With the return of
"Battlestar Galactica" on October 6th, the show Time magazine called the best television program of 2005, SciFi’s hype machine has begun to kick into overdrive. Recently “
The Star� caught up with
James Callis who plays Baltar for a candid interview. Be sure to visit
here for the rest!
Q: How much did you take from the 1970s' version of Baltar in crafting your version of Baltar?
A: Well, pretty much only the name, I have to be honest. And I think it's only the surname because this is Gaius Baltar and the other one was Count Baltar.
Q: And how much of it was your character and how much of it was other people telling you what they wanted?
A: On the very first day Tricia and I shot our meeting scene. And it did feel a little bit like being directed by committee because there were so many people on-set. And then after awhile they slightly relaxed. Nobody was quite sure what they wanted at the time. I'm not sure, maybe they were very sure. I wasn't quite sure perhaps. It's kind of give and take. There's not necessarily a mindset but there's an energy, that because the character shares the name with this traitor from the series beforehand in the '70s, it's like it has to be monitored all the time. Because if it isn't, it's a bit easy to make this guy that guy almost by the association of name. That's something I try to monitor. I think that comes out (in the character as) angst and guilt ... I think he lives under an ever increasing shadow of shame.
Q: Do you find that your fans ever take your character too seriously?
A: I think people would be hard-pressed to take the character as seriously as I do, so no.
I try to explain to people who don't see it. It comes like a trough of guilt and you're sliding up to your neck in it every day and they're like, `Yeah, and you get to work with Tricia, you poor devil. Yeah, James, tell me about how tortuous it really is.' I'm not saying that there aren't great things that you get to do, but I'm saying that you can get yourself into a mindset, it's a very dark, abysmal place, to be honest.
Q: Do you take a lot of that home?
A: I don't think you carry it with you in the way that you look, necessarily, or the way you behave but some parts of this show, especially this year, they can't fail to stay with you. Especially for the people who have acted them out. It's pretty crushing.