Brian J Smith talks Character Moments, Fan Interactions & His Need To Stay Busy During Hiatus

Written by Terry Humphreys – 02/04/2010

Around here, it’s well known that without Brian J Smith’s support of our reviews and the Hiatus Project that this site likely wouldn’t be around, so it only felt fitting to launch the site with an interview with him. Brian was really sick when we spoke so no audio with this one! After we’d caught up and discussed the ever elusive poster his mom is waiting for, we got down to some questions, hope you enjoy!

Terry: You spent a few weeks in the UK working on ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ and we get to see that over here in the next week or so.  What was that experience like for you living and working in the UK? Brian: It was amazing. I’d never been to Europe or the UK. It was a little bit like a paid vacation. I got to go all the museums I wanted to go to and saw some theater. I got to work with some fantastic British actors. I was doing so much. It was so unexpected. I got back from shooting season 1 of SGU and I was in New York for 5 days, my agent called and said hey you want to go to the UK and shoot this for 5 weeks? I was like sure okay let’s go and 2 days later I was on the plane. Terry: Well I’m looking forward to seeing it. Brian: Actually I saw a trailer of it the other day and it looks really really good. Terry: Is that the sort of thing you like to do? Do you like to keep busy during your breaks or do you prefer taking the down time? Brian: Yeah, I think you have to. I mean it’s one of the draw backs to having such a great job, it’s one of the things that makes it possible that you are working all the time on one character that’s really great, I love “Matthew Scott” but there is a lot of other stuff I have in me too. A lot of different kinds of characters. It’s necessary to get out there and to flex different kinds of muscles and try on different kinds of colors. That’s what I got to do in that show and I hope to do that more maybe in the next year or so make it into film or independent films – something to keep the rust of your gears. Terry: I’m a teacher and you spend the whole year looking forward to your summer off and you get about 3 weeks in and you are bored out of your mind trying to find something to do. Brian: Yeah, exactly. You have to, you have to. I mean 2 or 3 weeks is a great break, but after that you know, it’s get back to work. Terry: General consensus seems to be that the latter half of the season of SGU shifts gears into more action oriented than the first half. If you were to view the season in 2 halves as we the fans do, which would you prefer from an actor’s perspective? Brian: From the actor’s perspective? Terry: Yeah, which do you think stretches you the most, the action side of it or character work Brian: Well the character stuff from my standpoint is much more satisfying. I don’t mean this in the wrong way, but it’s not that hard to run down a hall with a gun, you know what I mean? What’s really hard , especially in a kind of fan culture like this, is to explore things that require you to be vulnerable, that require you to show sides of yourself that are a little bit ugly. Then to have people make fun of you online for doing that. I don’t think it’s just fan culture, it’s our culture in general that make us afraid of our feelings. Especially men showing our feelings that take a certain… not patting myself, or my fellow cast mates on the back but, a certain amount of bravery to do that especially with the way things are today. With the way people are so cynical and repressed in their own emotional life. But those are really interesting things, like in life, fatherhood and trying to help someone that doesn’t want to be helped, that means really interesting and moving ideas.  It’s really hard to think about ideas when you are just trying to survive which is what an action based episode is usually about. You try to survive the big baddy, you are trying to survive the villain, to survive the attack. There is no time for concept there; it’s just pure action, adventure, adrenalin. I understand that it’s incredibly popular and addictive to people but at the same time I think it’s very sad that we can’t appreciate the more emotional sides of storytelling. Terry: I’ve said it a lot to people over the hiatus that that sort of storytelling is instant gratification where as what we’ve got with SGU is more time released. We’ve spent 10 episodes establishing the people and learning why we care about them or who we care about and then when we are going to see that next 10 where they are going to be put in conflict, how that plays in. I think it will be ultimately more interesting. Brian: Yeah, time release. That’s a really great way of putting it actually. I hadn’t heard that before and that is totally what it is. You spend a lot of time building, building, building things up and it’s certainly now in the second half of the season it’s much more about letting that build up and letting who these people are now function. Kind of letting it run free and letting it get flipped upside down and get played with a little bit. Terry: You have some really interesting character moments with the others on the “Destiny”, especially with Young, Eli, Rush and Chloe, do you have a favorite scene so far? Either from what we have seen or from the ones we haven’t seen yet? Brian: There are a couple things coming up that are a little… I know exactly what you’re talking about with all those scenes, I love those too. There’s some great stuff coming up between Scott and TJ that I really really like, made a lot of sense to me. It’s a beautiful episode called “Faith” a lot of it’s about TJ and Scott is there going through it with her, and I really really love that episode. A lot of people, who have seen it, love it as well. Most of the cast have seen it and we all really like that episode. There’s a great moment with me and Greer that happens later in the season, that’s not really of the like degree, but it reveals a lot about Scott and Greer and their differences, kind of their basic differences of military ideology and just personality. It’s so hard to choose, kind of like picking a kid, what is your favorite kid. All these moments while they are kind of fun to me individually; I like what they all add up to. What they all add up to saying about the characters. It says a lot, it’s very complex and kind of ambiguous. I’m glad that you know, in a lot of shows you will go a whole season and not have one of those kinds of moments of connection with another person. I’m grateful that the writers have given us so many opportunities to do that here. Terry: Last question. You joined us for the Hiatus Project Chat in January and then you attended your first solo convention in the same month, how did you feel about these opportunities to speak directly to the fans? Brian: I think it’s great, I mean the Internet is a really great thing, but any time you can get live with people, whether it’s in a chat room or whether it’s a convention, I think that is the best way of dealing with people because you can really relate as a person and not as this kind of pre-written monologue which can usually end up being kind of nasty. I love it, I mean it was really great to get people’s… you know to feel energy that people have about the show and to be able to answer questions and to see so many people excited about it. To see that kind of support it’s great, it’s a nice little reminder for us that wow, we are definitely affecting people. There are people out there that love this kind of show and are interested in what we are doing. It’s a nice little shot in the arm, it feels good. And that’s all for now folks, but im sure we’ll get to sit down with Brian again soon and maybe even get him onto an episode of Two Geeks & A Mic: An SGU Podcast