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Interview with Lindsay Wagner, Guest on SyFy’s Warehouse 13

crivlare.nicole — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:40:37 +0000

An actor’s career can go up and down throughout the decades. Only a few are lucky enough to benefit from the support of a dedicated following that will buttress them throughout their years on the screen. The science-fiction community is notoriously loyal to their favorite subjects and have been known to clamor for a favored star’s return. Former Bionic Woman star Lindsay Wagner will treat her fans to an appearance of Syfy’s upcoming episode of its acclaimed hit Warehouse 13 (SyFy, Tuesdays 9/8 central) on the 17th of august.
Wagner, who won an Emmy award for her role in the successful spin-off of The Six-Million Dollar Man in 1977, is semi-retired from acting. She focuses her attention on her series of workshops and seminars entitled “Quiet the Mind and Open the Heart,” the subject of which she devoted much of our interview expounding upon. The former Rockford Files star and centerpiece of over forty films for television dedicates herself to teaching meditation and “energy” healing with techniques adapted from acupuncture and other alternative modalities of healing, or in her words “the least invasive” process of healing which deals with synchronizing the body with its supposed mental and spiritual elements.
Her return to television as a guest on this Tuesday’s episode of Warehouse 13 involves her playing an attending physician to the staff of government agents supervising a storehouse in South Dakota which safeguards the US Government’s catalog of supernatural items. Her character is trained as a “physical doctor” but uses techniques from the “energy medicine field” in this week’s episode with a tactic the writers adapted from Wagner’s own website.
Wagner, whose favorite project has been Shattered Dreams, a film about domestic violence developed in part as an enlightened response to The Burning Bed is not bothered in the slightest by her other work being eclipsed by her notoriety as the “bionic woman.”
“The response from kids who are now adults has been very nurturing to me.” She feels satisfied that adults were able to grasp the metaphors about the human condition in the 1970s television show. “They really got it.”
She discussed the evolution of special effects technology since her experience with blue screen, a primitive form of “green screen” technology which can mimic an off-camera location to place the actors in a film project, although she remarks “you have to dig much deeper as an actor” to respond to a not-yet realized set. Her son Dorian from her marriage with professional stuntman Henry Kingi has more experience with modern special effects.
She has spent most of her time working to improve the lives of abused children and women with her film and advocacy work, as well as accentuating positive messages in television, which today. “We get discouraged by severe negativity sent out to the youth through the medium of TV.” She finds more solace in her spiritual pursuits, which doesn’t involve the “inhuman hours” of television work, where it is “difficult to give your best when you’re exhausted.”
Although there have been no prolonged conversations, there has been discussion of a second appearance later in the series. Between the two appearances, Wagner can get all the rest and relaxation she needs while pursuing her own business and personal life. In the meantime, fans can catch her guest appearance on the SyFy network Tuesday the 17th of August at 9/8 central time.

Interview with Sendhil Ramamurthy of USA Network’s Covert Affairs

crivlare.nicole — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:15:24 +0000

Who’s to know what really really goes on inside the halls of an undisclosed location in Langley, Virginia. The inner workings of the CIA have long been the realm of rumor and speculation, the fuel for dramas of espionage fueled by the terror of the cold war and the uncertainty of today’s ordeal with international terrorism. The goings on of America’s international espionage apparatus is the speculative realm of film and television, notably the new series Covert Affairs (Tuesdays at 10/9 central on USA Network), which was picked up for a thirteen episode run and welcome’s it’s newest permanent cast member, Sendhil Ramamurthy of NBC’s Heroes fame. He was good enough to sit down and discuss this week’s upcoming episode, in which the plot thickens for Ramamurthy’s character and the rest of the Covert Affairs cast.
Ramamurthy plays Jai Wilcox, a second generation CIA operative with a reputation to overcome if he is to take his own career in hand. After all Henry Wilcox, the former Director of the National Clandestine Services played by veteran actor Peter Gallagher was his father. He is assigned to stay close to new field agent Anne Catherine (Piper Perabo) the series’ star to fulfill an undisclosed agenda. The tension comes to a dramatic high point in the upcoming episode, where Wilcox’s decision between what is required and what he thinks is right are put to the test with the added interaction of his Machiavellian father. “In the end, there are emotions that can complicate something you want to be efficient,” he says of the situation. Such is true in the world of espionage, where “nothing is as it seems.” The most difficult part of the role for Ramamurth of course, is not “tipping his hand” and revealing too much subtext.
Ramamurthy had a late start after he was drafted to replace co-star Eric Lively as an agency operative after Lively’s departure from the pilot episode. He did not benefit from the direct supervision of CIA agents who coached Perabo and the rest of the original cast on little-known intelligence procedure, for the sake of time. The fact that agents do not carry firearms on US soil is specifically important to Tuesday’s episode, where Ramamurthy as Wilcox utilizes the French acrobatic wall-jumping martial art “Parkour” in a particularly physical chase sequence. The physical element of the job is what he enjoys most about the role. “Parkour was the coolest. It was lots of fun.”
Although he has had some difficulty adjusting to his late start, the writing staff has been more than accommodating in helping him develop his character. He and the rest of the cast have developed a chemistry and “hang out in a non-work setting.” Ramamurthy is pleased, “when you work for seventeen hours with people, it helps to get along with them.” He considers Tuesday’s episode as Wilcox’s true debut, since the previous three episodes involved his character being fit in to replace Lively. He is looking forward to contributing more scenes in the field, hoping for an interesting fight scene. On the many challenging tasks required of federal agents, he has a request for the show’s writers, however. “Accents are okay, but the writers are free not to give me any languages.”
Ramamurthy’s character is “by the numbers,” and theoretical CIA royalty, which could prove problematic in next week’s episode in which his ethics and his career are put to the test. It’s all par for the course in clandestine affairs. Watch Ramamurthy on USA this tuesday at 10/9:00 central.

Interview with Eric Balfour of SyFy’s Haven

crivlare.nicole — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:02:39 +0000

Change is the drive of life, the constant theme of our art and literature, past and present. Actor Eric Balfour gets more than his share in this week’s episode of Haven (Fridays at 10:00 EST) on SyFy, when his character, the modern-day pirate of Haven, ME transforms into a hundred year old man in a matter of hours. The veteran of big and smal screen co-star of previous hit dramas Six Feet Under and the prime-time powerhouse 24 sat down with us to discuss his geriatrification in SyFy’s new hit supernatural detective series.
Haven is an original series based loosely on famous novelist Stephen King’s 2005 novel The Colorado Kid with his cooperation. It depicts an FBI agent’s (Emily Rose) tenure in a secluded Maine fishing village populated with residents cursed with extraordinary and dangerous supernatural abilities. Balfour plays Duke Crocker, a jack-of-all-trades smuggler who keeps coy about his past. Duke takes nothing at face value and believes rules were meant to be broken, traits that drew Balfour to the character.
The actor, 33, admires the chameleon-like transformation of screen fixtures Gary Oldman and Meryl Streep, which is why he especially appreciated the challenge of episode 5 entitled “Ball and Chain” in which a tryst with a mysterious woman causes Crocker to age at a super-accelerated rate. The transformation required hours of prosthetic special effects and a red-eye flight from the shooting location of Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the effects studio in Toronto for each of the episode’s more than three days of filming, where he often had to breathe with the aid of a straw. He was fascinated with the effects artists’ conceptualization of his actual aging and by assuming the physical limitations of the elderly to fully inhabit the character. In our conversations, Balfour references Sean Penn’s performance in Dead Man Walking, where ”in dealing with death, (he) faces life.”
Balfour, who plays Duke with a confident, roguish charisma has already seen the benefit of the show’s rapid popularity with fans’ reactions through social media. He feels “so overwhelmed and honored by the response” and shows his appreciation to dedicated fans with personalized videos and twitter posts. At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, America’s largest alternative cultural convention he was blown away by the positive response by those who in his own words “proudly let their freak flag fly.” He especially understood the fanatical devotion of the science fiction fan who is so “sincere about their passion, it’s hard not to be contagious.”
Ever the professional, Balfour feels a special connection to the cast, crew and writing staff of Haven which is becoming confident in the story’s direction for the town. “Chemistry is starting to grow between Emily (Rose) and Lucas (Bryant) between takes” which allows him to embrace each episode with a new-found energy. “Every new episode provides new challenges,” he says.
“The actor only has the power to say ‘no’ to a role,” after that, Balfour is devoted to the vision of the writers and feels privileged to make art as his living every day. He brings a dashing note to the supernatural thriller, and this week’s episode is pivotal to the fate of Duke and the town of Haven.
Watch Balfour on Haven Friday nights on Syfy Channel

Rock School

crivlare.nicole — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Who ever thought that kids could be so cool? Before seeing Rock School, I never would have thought it possible for kids to be playing Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa music, well. This documentary about the Philadelphia based school of rock music is definitely like no other.
The film Rock School follows the life of the Paul Green School of Rock Music as well as its eccentric teacher, Paul Green. While the school has more than eighty students, the film follows a young girl with a Joni Mitchell like sound, a wannabe rock legend who possesses more talent than most of today’s artists, a Napoleon Dynamite like character with suicidal tendencies, a pair of twins with little talent and a lot of rock star drive, as well as Paul Green. The main objective of the school is to give the kids a secure place that they can rely on while teaching them to be awesome musicians.
The majority of the film expresses a day in the life of quality that allows the audience to become familiar with the characters. The main character is Paul Green whose provocative behavior and language both inspires and scares the kids. He claims in an interview that he realized he did not want to be a rock star in today’s society but one in the 1970′s. Since he could not have that dream, he decided he would be the best music teacher that he could be. Even though he goes about things in a non-conventional manner, his good wishes and intentions are clear. Paul screams and yells at the students to pretend he is upset just to make them work harder and practice more. He inspires the children to be great and accepts no less.
While this film is both entertaining and inspiring, it lacks in one of the main qualities a film has to offer, story. The slight narrative of the school being invited to perform in Germany at the annual Zappanale Festival is hardly enough to carry the whole film. When Paul is sued by Will O’Connor’s mother for his verbalization and comedic attitude about her son’s attempted suicides, which is illustrated in a news article, one of the main issues of the film is dropped with little explanation by Will. The subject is dropped without so much as a word from Paul.
The film, Rock School definitely has its flaws but proves itself with its subject content. The children at the school are amazing to watch while exemplifying what can become of hard work and a lot of practice.