By Christina Radish

Amanda Tapping at the NBC All-Star Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 20, 2008.

Following a record-breaking 10 seasons as Air Force Colonel Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1, as well as a season on the series’ popular spin-off series Stargate Atlantis, Amanda Tapping is branching out as both executive producer and star of Sanctuary. The British-born Vancouver resident recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about the extraordinary visual effects of this new series.

MediaBlvd Magazine> How did Sanctuary come to you?

Amanda Tapping> (Executive producer) Damian Kindler wrote the script in 2000, as a spec script when he was a writer living in L.A., and he shelved it. Then, in January 2006, he brought it to (executive producer) Martin Wood and I. He brought it to Martin first, and then said he would like to give it to me to look at the part of Helen, and Martin said, “Yeah, absolutely!” From there, it was just this massive snowball. We shot testings in June of 2006, got funding, and then shot two hours of Internet material in January of 2007 that premiered in May of 2007. By July, we were starting to get interest from broadcasters, and then, in May of 2008, started shooting 13 episodes of the series. (Producer) Sam Egan got involved in the beginning of 2008. We needed another shoulder. Since then, it’s been the four of us, battling it out. It’s been amazing! I’m so proud of this team. Not to hang a lantern on it, but as a woman in this unique position, to work with three men that have such integrity, such honor and such grace has been a real treat. I didn’t know how it would be. It’s a big learning curve for me. Sam’s a pro. He’s been doing this for so long. I didn’t know how I would be able to fit into it, but I was able to hold my own, and I was able to make mistakes and fall flat on my face, and have them pick me up and dust me off and say, “Good on you! Keep going!” It’s been an amazing experience!

MediaBlvd> What intrigued you about Sanctuary that led you to direct all your energies toward this?

Amanda> When I first got approached with Sanctuary, in January of 2006, I didn’t know what the future of me and the Stargate franchise was going to be. I was going to be doing Atlantis, and I didn’t know what was going to happen with SG-1. So, we shot this little test scene and then we got the funding. In January 2007, we decided to do a web series, which didn’t seem at all to conflict with Stargate. The timing worked out perfectly. And then, when I had finished Season 4 of Atlantis and I got offered Season 5, it was a really lovely contract. It would’ve been very easy to say yes. But, I had to make this enormous leap of faith because Sanctuary was waiting in the wings. We didn’t have a broadcast deal yet. We had a lot of interest from different broadcasters around the world, and we were hoping that we would get picked up. Had I said yes to Atlantis, I would’ve basically killed Sanctuary where it stood because I wouldn’t have been available to do it, and it would’ve gone away. But, I felt really strongly about it. So many people had put their time and effort, and money and support behind it that I thought it was time to make this leap. And, I love the character and I love this show. Stargate was very gracious and understood my need to move on. The fact that there was still the possibility of Stargate movies, and that I would definitely be involved in them, made it a soft landing because I wasn’t actually saying goodbye. I was saying, “See you later.” I did make this enormous leap of faith, whereby I said, “Okay, I have to stand beyond this project.” I put my money in it, I attached my name to it and I’m executive producing it. And, shortly after turning down the Atlantis contract, Sanctuary started to get its broadcasts picked up, around the world. I just felt I had to stand behind it. It’s a beautiful project, and I’m so proud of it and the people that are involved. It just felt like the right time.

MediaBlvd> Was it important for you to be completely different in your appearance for this, or is that second nature for you, as an actor?

Amanda> It was a really conscious choice. When I first decided to play Helen Magnus, it was a real conscious choice to have absolutely no vestige of Sam Carter in this character, in terms of everything from her appearance to her voice to her walk to her wardrobe, and everything. I just felt the need to completely re-invent. Partly as a woman and partly as an actress, I felt it was time to just try something completely different. It’s great because I go places and people don’t recognize me. People that I’ve worked with for 10 years don’t recognize me.

MediaBlvd> This series isn’t just science fiction and fantasy, but is a combination of a lot of things. With your previous background in sci-fi, including The X-Files episode that you did, and then the different Stargate series, were you interested in sci-fi or fantasy at all, prior to all of this?

Amanda> I would say more fantasy. I wasn’t a huge sci-fi fan. I appreciated the genre, but I honestly was more of a Little House on the Prairie girl. But, I grew up with three brothers and they were into all the big sci-fi shows. And, I actually really got into Star Trek: Next Generation and Babylon 5. I guess I slowly got indoctrinated. I pulled away from the prairie into space.

MediaBlvd> As you have become encompassed in sci-fi, what do you find interesting about being in that genre instead of a different one?

Amanda> As hokey as this sounds, there are just limitless possibilities. It’s the fact that you can go anywhere and do anything. You’re not bound by even normal human physics. You can literally do anything, and the idea of possibility is what makes it so appealing. Sci-fi, as a genre, is really not that different than anything else. We’re telling the same sort of stories, we just have perhaps a broader palette with which to tell them. Sci-fi, as a genre, is blown wide open. It’s not what it used to be. The demographic is a lot different than it used to be. We’re not just exploring space. The genre is much broader than it used to be. And, there are more female audience members. There are a lot of women watching sci-fi, which is amazing.

MediaBlvd> You’ve had experience working with special effects, but is it weird to work in such a minimalist set-up, where almost everything in the room is just a green backdrop?

Amanda> Initially it is, but it feels more like doing theater than anything else, and that was my training. It actually feels like you’re putting on a play because you don’t have a huge set to play with. The hardest thing with shooting an almost entirely virtual show is getting a sense of the scale. We’ve shot in the catacombs under Rome, and we’ve shot in huge chapels. The Sanctuary itself is this massive structure. It’s really hard to get a sense of just how big it all is. And so, when we started to see the fully finished effects, we were like, “Wow, the Sanctuary really is huge!”

MediaBlvd> How much of the show is actually green screen?

Amanda> We set out wanting to do a lot more. We’re probably at about 70/30, 75/25 with green screen to practical. We built some practical sets. Helen Magnus’ office, for example, is a practical set, except for the ceiling and what you see out the windows. Otherwise, it is entirely virtual. You get used to it very quickly. David Geddes is our Director of Photography, and he’s literally an artist. He creates this palette for you, where you believe there’s a window with sunlight streaming in, and you can tell what hour of day it is by the way he’s lit it. Those visual cues make it that much more real.                                                              

MediaBlvd> Do you want the people who are watching to be aware of the groundbreaking technology, or do you want it to be so seamless that maybe the average person doesn’t even know anything about that?

Amanda> A little bit of both, to be honest with you. Ideally, there are times when we don’t want people to know. We have this huge opening shot, which is almost entirely a visual effect until the very end, and you’re not sure where the visual effect ends and the real scene begins. That kind of seamlessness is so stunning to me. But, people will know by watching it that what they’re seeing isn’t always real, and we’re really proud of that because the visual effects are so cool looking. You don’t have to be a technology buff to think it’s really cool, or be into it to find the style of the show interesting. You can’t help but be drawn into it, even if that’s not your bent. You can’t help but notice how cool it looks. Honestly, at the end of the day, all the technology in the world wouldn’t mean anything, if you didn’t care about the characters. That’s always been the case with good television. If you care about the characters, you care about what happens to them, you’re interested in their relationships and you’re interested in how they move forward through scenes, then it doesn’t matter what’s going on in the background. At the end of the day, the audience will really like the characters on the show and will care about them. That will save us, technology aside. The fact that we happen to have some really kick-ass visual effects is very cool, but if you don’t care about the story, then you don’t care about the story.

MediaBlvd> Helen Magnus looks really good for 157. What’s her secret?

Amanda> She bathes in Botox. I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you. In the episode “The Five,” you’ll get the full deal on Helen Magnus and how she came to be who she is, and why she’s still around. The beauty of being given a 13-episode arc for our first season is that we’ve been able to pull these stories out, to create this huge mythology that we couldn’t do in the two hours of webisodes. We packed a lot into those two hours, but now we’re able to draw that mythology out.

MediaBlvd> Over the course of the first 13 episodes, will we get glimpses of what Helen has been doing all this time?

Amanda> Some, yeah. If we do get picked up for another season, I would like to explore a little bit more of her back-story, in terms of actually going back and looking at it. I would like to see her in the different eras of what she’s done. But, you get a huge sense of her past and how she’s been spending her time, in the first 13 episodes, for sure..

MediaBlvd> How does Helen look at her longevity, as a gift or a curse?

Amanda> Both. Ultimately, she still sees that there’s work to be done and that her quest is worthy, so she needs to be around for it. But, she often talks about the curse of it and the incredible loneliness. When you watch everyone you’ve ever known grow old and die -- all your lovers and friends -- your heart is very well protected. If it wasn’t, she would be heartbroken, all the time, watching these incredible people die that she spends time with. She’s very guarded because she doesn’t want to give people too much, for fear that she’ll be heartbroken, in the end. But, she still has a quest to fulfill, so she’ll continue doing what she’s doing because it’s still worthy.

MediaBlvd> For someone who is coming in blind, who hasn’t seen the webisodes, how would you explain the series, its plot and its tone? What’s exciting to you about the storyline?

Amanda> It’s centered around my character, Helen Magnus, who is a 157-year old doctor from Victorian England, who runs a sanctuary for all manner of abnormal creatures. She pulls a young forensic psychiatrist, named Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne), into the fray, who has always thought outside of the box. He has been shunned by regular law enforcement agencies, but in fact, now realizes that the things that he’s tried to investigate are real. You see a lot of the Sanctuary, a lot of the creatures and a lot of the mythologies through his eyes, as the everyman. The show has a very graphic novel feel to it. Sometimes, you’re not sure if what you’re looking at really exists, or whether it’s a visual effect. Sometimes, it’s very obvious that it’s a visual effect. We’re shooting with a real graphic style, so it’s got a real edgy look to it. And, I have this really kick-ass daughter, Ashley (Emilie Ullerup), who is a weapons expert and a martial artist. She’s the cool factor. And, we draw from characters in history, and from this incredible mythology for my back-story.

MediaBlvd> What direction will the series be taking, over the course of the season?

Co-stars Robin Dunne & Amanda Tapping at the NBC All-Star Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 20, 2008.

Amanda> In the episode, “The Five,” we deal with these five characters from history -- these forward-thinking scientists -- who have come together, and how they’ve come to be who they are. Jack the Ripper is one of them. Helen is another one. And, there are a few other very cool characters from history. We start with that, as a jumping off point. But the main focus of the show is the creatures within the Sanctuary. We have a beautiful episode, called “Edward,” that’s about a young boy who is an autistic savant. He’s like a human camera. There’s actually a person like him in the world, so it’s based on pseudo fact. It’s his story, and how they get him to come out of his shell. The back-story is really explored. I’m loathed to say we have a monster-of-the week because it’s not that, but every episode has a very interesting focal character that we’re dealing with. Nikola Tesla is one of the characters that comes to light in the Sanctuary, so we’re pulling from that. We’re pulling from things that go bump in the night, and mythologies that we’ve all grown up with. We pull from history. And then, we’re also just taking really remarkable human beings and shedding a light on the idea of what’s normal. We have an endless well of material, which is great. Let’s hope we get an endless well of pick-ups from the network.

MediaBlvd> With Sanctuary starting out as a web series, had the intention always been for that to be a showcase or springboard to a traditional TV deal, or were there aspects to the web format that were appealing and interesting, in their own right?

Amanda> In our infinite naivety, we actually envisioned staying on the web. We never really set it up to be a model for a television series. Our initial hope was that we were going to utilize the shifting paradigm of this convergence of new media and have a full social networking site, so that Sanctuary could become a place where fans could go, not just to watch the show, but to get involved in other aspects as well. In ideology, that’s great, but with monetization, not so much. We wanted to make a really spectacular show. We spent a lot of money, and it needed it. We wanted to do something that was really big and flashy, and that we would all be proud to watch. We probably could’ve used even a few more million dollars to make the visual effects even better. The thing you need to know about the webisodes is that a lot of those visual effects were rendered in 12 days, which is crazy. As a business model, there were ancillary revenue streams, so we were thinking we would make money this way, and still be able to produce the show, and that just didn’t happen. The Internet being what it is, with the bit torrent sites and the streaming video, we knew it was going to be pirated, and that was cool. We wanted to get the name out there. What it ended up doing for us was bringing a huge amount of eyeballs to the show, from around the world, and we didn’t want to lose this great intellectual property. We didn’t want to lose the idea of the show, so we decided to go back to what we know and what we’re good at, which is making television. And, we’re all very happy to be here. Our goal is still to get back onto the web, in a different presence, to make it more interactive. At this stage, however, we had a finite amount of money and a really, really short time frame, so we focused all our energy on making the 13 episodes of the show. If it’s successful, and we’re all hoping that it will be, then eventually we will branch out and try to do more interactive web initiatives with it.

MediaBlvd> There are some differences in the web series and the first episode of the TV show. Why were those decisions made?

Amanda> The move to television has given us a lot more freedom, a lot more room and a lot more time to be honest, to spread out this mythology and to open up the mythology. The web series was so compact, and so much information was given in that short period of time, that I don’t think the stories were given as much breadth as they needed. Here, we’re able to breathe a lot more life into these specific areas of the story. I don’t think that people who have watched the web series will be disappointed. It’s just spread out. Changes were made. In part, there were network concerns about certain aspects of the story. We also had the opportunity to create a more living, breathing mythology rather than pack it in.

MediaBlvd> As a producer, and working with the writers, how do you balance things out, so the special effects don’t take over what you’re trying to do with the stories and the characters?

Amanda> That’s the joy of working with people like Damian and Sam because, at the heart of it, they write really great character-centric shows. Damian and Sam will often go to Lee Wilson, our visual effects producer, and say, “This is what we want to do. How doable is it? And, more often than not, the visual effects will take a backseat to what’s really happening. The hard thing for the writers is making our creatures work because they’re interacting with the actors. At the end of the day, it’s about these people. Even the creatures themselves are heartfelt and intelligent creatures. It’s not really just about the cool effects, or what they look like. It’s about what’s at the heart of it. That sounds kind of hokey, but it’s true.

MediaBlvd> How hands-on are you? What kind of appreciation does being an executive producer give you, as to what actually it takes to put on a show like this?

Amanda> I’m very hands-on, more so than I probably should be. I took the mantle very seriously. I felt that part of the job was to go out and try to get us the funding to continue to make the show, so I was in touch with our financial guys, on a regular basis. I was involved in the casting and editing, and making sure that the crew is all put together. Now, I’m doing post-production, mixing shows, color correcting and working on the sound, and everything. This is a whole new learning curve for me. I do not have a spare minute in my day. As soon as I get to work, which is usually a couple of hours before crew call, if I’m not sitting in the makeup chair or actually acting on set, then I’m in a meeting or a conference call. Now, I think actors are wimps. I used to think that I had the hardest job in the world. Sam Carter was a really intense character, in terms of the volume of dialogue that I had. I used to think, “Oh, my God, I’ve got 10 pages of techno babble today. I’m working so hard!” And now, I just laugh at that and go, “Oh, my God, there are days when I just want to be an actor again!”

MediaBlvd> Is it hard to have a 3-year-old child, at the same time that you’re starring in and producing a TV show?

Amanda> Of course, yeah. It’s the great equalizer for me. Any working mother goes through the same thing. It’s the idea of trying to do what you want to do and being fulfilled and needing to work, and wanting to be home. The beauty of doing a series is that it’s a short period of time. You’re working really hard, crazy, long hours, and then you have these breaks, and in these breaks, I get to be full-on mama. But, it is very difficult. The beauty of having Olivia when I had her was that I went back to work with her. For the first 18 months of her life, she was with me everyday at work. But, that’s not possible with a 3 ½-year-old. She needs more freedom. It’s the great debate in my head and in my heart, all the time.

MediaBlvd> You played Sam Carter for so long. Is there an emotional detachment that you go through, when you’ve played a character for such a long period of time, and then move onto this whole new world that’s been created for you?

Amanda> It’s a weird disconnect that you have. Sam Carter was so much a part of me that the line between Sam and Amanda became pretty blurry at times. Sam informed so much of who I was becoming, and I informed so much of who she was becoming that it was a very difficult disconnect. When I finally decided to not go back to Atlantis -- and I ended up doing two episodes this season, the very first one and the very last one, which was great -- I finally had to walk away, and I was a massive emotional mess. My husband was like, “Come on, seriously. It’s been 11 years, sweetheart, move on.” I was like, “You don’t understand!” It’s like cutting off your arm and going, “Okay, how do I move forward now?” For me, as an actor, there was joy in discovering a whole new character and of creating this woman. I moved on pretty quickly. It’s been a very soft landing. If Stargate had been canceled and I didn’t have anywhere to go, then it would be a lot more difficult to let her go. But, because I had something really exciting to leap into, it was good.                  

MediaBlvd> What are some of the acting challenges you’ve found, stepping into Helen’s shoes?

Amanda> Literally stepping into her shoes because they’re stilettos and they’re very uncomfortable compared to army boots. It was finding her physicality. After playing a character like Sam Carter for so long, where her physicality is so comfortable, and she’s so comfortable in her own skin, and Helen is this very sexual, more mysterious being with a much darker edge to her, I had to find that. Carter always looks on the bright side, and Helen has been around so long and seen so much of the evil in human society. She’s also seen the genius and the brilliance. At the heart of Helen is this swing of incredible loneliness. I had to try to create this completely legitimate, dark, intense woman, after playing somebody like Carter for so long, and it was a huge challenge. I also had to find her voice. I wanted to make sure that, because she’s from Victorian era England, it informs so much of who this woman is and how she thinks. That era is so specific. And, because she was a forward-thinker and she pushed the envelope scientifically, emotionally and societally, she’s informed by that. I wanted her voice to still have that carriage of the aristocrat and the use of proper English, but she’s been around for so long that it couldn’t be so high-brow. It still had to be accessible to modern-day vernaculars. I walked around for days trying different accents on people. It was goofy, but that was part of the joy of creating this new character.

MediaBlvd> Where can we see the mother/daughter relationship going? What is the emotional bond there?

Amanda> It’s really an interesting relationship between these two. Helen made a choice to bring this child into the world, knowing that she could quite possibly watch her grow old and die, and not knowing if Ashley has the same gift of longevity that Helen has. So, she brings this child into the world, knowing that she may lose her and, as a parent, it’s the worst thing ever to imagine your children dying before you. Starting with that as your jumping off point, that is just a weird place to start. And then, what happens is they’re comrades. She’ll fight to the end of the earth to protect her daughter, but at the end of the day, it’s often her daughter who’s protecting her, which turns the whole mother/daughter dynamic on its head. There’s a huge amount of respect and chemistry between these two women. It’s this weird dynamic. There is a huge amount of respect, but there are times when you’ll see flashpoints between the two of them, and it makes sense because they work so closely together. But, there is also a massive amount of love.

MediaBlvd> As someone who co-founded a comedy troupe, how often do you have an opportunity to just enjoy full-on comedy, and would you like to do more of that in the future?

Amanda> I’d love to! I actually got to do a short film last year, called Breakdown, and I won the Canadian Comedy Award for Best Actress in a Film for it, which was fun. I was like, “Oh, my god, I’m still funny!” You spend your time in sci-fi land for so long that you forget these other skill sets exist because they have gotten dusty. It was really fun just to be able to play in that realm. Comedy is my default mechanism and, thankfully, I work with these incredibly funny people. Robin Dunne, who plays Will Zimmerman on our show, is perhaps one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. You’d never know by watching him. He’s so earnest. He plays this intense character, but behind it is this zany, crazy, funny man. I hope we get a chance to showcase that. It would be good to do a Sanctuary comedy episode, maybe in Season 3 or 4.

MediaBlvd> How far in advance have you mapped out the story?

Amanda> I’m sure that Damian has a grander scheme for the whole thing, in his head. At this stage, we’ve started mapping out where we want certain character relationships to go. But, there’s that superstitious feeling of not planning too far ahead because we may be derailed. We don’t want to be rushed into anything. We don’t want to talk about what would happen in Season 2 yet. We just hope we get a pick-up for Season 2. We’ve all been in this industry long enough to know. I kept thinking Stargate would get canceled, and it never did. And then, the one year that we thought it would get picked up again, we got canceled. So, I’m of the mind that I’m just going to think the worst and, hopefully, be really pleasantly surprised. 

MediaBlvd> Is there any mythology that you’re looking forward to doing? Are there any old stories that you want to do?

Amanda> There are, actually. I’ve always loved the vampire mythology, and I’ve always loved the idea of a creature that is totally without social conscience. We explored that mythology already, in the first 13 episodes. I like the idea of what happens with a creature that seemingly has no social conscience and a selfish agenda, and then, you find out that maybe it’s not necessarily that at all. I like the idea of turning things on their head. I like that we are taking what society views as abnormal and shining a light on it, saying that it is maybe not so abnormal. Because Helen’s belief, ultimately, is that all the creatures that she studies are keys to the evolution of our race, she believes that they’re evolutionary steps. So, when you look at somebody with autism, for example, is it that they’re societally challenged, or are they just so far advanced that we don’t get them? I have an autistic nephew, and I sometimes look at him and think he has insights into this world, way beyond. But, we don’t get it, so we think that he’s not quite up to our standards.

MediaBlvd> Can you talk about shooting the season finale, and what it felt like, getting to the end of that 13-episode arc for the first season?

Amanda> Shooting the finale was really emotional. We were all exhausted. People need to understand that we’ve been working on this for over a year now, full-on. Since I wrapped Atlantis in September of 2007, it’s been Sanctuary-ville for Martin, Damian and myself. There was so much struggle to make this show happen, and there was a lot of heartache and a lot of weirdness. Nobody felt we could do this. We set out to do the impossible, which was creating this show without a studio, without financial support, and without all of the regular safety nets in place. We all leapt off this cliff, hand-in-hand, and there we were. Hopefully, it worked. There was a huge sense of accomplishment, but also this sense of relief. We all felt like we’d been hit by trains. But, at the end of the day it felt really good to get to the end because we are so proud of it. Now, we have to put our baby out there into the world and hope people are kind and that they think it’s as great as we do.

MediaBlvd> How pleased are you with Season 1, as a whole?

Amanda> I’m totally proud of it. I’m really thrilled. I think we have some really killer episodes, and I’m proud of the fact that our crew stuck around. We wanted to start in February. We didn’t end up starting to shoot until May. A lot of the people we have are feature quality crew members, and features actually tried to lure them away, but they stayed with the show. That speaks volumes about how much faith people have in this project. I’m proud of the look of the show and the feel of it, and the attitude on set, and the fun that we had, but I’m really proud of the final product. There’s an episode, called “Requiem,” which for me, personally, was the bravest work I’ve ever done, as an actor. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that had I not felt so safe. I credit the crew and the cast for that. It was a phenomenal experience.