He talks about SG and the movies. 
Ben Browder: The ice storm
After starring in the popular sci-fi series Farscape, Ben Browder joined the cast of Stargate SG-1 in its ninth season as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. The actor spoke to Bryan Cairns about the end of the show and the upcoming TV movie The Ark of Truth.
How do you feel your character had progressed by the end of season 10?
I liked that Mitchell is far more subtle in Season 10 within the context of the team and what he does. We found a good place for him to be...We finally figured out Mitchell’s only superpower is getting beat up and bleeding, which works perfectly for me. I am very happy with the way my superpower developed, which was basically a kind of muddy stigmata. I was pleased with all that. And as it progressed, the writers realised that was something that would add to the show and I was lucky to be the guy to do it.
I like that nine-year-old boy stuff where you are getting beat up or sitting in an F-15. Playing army - the fighting, the running, the jumping, getting muddy, dirty and all the things boys do when they’re young!
Were you sore and aching by the end of the day?
I come home - and I’m known to take my clothes off occasionally - and it’s like "Where did you get that bruise?" "Oh, just the other day I was getting thrown off something…"
I came home after Ark of Truth and my elbows were completely bruised!
What was it like filming Stargate: The Ark of Truth in the Arctic?
Again, in the wish fulfillment land, I’ve gone to a place I never thought I’d have the opportunity to go. We were 200 miles off shore on the Arctic ice flow living in a plywood hut on bunk beds. Everything is incredibly basic because the ice station was literally thrown up two weeks before we got there.
It was on a good solid chunk of ice, but all around it the ice was moving, so the runway where we landed was thin ice…The ice flows are not that big really - the size of a studio would be a good size chunk - and it is always moving around, so you hear the ice cracking. Amanda and I were shooting stuff where no one had walked.
Were you nervous about falling through the ice?
As you are walking, you hear hollow ice and you are not sure what the depth of the ice is. The camp before had some people drive out on the lead [flat mass of ice between two larger ice flows] on a snowmobile and the snowmobile went through. The two people went into the water. They were very lucky because the water is 28 Fahrenheit, or minus three Celsius, and you have about 30 seconds before you are dead. It is a very dangerous place between that, the polar bears, and the rabid arctic foxes.
There were polar bears that came within 10 miles of the camp because they were out there hunting seals. Polar bears are at the top of the food chain; they eat people and can outrun you. When we were shooting, we had one of the naval officers, Travis, always carrying a weapon. We weren’t supposed to go anywhere unescorted without a weapons officer.
THe rest can be found here: http://www.dwscifi.com/admin/articles/show/1562
Ben Browder: The ice storm
After starring in the popular sci-fi series Farscape, Ben Browder joined the cast of Stargate SG-1 in its ninth season as Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell. The actor spoke to Bryan Cairns about the end of the show and the upcoming TV movie The Ark of Truth.
How do you feel your character had progressed by the end of season 10?
I liked that Mitchell is far more subtle in Season 10 within the context of the team and what he does. We found a good place for him to be...We finally figured out Mitchell’s only superpower is getting beat up and bleeding, which works perfectly for me. I am very happy with the way my superpower developed, which was basically a kind of muddy stigmata. I was pleased with all that. And as it progressed, the writers realised that was something that would add to the show and I was lucky to be the guy to do it.
I like that nine-year-old boy stuff where you are getting beat up or sitting in an F-15. Playing army - the fighting, the running, the jumping, getting muddy, dirty and all the things boys do when they’re young!
Were you sore and aching by the end of the day?
I come home - and I’m known to take my clothes off occasionally - and it’s like "Where did you get that bruise?" "Oh, just the other day I was getting thrown off something…"
I came home after Ark of Truth and my elbows were completely bruised!
What was it like filming Stargate: The Ark of Truth in the Arctic?
Again, in the wish fulfillment land, I’ve gone to a place I never thought I’d have the opportunity to go. We were 200 miles off shore on the Arctic ice flow living in a plywood hut on bunk beds. Everything is incredibly basic because the ice station was literally thrown up two weeks before we got there.
It was on a good solid chunk of ice, but all around it the ice was moving, so the runway where we landed was thin ice…The ice flows are not that big really - the size of a studio would be a good size chunk - and it is always moving around, so you hear the ice cracking. Amanda and I were shooting stuff where no one had walked.
Were you nervous about falling through the ice?
As you are walking, you hear hollow ice and you are not sure what the depth of the ice is. The camp before had some people drive out on the lead [flat mass of ice between two larger ice flows] on a snowmobile and the snowmobile went through. The two people went into the water. They were very lucky because the water is 28 Fahrenheit, or minus three Celsius, and you have about 30 seconds before you are dead. It is a very dangerous place between that, the polar bears, and the rabid arctic foxes.
There were polar bears that came within 10 miles of the camp because they were out there hunting seals. Polar bears are at the top of the food chain; they eat people and can outrun you. When we were shooting, we had one of the naval officers, Travis, always carrying a weapon. We weren’t supposed to go anywhere unescorted without a weapons officer.
THe rest can be found here: http://www.dwscifi.com/admin/articles/show/1562
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