|
Back in Stargate Time with Erick Avari for 15th Anniversary Blu-ray
by Troy Rogers
 Fans
of the sci-fi genre know Erick Avari from his
huge list of acting roles that range from Independence
Day, The Mummy, and Planet of the Apes to Star
Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Deep Space
Nine, The X-Files, and Heroes. But one of the
most memorable roles Erick Avari stepped into
during his career was the role of Kasuf in the
1994 big screen version of Stargate, which Avari
later reprised in Stargate SG-1.
With the Stargate franchise still living on long after the original Stargate movie, Erick Avari can now be seen in the new Stargate 15th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray, which hit stores on October 27. Although it's been 15 years since Erick Avari stepped onto the Stargate movie set, Avari still has fond memories of working on Stargate location so many years later.
To celebrate the Blu-ray release of Stargate 15th Anniversary Edition, we went one-on-one with Erick Avari who filled us in on everything from the challenges of the Stargate desert and his favorite Stargate memory to translating his character to Stargate SG-1 and how he feels about the explosion of Indian filmmaking in North America.
THE DEADBOLT: How amazing is it that Stargate is still living today after 15 years?
ERICK AVARI: It's wonderful. Not only living, but enjoying its grandchildren [laughs]. It's spawned several series and a couple of movies and all kinds of things. Yeah, it's quite remarkable.
THE DEADBOLT: Given the longevity of the franchise after the movie, have you noticed any similar qualities that made Star Trek so successful?
 AVARI:
Well, I think sci-fi in general is a medium
that I am particularly fond of, because you're
able to take current issues, political points
of views, and present them in a more palatable
form and remove the personal element that perhaps
prevents us from seeing the truth. Or the tree
for the forest, if you will, because it's removed
from your immediate context. It's so much easier
to look at things in a clear light when you're
looking at it objectively. I mean, that's just
a general aspect of sci-fi. But I think perhaps
the similarities are the humanness.
I think all of the Star Treks, including Enterprise, which I was surprised didn't do well and yet when I got the script for that and the series hadn't aired yet - I did an episode of Enterprise - I thought, "Oh my goodness, this is going to top them all. This sounds really exciting. It's like space cowboys" But I'm not always right on those things [laughs]. But I think it's an element of the writing where they can capture human qualities and speak from truth. That, I think, you can never go wrong with. But it's something that's difficult to do.
THE DEADBOLT: What's your favorite memory of working on the film?
AVARI: I think the comraderie. It wasn't just one incident. It was a cumulative effect, because it was an extremely difficult shoot on many levels. It was intensely hot. We were working in temperatures of 130 degrees in the shade and there was sand everywhere. The wind would blow and you just couldn't get rid of the sand. It didn't matter how many showers you took. Then that of course translated to illness. There was a lot of flu going around the set. Of course once one person gets it, it just goes around like wildfire.
 So
the shoot in Yuma, Arizona certainly presented
its challenges, I think, because it came from
the top in that Roland Emmerich just - throughout
the shoot - maintained such a light atmosphere.
He really kept a great sense of humor. Nothing
seemed to phase him and somehow didn't seem
at all daunted by the fact that every minute
that was wasted on a set was costing thousands
of dollars. So this was a huge huge shoot. I
mean, we had 1500 extras on the set for many
of the days. [laughs] So what the hell was your
question again?
You now, there were so many. It was certainly a heightened environment. We all knew that we were in something special. It was special, again, not just because of the scope but for me and Mili [Avital] and Alexis [Cruz]. We were speaking in another language and the three us came from three different parts of the world. So we had to find some commonality there. We got to work closely with each other on that. Then of course we were shooting out on location where there was nothing to distract us from the shoot. So naturally we gravitated towards each other and formed very strong bonds of friendship. The adverse conditions certainly helped that, too, that you have a commonality and you've gone through this together. That, I think, was perhaps the most special part of it.
THE DEADBOLT: Were there certain challenges for you in continuing Kasuf in Stargate SG-1? Obviously you got to know him better.
 AVARI:
Yes, there was that. The fact that Kasuf now
spoke English certainly was a very freeing element.
It allowed me not to be quite so concerned about
what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say
it like we were on the movie, because a lot
of that was just flying by the seat of our pants
and improvising as we were shooting. Yet improvising
in a language that, up until the very last two
weeks, Dean Devlin was very meticulous about
and was very careful that we maintained the
language, because he actually wanted to produce
or have an addendum to the movie in both languages
and wanted us to be true to that.
Unfortunately, that didn't hold up once Jaye
Davidson got on the set. So we kind of scrapped
the idea about the book with the language. But
yes, there was that. There was the whole challenge
of an actor, a character that has been removed
from the world as we know it and is sort of
frozen in time back in ancient Egypt, and is
confronted with this other world that has sort
of collided into his with people who look like
humans. But they're not quite, you know? So
there was a lot of fun to be had with that and
mistaking them for the Gods and what that did
and the hierarchy of working as a slave and
them being liberated.
The character had a tremendous arc, which is something that an actor always looks for. It was just in ancient Egyptian [laughs]. In that sense, certainly the movie gave the character more of a journey. The TV series gave me another element. It was much easier to bring a sense of humanity to him because there wasn't the language barrier and that you were actually able to communicate with your co-actors in a common language, as opposed to having that barrier. But again, it's those obstacles that an actor always looks for in a scene, because that's what makes a scene more interesting if an actor has an obstacle to overcome.
THE DEADBOLT: Do you feel a certain void since you weren't able to close out the character in the SG-1 finale?
AVARI: Yeah. Yes, I was disappointed that I wasn't able to make that final episode when my character ascended. I was already committed to shooting a series here in L.A., so there was a direct conflict. That was unfortunate, but that's the actor's life.
THE DEADBOLT: Were you ever approached for Stargate Atlantis?
 AVARI:
No, I never was. I don't know why [laughs].
Get your fans to write in for the new one.
THE DEADBOLT: Have you seen the new Stargate Universe?
AVARI: I have not yet. But by all accounts,
it's supposed to be wonderful. I'm looking forward
to that.
THE DEADBOLT: I actually visited the set a few weeks ago.
AVARI: Oh, did you?
THE DEADBOLT: It's really impressive.
AVARI: That's in Vancouver, right?
THE DEADBOLT: That's right. Since you were born in India, how you feel about the success of Indian movies are having over here?
AVARI: I did see Slumdog Millionaire and I think much of the appeal of that movie was the exotic quality of it Of course I'm delighted, because filmmaking in India is an old old tradition. In fact, my great grandfather was one of the first producers in India to put women on the stage, actresses, otherwise they were always played by young boys and men or whatever. This is art and the theater is something that is very, very much of our culture and our tradition. So it's really nice to see that the whole genre is traveling the world and spanning the continents if you will. We're seeing more and more Indian directors, like Mira Nair of course, who are now making a name for themselves in America. I think that's wonderful, too. They may not be making Indian movies, but they're certainly bringing their sensibilities to the west.
India has certainly opened up. When I came to America, there were very few Indians in America and we were a novelty item. It wasn't until the '80s, really, when we started to see many more Indians. Then of course we've gone through that whole progression of a new ethnic group assimilated into America. I think the Indian community has done that very smoothly. There's a new generation of American born East Indians who are very assimilated. So it's heartwarming to see that and I feel a little less of an anomaly now that we're mainstream. So it's nice.
THE DEADBOLT: When you look back at Stargate, the movie, especially now on Blu-ray, how do you feel about the movie continuing to be upgraded for new generations?
 AVARI:
I think it's great, because one of the things
I always felt - not just Stargate - there are
a lot of movies I feel you miss so much of the
detail. If you're watching it in the movie theater,
obviously you just got that one shot at it.
Unless you're a huge fan and you go back to
the movie theater several times, you miss a
lot of it. Now, with the definition of Blu-ray,
certainly the visuals are much clearer and you're
able to freeze frame. You're able to go back
and rewind and spot all of the hundreds of little
elements that go up to make a set so authentic.
That on Stargate was really amazing.
It was amazing to walk on set. They built one street of the village and the detail on the street alone - and it was a huge street - it was like a fortress and all tied together with hemp rope and down to the smallest detail, little carvings and things like that, that I was sure people were going to miss. Yet you always want to highlight those things, you know? But now, with the advent of Blu-ray, people are going to be able pick up on those elements that I think are little gems that are embedded in there waiting to be discovered.
|
