admitted that this is one of the things he has in common with his character.

“He is sort of a parallel to my life. I grew up in a fundamental Christian home and my parents figured out that is not the right avenue. I grew up in that environment, and since I kind of became more spiritual and less religious, I think that I am trying to take the Chief that way. There are a bunch of religious people on the ship and the Cylons are uber religious. I like to have some characters get away from fundamental religion. Reading a book that was written thousands of years ago, and following it, and trying to apply it to modern day is [difficult].”

In the two-part season finale of season two, Lay Down Your Burdens, one of the opening scenes was a distraught Tyrol having a nightmare. Concerned, Specialist Cally (Nicki Clyne) approaches him, but becomes the accidental target of his repressed rage. Even though her jaw was wired shut, she confessed her (obvious) feelings for her commanding officer.

In regards to their romantic relationship, “I didn’t think they were going to go there. I just thought that those two would be like big brother/little sister for the rest of the show, but that is where they wanted to go. We will see how it plays out in season three.” By the end of the episode, Cally is shown pregnant. “It is an interesting turn of events, but I don’t think it is a wrong one or bad in anyway. I am looking forward to seeing how it goes.”

The cast doesn’t return to filming until the second week of April. So, Douglas is in the dark as the rest of us are. However, he does have his own theories on what the future holds in store for the Viper repairmen turned lovers.

“A baby!” he laughs. “It depends if they are going to be stuck on that planet for awhile or if they get back up to the ship. If they go back and are in the military, does Cally go back in the military or does she stay a stay-at-home mom? Or, does the Chief go back and does she stay on a civilian ship? I don’t know, there are a lot of questions. I would think that it would be an interesting thing if she goes to a civilian ship with the baby. And, the Chief has to shuttle back and forth to visit her. I guess the mini-long distance relationship would play out.”

“We have no idea what is taking place,” he continues. “The writers keep it all under wraps. So, I guess stuff won’t leak out. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do flashbacks to what has taken place in the years that we’ve missed, but I could be wrong. I think at some point Cally will have her baby, Baltar will still be an asshole, and Apollo will still be fat!” he teases. “He will have to sit in a makeup chair for five hours.”

To date, Flight of the Phoenix, is Aaron’s favorite episode. Facing a Viper shortage, Tyrol takes it upon himself to design a new fighter jet from scratch. “I liked Flight of the Phoenix, because I had a lot to do. We shot it in sequence from beginning to end. I also like any episodes where I wasn’t in it, because I got paid to play hockey and go golfing, which is nice,” he adds with a laugh.

Of all the episodes he has done, twenty-five of the show’s thirty-three run, he doesn’t have a least favorite episode. The only thing he dislikes about shooting scenes is not being able to do something. “The only things that aren’t really fun to shot are when it is a big huge scene in the hanger deck, where everyone is involved, but only Adama and the President, or Adama and Apollo are making speeches at the podium. The hanger deck is full of us and you have no dialogue or anything, but you have to stand in a line for six hours and listen to someone say the same thing again and again. You’re basically an extra, and man is that boring. Just brutal!”

What catapulted the show to critical acclaim was the end of season one. Cylon-infiltrator Sharon “Boomer” Valerii (Grace Park) shot Commander Adama (Edward James Almos) in the stomach, President Roslin was arrested in a military coup d’état, while Vice-President Baltar, Tyrol and several others crash landed on Kobol. At the beginning of season two, most of the main characters were either laying on their death bed, imprisoned or on alien worlds. Many critics and fans alike praised the show for its brave move.

“I was obviously very thrilled!” Douglas admits when his character was made more a central character to an on-going plotline. “I remember getting those scripts and just feeling very-very pleased. I started shooting emails out to the writers and thanking them for really-really great stuff to do.”

Other fans were more critical of the sudden shift of focus.

“It is tough, our cast is so huge. You have so many stories going on and it is difficult to keep everybody happy. So, ultimately, we have scripts where we have one or two scenes or other episodes where we don’t even work. I think that is just unfortunate. The byproduct of having a cast of fifteen [regulars].” Douglas admits that there are some benefits to allowing breathing room for other characters to shine in certain episode. “I take my scraps from the table whenever I get them. I am very pleased to get them and don’t mind having an episode or two off, because I understand that less is more sometimes. If you are in every episode all the time, some are excited about it, but others start to tune you out after a little bit. I always go away from movies, you remember the leads, but you always remember that one guy or that one lady who had just a few scenes, but who had spiced it up.”

In the Kobol story arc (Scattered, Valley of Darkness, and Fragged), Tyrol becomes the unofficial field commander when the indecisive and reckless Lieutenant Crashdown makes some dangerous choices. In those episodes, several characters were killed by Cylon Centurions. One of them was season one reoccurring character, Socinus (Alonso Oyarzun) who is a good friend of Aaron Douglas. He recalls this as being the most difficult and challenging of all the episodes he’s done to date.

“Vancouver is a rain forest. Depending on the time of year it can be chilly and rain—especially out there [where we were shooting]. The mud, fog, and all that. It’s fun, though, because you spend so much time on the ‘ship’ and you’re indoors in the studio all the time. It can get hot and uncomfortable. It is nice to get outside and I was born here. I love the weather regardless of what people will say. For me, the rain is no big deal. The most difficult part, for me, was shooting all that emotional stuff that was going on. People dying and having to continuously [be] living in the emotional context that someone is dead or is dying.” He adds, “Shooting outdoors is fun!”

“I remember one day in particular, Tarn (Warren Christie) gets shot and the Chief drags him off and picks him up. I must have carried him or picked him up more than thirty times for two hours in the fireman carry [position]. At the end of the day, I was so freaking tired,” he remembered. “The scene where Socinus died and that was the entire day of dragging him up a hill and putting him down and take after take of euthanizing my close friend. Not only being the Chief’s friend, but Alonzo and I are good buddies. So, I am effectively deleting him from the show. Which, I found rather frustrating that he had to die. I begged and begged ‘don’t kill him!’ They said, ‘No, we have to keep the story going and you gotta kill main characters once and awhile.’ So, the audience had no idea.”

Of the other actors on the show, he considers them very talented people and it a privilege to work along side them all. “I love them. I know it is a little cheesy, but it is true. We are all like one big happy family. We all get along so well. I think it is partly due to the fact that we rarely see each other—sort of familiarity breeds contempt. I spend a lot of time with Nick. I could not have asked for a better person to spend a lot of time with. She is an absolute doll! She is so funny, so silly and such a great actor. We have a lot of fun. Tahmoh (Penikett, Helo) and I are great friends on the set. Jamie (Bamber), James (Callis) and I are really close off set. We spend a lot of time together hanging out. We just get along so well. It is a real mix of personalities and it all seems to work for some reason.”

While he considers all of them great to work with, he thinks Edward James Olmos and he have the best working relationship. One of his favorite lines from a scene with Olmos was, “Can you ever love a machine, Chief?” from the episode, The Farm.

“It is really easy to work with Eddie. He is a bit of a prankster, but he so much fun and so generous and, yea, he and I are so very similar in that we kinda adlib and change dialogue here and there. Every take we will say something different, make it so [it’s] fresh and interesting. Eddie and I, and Bamber. He’s a little more serious between takes. Eddie and I goof off when we get a chance. Katie, Eddie and I goof off a little.”

Though, best chemistry on screen is, you’ve guessed it, Nicki Clyne.

“Her and I are just buddies! We would be telling jokes and goofing off until someone says, ‘action!’ We suddenly get serious and do the scene.”

In another interview done by Sci-Fi Brain, Nicki Clyne told us an amusing story when filming the opening scene of Lay Down Your Burdens, where Aaron Douglas accidentally punched her in the face. In all fairness, we gave Aaron the chance to give his side of the story. While he still doesn’t know if he actually hit her, he does play the gentleman and takes full responsibility for it.

“She is lying!” he humorously yells. He goes onto explain the layout of the scene. “I had to wake up, climb over on top of her and start throwing right [punches]. One take at the end, they yelled, ‘cut!’ and she is laying there and her eyes are watering and she is staring at me. She is getting all sniffly and I go, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘You hit me.’ And, I said, ‘No I didn’t.’ I honestly don’t remember hitting her. I don’t know. I measure my shots pretty good. It would have been pretty tough to hit her, but if she says I did, then I did. I was absolutely mortified and humiliated to think that I had connected with her.”

“What I think happened was she put her hands up in front of her face and I think I hit her arm or her hand and it smashed into her face, but I will take full responsibility for it and I have apologized on many occasions. I think I am going to have to in the future many times more. Every time she does an interview, ‘What was the most memorable moment?’ ‘The time Aaron punched me in the face!’ “ he laughs, doing his best impression of Nicki.

“So sorry, Nicki! She is such a sweetie. She swears up and down it was my fault, but she got to punch me back.”

When things on the set get too serious and the deadlines begin to panic the production staff, he says he and Nicki enjoy lightening the burdens of others with their silliness. “Nicki and I will look at the camera and pull out some Simpsons lines or Ralph Wigam, and then everybody has a laugh. Then, the mood gets lightened and then we move on. So, we have fun with it.” And, as with all friends, they have several inside jokes outsiders wouldn’t understand at first glance. “Nicki and I routinely,” he pauses, laughing, “it is insane! I know the fans are going to do this now because [I mentioned it]. When we are on the hanger deck, there are all kinds of stuff there—so many tools and nuts and bolts. It started off as we tried to put stuff in each other’s pockets, and knowing that we have these huge coveralls with pockets everywhere! So, now one of us carries around a screw and it started off with that joke, ‘Any of you want to screw?’ And, then entered the screw. From there, it has evolved to us trying to do it secretively as we can—even in the middle of a scene. If I feel her hand touch mine, I open my hand a little bit and she puts it in mine. Then, I just keep on going and nobody ever picks it up. But, now we have just blown it, because the fans are going to be looking for that scene. So, any fans out there, if you see Nicki, give her a screw!”

He also encourages fans to ask Nicki what “peanut butter dog tongue” means. Though, fans themselves would seem to get the chance. The hockey-lover says he’s becoming more noticed when he goes out into public. “It is happening at least once a day. I have season tickets for the Vancouver Canucks hockey team and it happens at least once a game. I will be on the concourse and people say, ‘I really love your show!’ Thank you very much, it is really sweet and nice. I like the fact that people like it.”

The actor gets even more recognition on the internet. Fan sites have popped up over night, filled with message boards and picture databases. Not just devoted to the character of Chief Tyrol, but Aaron Douglas himself. An internet buff, he’s been known to post messages in Battlestar Galactica themed websites and regularly posts blog updates on his official website.

“It is very-very cool. It is really weird in some way,” he says. “I like that people are interested in what I have to say. I just hope that they take what I have to say with a grain of salt, that it is just some person’s opinion. I think people put to much weight in what celebrities have to say. That they are ultra right, they are just a person like everybody else. Just because they have an opinion doesn’t make theirs more valid or more [important].”

“The fans are great! I love going to conventions. You get to meet different people from all walks of life. Everything from the guy toiling in the fields to the Starbucks person to the doctor, the lawyer, and politician. It is very-very cool. All walks of life and a different understanding of the world. I really enjoy it and the sites, I wish I had time to spend a little online and answer questions, but it is difficult because there are dozens and dozens of sites talking about BSG. They are fantastic!”

Aaron Douglas GALACTICA.TV interview
Interview By: Mike Egnor
Transcript By: David Jimerson
Date: March 30, 2006
Source: Galactica.tv (Click HERE to listen to the audio of this interview)

 

On March 30th, 2006, we caught up with actor Aaron Douglas, better known for his part as Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol. We talked for almost a full hour with Aaron about his love for hockey, his part on the new Battlestar Galactica series, and his future plans.

 

This is Mike Egnor, and today I am talking with Aaron Douglas, who plays the character Chief Galen Tyrol in the new series Battlestar Galactica. Mr. Douglas, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

Hey, no problem. Thanks for having me.

 

I wanted to start out with the important stuff first. I heard that you’re a big [Vancouver] Canucks [hockey] fan.

Yes I am!

 

 

What do you think that Vancouver needs to add to help get them to the [Stanley] Cup?

Wow! (sounds caught off guard)…that’s a good question. I think most of the pieces are in place right now. If you’d asked me this question two weeks ago I probably would have said blow up the team and start again (laughing). But they sort of turned it around as of late…so it’s a question of hard work. Everybody has to commit to the system and I think they’re starting to do that. So if they continue to work hard I think they’ll be fine. Whether they’re a Cup contender or not is to be debated, but hard work will certainly keep them in good stead for awhile. [Note: For the 2005-2006 Season, Vancouver finished with a overall record of 42-32-8, going 4-4-2 the last 10 games of the season and missed the playoffs by only 3 points.]

 

What do you think about the Salary Cap? It sounds like the players ended up with a worse deal now then what the owners were offering before the strike.

Yeah. In my opinion, that’s how the negotiations go, the longer it waits, one side just gets burned more and more. I think in hindsight if the players had taken the deal that was offered [then they would have saved] the season that was ultimately lost. I like the Salary Cap, I think it’s fair as long as the disclosure of [team] revenues is consistent and truthful. I think that both sides can work; they have to see it as a partnership, and you’re only as strong as your weakest link. If you have four or five teams that just nobody wants to see, then that drags down not only the revenue in that city but it drags down the revenue in other cities because nobody wants to go see them. So I think that if you can have a strong league that’s properly officiated as it is right now, as frustrating as all the penalties are, then I think it will remain strong. And I think the cap goes a long way to[ward] helping that, it makes the have not teams suddenly have teams.

 

I would think that the salary cap would help the smaller cities like Vancouver and especially other Canadian teams where they have to compete against the US dollar.

Yeah. It’s not even the dollar so much as Toronto’s got a lot of money to spend, and Montreal has significant money to spend. The [Canadian] dollar’s almost at par [with the US dollar], it’s pretty negligible now. But yeah, the small cities like Calgary and Edmonton, they can’t compete with the Detroit’s and the Rangers. I mean those guys have more money than God. They can have baseball like salaries and continue to roll right along and make money.

 

How does Vancouver feel about Todd Bertuzzi being reinstated to play after his vicious hit on Steve Moore?

This city has always backed Todd. We’ve always supported him. He’s made a terrible mistake, everybody’s recognized that. He came out immediately. He was contrite, he apologized, what else do you want from the guy? I mean when a guy makes a mistake and apologizes, you’ve got to move on, you’ve got to accept his apology. It takes a big man to apologize, but it takes a bigger man to accept an apology. I just think that everybody needs to move on. It was a long time ago, we wish Steve all the best, but it’s time to move on.

 

Let me ask you about the Olympics. Ice Hockey is THE sport in Canada, and it was said before the Olympics that if Canada didn’t win the gold then it would be a failed effort by the country. So since they didn’t make it to the medal round, are people ready to lynch Wayne Gretzky?

Ha! No, I don’t think they’re ready to lynch Wayne Gretzky. I think Wayne put together a solid team. I think he did a great job as he always does. I think the problem was – my personal opinion and it’s been debated and is still somewhat being debated – I think it was somewhat of a coaching issue. They had three head coaches behind the bench with no real one clear voice. The three coaches have three completely different coaching styles, and that didn’t really mesh I don’t think. I don’t think they had a real clear vision of how we’re going to play and they didn’t stick to that game plan and for some reason the players that needed to be working hard and get going right from the hop just didn’t do it. We have no idea why, what factors were contributed to it, but they just got outworked, they just didn’t work hard enough. It’s plain and simple and it happened to the U.S. team as well. I mean that was a talented team as well. They should have done much better than they did but they just got outworked. You watch any of those games, the European teams just worked a lot harder than anybody else and that’s why we lost.

 

 

Ok. Let’s move on to you. What got you started in acting? With many actors, they can remember a specific point in time where they got “the hook” where that’s going to be their career. Do you remember what that was for you?

My mom tells me that when I was a little kid I always said that I wanted to be an actor. I don’t ever remember saying that. I always thought that I wanted to be a lawyer. I realize now looking back that I just want to be a lawyer on tv running around and screaming and yelling. One of my closest friends is a lawyer and he sits in his office all day and types on a computer and that sounds like the most boring job in the world to me. I did theatre in school obviously, and in high school. I did community theatre after school in my late teens and early twenties and [then] I just had like a regular job, I was like a regular Joe. I think I was 27 or 28 when I started to take an acting class, again, after years off…

 

Let me stop you there. You took time off and did some various odd jobs. At what point did you stop and say “Wait a minute, lets try that acting thing again”?

Yeah, I think I was like 27 or so and I was working for a sports nutrition company as a rep and I was talking to this guy about his diet and I asked him “Well what do you do?” and he said he was an actor and that he takes classes at this William Davis Center – Bill Davis is the Smoking Man from X-Files – it’s a private acting school in Vancouver. So I went there, starting taking a once a week class, and Gary Davy who was the teacher and the artistic director at the school at the time took me aside and said you’re really good at this and have you thought about making it a career? And I [said] no, I hadn’t thought about that. He said I’ll hold you a spot for our fall class, it’s a full time program, there’s only 12 people admitted and normally people go through an audition process but if you want a spot I’ll hold it for you. And then I went to a production of Ragtime at what was the Ford Center at that time. It was a big Broadway musical. I was absolutely stunned at the end of it and I thought that was the most amazing thing. I had a hard time leaving the theatre I thought it was so cool. I turned to my wife and I said I want to be an actor, I want to go back to school and she said sure, go ahead. So I quit my job and got a student loan and started working at a restaurant being a waiter and went to William Davis for a year and got an agent at the end of the school year and 5-6 years later here I am.

 

It’s been said that you used to read parts for other actors in movie auditions and the Director rewards you by giving you small roles in film.

Yeah, for a number of years I was a Reader for several different casting people in town. That’s when people come in and audition, somebody has to read the other half of the scene, and that would be me standing beside the camera. A lot of the times they’d get to an end of a session and they’d have some of the smaller roles [unfilled] – this is early on in my career – and the Director would just say why don’t you just get Aaron to do it. So they’d ask me right then and there “You want to be Cop #2 on whatever movie?” [and I said] sure. A lot of times movies get rewritten as the movie gets shot and they add small parts here and there with a couple lines. Instead of holding a casting session they just phone the casting director and say “We need a guy who looks like a cop and say these two lines” and they would say “Aaron Douglas”. They’d phone my agent and ask “Does Aaron want to be a Stryker Soldier on X-Men 2 for a few days?” and he’d say of course, yeah, absolutely. So you get two lines on X-Men 2, you work for 13 days. I mean it’s just a wonderful experience, it’s really really fun, really cool. It’s worked for me.

 

You’ve done quite a bit of science fiction in a short amount of time. Are you concerned that you might be labeled in the genre and might not be able to get parts for other types of movies?

No, I don’t really worry about that. We do a lot of sci-fi in Vancouver, and I’m from Vancouver, so you do the gig that’s in front of you. I think if I were on a show like Andromeda or Stargate then maybe, because they’re certainly more Sci-Fi than Battlestar Galactica. Battlestar is a Sci-Fi show that takes place on a spaceship, but it’s sort of critically embraced as very cool human drama. It just happens to take place on a spaceship or on a planet that looks very much like Earth millions of miles away. We don’t have people in prosthetics running around being little green men or stuff like that. So I think our show is taken a little more seriously and the acting is appreciated for just quality acting and not really Sci-Fi acting. We don’t do a lot of that sort of comic-bookie Sci-Fi genre acting, filming, writing, or any of that stuff. So I’m not really worried about that now.

 

Ok. So starting at the beginning, how did you get the part in the new series?

I originally auditioned for “Apollo”, which [Jamie] Bamber got obviously. Which is great because Bamber is very good in it and I don’t have to go to the gym. I had a callback for “Lt. Gaeta” which was down to me and Alessandro [Juliani], and Alessandro got that. So I was the odd man out, and they were still looking for this “Tyrol” character, which was a very small character in the mini-series, and somebody said “Hey, what about Aaron Douglas?”. They said that to David Eick, and Mike Rymer thought it was a great idea and David Eick thought it was a great idea, so David pushed for me, and shoved everybody else aside and said “Yep, give it to Aaron” and that’s how I got it. I owe it all to David’s genius (laughing).

 

You said that you were a big fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, and that you were thrilled with the opportunity to do the new series. What did you like about the old show?

Well when it came out I was 7-8 years old, something like that, and it was a big sort of Star Wars time, and [Galactica had] ships flying and shooting each other and these walking metal machines, everything that an 8-9 year old boy would like about a space show. I thought it was great, and then as I got older, when I watch it now, that’s sort of nostalgic – takes me back to my childhood – and it’s fun and it’s silly and all of those great things, all those things that it was supposed to be. So yeah, I’m thrilled to be on the new one and I certainly loved the old one and still do.

 

All right, let’s start with some trivia. Chief’s name is “Galen Tyrol”. “Galen” was the name of a Greek doctor long ago that argued that the mind was in the brain, not the heart, which seems to be the opposite of Chief who acts more with his heart than his mind. “Tyrol” was the name of a region divided by western Austria and northern Italy. His a Gemon, or Gemonese, and his father was a priest and his mother an oracle. That would make Chief a very religious person, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, absolutely.

 

 

In the first season, Chief starts out as basically a wrench monkey having an affair with one of the officers, but we don’t see a whole lot of him. In Season Two, we see Chief develop from an almost background character to a main cast member, and I mean really develop. Chief goes out on a mission and proves to be a good soldier, he’s thrown in jail for unintentionally killing a man for defending the woman he loves, even after he found out that she was a cylon. He gives morale a big lift by developing a new viper, goes nuts and hits Cally and ends up marrying her and becomes “Union Chief”. That’s quite an improvement all in one season. How much in advance did you know at the beginning of the season did you know that you were going to have that much more involvement?

None, to be honest (laughing). As the actors, we don’t get scripts until a week or sometimes 2 weeks before shooting the episode. Things get rewritten all the time. We don’t get any kind of [story] arc for the season. We get maybe an arc that will be 6 episodes out. This is sort of where we’re leaning about going. But they don’t tell us – like for instance in Season 3 I know what happens in Episode 1 and 2 and that’s it. We have no idea past that. The writers are still working it out and they don’t want to release anything to too many people because then it gets online and it all comes crashing down because people are putting spoilers all over the place. But I knew that I would have a little more to do because David really likes the Chief. He thinks it’s a great character. I think he sort of lives vicariously through the swashbuckling, running around and shooting guy so…(laughing) He likes to write cool stuff for me and then make me go do it and watch me do it and go through the agony of having people die in my arms (laughing). He can be a real bastard about it. I knew that I had more to do, but I had no idea what it was going to be and the same is true for Season 3.

 

Up until Galactica Boomer got killed, Chief had a relationship with her. Didn’t Chief notice Boomer’s spine glowing red, or did he just think he was doing a really, really good job?

(laughing) You know, that’s a interesting question, one that’s never been answered. How come Baltar never notices that Six’s spine glows red either?

 

Right, there’s your Cylon detector.

 

There’s your Cylon detector, yeah. Line them up, have sex with them, and if their spine glows they’re Cylons. That’s a good question. I don’t know. Maybe it’s lost in the throes of lovemaking.

 

All right. In the episode “Fragged”, Chief’s in the Raptor that crash lands on Kobol. L.T. -Crashdown- is about to send Cally off to basically a suicide mission with no chance of success. As L.T. is yelling at Cally to go, Chief pulls his weapon trying to talk him out of it. Baltar ends up shooting L.T., but if he hadn’t, would Chief have shot L.T. to save Cally?

(Stops for several seconds to ponder the question) Interesting question. I think now the Chief would, but I think back then, probably not. He was still firmly entrenched in military doctrine and I think that he probably…no, I don’t think that he would have [shot L.T.]

 

You’ve said that that particular episode was written in the style, or after the movie Saving Private Ryan. I still think that the best Chief moment was when the Cylons have the group’s back to the wall, Chief knows it’s hopeless, and jumps up and pulls out his guns to make his last stand. He shoots at the Cylons, and they are completely blown up thanks to Apollo’s Raptor with Chief looking at his gun in amazement. What it reminded me of was the end of Saving Private Ryan when Tom Hank’s character shoots the tank with a pistol and it explodes. He looks at his gun before noticing that it was an airplane that had dropped a bomb…

Yeah, tankbusters flying over top. That’s exactly why they did that, that exact moment. They had copied that. That’s what they wanted to go for, which I thought was really cool because I think Saving Private Ryan is just a genius film. And the Director of that episode Sergio [Mimica-Gezzan] is Stephen Spielberg’s First Assistant Director. Sergio was the first A.D. on Saving Private Ryan. So when David and Ron said we want to do this Saving Private Ryanesque moment, and sort of have that same jittery camera feel, that shuttered look to the film, Sergio said “Yeah no problem, I know how to do that”, so it was very cool.

 

In the Pegasus story arc, Chief ends up transferred to the Pegasus. One of the earlier episodes said that Chief once served on the Pegasus. This would have been a good opportunity to show some old friends reuniting with Chief in general, or at least show some support after he gets thrown in the brig. Do you think the writers may have forgot about the fact that Chief once served on the Pegasus?

I think Chief served on the Pegasus a long time ago, and he probably wouldn’t really know anybody…

 

…because there was a lot of turnover?

Yeah.

 

Ok, in the scenes where Helo and Chief are in the brig, Chief is seen wearing a sweatshirt while Helo is shown in a tank top. I think that’s very generous of you that you didn’t want to show up Tahmoh…

(Aaron laughing)

 

…and that you were modest enough to keep your pecs under wraps.

(laughing) Tahmoh has nothing to fear from me showing him up. (big laugh) No bloody way!

 

How difficult was it for Chief to see Caprica Boomer and have to keep telling himself that this isn’t Galactica Boomer?

I think everything that has to do with Boomer is very difficult for the Chief. The betrayal is still fresh, it’s the woman he loved who turns out to be a Cylon, the enemy, and yeah, just everything. It would be very very bizarre to have someone you love die and then an identical copy of them suddenly show up and talking to you. It would be just mind bending.

 

I really enjoyed the episode “Flight of the Phoenix” where Chief gets the crew together to build the Blackbird…

I thought that was a good episode too.

 

It really gave people hope in a time of despair. Did you see it that way?

Yeah. What I really liked about that episode is that it’s sort of an episode unto itself. While most of the episodes are continuations of the episodes before, or leading into the one next…and this one has elements of that of course – it’s continuing the overall storyline – but what I liked about it is that at the beginning [of the episode] he’s going to start building this thing, and then at the end it’s done and the President comes down. Yeah, I liked it not just because I had lots to do in it, but because it just sort of has that – if somebody had never watched Battlestar, other than the miniseries you could say watch this as just a typical episode of what takes place and they wouldn’t be too lost in it, I don’t think.

 

You’ve said in other interviews that it’s emotionally draining to always have people dying or almost dying near you, or in your arms…

Yeah.

 

…including Tarn, Sharon, Crashdown, and Callie. But in one episode Baltar gives you a lethal injection at one point and only Sharon can save you, so the shoes on the other foot. Did you enjoy that scene, did you have a grin on your face knowing that somebody else had to go through that for a change?

 

 

(thinking) Just everyday, everyday – Paul is one of the funniest guys you’ll ever meet, and every day working with him is just – we’d get off on some tangent about God knows what, and it would just be so silly – and if you filmed it and showed it to us a week later we’d probably go “Oh that wasn’t really all that funny”. But to us at the time, we’re killing ourselves, killing ourselves laughing. [For example, in Season 2 there was a] scene down on Kobol where – what episode was it…maybe seven where we show up in the camp, and just before Zarek’s henchmen get killed and all that. We show up with Adama. That whole scene, him and I, leading up to where he comes up to the President and Roslyn’s like “Oh Billy it’s so nice to see you”. He and I were joking, we were laughing so hard. He wouldn’t come near me because it was his close up and he knew that he had to be serious, and he had to be all “Oh Madame President, it’s so nice to see you” but I was making him laugh so hard (laughing) he was literally 50 yards away in the forest going “Stay away from me! Stay away from me!” Oh, yeah. Stuff like that. We’re just howling. Really really funny stuff.

 

So it was sad for you when his character was killed off on the show?

Yeah, it sucks! The only this is that I didn’t really work with Paul all that much because we’re on opposite ends of the ship, opposite ends of the Fleet. But yeah, I’d always run in to him and stuff like that. We’d hang out away from the set whenever he’s in town so that’s cool. And whenever there’s a cast function he still gets called and invited. He’s still a big, big member of the family. Yeah, it’s too bad he had to go though. But a big career move for him. He’s got a bunch of pilots that he’s doing and other shows that want him.

 

I was going to ask you. Did the writers have that in mind intentionally [to kill off Billy]? I heard that Paul was going to audition for other pilots for other shows.

From what I understand, he got a pilot either after the miniseries or after Season 1, something like that, and the pilot didn’t go. But NBC still wanted him for other pilots, they wanted to use him in other things and they didn’t want him to be locked into Battlestar for five years. So they gave him leave to go do a finite number of Battlestars and then his scheduling was getting really frustrating and really hard, and NBC said no, no, no, we want to use him. So eventually they just had to let him go. So suddenly the writers, I guess somebody from some studio somewhere phones and says “We got Paul, you guys need to let him go.” So suddenly they had to kill him off.

 

Well in Galactica, you never say never because you never know who’s going to end up as a Cylon. So there’s always that possibility.

Always that possibility.

 

In the Episode “Lay Down Your Burdens Part I” Chief beats the Hell out of Cally unknowingly because according to the Cylon Priest it’s for her keeping him from committing suicide [in his dreams]. I don’t recall anything in Chief’s past that gave hints that he was struggling with this problem. Do you?

No, and I asked this question too. It seems to sort of come out of the blue that Chief is dealing suddenly with all of this stuff. But from Episode eleven or twelvish, up until that Episode, the Chief really didn’t have a lot to do, he only had a couple scenes. So I think it sort of implied that while everybody else is living their life in front of the cameras – you know, they are showing all of the other things that are going on – the Chief is quietly dealing with all these things, and I kind of like the idea that there was no hints, or glimmer of it. Because that happens a lot in real life, it just happens out of the blue. You are watching the news, and some guy goes nuts and does some horrible thing and they go to all of the neighbors and they say “I had no idea” and they talk to coworkers and friends and they say “I had no idea, that’s unbelievable”.

 

[that they would say that the coworker] was always the nice quiet shy one?

He was always the nicest quietest guy, really good with his kids, out walking his dog he’d smile and wave. So I kind of like it from that standpoint. But no, there was really no clue or indication. I think it’s also sort of born out of – I talked to David about it. I said the one thing that you haven’t shown with the Chief is what he does in his quiet moments alone. When somebody goes through such a horrible, traumatic event; people dying and stuff like that. It’s interesting what people do in real life when they get alone. Some people will just sit in a dark room, very quietly. Some people will sob uncontrollably, some people will drink, I mean everybody will deal with it in a different way. And I said to him the only thing you haven’t shown on Galactica is how people deal with the emotion of all these horrible events when they finally get alone. People are always talking to each other, and going to Priests, and all that sort of thing. So I think they went “Oh, you know what, that’s a good idea. Let’s see what the Chief does when he’s alone.”

 

Ok. Did you personally get any hate mail over the fact that Chief beat up a woman?

No. Not at all, nobody’s said boo. People are shocked by the violence of it, and I’m shocked by the violence of it. My mom was pretty upset (big laugh). She was pretty mad at me. (laughing) I said “Mom, it’s a character”. No, and if people do feel upset about it, then I’m the wrong person to tell. I’m just the actor. I do what’s in the script. Certainly from the Chief’s point of view is wasn’t intentionally malicious or anything like that. It’s graphic and horrible, but there was no intent.

 

 

The next episode is the 90 minute [Season 2] finale, and I have to say, it was incredible. During the last half hour or so, when it’s one year in the future I kept saying “NO, this can’t be happening!”. The whole way through was like a train wreck. I was hoping that it was just a bad dream by Baltar, but according to Ron Moore’s blogs, he isn’t taking the easy way out. How do you feel about this turn of events?

I like it, I think it was great. I don’t know, but I have a feeling that in episodes in Season 3 they might sort of flash back to events that happened in that year to sort of fill in a few of the gaps. I like the jump ahead and…

 

…the change of events.

Yeah, the change of events, and seeing everybody in completely different lights and where they’re at now. It’s very cool. I’ve also been fortunate to read the first two episodes in Season 3 and they – I don’t read scripts and get all edge of my seat, but man oh man they are in my opinion the best episodes I’ve read yet by far. They’re absolutely remarkable! People are going to be just – if there isn’t a lot of dialogue on the boards over these two episodes then they should just shut the show down because they’re absolutely incredible.

 

Well you give us more to look forward to in October.

Yeah

 

So now do we call you Union Chief?

(laughing) I don’t know. Jimmy Hoffa Jr. Chief Hoffa. I don’t know, it would be interesting to see how long that lasts. I guess it’s sort of a natural progression for the character though. I mean if you get down into civilian life what else would he be doing? He’s still running a bunch of grease monkeys, they’re just no longer in the military.

 

That’s true. I like the longer hair and beard.

Ha! You don’t have to grow a beard! (laughing)

 

I read that the union speech you gave in that episode was copied almost word for word from the Mario Savio address during the free speech movement at Berkeley in 1964.

Yep.

 

I also heard that you copied his hand motions and delivery. Is this true?

Oh yeah! David asked me – this is before I even saw the script for the episode – he said “Have you ever heard of Mario Savio?” and I was like “Uh, yeah, I think so”. He said “Have you seen Berkeley in the sixties?” [and I said] “No I haven’t”. So the next day the DVD’s in my mailbox. He said watch this, this is what you’re doing. So I watched it, and I think the guy’s just a genius speaker. He’s unbelievable! He could have been President he’s so good. And then I got the script, and it’s almost word for word, but it’s changed even more – it was less word for word then what I actually… I ad-libbed back into what Mario was [doing originally by] using some of the phrases that Mario had used. And I phoned David and Ron and I said “Can I like copy this? And put my hair, I want to put my hair like him and I want to do all that stuff and I want to like really…do an homage here because it’s so great.” And they said oh yeah, absolutely if you want to do that. So yeah, I watched that thing probably a hundred times and tried to get the inflection and all of that stuff. Yeah, I think it’s such a great speech, and I’m real happy the way it turned out. I thought it was good.

 

Did you watch your speech later [when you saw yourself] in the episode and compare it with his afterwards?

I haven’t compared them, but I can close my eyes pretty much and see the Mario speech just run through my head. But there are pieces of it that are really, really damn close. I know that without even having to look.

 

I thought I noticed when Chief gave that speech that he seemed to have a different accent. Maybe even Irish, during that speech. Was this intentional, or could it have come from you imitating Savio so much?

It might have come from imitating Savio, I didn’t think about that at all.

 

It seemed like you had a different accent than what we normally hear from you.

Really? Wow, I’ll have to watch it and listen because… That’s interesting. No one has brought that up.

 

 

Union Chief was rallying the labor against the outrages of President Baltar’s rule. I want to know how much can he [Chief] really be bitching about seeing as they haven’t even built a single house…

(laughing)

 

They’re still living in tents. Shouldn’t they be off looking for some lumber, or making a municipal water system?

Uh…Good Point! Although in the sandy dunes, I haven’t seen any trees around there.

 

That’s another thing. It was said in Part 1 of the Finale that the delta had water and plentiful animal and plant life, but wouldn’t trees have helped too?

(thinks for a second) You’d think so. I don’t know. I think they’re struggling so hard just trying to get things off the ground. Yeah, houses maybe, I don’t know. That’s an interesting question for the writers. I don’t know why they haven’t gotten there yet.

 

Ok. Chief is married to Cally now. But this is an odd situation…

I don’t know that they’re married.

 

I apologize, you are exactly right.

They’re together but they may not be married. It’s unknown at this point. (laughing)

 

Ok, ok. Regardless, it’s an odd situation because you said before that the relationship between Chief and Cally, that she was like a sister.

Yep.

 

Here’s the big question that may or may not be addressed in Season 3. After Cally forgave Chief for the beating that Chief certainly didn’t feel like he deserved, did he really see how much she loved him and felt the same way, OR, did he feel so much pity and sorry for what he had done, that he hooked up with her just for pity.

Uhm. (thinks about his answer) You know what…I don’t think it would be pity. If I had to make the choice – if they came to me and said we’re going to show some flashbacks of how this came about [and we’d like your opinion] – I would go the road of that the Chief and Cally…the Chief finally gets over it enough that he can talk to her about it, and the more that they talk, the more they connect. And his love for her is sort of borne out of a genuine affection of just how amazing she is and all that sort of thing. The pity route I don’t think would be – it just doesn’t feel right to me. No, I’d like to see that it would be a real, true, honest love.

 

Cally joined up to pay her way through dental school. In Season 3 are we going to see her pulling teeth?

(big laugh) Probably the Chief’s teeth. Take out the garbage or I’m extracting your molars. No I don’t think so. I think she’s probably dealing with her baby.

 

Can you tell us how half the military ended up on the planet? Were they laid off? Did they resign? Were they drafted by President Baltar?

I’m not sure. I know that there was a scene that didn’t end up getting shot that was the Chief going to Adama and saying “Look, I just need to start a new life. We found this planet, we’re going down there. I want to help rebuild society and give humanity a leg up” So I think a lot of the military people just requested to go down and try to build this thing up and get society going.

 

With all of the Cylons coming down on the planet now, is there a chance that the Galactica Sharon got reincarnated and she’ll come up find Chief?

I think when the Cylons die, they don’t get reborn, [but] their knowledge gets downloaded into all the other ones. So all the Sharons share the memory of all the other Sharons. So there won’t be really a Galactica [Sharon], there will be a Galactica 2 type Sharon. They’ll all be a piece of her.

 

You’ve said that you wanted to work more with Mary McDonnell…

who wouldn’t?

 

I was thinking that a good way to do it would be that since Chief’s the head of the Union, and had to deal with Baltar, that he could talk to the ex-President and get advice on how to deal with him, though with the last turn of events, it doesn’t look like the Union will be doing so much in Season 3.

No, it will be interesting to see how much actual infrastructure work they’re doing, as opposed to resisting the Cylons. I have a feeling, although I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be more of the latter.

 

You said that you and a group of friends make short films for festivals.

Yep!

 

You are planning to shoot your first feature script in the fall of 2005. Can you tell us a bit about that project and how it’s coming along?

It’s a little bit on hold now, because Battlestar sort of interferes – I don’t have enough time to prep it and get it going to the point of actually producing it – but I’m sort of aiming for next year, we’re going to have to wait and see. There are a couple of other projects that have come up and might sort of get in the way. But yeah, I’m hoping to get it going. It’s a funny, friends comedy about hockey players. It’s the story of my life really. (laughing) But no, it will be sort of an old school meets ‘Slapshot’. I think it probably would be something like that.

 

What subjects interest you enough to make films for, or write scripts for?

Pretty much anything. I like to write things around funny little events, a silly little happening in life, and then you expand it to make it like a 10 minute short film. Those are the sort of things that I like. Or I also like to write mysteries; things that are a little less easily explained.

 

One last question. What does Season 3 have in store for Chief?

You know what, I have no idea. I think he’s probably going to be running around with a gun in his hand at some point, killing people (laughing) That would be my guess. But hopefully just more of the same. Every year, they write more and more stuff for me in every episode. I get more and more cool things to do. They’re enjoying writing for me they say, and I’m enjoying doing their writing, so it’s a win-win situation all around, and I’m very pleased to be a part of it all. So hopefully it’s just more of the same.

 

Well Mr. Douglas I want to say again I appreciate you taking the time for this interview, and your fans will love to hear from you again.

Perfect. Thanks for having me.

Battlestar Atlantia: Exclusive Interview with Aaron Douglas (Galen Tyrol)
By: René Kissien (Lex) & Peter Glotz (Pedda)
Date: January 2006
Source: CAPRICA-CITY.DE

 

Hello Aaron. This is your first convention in Germany. Is there anything you like in particular, besides the really nice people and the beautiful landscape between the airport and the hotel

I haven’t seen anything else to be honest with you. The beer is really good. This weekend is supposed to be for the convention and the people. The people who run this hotel do a really nice job, they’re very nice people. It looks beautiful outside, I just haven’t got out yet. Ask me when my tour in Germany is over, than I’ll have a better idea of what to think. Until now everything has been great, it’s fabulous. I haven’t had as much sleep as I’d like, but that’s because I’m nine time zones away.

 

Is there a difference between German and American conventions?

Not really, no. Only in size. This convention is only about 100 people, when you go to Comic Con in San Diego it’s 100000 people. They host it in the second largest convention centre in the world and the convention floor itself is probably the square footage of two soccer fields. It’s huge with literally hundreds of dealers. Some of these booths are the size of a large restaurant. It’s just huge. ‘Star Wars’ had a booth there and they had a full size Xwing fighter and another full size ship. And they had this guy is in Storm trooper and Boba Fett costumes just to man the booth. That was pretty cool. They have the small ones, too, but America also has 300 million people and that’s where the show is based, so a lot more people are interested in visiting such conventions. The next one in England for ‘Stargate Atlantis’ is about 450 people, I think. So, other than size, you know, everybody is nice. In America you got more odd questions than in Europe. You get sort of the random guy who is a little to into the show and he’s having a hard time differing between the show and reality. There’s a few more of those types over there.

 

Could you give us an example for this kind of questions?

Oh, you get guys who go ‘In episode six of season one, when you were fixing the Viper and you were working on the screen you pressed a red button which ran a diagnostic on this part of the engine. Now, in episode thirteen of the second season you pressed the same red button, but that button ran a diagnostic on the landing gear. Was this button initiating a specific diagnostic system no matter what it’s hooked up to or was that a mistake?’ I just said, like, ‘what?’. The attention to details is phenomenal, but some people take it to the Nth degree. Or ‘how did you feel when you shot so and so or when you punched Starbuck or whatever’. I say ‘well, I didn’t do this, my character did’. They have a hard time getting into it and see the difference between Aaron the person and Tyrol the character. They seriously do, they ask this really really high end aerodynamic questions, questions about physics and I have no idea.

 

Aerodynamic in space?

Yes, exactly. ‘Why do you need wings on the ships in space?’ I say, when you enter the atmosphere you need this wings. ‘Oh, yes, but this ship is not designed to enter an atmosphere.’ You know, when you pick on a part long enough you gonna pick it apart. Yeah, you get some bizarre questions.

 

How do you react to this questions? Like Shatner with a ‘get a life’?

Oh god no! Never never never. I have some answers. When somebody asks a question about the plot or the story that I can’t answer, I say ‘You know, that is an excellent question, but rather than answer it, let’s see if anybody else knows.’ And then you get like thirty people with the answer. Or I say ‘well, you know, some people haven’t seen this episode yet, so I don’t want to give away any spoilers. We are not here for spoilers, so ask me later.’ And then I leave the building. But the strangest one was the one with the red button.

 

You said you watch the show yourself. Who do you think will be exposed as a Cylon?

Oh. I think Gaeta is a Cylon. Although, that’s a little obvious. So I’m kind of thinking it might be Gaeta, but maybe not. It’ll be really interesting to see which one will be the next Cylon. I don’t think it’s me, I don’t think it’s Helo. I think Gaeta, or maybe make it, like, Dualla. Dualla or maybe Apollo, which would be really really weird. Gaeta is always like putting something up, putting something down. So they either trying to set him up as a Cylon so people can look back and go ‘oh, that’s why he did this and this. Or they’re just making it look like he is one so that you take the focus of everybody else and then Dualla stands up and shoots Adama again.

 

What would be the easiest way to get on the set, besides taking acting lessons for two years?

If someone wants to visit? Probably the easiest way is to contact the head of marketing for the show, she’s the on site marketing person on the production office. If it’s for instance somebody like yourself and you tell her that you are journalists from Germany and you like to have a set tour, maybe. If it is a regular person, there’s a lot of security. It’s tough to get on a film set in North America, especially since 9/11.

 

Even in film studios? Is that a terrorist target?

Oh yeah, al Qaeda is looking to bomb film studios to fight the American machine, I don’t know. Its overkill in my mind, but yes, the security at the gate is pretty tough, it’s tough to get on the lot. The average person needs to know somebody who knows somebody. Otherwise nobody gets close.

 

On set you have a Viper in actual size. Did you ever climbed into it and played pilot?

No, but I bring my nine year old son and put him in the Cockpit and he flies around. It’s funny, when he was younger, he watched the show but didn’t see it as fantasy versus reality. So he came down to see the spaceship and he asked me ‘can I go up in one?’ and I said, ‘no, they don’t fly’. ‘Yes they do, I saw it on TV’. I said ‘No, that are special effects. They don’t actually fly’. He was devastated, he was so upset. It was really funny. He was heartbroken. Yeah, we have two of the old Vipers, we have the one new one that Apollo flies, the Mark VII. We have a full size Raptor and a Cylon Raider. And some props like missiles and torpedoes.

 

Can you remember your first day on the set?

When we first toured the set they were almost done. I think it was the hangar deck that wasn’t quite finished. I was impressed by the size of it, it was huge. I remember walking around the corner and see a Viper for the first time. I haven’t seen one since the original series as a little kid. I walked to it and had to touch it to see that its real. These studios are massive, they are like aircraft hangars. No pylons or anything, just a huge box. It’s like a IKEA, but three times that big and they build sets in there. They’re big enough to build houses in there, sometimes a whole street. Incredible. Did you see ‘Sleepy Hollow’ with Johnny Depp? A great movie. It all takes place in a forest, but the forest was indoors, it’s on a movie set.

 

What about those scenes on Kobol? Were they made on such a set?

No, we were outside in a rain forest near Vancouver, a hour and a half drive away from the city. The climate is rain forest, that’s why it rains so much. It’s always green and warm. It rarely snows, just once every four years and then it goes away. It’s five, six, ten degrees in the winter time. Right now it’s like 13 and raining. I love it. It’s the only city in Canada I could live in. Everything else is just f**king cold.

 

You’ve been to a couple of conventions. What was the nicest actor you’ve met?

I always had a great time with Alexis Cruz (Skaara, ‘Stargate: SG-1’). He is a great guy. The first time I actually met Richard Hatch (Apollo, Original ‘Battlestar’) was at a convention, the Comic Con, and he is one of the best guys you ever meet. Laurette bg (Cassiopeia) and Anne Lockhart (Sheba), who were in the original ‘Battlestar’, they’re just absolute dreams. Noah Hathaway (Boxey) is a great guy, too. Met him in August. Those ones would stand up most in my mind, yeah.

 

We won’t ask about the most unpleasant person. Earlier on the Panel you mentioned Joe Flanigan (Sheppard, ‘Stargate Atlantis’).

I’ve never met Joe. I just heard stories. He could be the nicest guy in the world. I probably meet him next weekend and I hope he’s a great guy. Jason Momoa (Ronon Dex, ‘Atlantia’) said, he’s a great guy. I take Jason’s word and got my thumbs crossed. You know, rumors fly around and people say all kinds of nasty things. You got to meet people for yourself.

 

What about Dirk Benedict? Did you read his Article ‘Starbuck: Lost in Castration’?

I started to read this thing but then I put it down. I met him once or twice and that’s all I have to say about that.

 

How does the actors at the show interact with the other crew? We often hear stories that the actors are separated and don’t treat the crew very well.

We’re not like that at all. Our set doesn’t have that at all. You know, that’s very true, I’ve been on some shows where the actors thought they were the king of the world. I worked on some movies with actors that were just absolutely obnoxious assholes and that’s painful. You just want to flip them a quarter and tell them to buy some self esteem. I hate that, it’s brutal. Our set is great. We’re all equal. Everybody realizes that it takes us all to make the show and that nobody is better or any job more important than anybody else’s. They always say ‘the fish rots from the head’, and the head of our show is Eddie (Edward James Olmos) and Mary (McDonnell) and you could not find two greater people and two greater examples of how to live life and threat people. If anybody got out of line, Eddie would very quickly put him aside and go ‘Who do you think you are? Knock it off!’ And so, we’re just trying to follow that example and live respectfully with everybody else. We have a great crew, they’re very very cool. It’s great fun to hang out with them. You got to work with all those people all those time. If you’re a dick, it’s just gonna be a painful experience for the entire season. We try to keep it light and funny.

 

Are there people on set who are vital for the success of this show, but never been mentioned?

Well, everybody knows who Richard Hudolin is. He’s the set designer and the guy who is responsible for the look of the ships. He and his crew, those guys are amazing. Patricia Murray is the key make up artist and she’s fantastic everybody needs to get some accolades for what they do. Mark Verheiden is executive producer, but he also is one of the writers who does rewrites. He is just a tremendous hard working guy. I should stop naming people, or I start leaving someone out. They’re great.

 

Thanks a lot Aaron.

You’re welcome. That was fun.

Aaron Douglas Interview
By: Gilles Nuytens
Date: December 19, 2005
Source: THE SCIFI WORLD

 

Aaron Douglas was born in a suburb of Vancouver called New Westminster and growed up there until he was 10. Then he moved to a town in the interior of the province of British Columbia where he played in high school and community theatre. At age 26, he left his current job and came back to Vancouver to learn the craft of acting at William B. Davis Center for Actors Study (The X-Files “Cigarette smoking man”).
Aaron Douglas has on his filmography movies such as Catwoman, The Chronicles of Riddick, I Robot, X-Men 2 and TV shows such Andromeda, Stargate. But he is most known for his role of Chief Tyrol in the new Battlestar Galactica series.

 

 

Can you firstly talk about yourself?

I was born in a suburb of Vancouver called New Westminster and I lived in Vancouver until I was 10 years of age when my parents moved us to a town in the interior of the province of British Columbia. I was involved in high school plays and community theater until I moved back to Vancouver at age 26. I had been out of acting for many years when I decided to quit my job and go to theater school (William Davis Center for Actors Study in Vancouver) to learn the craft of acting. I had done everything from floor laying and construction to marketing and sales repping. I spent many years discovering what it is that I do NOT want to do in life. The rest as they say is history.

 

What was the most difficult scene you had to do in Galactica?

The scenes where someone dies in the Chiefs arms are difficult to do because they take a really long time to shoot and you are constantly in a state of loss and sadness. They are very draining.

 

How would you like that chief Tyrol evolve in the future, especially his relations with Sharon#2?

I would like the Chief to be done with Sharon. It is time to move on. I would like to see Tyrol begin to believe in himself a little more and be given more tasks requiring strength and leadership.

 

You appear in all episodes of Galactica, except maybe 1 or 2, your character is as important as the main cast so, to your opinion, why don’t you have the same status?

There are so many people in this cast that the network cannot focus on everyone and so marketing is split between the bigger names and the handsome ones. The Chief was a really small character in the beginning and there was no intention of focussing on him at all so anything that comes my way now is a bonus.

 

What is your best memory from Galactica?

There are so many great memories from what we have done till now. One is goofing off with Paul Campbell and Mary and we were laughing so hard we almost ruined take after take after take. If you ever see them ask them about Paul and Aarons made up names for the racehorses she took her husband to see.

 

Note: We asked this question to Paul Campbell, you can read his answer below)

We had some questions come in from people that read the message board, and one of them was from Aaron Douglas. (Editor’s note: The question was actually from an earlier interview with TheSciFiWorld.net). He said that we should ask you about the names that Paul and Aaron made up for the race horses that Mary took her husband to see.

Paul Campbell: I was thinking about that the other day. We had this ridiculous…Did he give you any names?

No, but he said you were all laughing so hard that you ruined take after take.

Paul Campbell: Absolutely, and once you get Mary on a roll, once you get her giggling, she will not stop. So we had a field day. We were shooting Home Pt. 2, and Mary was talking about taking her husband to the horse races and just randomly picking names. And we were talking about if you were just randomly picking names having no knowledge of the horses, what names you might choose. It would be like Lighting Steed, and Farts Dust, and choosing between the two. Or Beaten by A Nose, and A Nose for silly horse names. Three legged old man, and Guaranteed to Win. But for some reason it just struck us as incredibly silly, and we must have gone on for two or three hours, and we had hundreds of names. I think Mary laugher her way thru about 50% of those takes.

If you were in the same situation than chief Tyrol, how would you have react when you learned that your girlfriend, Sharon was a cylon? And what would be your behavior with her?

Not really sure what I would do but I think I would march her down to Adama’s office straight away. Tyrol didn’t figure it out till she shot Adama so there wasn’t much he could do.

 

On the set, who’s the guy always trying to break up a scene, to make everyone laughs?

Paul is really funny and Eddie goofs around a lot. I am silly between takes, especially with Nicki. We laugh alot.

 

Which Shakespearean character would you like to do? And why?

I have played several Shakespeare characters and if I had to do it again I would like to play Mercutio or Theseus and Oberon in the same performance.

 

What was the scene you enjoyed the most to play in Galactica and why?

Episode 3 of season 2. Running and shooting Cylons in the forest. How fun is that?!?!!

 

I read some critics about the “rape” scene shown in the last episode aired, as you played in this scene, what’s your opinion on it?

BSG is a reflection of real life and these types of events go on everyday. Many people were upset by it but to me they need to realize that this is the world we live in. Does that mean they have or want to watch? Absolutely not but do not discount it as sensationalism. What we shot was so much more graphic than what was aired and I understand why they did not use it. In what aired the rape had not totally begun. It was suggestive. I thought it was a good scene and on point with the story and not added to draw in viewers. That suggestion is absurd. I know Ron Moore very well and he is not the kind of person or writer to add scenes purely for sensationalistic or ratings purposes. They have to be on point, truthfully reflect the situation and todays world and be relevant to the story or they are not there. It also amazes me that people have no problem with beatings, shootings, bombings, stabbings etc. but show a breast, a bottom, or a grope and they fly off the wall to condemn it. This happens in all areas of film, television and theatre and it is ridiculous.

 

What decided you to become an actor?

It is the one thing that I am really good at. It is the easiest thing for me to do and it is what I love to do the most.

 

What are your expectations for season 3? Do you already know something about your involvement on it?

I have no idea what is happening in season 3.