The beloved Master Bra’tac himself, Tony Amendola, joins Dial the Gate for his second episode to bring us up to speed on his work and share more memories as the memorable Jaffa.
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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:48 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:21 – Introducing Tony and Catching Up
09:33 – Jedi: Fallen Order, Working with Rising Stars, and More Roles
13:57 – IMDb and Twitter
15:15 – Christopher Judge
21:14 – Particular Moments with Directors and Stories on Filming
40:54 – Writing Projects, An Autobiography, and Cliff Simon
45:12 – “The Changeling”
49:44 – Wrapping up with Tony
50:33 – Post interview Housekeeping
52:24 – End Credits
***
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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello, everyone and welcome to Dial the Gate. My name is David Read, thank you so much for joining. We have Tony Amendola with us once again. Tony started off the show for us, October of 2020. And he is back once again to update us on what he’s been up to and share a couple more Master Bra’tac memories. But before we really get into that, if you like Stargate, and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click that Like button, it makes a real difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will definitely help the show continue to grow its audience. And if you wouldn’t mind, please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And if you want to get subscribed to future episodes, consider clicking on that Subscribe icon. Giving the Bell icon to click will notify you the moment new video drop and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guest changes. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few days on the GateWorld.net YouTube channel. As this is a live show Tony is with me here. And we have the ability as fans to submit questions to him via youtube.com/dialthegate in the chat window, which is running while the show is going. The moderators are there to take in the questions and pass them along to me. And I’m glad you are with us. I am especially grateful to have Tony Amendola, Master Bra’tac, back once again for the show. Sir, it is a pleasure to have you again and it’s just warms my heart to be able to sit with you here and catch up and see that you’re doing good. And that you know there are some things still right with this world.
Tony Amendola
Absolutely. it’s a pleasure to join you, David, and we have unfinished business. So we had to complete this and it certainly is a strange time, but there is light out there too. So.
David Read
I’m been catching up on some of your credits. How’ve you been keeping busy and what’s new?
Tony Amendola
You know, surprisingly, considering most things sort of closed down for a good number of months. I’ve been reasonably busy. I’m trying to think. Probably shortly after we last spoke I did a Christmas movie called Christmas Again, for Disney, which we shot in Chicago which was marvelous, except they couldn’t really visit there much. So I ended up walking around quite a bit in November, but it was glorious, got trapped there for Thanksgiving. But it all worked out very well. The people were very nice, and they took good care of us. And then sort of returned back to LA, did a little bit of television. And then I had been working on this piece that is being edited right now which is called Rough Magic. And a friend of mine wrote it and it’s about Shakespeare late in his life. It’s a one person show and it’s about Shakespeare just before he returns to Stratford. He hasn’t written Tempest and he’s struggling with the form. You know everyone knows comedies and tragedies, but there was a form at the end of his career called the Romance: Cymbeline, Pericles, Winter’s Tale and Tempest. And it’s just before he wrote The Tempest, and that was a big effort. So it’s about a 45-minute piece which we filmed.
David Read
And you were Shakespeare?
Tony Amendola
Yeah, yeah. So that kept me very busy. And luckily, the director, Andy Wolk, who co-wrote it as well. And you know, there was that and then in the midst of all that I got this, you’re talking about from going from a Christmas movie, which is Christmas Again, your typical Christmas movie blended with Groundhog Day. It’s a retelling of the same event through the eyes of a little girl, a young girl probably about 12 or so. And all of a sudden so you go from that and I did this project with a writer named Dennis Lehane who wrote, Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River. So it’s a heavy piece based on a book called In with the Devil. Yeah, it takes place in prison and we shot in Louisiana. And that was, it’s a mini series not a film. It’s six, I believe a six part mini series on, it’s going to be on Apple TV probably in the spring. And I did three of those episodes in a very, very different sort of character than certainly was in the Christmas movie and I’m trying to think what else.
David Read
Would that had been Caged?
Tony Amendola
I mean, oh, no Caged. Oh, no Caged. Oh, yeah. Caged. There’s another prison film. Yeah, I play a warden in that one. Caged that we shot actually in, believe it or not, we shot Caged in 2016.
David Read
Oh, okay. So and it was been gestating for a while.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, meaning, they needed more money to complete it. But it’s a very intense, but an interesting little film for people that don’t mind prison claustrophobia. It’s about the madness of solitary confinement within prison. And I play this Warden who is oddly sort of forward thinking. Yeah, and probably the last thing, and there probably some other things that haven’t really thought about, but the last thing is something that’s coming out February 14, on Valentine’s Day on Audible, and it’s called Numbered Days.
David Read
Numbered Days.
Tony Amendola
Numbered Days and again, it’s an intense friend of mine, Corey Madden, who’s a producer and a poet and a writer, she was in a wonderful relationship and lost her husband. And because she’s an artist she documented that experience through poetry with a husband saying, “Okay, we need…”, And so it’s the story of their journey from when he was diagnosed to when eventually he died. And it’s as I say, but it’s beautiful poetry and quite beautiful story. He was a composer, a very well known composer, sort of in the area and avant garde music and film, etc. and theater. And, anyway Anna Gunn is in it. She plays Corey’s surrogate, and I play the husband and there’s two others, Jeanne Sakata and Jack Stehlin are in it, and that’s gonna drop on the 14th. So it’s funny because as an actor, I’m not busy, and then you look back and said, “No, actually you were really busy.” And that’s sort of what I’ve been doing. I’ve been keeping myself healthy and doing a lot of hiking in the area over in Griffith Park, which I live close to.
David Read
Oh yes, that’s a good hike.
Tony Amendola
There’s a great book called 33 Hikes in Griffith Park. [Casey Schreiner, Discovering Griffith Park: A Local Guide -Ed.] And we’ve done all of them.
David Read
Wow. So I can believe there’s 33.
Tony Amendola
Oh, well, and that’s not everything from like a half hour to like five hours and an eight mile overall the peaks and it’s fantastic. I have a buddy who I call the goat because he just I’m saying, “Really?” He says “No, no, it’s not far.” And that was like an hour and a half ago. Anyway, that was a long answer to your question but I’m well and I hope everyone who’s listening is well.
David Read
When we last spoke, I didn’t get a chance to talk with you about, at least based on my record here of the document of review when we talked, Jedi Fallen Order, you were Jedi Master Eno Cordova. And it was a, delight is not the right word. I was ecstatic to see you on my screen when I’m playing through this game, because it was a perfect casting. I’m still tickled that you were in that because I think that it’s one of the greatest Star Wars games of the last 10 years. What a performance. That was cool.
David Read
Yeah, yeah. And it was great fun because I like Star Wars. It was probably one of the earlier introductions to that sort of franchise and I’d like to believe in a small way, because I’ve done Stargate obviously, Babylon 5, Star Trek, that you know, I was missing Star Wars. You know, to do all four.
David Read
Not to mention Terminator and a lot of these other brilliant sci fi…
Tony Amendola
And Terminator I hadn’t even thought of, oh my god. Thank you.
David Read
Opposite the great Cersei Lannister herself.
Tony Amendola
Oh, my gosh. She was so marvelous. She was so yeah, yeah. It’s always interesting when you work with people closely who then eventually…
David Read
Ascends, stratospheric. Yeah.
Tony Amendola
Right. I’ll give you another guy. I did a film, a wonderful film called Lone Star, which is about Texas and about relations at the border, etc. And all my shooting was with Chris Cooper. Chris Cooper hadn’t won the Academy Award yet, all my stuff was with him. And so it’s a very different day when there’s just two of you. You just sort of sit down and you’re in, and this is pre cell phones and pre getting lost in tablets. So yeah, yeah, there’s so many. I remember doing an episode for those fans of Desperate Housewives. I fell in love with Marcia Cross in an episode of The Raven before and Teri Hatcher actually another one in Lois and Clark. Well, Terry Hatcher, I didn’t work with her in Lois and Clark. I worked with her in Seinfeld.
David Read
Correct. Yeah.
Tony Amendola
So yeah. So it’s interesting. It’s a small world.
David Read
Seinfeld is another great one, that scene with you and Michael Richards in the sauna.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, and also for me, it was a delight. Because I don’t get a chance and opportunity to do much sitcom. So when they come across, and they come along, it’s really choice. And that one, being one of the ultimate sitcoms, to me, it was a sitcom that genuinely made me laugh consistently. And then recently, I got a chance to do Will and Grace.
David Read
I saw this.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, yeah. Which again, is funny. And strangely I did, God, there it’s coming back forgive me. No, there’s a reboot of iCarly.
David Read
Oh, they’re restarting it?
Tony Amendola
They did. They did
David Read
I didn’t hear about this. Oh.
Tony Amendola
Because all the people now are in their 20s. Right?
David Read
Okay. So they’re doing like a Girl Meets World kind of gossip.
Tony Amendola
Yes. Yeah. And, you know, I get a chance to do an episode of that. And again, it was great fun, particularly in COVID. You’re sort of trying to do a sitcom with a mask, but they take good care of us were tested, three times a week. And it’s, they treat it very seriously as they should.
David Read
What’s this Prophet in E Minor that I’m seeing?
Tony Amendola
Oh, Prophet in E Minor is a script that a person has been trying to develop for a long time. Very, very strange script. And I’m still sort of attached to it, whether it will happen I don’t know. Sometimes at this point I sort of doubt it. It’s been a while.
David Read
IMDb. Always nebulous that way. So you can never be too sure.
Tony Amendola
Well, you know, it’s funny, I need to go on IMDb Pro and change, there are some errors in mine. Which I won’t point out. But it’s so strange that now because I’m thinking how come other people can post stuff about me?
David Read
Right! Don’t I have some control over my list?
Tony Amendola
Well, it was funny. One of the fringe benefits of doing Christmas Again, was that I finally just said, “Okay, you know, Tony, because you need to get your little checkmark on Twitter.” For the longest time I never edited because, you know, I’m old. And finally I was doing PR for them and stuff. And I said, “Can you vouch for me that I am who I am.” And it was done in 24 hours.
David Read
Yeah, when it happens it happens fast. I’ve heard.
Tony Amendola
Yeah. Somebody from Disney just goes [typing sounds] and it’s done.
David Read
Correct.
Tony Amendola
Meanwhile, I’m trying to prove I exist, you know?
David Read
Exactly. I am Tony Amendola. You’ve seen me on television, please.
Tony Amendola
It was funny.
David Read
Christopher Judge, you spent most of your time with him on Stargate SG-1. I am privileged to have gotten to know him. He’s one of the most honest, most generous people I’ve ever known. Tell me about working with Chris and watching him grow as a man over 10 years. Now more since, because I can attest we’ve caught up with him.
Tony Amendola
Absolutely. Yeah. You know what can I say about Chris? He’s the whole package. He sort of, great intelligence, great warmth, great hunger for life, joy and participation of life, very welcoming, extremely, extremely bright. I’ve told this story many, many times, when I first got the role I knew everything was going to be about this other guy. As an actor you often don’t want to make the role about yourself, it’s a trick, you want to make it about the people that are important to you. So it gets you out of yourself, in your concern, what’s going on with him. Just like a family or something, if you will. So when I arrived on set the first day, all I was interested is who is this guy, Christopher Judge, who’s playing Teal’c. I asked an AD and he says, “He’s right there.” I’ll never forget they were shooting a scene and the team was sort of further away in front of the structure and Richard was closer to me, not very close, but closer. And they said, “Oh, that’s him.” So they were on a quick break and I remember, I knew Richard was, I knew how important he wasn’t, it wasn’t that. But all I was interested in was meeting Chris. And when I walked back, I could see like Richard face like, “What? I thought you’re here to meet me.”
David Read
Right. Executive Producer, star of the show.
Tony Amendola
Probably a smart thing to do. Probably a much smarter thing to do. But so I went over met Chris and Amanda, and Michael, and then came back to Richard, we had a wonderful time. And in many ways, in hindsight, that was a great dynamic between Richard and myself because that was our dynamic. Everything was about this guy, Chris Judge, and these other people, and who are they? And they’re taking, and they’re watching your back and all those things? So it worked out really well. But Chris, I have nothing. I don’t know if you’d know but occasionally actors can complain, just a little bit. And what I’ve always admired about Chris is that he took his hunger for different things to happen to his character, and what he wanted to see on the show, and as opposed to just simply pitching it, week after week, and eventually the writers closing the door, someone made the mistake of saying, “Well, you write it then.” And he did. And I am one of the beneficiaries of that and I always, he was such a cut up in many ways. And I’ve told those stories. I don’t have that many, but that he never directed. He never directed to my knowledge. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty certain…
David Read
Definitely not Stargate.
Tony Amendola
Right. That’s what I mean. Because I think he was so much fun. And so sort of wild and fun that he knew he was going to be on the other end of that. The crew, everyone would have given him a jolly tough time and I think he thought, “Man, maybe I won’t do it.” But anyway, yeah, it’s been a while.
David Read
It’s interesting that you tell the story of how you passed Rick up the first time and then came back around him. It’s very similar to the reaction on screen that Bra’tac gives O’Neill and through the next several episodes, Bra’tac kind of looks at O’Neill as human, Teal’c’s sidekick. Yeah, it’s funny to watch that play out over the course of the first couple of episodes. “Would you please stop calling me human? I’m the guy of this team, you know?” And it worked, it just played into the character.
Tony Amendola
Perfectly and it played into Richard’s take on the character, as as opposed to Kurt Russell. Which you really can’t sustain for the number of seasons, that would have been very different sort of thing. And people will ask, “Did you know it was a recurring part? Did you know anything?” No, no. And it was all I think about the chemistry in a kind of way. And they realized, I think, “Oh, my God, we could…” because the very next thing they had me do, the very next time you saw me after that first episode, I walk in, I have the serpent helmet on, and the first thing I do is hit Richard in the face. That’s the first thing. Yeah. I mean, I guess that was the second, it was the second season. Right? It was the third?
David Read
The second, the premiere of the second season.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, the premiere of the second season. So consequently, I think the audience was waiting for that. So many people told me it’s their favorite moment. One of the favorite moments I should say.
David Read
Scififan21 wanted to know, “Any particular director that you enjoyed working with the most or any particular moments with directors that really come out to you over, looking back over the body of work?”
Tony Amendola
Yeah. I’m trying to think, I like working with Peter DeLuise a lot. And the reason I like working he was a fun set, he was sort of a wild guy, Him and Chris, oh my god, just too much male, just too much. But what I particularly loved about Peter is that if you were in a jam, meaning when I say in the jam, that you got a choice to make. Character can go this way or that way. And instinctually you don’t quite know, and you’re sitting on the fence. You can go to Peter, and tell him to cut all the bull, and he can help you as an actor, because he is an actor. And he’s an actor who has the benefit of knowing the lenses and knowing the whole, and knowing what’s going to play. Something, could play very well on stage or something but all of a sudden how it plays in a box is very, very different. So I really liked him. Another guy I really liked was, and this is another series, a guy named Mike Vejar, who did a lot of Babylon 5 and a lot of Star Trek. And I had done an episode of Babylon 5, Crusade, which is one of my favorite episodes of sci fi. And then, little did I know he was the director on an episode of Voyager I did and he was very good.
David Read
I loved The Muse. I wish your part was bigger in The Muse.
Tony Amendola
Me too.
David Read
Because it’s an episode that is fundamentally everything about what science fiction is about. Some people say it’s a little on the nose. But I think that it’s exemplary of what the the genre is and as players in a group you have an opportunity to influence someone who has authority, and may be responsible for people living or dying.
Tony Amendola
Absolutely.
Tony Amendola
Absolutely wonderful concept and entertainment slash art as a way of keeping people busy from the slaughter that they can fall into, war and genocide, any of the other things. Yeah. And it was John Schuck and myself, so we were all part of a Greek chorus, and the center of it really was the writer, the actor who played the writer, and it was a very interesting, beautiful set too, I thought. And so, what else? I’m trying to think, who was some of the other directors? It’s interesting with directors because as actors somehow, there’s many theories about why people become actors, many, many, many theories. But there is a sense of an actor that it’s hard to, for lack of a better term, stamp your own passport. That you always need sort of an outside eye to say, “Oh, this is good and bad.” And of course, you’re at the mercy of taste, which makes it, it’s not scientific. It’s not as if your role two plus two will always be four. Your role two plus two is four to one person, six to another, and one, you know, so it’s always a matter of taste. But we think that somehow someone’s got a missing piece that will make us all fall into place and we will then be like a science experiment. It will always be the same. We will always be good.
David Read
It’s so cool.
David Read
Yeah, you’ll have arrived.
Tony Amendola
We will have arrived. So consequently, I did in this Lone Star film I did, it’s a filmmaker named John Sayles, who’s a quite a popular filmmaker, Secaucus 7, The Brother from Another Planet. I know if you ever seen that film The Brother from Another Planet.
David Read
Sounds good.
Tony Amendola
Oh, yeah. Joe Morton.
David Read
Okay. All right.
Tony Amendola
Check that film out, you’ll be surprised, and Matewan and many other films. So consequently, I got a chance to work with him in the Lone Star. So I thought, “Oh, my God. This is great.” It’s sort of like he would do a film a year like what Woody Allen did back in the 70s and 80s. He would do and he was earning his money ghostwriting, for like Piranha or some other. So he would direct and edit everything himself, write, direct and edit. And this film, Kris Kristofferson, Chris Cooper, just a bunch of people. And so I thought, “Oh, my God, this is it.” And I walked on set and I did my work. And he never said a word to me. I would say he gave me one note, one little note about saying, “Oh, I’d say it this way.” And had I been a very young actor, it would have freaked me out in a kind of way, like, “Oh, you know?” And then I realized, no, he’s happy with what I’m doing. He’s…
David Read
He’s not gonna micromanage you. Down your way.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, yeah. And as many, many of the great directors will tell you, it’s 90% casting, that their job is done after they cast the thing. And then the other 10% is reining the actor or actress in or asking them to expand it, one of the two, but it’s in the casting. And that was very interesting. So obviously, the opportunity to work with John Sayles, to work with Martin Campbell in the two Zorros. That was very, very important to my career. Ted Demme, who unfortunately died, in Blow, there’s been a lot that have, but it was always interesting to see… Here’s the opposite. I did an episode of a short lived series that Robert Urich had, I believe it was called Lazarus Man. It’s a wonderful idea. Set during, it was a Cowboyish thing set during the Lincoln administration out West and there was an assassin, etc. And I got hired, and I went to Santa Fe, that was fantastic. Santa Fe was couldn’t have been nicer in the fall. Hardly any tourists and just exquisite places. And this guy, I don’t know why sometimes they do it to guest stars, because they can’t talk to the regular actors. The regular actors have been doing the role for a while. So the guest stars, the directors feel like they have to prove themselves with the guest star.
David Read
So they’re the whipping boys.
Tony Amendola
They’re the whipping boy, but it didn’t. It wasn’t like that.
David Read
I know, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
Tony Amendola
But you know what I mean? And so you want to think, “Hey, I’m here to work. Let’s have fun. Tell me what you got.” And with each note he gave me it got worse and worse. And I knew it was worse. I knew it was worse. And it got worse. It got worse. And finally after going around about an hour and I say “I’m here for you.” He said, “Please would you do me a favor?” I said, “What? What do you want?” It’s just, “Can you do it the way you were doing it when you came in?” I said, “Yes. I’d be happy to.”
David Read
I was wrong.
Tony Amendola
Well, it’s that great thing. You probably have heard the Shatner thing, right? The voiceover audition?
David Read
Oh, yeah. You tell me exactly how you want me to do it. I will repeat it. Yes.
Tony Amendola
I did. I wasn’t as difficult as Shatner. And I thought Shatner was absolutely right, because you get people saying ridiculous things to you sometimes. There’s a great film with Sam Elliott where it’s about a father son, voiceover people. And Sam Elliot is doing, “Rivers End Baked Beans the best in the West.” “Yeah, we’ll do. We’ll do a… Will you give us another just just to try something different.” “Rivers End Baked Beans the best in the West.” “Yeah, yeah. Maybe make it deeper.” [Deeper voice} “Rivers End Baked Beans the best…” And it just is the ridiculousness of it. Sometimes you get it right quickly and your best thing you can do as a director and actors is say, “Okay, we didn’t have to struggle with that. Look at that, but people won’t let it go.” Sometimes it’s like the director in a play, and I’ve had many of these, I’ve had ones who they do the day’s work and if it’s three o’clock, and you’re supposed to finish at four they send you home because they’ve done the day’s work, everyone.
Tony Amendola
When you’ve got it, hopefully if you have any competence you know you’ve got it. But there’s some people who were like, I think I do but I want to play a little bit, especially if we have a little bit of time. I want to make sure I’ve got it. That’s how I would feel.
Tony Amendola
Yeah. And I can understand that, one take, two takes. But I mean, you look at Clint Eastwood is a prime example and the friends I have who have worked with him. I mean the actors can hardly keep up. He shoots all the rehearsals often. So, and he does it, particularly last rehearsal so he does it purposely because he knows all of a sudden, they say, “Okay, we’re gonna, we’re gonna film this one.” That it changes something. The actor can still play when it’s in rehearsal but as soon as you say, “Oh, we’re gonna film someone.” It sort of tightens just a little bit. It’s, anyway,
David Read
You heard what Christopher Lee had to say about Peter Jackson. Right?
David Read
Peter Jackson was the worst for wraps. Because he was doing Sarumon and he had like, he was at like the 10th or 11th take. And Peter was like, “Okay, let’s go again.” And Christopher was like, “I think I’ve got it. I think I’ve really got it.” But Peter wanted that word up, that we’re down, that word this way. And he talked with Sir Ian Holme a few weeks later, it’s like, “Well, I did like 27 takes and before Peter found.” Some directors just want it exactly. And they won’t tell the actor just to say it this way because it’s not appropriate, you are a vessel for the material.
Tony Amendola
No.
Tony Amendola
You know, I’m surprised Ian Holme didn’t say, “Only 27? Really? Only 27? Bastard. He had me do 40.” Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s interesting, I read something recently that if only it were easy. Only it were easy to follow this logo or this vision of life and which is nothing is permanent, nothing is perfect, and nothing is personal. Good luck. But there’s a lot of wisdom in that. Meaning, when to say, “Okay, I’m gonna get myself out of the way because I want to work with this guy, or this woman.” I’m just gonna, yeah, cuz sometimes, actors can snap a little bit. And that can be creative. Like, I remember I was doing something recently and luckily the director was a friend. But the director’s trying to film the day and he’s got a time schedule. So I was doing a take, and he was looking at his watch. And I said, “Whoa.” Very nicely. I didn’t, “How dare you and everything.” But it’s not conducive to the work we’re doing here. I know you’re gonna make your day but don’t look at your watch during takes.
David Read
Absolute and this was someone that you already had established a relationship with?
Tony Amendola
Yeah, anywho, it was a group people that knew each other So it was a good laugh. Yeah, it was a good laugh. But the other alternative is the actor has to eat that. And it’s sort of it becomes one more sort of thing. I often say if there’s a number of things you can if you ever hear of actors being difficult or being [an] ass it’s because, there’s a lot of stuff they carry over a number of years that is done to them, or a disrespect that is shown to them. So sometimes it can manifest itself after the fact. And it just was a way of getting rid of that. I just didn’t want to, I didn’t want in the back of my mind every time I worked with this director to see him the second time looking at his watch [inaudible] and then all of a sudden have something that was serious. Yeah, no, don’t look at your watch. So I don’t ask much of you. Yeah, I’m here. I got my lines. I’m ready to work. All I’m asking is you watch the work, which seems to be part of your job. It was great.
David Read
You wouldn’t know otherwise if something was wrong if you’re not paying any attention.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, it made us closer actually, in many ways just funny. Forgive me, because I know we’re not talking as much about Stargate but I have to tell you, I gotta tell you a great story. The actor always assumes that you want to keep in the good graces of people, at any cost, even being silent. I was here. Oh, it was a long time ago. But one day I had two auditions one for The Practice, which became a long running series. And one for an episode called The Visitor. Do you remember this series? Excuse me a series called The Visitors. It was John Corby. And it was the same day. And I must have been in the zone that day. I got one. Then I got the other. Right? And the agent said, “Okay, let me try and work this out. Let me try.” And she tried. But the dates couldn’t work, and then they could just, okay. She calls me you got to choose. I chose the role. The Practice wasn’t The Practice at the time. I chose what was a better role. On The Practice it was a doctor in a courtroom. And on The Visitor I played a guy who was based on Hale-Bopp, remember that suicide pact?
David Read
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The religious group, okay,
Tony Amendola
Yes, that’s who I play. And so I did it. Well, my agent calls me back and says, “Oh, but they’re angry over The Practice.” And I felt bad because I knew the casting person was a friend from the theater days in San Francisco. So I felt bad. And that’s all this is terrible. [inaudible] What I going to do? So what I did is, I got the address, I wrote him a note saying, “Look, no one was trying to play any games. I was trying to make both things work. I just chose. If you ever are in a jam, someone that I will be happy to do whatever it is to come and help out. Just know me. You have me in your back pocket. I owe you one.” And that’s all I did. Well, 10 days later I got an audition again for The Practice. So I’m thinking myself, “Oh.” But I’m thinking this guy wants to have the final word possibly. Yeah, it wants me to drive all the way to Manhattan Beach and reject and pull the plug. But I’m thinking, “Okay, that’s fine.” I go in. I do my audition. I’m prepared. It’s not particularly great, but it’s very well prepared.
David Read
And same people from last time?
Tony Amendola
Same people.
David Read
OK, same crew,
Tony Amendola
Same… Yeah. Same producers, a different director, a different episode. But everybody’s, same casting person. On my way out. He says, “Hey, hold on a sec.” I say, “What?” He said, “Thank you for the letter.” I say, “You’re welcome.” I leave, don’t know if he got the job anyway, he hires me again. Not only that, he hires me three more times. Now, here we went. It’s the lesson of you’re better off than really angry at you. Meaning the powers that be who can hire you having them really angry at you. So they can say, “Hey, look, look, what a great guy he’s turned into now. Or look, hey, what a nice woman she is now,” then being anonymous.
David Read
So you made an impression.
Tony Amendola
I made an impression. And now so we cut to later on, I’m on set doing it because I did four different episodes. Right? And I’m on set and he comes down. He’s talking to me, and he’s got, we’re buddies now. And I think that’s so strange, because I thought, “Oh, well, you know, that’s a bridge that’s burned.” And now we’re buddies,
David Read
You’re turning a disadvantage into an advantage. Two years ago I was working on a project and, long of the short, I sent a message to Jenny, my producer, who’s been on the show, complaining about the issues that I have with the project. And I sent it to the producer instead. I screwed up. Five minutes go by nothing. I write her back and I say, if you want to pull me from the project, I completely understand. She said, “No, it’s okay.” I said, “Can we call? Can we talk on the phone?” I called her she was cool about it. I wasn’t mean or anything. I was voicing my concerns. We are working together to this day.
Tony Amendola
That’s a goal You never know.
David Read
We understood because it was one of those situations where we understood where each other was coming from. Didn’t have to agree. But we were honest about it and human to human and it turns itself into all kinds of opportunities. It can also blow itself to hell.
Tony Amendola
It can, it can. Yeah, it’s like that last one. Nothing is personal. But for an actor how can you take it anything but personal? Because it’s not like we’re going and we leave an iPhone and say, “David, let me know what you think about this iPhone, whether you want to buy it or not.” And then we leave and we go home to our kids or whatever. You have to look us in the eye. I’m talking about my body, my voice, my intellect, my talent so it’s hard. Yeah. It’s quite hard, you know? And who was I reading, okay, what’s her name? Oh, she was a woman that was an older character person talking about that. And she finally had great success in her late 50s, which is very rare. And she was talking about again of having the courage of her convictions and belief in herself and not being beaten. It’s not like she didn’t work, but it was hard. It was hard. I always say, it’s hard for men as they get older and nearly impossible for women as they get older. It’s my experience.
David Read
It’s true.
Tony Amendola
Yeah. It’s getting better, though. It is getting better.
David Read
Long way to go.
Tony Amendola
Long way to go.
David Read
Tracy wanted to know. And I’m curious myself, Tony, I would love to read a project that you had written. Have you considered writing? Or finding a writing partner and putting something out? I would love to.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, you know, I occasionally for the independence and for the control I would love to do that. But I think in part, it’s because I’ve had the benefit to work on such great material, that it pains me so much to go through the process of it not being good. All the writers do you know what I mean? Yeah, thank you, I’d have to think about it. And but, if you work closely enough, like even this Shakespeare thing. I mean, my name is not on there as a writing credit, but I certainly had an effect on the script, certainly had an effect on the script. Suggestions, and “No, no, this sonnet is better than that sonnet for this reason.” And so, who knows? Anything’s possible.
David Read
I’d like to plant a seed. I’m sure. It’s one that’s probably been planted before. We’ve brought up Audible. I would love to read an autobiography.
Tony Amendola
Oh, no. Oh, really? Yeah.
David Read
Cliff Simon, we lost him. And what he has, Paris Nights, My Time at the Moulin Rouge. And it is a great read and a great listen.
Tony Amendola
Yeah. Oh, he recorded it on Audible?
David Read
It’s on Audible.
Tony Amendola
With him recording it? Did he? Oh, I didn’t realize.
David Read
I treasure it immensely.
Tony Amendola
Oh, wow. Yeah. It’s funny, because you work with Cliff and we were there a bunch and then we find ourselves at conventions and hook up, just catch up. And he was such an interesting guy. What an interesting life. Oh my god.
David Read
Military, dancer.
Tony Amendola
Military, dancer. Yeah, and what was so tragic, he finally found a strange combination of his profession and his love as an actor. And his even greater sort of thing of in terms of outdoor sports, and in terms of challenges and extreme sports. And he finally found, that documentary he was doing, and I thought, “Oh, my God, there it is, Chris. I mean, it is Cliff. Yeah, there it is Cliff. You found it. Oh, my God.” And he told me, I saw him. I forget at a convention just before it was gonna come out, or just, there was some clips I saw that and he said, “Oh, man, this is it. This is all I want to do. If I could do this, I don’t need to act. You know, I would if they but I yeah, this is great.” Because he was always in some place thinking, “God, are you crazy? Are you nuts to be in that swamp or to be in that?” But that was him, you know we’re all searching for sort of a release of endorphins and adrenaline, which depending upon your point of view the experience can either be very frightening or very stimulating. I often say actors, when we get depressed because we’re not working, particularly theater actors, even more than film and television. It’s because what we’re missing it’s a kind of chemical withdrawal. We’re literally missing the chemicals that are released every night at eight o’clock before we step on the stage.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he found that, and so he was lucky to have found that, you know?
David Read
Right. Exactly. Tom McBeath told me once, “If you’re not frightened, it’s not worth doing.”
David Read
Absolutely. So if Stargate comes back are you definitely, and someone were to call you and say, “Hey,” or Christopher, are you definitely considering it?
Tony Amendola
I am not going to do if Christopher’s on it. Okay. He gets me into too much trouble. Of course, no, no, no, no, of course I would definitely be involved if they asked. So.
David Read
Absolutely. Ákos [Tamás Nováki] said “Bra’tac called Teal’c his son in season 10.” I thought that scene was a lovely capstone for the two and were it never to come back in any other form. There was, that’s a solid, solid arc.
Tony Amendola
Oh, yes.
David Read
When was the first time you felt that this emotional statement, this connection between Bra’tac and Teal’c was really making sense. I mean, there’s a great episode like Threshold, where Brad Wright, we’ve talked about that before, he used every, every scene.
Tony Amendola
Every minute.
David Read
Yeah, there’s good stuff.
Tony Amendola
It was always there. But probably if you really had to it would be the episode on the beach where we were sharing, we were sharing a symbiote.
David Read
The Changeling.
Tony Amendola
Yes, that is the most intimate connection in a kind of way.
David Read
For a Jaffa, yeah.
Tony Amendola
Yeah. Yeah. So it was there, I mean it was always sort of felt. And particularly as I sort of pulled away from the warrior aspect, and they made me as much a diplomat and stuff. So it was, yeah, I’d say The Changeling.
David Read
There’s a scene from that episode. When you guys were coming home, after that scene, and you guys were trying to figure out, okay, are we coming back for another season? Can you tell that story real quick?
Tony Amendola
[Inaudible] Okay. Yeah. Okay. We were shooting over by the Fraser River, which is close to the airport and we’re waiting for the light, what they call magic light. So it’s getting towards sunset, glow, and everything, and tons and tons of extras. And they had cranes for the cameras, and everything was that big overhead shot? And I heard, trying to think, was Michael, it was Michael and Chris, sort of talking, “Are we coming back? Aren’t we coming back.” And they were really frightened. And I was just listening because I didn’t have as much skin in the game as they did. Of course, I wanted the show to come back. But I was probably doing three episodes a year at that point and doing other projects. They were doing 22. And so I remember, but the salmon were running, salmon at that point, and from people who’ve seen that they sort of jump up, and there are just thousands of them. I mean, it was spectacular, catching the light, catching the light. And finally I listened to them going on about this and finally I said, “Look guys, you’re coming back.” “What do you know, you’re coming back.” And they were trying to be polite, “Like, what do you know, you’re just the guest star. What do you know? You’re recurring but what do you know? How do you know we’re coming back” I say, “Chris, I know we’re coming back. Because look, even the salmon are jumping out of the river to get a look at Stargate SG-1. And they laughed and they laughed.
David Read
And you were right.
Tony Amendola
And I was right. But actually, it’s funny. What I thought you were going to talk about, which was when we finished that I remember, because we have to get wet. When we finished that I ended up riding back with Chris in his car and he had a wonderful bottle of scotch. And there was a driver, he was and to be fair, this is a separate driver it wasn’t part of the Stargate crew which is completely illegal.
David Read
This is a separate hire.
Tony Amendola
Formal, formal sort of thing, but we had some nice scotch and so it was quite a satisfying day that day.
David Read
I really appreciate you coming on and sharing these memories. It’s always fun to have you back whether we focus on Stargate specifically or not. But I have truly admired you for the work that you’ve done. And for your constitution as a performer and as a human being. And it’s always great to have you on the show and I hope to have you back again in the future.
Tony Amendola
Yeah, well, we have to finish the conversation.
David Read
Absolutely.
Tony Amendola
Anyway, thank you. Thank you, David. And thank you all for watching and listening and to be continued. Be well.
David Read
Thank you, Tony. You take care of yourself, sir.
Tony Amendola
You too.
Tony Amendola
Bye, bye.
David Read
Bye, bye.
David Read
Tony Amendola everyone, Master Bra’tac from Stargate SG-1. I appreciate all of you for tuning in and for taking some time out of your Sunday with us. We have coming up next week, a pre-recorded episode with Mr. Paul McGillion. So I’m going to be setting up a separate YouTube video where you will be able to ask Paul questions underneath in the comments below. And I’ll be getting to that, to upload that in in just a moment here. If you enjoy the show, and you like what we do here, it would mean a great deal if you consider looking at some of our T-shirts. We offer T-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies for all ages, as well as cups and other accessories in a variety of sizes and colors, including the famous Hammond of Texas mantra from Mr. Bra’tac himself over at dialthegate.com/merch and we thank you so much for your support. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider hitting that Like button, share it with a friend or Subscribe for future live installments so you’ll be able to see what’s coming up next. I think that’s all that we have for you this week. My thanks so much to Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey as well as my moderating team Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, and Antony and big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at Concepts Web, he is our web developer on Dial the Gate. And also thank you to Jeremy Heiner, our webmaster, keeps the site up to date. My name is David Read. Thanks again so much to Tony Amendola for joining us. You’re watching Dial the Gate. We’ll see you next week with an episode with Paul McGillion. See you on the other side