By Kenn Gold

 Michael Trucco is probably best known for his role as Sam Anders, who turned out to be one of the final five Cylons in Battlestar Galactica.  He is back this week as the star of SyFy’s Meteor Storm, where he plays the director of emergency management for a San Francisco that is under bombardment from space.  He recently sat down with MediaBlvd to discuss the role in the movie, and also talked about the wrap up of BSG, as well as the new pilot, Facing Kate, that he recently finished filming for USA.  Michael also talked about his accident, a horrible car crash that could have easily left him paralyzed, and the road to recovery and his return to acting as an action hero.

MediaBlvd> Let’s talk about this movie you have coming up, Meteor Storm.  I noticed Ron French on the credits as producer.  Is that how you got involved?

Michael> Yeah, that’s how it came down the pipe.  It came after we finished Battlestar, and my manager called and said, “We have an offer for a film for SyFy and I want you to take a look at it and let us know what you think.”  I did some research on it, and Ron’s name was there.  And it seemed like the right thing at the right time.  We shot in Vancouver, one of my favorite cities, and I kind of got the character or the concept of it, and it made sense.  It’s just nice to be offered things.  So I signed up.

MediaBlvd> I think you grew up near San Francisco, or you’re from San Mateo?  How was it seeing your home town destroyed in this disaster movie?

Michael> It was odd!  It was weird because that’s two projects I’ve done recently that are set in San Francisco.  It’s a little bit strange because we shot everything in Vancouver, but to see those iconic things like the Bay Bridge collapsing, and in a lot of ways it helps to put yourself in the space of the character because I know those places like Alcatraz.  You know where you are.

MediaBlvd> You mention the bridge collapsing, and that’s kind of one of the most dramatic sequences in the film.  So I assume they added that after with computer effects?

Michael> Yeah, I’ve told a few people this.  It was kind of funny.  I haven’t seen it yet, and I hope I get a chance to, but I remember shooting that scene.  We were in this beautiful harbor around the water in Vancouver.  It was a beautiful sunny day and it was the strangest thing to do, because we were out in this public place.  You can lock off a location when you are shooting, but you still get people who are onlookers and who want to know what is going on.  And you have to put yourself in that space, and conjure up these emotions.  You just block everything out, and it’s just this bizarre thing.  I’m looking at this gorgeous view across the water in Vancouver, and just imagining this horrific scene of a bridge collapsing.  I just roll up to the mark, and look out in space, and they are going to put all of that in afterwards.  So it’s challenging doing a film like this when you have a lot of special effects that go in during post. 

MediaBlvd> There are a lot of action scenes in this with you riding the bike and everything.  Is that all you, or did they use a double for some of it?

Michael> Yeah, largely it was.  That was a big attraction to me was the character getting to ride a motorcycle.  I don’t know if you know it, but I’m a big motorcycle buff and I have three or four bikes myself.  And I always look forward to having a character that gets to ride a motorcycle, and when this one came along, I was like, “Sign me up!” I was fortunate to get to do 99% of the riding.  I think there were a couple of scenes where they were tight on time and sent the second unit out with a double to get some riding shots while we were shooting other scenes.  But most of what you see is me on that bike.  It was great because they would be like, “Just start this shot down two blocks, see that stop sign, go past the stop sign and make a right, and start there.  That will be your first mark.”  They let me ride in from like two blocks away, and I come rolling in and get to jump off the bike.  Normally, you do a scene on a bike and they have you roll in from three feet away, and have four guys pushing the motorcycle to make it look like you just landed there.  Of course, none of that stuff ever makes it because you have to edit the film to get to the scenes, but it was kind of fun.  We’d do a scene, and they’d be like, “Ok, back to one, do it again.”  So a lot of my days were just riding.

MediaBlvd> You said you filmed in Vancouver, but where did this fit in time wise?  You did Galactica and The Plan, so was this kind of at that same time?

Michael> We shot Galactica and the series ended, then we did The Plan.  Then there was a little bit of time, I think that was in October, then it was the following Summer when we shot Meteor Storm.  I go up there a lot.  It’s kind of like a second home to me, and I spend a lot of time in Vancouver between doing the series, then The Plan, and then going up for Meteor Storm.  It’s a home away home for me.

MediaBlvd> In this film, you are sort of like the local director of Homeland Security….

Michael> More like FEMA actually.  I can’t remember the acronym we used, we couldn’t actually use FEMA, but it was more like the director of the local emergency management organization.

MediaBlvd> Did you do any research like talking to anyone from FEMA?

Michael> It’s sort of interesting because I spent most of my life in research.  I grew up the son of a cop.  My father was a captain in the San Mateo police department for 40 years, and growing up you learn a lot about crisis management and being calm under pressure, and valor in the face of crisis.  I just took a lot of cues from my dad, and when push comes to shove, and when stuff goes down, my dad was always really focused and calm and I’m sure a bit of that gets into your own DNA.  So the character was very familiar to me.  And when I see parts like this, I want to do more.  I love those kinds of roles because of that.  I’m comfortable in the skin of those characters. 

MediaBlvd> Do you seek out the action roles?

Michael> Yeah, but like I said, this one came to us.  It was an offer and that is always really rewarding as an actor to have things come your way.  But yeah, I’d like to play characters like this more.  I’m very comfortable in those parts.  Who doesn’t want a good action hero role?  I’d love to do more.

MediaBlvd> What was your cast like to work with on this one?  We talked to Kirsten Prout sort of right after she came back, and she said it was a blast on set.

Michael> I think she got into one of the Twilight movies.  I’m really happy for her.  That’s a career changer right there.  She is right in the demographic and they put those movies up and they just exploded.  To get to be a part of that could change the game for her tenfold.  She was great.  But that was weird, to have teen age kids.  I’ve never played a role with kids, let alone teenage kids.  So that was kind of hard, or more difficult to adjust to than to get into the skin of this director of FEMA.  How do I get my head around being the divorced father of two teenage kids, so we sat down and I met everybody up there on set.  We’d sit down between takes and discuss where we were all coming from and what our relationships were.  And also getting to work with Kari Matchett was a real advantage I thought.  She’s great. 

MediaBlvd> And Eric Johnson too, I didn’t even realize he was in this till I watched it.

Michael> Right, the newscaster.

MediaBlvd> When you do a film like this, and I know you weren’t the scientist, but maybe the action hero, do they talk to you about the science behind something like this?

Michael> Like you said, I wasn’t the scientist.  Kari was more wearing that hat.  No one ever had any formal sit down to get schooled on the astronomy lessons and how they related to the show.  But I’m certainly curious, because I’m a big astronomy buff.  That was kind of an attraction to his role as well, reading it and I’m interested in the whole concept.  The idea that the Earth might find itself in the orbit of the tail of a comet that may bring down a meteor storm that is much more than we can handle at one time- that possibility certainly exists all the time, and there are dedicated scientists who spend every single waking minute of every day watching through telescopes and looking for this kind of stuff.  Sort of that man vs. nature, and do we have the technology and the means, or do we even have the moral ground to stand on to think that we can alter that kind of cosmic event is one that’s very fascinating to me.  I was attracted to that aspect of it, but in terms of the science, my character was the crisis management guy, he wasn’t really the scientist. 

MediaBlvd> Switching gears here a bit, I know you and Sandra got married last summer.  Congratulations, and how is married life going for you?

Michael> Great!  We had a long engagement for no other reason than simple procrastination on both our parts.  And work had a lot to do with it.   I was doing Battlestar and you find yourself in different cities all the time.  We’d been meaning to set the date.  And I think you know, she’s Swiss.  So there is the contingency of the Swiss family coming from one side of the globe and my family in the West Coast of the United States.  So there were always these logistical obstacles to making this wedding happen.  Finally, we were like, “What are we doing?  Let’s just get married!”  Everything just sort of fell into place and we had a small ceremony in Mexico, with just the close family and a couple of close friends.  It was great.  When you plan an event, there is the planning and the concept, and then the execution and usually never the twain shall meet.  There’s the way we want it to go, then the way it actually goes.  This whole concept just went off perfectly, and I couldn’t imagine better circumstances for it.  It was really a fairy tale.

MediaBlvd> It’s been great seeing you come back to your forum this week!

Michael> Yeah, I try to mention it on the forum, but I’m just not very communication savvy.  I’m not a phone guy, and I don’t have Twitter, or Facebook, or MySpace.  That’s just not my realm!  I have a hard time e-mailing people.  So I have to just keep myself anchored in the forum, and remember to keep checking in.  I’m terrible about it, but not for neglect or lack of interest.  I just let it get away from me, so I’m trying to make a concerted effort to get back on and just stop in and throw out a little information, and say hi and see what’s going on.  It’s nice, and I like that kind of interaction with the fans.  It’s a comfortable format.

MediaBlvd> Let’s talk about Battlestar Galactica.  Were you satisfied with the way the series ended?

Michael> The short answer is yes.  I was pleased with the ending in general and more than satisfied with the finality of Anders.  I thought that every character was given their due.  It was correct for me and the way it read, the way we shot it, and the way it played, I think they wrapped it up right.  I know that’s not necessarily true for everybody.  There are some people who just hate it, but for me personally, I thought it was right, and it ended the way it should have.  I was honored to be a part of it, and the ultimate demise of Anders, taking the Galactica into the sun was nice.  I got drawn into the lore of Battlestar Galactica in season two, so I was the “Johnny Come Lately.”  And I was allowed to stick around and play in the sandbox with everybody.  They could have brushed me off two seasons ago.  Then it went to season three, then season four.  I’ll never forget that, I was very honored to culminate that character in that manner.  I was very pleased with it.  I hated to see it go, I loved the show, and it could have gone on for two more seasons.  But that wasn’t Ron’s design, but I think as actors on the show, we would have all been thrilled to do another season or two.  But you just go with what you are given.

MediaBlvd> Was there any disappointment that in the last 5 or so episodes after the character got shot, you weren’t really able to communicate?  So Anders didn’t really have an emotional goodbye scene with Starbuck. 

Michael> Not disappointment.  At first I just didn’t want to be painted into the corner as an invalid.  I think things were started in motion much earlier as the writers were writing these stories, and the strike sort of coincided with my accident, and my recovery time.  The circumstances of my injuries limited what I could do.  Let’s be honest, it was a volatile time, and I was vulnerable physically, and was fortunate enough to have some time to heal, and they were gracious enough to keep me around.  One struck on the typewriter and I could have been out of there.  But they kept me around and had to write accordingly.  But I was limited by what I could do physically.  So part of me was like, “Don’t paint me into the corner, I don’t want to be the boy in the bubble sitting around not saying anything.”  But we had some great sequences in the finale where just these long diatribes of expositional dialogue.  So they certainly gave me spurts of huge amounts of dialogue.  At times, I was like, “I don’t want to do this!  I like laying in bed and not saying a word.”  But I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when people were running around in their fatigues with guns strapped on, and battle wounds, that I wouldn’t want to jump up and be a part of that.  Then I’d have to get in this bald cap and get in this tub of milky water.  It was tough, but you’ve got to incorporate it and use that stuff with the character.  The character was isolated so I kept myself kind of away from it all. 

MediaBlvd> You mentioned your accident, and that was certainly a pretty scare thing to have happen.  Did that change your outlook on life?  With just minor changes to what happened, it could have been much worse.

Michael> It could have been, it really could have been.  You know, I’ve always had a pretty sunny disposition on life.  This isn’t my “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment, I wasn’t a bah humbug Scrooge who had this eye opening moment where I wanted to run through the streets yelling zippity-doo-dah.  I love attacking the day, I love being alive.  And when something like this happens and you realize how fragile all of us are, and how fragile life is, or how quickly it can change.Or just be completely snuffed out.  It just heightens that sense of thankfulness.  It was just this sunny Sunday morning, and in a couple of seconds you have this life altering occurrence.  It gives you perspective, it really does.  But I didn’t let the circumstances or the severity of what was happening take over.  You have to remain in control.  And I just remember saying to myself, in the seconds after the second cleared and I landed on my head upside down in this car, “This isn’t the way it’s going to go down.”  I couldn’t feel my legs, I couldn’t feel my hands, or anything.  And I was like,” Oh God, this is it!” In just a second, I was going to be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  But I remember having this cognitive, conscience thought, “This is not the way it’s going to turn out.”  Call it what you will, will power, mind over matter, or the power of positive thinking.  It was a degree of certainty that I was going to walk out of that car.  It didn’t detract from the severity of the injury, but those are just factors that I thought about.  There’s a lot of luck in this world, and the fact that my spinal chord wasn’t severed, there’s just no accounting for it.  The kind of fracture that I had, could have easily put me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.  The doctors were a little bit stunned when they were in the hospital, and they would grab my leg and I could feel it. And they’d grab my hand and I could feel it, and feel the pain on my leg.  I could do all of that.  When they looked at my x-rays and looked at my cat scans they were like, “Jesus man, that thing is really crushed!”  So I had good luck, and good surgeons and I was fortunate to be in shape.  I had some recovery time, and I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m feeling good.  There’s no certainty that this will be the same for the rest of my life.  Will severe arthritis set in?  Will my motion be limited?  I don’t know.  But I don’t dwell on it, because you know what?  I can walk.  I’m still here.  I don’t loose site of that.  I’m a lucky man.

MediaBlvd> You had a lot of fans out there pulling for you, and we’re really glad to see you doing these action scenes again.

Michael> I’ve got to speak to that.  I never realized how important that sentiment was.  When someone sends a get well card or sympathy card, or balloons and flowers, that always seemed like a innocuous or superficial gesture.  I have to tell you that that is so 180 degrees opposite of that!  That kind of sentiment, and the letters I got online and that people sent to me handwritten- that kind of stuff makes a huge difference and I can’t thank everybody enough.  That was really, really touching.  Even when it was just a couple of lines, sending you that healing energy, that stuff works.  I can’t speak enough to how important that was, and how much that meant to me.  That was really good. 

MediaBlvd> Are you spending more time with your band, Simpleworld, now?  I noticed you put up more music on your website recently.

 Michael> It’s funny, I was just talking to my singer and we were working on some stuff a couple of nights ago.  He’s going to go into the studio and record some stuff in Spanish, actually, and he said they need some guitar.  I forgot how rusty I get when I don’t play, or how long it’s been.  I’m like, “Geeze, I’ve really got to pick up a guitar.”  We haven’t played in years, so there is no real resurgence.  I just thought it was time to put the music up.  We’d been talking about it, tossing it back and forth between the members of the band.  I was like, “Look, we went to studio a few years ago to record this music, it would be foolish not to share it.”  At one point he said, “No, we’ve got to hold out and make those CDs so people can buy it.”  I was like, “I’m proud of it and we put it down for posterity’s sake probably more than anything else, and if people want to hear it, great.  If they dig it, even better.”  It’s music, it’s subjective, but I just decided to make the excutive decision and said, “Look, I’m going to put it up on the website. “  So there’s no real resurance, I can’t say the Simpleworld reunion tour is happening in 2010.

MediaBlvd> I wanted to ask you about Burnout too, the web video over on your site.  Are you going to do more of that?

Michael> Again, my buddy Skully, who helps me out on the website and does the media for me, he is great.  And he has great ideas.  We wanted to explore that more.  I already have a concept to extrapolate that into a full series where the idea is to track everyday people taking on extraordinary experiences and seeing how they fare.  Because everybody, deep down inside thinks they are the best driver in the world.  Everybody is a good driver, and everybody likes to drive fast.  But what happens if you take these people and put them in the circumstance of a racing school to fully understand the dynamics of a race car, and see what happens.  I’ve been a huge fan of racing my whole life, but I grew up in the wrong state.  If I’d grown up in North Carolina, I’d be racing cars, not acting.   California wasn’t really the culture for car racing.  If I’d grown up in Europe, I’d have been running F1 cars, and I’d have done it all over as a kid, I’d have gotten into go-carts earlier.  I feel like that’s another life for me, I could be sitting up there in the cockpit of a race car.  So I was just fascinated, I’ve been to a few different schools.  And this last one, when I went we just decided to take a camera along to see what happens.  So I think we are going to do a couple of more.  

MediaBlvd> So let’s talk about the pilot, Facing Kate.  

Michael> It’s a pilot for USA network and it stars Sarah Shahi from Life, and it’s a legal show set in San Franciso.  Another show filmed in Vancouver but set in San Fran, and it’s a one hour dramedy- not quite a full drama, not quite a comedy.  It’s in the tradition of some of the other shows on USA now, kind of fun, kind of tongue in cheek.  I play Kate’s ex-husband, Justin, who is also the assistant district attorney of San Francisco.  And Kate is also a former attorney who has decided to dedicate her life to becoming a mediator because she is tired of the cut and dry, black and white world of law where somebody always wins, somebody always looses.  She wants to find sort of a more Utopian resolution to the problems where everybody gets a little bit of what they want and everybody is happy.  So she’s taken on this new role of becoming a mediator, and she is dealing with the very recent death of her father, who was married to a woman who was her age.  So there is that dynamic between her step-mother and her, being peers.  There’s an interesting dynamic between my character and her character in that we find ourselves ending up in bed more often than we should, since we’re exes.  So there is that push-pull, love-hate relationship going on.  It’s fun and Sarah is great.  She’s got a lot to do and she handles it beautifully.  We just shot a 90 minute pilot and we’ll see.  It’s out of hands right now.  If it goes great, and if it doesn’t we’ll just move on and find something else.

MediaBlvd> It’s got to be great to still be a part of the NBC family.  And I think USA was a big part of the Comcast deal and all of those great shows over there.

Michael> What a great time to fall into it there.  I think they are the number one cable network on television.  They sometimes pull numbers that network shows are pulling.  USA is a really strong network.  Their shows pull great numbers, and NBC Universal is great!