Defying Gravity’s Florentine Lahme – In The Pilot’s Seat

Florentine Lahme as Nadia Schilling in Defying Gravity. Photo by Kharen Hill and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

Come on, be honest. There has been at least one birthday when you didn’t get exactly what you wanted. That was not the case, however, for German-born actress Florentine Lahme, who, on her last birthday, received what she calls a “very nice present” when auditioning for the role of Nadia Schilling on Defying Gravity.

“My first audition actually was on my birthday, and it was pretty exciting because it led to a callback for the role of Nadia,” says Lahme. “The second time around I did a video conference with the show’s producers, who were in Los Angeles and watching me in Germany. That was exciting, too, and a bit scary. I was doing a night shoot that evening for a film in Germany and my head was so full of lines and information that I couldn’t really concentrate on the audition. Fortunately, it was the same scene that I did for my first audition, so I did it once again. Then a month or two later I received a phone call asking me, ‘Would you like to come to Vancouver and join the series,’ and I told them, ‘Sure,” she says smiling.

“The funny thing is when I was a child, my Mom asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I said, ‘Maybe an astronaut.’ I don’t think I’d like to be one now in real life, but being one on TV is good.”

On Defying Gravity, Lahme portrays Nadia Schilling, an ace pilot who graduated at the top of her class at the International Space Organization (ISO). Highly intelligent and a striking beauty, she is not afraid to put her sex appeal or keen mathematical/scientific mind to good use, depending on what the situation requires. Nadia demands nothing less than perfection from herself and expects the same from her fellow astronauts onboard the Antares when they set off into outer space to explore Earth’s solar system. Jetting across the Atlantic, Lahme was anxious to step into Nadia’s shoes and begin work on the first of 13 season one episodes, but first she had to find her space legs as it were.

Nadia at the controls on the Antares flight deck. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

“I always have huge problems with jet-lag,” admits the actress. “So I was still pretty jet-lagged my first day of work. However, beyond that, the first thing I was impressed with were the sets, which are very expensive. On top of that, and more importantly, I felt like I was in good hands because of everyone working on the show.

“We had a great deal of green screen work to do in the first episode, so we constantly had to imagine what was going on out there in space. I also had to get used to wearing a wig, which I wear during the flashbacks. In the first episode, I had a love scene with Ron Livingston [Maddux Donner], too. Its always difficult when you don’t know each other and have to do a love scene. I get sweaty palms just thinking about it,” she jokes. “So I don’t love doing love scenes, but I do love David Straiton, who directed this episode. I really enjoyed working with him and he made it fun and really easy for me.”

Although she is not afraid to speak her mind, Nadia does not wear her emotions on her sleeve, so it took the actress a little time to figure her out. “Nadia is a funny character,” notes Lahme. “When I first read the script I thought, ‘Is she really human, or maybe she’s a robot? I don’t know.’ Nadia is very much focused on her job. She’s quite ambitious as well as earnest and always wants to be number one.

“You don’t get the feeling that Nadia is a terribly emotional person. She’s on her own most of the time and isn’t really interested in getting too close to her coworkers, except for Donner, of course, because he’s her lover. But the thing is, she treats him like a sex toy or tool. I like to describe her as a combination of the Terminator and Barbie, because you cannot look into her at all. She’s pretty icy. However, as the episodes go on, you actually get some insight into her emotionally and I get to reveal her vulnerable side, which I was very pleased about.”

Antares Commander Ted Shaw (Malik Yoba) and Nadia. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

Given that she is on a six-year mission with seven other astronauts, Nadia does make the effort to behave in a professional and cordial fashion towards her colleagues. Unfortunately, she has difficulty doing so when it comes to dealing with one particular member of the crew. “I enjoy working with Dylan [Taylor], who plays Steve Wassenfelder. His character and Nadia have a special relationship – she can’t stand him,” chuckles the actress. “My character likes to complain to him, ‘You eat too much and behave like a 12-year-old boy.’

“She doesn’t understand why Wassenfelder has been chosen for this mission, and I love the scenes with the two of them because they always butt heads. That makes for an acting challenge because in real life I like Dylan, but on TV I have to dislike him. Whenever a scene makes me feel uncomfortable I think it’s great because, again, it provides me with an acting challenge.”

While her character may feel uncomfortable relating to her crewmates, Lahme has no such problems with her Defying Gravity castmates. “The last show I did in Germany [GSG 9, an action series about an elite team of crime fighters] had a large cast, too,” she says. “So I’m used to working with a lot of actors, and I think it’s terrific that we have such a variety of nationalities – the Latina, the Israeli, the Indian, the German – and everyone is so nice. Sometimes you have the problem where someone is very arrogant, but that’s not true here. Everyone is very friendly. If, for example, there’s a word in the script that I don’t understand and it’s not in my [German/English] dictionary, they’ll help me figure it out. So it truly is a pleasure working with them.”

A native of Berlin, Lahme was 16 years old when she began modeling part-time to earn some extra money to help pay for her studies in economics and Japanese at the University of Berlin. That eventually led to her being invited to audition for TV shows. “It was really by accident that I got into this business,” recalls the actress. “My first TV job was a German soap opera set in a hospital, and I played a nurse. I was familiar with working in front of a camera because of my modeling, but it still felt a bit weird. Very soon, though, I began to feel like it was ‘my thing,’ and suddenly I knew I had to do this for a living.”

Nadia during training for the Antares mission. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

Along with Defying Gravity, the actress recently appeared with David James Elliott and James Cromwell in the Sci-Fi miniseries Impact. She has also worked on a variety of made-for-TV movies and German TV series, among the latter is the aforementioned GSG 9. “In that show I did pretty much what Nadia does in Defying Gravity as far as looking at a screen and giving advice,” explains Lahme.

“My character [Petra Helmholtz] was the brains on this particular show, and oh, God, the technobabble and all the monologues. I remember one day I had three pages of monologue and we didn’t have time to rehearse. So I just did it and it worked. I’m a very lucky girl in that I have a photographic memory, so if I have to do tech-talk, and even if I don’t understand it, it doesn’t matter. I can just picture the words in my mind and say them. That’s a great gift for an actor.”

Feature film-wise, Lahme starred in one of the most successful German movies ever, the romantic comedy Keinohrhasen (Rabbit With Ears). Other big screen credits include Fire, Maximum and the horror thriller Metamorphosis starring Christopher Lambert (Highlander). “I loved Highlander and I fell in love with Duncan MacLeod [Christopher Lambert],” says Lahme. “When I was cast in Metamorphosis I thought, ‘Oh, boy, I get to work with Christopher Lambert.’ He is so cute and down-to-Earth. I really haven’t had bad luck in my career so far. I always end up working with great people, thank goodness.”

Like all actors, whatever the part, Lahme wants her character to come across as believable. If she can achieve that, then it is a good day’s work for her. “When I watch myself onscreen, if I can feel it [the moment], if I get goosebumps, then I find that truly satisfying,” says the actress. “What I also enjoy about this job is that you can be anyone you ever wanted to, but cannot be in real life. That’s why I enjoyed modeling. I don’t want to wear fancy dresses all the time, but just for one day to take some nice pictures. Otherwise, I like to be comfortable. What I’m wearing right now, it’s casual, and that’s me. So being any character you want in front of the camera and playing her convincingly are the biggest [acting] rewards for me.”

Steve Eramo

Defying Gravity is produced by Fox Television Studios and OmniFilm Productions, in association with the BBC, Canada’s CTV and Germany’s ProSieben. As noted above, photos by Sergei Bachlakov or Kharen Hill and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

James Van Der Beek And David James Elliott Talk About The NBC Miniseries Event The Storm

MAYBE it’s Global Warming, natural climate change or, perhaps, Mother Nature just having an off-day (or more), but there is no denying that weather across the planet has turned more violent as well as unpredictable over the past few years. In the upcoming NBC miniseries event The Storm (airing Sunday July 26th and August 2nd @ 9 p.m. – 11 p.m EST) art imitates real life and it’s man versus nature as a single human being manipulates the elements and causes death and destruction to rain down on Earth (no pun intended).

Scientist Kirk Hafner (James Van Der Beek) attempts to stop billionaire Robert Terrell (Treat Williams) from destroying the Earth with his “weather creation” technology. Terrell’s determination to manipulate the weather causes catastrophic weather conditions – a combination of hurricanes, sandstorms and drastic temperature changes that cause panic and hysteria across the globe. With government cohort, U.S. Army General Braxton (David James Elliott), the billionaire envisions the technology as a key military weapon to ensure super power status. Hafner enlists the help of news reporter Danni Nelson (Teri Polo) to help him expose Terrell’s quest. Complications arise when seemingly trustworthy authority figures aren’t who they initially appeared to be. This exhilarating action thriller follows Hafner on his journey to save the human population from extinction. The miniseries also stars David James Elliott, John Larroquette, Luke Perry and Marisol Nichols. Earlier this week, James Van Der Beek and David James Elliott very kindly took some time out of their day to speak with myself as well as other journalists about their work on The Storm as well as various other topics. An edited version of  our conversation follows.

James Van Der Beek as scientist Kirk Hafner in The Storm. Photo by Peter Hopper Stone and copyright of NBC

Can you tell us a bit about your characters in The Storm and any specific acting challanges you found with these roles?

DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT - I play the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I’m awfully young for the role, but we decided that my character was a brilliant military mind who rose up through the ranks at lightening speed. And as the miniseries kind of supports, he may have gotten there just a little too soon. As far as challenges, every role is challenging and you have to bring nuances as well as levels to your character and keep it truthful and interesting. General Braxton is a military man and I’ve certainly played one of those before, but there were definite differences. Ultimately, he has to struggle with his morality.

JAMES VAN DER BEEK - I play a scientist who is working for Treat Williams’ character. Kirk Hafner is someone with a huge imagination, very creative, very brilliant, and all of a sudden he has all the tools at his disposal to push the limits of science as far as his mind will allow. My character is then kind of betrayed by the guy he’s working for, and from there on he has no idea who he can trust. He has no idea who’s after him, but is now charged with putting a stop to this thing that he’s helped create. And I’d say the biggest challenge for me was keeping warm at 4 a.m. underneath rain towers. That pretty much trumped any other acting challenge.

What were the visual/special effects like in the miniseries? Was there more green screen versus practical or vice versa?

DJE - I didn’t really face any of the effects challenges, so James will have to answer that one.

JVDB - Let me tell you, the rain was real. There was no green screen rain in this thing. In fact, we didn’t have to do much green screen work at all. A lot of it was practical and right there in front of us – everything from the lightning flashes to the wind and even explosions. If they were in-frame with me, then they were there and happening on the day. So it was a pretty real environment, and therefore I didn’t have to use too much imagination for a great deal of it.

What attracted you both to the story?

DJE - The script looked like it would be a lot of fun and it was certainly an interesting topic. Also, the director is a very old and dear friend of mine; he directed maybe 50 episodes of JAG [which Elliott starred in], so any opportunity to work with Bradford May I knew would not only be fun, but it [the work] would remain interesting and the film would look fantastic. That’s why I wanted to be a part of this.

JVDB - I was fascinated by the idea of a scientist who is kind of in love with the exploration and follows his knowledge as far as he can. Then, however, he creates something that somebody else can use for all kinds of other nefarious purposes. My character created this technology with the best of intentions, and then somebody else took it and using it for their own power. So it puts my character in a difficult situation. He’s trying to the right thing, but the right thing isn’t entirely clear. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely – that was one of the themes in this story and that definitely attracted me to it and made it interesting. And it sounded like a great deal of fun, too.

David James Elliott as General Braxton in The Storm. Photo by Peter Hopper Stone and copyright of NBC

You guys both grew up in very different weather situations. If someone had said to you, “OK, you could harmlessly change the weather,” would you have wanted to? David, when you were growing up in Canada would you have changed the weather if you had some way to do it?

DJE - Oh, I’d have changed it in a minute. I hated the cold, so when the opportunity arose to come here [California] I jumped in my car and left immediately, and I haven’t looked back. I’m not a fan of inclement weather. I like snow if I’m skiing, but I don’t enjoy slogging around in it. I dislike rain as well, so that’s why Southern California is a great place for me because I like the heat. I also don’t like hurricanes or earthquakes, but who does?

JVDB - There are three things I do not miss about living in Connecticut – January, February and March. I would certainly do away with that kind of post-winter, pre-spring, cold, dry wasteland.

James, what was it like working with Luke Perry, and did you have a chance to talk with him about being in the same situation as him, albeit a decade apart, and working on a really popular teen show. (Perry worked on Beverly Hills 90210, while Van Der Beek was on Dawson’s Creek).

JVDB - Luke was, I think, a little bit further beyond it, so it wasn’t as present for him, but it’s always interesting to talk with someone who has been through something as unique as that. It’s something you could only really know from the inside, and there’s kind of a mutual understanding that comes from that. Luke is a great guy. He’s got a wonderful perspective on it and I really did enjoy talking with him in-between set-ups.

James, you’re the hero in this story but your character spends a lot of time in front of a keyboard. Is there a new kind of “geek hero” emerging here?

JVDB - Possibly. You know, more and more these days you start relying on people who are good in front of the keyboard. So I mean, that was kind of the idea behind this guy, too. I’ve played characters who were athletic and strong, the kind of typical action hero, but what I liked about Kirk is that he’s not your typical action hero. He’s not particularly suited to being on the run, being shot at or chased, but through his own internal fortitude he somehow scrambles his way though it. That to me is more of an exciting journey as opposed to, for example, watching Rambo.

Former Dawson's Creek star Van Der Beek and Beverly Hills 90210's Luke Perry (as Stilman) team up for the first time in The Storm. Photo by Peter Hopper Stone and copyright of NBC

James, would it be fair to say that you’ve taken a break from lead roles since Dawson’s Creek, and is The Storm sort of a reemergence for you?

JVDB - Yes. I mean, I was pretty burnt out after six years on a TV series, and I don’t know that I was really ready to jump back in. I will say that one thing that’s happened in the past year-and-a-half is that I’ve really started to rediscover my passion for acting and being part of a story in a leading role capacity. So I’m really having a good time right now.

What was your most memorable moment from filming The Storm?

JVDB - We were shooting in Van Nuys around four in the morning and it was very, very cold. We were underneath these rain towers, the entire crew, the camera crew, everyone was standing in the ‘rain’ at this point. I was hiding behind a dumpster and there was a big Rottweiler that was supposed to come up against the fence and snarl and scare the heck out of my character. I was attacked by a dog when I was very little, so I have a natural fear of dogs anyway. So this huge Rottweiler, which probably weighed about twice my weight, was being held back by a chain and ready to come up and pounce against this chain-link fence. By four in the morning, though, when they let the dog go he just kind of ran up to the fence and was not angry at all. He more or less sat there panting. In order to save the shot I knew I had to rile him up, so I turned around and actually started barking at the dog and snarling and baring my own teeth. Only then did he start barking – so in the dailies I probably look pretty ridiculous on my hands and knees in the pouring rain and barking at a Rottweiler.

DJE - I was just excited to work with Treat Williams, so my first day was probably my most memorable, working with someone who I’d been a big fan of for many years. Other than that it was business as usual.

What did you like most about working with The Storm’s director, Bradford May?

JVDB - His passion and energy. As David can tell you because he worked with him more than I have, Brad comes in every day with a huge zest for life and loves being on film sets. He started [in the business] when he was 14 and has pretty much done every job there is to do on a film set. Brad’s parents were in the industry. He’s one of those guys who really knows everybody’s job on-set, and was incredibly gracious about allowing them to do it, and then, always in a respectful way, kind of educating them on how they could do it a little bit better. Bradford is one of those pros who you get an opportunity to work with in this business and one of those lifers who reminds you that this is really fun stuff that we got to do. It’s a job, it’s a business, but when you’re on-set we’re all telling a story and making a movie, so that’s what I loved about him.

DJE - Because Brad knows everybody’s job, you move quickly and don’t waste time. As James said, he’s incredibly passionate and is a gas to be around. So not only is the work done efficiently and extremely well, but the process is a lot of fun, too. I remember the first time I met Brad. He walked onto a set that I had been working on for six or seven years and nothing fazed him. Talk about a character. The first take, he was like, “Cut! Print!” We all looked at him and thought, “Oh, my God, who is this guy? He’s not going to last.” And within two or three days we fell in love with him. Brad is just that type of person, you know? He’s a great filmmaker and probably the most underrated filmmaker in Hollywood.

General Braxton has very specific plans when it comes to exploiting the "weather creation" technology in The Storm. Photo by Peter Hopper Stone and copyright of NBC

David, doing a project ike this, does it make you think about getting back into series TV?

DJE - You know, I’m thinking about it. We’re developing some shows at the moment with various partnerships, so we’ll see what happens. What I miss about series TV is working on the craft every day, you know? Series TV has changed a lot since I left. It’s a different game now and the rules have changed. Reality TV has changed everything. Certainly there is less opportunity for scripted TV, and less money to be made because advertising has changed. TiVo has changed that. The networks may have to change how they do business, and that seems to be happening. So there is less money and less opportunity, but it’s less stifling an environment to be creative in, which is great. Standards and practices don’t have a grip on cable TV like they’ve had on network TV, not that that’s good or bad, but it’s just different. I’m just happy to work, believe me. I’ve been doing a lot of films lately and I just dig working.

James, you mentioned before that by the time you got to the end of your run in Dawson’s Creek, you were pretty burned out. Is there any advice that you might be able to give to, say, young actors who are in a hot TV show now, that might help them avoid that (burnout), or is that just the nature of the beast?

 JVDB  – Wow, that’s kind of a complicated question. I think the only way to avoid burnout is to gain a level of appreciation for the work, and I don’t know that you can really get that without stepping away from it for a little while. The hours are so intense and the opportunities come so fast and furious that it’s almost impossible to be able to appreciate it all to the level that you should. I mean, I was doing movies during the hiatuses as well as press, photo shoots and all that kind of stuff, and Dawson’s Creek was a six-year run. Is there anything I could have done to avoid it [burnout]? I don’t know. Now that I’m older and can kind of have a little bit of a different perspective on it, I’d like to think now that I can probably handle it and not be burned out for so long.

Also, it started for me when I was 20. And I wasn’t in a place of really being able to handle everything that was thrown at me. I came out OK, but what I would say for anybody going through it, is just focus on the work and keep good people around you. And don’t believe the hype either way, good or bad. Just really keep it all about the work and make sure that the people you’re surrounding yourself with are high-quality individuals, and you should be OK. It’s tricky, though. Any time opportunities come up, especially when money comes into the picture, it acts as kind of an indiscriminate magnet. It attracts all kinds of people; some of them with good intentions, some of them not. So it really is tricky. Not impossible, but tricky.

I was just saying to someone the other day that the one thing that I kind of came out of my experience with is a real compassion for anybody else who goes through the same thing. It’s very easy to stand on the outside and judge and look at people making bad decisions and say, what the hell were you thinking? Having gone through it and been in the eye of that storm, I think I would try to judge a lot less than your average person looking at somebody going through that type of ”train wreck.”

As noted above, all photos by Peter Hopper Stone and copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!

 

Pascal Verschooris & Philip Spink – A Knight’s Tale

David James Elliott as John Serragoth in Knights of Bloodsteel. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

When it comes to directing, Philip Spink likes to be hands-on. On this particular Tuesday in August (2008), he is on-location with the cast and crew of the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Knights of Bloodsteel. They are at a working quarry in Abbotsford, British Columbia, a small area of which has been transformed into a mining village thanks to several imaginative and talented individuals. This set is where some of the action sequences for the film are being shot, including an adrenaline-rushing sword-fight. At the moment, Spink is on-set discussing specifics of the fight with various actors and stunt people.

“With this scene I knew it needed some immediate jeopardy,” says the director, sitting back down behind the camera. “One of the bad guys breaches the wall and attacks our heroine, Perfidia [Natassia Malthe]. Meanwhile,Klegg [Ian A. Wallace] is trying to get away and all this other action is happening around them. I’ll work with the fight choreographer, who then works with the actors and the swordsman, and together we make it a good scene.

“So it’s very much a collaborative process. With some of the [action] stuff I’m really specific, and other times I’ll say, ‘Just go for it and let’s get some basic hacks and slashes.’ Fight swordsmanship is somewhat different from basic action like explosions or a car going over a hill because there are certain techniques using knives and swords that take years and years to learn. With this movie we’re fortunate to have Dan Rizzuto as our stunt coordinator because he’s extremely experienced at both – he’s a great fight/stunt coordinator. We also have Dave Barkes as special effects [SPFX] coordinator. He and Dan get along very well and together they give us what we need.”

Perfidia (Natassia Malthe) takes on the bad guys. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

Knights of Bloodsteel brings together a diverse foursome – vigilante John Serragoth (David James Elliott), con man Adric Thane (Christopher Jacot), the warrior elf Perfidia (Natassia Malthe) and a goblin, Ber-Lak (Dru Viergever). They accept a quest by the sorcerer elf Tesselink (Christopher Lloyd) to find the last of the bloodsteel, a magical ore that can save their mytical land of Mirabilis from being dominated by the evil Dragon Eye (Mark Gibbon). Also helping tell this tale is producer Pascal Verschooris. Having worked on other Sci-Fi and/or Fantasy projects such as Flash Gordon and Dead Like Me as well as HBO’s Masters of Horror, he knew what basic elements were needed to get Knights of Bloodsteel off the ground.

“The biggest challenge was creating a new world,” notes Verschooris, who is on-location today as well. “What is Mirabilis? What does it look like? What brings our heroes together and what is their quest? What does Dragon Eye look like? When you read the script, is he The Devil in a way that you’ve always imagined him to be, or do want to take a chance and take the character in another direction? Along with the evil, is there also a human aspect to him?

“Looking at all the Sci-Fi projects on TV, we wanted to make sure that if someone is flipping channels and they find Knights of Bloodsteel, that it’s obvious to them that they’re watching something really different. Every frame of this miniseries will remind you that you’re not exactly on Earth, but somewhere else. That’s been a tough hill to climb, but I think we’re doing quite well in creating this world. We’ve found some locations in Vancouver that haven’t been used before, or if they have, very rarely. We’ve also build some amazing sets from scratch, including a medieval town. So we’re using all our assets, resources and experience and I think this is turning out to be a neat project.”

Christopher Lloyd as Tesselink. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

Earlier today, director Spink shot a complex scene involving a number of VFX (visual effects) that will be added in during post-production. “It was a scene where the evil goblins unleash a flying machine that shoots missiles at our mining commune,” he explains. “So what we had to do is shoot all the background plates so that later on our VFX department can put in the flying machine, or what they’re calling the war machine. Because there is a little interaction between what people are seeing and the actual machine that is going to be added in, we had to make sure we filmed the sequences at the correct angles in the amount of time that we had. Luckily, we had a storyboard all laid out for this,” says Spink, pointing out a large board with various drawings on it, “so we pretty much knew what was going to happen in those scenes.

“Because we wanted to get an early start on the VFX, we did what is probably one of the more compelling and visually challenging sequences on our first day of filming, and that was a big dragon attack. It was kind of a scary thing to do right out of the gate, but it was a smart thing, too, because everyone was fresh and ready to work. It also alotted us extra time to plan out the scene, so in the long run I think we ended up with a better product.”

Adds Verschooris, “The cliffs where we shot that scene are on the same road leading to the 2010 Olympic site [Whistler], so we had to take that into consideration because the highway is being slowed down right now by all the big construction. Today, we’re in a quarry and surrounded by trucks doing work, so we’re trying to shoot in-between so we won’t have too much [dialogue] looping by the time we wrap. However, the end result is that we have this feature-film like place that we’re filming in.

Perfidia (Natassia Malthe) and John Serragoth (David James Elliott) - comrades in arms. Photo by James Dittiger and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

“There was another part of our script that takes place in marshland, and for that we went to an area in Squamish. It’s somewhere that most people would probably avoid because you arrive in the morning and the tide is at 13 feet or so, which means you’re on the edge of the water. As you film, the tide goes low and you’re in the mud, which is where we wanted to be. You then have three hours to shoot before the tide comes back in and you’re forced to finish. You have to be very organized with your continuity because it’s something that you have to do over two or three days. As a result, though, when you watch the dailies you have this tall beautiful grass wafting in the breeze and colors that you don’t often see on the screen,” enthuses the producer.

Prosthetics/SPFX make-up artist guru Todd Masters and his company, MastersFX, were involved in sculpting the looks for some of Mirabilis’ more unusual creatures, and the miniseries’ Powers That Be have been suitably impressed by their efforts. “Working with Todd is very cool,” says Verschooris. “He’s extremely communicative and creative. We’ve had many meetings with Todd and he always brings all his experience with him. You’ll talk with him about how you see a character, Ber-Lak, for example, or another one of our goblins or elves, and he gets it really quickly. It’s one thing to create a prosthetic of a character, but it also then has to match the personality of the person playing the part. Thanks to Todd, it was actually quite easy to realize the characters that we wanted. We’re fortunate to have him on a project of this size.”

Perfidia (Natassia Malthe) and Tesselink (Christopher Lloyd) confer. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright by The Sci Fi Channel

Listening to Verschooris and Spink, it is easy to understand why they are excited to be involved in bringing Knights of Bloodsteel to the small screen. “I was just saying recently that I’m not sure if I would know how to do a cop show because I’ve done so much Sci-Fi,” says Verschooris. “However, the more you do in this genre, the more risks you take because it has to be different from the last time. It’s hard to invent things nowadays because so much has been done, but I think we’ve done some things here that people might not have necessarily seen before on TV. So it should be fascinating for the eye.”

Adds Spink, “I was a commercial illustrator for 15 years before becoming a director, and I got into this industry doing storyboards. When I did TV commercials I was hired for the heavily art-directed ones. I have a very active imagination and with something like that you can do some major [creative] ‘damage,’ all in a good way, of course,” chuckles the director.

Steve Eramo

As stated above, all photos courtesy of and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!

Dru Viergever – It’s Goblin’ Time

Dru Viergever was at work very, very early this morning, and by looking at him it is easy to tell why. It takes quite a bit of behind-the-scenes magic to transform him into Ber-Lak, the gruesome-looking yet good-natured goblin in the latest Sci Fi Channel movie event Knights of Bloodsteel.

“I go into make-up around 5 or 5:30 in the morning and sit through a two-and-a-half hour procedure,” says the actor. “There are a lot of chemicals involved and that I’m not aware of, but I trust the team. They’re amazing. Using plenty of glue they apply a couple of layers of prosthetics and paint, and then finish the process with the intricate elements, such as veins as well as the eyes and ears. Again, the [make-up] artists, who are from the award-winning MastersFX company, are top-notch, incredibly creative and make a fantastic team. Every morning I look in the mirror when they’re done with me and I still scare myself,” jokes Viergever.

“Initially, it was difficult enunciating through the teeth and utilizing the eyebrows, but the prosthetics are actually quite liberating because there’s so much room for facial intricacies. As I mentioned, there was a bit of a learning curve and it took me a while to grow into it, but now, six weeks into filming, it’s pretty much become second nature, not to mention great fun.”

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and raised in Burlington, Viergever became enamored of acting as well as music at an early age. During his high school years, the actor performed in such theatrical productions as Oklahoma and My Fair Lady at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. While earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in Cinema Studios and Music, he appeared in several national TV adverts, and later spent three seasons playing Stew Kubiak in the NBC series Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. An accomplished musician as well, Viergever was on the road with his band when he received a callback after his first audition for Knights of Bloodsteel.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the callback, so I just assumed I was out of the running,” recalls the actor. “However, two weeks later I got another call telling me the job was mine and I was off and running. Talk about a thrilling moment.

“Before I knew it, I was on the set with Natassia Malthe, David James Elliott and Christopher Lloyd [who plays the sorcerer Tesselink]. I’m a fan of movies and TV in general, so it was very cool to be whisked onto this amazingly expensive set. It’s just a mind-blowing project for me. I was immediately impressed by the scope and scale of it, and there was also the sheer excitement of realizing what an awesome role this is.”

In Knights of Bloodsteel, Ber-Lak becomes part of a magical quest to help two humans, John Serragoth (Elliott) and Adric Thane (Christopher Jacot), along with a warrior elf, Perfidia (Malthe), save the island of Mirabilis from becoming the playing of the evil Dragon Eye (Mark Gibbon). According to Viergever, his character has more layers to it than is first apparent, but assures viewers that there is nothing sinister behind the goblin’s motives.

“Ber-Lak is an enigmatic figure and the journey’s guardian, if you will,” he explains. “There are some very somber undertones to the character, but overall he’s pretty hopeful. We initially play Ber-Lak as being a little bit naive, but there’s some wisdom behind his eyes. He’s not too sure what to think about these elves and humans. Goblins are a funny bunch and rather antisocial when it comes to the rest of the inhabitants of this fantasy world. They’re watchful and very knowing, but hesitant to become involved in other peoples’ business. In this case, though, we’re all in this together. That’s what it’s all about, and interrelationship-wise, we learn a great deal about one another and what it takes to coexist. So while Ber-Lak starts out keeping his new-found friends at arm’s length, he eventually comes to care about them.”

Even behind all his make-up, you can see the actor’s eyes light up when talking about a favorite scene in Knights of Bloodsteel. “My character is going to be known as a curve ball pitcher, in that once in a while he’ll surprise you and keep you on your toes,” says Viergever. “There was a transitional point in the script that read, ‘Ber-Lak’s eyes flutter,’ and I don’t know quite how it happened, but I just opened up when we did this shot. I didn’t think I’d get to do something like this as Ber-Lak, but I got to flex emotional muscles that I didn’t know were there. It was such an amazing discovery and when you watch the final product you’ll know what scene I’m talking about. I’m hoping everyone will dig it.”

Despite an early morning start and what looks like several hours of work still ahead of him, Viergever has no complaints. “This is playtime,” he enthuses. “Come on, this isn’t ‘work.’ We get to inhabit this magical world and everyone loves being here. It’s remarkable the things you get to do in this industry. You’re a kid in a candy store. Growing up, I was the kid reciting lines from movies, so this is a dream come true for me. Every day I can’t believe I’m here, and it just gets bigger, better and bolder. No day is like the one before it. This job is truly a privilege and an incredible ride that I hope keeps going for a long time to come.”

Steve Eramo

Ian A. Wallace – Helping Hand

When you are fighting the forces of evil it helps to have as many allies as possible on your side. In Knights of Bloodsteel, a wise man named Klegg risks his life to help our heroes on their quest to find the Crucible and what remains of a very special ore called bloodsteel. This mineral gives its owner magical powers, which is why the story’s chief antagonist, Dragon Eye, is desperate to have it. So it is up to Klegg and his friends to find the bloodsteel first. He is more than up to the challenge, as is the actor playing him, Ian A. Wallace.

“What I really like about this character and why I wanted to play him is that he actually leads our hero, John Serragoth [David James Elliott] and the others to the Crucible,” explains Wallace, taking a break in-between shots while filming on-location in British Columbia. “Klegg is able to translate the old words on this scroll that can help them on their mission. The elf Perfidia [Natassia Malthe], who is on our side, understands the language a little bit, but Klegg is able to properly read it.

“This bad goblin named Swope [Peter Bryant] has the scroll but is unable to translate it. He kidnaps one of my character’s colleagues because he thinks he can read the scroll, and when he cannot, Swope comes after me. John and his friends arrives at the mining compound where Klegg lives, and at first he doesn’t trust them. However, after they tell Klegg that they’re knights, he agrees to help them, so here I am.”

Like most actors, Wallace had to audition for his role in Knights of Bloodsteel, and it was a type of character that he was already familiar with. “It turns out that this is the third project I’ve worked on for Reunion Pictures,” says the actor. “They also did [the 2007 TV series] Flash Gordon, in which I played the Shaman of the Blue People [in the episode Secrets and Lies], and then I was also in [the miniseries] Tin Man, which was done by the Sci Fi Channel and Reunion Pictures as well.

“So I had been playing these types of roles in Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories, and when I go to auditions I usually dress up. For this project, I made myself a special pair of glasses and covered myself in dust like a miner. I pretty much looked like I do today and wound up getting the job, so I was very pleased.”

On his first day of work on Knights of Bloodsteel, the actor had to imagine himself being menaced by a fire-breathing dragon, naturally a computer-generated (CGI) one. Yet again, his prior experience, in particular working with a green screen, came in quite handy. “Years ago I did [the feature film] I, Robot with Will Smith, and because we were playing robots we had to do [green screen] scenes wearing these green costumes,” recalls Wallace. “They had to shoot each scene three times – one with us as robots in it, then without us, and finally with just a silver ball moving through it in order to get the lighting right for the [computer] animation. That was a real learning experience for me to work on a huge budget film with a big star like Will Smith.

“Not too long ago I played a Fire Creature in an episode of Sanctuary [Sanctuary for All: Part 1]. The program is about this woman [Dr. Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping] who runs a place called the Sanctuary where she has gathered together all these strange creatures, including a mermaid, a two-faced man and a fire creature, who I supplied the face for. When they shot that, I was standing in front of a green screen and the camera came in really tight on my face, which shows through the fire when Dr. Magnus opens the door of my room. I was supposed to express fear because of the presence of her new protege [Dr. Will Zimmerman, played by Robin Dunne] in the Sanctuary, but when I hear her voice I’m relieved.

“So I’ve played some interesting, unconventional parts, but last week I read for the role of a human being, which is really different for me. He’s an ex-military-guy-turned-activist. I know I did a good job in the audition and I’d love to play the character, especially as it was a real stretch for me to just say normal everyday dialogue instead of something Science Fiction and fantastical-like. To be honest, though, whatever I’m saying, I enjoy it [acting] very much.”

Although he had appeared onstage as well as done a little feature film work and TV commercials in Toronto, Wallace almost had to start from scratch when he came out to Vancouver to pursue further acting work. “I tried to get an agent but no one in town knew me,” he notes. “So Stuart Aiken, the casting director, suggested that I do some background work, which I did for three years. It was wonderful training just to be in shots and really see how it all works. From there I got a really good agent and have been acting ever since.

“The thing I especially like about playing Klegg in Knights of Bloodsteel is that he’s going for the light, you know? In Tin Man, my character was working for the Sorceress [Kathleen Robertson] and was a torturer, so it was all really dark. I think Klegg, however, is someone who’s more like me in real life,” he says with a smile.

Steve Eramo

Natassia Malthe – Elfin Charm

Natassia Malthe as Perfidia in Knights of Bloodsteel. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

Like many little girls around the world, Natassia Malthe used to dream of one day becoming a ballerina. The Norwegian-born beauty eventually went on to dance with the Norwegian Opera and the prestigious Norwegian State Ballet College. Then, however, her career plans took a very different course when she joined her friends in auditioning for a musical theater class. Much to her surprise, she was accepted, and two months later Malthe was studying musical theater in London. From there, she took the proverbial bull by the horns.

“I was visiting my mother in Vancouver for Christmas, and not long after I arrived in town I began meeting a lot of actors and was trying to figure out how to break into the business,” recalls the actress. “One night I was at a Christmas party and spent most of my time talking to this woman about the basics, such as putting together a resume and how to go about finding an agent. At the end of the night she told me that she was an agent and she signed me the next day. I then went on my first audition, which was with [director] David Nutter, and he said to me, ‘You’re in the right business. You should stick with it.’ David gave me my first job and that’s how I got started.

Millennium, First Wave and The Dead Zone are among Malthe’s TV guest-star credits. In addition to a number of made-for-TV movies, the actress has also appeared in such feature films as Disturbing Behavior, Lake Placid, BloodRayne II: Deliverance, The Other Side of the Tracks and opposite Jennifer Garner in Elektra. In the latter, she played Typhoid Mary, who could kill with a single touch of her hand or kiss on the lips.

“I loved Typhoid Mary,” enthuses Malthe. “I came up with an entire back story for her and I wish that the character has been further fleshed out [in the film] because there is so much more to her than we get to see onscreen. What struck me the most about Typhoid was her evilness, you know? I really had to focus on her dark side, which I did through music. I listen to certain musical groups in order to get to ‘that place’ with a character, and in this instance I listened to a lot of heavy metal,” she says with a smile.

On this particular sunny day in August (2008), the actress is on-location outside of Vancouver, British Columbia where she is shooting the Sci Fi Channel movie Knights of Bloodsteel. As a warrior elf named Perfidia, she is recruited to help the film’s hero, John Serragoth (David James Elliott), in his fight against Dragon Eye (Mark Gibbon), who is determined to rule the magical world of Mirabilis. Our heroes’ task is not an easy one, and along the way Perfidia must overcome her own personal demons as well.

“I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone, but my character does crash to rock bottom,” notes Malthe. “She goes from being a superhero warrior girl to rock bottom. That was a tough scene to do. Perfidia loses the guy and her powers, but in the process she discovers something else.

“The other big challenge with this character, at least initially, were the [prosthetic] teeth and practicing the dialogue as well as speaking in front of the camera with two big, clunky teeth in my mouth. Hopefully I’m not lisping in any of the scenes we’ve already filmed,” she jokes. “At first the teeth were longer at the back and had greater support, which allowed them to be smaller and more refined. But it was impossible for me to talk while wearing them. So now I have a brand new prosthetic that grasps my own teeth at the front. They’re a bit bigger than the first set, but much easier to work with.”

John Serragoth (David James Elliott) and Perfidia (Malthe) check out what lies ahead. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

Malthe’s experience as a dancer as well as her prior gymnastics training has been an advantage when it comes to the physicality of this role. “I’m familiar with ‘movie martial arts’ as well, and that along with my dancing background has been a big help, especially with the sword-fighting scenes,” says the actress. “It has a lot to do with coordination and muscle memory, so I don’t find the physical stunts all that difficult because I’m able to memorize the moves. We’re lucky, too, that we have a wonderful crew along with stunt people.

“There was a scene we shot at a waterfall that was extremely slippery and our director, Philip [Spink], was quite concerned about us falling into a big rush of water and being swept into the river. So they put chains, almost like dog leashes, on us to prevent that from happening. There’s also a scene where our characters are standing in mud while having a sword-fight with the bad guys. The mud was like quicksand and when we finished filming, the crew literally had to pull us out of the mud. It was quite funny. And then there was the tall grass. Our feet would constantly get caught up in it, and falling over wasn’t a good thing, especially because of the thorns.”

Despite the weighty nature of our heroes’ mission, there apparently has been time for levity on the Knights of Bloodsteel set. “Sometimes you just get the giggles,” admits Malthe. “The network is probably going to look at the dailies and say, ‘Oh, boy, Perfidia is laughing again.’ There have been moments where I’ve literally had to tell myself, ‘Please, don’t start giggling.’ Oh, my God, my first onscreen kiss with David, every time he leaned over to kiss me I began to giggle. It was very embarrassing, but David forgave me, thank goodness.

“I have the best cast mates,” adds the actress. “Everyone gets along and in-between takes there are so many funny jokes. We’re having an incredible time and our character arcs are developing very nicely. Every one of these characters has impressed and amazed me and I love seeing my fellow actors come up with truly imaginative choices with their performances.”

The ever-vigilant Perfidia (Malthe). Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

As with ballet dancing, there is a tremendous amount of discipline and hard work that goes along with honing your craft as an actor, and Malthe is not afraid of either. “You pay your dues and work really hard, and I think everyone has a chance to succeed in this business if they persevere and just keep going,” she says.

“I had tremendous audition stage-fright when I first started acting, and it took me years to conquer that. Once I’m on-set I’m fine, but I think the toughest nut to crack was the entire audition process and feeling like you’re going to have a heart attack before walking into the audition room. The biggest reward for me was working through that, and now I’m able to relax in the [audition] room and do the work. So there are lots of [acting] obstacles to overcome, but when you do that, you hopefully get more and more work and new opportunities.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, all photos are courtesy of and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!

Christopher Jacot – Doing The Hustle

Christopher Jacot as Adric Thane in Knights of Bloodsteel. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

The hot sun beats down on the arid pre-Industrial Age mining commune as its scruffy residents go about their daily routine. Suddenly, the general hustle and bustle breaks out into a frenzied scene as men, women and children run for their lives trying to dodge explosions and flying debris. A handsome young man named Adric Thane looks up into the sky as something moves menacingly towards him. Knocked to the ground, he lies motionless as his friends rush to his aid.

“Cut! That was great!” yells Knights of Bloodsteel director Philip Spink. Getting up off the ground, Christopher Jacot, who plays Adric, brushes himself off and walks over to a canopy. Picking up a water bottle and taking a sip, he sits down for a chat. “The scene we just shot is where our four knights arrive at these mines, and it’s the first altercation that they face in our story,” notes the actor. “After each of these life-and-death encounters, they become closer and closer and form more of a dynamic.

“I spent most of this morning running away from explosions along with everyone else, and then in this shot, my character is trying to get away from a flying weapon. It’s missed killing him twice, but he ends up on the ground and covered in debris. The knights rush to see if he’s OK, which is when we first acknowledge our characters being dependent in some way on one another. This lovely girl Bess [Paulette Hinz], who Adric met in the vllage, also comes to his aid. She rubs his head and uses her elfin charm to make him feel better after the evil attack,” he says with a smile.

With his boyish good looks and affable nature, Jacot is the perfect choice to play the roguish confidence trickster Adric in Knights of Bloodsteel. As one of four heroic leads, his character reluctantly agrees to help protect the island continent of Mirabilis from crumbling to the will of a despot known as Dragon Eye (Mark Gibbon). To prevent this, they must first locate the last remaining supply of bloodsteel, a unique ore with magical properties. In his audition,the actor drew inspiration from multiple sources to bring his character to life.

“I threw in a bit of a magician as well as con artist and Fagan from Oliver Twist and started to play around with that, ” says Jacot. “It’s really after you’re cast in a role that you’re afforded the time to be able to do that and turn the part into less of a character and more of a realistic individual. In this case, a strange but realistic individual,” jokes the actor.

Adric (Jacot) and one of his fellow comrades in arms, the warrior elf Perfidia (Natassia Malthe), assess their situation. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

“Adric is the con man of Mirabilis and holds court within The Keep, which is kind of the bustling New York City of this world. He subsequently gets thrown into this journey involving Mirabilis and finds it very hard to understand what his real purpose is. Throughout his whole [story] arc, Adric finds love, certain strengths and independence that I don’t think he knew he had. It makes him that little bit more whole and human.”

At that moment, an AD (assistant director) comes over to collect Jacot, who is needed back on-set to film a scene where his character delivers a rousing speech to persuade the villagers to help fend off an attack from Dragon Eye’s soldiers. “It’s around a three-page monologue, which isn’t a great deal insofar as memorization,” he later says, “but it’s more a question of how do you sing the song of a monologue and turn it into layers that tell a story. So that’s been tricky, but, honestly, with a project like this, believing in the moment is sometimes more challenging. By that I mean scenes with dragons and things like that. That takes much more [acting] discipline.”

Led by John Serragoth (David James Elliott), Jacot and his fellow do-gooders travel the land of Mirabilis to complete their mission. A number of British Columbia locales served as the backdrop to our heroes’ dangerous journey. “On our first day of work we shot on some cliffs up towards [the resort town of] Whistler, where several of the 2010 Winter Olympic events will be held,” recalls the actor. “We’ve been filming at some other really beautiful places including rivers, waterfalls, woods and even today’s almost desert-like setting.

Three of our heroes, John Serragoth (Elliott), Adric (Jacot) and Perfidia (Malthe) head into dangerous territory. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

“At one point, they built a man-made swamp and us knights walked in up to our necks and trekked through that all night long. When we first went into the water at one in the morning it was funny, but five hours later there was nothing very funny about it,” he chuckles. “Next week we’re shooting in The Keep of Mirabilis, the capital of this world and where humans, elves and goblins gather. I’ve seen some of the sets and they’re pretty cool. No matter where we’re at, though, we’re fortunate enough to be working with a great group of people, so that makes the job much easier and enjoyable.”

If you think you have seen Jacot’s face before, you most likely have. In addition to feature films and made-for-TV movies, the actor has guest-starred on such TV shows as Mutant X, Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, Psych and Smallville. He also plays the recurring role of Larry Haberman on the hit Sci Fi Channel series Eureka.

“Larry is the resident kiss-ass on the show,” says Jacot. “He’s basically trying to climb the ladder at Global Dynamics, which is the scientific facility that the town of Eureka is based around. My character is a scientist there, although I don’t know if he’s much of a genius, but he’d certainly like to be. Larry harbors a very jealous streak towards anyone who has any particular talents in that regard. So he usually ends up kind of screwing himself, but it’s his own fault because he doesn’t have any stoplights when it comes to trying to knock someone else down in the hopes of gaining some glory. And that, of course, makes him that much more fun for me to play.”

Steve Eramo

As stated above, any and all photos are courtesy of and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel, so no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any fashion, please. Thanks!

David James Elliott – A Hero’s Journey

Last August I had the pleasure of spending the day on-location at a working mine in Abbotsford, British Columbia with the cast and crew of Knights of Bloodsteel, a two-night movie event that will be broadcast this Sunday and Monday – April 19th & 20th - @ 9pm EST on the Sci Fi Channel. Over the next three days I will be posting cast and behind-the-scenes talent interviews from my time on the set. Enjoy!

David James Elliott as John Serragoth in Knights of Bloodsteel. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright The Sci Fi Channel

Fans of actor David James Elliott probably best remember him as the clean-cut United States Naval officer Commander Harmon “Harm” Rabb, Jr. in the CBS-TV adventure/legal drama series JAG. This Sunday, he makes his debut played a very different type of hero in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries Knights of Bloodsteel. As the sword-wielding John Serragoth, the actor sports long hair as well as a beard and speaks with a Scottish accent. It was brand-new territory for him and one he was happy to explore.

“I’d never done anything quite like this before,” says Elliott during a break in filming on-location in British Columbia. “I had just finished filming a miniseries [Impact!] in Victoria and was on vacation with my family in the Bahamas when I got a call about this project. They e-mailed me the script, I read it, thought it was well-written and they [the producers] offered me the role.

“Again, the fact that I had never really played a character like John was what made it interesting to me. My first day on-set was like most in that it feels as if you’re about to climb Mount Everest. Not only are you still digging through the script to find the nuances, but you’re also trying to find your character from inside yourself. That was certainly true with John because we took some chances with the character, including making him a Scotsman. We felt that that would help reinforce the fact that he’s different from everyone else around him and more of an Earth-type guy. He’s from the Moorlands, which is a wild territory on this world where our story takes place. So I was excited about the role and the chance to work with a new group of people.”

In Knights of Bloodsteel, John Serragoth is one of four unlikely freedom fighters recruited by the sorcerer elf Tesselink (Christopher Lloyd). Their mission is to stop the evil Dragon Eye (Mark Gibbon) and his minions from acquiring the remaining supply of bloodsteel, a sorcery grade ore that gives powerful magical abilities to those who possess it. Should they fail, the island continent of Mirabilis will fall under control of Dragon Eye. Accompanying John on his quest to find the legendary magical Crucible, which is the source of bloodsteel, are Adric Thane (Christopher Jacot), a charming con artist, the enigmatic goblin Ber-Lak (Dru Viergever), and a fearless warrior elf named Perfidia (Natassia Malthe).

“They’re a ragtag group,” explains Elliott. “Circumstances thrust them together and John has his own agenda as well as this quest for a Crucible that will help his agenda. The latter is how the Elders of our story sold my character on helping them, and, in turn, this will help John complete his ‘hit list’ for lack of a better term. So he’s a man with a list and he’s ticking names off. Let’s just say that he’s got some vengeance issues,” he says with a smile.

John Serragoth (Elliott) and Perfidia (Natassia Malthe) enter dangerous territory. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright The Sci Fi Channel

Off to one side of Elliott, Knights of Bloodsteel director Philip Spink is busy setting up his next shot. This project is the actor’s introduction to Spink and in the director he has found a kindred soul. “Philip’s enthusiasm is refreshing and he really gets into it, which is very inspirational,” notes Elliott. “Like me, he’s always digging and looking for the truth in every moment. Yes, we’re doing this because it looks very cool, but at the same time it has to be grounded in some sort of reality.

“Before we began shooting I had to get a hair weave, so I came in for a seven-hour process where they were tying hair and attaching the extensions to my own hair. Philip came and kept me company. He and I laughed and talked about the script as well as my character and we had a good time. We sat together until almost two in the morning, and we were starting work at six the following day. It was nice to have that time because you rarely get that; once a project like this gets going there’s really no stopping it and taking a pause.”

As with many of his previous roles, this one brought with it various acting challenges, including physical ones, for Elliott to face. “The climax of this piece, which we already shot, was extremely challenging just from an emotional point of view,” he recalls. “And it was late at night when we filmed it. We were working the night shift for a week straight, so that was tough. Again, you’re constantly digging deep inside yourself and embracing areas that you probably wouldn’t bother with in your normal day-to-day life.

“There’s also been some fighting for my character,” continues Elliott, “and I just missed having my eye taken out by a sword. It cut my eyebrow and I had a black eye for a while. People will often ask me, ‘Oh, man, do you enjoy doing the fights?’ Every time there’s a fight I know I’m going to get hurt, and we have a big fight tomorrow, so I can’t wait to see what happens then. I’m often cast in physical roles, probably because I have a high tolerance for pain. It’s either that or someone has it out for me,” jokes the actor.

John (Elliott) strikes a blow for justice! Photo by Carol Segal and copyright The Sci Fi Channel

“This is a large script and that makes the work quite challenging because there are numerous things to be considered and to have to hold in your mind. It’s important to always be in the moment, too. That’s tricky and a struggle every day. You’re trying to exist in this [make-believe] world and you’re forced to exist in the real world at the same time. Some days are better than others, but you endeavor to put your best foot forward.”

The second of three sons, Elliott was born in Toronto, Canada and admits that he fell into acting. “Music was my first love, but I just became frustrated because I tried to make a go of bands and you’re always having to rely on other people,” he says. “I went to Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto and then auditioned for and was accepted into The Stratford Shakespearean Festival Company where I spent a couple of years doing quite a bit of theater.”

While honing his craft onstage, the actor made his TV debut in an episode of the Scottish-Canadian historical drama series The Campbells. “I played a mentally-challenged young man who lived in the woods,” says Elliott. “I don’t remember much about the work, but it was a challenging role, especially from an emotional standpoint and trying to portray my character as truthfully as possible as well as with some dignity. It was a great first [TV] role to have.”

Elliott went on to win the Jean Chalmers Award for Most Promising Young Actor of the Season. Not long after, his performance as Dick, a dimwitted stripper in a stage production of B-Movie: The Play, caught the attention of those in charge of the Canadian TV series Street Legal. They cast the actor as Nick Del Gado, the handsome love interest for the show’s female lawyers. The program was a hit and made him a household name in his native Canada. Elliott eventually moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting work there. Along with guest-spots on numerous shows including China Beach, Doogie Howser, M.D. and Dark Justice, he has had recurring roles on Knots Landing, Melrose Place and The Guard as well as regular gigs on The Untouchables, Close to Home and the long-running JAG.

“It was a joy to have worked on a character for that long,” says the actor. “It was also a pleasure to work with all those people in a collaborative effort for an extended period of time. The show certainly opened a lot of doors for me, so it was a great 10 years spent.”

Perfidia (Malthe) and John (Elliott) set their sights on the enemy. Photo by Carol Segal and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel

All too soon Elliott is needed back on-set, but before leaving he adds to his previous response. “Overall, when it comes to this business, it’s rewarding to work with people who take it seriously and give it the respect it deserves. It’s also rewarding when people find entertainment value in what you do. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to do, entertain people, and if we affect someone then we’re doing our job.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, all photos are courtesy of and copyright of The Sci Fi Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any fashion. Thanks!