Date of publishing: 24th August
2007
Paul studied both education (major) and theatre (minor)
at University. Paul's first appearence in the Stargate
franchise was in the episode "The Torment Of Tantalus"
(Stargate SG-1). When Stargate Atlantis launched in
July 2004, he got a recurring role in the first season
as Dr. Carson Beckett, and became a full main cast member
since season 2. In season 3, his character is killed
off for unclear reasons but is "resurrected"
for a few episodes in season 4 thanks to the overwhelming
fan campaign, but we don't know yet "how"
the character will return. The Scifi World had the opportunity
to sit down with him a few minutes during Fedcon 16
last June in Germany.
Gilles Nuytens: The
fan campaign to save your character is amazing. It has
been mentioned in newspapers around the globe! How are
you feeling about the campaign today?
Paul McGillion: The campaign to save
Carson Beckett has been great. The people that put it
together they just did such a great job for me. I think
it is Michelle and Jenner and TJ they loggerheaded the
whole campaign and it’s just been fantastic. It’s
very flattering to be honest with you I’ve never
in my life imagined that I would have a campaign and
a band, putting the band on the Today Show and the press,
the London Times and all over the world like you say,
I mean I never imagined anything like that happening
for me so it’s very flattering to say the least.
Gilles
Nuytens: You are
getting two episodes in Season 4, can you give us
some hints about what we can expect?
Paul McGillion: No, I can’t.
I can’t give you hints about what to expect
because I don’t know what to expect, I haven’t
got the scripts yet so I really don’t know what
they’re going to be doing. All I know is that
I’m coming back and I’m not going to be
a ghost so it should be interesting so we’ll
find that out in a few weeks I’ll be in Vancouver
to shoot.
Gilles Nuytens: We
haven’t seen or talked about the relationship
Carson shared with Laura Cadman this year, is that
something you would have loved to explore more?
Paul McGillion: It was great, Jaime
Ray Newman was great she’s a fine actress and
it was a lot of fun to do. But I don’t know
if she’s coming back on the show and I don’t
know if they’re going to explore that relationship
more. I mean I wish they would and if it wasn’t
her maybe some really attractive woman would be good
possibly from France if you could arrange that if
you could help me with that that would be good.
Gilles Nuytens: Do
you think that it would have been a great idea to
see Laura Cadman, Jaime Ray Newman, in Sunday where
your character died?
Paul McGillion: I think it could
have worked I don’t know in what capacity we
could have a little date in between, certainly it
would be nice for Beckett to get a little bit action
before he was dead, so that might be a good thing.
Gilles Nuytens: But
they didn’t…
Paul McGillion: They didn’t
give me anything gross, no I got nothing. No one fished
with me I could go fishing, nobody would hang out
with me and no girls for Beckett; sad, a truly sad
episode. Not only that they kill him with an exploding
tumour which is even worse.
Gilles Nuytens: I'm
curious how Beckett can survive this ...
Paul McGillion: I know, it’s
terrible. We’ll see how he comes back.
Gilles Nuytens: Can
you speak about your experience in Sanctuary?
Paul McGillion: It was great to work
on Sanctuary, it’s such a fun project to be
a part of. I think it was the first internet based
series solely shot on green screen and an extremely
high budget for an internet based series. So it was
great to be a part of it and Martin Wood directed
it, who I’m a huge fan of and Damian Kindler
was one of the writers on Stargate for years and was
one of the co-producers, he’s such a great guy
and a chance for me to work with Amanda Tapping. My
characters name is Wexford, all I can say about it
because Damian Kindler asked me not to say too much
about it but it’s a very excentric character,
very different than Beckett, crazy outfits and quite
a bizarre accent which is not Scottish, it’s
very different. So it was kind of fun for me to play
a different character like that and I do have some
prosthetics so it’s kind of an interesting role
and he serves as a confidante of Amanda Tapping’s
character so hopefully we’ll be seeing more
of him.
Gilles
Nuytens: I heard
you had a small part in a movie called Loch Ness,
can you speak about your experience on that movie?
Paul McGillion: Well I was also killed
in Loch Ness as well, it seems to be a recurring theme
in my career. I was eaten by the Loch Ness monster,
I can say that, that’s for sure, so they chewed
up my character and I was a Scottish character so
it was quite interesting.
Gilles Nuytens: What
can we expect from you in the coming months?
Paul McGillion: Well I’m down
in Los Angeles now and I’m just auditioning
for projects and I’m going back in three weeks
to shoot the episodes of Stargate so I’ll be
up in Vancouver shooting episodes of Stargate and
hopefully on some other film projects very shortly
in the new year. I think it’s time right now
I know we have to go on stage in a minute but thank
you for all your great interviews over the past few
years, it’s a pleasure to meet you finally and
to all the fans out there who have been so supportive
of my character, I really truly appreciate you giving
me all that support and rallying behind Save Carson
Beckett because you’re the reason I’m
here today and the reason I’m coming back onto
the show so I appreciate that.
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