What if word of the Stargate program got out? That was a theme through the show, and Kendall Cross as “Julia Donovan” gave it a good stab. We are proud to welcome her to Dial the Gate to tell her story and take questions LIVE, while not breaking her Pentagon NDA!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:34 – Opening Credits
01:01 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:18 – Welcoming Kendall
03:25 – Julia Donovan
13:24 – How Kendall became interested in acting
18:15 – The Vancouver Film and TV Industry
22:33 – Teaching Career and Voice-over Work
26:48 – Amanda Tapping
32:30 – “The Road Not Taken”
37:23 – Audition Process and Scene Discussions
52:30 – Returning to Stargate
53:52 – Favorite Play or Broadway Musical
56:29 – Wrapping up with Kendall
57:25 – Post Interview Housekeeping
59:09 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone and welcome to episode 235 of Dial the Gate, my name is David Read. Kendall Cross who played Julia Donovan in Stargate SG-1; the plucky reporter who was trying to get access to our colleagues, is joining us for this episode. But before we get started, if you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click the Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube and will continue to help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to be notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guest changes. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. As this is a live show, Kendall is with me now and if you’re in the YouTube chat this will give you an opportunity to submit questions to my moderators who will get them over to me and I’ll get some of those questions over to her. Kendall Cross, Julia Donovan in Stargate SG-1; the one reporter who got closer to the truth than anybody. Welcome Kendall, thank you for being here.

Kendall Cross
Thanks for having me David.

David Read
It is so cool to have you.

Kendall Cross
I don’t know how close to the truth I got but…

David Read
Well that’s fair. I don’t think she ever knew really about the Stargate but she met aliens, she went for a ride in space. That was pretty darn cool.

Kendall Cross
It’s true. Yeah, got to see a real alien.

David Read
The premise of the show, so much of the show is about misdirection of the public and secrecy. It was finally in season six that we got to see someone get who was a civilian, not any government official, really get close. That from an audience members perspective, a) was cool, but also threatening because we’re on the sides of our heroes. Tell me about you getting this role and tell me about what you thought of Julia.

Kendall Cross
Okay, so let’s first of all remember this is a long time ago.

David Read
Absolutely.

Kendall Cross
I think I did the first episode in 2001 or 2002 somewhere in there. I think 2000, yeah, 2001, 2002. Yeah, so to be honest, as a theatre actor I desperately wanted a part where I got to wear prosthetics and I got to have some cool contact lenses in. When I landed the part of Julia I was obviously super excited but once again, just like “god, I wish people could see me outside of being this pretty journalist. I want to do the crazy fun parts” and I really battled that a lot in the early years of my career. I was really pushed people, my agent, my casting agents, were always trying to push me to get a lead in a series to be the number one. I really wanted to be number four or five on the cast list and not work every day, but work enough and have the opportunity to play some of these more character style roles. Julia was maybe not the part I necessarily wanted, and certainly didn’t think it was going to recur in any way, but it turned out to be a great experience. It was super fun. I knew about the show, I’d seen the original with James Spader, the movie. I knew the premise of it but coming into it really didn’t know much else. Back in that time if you had a guest star or a larger role they didn’t have cast read throughs where they invited us to those. I didn’t even get a script till very close to the shooting date and I didn’t have any background on the show.

David Read
Isn’t that kind of perfect?

Kendall Cross
I guess so.

David Read
In this situation?

Kendall Cross
So I kind of went into it a little bit green. Michael Shanks actually, him and I grew up together in Kamloops. He went to school with my brother, he was a couple of years older than me and lived just up the street from me since we were nine or ten years old, which is super funny, little bit of trivia for you. When I was in theater school at UBC, he was in second year in business at UBC and he decided to swap and go into theater so he ended up in my class. We were a very small group, you had to audition to get into this program and they only took ten people a year. Him and I were in the program together, same year, so we became very close, those people are like family. When I did get the part on the show, I’m like, “hey, guess what? I got a part on the show.” We didn’t see each other once. He wasn’t even in that first episode more than I think, I think he had one day on that episode.”

David Read
He was not in season six, he was out of the show. The next season he came in, in season eight.

Kendall Cross
It was the next season. Did he replace…?

David Read
Corin Nemec replaced Michael.

Kendall Cross
Replaced Michael as Jonas.

David Read
That’s correct.

Kendall Cross
Yeah. So I didn’t even get to work with him which was so funny. I asked a lot of questions to kind of understand what I was getting into but I really didn’t know much about the show. I have to also point out that I grew up with my mother watching Days of Our Lives. Do you know where I’m going with this?

David Read
Is that a John de Lancie connection?

Kendall Cross
Yeah.

David Read
That’s what I thought.

Kendall Cross
He’d been on Days of our Lives for I don’t know, a decade or something. When he showed up, I think we shot actually, I think we shot my scenes with him first before I did anything else. I was just like, I worked with a lot of people and I’ve never been star-struck before. I’m like, “it’s Q, it’s Q from Star Trek. It’s Eugene Bradford from Days of Our Lives.” I was just so excited to be on a show with him. So yeah, for me, I’m not sure how [inaudible] I learned what I was up against. Literally, I just needed to know that I was the first person to be given access to the Prometheus and I was the first person to see beyond this facade that had been created for the characters in Stargate. I understood it was special and that I had a special role. Weirdly enough too, you never really saw myself and…who was the other character?

David Read
Richard Dean, Jack?.

Kendall Cross
Did everyone else get killed as the ship took off?

David Read
Your boss definitely got killed because he was in on it with the NID so he got his just desserts. But after the incident, pretty much everyone else except for John de Lancie and him, were beamed back to the surface off-screen at the beginning of the next episode before the Promeheus went on her mission.

Kendall Cross
I thought it was really interesting that we didn’t see me again for so long and sort of never really got to understand what exactly happened to me after that.

David Read
I think she signed her NDA. Another person would have probably gone into therapy but I don’t know about her. Kendall, I keep on wanting to call you Julia. I think part of it is because what we’re doing right now is what she did. I’ve always felt very close to this character, she is one of my favorites from the show. I think that you and the writers could have made her cutthroat, she is to a degree, but I think she’s more sincere. I think she’s really a First Amendment kind of gal and truly believes that the truth is better than anything hiding beneath the surface as far as the public is concerned. Did you pick that up as well or did you have a different interpretation?

Kendall Cross
There’s an innocence to the character; not really understanding how deep everything went. I really wanted her to be just an eager beaver, like wanting to get in there and get the first story in. New too, young in the industry, young as a journalist and just like “this is the big break.” This is the “cats ass” if I’m allowed to say. So I really felt that there was a there an innocence to her, maybe not quite understanding the depth of what she was getting into until she was fully in it. Maybe not really believing it was true until the moment she realizes I think Jonas, the moment she realizes he’s really an alien too. I love that part of the scene actually, “you too, what the hell’s going on?”

David Read
Exactly right, there’s a lot happening here. The scene with Colin Cunningham, Major Davis, in the in the car, suggested that she did know that this could go deep. I think one of best lines from that episode is, “you should know I’ve made arrangements if something happens to me.” She was willing to go all in for this, including risking her life. That’s just wild because there are reporters, there are people out there, who are willing to do that to get to the truth.

Kendall Cross
That’s a really good point you made. That scene, especially when I watch it back. I think that when I say there’s an innocence to her, I’m not sure she understood maybe the depth of what could happen to her if she pursued it. And maybe a little bit of naivety as far as how long she had been doing this this career. She might have approached it a little more trepidly, off the top.

David Read
Well that’s just the thing, she has no way of knowing just how far down the rabbit hole goes.

Kendall Cross
Exactly. Thanks for sending those episodes because I looked back and I don’t know if I remembered how much I was in that first episode. I just sort of remembered two or three scenes but then when I watched it back I was like, “oh, yeah.” Seeing all the actors and going “oh yeah.” Enid-Raye was in it and Kyle Cassie and all these people that down the road…I still run into all of them regularly. Just all of us kind of starting out in our careers, for the most part. I don’t think any of us had been around more than maybe five to eight years in the business at that point. Just to also see where people have gone since then, in their careers, it was just fun to watch it back. Of course, I would always do things differently if I could go back.

David Read
Of course, hindsight is 20/20. I want to set Julia aside for a moment. Tell me how old were you when you first realized that you wanted to act as a career. You established that you were down the road from Michael, so there was that. He switched in college, I guess, as well. But when did you know that you wanted to do this?

Kendall Cross
I have a very prominent memory of watching Drew Barrymore being interviewed by Johnny Carson when I was very small. I think she was about my age, I think it was probably eight or something. I was just enamored by the fact that this kid was doing this and she was on a show. For a long time I was like, “how much of this is that I want to act and how much is it that I just liked the limelight? What is it for me?” I hit drama in grade eight and Michael Shanks and I had an amazing drama teacher for our junior years in high school who would just produce stuff that was unlike any other drama teacher in our city, at least. We would go off to festivals and we’d win the festivals in BC. Attached to our school was the Sagebrush Theatre, which was the city theatre, so we were doing these shows that were huge for young kids our age and ending up in the newspaper. There was just this vibe and I think Michael had a lead in his year, he had a lead in the show. Myself, by grade 10, it was junior high so grade 10 was the highest grade. We both had our lead roles in grade 10. I think she really for both of us, I know he kept in touch with her for years, she’s passed away since. For both of us, she was just a real instigator of that fire and she really ignited a fire in both of us to perform. So for me, yes, I saw Drew Barrymore and went, “ooh, I want to be on TV.” But did I really know that I loved acting, that I loved affecting people? That probably came later in high school. Then I thought, “okay, I’m going to be a drama teacher. That’s what I want to do.” That’s why I pursued university and getting a degree in acting because I just wasn’t 100% sure. I thought, “I probably should get a degree so I have this to fall forward on or back on, depending on what happens.” Of course TV and film did not exist where I grew up. I graduated from high school and my parents, my dad, had already moved his business down to Vancouver. He was waiting for me to graduate and commuting back and forth from Vancouver to Kamloops so that I could graduate with the people I grew up with. I moved to Vancouver when I was 17 and that’s when the film industry kind of came into light. So for me, for Michael too, we finished our theater program. I think he did the same as me and we looked for agents about a year before we graduated with our BFAs [Bachelor of Fine Arts] and both landed agents and then we both dove into film and TV. So yeah, that’s kind of the trajectory for me as far as acting went.

David Read
Are you still in Vancouver?

Kendall Cross
I am, yeah. I did move to L.A. for a short period of time. I guess, around age 30 to 33 I lived there and I loved it. There’s lots about L.A. I really enjoyed but for me, it was just not about being famous, it was about being close to family but still being able to have a career. That mattered more to me so being away from family and living in the city that was just going all the time! And hard to find a lot of authentic genuine people.

David Read
Oh gosh, that’s the truth. I lived there for a couple years myself.

Kendall Cross
I struggled. I had a one close friend that had moved down there and still lives there. I was able to kind of live with her and her husband and get a sense of the industry through them and it just wasn’t for me.

David Read
But you tried it.

Kendall Cross
I felt like I got more work here so it seemed silly to be struggling in this big city when I could just be here and not struggling so much.

David Read
It’s important that you did it, that you can say, “okay, I’ve touched that, I’ve done that, I recognize what’s most important to me. I want to be a little bit closer to my family.” The thing that I’ve watched with Vancouver since covering the show back in the early 2000s is just watching Vancouver explode. It has just absolutely cemented itself as a huge film and television presence.

Kendall Cross
It’s true. For so many years it was so sci-fi based and then that turned; it switched. It just became broader in what we as actors were able to audition for. Lots of movies of the week, Vancouver was huge for MOWs and then we started to see some other series come out that weren’t sci-fi. I think back to when I was starting out and it was Poltergeist, Outer Limits, X-Files, Andromeda. Through the years, definitely, we’ve stayed and we do have a high volume of sci-fi; The 100, Beyond, Another Life, I could just keep going. But in came Hallmark…

David Read
Right!

Kendall Cross
Yeah. That’s really boosted the industry. Hallmark produces about 80 shows a year here in Vancouver so there’s work here and that’s kept me busy enough, that’s for sure.

David Read
I’m always blown away by the number of people who I have on and say, “yeah, I’m in a Christmas movie coming out” or “I’ve got this going on with Hallmark.” It’s become such a huge asset to the community. I understand the sci-fi stuff originally because of the difference in value from the Canadian to the US dollar; they can get really more bang for their buck up there with Canadian effects people so that makes a lot of sense. With a lot of these shows like Virgin River, which you were in and Martin Wood’s a big part of, there’s room for it to expand and grow beyond just sci-fi.

Kendall Cross
I think too with COVID and just the mental health awareness that’s come up, a lot of people are just looking for something that’s not too…. Hallmark is what it is, right? It’s easy, relaxing media to watch that’s, you know it’s always going to end positive.

David Read
You know what you’re getting with it.

Kendall Cross
Totally, and to work on those shows is very enjoyable because they’re a well oiled machine. Their days are pretty short, you’re not working what we call “Fraturdays” where you start on set at four in the afternoon and finish on a Saturday morning at four in the morning. They’re done by seven, eight o’clock, everyone goes home, the crew is happy because they’re going home and seeing their families. It feels good even though the parts aren’t challenging. As I age I find that I’m more drawn to doing some of that work on the day to day because it’s just easier on on everything; my mental health, my physical health. So yeah, Vancouver has just changed so much and it’s grown so much. I think it just offers a lot of the actors here the opportunity to make a living and still live in the city.

David Read
And it’s a beautiful part of the world. Every time I’m up there I’m always excited to go out and try to see some of it and get away from interviews and Stargate stuff.

Kendall Cross
Where are you located?

David Read
I’m currently in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve lived in L.A, I’ve lived in Phoenix, I’ve lived in the Philippines for a year, I’ve lived all over. Vancouver, that part of the world is still one of my favorite places. I guess because I like rain.

Kendall Cross
I’m am avid sports person so I downhill ski, I kite surf, I hike. This city is perfect for me and my my family.

David Read
Wow, that’s great.

Kendall Cross
I forgot to say too, I did go on to get my teaching certificate after I left UBC. I did teach high school on and off for about a decade, the the film career was just taking off and it just wasn’t working enough. You got to work a certain number of hours or they don’t really want you teaching. Then I really got into doing a lot of voiceover, that just sort of happened. Not animation, mostly commercial narration work and that took off. I absolutely love it, if I could do voiceover every day that’s what I would do. My, I guess, weekly work is in voiceover now and I teach at a voiceover school in Vancouver.

David Read
Tell me about that.

Kendall Cross
It’s an accredited voiceover school so they have a full time program, six month program. We have 20 students; 20 in person students, 10 on line. We push them through the program and I teach the commercial side of of that. I am teaching still, which is great.

David Read
There is something more intimate about voiceover, I think, in many ways in a lot of the other other stuff because you’re speaking right to an audience. I worked in radio for six years, it’s the first real job that I had. I got it during high school. You don’t necessarily know that the audience is there but you know that someone is listening to you and you have a chance to connect with them. I’ve always been drawn to it. I think that there’s something very intimate about just the human voice connecting with another person, used to tell a story.

Kendall Cross
It’s true. I found it really became about my abilities. Early on in my career in film and TV a lot of it was about how I looked, so much of it. That’s changed a lot too in the industry. I struggled to to get challenging parts because people only saw me a certain way. Voice-over is just so much about my abilities and I’m good at it, I feel like I’m good at it and it’s led to me directing as well. I’ve been directing demos, I just finished directing a documentary. Directing the voice for the documentary and I love it. I feel like I’m finding the right element for me.

David Read
There is something special about coaching other people and watching them succeed, especially with something that you’re passionate about. You see their eyes light up, they’re passionate about it. If they’ve got talents you find the hair triggers to get them going off in a different direction or exploring a different facet of themselves through the performance. That’s very freeing and rewarding.

Kendall Cross
Yeah, it’s very fulfilling. Women were not directing when I started in this industry, it just wasn’t even thought about. If a woman was directing it was incredibly rare and very rare to have a woman operating a camera. They wear costumes and they were makeup, so that has shifted so immensely. I feel like I’m just a little too old to jump into it now, maybe I’m wrong.

David Read
You never know.

Kendall Cross
I think I would have been very good at directing if I had different opportunities when I started in the business. This is really offering me that opportunity to direct and I think it’s incredibly fulfilling. I’m super happy.

David Read
Kendall never say never. Look at Amanda Tapping; trail blazer. Speaking of Amanda, I loved the combat between the two of you. Pretty much every episode, especially when we got into your return in season eight, rivalry is not the right word, you’re both on a mission to do what you’re there to do. I loved watching it, tell me about the scenes between you and Amanda.

Kendall Cross
Amanda, I think, really didn’t want us to be these catty women that were going at each other. We both were strong women who had an agenda, a valid agenda, both of us. She was very great at that, I guess, informing me of some of this when I got to set because like I said, you come to set, you don’t have a lot of information if you’re not someone who’s watching the show, which I was not. To be fair, part of me thinks I didn’t watch the show because I just couldn’t get past knowing Michael. It’s hard for me to really get into the show itself, ot would just make me laugh. It’s like “Michael doing this part…”

David Read
It’s true.

Kendall Cross
She was great at just kind of giving me background and she was very adamant that we stayed strong; not catty, not trying to claw at each other. In a way, just show respect for each other, which I think we managed to bring across.

David Read
Absolutely. She is there to make sure that this doesn’t spin out of control. It’s one of my favorite scenes, just before they go on air at the beginning of Covenant Julia says, “well, if you do decide to disobey orders, I’ll roll with it” She’s always just egging her on, it’s like, “come on, give me something here. I almost lost my life in orbit a couple of years ago. Cut me some slack.”

Kendall Cross
Throw me something for godsake.

David Read
That’s exactly right. I love the character and what she means to the franchise in terms of getting the truth out and potentially revealing the secret to the world. So much of what the franchise is based on is having this thing…

Kendall Cross
Hidden.

David Read
You’re right and at some point it’s gonna get out. I would think that when that time comes that you would, if the show ever comes back and MGM and Amazon are working on it…

Kendall Cross
Are they really?

David Read
Well, maybe not the Brad Wright version. That’s the question. But if it was, I would think that Julia would have a seat at the table.

Kendall Cross
Yeah, hey, she totally should.

David Read
Absolutely.

Kendall Cross
I remember too, I think Road Not Taken, that was the last episode.

David Read
Yes.

Kendall Cross
Amanda had just had Olivia and I was pregnant during that episode with my first. I think that that also just played into us both having connected outside of the characters too, on set, and just sharing sort of what it’s like to be a mother, or almost a mother, in this industry. She was holding her own through that time and as a mother of a newborn baby she’s just an amazing strong woman and I really admire her. She was incredibly helpful too down the road, we connected after that episode. She stayed in touch with me after I gave birth and passed on a lot of her baby stuff. She’s lovely and it’s been really exciting to watch her move into this director position and producer position and take on such a strong role as a woman in the industry, it’s admirable. We all laugh because when the award ceremonies come around Amanda wins something every year. But for many, many years she was constantly not being the winner and to see her pursue and stay strong is really, really cool.

David Read
If you work your butt off and you are persistent and you are consistent, you have a shot. I’m just blown away by, also but not surprised, because Amanda was always genuine and I really think that that gets you far.

Kendall Cross
I’d like to think so. In this city if you were to ask any actors that have worked with her that’s the first thing they would say. She’s just authentic, she’s an authentic human being; what you see is what you get, she’s really supportive of everybody, men, women. I think she’s just really proud of Vancouver, the people here that she’s worked with. What has she done? 200 and something episodes of just Stargate alone; you work with pretty much everyone in the city by that point. She’s just well respected.

David Read
I wanted to talk about your last episode Road Not Taken which is an alternate version of the character that you had been playing. This is an interesting episode because this episode takes place in a world where aliens have been revealed, the government has had to do a number of different things to keep law and order in place. This is a different reporter than the one that we’re accustomed to seeing because this is a person who has had the boot put on her neck and she’s much more cautious in terms of “oh, free press and freedom of speech” and everything else really drew that in. Did you get a sense of that when you got the script? Was there anything deliberate that was like, “okay, I see that this is a person who has led a completely different life, in terms of her career, than the one that we’ve seen before.”

Kendall Cross
About a day before I shot, Amanda, I was like, “tell me everything I need to know.” Like I said, you don’t get a lot of information. Sometimes you only get the script, if you even get the script, at that point the scripts were very secretive because Stargate had become a big deal. It’s always very frustrating as an actor, even working on The 100, we get the scripts the night before and you only get your scenes. You’re like, “well how am I supposed to know who I am and what’s my role in this whole enterprise?” Amanda was really great. I was like, “I need to know what the heck’s happening in this scene.” I chose to play her I guess like you said. I think I added a kindness to her, a gentle, caring, much more soft personality. Whether I felt I was being mugged and not allowed to say anything or whether I just was a lot less cutthroat or you digging for the story, I think some of that layer to the character was just dismissed. So much softer and I guess a bit more shackled.

David Read
Yeah, this version of her is playing a game and making sure that if she goes too far, she might disappear in this kind of place. I thought it was a great scene because you have Amanda Tapping’s character who is “get the word out, get the word out” and you were like, “no, no, no, we have to toe the line here.” They’ve completely reversed in terms of their goals as characters from the last time that we saw them together which I think was not expected.

Kendall Cross
Yeah, it must have been fun as an audience member watching that because it wouldn’t have been at all what you were not necessarily hoping for. It definitely took a direction that wasn’t what you planned on. This is always the thing, you know so much more about this than I ever would. I am not sure I was a huge sci-fi fan. I watched a lot of Star Trek The Next Generation, I really love that show, I don’t know why.

David Read
It’s a good show.

Kendall Cross
Having been in the X-Men movies, having my foot in the door on some of these things, it definitely inspired me to watch some of these shows. You have so much more knowledge and depth about all of this than I ever would. I think that’s the thing to note as a audience member, a lot of us actors are coming into this kind of flying by the seat of our pants a lot of the times. We don’t have the information that we need sometimes to play the character the way we want to. That’s what Amanda was just amazing for, it was just like, “give me everything that I would need to know right now.” It’s one scene in the whole episode so to know how to layer that is really hard and she was amazing at that. Once again, just very supportive of women.

David Read
Absolutely.

Kendall Cross
You know more about my character than I do I think.

David Read
I am the Julia Donovan outside of Stargate so “give me the truth!” I’ve got a couple of fan questions for you.

Kendall Cross
Okay.

David Read
Phoenix Gaming wanted to know – Do you remember anything specific about the audition process for Julia? I know it’s been 20 years but does anything stand out to you about auditioning for Stargate? Was this your first Stargate audition?

Kendall Cross
It wasn’t my first. Yeah, I do remember, for Stargate they auditioned actually on the studio lot. They had these, I guess, construction trailers that were made into an audition space. The crazy thing about that was that the walls were thin so everyone knew when you got to the audition space if you were sitting in the five chairs that they had outside of the room you could hear everybody auditioning in the other room. It was super uncomfortable. I remember always staying outside and just kind of walking around, waiting until I knew I was “on deck” we would call it. If you knew you were next step you could see the list. I would wait till that very last minute to go in because I didn’t want to hear other people, I found it really distracting. I wanted to go in and with my own choices…

David Read
Yeah, you don’t want it to throw you.

Kendall Cross
Actually, in the trailer, the top wall, I remember it had about a foot of empty space above it that went into the next room so you could you could hear everything, you could hear the redirection. At that time you really earned your way into an audition space by doing good auditions. Maybe you didn’t always land the role but as long as you were coming in and doing really good auditions, you were invited back with the casting agent, knowing that you weren’t going to embarrass them if they brought you into the space. At that point the audition space had the producer, director, sometimes other people in the room. A lot of the times I would go to my first audition with the producer/director already in the room versus having sort of a first audition where you just see the casting agent and then they decide if they’re going to bring you back. I had earned my, I guess, space by doing good auditions up to that point I think, I was brought in directly to producers and the director at that time. There was no call back for that, it was a one off audition. At the time if you were doing auditions for guest star roles… [inaudible] That’s still happens now. I find I’m cast with more weeks in advance than I used to be. So yeah, in that case, I was just in, did the audition, they redirected me and then landed the role and filmed it the next week. No talk of it being a reccurring role at that point so it was always nice to get that phone call, “hey, you’ve been written into the next script.”

David Read
Yeah, I think depending on the kind of episodes that they were doing. They thought that they were gonna do season six and then potentially spin off into a film or something. They didn’t realize that it was going to be as successful as it was. As they did individual episodes the satellite cast were tools in their tool shed that they could go in and say, “okay, this one’s going to be perfect for this episode.” A script would come along and it’s like, “it’s time to bring Julia Donovan back on to the network.”

Kendall Cross
Yeah, and then those scenes in the following episodes, not the final episode, The Road Not Taken, but Covenant and what was the third one?

David Read
I think Ex Deus Machina?

Kendall Cross
Yeah, so those, I wasn’t even with cast. I think it was even “camera operator B” so while the main cast is shooting somewhere else they’re shooting these side things. I was brought in, it was like, “sit in the chair, you’re broadcasting, you do your thing.” They may have even had a teleprompter at that time.

David Read
Yeah, authenticity.

Kendall Cross
I didn’t really have to memorize my lines, I just had to take on the role of broadcaster and read the part.

David Read
Yeah and do your walk and talk down the down the city sidewalk and pull it off.

Kendall Cross
I remember that very clearly because they only had a certain amount scripted and I had to make up the rest as I was walking along.

David Read
Really?

Kendall Cross
Which was a little stressful.

David Read
“I need to be paid more.”

Kendall Cross
If I had to do that now, at this age, I’m not sure I would be so successful; speaking on my feett like that,

David Read
“I’m an actress, I’m not an actual reporter.”

Kendall Cross
Those were shot on the lot. The one where I’m walking was shot right inside the gate at Bridge Studios. Just funny.

David Read
I was taking a look at Prometheus again before we started and I was remembering a lot of the little details. The conference room where you and Major Davis and Samantha Carter and your producer, Al, sit down together is the boardroom. It was the second story at the Stargate productions office where they would have meetings. It’s like “just film it in house. Why go out and find a boardroom? We can just dress this room and do it.”

Kendall Cross
Exactly. They used a lot of the actual studio space. A lot of the outdoor, Amanda walking to her car, I remember going “oh, there’s Bridge Studios.” It’s a little bit different now, they’ve renovated it and updated it but it just looks like a business a lot. It looks like these big buildings and parking so it’s useful for a lot of stuff. Most of the things I’ve shot on that lot use the actual lot for many of their outdoor walk and talk scenes which is kind of funny.

David Read
Why go and search for something when you can pull it off right here? Just use a longer lens and no one can tell.

Kendall Cross
Exactly. The casting trailer might have even been in the background. Yeah, it’s funny. With all of the sci-fi going on at the time, some of it was done at Bridge, Lionsgate Studio did a quite a bit as well and Vancouver Studios. They’re all not too far apart in distance, these studios. You just kind of get used to this, being in the space that you go to, and you’re in these rooms with usually a camera operator on you for the audition. Someone who’s reading off camera, the sides, the opposite lines with you, and then you’ve got these people just sitting there staring at you through the whole thing. It’s a funny experience and since COVID it’s all been moved online so now we’ve become editors and directing ourselves. My family members have read off-camera with me I don’t know how many times. I’ve had to start paying my daughter to read off because she’s really good at it. I’m like, “I’m gonna start paying you” because she’s a teenager; there’s some attitude there and she doesn’t really want to read off camera with me. So yeah, starting to pay my kids to read with me!

Kendall Cross
It’s been a whole technical thing right now, we’re the editors. We have to learn the lines, we have to set up the light rings and the camera so it’s working properly and get our backdrop going and then after we’ve done all of that we’ve got to edit it all together and then send it in. So yeah, it’s a whole different world.

David Read
That’s funny.

David Read
Can I ask you as an actor about that? You will be able to normally go in and sit down with the casting director or sit down with the producer and director of the project and get that real time feedback. I imagine when you submit a tape, other than a couple of notes that you might be given, that’s gone now. Do you think that it’s made things easier, saving on gas and things like that, or harder in terms of getting clarity for these roles?

Kendall Cross
For me, it’s been substantially harder. There’s something about being live in the room with the people. I think with any job interview, when you meet someone in person you can feel who they are and get a sense of the kind of person they are. I’d be very surprised if directors enjoy this process now because as a director you want to know that the person you’re hiring can take direction. The time to learn that is in the space during the audition. I landed a recurring role on The Sentinel years ago and I had one line, my audition was one line. I said, “why did you pick me? How do you know who…?” The director of the time said, “well, because you came in with this whole life you had created for the character before you said this one line and then I redirected you and you did what I asked. So you looked like who I had in my mind when I read the script, you came in and showed me you knew what you were doing and then you took direction.” So I think for directors, that really should be their goal; “this person did a great job in their audition, but can they take direction if I completely change it around on them? Are they someone that’s going to be able to produce the work on the day?” It’s only been a couple years of us doing this at this point, auditioning this way. I think that people are starting to feel that. They hire someone and they don’t know that person could have taken three days to put their audition on tape and give a really good take. You really want people that give the good take on the first try. I do wonder if the quality of acting that they’re experiencing is not the same, I don’t know. So for me, I miss that, I miss that live vibe of being in the room. I don’t want to be an editor, I don’t want to be a camera operator, I want to just focus on the acting and connecting with the person that I’m reading with. I don’t feel as connected when I’m auditioning as I used to.

David Read
That’s a valid point. I would be surprised if this continues that they wouldn’t, at some point insist, as our cameras and our wireless network structure gets stronger, to do these things, if you have to do them remotely, do them still live so you can be provided with a direction or to have the opportunity to give a note or something and then “okay, now go again.” You have to give someone a person to feed off of, no offense, other than their kid.

David Read
Exactly, even if their kid’s good at it.

David Read
Yeah, sure.

Kendall Cross
Yeah, exactly. I read off camera for years for a casting agent at Lionsgate. It was just such a great experience to be in the room and see what other actors would bring to roles and it made me such a better auditioner. I really do think I’m a good auditioner and hopefully that translates onto set as well. Just through that process I just streamlined what I was doing in auditions and I think I got a lot better at it. For me, that live experience is where I shine, a lot stronger than I do, I think, doing all this stuff at home. It’s hard to say how it’s affected my career. I’m 51 years old now so the roles I’m going out for are not as abundant as you get older so I’m going through that experience as well. We’ve got the strike going on so I’m just so thankful that I have my voiceover career on the side, and all my eggs aren’t in this one basket. It’s certainly been a struggle in the last couple of years, more so the last few years I guess. With this whole new online auditioning process I would even love just a zoom audition where I just sit there and ask me some questions, redirect me and let me show you what I can do.

David Read
Absolutely. I imagine for some people, for some who are not technically minded, there are a lot of actors who are just Luddites. They’re “give me the paper, none of these [cell phones]. I can imagine there’s a bit of, “I can’t do this like this anymore.” I imagine there’ll be some people who just retired at this phase and be like, “if you want to get me in a room together to sit down and actually have a performance in front of a person” that’s one thing. But translating into the digital space, I can see there’ll be some people who are not going for this.

Kendall Cross
Yeah, I’m sure that it’s caused some people to rethink whether they want to continue in the business or not. In fact, I know that that’s the case for many. Newcomers to the industry, they don’t know any different. They don’t maybe understand that vibe, that electricity that happens in the room; it really does matter. I actually had this discussion with Enid-Raye Adams not that long ago. She’s been a real great advocate on the UBCP Board, the union of BC performers, and advocating for us to be back in the room. We’re not there yet but we certainly have casting agents that are allowing the option of being in the room but it’s not presented very often. I’d love to see that change for myself.

David Read
Raj Luthra – if there’s another Stargate series would you be interested in returning?

Kendall Cross
Oh, 100%.

David Read
Now as Julia or would you want someone else? Would you want to get under the prosthetics?

Kendall Cross
Yes, yes I would. It’s my theater background, right? It’s Halloween coming up. I love that side of things. I love playing with voice, I love playing with physicality so it would offer me an opportunity to do something fun like that. Of all these sci-fi’s that I ended up doing, Andromeda, I think the closest thing I got was probably Andromeda. I remember this character, Pravarti Quechua I think was the name. I was an alien but they had me in this tight leather full suit and my hair was kind of done in this weird heart shape. That was the closest thing I got.

David Read
Okay.

Kendall Cross
Still no prosthetics. I would love to, I’ll come back as Julia too, I’m totally open to that.

David Read
What’s your favorite Broadway play or musical?

Kendall Cross
Les Mis[erables].

David Read
Mine too.

David Read
I swear to god, I couldn’t believe it. Les Mis was on the back of my mind. Oh wow.

Kendall Cross
Really?

Kendall Cross
The first time I saw it, I saw it in London. When I graduated from theater school my graduation present from my parents was to go to London for 10 days and I saw a play every day. Les Mis, I saw it in New York as well and once again in London many years later, but I could watch that over and over again. I’m a romantic so anything that gets to my absolute heart and soul and has me in tears, I’m all for it.

David Read
What did you think of the version done a few years ago where they did all the performances live?

Kendall Cross
Yeah, good. What did you think of the movie?

David Read
That’s the only version that I’ve seen in terms of a film version. I’ve not seen any of the others, I’ve always been really close to the stage version. I’ve not seen the version with Liam Neeson or any of them. I was blown away by their ability to a) capture the sound live and having a piano playing in one of their ears. I thought it was brilliant. I thought it was brilliant.

Kendall Cross
I thought it was great, I thought they did a really terrific job. Funny though, I met so many people that didn’t like it. I was like, “what? How could you not like it?”

David Read
If you’re not gonna like one of them, don’t like Cats. Geez. I just had this conversation with someone a couple of nights ago. Wicked is in town in Nashville right now and they went and saw it and I told them my favorite was Les Mis. They’re like, “but it’s so sad.” I’m like, “I suppose, but the story is great and the music is amazing.”

Kendall Cross
The music for that is so…it just tears at your heart. I love it, it’s very dramatic and it’s gorgeous. The cast, the singing, the quality of singing that they get from these people…If I could have a voice like that, my god, I would be trying for musicals all the time.

David Read
Absolutely.

Kendall Cross
I do not have that voice so that’s not happening.

David Read
“On my own,” Eponine’s song, that gal, she was pulled from the theater performance and man, she killed it. She absolutely killed it.

Kendall Cross
Stunning. Yeah, 100%.

David Read
Kendall, this has been so cool to have you and to get to know you a little bit. To kind of turn the tables on the character as it were, to have you in the hot seat for once. That was cool so I appreciate you taking the time to do my show and to be so honest and thoughtful. This was really great. Julia Donovan has always been one of my favorites.

Kendall Cross
I loved your description of plucky.

David Read
She was plucky, very much so. She had to make people feel a little bit uncomfortable but she pulled it off and she didn’t die on that ship in the process, so there’s that.

Kendall Cross
Thank you so much for having me, it was wonderful.

David Read
I really appreciate you taking the time. Best of luck to you, you take care of yourself and I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the show on this side.

Kendall Cross
Great, thank you so much.

David Read
Bye Kendall.

Kendall Cross
Take care. Bye.

David Read
Kendall Cross, Julia Donovan, in Stargate SG-1. This was really cool, this was cool. The characters in SG-1 who have always been after the truth; Emmett Bregman, Julia Donovan, I’ve always felt close with because they’re doing what I’ve been doing as a reporter. It’s really cool to connect with these people and get their interpretations of the character, that was really great. We have on the docket for tomorrow two more episodes in season three and then that’s going to be it. We’re going to be taking a break, on hiatus, until probably about March. I have Heather E Ash, writer and story editor for Stargate SG-1, tomorrow October 29th at 12 noon pacific time. Then our season finale, coincidentally enough, with Michael Shanks, Daniel Jackson on Stargate, October 29th at 2pm pacific time. That one’s going to be a riot so I hope you can make it live and get a question in because that’s gonna be a wild show. My thanks to my production team, to Tracy and Antony, you guys have been stalwarts throughout the season. You guys truly do the Lord’s work, I cannot pull this off behind the scenes without you guys there so thank you so much. My Producer, Linda “GateGabber” Furey, and Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb. He’s our web developer on Dial the Gate, he keeps the website up and running so do check that out when you get the chance. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side.