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By Kenn Gold
 Canadian actor, John Ralston, has an extensive and impressive number of appearances both in television and on the stage. But he is currently experiencing something new in that he will be starring in two highly touted series in production at the same time. Already a part of the hugely and internationally popular family sitcom, Life With Derek, Ralston has taken on the new role as the iconic evil nemesis of Flash Gordon, Ming in SCI FI’s re-imaging of the story.
John recently set down for an in-depth interview with MediaBlvd Magazine, in which he talks about the dual roles on Life With Derek and Flash Gordon, and how he became Ming. He also talks about how he thinks die-hard Flash Gordon fans will take to the updating of his character, and his hopes for the show.
MediaBlvd Magazine> Can you tell us about your experiences auditioning and being cast as Ming?
John Ralston> I was cast fairly late in the process and they were half way through before I literally stepped of the plane and into the studio. They had been going through the process out West and had pretty much been through the breakdown in Los Angeles and Vancouver, and they didn’t find what they were looking for, so the breakdown came out in Toronto. It all happened very quickly I remember. You do dozens and dozens of these kinds of things over the year. I remember getting one scene, there was no script or anything. I went in to put myself on tape with the local casting person here, and couple of days later, they wanted to see another scene. It was kind of like every male actor over 40 was on that list. I went in and did another scene for them, and it was all very quick. I was cast and flew out the next day, and did a wardrobe fitting.
MediaBlvd> Were they looking to totally change Ming from the outset, looking for a Caucasian actor?
John> I really don’t know. I don’t know what they were looking for. There is a breakdown of the character, but that character could be of any given background. You don’t have the benefit of reading the script, and it doesn’t give a physical description. There is just a quality they are after, and I guess I fit that. I do have a history of playing sort of darker characters- which kind of goes against the blond haired blue eyed. But more often than not, I do get those characters with kind of a darker side. I don’t even think I saw all of the 1980’s film with Max Von Sydow and Sam Jones. I had kind of missed the whole comic, and knew very little about it. It was more people around me who knew. I don’t think they are calling him Ming the merciless on the show, it’s just simply Ming. So whatever the quality was, I sort of fit the bill for them. Just from the images I’ve seen of the Mings of the past, this is obviously a very different take on it. But the times were different back then with regards to Mongo, and Ming, and the Asian thing. I’m not sure what tolerance people would have for that kind of thing today. So you’re left with the name, but the image is very different from the icon from decades ago.
MediaBlvd> Was it a stretch for you to go from playing almost the father of the year on Life with Derek to the benevolent father on Flash Gordon?
John> It’s Life with Derek that’s different from other stuff I’ve done. I’m always wondering if people who are watching Family Channel or Disney get a look at some of the other things I’ve done in the past. I just came back from doing an independent film in Montreal over the winter. It was sort of an Irish Quebec character and he’s smoking, and driving motorcycles. He’s a guy with a real dark background. So I wonder if the people watching Derek ever catch one of those things.
I’ve talked to people a little bit when were in Los Angeles for the Television Critics Association, so I can tell there are people wondering what’s going on with the casting here. I don’t know how to answer that. I just do what I do, and try to give that character some sort of levels. It’s a learning process; I didn’t have six months to prepare for this, like you sometimes have the luxury of doing for a feature film. More often than not, you don’t have that with television. I have a huge background in theatre though, so I’m kind of used to that. With theatre you have such little budgets, there isn’t often much time to rehearse, so doing work very very fast is kind of second nature to me. And it’s not something I really mind. There are certainly folks out there from the 1980’s movie who talk about the conflicting styles of that movie. It’s obviously an update, it’s a lot more naturalistic for sure. So it’s just a whole different style. I guess when people start to compare it to the motion picture, it’s a tough comparison.
It was so unbelievably frantic at the begging, like entering into a machine that has left the station, and walking into this world that obviously has a huge history. Some actors either go back and read everything they can get their hands on and do the research, and some say ‘To get my own stamp on it, perhaps I should avoid that’. But I just didn’t have a choice. I have a feeling if I’d looked at that movie it would have just screwed me up, because there are such big shoes to fill. But it’s also just a totally different style.
We actually had Sam Jones who did an episode with us, and I grabbed a few minutes with him. He just talked about the beginning of making that movie in England, and meeting Max Von Sydow. He told a story about a situation where they were just shooting him in close ups, and Max wasn’t needed, but he stayed, and stayed in costume. He (Jones) was young and had only done a few things, and told Max, ‘hey you don’t need to stay’. And Max replied, ‘yes, I do have to stay, and I expect the same from you.’ So that was the first of many things he learned from him.
MediaBlvd> How is it acting in front of a green screen? Is it hard to react to things that aren’t there?
John> Sometimes it is. We’re talking fast here because it’s television, and I’ve been around actors who just can’t adjust. But I’ve been doing 10 or 15 years of theatre, and it’s a bit different to have to walk on and create something instantaneously. We’re moving along here, and pages have to be completed, and days have to be reached. So there came a scene where I was looking over a balcony, and there was just this green screen. I had no idea what Nascent city really looked like. One of the producers happened to be there, and I said ‘Just help me out here, what am I looking at?’ He ran back to the production office and grabbed a couple of artists renditions of Nascent City and the square. Just any image helps you settle in and complete the scene and have an idea of what you’re looking at. It’s quite amusing.
More often than not, when I take people to visit the Life With Derekk set, they are amazed at how many little things you have to do, like pretending to drink milk- but not, and pretending to eat but not making any noise, or to make sure your forks don’t hit the plate- or just how incredibly boring it is. There’s a lot of waiting around. Visual effects are even a bit more daunting because you are acting to air. Little things like your eye line become very important. It is a bit of a challenge, but I’m getting used to it more and more as I get in on set.
There are a couple of episodes I haven’t been in and others that I shoot my part in a day, but I’m looking forward to them getting up on the planet more and more. We have a little more to do up there, and the more the merrier, and better for me actually.
MediaBlvd> Life with Derek starts up again in September right, so you’ll be filming both at the same time, right?
John> Yeah, it does, so things will get really interesting there. But they’re half hour episodes so they go up very quickly. I know you’ve talked to Ashley. The show really hinges on her and Michael. In a way, she’s much like the character- she’s so disciplined and prepared. So we’ll easily do 10, 12, or 13 pages in a day, which in filming is a fair amount. And she’s got a lot of that dialogue too. So we do an episode in about two and a half days. So I’ll obviously be doing Flash, and Life With Derek at the same time.
MediaBlvd> Will you going to be back and forth on the plane a lot?
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The cast of Life With Derek. Photo Courtesy Disney Channel.
| John> I already have been- I had a small project in Montreal that I had already committed to, so I had to finish that off. There was a period there where twice a week, I was catching a red eye back to Montreal getting there at 6 or 7 in the morning. The Life With Derek machine though, is really well oiled, and I’m quite amazed with the kids, and how well we work together. Some of the kids are relatively quite young, but are really quite disciplined, and we can accomplish so much in a day. It’s really unbelievable. That show really runs so well.
MediaBlvd> Are they going to work in any jokes with the kids thinking George is acting like Ming the Merciless?
John> (Laughs) Maybe I should talk to the writers! A little subversiveness never hurt anyone.
MediaBlvd> Is Ming’s back-story going to be revealed soon?
John> I know I’ve been on shows where you are wondering what the character is going to do, and pumping the writers for information. They’re separated from us on this show. Peter Hume is in LA, and for a long time I hadn’t even met him. I know people are sometimes emailing him to talk about the character. You know though what I kind of like? I like the notion of reading a script when you kind of find out little bits of information that crop up, and I’m quite fine with that. I actually get a kick out of that. But yeah, the more we get up the planet, the more of a back-story there will be. There are already some hints of that with Aura, and her mother, and where she could be from- as well as how old Ming actually is, and how he came power. There are hints of that already, and part of me wants to know, but part of me actually enjoys the thought of opening that script and saying, ‘Oh this is interesting!’; I find that quite enjoyable.
Again, every actor creates what they can create to do that scene well. Sometimes your imagination is your best friend, and you do whatever it takes to make yourself compelling on the screen. So sometimes I make up stuff, and that helps a lot.
MediaBlvd> I hear from Eric Johnson and Gina Holden in interviews they've done, that you and Jonathan Walker are constantly making people laugh on the Flash Gordon set?
John> Jonathan can’t help but be funny when you see him on that thing, just floating around. He can’t go over cables. I just get a kick out of him, because I’m always looking up. I’m not that tall of a man anyway, and so I always have to look up, and it’s quite amusing. I don’t get to see Eric and Gina that much, so when I get a day to be around Jody for example- Jody and I used to work together years ago- and I just get a big kick out of seeing him again. Even Karen Cliche too, we’d done one project together. When we get a day when we are all together, I have a good time. A lot of times I’d just go in, and Jonathan and I would be on the set doing our stuff together, because all of the Mongo stuff was filmed when we were in the studio. So there was a month and a half where I didn’t see those guys. Then we did a nice promo thing where the whole cast was together, and that was really the first time I kind of felt at home.
Every film set becomes sort of a family situation. Jonathan and I travel a bit back and forth, and the more you are away from the set you kind of miss it. We both have families back here and it’s a bit hard to relocate right now, so we just have to see where the show goes. I don’t do practical jokes, but I do have a good time, and you need that kind of thing every once in awhile.
MediaBlvd> Have you been reading the reviews that came out about the pilot, or do you kind of stay away from those?
John> I kind of stay away. I sort of sensed from the little bit of promo stuff that I’d done that there are hard core fans that won’t take to things being updated. I remember the question came up about the rocket. I don’t know whether this person even got Buck Rogers mixed up with Flash Gordon, but they were kind of upset about the whole rocket ship- ‘Where’s the rocket ship in the backyard kind of thing?’, and then you realize you could do that 50 years ago when people didn’t have a concept of time and travel. We know a little bit too much for the notion of a rocket ship traveling to another planet, which is months away. How do you do a script where a month passes and then we arrive? So when you know there are people upset about that, you know they are going to be looking at every little thing. I suspected too that the whole Ming thing, for people that know the history of Flash Gordon, it was going to take a bit of getting used to. So to answer your question, no, but I sort of sense that it would be a little bit of a sell for the first while.
MediaBlvd> So there’s a full 22 episode commitment for Flash Gordon? Will that give time for everybody to grow into the characters?
John> That’s as I understand it, yeah. But by the same token, I’m not sure I want to see 22 episodes for the actors to sort of settle down. However, things have to be ironed out. And this show in relative terms doesn’t have a huge, huge budget. So you are trying to accomplish things and you don’t have a massive budget like some studios are able to offer. So you are working hard to accomplish something, and you meet as a cast, and things have to be there instantaneously. So I think it will take a few episodes to find its audience.
That’s the joy of acting, to be able to fashion a character, and stick with the character. God knows, I’ve done so many projects where you are kind of a hired gun, and you walk in. I’ve guest starred on dozens of them where you come in for a few days, do your thing, and then leave. The notion of ensemble is really strong with me, and from day one, I just got such a charge of being around that group of people, and everyone took the same sort of responsibility. That’s harder to come by on film or TV, and the only way you can do that is if you get a series or mini-series.
 MediaBlvd> The scenes with Ming and Aura in the 2nd episode really kind of show a subtle side to evil of Ming. Is that intentional, and it will be played throughout the season?John> I made reference to the updating, and hence it’s kind of more naturalistic. I’m not going to try to get into the heads of networks and producers and such. Young adults judge stuff differently, and they may not buy into styles that confuse them. I know what camp is and satire is, and I could easily buy into that. I’ve done so much Shakespeare too and I can be just as big and whatever. But from the scenes I’ve read, and the feedback I got when I was hired, it’s a much more subtle take on a modern kind of despot, or totalitarian leader. The more I read, its kind of a parallel to Earth that took a desperate right or left turn somewhere down the road. So it’s not that sort of moustache twirling over the top character. So I’m sure people are going to look at the pilot and say its sort of bland, he’s not doing much, and where is that over the top character.
Not to say that his actions can’t be anymore merciless than the original Ming the Merciless. Just that someone looks at him the wrong way, and he says ‘Execute that man’, and there are shades of that there. But I think this Ming is a political leader, and he is a master, master politician. And I think there is enough of a psychosis there that enables this guy to just turn on a dime. But above all, he is a master politician that must have the ability to keep these Cantons of these different tribes together, but also antagonistic against each other. So it’s sort of a more modern take. And world politics are just a lot different than they were back then. So Mongo and Ming, and those things just won’t fly if you are trying to make an updated version.
MediaBlvd> Do you think the show will find it’s audience?
I’m really hopeful, I’ve been in shows before that get so desperately panned, and there is this sense of deflation afterwards, but then it just finds it’s audience. So I’m really just hopeful. There are such great people on this show. It’s so hard to just come out of the gate and just hit it.
So with these shows, if it doesn’t connect with an audience right away it’s gone. It’s really hard to explain this to my mother. I was doing a series here in Canada, and they look forward to it being on at a certain time. This whole idea of changing time slots, and shows getting bumped is cofusing, and I get these phone calls from her- ‘Why wasn’t the show on’, and I say ‘It was bumped for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’, and she’s like ‘How can they do that?’ So shows get bumped around, and people are like ‘Is your show still on?’. So that whole idea of shows being bumped around is really hard. It’s hard to explain to people of an older generation that it’s kind of a whim. It’ll find its audience somewhere here or abroad. I just really appreciate being involved, and I’m going there just doing the absolute best that I can, and I’m really enjoying it. So I really hope that it just comes together and is a show that people want to watch.
I suppose when you have a remake like this, there are just a myriad of people that want to put there two cents in, and are really adamant against it, or are willing to give it a chance. You are probably dealing with a different sort of people.
It’s funny because you read the scripts. I don’t know if it came across actually. I knew from reading it there was a neat sort of off handiness about it that was kind of endearing. Kind of a little bit of a wink, or lines that were sort of slipped in there. It gave the show sort of a disarming quality that I thought was sort of neat. I don’t get to do it as Ming too much. As the show goes on you can sort of see Ming and Rankol will have this kind of neat relationship.
I think Eric has this kind of lovely quality about him that will allow him to put these one liners in. I talk about Shakespeare a lot, where he’d have these sort of asides to the audience. It’s kind of like that in away. In fact, we had an episode that was sort of like MidSummer Night’s dream, with love potions and so on. That sort of re-affirmed my belief in a funny kind of way. There was a quality about that writing that I liked, and there is always this hope that that gets maintained. As the editing happens, there is always a possibility to loose that. In the pilot, I think they combined a couple of episodes. So you have a fair amount of editing in those first two. So anyway, I really think he does a great job. There’s sort of a naiveté like he’s not the sort of Superman hero. Obviously he’s a very good looking, in shape guy. That’s always endearing to see that quality, to see a slight sort of awkwardness to the character. I like that. It’s sort of a fine line, in that you can’t go to far one way or the other, so the writers have their work cut out for them. So as an actor, you do the best that you can, and sort of hope everything comes together.
MediaBlvd> Do you watch a lot of TV yourself?
John> I don’t have a Tivo or a digital video recorder, and I’m not very technical. I’m the type of person that doesn’t take the plastic off, I’ve still got plastic on the fax machine for Christ’s sake! I’ve got a friend who has all of the latest digital equipment, and he’s always making fun of me. But we’re not recording our stuff, so we just watch it. My wife is hooked on 24, so I think in the 4 or 5 seasons she’s missed only two of them. I started watching The Black Donnelly’s and since I’ve worked on the east coast, I’m sort of familiar with the architecture and background. I did a movie loosely based on the Belsher Brothers in Boston, the whole Irish mob thing. So I was really getting a kick out of the show. So she’d watch 24 and I’d get the kids ready for bed and come down to watch it. I picked one show and was getting into it, and it’s gone. I’m a pretty harsh critic of stuff too, but I saw nothing wrong with that show that they should yank it.
MediaBlvd> What’s it like filming in a studio that is a converted barn in the country? Any stories about that?
John> There’s such a large population of barn sparrows on the set. I remember being in this scene and thinking, that’s a nice touch- they’re piping in these bird sounds for Mongo, and I just bought it completely, till someone said, ‘No, we have to go in and re-record all of this dialogue because of the birds.’ That’s one of the clearest images I have, just being smack in the middle of this scene and wondering where are these birds.
MediaBlvd> Is Life with Derek going to continue for a couple of more seasons?
John> I think we are doing nine weeks, which means we are doing upwards of 20 half hour shows. We shot the first season in Newfoundland, of all places. I remember reading it and auditioning, and I saw a rough cut. I said, ‘This is kind of neat, but aren’t there so many of these kinds of shows on?’ But Lo and Behold, I turn around and saw it when it was altogether, and these little inserts, and the outtakes at the end. So it was really kind of unique. As we get into it, writers always try to get your voice. We’re now at the point where they can do that. But at the outset, I thought, the market is just so flooded with these kinds of shows. What’s going to make this different? But boy, did it take off. I go to the oddest places and I’m recognized for Life With Derek. It’s quite amazing. I know now why it’s popular, and why some parents get such a kick out of it. It’s really this chaotic family, and everything isn’t all rosy, and they do burp at the dinner table.
MediaBlvd> Did you ever see The Brady Bunch?
John> Oh yeah. There’s something similar [to what’s going on with Flash Gordon], Brady Bunch was a certain style, but you flash forward twenty some years, and you can’t do the same thing. You couldn’t have burping contests at the dinner table there; or have some of the things that Michael does- sort of gross things at the dinner table or breakfast table. You wouldn’t have seen that, so it’s a matter of peoples taste changing slightly, and I don’t know if getting away with it is the proper term. But you can do different things on television that you couldn’t do back then. So it’s really quite fun to sit down and watch them. My kids get a kick out of it too, and I take them to set sometimes. Actually, the two of them even made it on an episode. They just wanted a quick image of Derek when he was four, and Derek when he was eight. I remember seeing the script, and I went to the producers because I have a picture from that very first season, when my son was there, and when I was trying on my stuff, Michael Seater (who plays Derek) just started playing with the kid. I have a little Polaroid of my son who is now 8, and back then would have been about 5, with Michael, and we just always said, ‘Man, they could be brothers.’ So I always kept that photo, and when that episode came up, I just went to the producers, and said what about my kid? By that time, my other son was four, so we have this mini-episode with them playing Derek when he was four, and Derek when he was eight. The writers are quite lovely. Man, when I look at those first seasons, then see the kids now, they really grow. And Joy, she was pregnant in the first season too, so they shot her very discreetly.
MediaBlvd> So which role that you’ve done so far would be your favorite?
John> It depends on what was going on in my life at the time. I often tell this story. As far as theatre goes, for a few years, I had done theatre for young audiences, and I was with this amazing theatre troupe out of Nova Scotia- it was called Mermaid Theatre. It was a very well known theater company in Canada that started out doing a lot of mask and movement work, and had evolved into this really intricate puppetry. It was almost like the lion king on a mini-scale. We were doing that sort of stuff way back in the ‘70s or ‘80s. I toured with them in a production of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, and a rural adaptation of Peter and the Wolf. We did a small puppet show that we would do in tandem- larger puppets, not like marionettes, but we would manipulate them with a handle on the back of the head- so sort of 3 feet high. And we had done hundreds of these shows, and we were in Mexico City. There was a little hall in a suburb of Mexico City, and we had adapted the show somewhat into Spanish, and it was very simple English. There was one production of that show that is embedded in my mind, and I don’t know why.
You do something for hundreds and hundreds of performances and all of a sudden something magical happens. And we had rehearsed this thing in part Spanish and part English. And Bill Forbes, who was in the show, and who is a very good friend of mine- we had started the show and he starts speaking French. Then caught himself, because he doesn’t even speak French that much. Those kids were just so enthralled, and I can still see their faces. We had marvelous shows, but that one performance there, I still remember to this day.
There was an independent film that I did in Montreal that was a real departure for me, and I’m really anxious to see if the producer can edit it and get it done. There was a wonderful show here that I did, called This is Wonderland, and there is a playwright named George F Walker, who wrote for this show on the CBC and I did a couple of episodes of that. I guess it’s sometimes the departures from what you normally do that are the most fun. But I’ve rarely had an experience, where I thought, ‘This is just so boring.’ But sometimes as an actor, even the opportunity to work is just so great. |
