Aaron Douglas: Dragon*Con’s mercurial sci-fi fan
Date: September 4, 2010
Source: CNN.com

Aaron Douglas: "Mom says that when I was a little kid I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I don't remember that."

(CNN) — Aaron Douglas, better known as “Chief Tyrol” on “Battlestar Galactica,” is a Dragon*Con veteran. Well known for being open with fans and the life of the Dragon*Con party, Douglas made a pit-stop at CNN to answer some of our BSG-fan questions.

Had you seen the original BSG before taking the role?

Absolutely, I grew up on the original BSG, I grew up on “Star Wars.” The great thing about “Battlestar” was that it was basically “Star Wars” but once a week, as opposed to waiting for three years for the movie to come out. I was a huge “Battlestar” fan.

Tell us about when you first auditioned for “Battlestar Galactica” — was it for the part of Capt. Tyrol?

No, no I originally auditioned for the part of Apollo (Capt. Lee Adama) which Jamie Bamber got, which is good because Bamber has to go to the gym and I never did. That was good for me. And my callback was for [the role of] Lt. Gaeta, which went to Alessandro, who’s great. He’s a great actor and he can do the tech talk really well. When they got to the end of the casting there was just no one for the Chief, this Tyrol character that they had left, and David Eick [one of the creators of the show] said, “Why don’t we get Aaron to do this?” because David had seen my auditions and quite liked me. So, they offered me this and it grew into what it was.

At what point did you find out that your character was a Cylon? [a robot]

Officially, the day before we started shooting it. But we shot that scene in December, and I had seen some papers that I wasn’t supposed to see over at [director] Michael Rymer’s house, in September. So I had to sit very quietly for three months, not say a word, furious the whole time. And constantly walking past Ron Moore and David Eick, who are the creators of the show, and say, “So, anything coming up for the Chief?” And they’d say, “Oh no, just fixing vipers, just the usual.” Just lying to me! So we finally found out officially and I got Ron [Moore] on the phone, yelled at him for five minutes and then he talked me off the ledge and convinced me that it was a good thing, and he was right.

Did you suspect that you might be one of the Cylons?

God, no. Absolutely not. I thought that the great thing about the Tyrol character is he’s such a human, and I guess if they want to humanize the Cylons there’s no better character to do it than him and Col. Tigh, but I did not see it coming. I thought it was going to be new people revealed, I didn’t think that it was going to be cast revealed to be.

Did you draw inspiration for your own character from having watched the original BSG?

No, my character wasn’t in the original BSG, and I don’t really know how I do what I do. I literally, I just show up and I say the words as simply as I can. I have a new show now called “The Bridge,” where I play a guy who’s a real-life guy. My character’s based on the life of a guy named Craig Bromell who was a cop for 12 years and then became head of the police association, so basically the president of the union for 85,000 cops. It was the decision to either play it like him or just play it as I see it, so I just play stuff as I see it.

What were your thoughts about the ending of BSG?

I loved it. Other than, what the hell was Starbuck? I still don’t know what Starbuck was. But I loved the ending, I thought it was a brilliant piece of writing, certainly Ron’s opus. There was no better way to end it. And I love the fact that the Chief just walks off and goes up to Scotland and lives alone. Yep, makes whiskey and builds castles and herds sheep. Yeah.

Was “The Bridge” your next project, then?

I literally wrapped the last day of Battlestar, I wrapped at 5 a.m. on Friday and on Monday I was on a plane to Toronto to start the new show. So, yeah, there wasn’t much of a break.

How would you compare the character you’re playing now to Chief Tyrol?

You know, they’re very similar guys. They’re both blue-collar guys, they’re both in charge of a group of people that they are fiercely loyal to, they will do whatever it takes to get the right thing done, they’re both very flawed, which makes them interesting to watch and interesting to play, they’re two guys that you could definitely go to a ball game and have a beer and make fun of people around you.

How did you get into acting in the first place?

My mom says that when I was a little kid I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I don’t remember that. I remember in high school thinking that I wanted to be a lawyer, and now I realize I saw that movie “And Justice for All” when I was a kid and thought, “That’s what lawyers do, and I want to get up and yell and scream in the middle of a courtroom.” I want to be a lawyer on TV is what I finally figured out. I fell into it late. I think I was 27 or 28. I was working with a sports nutrition company doing diets for athletes and I met a guy who was working on his nutrition and he was an actor. I eventually quit my job and went back to theater school and that was it, the rest is history.

Besides acting, what are your hobbies?

Sitting quietly and reading a book. I play hockey, I’m a goalie, so people fire pucks at me. And I like to golf and I travel, I travel a lot. But mostly I’m a pretty quiet guy. I just kind of go home and hide away.

I see you’re wearing a shirt that says “Chronicles of the Nerds.”

“Chronicles of the Nerds,” yeah! These are some friends of mine from Oregon that have a website, chroniclesofthenerds.com. I have literally almost 400 T-shirts, because everywhere I go the fans know I like T-shirts. So they’re constantly giving me T-shirts. So, any time I get a chance to plug one of my friends or plug a band or something like that, I like to wear their shirts. And the fans think it’s really cool. So when I’m at ComicCon or Dragon*Con I’ll switch shirts throughout the day, so people get pictures.

You were at Dragon*Con last year, right?

I’ve been at Dragon*Con, I think five of the last six years. I love coming here. It’s unbelievable fun. Last year I came as a fan. I snuck in. I didn’t do any panels except for the one that I crashed. I didn’t sign or do anything, I just wanted to experience it from the fan’s point of view, and it was really, really cool. I come here with, literally, like 25 friends and we take over an entire floor of the hotel and we just have a blast, it’s a great place. It’s like Vegas without the gambling.

What’s your favorite part of Dragon*Con?

The best times are usually in one of our rooms, where we’re all just sitting around having a drink and just laughing our faces off. It’s just hilarity for four or five days. It’s just hanging out with friends. I travel so much and I work so much and we’re all from such disparate parts of the country in different jobs. It’s hard for us all to get in the same place at the same time and Dragon*Con creates a good venue for that.

Anything you want to say to your fans?

Everybody, go to CNN.com every day! Every, frackin day!

FedCon XIX: our interview with Aaron Douglas
By: Peter Glotz (Pedda), together with Robert Vogel
Date: May 21, 2010
Source: CAPRICA-CITY.DE

His role in “Battlestar Galactica” started as a minor supporting character, but during the seasons, the “Chief” became more and more important. The actor behind the fan’s favorite mechanic, Canadian born Aaron Douglas, was among the many guest stars of FedCon XIX, held from April 30 to May 2 2010 in Bonn, Germany.

During the convention, he was kind enough to meet us for an interview. We talked about his time on board Galactica, the chief’s character development, and the possibility of a final five visit on “Caprica”. Also, he told us about his new character, Frank Leo on “The Bridge”, and what kind of beer he likes to during while visiting Germany.

You were one of the first actors from “Battlestar Galactica” to go to conventions. Did you spread the word to get your colleagues to go as well?

Well, they all know me as the guy who goes to conventions, so whenever they go, the first thing is they come and ask “So, what is this convention thing all about?”. I explain it to them and the people started to go. I always have a blast.

Are you going to continue to go to conventions, after the show ended?

I’ll probably slow down a little bit. There are a few that I’ve gone to recently just because I like going to those cities. I did one in San Fransisco and one in Calgary last weekend because I hadn’t done one in western Canada in a while. And of course, any chance to come here [to Germany], I’ll say yes.

This is your second convention in Germany. Do you already have a favorite German beer?

Oh, I like them all, but I was drinking Bitburger last night, and the local one, Kölsch. Those were really good, I like those a lot! The problem is you can’t just have one. It’s 4:30 in the morning, you’re having another one and you are wondering what the hell happened. When you come to Germany, you expect to have some fine beer.

During your time on “Galactica”, were you hired as a recurring character, or on an episode basis?

I was hired for the mini series just as a a day player actor. I don’t know if they had any plans what to do with this character. I think the original plan was that the chief dies somewhere at the beginning of season 1. I’m thankful that he didn’t.

What do you remember the most about your first day on set, and the last day?

You know, i don’t really remember the first day. I remember walking in and see the enormity of the set and go “Holy shit, this is cool!”, seeing all this kind of stuff and realizing that I’m on something that is much bigger than I am.

My last day? I don’t remember the last day so much, but I remember the scene that you see me last on the show, when the chief walks off to Scotland. I remember shooting that and then go back to my trailer, just standing there and thinking “That’s the last time you’re going to see this character, ever”. That’s kind of a weird thing. He’s gone, dead. Nobody is writing anything more about him. I have it in my head, what he did, but I’m not going to tell you about that.

After the first season aired, did you recognize that this Galactica thing grows more and more?

When it started to air, the fans really started talking about it and the critics picked up on it and started to write stories about how amazing the show is. It was a very small snowball that role down the hill and became gigantic by the end. At the beginning we had no idea what it’s going to do.

The Chief started as a minor character in the show. What happened that your character grew more and more during the series?

I don’t know. I know that the writers really liked what I was doing in the pilot. Then in season one, they started giving me a little more to do. And than they realized that I can actually act. So they gave me a little bit more, a little bit more. Ron started “Oh, I really like this character, there’s a lot of things we can do with this character and Aaron is a good enough actor to be able to do it.” So they started giving me more and more. And I could not be more blessed, I love the chief. If I had my choice of characters on the show to play, I’d pick the chief again.

How do you think your acting influenced the writers to write more about your character?

Well, they watch and see what you’re doing. If you’re giving a good performance, the writers will give you more to do. Because they know they can trust you, they don’t have to write around you. That’s what Ron talked about. He said he’s been on shows before where you had to kind of write around certain actors because they’re not talented enough to be able to do the material. They can write anything for anybody if they know they can pull it off. They see it, they trust you and they write some more. I also know that sometimes my performance was not what they had in mind, but they liked it better. They go “Oh, I never thought of that, let’s do this with him.” Yeah, they really put me through the years a little bit, those writers.

Is it a door opener? Do people recognize you as the chief on “Battlestar”?

Well, it gets you into a lot of rooms in Hollywood. They haven’t seen it but they certainly know that it was a great show and the actors are worth meeting and auditioning. It’s tough, though, because it’s the show that used to be on TV and they start to forget and ask “what have you done lately”?

During the days of the mini series, did you get any negative response from the fans of the original show?

I didn’t get anything because the chief wasn’t in the original. Had I played a boomer character or something like that, it would have been a different thing for sure. You get some people that come up and are upset about it, and they go all the way to tell you that they love the original and only the original and won’t watch your show. I don’t know why people feel the need to tell me they don’t like my show.

If you don’t like my show, fine, don’t watch it, turn the channel. It’s bizarre to me that people feel the need to do that. I just say “Okay, thanks, I won’t watch your show either”. The people who refuse to watch it, because they love the original… I love the original, too. I love them both, for different reasons.Too bad, you miss out on about 96 hours of great television. You’re missing out on some great stories and some great entertainment. If you’re that small minded, go frak yourself.

You played an union leader in season 3, and I talked to some actors who told me, Aaron is exactly the guy who’d create an actors union at our set and that’s how the writers got that idea.

Aaron Douglas (laughs): Yeah. I don’t like it when people are being threated unfair. And I have no problem speaking my mind.

Now that the series has ended, there has been one follow up, “The Plan”. Do you think there’s a big demand on more “Battlestar” related stuff? Or do you think it is finished for good?

I never say never. There’s too much money to be made. That’s what makes the word go round, what makes television happen. There’s some accountant sitting there somewhere going “look at all the money we made of this show. Why can’t we make another mini series, another movie?” I think the plan with “The Plan” was to make three, that one plus two others. But then they scaled it down to the one, just “The Plan”. I don’t want to see any more ofter the end of season 4, don’t go show what the chief is going to do in Scotland. Bu I think a back story ore stuff like this could be interesting. Or something from between “Caprica” and the beginning of our time line. There are 40-50 years, there’s gonna be something. But who knows?

Have you seen “Caprica”? What do you think of it. Do you think it would be a good idea to see the Final Five in “Caprica”?

I have not seen it, I haven’t had the chance. I haven’t been home very much. But I’m very excited to take a look. The crew that did “Battlestar”, those are the same guys that make “Caprica”. And I talked to those guys a lot. They said it should be really cool. Well, as far as the Final Five go, you know, I don’t understand that whole time line thing (laughs). We’re Cylons, we’re thousands of years old. I can’t really wrap my brain around that. I think it would be very cool for one of the characters to walks into a coffee shop, Michael Hogan sits in a corner, reading a paper. Tory is behind the counter making me an espresso. I think that would be very interesting. We’re not the Final Five, like, he’s not the chief but somebody else. That would thrill the fans for a week.

I heard rumors about a remake of the original “Battlestar Galactica” movie. What do you think, as a fan yourself, does it make sense?

I have no idea. I heard that rumor, too. Glen Larson and Bryan Singer going to do this thing. I do know that Bryan Singer is a brilliant film maker, I love his movies. I think he’s a great director and if he were to do it, I know it will be outstanding, it will be great. But why to remake a show that’s just been remade, I don’t understand. I’m sure those guy have a plan that it will all make sense.

Like you said, maybe there’s an accountant somewhere sitting at Universal thinking “‘Battlestar’ is popular right now, let’s make a movie!”.

Well, you know, NBC Universal never had the rights for a theatrical release, they only own the rights for TV. So Glen Larson still has the movie rights. So I think he wants to do something to put it into the theaters.

You recently told me that your new show, “The Bridge”, has been sold on the international market, so it is likely that it comes to German TV soon. For all those who are not familiar with it, what’s the premise of the show? What can the viewers expect? How did you get that role?

I got the role because somebody at [the Canadian station] CTV is a big fan of “Battlestar” and a big fan of mine. He thought that I would be great as this character, Frank Leo, who was a cop for 12 years and the he becomes head of the police union. So he’s in charge of 8000 men and women on the street. The story is about his life as a union leader and how he balances taking care of the membership and fighting with city hall. What happens when cops get in trouble, what happens when cops do bad things and how does he protect them? It’s a pretty dark show, something like what if Tony Soprano was a cop? This guy is a bit of a bad ass. Yeah, I quite like the character. It’s doing well in Canada and it’s waiting for CBS to air it, and then the rest of the world can get it. It has been sold to a hundred and thirty some countries. It’s just a matter of when they be allowed to put it on. We’re all just standing around, waiting a little bit. Waiting for CBS to put it on their schedule.

The last question: There’s another project that seems to be in post production hell for quite a while and I don’t know if it’s ever going to be released.

Is this “Blood: A butcher’s tale”? I have no fraking clue what the hell they’re doing with that. It’s all green screen, shot in a studio, smaller than this room we’re in, probably 15×15 meters. It was a weird thing to shoot. I haven’t seen it, and I haven’t heard of those guys in three years. I have no idea what’s going on with that show. I would be surprised if it suddenly comes out. I was paid, so, yeah, I passed the point of caring. Too bad for all this work, and somebody put millions of dollars into it. Vampires are popular right now. You’d think somebody would put it out, straight to DVD or something like that.I don’t know. Maybe it’s just awful. (laughs)

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, see you guys around.