Battlestar Galactica - Total SciFi: Aaron Douglas Interview

From Total SciFi:

http://www.dwscifi.com/interviews/1977-aaron-douglas-hail-to-the-chief

(Please follow the link for the complete interview.)

Posted on Wednesday 14 May 2008

Aaron Douglas: Hail to the Chief



Vancouver-born Aaron Douglas has played Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol since the first season of Battlestar Galactica, and the season three finale featured some dramatic revelations about the character. “Our last episode will be the most depressing show in the history of television,” he tells Bryan Cairns.


The season three finale was a jaw dropper. How did you discover the Chief was a Cylon and what was your initial reaction?

We shot that at the end of November/beginning of December. I actually saw a piece of paper that talked about that in maybe September, a paper I wasn’t supposed to see. The person whose house I was at quickly snatched it and said, “Don’t say anything!” I had a fit because I really didn’t like the idea of it. I thought they were taking a character fans really love and suddenly making them hate him and marginalise everything we’d done with him.

I had to keep my mouth shut so I would go months asking Ron [Moore] and David [Eick] if there was anything coming up with the Chief. Then I’d walk away going “Liars!” Finally, right before the read through, they took us in one by one and told us about it. I felt it was terrible, so I called Ron and spoke to him on the phone for an hour and a half. He explained his reasons for it and just asked us to trust him. By the end of the conversation, I had bought it and thought if you wanted to take a character that would humanise the Cylons, you couldn’t find anyone more humanising than the Chief. Seeing what we’ve done with it in season four really makes sense.

**snippage**



How would you sum up the Battlestar Galactica experience?

It has been a hell of a ride, that is for sure. It has been some of the most challenging work of my career, both professionally and personally. I have loved it, met some wonderful people, and made some long lasting friendships.

I am pretty proud of this show and the Chief. It is a great piece of television medium that will stand up for a long time and something we can fondly look on and share with fans for years and years to come...People will look back in 30 years from now and go, “Boy, that was really fun!”