Michael Shanks talks SGU, Santuary and Twitter

Hey everyone! Got some good stuff for you Michael Shanks fans! And if my Twitter feed is to be believed, there are TONS of you out there. I'm certainly included in the ranks! The main part of our interview was about his upcoming appearance on Smallville as the Justice Society member with gravity-defying Nth metal wings, Hawkman. (I'll link as soon as it goes live.)



But Shanks gave me some great info on his Stargate Universe appearances, his opinion about the show and his upcoming role on Sanctuary. You guys get to check it out before it goes up on The Huffington Post. He also mentioned that, if he looses a bet with his wife...you might actually see him on Twitter!

So, you're appearing on Stargate Universe...

I did a brief cameo in the pilot and I've shot a couple of episodes, I think episode nine, called “Human” and then one near the end of their run...I think it's the eighteenth episode of the season.



I love the show. What do you think of it? It's really different...

It is different. I mean, it's a completely different taste palate than the previous Stargate incarnations. It's more realistic. The characters are much more dimensionalized. The visual of it is far more aesthetically pleasing and stunning. The camera work is more interesting. The visual effects are amazing. I mean, we had some great visual effects on SG-1. But these are just feature as far as I'm concerned. From the shots I've seen. The acting is wonderful. The actors are really commiting. You can tell. And there's some wonderfully drawn characters there.

I just had a little...I just watched the first three episodes, and I just had a little issue with some of the drama. I felt it was somewhat forced, and I just mean from the perspective of...the characters come across more...in order to create the tension, the mistrust, or the angst between some of the characters, it seems to lack logic, where the arguments have come across sometimes as, like, petulant children, not responsible adults engaged in discussions about actual issues. The was that, when they were squabbling over something simple, the voices seemed to be a little more heightened for the sake of creating drama than they should be, as opposed to how people would react more in that kind of situation to another adult as opposed to yelling at you because it says we're supposed to be yelling at each other.



I had a little problem with that aspect of the drama, but again, I am not the expert because I've not sat down and watched every episode. I've seen aspects of the first three and the later part of, I believe, "Light". So, again, I was blown away by the physical aspects of the show and really transported. When I watch it, I'm really transported to the world that they've created. It's really three-dimensionalized. I'm just not quite buying all of the mistrust elements and the tension elements just yet. But I think they're one strong story from hooking me and turning the corner on that. And I've also found that I haven't quite gotten attached to the characters as much as I probably should be. But that might be intentional as well. They're much more dimensionalized therefore, they're not completely likable, they're not completely unlikable. And there's a little bit of mystery to it. So it keeps you coming back saying, 'where are they going with this'. That's not a bad thing. Dole it out slowly. So yeah, I've liked it for the most part, but I've just had some issues with some of the creation of the drama.

So you're going to be guest starring on Sanctuary, right? (You're on all my favorite shows.)

Yes. My speech therapist...we had a little sit down and he told me that, in order to get past my fear of the letter "S" I may only appear on shows that start with the letter "S" so I can build up my resistance to it. So yes.

[Laughs]

Smallville, Stargate, Sanctuary. I'm looking for some others. If you can reccomend any other shows that start with "S" that I could pitch myself out to that would be great. But yeah, Sanctuary.
Have you filmed the episode yet?

Oh yeah, I filmed it in June I believe.

Really?

April, May...I don't remember. It's been a hell of a year. [Laughs] We used part of the Watchmen backlot, which was a three block cityscape that they built for Watchmen. So there's this beautiful standing set in the middle of Burnaby (Vancouver) that has some great exteriors for, I think it's episode nine. I think. I may be completely off base with that. But yeah, I play a character called Jimmy. "Jimmy the Pouch". [Laughs] Or as I call him, "Jimmy the Pooch". He has a strong interaction with and a similar background with the new character called Kate Freelander, played by Agam Darshi on the show, and has a history with Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping (his former co-star on SG-1). We kind of toy with that a little. But most of the scenes I have are with Agam Darshi.



I actually drove past that set when I was on a set visit for another film up in Vancouver. I didn't get to stop, but it looked really cool!

Yeah, it's pretty nifty, I have to say. I didn't know that on the Smallville lot, they've got a block and a half of Metropolis built on their back lot...it's really neat to discover these things in Vancouver. [Laughs] I've lived here for a large portion of the last twenty years and I haven't seen a lot of this stuff. So it's really neat.

A bunch of my Twitter followers asked where your wife is on Twitter, and want to know when you're getting on there.

Oh, uh, never. That's that one. Let's get that out of the way. Michael Shanks twittering is not going to happen. Let's just go down that road. [Laughs] Although apparently I might. I made a bet with my wife and she had to choose what I would have to do if I lost the bet. She said, because she knows how much I don't like the notion of twittering, if I lose, I have to twitter for a week. So that will be probably be the only way you will catch me twittering. I'm just not that guy. [Laughs] But she is. I don't know. I don't keep track of her twittering...I don't know what you call it. [Laughs]

Tweets? [Laughs]

When she's doing it I walk by and roll my eyes. That's my twenty cents. I'm sure all the true twitters and the true fans of Twitter are going to look at me and go, 'you're a bonehead'. [Laughs]

Well, your official website twitters...

Yes, they do a lot of that kind of stuff. I'm trying to take a step back from my direct involvement in online kind of stuff. I find it to be a dark and murky place where there are a lot of drive by opinion makers [Laughs] who escape into the night without being accountable for their words and I'm not a big fan of that. So I attempt to keep my distance from the direct online interaction.

I totally understand...I've has some issues...

Yeah, that's the thing. I guess if you put it in proper perspective it really doesn't matter, but in terms of, I've got young kids and stuff like that. My daughter is getting into the internet aspect of things, and is online on a regular basis, and does read some certain things. She will poke around and look at certain things. And I don't want her to see that kind of crap. It's going to be there anyway, so I'm not going to worry about it. That's what happens when you're a little bit in the public eye, or stick your neck out there, but it's the aspect of sticking your neck out there and placing myself in those situations. I'm just not terribly interested in doing that at this juncture. I've got better things to do. [Laughs]