By Kenn Gold
The following interview was conducted by Kenn Gold via telephone on April 27th, 2006. The interview was done jointly for bsgtns.com and for MediaBlvd Magazine.
MediaBlvd: Grace, Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.Grace Park: My Pleasure
MB: So I understand you just got back from a vacation? Is that true?
GP: Yeah, I went traveling to South America for six weeks. And we went everywhere. From Brazil we started in Salvador with Carnaval, which took us 49 hours to get from Vancouver to there. It was a bit of a chaotic story. But we worked our way down the coast. We went to the Pantanal, which is like the wetlands, then to Uruguay, and Buenos Aries, and finally Bolivia and Peru - and finished off in Machu Picchu.
MB: So were you mostly just sight seeing, or did you get to do any fun activities?
GP: Oh, yeah…any what activities?
MB: Any fun activities, or sports?
GP: Oh, we did a lot of sight seeing; we took some 4x4’s out into the Bolivian landscape and for four days, we were just like touring the red lagoon and the salt flats and the geysers. It just totally looks like another planet, and I was thinking the whole time, “I just want the people from Battlestar to see this so we can actually have this as one of our other planets.” It kept looking different every five minutes; it looked like a new place. But there were particular places, especially the geysers from the Red Lagoon. It just looked - if you looked at the shore right beside the lake - it just looked like there were craters filled with red, murky liquid. It was so strange, and the wind was like crazy harsh! It just didn’t feel anything like home. And when we saw Machu Picchu, that was totally breathtaking, very beautiful. But not too many sports. I didn’t get in any surfing…none of that stuff. Just toured around.
MB: It sounds pretty cool. So I guess the big news this week, out from Battlestar Galactica is about the prequel - the spin-off, Caprica. Have you heard much buzz about that?
GP: I know, I just heard that today, too, from my manager. He said that was in Variety. And Trish Helfin, who plays Number Six, she just sent out an email that she heard from her husband, and it was like, “How the hell do we not know this?” It was a total surprise to me. There was no, “Just so you guys know, we are thinking about doing this, we don’t know when it’s going to come out.” None of that. Not a hint. I was like, “Are they really going to do this? How do I feel about this? Why don’t we have any say, or why don’t we at least know about it?” So that was very strange.
MB: So how do you feel about it?
GP: Well, one of the things I was wondering is, if it was kind of cheesy to do that already? I thought maybe it was a bit soon or didn’t really know how that would fare. But if it’s David and Ron doing it again, I know the quality will be really good. I’m actually really curious, and I want to know…like, are the Cylons already in that part? Probably not, and I’m actually really curious who they’re going to use for casting, if they’re going to use any of the same characters. Actually they can’t because it’s 50 years ago, right? Or fifty years before. I’m really curious to see what they’re going to do with it. Lots of times, because the show is so good, sometimes when you hear something really drastic is going to happen - like we had the one year jump ahead in the future, or something like that at the end of Season 2 - there’s a lot of raised eyebrows, hesitation, and a lot of doubt. There definitely had to be some script things that were worked around, but it ended up fantastic. And that’s kind of making me go, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are they going to do with it. I’m actually really curious to see how it goes.
MB: That’s really interesting. I know it had been on the news or anywhere that it was in the works, then yesterday the announcements just started coming out and were picked up everywhere.GP: It was yesterday? Weird…I’m only going to end up feeling not happy if the prequel ends up doing way better than our show. I’ll be like, “Wait a second - are you allowed to do that?” If it’s better than our show, I guess we’ll be riding their coat tails.
MB: What do you think about the popularity of Battlestar? Does it surprise you how popular it’s gotten in the last two years?
GP: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think many of us thought it was going to fare that well. And I don’t even mean as well as it is doing right now. I think partly because we all knew that we were signing up for something that was Sci-Fi, and Sci-Fi can sometimes be very cutting edge and eye opening, with great effects. Or sometimes it can just be sort of almost comedy, and it’s not always breaking new ground, it just happens to be in space. I think because of the kind of schooling I had, and not just going into television vs. film, but going into something that was Sci-Fi, I was just thinking, “We’ll see how it goes.” The climate on the show, a lot of the actors - none of us knew how well it was going to go, especially with a lot of the original fans giving us a lot of shit, and about that. Sorry, I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that. You can bleep that out. There was a lot of negativity around the beginning. I don’t think many people ever think that something they are going to do is going to catch the eyes of the critics in that way. I’m just totally floored.
MB: So how does it feel knowing that everything you say publicly is going to be read by a 100 thousand people? You have a voice now, or some power. Do you use that for any particular cause, or is it just an artifact of what you are doing?
GP: That’s kind of interesting. I’ve never really thought of it that way. I know there are things I’m going for in my life, and I haven’t really used my position right now in that format yet. But if it’s ever asked of me, what do I support, or things of that nature? I mentioned there are certain charities that I…I don’t know if it’s called a charity. I guess maybe that’s the term to use. But when I was on my honeymoon, one of the fist places we went to was just outside of Buntar in India. And when we arrived there, we stayed with this minister there, and he showed us all of the things that he did. And they seemed too good to be true. I mean how can you really have opened up 400 churches, and how can you have installed this many water wells in this many places…and have a ministry for people who are AIDS/HIV in a clinic, and another ministry for people who used to be prostitutes and who are trying to go away from that? It was endless the things they were doing. Orphanage, Bible school…it was just like, “That’s impossible.” So I actually had a bit of skepticism.
Then going out there, we saw everything. That convinced me, and my husband, that this was a pretty amazing man to be doing this much stuff. So I wanted to give to that, and that’s called Harvest India. But I haven’t really used this as a microphone or loudspeaker to tell everybody what I believe. I could do that in my real life, but it feels a bit different to be doing that to the public. So that’s something that I’ll hopefully get a better handle on it and feel more comfortable with, and find out the best way to do that.
MB: So do you consider yourself a role model for any particular group? Or do you think you’ve reached that status yet?
GP: Oh, I don’t know, I think some people - no matter how big or small you are - will think of you as a role model. I don’t think I have a legion of fans who are following me around listening to my every word. I’m pretty sure that’s not happening. But I think, because I did Edgemont before and there were a lot of younger people watching that, we knew that we had people looking up to us maybe…in a certain way. Or at least paying more attention to what we were doing or saying to see if it falls in line with something they could believe in, or that they could respect and admire. So sometimes there’s a bit of that. Sometimes I feel like maybe I have a softer spot for girls or young women growing up. Especially with it being so chaotic, growing up in North America. It’s not just about tending to the fields, and making sure that the animals are all in the barn at night. There are a lot of confusing messages out there. Like how are you valued as a person, and how do you find your value as a person? How do you compare yourself to other people? And is that a good thing to do? What do you spend your time and energy on? How are you going to direct your life and what is your purpose?
These aren’t things they talk about in school. Not that the things they talk about in school are unimportant, I think it’s absolutely valuable. But there just happens to be a lot more out there that isn’t addressed. You know those things that just fall through the cracks, and sometimes you end up just picking up stuff in the media, and those are your lessons? But those so are not the proper lessons because those are all geared towards capitalism. So it’s a lot of product. So I guess I was pretty blessed growing up in Vancouver, because we didn’t have as much of the media onslaught. Going down to LA, it’s like billboard heaven. It’s everywhere. You are bombarded whether you like it or not. If you can open your eyes and see, then you almost have to shield it out. I think that’s why so many people wear sunglasses down there. That might be one of the reasons why.
MB: I never thought of that. That could be.
GP: Yeah, I would. So I think I’m kind of figuring out my own voice in a way. So I’m not ready to go with a message and hit play, blah, blah, blah, or whatever.
MB: So we don’t see a lot of Asians on TV, why do you think that is? Do you think it’s getting better and that there are more roles being written that can be played by anybody?
GP: I think definitely there’s more visibility for Asians in the media now. I mean, in a lot of ways it’s just like you can just feel an unbalance. Most of the things we watch, everybody is Caucasian in it. Not everybody, I shouldn’t say that. Obviously there’s a good percentage of Black and Hispanic. We have that. But there’s just a calling out for a little more diversity. And I think it’s really beautiful that people are taking those risks. Albeit sometimes it’s almost stereotypical, and not always very truthful, it’s better than nothing. As more people feel comfortable with that, and realize what is their story…Not just people that grew up in Asia, but the people who grew up here who happen to be Asian. There’s different stories there. All over. So I’m just really curious to see what kind of stories are being played out, and how they are done. With things like, Memoirs of a Geisha - that was very beautifully done. But there was a lot of controversy over the fact that many of the actors or actresses were Chinese rather than Japanese. I remember that was something that bothered me a lot, but then while I was watching it, I kind of forgot about it.
So there seems to be a little bit more happening. It’s still pretty diluted down. I think it feels a little safer maybe for - not sure if it’s for the network or the marketers - to have Asians who look less extreme, not too exotic and a little more Westernized. That sort of feels safe. But if that’s the way in, that’s what we use, and I love it. It’s kind of different actually coming down from Vancouver to LA. I noticed that the roles I get offered are much more like Asian casts. You’ve got to be Asian to have this role. Rather than something like Sharon in Battlestar, where she so totally did not have to be Asian, and that was never really an issue that they addressed. It made me feel strange and kind of self-conscious of that fact. Like, I’m going down there, “Why is everybody just throwing those particular roles at me?” But it’s not to say they’re the bad. The stuff I read was fantastic. I’m not complaining in that way.
MB: So are you getting offered a lot more now that your visibility is going up?
GP: I’m getting offered certain things, that’s for sure. Scripts aren’t being piled up outside my door. Sometimes I’m still going for meetings, and other times it’s just reading stuff, and other times things are just offered. So it’s a mix that’s happening. I’m at the beginning of my career, so I still have a lot to go.
MB: Do you have any concern about being typecast, or remembered as Sharon from Battlestar, if the show continues to grow in popularity?GP: Well, yes, if I get too many robotic roles being thrown my way, that’ll be of concern (laughs). But I think there aren’t too many robot clone roles out there being pitched my way. So that’s not much of a concern. I think I’ve had a pretty broad base to work from, and they throw a lot of things my way. There’s an action component, there’s a drama component, and there’s a lot of character development on the show for all the characters. My character - or characters - are rather confusing, and getting more so. It’s turning out to be a pretty confusing tangle. I actually have to sit there and write down the separate story lines, just so I can go from A to B to C...so I can figure it out in my head. But, it’s a slight thing at the very back of my head, but I don’t see that happening. Especially since the roles I’ve been offered were not all the same.
Whereas somebody like Katee, who plays Starbuck, has a very strong character. That might be a little more difficult for somebody like her. But we’re totally different people. I know Katee is doing something now that is actually nothing like Starbuck, but previously she did something that kind of was like that. It’s totally up to the actor to choose what genre they are going to keep going in, how far they want to keep stretching. Do they want to stay comfortable; do they want to be easy? It’s whatever pulls or pushes you.
MB: So is it fairly difficult playing essentially two main characters throughout the series? I guess the one on Galactica has kind of been gone for a while, but is coming back. Is it hard keeping track of which Sharon is thinking what and doing what?
GP: Yeah, it kind of is because…actually it wasn’t before, in the beginning, I found it quite simple. I knew that one was always shadowing the other. And I knew how and why she was manipulating Helo. And it got a little more confusing when she had to say she was pregnant and come back to Galactica. But it was still quite separate for me. But lately, because I thought that Boomer had died, I had just put her away, and never had to bring her back. Then when I read the episode, it was like, “Oh my gosh, she’s going to be reborn, and on top of that she’s been working out. She’s been avoiding the other Cylons.” We had to quickly do all that back-story. So I think that character’s been a little lost on me. Like I don’t really feel super secure and firm about how she would have changed. And what that journey means for her right now. I think I had an idea, then I’ll read treatments about the Cylons…how Cavils are atheists, and they’ll have the main blocks of what Number Six is like and what the Dorals are like. Then I’ll read mine and it will always say how she is naïve and young and gullible. So when I read that, and where I’m taking her, it makes me….
I try to make it fit, but then I feel like she’s not growing enough. So I think the lack of definition that I’m having right now with it in Episodes 1 and 2 is making me want to have more clarification. On top of that, the directors and producers and writers are probably not all on the same page about which character exactly is saying what thing. So I’ll have Sharon, and Boomer, then it’ll say ‘Sharon Number 2’ for instance, which I just call ‘Number 8’ now because it’s a lot simpler. Because there are multiple clones that we aren’t following their storyline, then there’s Sharon and Boomer. Boomer, who used to have a love interest with Tyrol, then Sharon is the one who is with Helo. Sometimes I have clear ideas of what I want to do, then I get there, and it’s like, “No, no, no, nobody knows that this is this specific character- she could just be anyone.” And it just gets more confusing. There definitely needs to be a little bit of that happening, but I’ve been getting confused just as I’m talking to you right now.
MB: I had the same problem trying to work up the questions, like who do I refer to here? I was trying Caprica Sharon and just Sharon, but Boomer and Sharon is better.GP: Yeah, there’s Boomer and Sharon, and the rest I just call ‘Number Eight,’ or ‘Eight.’ That’s how me and Trisha decided - she has Caprica Six, which is…her and boomer are kind of one and one now. Then she has Number Six who is in Baltar’s head, and I have Sharon who is on the ship, then she has Six and I have Eight. So at least we’re trying to figure something out amongst ourselves.
MB: Now if you could just get the writers to use those when they write. So do you feel cheated by the jump ahead of a year? Sharon, the last time we saw her was in a really bad emotional place, having lost the baby. There would have been a lot of grieving and a lot of other things we could have seen in the development of that character.
GP: Yeah, I’m wondering actually if we are probably going to see some of that in flashbacks. That’s always something we could visit. But definitely there would have been a lot of strain on her and Helo, and with their relationship, because that’s one of the main factors that propelled them together so strongly was the fact that they had a child together. And they questioned a lot of that. Helo questioned her, “Is that why you love me, and do you still think about the Chief?” But definitely, it was beyond that. That, yes we have a child together, but it means something more to her. And they mean a lot to each other. So I was really curious, what the heck is going to happen to her in that year, because you never saw Sharon again. So I’m like, “Are Sharon and Helo together? Is she a complete wreck? Has she, in the last year and a few months taken the time to do all the grieving and come back around?” My big thing is I didn’t know if they are together or not. Because something like that is so intense and heavy that sometimes you can have nowhere else to go but attack each other, and blame yourself and the other person, because you have so much grief there. So, that one year…I think I played a lot of grief that last year. I don’t feel like I want to play more grief, but somehow I see it’s coming in my future. No way around it, this is Battlestar.
MB: Let’s talk about the rape scene for a minute. The rumors are out on the Internet that when the DVD’s released, it’s going to have the full version…the actual rape happening. Do you know if that’s true, or have you heard anything about that?
GP: I’ve heard about that, too, but do you know if that’s supposed to be the first half of the Season Two, or the second half? Because I think I heard that wasn’t aired yet, but I talked to David Eick and he said he’s putting it on there. And I was actually really happy that they were doing that.
MB: So how did that come about? I think I heard in the SciFiWorld.net interview that you did that it was a lot more involved. So was it really the network, or who that decided to cut the scenes?
GP: Yeah, I’m under the understanding that it was the network, because the director, and producer, David, submitted the longer version initially, knowing full well what the script said. It made pretty clear that before any evidence or confirmation of penetration during the rape, that Helo and Tyrol run in and stop it all, somehow making it all ok. I’m not sure if that’s how people feel, but I think there was a little bit of that. Making it, “Oh no, she’s still intact, she’s ok, nothing really happened to her.” But that’s like a pretty small shred to hang on to, to make yourself feel better. But I think that’s all some people need. That little bit or little shred to have it be their life saver. To hang on to that in this chaotic abyss. And it was back and forth a lot, I guess between probably David and the network. They kept saying, “No, don’t want this one, no, don’t want this one. What are you guys – crazy? We can’t air it,” that sort of thing. I think all of us knew we couldn’t air it, but I was actually surprised….
MB: Was it actually filmed as a full rape? With full penetration? GP: Yeah, we shot it…you don’t actually need to do very much more to have people piece it together. All you need is really her head being put back and forth. You just need to be able to see that motion to figure the rest out, and you don’t need to see anything else. So I had a feeling that’s what we were going to do, and that’s actually what they shot. And it was a great version that I saw, and I was really ecstatic over that. Then the more I heard they were going to shut it down, at first I was like, “Yeah, of course they’re going to do that, I don’t really mind either way.” But then I heard more and more that they were very adamant and desperate and hard about coming down on that. And then that made me angry. That brought up questions in my mind. It almost put the light on an area that I didn’t know so much that I cared about. Especially because Tricia played this character, named Gina, in that same episode that was horribly abused, and you see that. And so having those played side by side was so brilliantly written and edited and all that. But then I think just as women, me and Tricia, whenever we talked about Gina, and later they kill her, but when…that really just made us too emotional when we talked by our trailers, were like, “Blah, blah, blah…” But then the next thing you know we both are tearing up, and we’re getting really moved by the scene and not just because we feel sorry for her. Like this is some sort of travesty that they were just allowing this character to die.
Because I think in a lot of ways, we look towards the media, and see what do they do with a certain character to portray what society would do to someone who is similar to this. And though that’s extremely rare to be treated like that, you just get to that point with a metaphor for someone who is either raped, or feels they are treated abusively or feels they maybe look like that on the inside, or feel like that on the inside. So anything along those lines - and it doesn’t just have to be women, it could be men or it could be children. And I think that actually our society can be pretty harsh. It’s not like we are all holding hands and playing “Ring around the Rosie.” So sometimes people can feel something like that and then what do we do? We don’t actually…on our show we didn’t have a slow buildup of this character. We didn’t see Gina struggle or coming back up and falling back down. I mean emotionally and psychologically, we didn’t get to see that. They just made her seem more and more hopeless that she couldn’t do anything else, then she just blew herself up, along with the colony. It was just so destructive. Maybe that’s just along the same line of Galactica; it’s so bleak and really terrifying and terrible. But at the same time for us, two - I know when we were discussing it - to not feel good. It made me…I made some pretty harsh parallels. But we don’t really have to talk about that right now. But the more they did that, the more it made me angry. I was like, “So why are we putting people out of airlocks, and beating each other to a bloody pulp, and you can just shoot anyone all the time, and have people committing suicide or just attacking each other including the ones they love? …Or blowing up ships full of thousands of people?”
All of that violence which is so intense, is so shocking, but is somehow ok. We can keep showing it. But when it comes to something that happens to one in three women around the world, they don’t want to go there. Because they don’t want to feel that, they don’t want to deal with it. But I just think that…maybe you read in the other article, they just rob people of an experience of that shock, of that helplessness, of that falling. …Feeling like you don’t know what you can do. Because that actually takes you to another place where you can sit with that. And then from that, decide that something’s really wrong, and to make some changes and feel compassion for people that you may have previously judged. Or a part of one’s self that you may have previously hated. Or look at your own actions - that maybe you did something that was unspeakable. Or it doesn’t even have to be that far. It could have just been to verbally abuse somebody else, and to look at that, and go, “There’s something really wrong about this.” I feel like that actually unites people, and makes them feel their humanity and reach out to one another. And just become more vulnerable and open. And I think that’s something that is really, really beautiful. All that from the editing.
MB: Wow, that’s a lot to think about there.
GP: Yeah…. Yeah, it’s pretty meaty. But somehow, that came out from me. Anyway…
MB: So I’ll switch over to some questions about the show, now, a little bit more about the character and situations. Is there a writers’ bible that you know about, about the Cylons?
GP: Yeah, there’s a series bible.
MB: So that defines what the Cylons can do and can’t do and so on.
GP: It’s funny, we just got another one, just about the Cylons. The series bible I guess talks about the main characters, from Adama, down to Number Six. For Number Six’s character all it said was something like, woman as machine. So she has the least to work on, everyone else got a back story but her. But we just got one recently.
MB: One of the questions that seems to come up a lot, I guess essentially Sharon has data ports, or something - you can shove a fiber optic cable up your arm and talk to computers. I guess Trish’s character, when she has sex her spine glows, so she must have a giant LED in there.
GP: Well Sharon’s character does too.
MB: So how come Cylons are so hard to detect? Can’t they just do an X-ray and detect them? Has anyone ever talked about that?
GP: They didn’t talk about that very specifically, but in my understanding, if you did an x-ray, or did a blood test they are pretty much indistinguishable from humans. The way I put it together is, because they probably used Genome splicing and human DNA to make their own models, they chose how they wanted their personality and physical attributes to be like. But they have extra things on top of that. It wasn’t said in the Cylon bible, but I think it’s probably actually nano-technology. Undetectable, and through that they can probably absorb nutrients, or they can choose to eat like humans. Because Cylons were created in the form of humans, and humans were created in God’s image, and Cylons want to be close to God, they can actually choose - but some models more likely than others tend to eat rather than just taking in nutrients. We just learned all this, I didn’t even know it, but taking in nutrients, I think through the skin. There would be specific ports in the Cylon base ship that they could do this, and they can also do that with information. So I think when Sharon jacked that wire into her arm, it was just probably like a current almost. Because there were a lot of nano-bots maybe, going thru her body - it wasn’t a very specific jack, like your phone jack in the wall. Nothing like that in her arm.
MB: I think Ron Moore did create the Borg in Star Trek, and it sounds like a similar idea.
GP: Oh yeah?
MB: Well he definitely wrote about them but I’m not sure if he created them. Interesting.
MB: So how does the shared memory work? Do all of the Number 8s have shared experiences, or did Sharon just have Boomer’s memories because she was trying to trap Helo?
GP: A little bit of both of that. Within one model, the different bodies can share memories, but within that model only. Now I use the words ‘CAN share memories,’ because it’s not like they all automatically share them. I’m under the understanding that you can choose to upload, and you can choose to download information. But when it came to Boomer, who didn’t know she was a Cylon, they gave her those memories, they gave her a back-story, and they put that programming in her, kind of like The Matrix. And when Sharon came along, she knew who she was, but they gave her all of Boomer’s memories, up to a certain point. Probably up until the last time that Boomer did a download. I think she just had programming in her that would activate. But there was probably, like the time around the attack; around there was probably the last time that they got information from Boomer. But since Boomer died, and was re-birthed, I think they probably accessed the rest of the information up until that point. And when the Cylons share information, they don’t just share it like data on a computer, or an email - it’s visceral, you feel it, you smell it, you remember it very much like it was your own memory. Does that answer that?
MB: Yeah, that’s interesting. I really wanted to get your take on that. Ok, the Cylons consider Boomer to be a celebrity or a hero. But Boomer actually destroyed a basestar, then failed in her mission to kill Adama.
GP: I know, exactly. The actual thing is, she was meant to blow up the basestar, because that would actually get her to get close to the commander so that she was in that position to shoot him in the CIC. Because when the Sharon’s were going to die, they all said, “We love you, and we’ll see you again soon.” So that was actually part of her mission. Then the part about her shooting Adama, I was kind of wondering if she failed in her mission, or if she was actually supposed to be able to do that to rock the humans, but actually not kill him. It’s kind of weird, I don’t know if I just justified that in my head, but I kind of remember somebody saying something, that her mission was probably to do that, but not necessarily to kill him.
MB: I actually never thought about it that way, but that would kind of make sense. But the whole thing about her getting close to Adama, there’s almost like a father/daughter relationship it seemed like to me. There was definitely affection. In “Downloaded,” she talked about, “I tried to kill a man I loved.”
GP: Yeah, that’s true. She definitely did love him, because her family that she knew had all died on the mining planet of Troy. She was actually on a ship heading to Galactica when that happened. So she had nothing left to go back to. So in actuality, the only thing she had, and her only family, was the Galactica. So Adama was like a father figure to her.
MB: So now that Boomer’s back, is there going to be any resolution, or a meeting between Adama and Boomer? Or do you know if that is in the works?
GP: Adama and Boomer, I don’t know, because she’s somewhere else right now. They’re on New Caprica and I haven’t read anything yet, but I’m sure something is going to happen…sooner or later…it’s this incestuous web that we are weaving.
MB: So do you know who any of the other Cylon sleeper agents are? And would you tell me if you did?
GP: Ha, ha – NO, and I totally would not! But we don’t know, and I just found out something pretty cool - that the Cylons that we’ve known so far are programmed not even to think about the last five.
MB: Oh, ok, so there are 5 more sleepers out there.
GP: Twelve all together.
MB: I was thinking there were 13.
GP: Well if you count Hera, I’m allowed to call her Twelve-and-a-Half. I got the approval on that. So there are seven that have been revealed, so we’re the ‘Significant Seven.’ And the last five are called the ‘Final Five.’ So I’m super curious as to what their mission is. Why are we not supposed to know about them? Why are we programmed to not think about them? What are they going to look like, what are they going to do? What is their purpose? I am so curious.
MB: Since you don’t know who the Cylons are, it’s probably a fair question. Of anyone that has been on the show, who would you like to see turn out to be a Cylon?
GP: Well, I was always very sad that Billy died, so I’d love it if he came back as a Cylon. Adama being a Cylon, I definitely don’t want that. Laura being a Cylon, that would be kind of interesting. Of course Baltar’s always that joker/wild card that you never know, and I kind of like it better that he’s not, but it would be equally interesting if he was. So that, I think, would be one of my top choices.
MB: So have you gotten to work with Lucy Lawless yet this season?
GP: Yeah, I did.
MB: Did you know about her before she came on, or were you a fan of Xena?
GP: Xena?, Yeah, I knew about her, not that much. But I love her now. She has a wicked sense of humor, crazy cuie.
MB: Ok, just one more question and I’ll let you go, since we are coming up on your time here. Do you feel like you have job security since you are playing a Cylon? I think Ron Moore said in an interview this week that anybody on the show could die except for Adama.
GP: EXCEPT FOR ADAMA?!?! What about the Cylons?
MB: Well, that’s what I was kind of wondering, too. It seems like as a Cylon you’re pretty safe. Even if they kill both Boomer and Sharon off, there’s always another bunch of them.
GP: Yeah, there could always be a way to take us off the show permanently, but right now, I’m not too scared. I’m not saying I’m slacking off, but I’ve got pretty good job security. I’ve got two characters running the entire time, and on top of that, I’m a Cylon. Yeah, I think I’m ok right now. And, I’m the token Asian! So they’ve got to keep me on. Yeah, I’m feeling ok. But actually, on one level, I think it’s really good in a way. Because I can just go crazy and explore some more stuff. And I’m really planning to do that this season.
MB: Ok, great - we can go ahead and let you go now.
GP: Did you ask me the questions that your boss wanted you to ask?
MB: Yeah, actually - the one about the data port. That was his question.
GP: Right, I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know we have something. But that they can’t test for it, otherwise, Baltar would have figured it out by now. …Unless of course, he is a Cylon…
MB: Well he definitely has reason…I guess he’s a conspirator, so he could be hiding it. Well, thanks a lot for taking the time. I really enjoyed talking to you.
GP: Yeah, it was really fun!
