I've been a fan of Stargate SG1 for as long as I can remember, and it still holds the number one spot on my list of all-time favourite science fiction series. Naturally, when I heard that one of it's stars, Chris Judge, would be at London Film and Comic Con, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to chat with the man who so outstandingly portrayed one of my favourite characters!
Starring in SG1 as Teal'c – a Jaffa warrior who defects to join the people of Earth, and fights to lead his people to freedom – Chris Judge is very much a part of the show's DNA and is deeply ingrained in Stargate mythos, having been on the show since it's inception in 1997 to it's finale in 2007.
It was an absolute honour and a privilege to finally meet him.
BJ: Hello, Chris Judge! How are you enjoying this weekend?
CJ: It’s been great. The people are just nice, the energy’s good and everybody’s happy, and meeting with the fans has just been great. This is one of my favourite conventions. I never cease to be surprised by how many Stargate fans there are!
BJ: Fantastic, glad to hear it!
Obviously you’re probably best known for your role as Teal’c in Stargate SG1, having been there since the show’s inception. What was it like working on such a popular franchise?
CJ: We were so kind of insulated when shooting in Vancouver, we just got on and did our job and no-one made a big deal out of it or anything, and so when we started travelling I guess that’s when it really hit us that the show was that popular. It’s still mind-boggling that we stopped shooting it 2007, and it’s almost like there are more fans of the show now than there were when we were shooting it! But yeah, it was great.
BJ: In some ways Stargate has gone down in SciFi history much like Star Trek - it may not have been as long lived, but its legend is one that’ll be remembered.
And whilst you were starring in SG1, you also wrote quite a few Teal’c-centric episodes that further developed his character...
CJ: Well I had to! [He laughs] It was hard for the writers, because if you wrote a Teal’c or Jaffa episode everyone had to speak in that way, and they always involved a lot of armour, so they were our most expensive episodes. It was really nice that Brad [Wright] actually let me start writing, because the only people that really enjoyed writing Jaffa episodes were [Damian] Kindler and [Peter] DeLuise. So yeah, it was really cool that Brad let me do that.
BJ: To what extent were you involved in the scriptwriting process for those episodes? Did you write the whole thing, or was it the storyline that was then developed by the writers?
CJ: I wrote the whole thing.
BJ: Ah magnificent!
CJ: And Brad even let me do that outside the box, because... Well, there’s a writers’ room, and they have a bunch of pitches that have been accepted and they spitball stories, and I really wanted to know if I could actually write so he just let me go away and write. So it really was a boost to my confidence.
BJ: One of my all time favourite episodes was The Changeling...
CJ: Ah thank you.
BJ: I loved how it deviated from the normal formula of the show, and toyed with the concept of reality - flitting between the two very different versions of reality.
CJ: I was always a big fan of alternate reality shows, where you can’t keep straight what reality we’re in or what version of Earth we’re in. But that’s why we stopped doing them because we didn’t know which Universe we were in any more! So it was nice to go back to that for an episode.
BJ: And I noticed you have a role in the upcoming Dark Knight Rises - can you reveal anything that?
CJ: It’s going to be great!
BJ: Well, no doubt about that!
CJ: There is some crazy stuff happening. I don’t want to go out on a limb, but it’s going to be the best movie ever!
BJ: What was it like working with Christopher Nolan?
CJ: He’s a genius. Everything everyone says about him is completely true. The dude is a genius. He sees what works, what doesn’t work, he can see where the camera should be... And he doesn’t micromanage you, he kind of tells you what the big picture is and it’s up to you to play it how you want to play it. He really doesn’t micromanage actors at all. It was just really cool to work that way and have that much freedom; a little disorientating at first - at least, for me - because he didn’t really say a lot direction wise, so I was kind of asking “is this alright?” and he’s like “no no no, if it’s not I’ll tell you!” It was just great to work that way.
BJ Fantastic! Well, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing it. Have you been working on any other projects recently?
CJ: Well, after this I have a film called To Have And To Hold which comes out in February, I go to Cambodia in a couple of days to start a new movie, and a TV series that’s just going into prep.
BJ: Fantastic, sounds like you’ve got a lot on at the moment! Is there anything you can reveal about this new show?
CJ: What I can say is that it’s a SciFi show, and it’s going to be announced soon - maybe in the next month or so. We’ve signed a deal with a certain company, and we’re in negotiations with another company - they’re doing some of the best stuff in film right now - and this will only be their second foray into television. I can’t wait to let it out of the bag; the fans are gonna get a kick out of it!
BJ: I wait with bated breath! Thank you for chatting with us, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
CJ: Thank you, you too.
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