Starlog Magazine #331 - David Hewlett Interview
From Starlog:
http://www.starlog.com/fearful_feature.php
THE MAN YOU LOVE TO HATE
By RHONDA KRAFCHIN
Self-effacing, honest, bounding with enthusiasm and possessed of a lightning-fast tongue, David Hewlett takes a conversational stroll and turns it into an impromptu slip-and-slide. His infectious, throaty laugh makes you feel like an old friend, eager to jump aboard the party bus. And yet...this actor portrays one of SF’s most disagreeable, sarcastic and arrogant people, Dr. Rodney McKay of STARGATE ATLANTIS.
“How could you not love McKay?” queries Hewlett incredulously. “Or how could you not love to hate McKay? People come up to me and say, ‘Can you sign this? I hate you,’ or ‘You’re a bad actor because you didn’t get along with those kids.’ “ The latter is a reference to the episode “Childhood’s End,” in which McKay must contend -- not too successfully -- with the adorable waifs.
All right, so the guy may be a curmudgeon, but there are reasons all those fans are asking for autographs. “I think there’s a bit of him in everybody,” says Hewlett. “The know-it-all, the McKay part of you, is the part that’s dying to get your hand up first in class to answer a question. He always has an answer, not necessarily the right answer, but he always has an answer for everything. I think we would all like to have that ability. I know I would.” Not missing an opportunity to poke fun at himself, Hewlett adds, “I can handle the obnoxious part on my own, but the smart... Thank God they have somebody to write for me.”
Making his debut in the seventh season of STARGATE SG-1, McKay first banged intellects with then-Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) in “48 Hours,” and whether fans were appalled or curiously intrigued, they wouldn’t soon forget the man who had written off SG-1 favorite Teal’c as dead and continually dismissed Carter’s technological feats of heroism. “Samantha doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in McKay,” Hewlett notes. “Oh, yes, McKay definitely misses his old sparring partner, and he has mentioned her repeatedly in the second half of the season. But don’t think her absence means McKay has gone soft. I’ve got a whole bunch of new [sparring partners] now, you see. In a way, everyone’s relationship with McKay is that of a failing marriage. It’s just this snappy back-and-forth. For some reason, people seem to let loose on him -- probably because they think they can.”
Hewlett attributes McKay’s witty retorts to the writers, particularly Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, whom he sees more and more in McKay. But the delivery, the body language, is all Hewlett. “I’ve always spoken very quickly, and when I get nervous, I talk even faster,” he says. “I figure if I say it fast enough, people won’t lose interest. I can make 50 jokes in the time that most people tell one joke, so one of them has got to be funny! It’s like a war of attrition. I’m also the eldest and only son in a family with five younger sisters who are all a million times funnier than I am. I had a very strict upbringing, so the only way I got away with things was if I did it with humor. Even then, I generally didn’t. And it’s also an attention thing -- horrible, wretched actors and their endless demands for attention. In high school, you’re either a bully, a jock or a nerd, and I somehow tried to jump between camps by using humor. It’s amazing how you can blend in with that.”
Hewlett tells STARLOG more about where he got his sense of humor, as well as his childhood obsession with a certain British TV “Doctor”…
FIND OUT IN ISSUE #331, ON NEWSSTANDS IN JANUARY
SUBSCRIBE HERE
http://www.starlog.com/store/landing.php?id=2
|*|(*)|*|(*)|*|
Morjana
SG1-Spoilergate
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SG1-Spoilergate/
Richard Dean Anderson Fans
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/rdandersonfans/
Fans of Joe Flanigan
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/fansofjoeflanigan/
http://www.starlog.com/fearful_feature.php
THE MAN YOU LOVE TO HATE
By RHONDA KRAFCHIN
Self-effacing, honest, bounding with enthusiasm and possessed of a lightning-fast tongue, David Hewlett takes a conversational stroll and turns it into an impromptu slip-and-slide. His infectious, throaty laugh makes you feel like an old friend, eager to jump aboard the party bus. And yet...this actor portrays one of SF’s most disagreeable, sarcastic and arrogant people, Dr. Rodney McKay of STARGATE ATLANTIS.
“How could you not love McKay?” queries Hewlett incredulously. “Or how could you not love to hate McKay? People come up to me and say, ‘Can you sign this? I hate you,’ or ‘You’re a bad actor because you didn’t get along with those kids.’ “ The latter is a reference to the episode “Childhood’s End,” in which McKay must contend -- not too successfully -- with the adorable waifs.
All right, so the guy may be a curmudgeon, but there are reasons all those fans are asking for autographs. “I think there’s a bit of him in everybody,” says Hewlett. “The know-it-all, the McKay part of you, is the part that’s dying to get your hand up first in class to answer a question. He always has an answer, not necessarily the right answer, but he always has an answer for everything. I think we would all like to have that ability. I know I would.” Not missing an opportunity to poke fun at himself, Hewlett adds, “I can handle the obnoxious part on my own, but the smart... Thank God they have somebody to write for me.”
Making his debut in the seventh season of STARGATE SG-1, McKay first banged intellects with then-Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) in “48 Hours,” and whether fans were appalled or curiously intrigued, they wouldn’t soon forget the man who had written off SG-1 favorite Teal’c as dead and continually dismissed Carter’s technological feats of heroism. “Samantha doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in McKay,” Hewlett notes. “Oh, yes, McKay definitely misses his old sparring partner, and he has mentioned her repeatedly in the second half of the season. But don’t think her absence means McKay has gone soft. I’ve got a whole bunch of new [sparring partners] now, you see. In a way, everyone’s relationship with McKay is that of a failing marriage. It’s just this snappy back-and-forth. For some reason, people seem to let loose on him -- probably because they think they can.”
Hewlett attributes McKay’s witty retorts to the writers, particularly Brad Wright and Robert Cooper, whom he sees more and more in McKay. But the delivery, the body language, is all Hewlett. “I’ve always spoken very quickly, and when I get nervous, I talk even faster,” he says. “I figure if I say it fast enough, people won’t lose interest. I can make 50 jokes in the time that most people tell one joke, so one of them has got to be funny! It’s like a war of attrition. I’m also the eldest and only son in a family with five younger sisters who are all a million times funnier than I am. I had a very strict upbringing, so the only way I got away with things was if I did it with humor. Even then, I generally didn’t. And it’s also an attention thing -- horrible, wretched actors and their endless demands for attention. In high school, you’re either a bully, a jock or a nerd, and I somehow tried to jump between camps by using humor. It’s amazing how you can blend in with that.”
Hewlett tells STARLOG more about where he got his sense of humor, as well as his childhood obsession with a certain British TV “Doctor”…
FIND OUT IN ISSUE #331, ON NEWSSTANDS IN JANUARY
SUBSCRIBE HERE
http://www.starlog.com/store/landing.php?id=2
|*|(*)|*|(*)|*|
Morjana
SG1-Spoilergate
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/SG1-Spoilergate/
Richard Dean Anderson Fans
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/rdandersonfans/
Fans of Joe Flanigan
http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/fansofjoeflanigan/
