| Set Visit: Syfy Press Tour Q&A Plus Set Images - CAPRICA | ||||
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Set 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, Caprica follows two rival families - the Graystones and the Adamas - as they grow, compete, and thrive in the vibrant world of the peaceful 12 Colonies, living in a society close to our own. Entangled in the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons, the two houses go toe-to-toe, blending action with corporate conspiracy and sexual politics. Caprica will deliver, intrigue, political backbiting and family conflict in television's first science fiction family saga. The Graystones are owners of a large computer corporation that is spearheading the development of artificial intelligence. Daniel Graystone, a computer genius, and his unfaithful wife Amanda, who's a brilliant surgeon, are both relentless in their scientific pursuits. The Adama clan is helmed by Joseph Adama, a renowned civil liberties lawyer and father of future Battlestar commander William Adam. When tragedy strikes both families, lines are drawn that will determine the fate of the human race. Our day began with a guided walk through Daniel Graystone's lab (where the whereabouts of the robot were inquired about), Sister Clarice's bedroom (a cozy and communal space), the Adama home (including Billy Adama's bedroom, complete with ship model and toy Cylon-like robot) and the Graystone Manor (a recreation of the actual $12 million dollar house the pilot was shot in). We were then treated to a talk with Costume Designer, Glenne Campbell, who gave a thorough explanation of her approach to clothing the Graystones, the Adamas, the Pyramid teams of the Twelve Colonies and the other residents of this colourful, stylish and consumerist world, so very different from the refugee humans of Battlestar Galactica. Our final stop was the panel discussion with cast members Polly Walker, Alessandra Torresani, Magda Apanowicz, Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson, Sasha Roiz, and Eric Stoltz, once again moderated by Mark Stern, EVP, Original Programming, Syfy and Co-Head, Original Content, Universal Cable Productions. Many of the questions from the press here were directed to specific actors rather than general but no one was shy about jumping in with their take on things... Q: A question for Esai. What's harder for you to tackle: David Milch or Ron Moore? EM: Man, that's a really good question but a very easy one for me because I didn't have the benefit of working with David Milch but I can point to someone not very far from me who has actually worked with both gentlemen and could probably take that hand-off. PM: I would need hours to elaborate on that. They're very different in that... they're both insane. Dave is outwardly insane and Ron is inwardly insane. Dave wears all of the madness of it all and I did that show for a much longer time with David so we saw it all over the course of almost four years. We saw it ALL. EM: I will say that NYPD Blue was a well-oiled machine by the time I got there and [here] we're working it and we're running into very challenging, yet I think satisfying, barriers and obstacles and creative opportunities. Q: Yes or no?
EM: It's the growing pains of a show where people and characters we end up living with we have to kind of iron out what makes emotional sense to us and what works for the writers as well. Q: A question for Mr. Morales. You are the founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. How have your efforts in activism informed your performance as Joseph Adama? PM: You're Hispanic? (laughter) EM: I'm Tauron. Wow, I'm A founder, not THE founder. Jimmy Smits and Sonia Braga were also involved. The concept is to give people that are outside of the" inner realm", I guess you could call it the "nepotistic" aspect of the business where it's also who you know, give people outside of that who have talent, who have exceeded in their school, a chance to get connected, to find other like-minded people, to have a sense of community because I really think that our community, specifically, mirrors the Tauron community on this show in many aspects. I hate to be obvious about it but that's what I found. It's not been told to me by the writers but when you have a disenfranchised community, they form sometimes ways to get, y'know, to make up for it. I don't know how it informs upon... yet, I think, where the show is going, that question will apply a lot better as we get down the road. Q: A question for Sasha and Esai. The Tauron language that you two speak, what is that? Is it a real language or something that is just written for the show? EM: Are we allowed to say? Is it out there? Sasha? SR: It's Ancient Greek... obviously. Esai and I have been tutored in it for the last six months so we're quite fluent. It's Ancient Greek and we throw it in every now and again just to sort of give it a bit of an authenticity. EM: It ties in to the Rome thing too, in a sense. It kind of subliminally... works. Q: Can anyone speak to Caprica's approach to its gay characters? SR: Well, Sam's gay and he's married. He's very married and it's just a very interesting component to the character because you used to seeing the character as a very dark, violent individual and yet there's this other side to him, a family side. He's very much one of the more stable characters, ironically, and tries to keep the family together. So there's this whole concept of family, very solidified... EM: He's really the closet yenta. SR: But I think it's great because in Caprica, there isn't any sort of prejudice. There is no stigma attached to it so the way we introduce it is very subtle and very, y'know, normal. There's no issue. There is no issue for any of the characters so it's a wonderful thing to investigate because it's just a world that's free of that. MS: I think heightened by the fact that he's in a very very male-oriented, mafia-esque organization which would typically be extremely homophobic and, even then, it's completely accepted and the norm. EM: Also, in ancient Rome, ancient Greece, the Spartans, it was not even looked at the way it's looked at today. Q: Could you guys talk about the process of finding the characters as actual series characters as opposed to the initial development of the characters in the movie? PM: Yeah, on the pilot, certainly my character had quite a different... we had many different things going on for her. Amanda, initially, was having an affair with a character and the relationship with her husband was certainly more strained and the editors, in their wisdom, decided to take it out. So in some ways, I was coming from that, then what the thing becomes, and then starting to work on the show, having played what I played. What sort of basically happened in this time that we had, which was almost ... I think it over a year, we were able to sort of reconfigure these characters in our own imaginations versus what we'd actually done with them and the pilot informed it so much. It was really wise that they took out certain stories. It was an overload of information for certain characters and feeling that they had less roads to travel and ways to go. And [Eric Stolz and I] loved the idea of starting back off again with the idea that my relationship with Eric's character, Daniel Graystone... that they're very much together. They've been through hardship. They've lost their kid. But, as we start out this show, they've probably had these conversations. They've known each other twenty-odd years. And we just found that actually more exciting. I felt it was. The thing is it sort of finds itself. It's been quite organic, how we've found it all and I think the thing that you hope for in a series is that the writers write to you and this is quite an interesting bunch of people and, on further investigation, you start to see how these pieces of information come out. It's a great cast to write for, I think, and we hope they start writing for us. Kidding! They ARE writing for us!
PM: Unless they're paying really well... Then you do Law and Order for twenty years. Q: We've just taken this incredible tour of your set. Is there a sense when you walk into your environment, is there something that you take on that you don't have when you're rehearsing or when you're practicing your lines or when you first read your script? Something... a touch extra, like the Adama house versus the Graystone Manor? MA: I find it's really easy to fall into the world of Caprica when I come here because the sets are amazing and the writing's amazing and it's... I just know that when I pick up the script, if something's lacking, as soon as I get to work, I know it's going to be found. AT: It's a whole new character. It's a whole other character. It's a whole other element. I'm stuck in this lab. Let me tell you, it's my new best friend. And I wouldn't know how to play the robot without being in that lab. So it's a whole new character. You can't even explain it. It's like walking in, it's home. "This is my home," you know? I feel cozy. I want to bring my blankie and go to bed in there. PM: Alessandra said that [Caprica] was about two families in space... on a red carpet and I think it should be quoted from now until eternity. It's my favourite description of Caprica. EM: To answer your question, I don't know until I get on the set what's going to happen there because, hey, you have a general idea, the broad strokes emotionally, but I actually remember listening to a teacher once that spoke about letting the environment affect you. You behave differently in a little chapel than you would in a cavernous cathedral. You walk into your home differently than you walk into work or your parents' or your future parents' home. It's a whole other thing uniquely so it does affect that, I think. Q: Now, Eric, if the Holoband existed today, what would you do with it? ES: Every possible thing. Without hesitation. Q: Nothing specific though? ES: EVERYTHING. Whatever your sickest fantasy, you would see me there. (laughter) AT: My father. Q: Question for Alessandra. Caprica is your first series role. How has it been different than your other guest appearances on other shows? AT: Well, I play, like, four people. It's completely different. It's the first role I've actually done as a brunette. That's not a big deal to you guys but, trust me, it's a huge deal to me. It is, it's true. I'm used to being the silly blonde. I can get away with anything but I can't. It's completely different. I'm used to doing more comedies actually than drama so ... Q: What does joining the Battlestar insanity mean to you? EM: I was warned by a friend. I was warned. He said, "Dude, you can play anyone else you want again but you forever be known as Joseph Adama, father of General... I mean Admiral, sorry! PM: Burn! I've got Eddie on speed-dial.
ES: Yes... (laughter) AT: I actually think it has, for me, very little bearing on anything I do. We're "before" so we don't... In so many ways, if you're sort of beholden to something, the work would suffer. So we just have to do our show as best as we can and we're in an incredibly fortunate situation that we get to share what they have created. We get to walk into a beautiful environment for that and we have people who are lining up to watch it. The danger of that is that we'll fuck it up. Really, you know, that's the danger and we don't want to do that but we can't worry about it. EM: We can't be conscious of it. Q: Does Mr. Graystone develop daggetts as well? And why didn't they get onto BSG? People want to know that. ES: I haven't the foggiest idea. MS: You may want to hand that one over. ES: Uh, Dr. Graystone does not create "foodstuffs". (laughter) MS: Okay, what he meant to say ... (laughter) Q (cont'd): It was one of your competitors that made the daggetts? Because they were inferior, is that correct? MS: Well, let's just say that that's farther down the story. It's not a spoiler. I think that the trajectory of this story is really how you get to Cylons as creatures that have their own will and, eventually, at some point, whenever Ron and David tell us how many seasons they're going to let us do, the launching point of the war and I think this first season really takes a lot of time with "What is that?" "How did they develop that?" "What goes wrong?" and the struggle of Daniel to find it and how he ends up turning to, in essence, the darker parts of his nature to achieve it. ES: What do you mean by "dark"? Taurons? MS: I mean ... criminal elements. Taurons. ES: Oh, man. I'm still playing bad guys. MS: The Tauron side. Well, it is a struggle. That's what's really interesting about this kind of "Upstairs, Downstairs" dynamic between these two groups. You have this group that feels like they are the Chosen, the Capricans, the white Capricans, and yet there is that sense of self-righteousness that ultimately they have to come to grips with and they do, right off the bat, in terms of what is their daughter's involvement in this whole thing. I think that's where you see the Graystone arc in general. And I think that that's where what's interesting about the Polly Walker character is she kind of traverses both world in a completely different way. What we're starting to see, as these guys have said, trying to find that journey with these characters has been really interesting. I know, from afar, for the writers, in terms of where you think you're going to go turns out to be not exactly... the things that have been pitched at us, "Episode 8, we're going to do this and it's going to be a whole torture sequence on this other planet" and it's like, "No, actually that doesn't work" in terms of where the stories are taking us. And we actually took a break. We shot down for a few weeks, at the midpoint, so that we could regroup and say, "Okay, what have we learned from the first ten? Where do we want to go from here?" I mean, production really is, in general, laying tracks in front of a train. But I think what we found with this show is it's working on all those other levels and you don't want to jam these actors into roles you thought they had. You want to, basically, let the roles breathe with what they bring to it. So it's been a very Q: Can any of you talk about finding the chemistry, coming back to the series, after doing the movie with a gap in between? PW: I think it's always daunting after being off something and away from something. For me, anyway, it's always terrifying. You slowly sort of grow the skin back on. I mean, the first day you turn up, you feel utterly... Well, I felt utterly out of place, trying to remember who I was and what was my specific journey that I was starting. By now, I feel very comfortable and I'm not angst-ridden. I think it's the normal process of an actor. It's kind of a scary ride. And these characters are just newly born so you're growing onion skins. Q (cont'd): Are you still finding it? PW: Totally. MA: I found with the break... With the pilot, you kind of work with the people that you're working with and you bond with them the way your characters bond. And then, having a year, I've sat with that and thought about those characters and, in my head, they kind of grew a relations hip and then when I came to set, I just kind of found it easy to fall into that and let it come with time Q: How connected do you feel to Battlestar Galactica? And how inspired do you feel by Battlestar Galactica when you're working on Caprica? MA: I'm pretty inspired. I remember watching the last season of Battlestar this year, after we finished Caprica because I made sure to NOT watch Battlestar until we finished shooting Caprica. And then when we started filming again this year, I went and watched the whole series and I was just blown away. I just.. I... Yeah, I just have no words for it. I was amazed and I wanted to be part of it and I felt so lucky that I was part of this world and this writing and this imagination and all the passion that everyone had for Battlestar and I can tell that everyone has that same passion for Caprica and that means the world to me to work on a show like that. AT: I think I'm inspired by the female characters on Battlestar. They're so strong and they're so powerful and they kind of break the normal mold of a character on a drama, of a female character. It's kind of inspiring to see them and to see how all of us, females, have our own little, different niche going on and how we could use that ... especially with being crime-fighting machines in the future. ES: I think we're lucky that we have ... to be working with the creative team - Ron Moore and David Eick and those people have assembled a crew. Basically, we inherited this unbelievably vibrant, creative crew that came from Battlestar so they weeded out the wheat from the chaff and we really got lucky because it's ... you come to work and everyone does their job really well, from top to bottom, and that is RARE, that's very rare. It's a wonderful thing to be a part of. MS: I do want to give a shout out to Jane Espenson because I think that this show's personality is distinctly different and you only started to see it in the two-hour but you really do see it in the series, in the episodes, as well, when Jane gets her voice into this show and it really does take on a life of its own. As I said to Ron and David, there are no chopsticks and nets and drowning babies... I kind of miss the drowning baby every now and then... It's nice actually to have its own personality and Jane is very much a part of that and what she brings to that on top of what Ron and David and the writing team in general, which is really exquisite... I want to echo what Eric just said. I think you have a first-rate team, here and in Los Angeles.
PM: We have to take time with that because we're finding these families post-trauma. Their children have died. We don't want to sell those stories short. We wanna let them breathe so, in some ways, we're asking the viewers in the first ten to sort of stick with us. For my character, it was difficult. I worried a lot that... "Can we do this? Can we make people watch this woman in pain for so long?" But what we're doing is... our episodes are only a few days apart. It's not quite real time but it's very, very close to that so we have to be careful with that. I think that the back ten are going to be a little bit different than what we've established in these first ten in terms of we have to sort this out - the bombing, what comes from that, the fall out. We have to really make sure to do our due diligence with that and these last ten start to pick up momentum for all the characters in terms of their M.O.s and them being more proactive as characters... yeah... and Eric's directing the next one which is exciting for all of us. ES: I think we're still finding [the tone]. Y'know, the writing comes in and then it changes. Some alchemy happens when the actors bring a scene to life and then the editing and then the studio... everybody sort of puts a little coat of paint on it ... and then the music. You never know how it's going to come out. All you can do is sort of ... all you can do is your best and you'll see what it becomes. It usually takes a life on of its own and there's no way we can really plan it or plot it because something will happen and something comes to life or this character blooms and you want to follow that person... It's out of our hands. It's a beautiful thing. MS: I will say actually that it's not "Bombing of the Week", y'know, "Let's watch Al-Queda now". It is really about two families that are grieving in very, very different ways and that's very interesting to see. It's also interesting to see how that intersects in their lives and then you also have this whole other section of this world that both involves Polly Walker, Sister Clarice, and what she turns out to be and where she's going along with two hardly-shy, young women who have their own really particular spin and I think what's really interesting about where they've taken Zoe is ... um... this may be a little bit of a spoiler... but it's not... I dunno, we've talked about this already... ES: (clears throat meaningfully) MS: Okay, well, I'll get a phone call. I know I'm going to get a phone from Ron on SOMETHING. There was a creative decision that was made where you actually see Zoe standing in the lab... but you intercut with that and with Zoe as the real girl as she's witnessing it so you personalize what she's seeing and what she's going through through her eyes and her relationship with Lacy takes on a whole new life. It was a creative choice they made that was really smart and really brought that character to life so you're not reading a whole bunch of stuff into it. You're really seeing how Zoe feels and that whole relationship and what she's trying to do with her best friend. So there's a whole other section to this world that we have yet to explore that the next batch of episodes really do start to delve into. Q: A question for Polly. Your character is a very interesting character. What kind of approach are you taking coming into this character and what might we see develop with Sister Clarice? PW: I'm kind of just going with the flow. I mean, I find out things slowly over time like, I thought, at the beginning, I was just this religious teacher who had this terrorist activity going on and then I found out that I'm married to ten men and women so I had to take that on-board and then each episode ... something else. It's kind of exciting and a wonderful opportunity for me because I'm getting to play all kinds of things that I've only kind of imagined. I get to be really, really bad and really, really violent and, also, I believe myself to be some sort of a saviour. So I'm kind of unaware of all this badness so that's nice - playing someone who thinks they're really, really good and get to be really, really bad. Q: A question for Esai and Eric. The two of you had great careers on the big screen, in film. In this stage in your careers, what do you look for when you're coming to TV? What motivates you now? EM: Unemployment?
EM: Insurance? (laughter) Me? Something kind of like this. A show where you can apply your mind. Where it's not about your specific background but it's about culture. A show that's not stereotypical but it applies stereotypes and it shows how they work. Just something that will keep you from knocking your head on the wall and feeling like you've sold out, that all you're really doing is selling products for your sponsors. Selling ideas. Something that you can look back and say, "Wow, I was a part of something that meant something more to the people who follow it than the average fanbase" Help you think about what the point is. I can't think about much higher, nobler themes than why we're here and how we should treat each other. ES: Yes. (laughter) Yes, it's a very good, smart script. I wasn't looking to do a series at all and I was just taken in by the story and the complexity and the richness of the characters and the storytelling. It reminded me of ... there was a time in independent film in the 90s when they were actually dealing with "issues" and it seems connected to that somehow. I don't know... PW: (whispers) Tell them about the part when you knew I was going to play your wife. ES: And when they told me that Paula Malcomson was going to play my wife, I had to sign on. Q (from Mark Stern): Can I ask Eric a question? What's it like to direct now? You're starting prep on this episode with all these actors you've been working with for months. Is that daunting for you? ES: No, I'm really looking forward to it because I know they're all good and oftentimes when you go in to direct a show ... I've been lucky. I've directed some good shows but you never know what you're going to get. Y'know, you never know. As you know. So I'm confident and I'm very much looking forward to it because it's a good bunch of people. EM: I asked Eric, "So who are you going to fall on, like, directing scenes when you're in them? ES: Yeah, that'll be weird. EM: ... because I did Short Form and that's very difficult...He did what he does, with that look, and he goes, "You." I'm like, "Wow." And it just shows that we all have to rely on each other to be as completely about the work, and the elevation of the moment, as possible. I'm honoured that he said that and I can't wait to work together ES: The reality is that none of us are really here. I don't know if you got a tour of our dressing rooms... they're a little less impressive in the sense that none of us are here for reasons other than we really, really, really enjoy the material and the process of working together. Y'know, we love SyFy but none of us are getting three million dollars an episode. Sadly. For all of us to sign onto something like this... Again, it reminds me of independent film. The actors you got for independent films are actors that wanted to do the material because you weren't going to get famous or rich or necessarily advance your career. But I think we're all here for the same reasons. And with that, the cast of Caprica bid us a cheerful farewell and disappeared into the extensive sets of Vancouver Film Studios. Caprica debuts on January 22, 2010 on SyFy.
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The next stop on our SyFy Press Tour, which started with 
PM: On this? It's a shitstorm. In the best possible way.
EM: To me, we haven't found it yet. It's a fluid process and the sort of interchange between us, as actors within the scenes, and us with the writers and with the directors, we're still sort of finding our sea-legs. I can only equate it to a Dickens novel where each chapter, you get a little more information, you figure something out, and you try to make sense of a life rather than having all the answers because it feels like it's still occurring which I think is what makes the work exciting. I think once you feel it's dead and set in stone, it's time to look for the next job.
EM: You know what I mean! Sorry. I'm not supposed to know about him yet, hello, folks! The fact of the matter is that it makes you really care to get things right because these fans are really rabid and they're sticklers for a lot of details and they'll find them. Just bear with us, is all I'm saying.
interesting process for that and my experience being now on the studio side as the network side... When I was on the network side, it was easy. It was just like, "You're the studio, you spend all the money." Now, I'm on the studio side and I have to argue with myself and it's like, "Well, that's an expensive proposition." But it's worth it because I think what you see in this show is something that is really working and it's special and it's worth the time and, if it wasn't for the Olympics, there wouldn't even be a discussion. But, unfortunately, because of the Olympics, we've been really up against when we have to be out of production and, so, what would normally be a very easy decision in terms of "Let's take a hiatus and take a break and write more scripts" became a very difficult and expensive proposition but we did it anyway because it was worth it.
Q: The pilot was very dark... Does that keep on for a while or does it eventually lighten up so that we can see life on Caprica with new intrigues?
ES: Esai.
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