Elisabeth Rosen kicks off our last weekend of YouTube shows to share her story as an artist, memories of “Jennifer Hailey” from Seasons Four and Five of Stargate SG-1 and take your questions LIVE.

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Timecodes:
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:34 – Opening Credits
01:03 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:21 – Welcoming Elisabeth
03:30 – Starting Off in the Industry
05:29 – Memories from Past Work
11:58 – Jennifer Hailey
16:02 – Faceoff: Hailey VS Carter and Kerrigan in “Prodigy”
19:59 – Observations of Hailey
27:56 – Amanda Tapping
31:42 – Light Aliens in “Prodigy”
38:06 – “Proving Ground”
45:03 – Memories from the Set
47:36 – Future Stargate & Stargate novels
53:37 – Downtime Activities
58:03 – Working on the Stargat eSet
1:00:48 – Characters Elisabeth Would Play
1:12:52 – Wrapping up with Elisabeth
1:15:06 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:17:26 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 234 of Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read, thank you for joining me for this episode. Elisabeth Rosen who played Cadet and later Lieutenant Jennifer Haley in Stargate SG-1 seasons four and five is joining us for this episode. But before we bring her in, if you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, click that like button. It makes a great deal of a difference and will help the show continue to grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click subscribe. 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, Elisabeth is waiting in the wings here to join us, so my moderating team consisting of Tracy in this episode is going to be taking your questions for Elisabeth in the live chat here. Go ahead and submit those to her, she’ll get them over to me and I’ll get a few of them over to Elisabeth. Elisabeth Rosen, is it [Rose-en] or [Roz-in]?

Elisabeth Rosen
It’s [Rose-en].

David Read
I got it right all these years.

Elisabeth Rosen
By the way, it’s all good.

David Read
Lieutenant Jennifer Haley from Stargate SG-1.

Elisabeth Rosen
Amazing.

David Read
I am so excited to have you here. We have been working on this for what, a month and a half, two months now?

Elisabeth Rosen
I know.

David Read
And it’s like yes! It is terrific to have you. You were one of my favorites, my personal favorites, in the show and just right off the bat I’ve got to read this one from General Maximus as well. “You are my favorite guest star in SG-1 and the episodes you were in were also two of my favorite. If Stargate comes back in a new series would you reprise this role as a part of the next generation?”

Elisabeth Rosen
Of course I would.

David Read
Okay, absolutely. There’s potentially a new Stargate on the horizon and you never know.

Elisabeth Rosen
Bezos bought MGM and I bet he’s a Stargate fan.

David Read
Yeah, I would hope so. I would really hope so. Can you tell me where you got this idea to be a performer and when did this first get into your bones? How old were you? Who helped shape you into into this?

Elisabeth Rosen
My aunt was a playwright and she actually lived next door to the producers that made McCabe and Mrs. Miller. I know exactly, I was three years old and we were visiting her. I fell asleep on her bed and I woke up and the television was on and it was Alec Guinness playing in David Lean’s Oliver Twist. I woke up and I saw him and I thought “this is what I’m going to do with my life.”

David Read
At 3? Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
I know, literally. My uncle was a brilliant attorney so at two and a half I was convinced I was going to go to Harvard and that was no big deal. Then I saw Alec Guiness and he just caught me and that was this.

David Read
Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
I know. So David Lean, years and years, every once in a while, I would see a David Lean film and it would just pull me in more but it was Alec Guiness.

David Read
Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
Who later went on to obvious incredible success in Star Wars but something about him was, he enchanted me.

David Read
I adore him in Bridge on the River Kwai.

Elisabeth Rosen
Oh gosh, I know.

David Read
An intense performance, you’re just tortured watching it.

Elisabeth Rosen
Just so beautiful, and I was always so inspired by [Lawrence] Olivier.

David Read
Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

Elisabeth Rosen
They weave the words. And of course I’m such a fan of Patrick Stewart. But it was when I was three I was thinking, “this is what I’m supposed to do.”

David Read
Wow. Can you tell me, Elizabeth, about a role that changed you or affected you in a way that you didn’t anticipate when you first got the material? Or you looked at that and you were like, I “I can shape this, I can work with this” and it turned into something that you didn’t expect.

Elisabeth Rosen
Every part is that way.

David Read
Okay.

Elisabeth Rosen
Cadet Haley was very much that way. So many people write me and tell me that they want to go into science because of that part. Truly, it’s a phenomenon. Of all the parts I ever played that changed me the most, I play a young woman who was, a true story produced by Barbra Streisand. A young woman who doesn’t look Jewish and she performs in a circus during World War Two and she has to be hidden because the Nazis obviously want to come and destroy all Jewish people. Just to be on set with that, that project, was so special because they’re all true stories. It’s called The Rescuers [Rescuers: Stories of Courage: Two Families], it’s very beautiful, it was really wonderful. I worked with Tim Matheson who’s obviously incredible and Daryl Hannah. To be on that set and be amongst all of the people in Nazi uniform and we had a real circus, real circus performers, but we were telling the story of true people. They hid in circus trucks, for years. They had children. My character had three children and she hid in a circus truck when they would come and check everyone’s ID. They had been a family that had circus people for such a long time. It was a very beautiful project to be a part of.

David Read
Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
Also, I worked with Gene Wilder. I’m Gene Wilder’s only daughter he’s ever had. I remember when I came to meet him. They were holding auditions but they weren’t real auditions because sometimes they do that but they’ve cast the part.. I went in to meet them and it was this prolific director, Joyce Chopra, who’s a fantastic director and this wonderful producer, Fred Berner, who actually produced the maestro. I went in to meet them and they said you have to come back and meet Gene Wilder. I came in and Gene met me and he literally said, “you are my child.” They hired someone else from New York and they paid her off because I was in Toronto at the time, they paid out her fee…

David Read
Her contract.

Elisabeth Rosen
Just to work with him and Joyce was so special. I got to work with Bruce Surtees who shot Beverly Hills Cop and Lenny and all of the camera crew from Titanic. They let me sit, which I guess never happens, I hung out with Bruce Surtees and I said “can I watch…” There was a scene and he said “literally, it’s gonna take five hours to light this scene.” I said “Bruce, can I just stay and watch you?” He let me ask him every question because his dad was a cinematographer. I asked all these questions about Titanic and I leanred how they shot all the old movies with the lighting and that was phenomenal to work with them.

David Read
We take the construction of a set, as audience members, so much for granted. It is a total art what goes into making everything just right. You’re not just lighting a space, you are setting a mood, you are setting a tone. You’re doing it in such a way that you’re wanting to bring the audience in in a specific way. Those people are artists and we don’t give them credit nearly enough. They are so responsible for setting everything into place so that you can go in and do your job.

Elisabeth Rosen
Well, Bruce was very rare because he was lighting a movie theater, an old movie theater. The way he lit it, if you ever see the scene, it’s called Murder in a Small Town. It’s a scene where Gene Wilder is watching, the scene lasted 30 seconds, this is how much they loved him. The scene is just him looking at a movie, but the whole theater is dark and there’s just one stream of light coming to his face. He literally said to Joyce and Fred, “it’s gonna take me five hours to light this room.” “It’s okay, we’ll come back.” The way the shot is lit, the real filmmaker is how they compose a shot. A cinematographer and production manager and production designer are so important because the composition of the shot and the lighting design is actually the sign of a true filmmaker. When you really look at a show, if you watch a show, the acting of course important, but when you look at the composition of the shot, if you look at Akira Kurosawa who was such a great filmmaker, he tells the story not just through…Where the people sit, whenever an actor comes on set they usually like to pick where they sit. I never ask where I can go, I let the director place me and the cinematographer place me. How they’re telling the story, where I sit is up to them, it’s got nothing to do with me. That’s why hitting marks is so important because if you hit the mark the right way, the composition of the show… Every piece is a painting. I agree with you more than a billion percent.

David Read
Wow, that is so cool.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s why Stargate, for the amount of time that we worked, it was so fast and everything is so well composed.

David Read
Yeah, it’s a well oiled machine. You came into it at season four and they did over the course of three shows 13 more seasons. They were doing something right, something was working.

Elisabeth Rosen
People love this show, it’s really important to them.

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell me your Stargate journey? How did you get cast as Cadet Haley?

Elisabeth Rosen
Honestly, I was in Los Angeles and my agent called me and said, “I want you to go meet Paul Weber” who cast the show. It’s actually a fun story, they sent me pages to read, they sent me a lot of pages. I was thinking, “well, I’m reading ten pages, that’s a lot for an audition, for TV.” I went and all the other girls had three pages and I had ten. I went to meet Paul and I said, “do you know I have a lot more scenes than anyone else?” He said, “you know what, let’s just read them anyway.” All I could think of was this really reminds me of A Few Good Men. I just remember thinking it reminds me of Tom Cruise where he’s sort of the underdog but he really knows the truth. I literally just thought I’m just gonna borrow a little bit of energy and I went in there and we read the scene and Paul said “that’s so great, thank you.” I got a phone call a week later saying “you’re still up for Stargate.” I thought “that’s funny.” Actually, it took them ten days to choose me because they said that I was the shortest person they had ever considered for the show. They were worried that they couldn’t fit me in the composition of the shots because I’m only 5ft 3 and they’re all tall. When I got to set and I met Richard he said, “I want you to know that we asked them to choose you because you were so smart.” All the other girls were taller and a little bit more sported and they said “we just were really into your conviction of what you did.” I have to one day thank Rob Reiner and Tom Cruise. I met Peter DeLuise, the director, who is amazing. He just said “your audition was so good.” I walked in and I just thought, “This is so [inaudible].” Jennifer Haley has really got that conviction and that was just all I thought. I’m sure I owe him a commission.

David Read
It’s true to the character because she decks and upperclassmen off screen. She’s tired of other people picking on this girl. It doesn’t matter her size, she lets him have it. It’s one of my favorite scenes.

Elisabeth Rosen
They actually, just so you know, that wasn’t there, they changed that for me. Because I was so short they wanted to make a semi joke about my height. They wanted to comment on my height to explain why I was in the show so they added that into the script so that it would justify why I was on the show and then give my character more of an edge. Because I was so little they wanted to show why I would be included because they wanted my height to almost be a plot point so that people wouldn’t wonder why. They actually added that in for me.

David Read
Well, it helps define her spirit. It is immaterial to what she is going to accomplish and if she has to bloody a couple of noses to defend the people she cares about, she’s going to do it.

Elisabeth Rosen
I’ve had letters from young women who told me that they were being bullied all the time. As soon as they saw the show, they were able to stand up for themselves. For young girls, like 11, 12, I’m thinking, “that’s everything.” She’s an awesome character.

David Read
Can you tell me about, it’s one of my favorite scenes from the show, “just who the hell do you think you are?” The dress down with General Kerrigan and Major Carter, can you tell me about that scene? You were on fire, that is a great scene.

Elisabeth Rosen
That was our first scene we shot. I remember strongly walking in and Peter said, we did it a couple of times. He said “it’s amazing to me, you really are this character.” I said “I don’t understand why.” He said, “because you can’t even do the salute right.” Everything on Stargate is very by the code for the army [Air Force], even the socks have to be a certain way. When I walked in he said “there’s a salute.” I tried to copy it and he said, “you can’t even get where the hand has to hit on the head, you’re such a rebel.” We walked in, and I’m sure it was fueled by that, but I remember just thinking “she knows they’re going to kick her out and she knows that she’s right. She knows that she has been stepped all over and she’s sort of an orphan, doesn’t want to get pushed around.” I also am such a fan of Silence of the Lambs and Clarice Starling. I love in that movie how she trained with the FBI. In that show they show scenes where she’s training, everyone’s 6ft 4 and she’s 5ft 2. A lot of her work has always inspired everything that I do because she never gets pushed around. I love the character of Clarice Starling so it was very much that energy of feeling like better to be kicked out for being right than become someone who has been stepped all over.

David Read
Did you get the impression that she didn’t really have anywhere to go were she to be kicked out? Or do you think that she did have a home to go to?

Elisabeth Rosen
No, she’s an orphan. She was an orphan and joined the military because she had no family. She’s a remarkable genius, which was unexpected, we find out. She had nowhere to go. If they throw her out where would she go? She has nowhere to go. That’s what I think makes her so likable, is that she doesn’t care, she would just walk out. It’s not that she’s invulnerable. Have you ever met anyone who’s so intelligent that their conviction, because they know their ideas are strong, they won’t be intimidated?

David Read
I know a couple of those people for sure.

Elisabeth Rosen
Literally two people. I love the maverick energy and I love Clarice Starling so much and that archetype is so important. People in the military usually have families that are in the military. She somehow ended up there, she has nowhere to go. Her mind is her only treasure really. She knows she’s out on her ass, that’s what I like about her.

David Read
Jennifer. Jennifer? I’m sorry, Elisabeth. Can you pull the camera back a little bit for me.

Elisabeth Rosen
Yep.

David Read
Okay, perfect. Can you tell me about the scene of going into the gate room and seeing the Stargate for the first time because it looks like Peter DeLuise scared the hell out of you.

Elisabeth Rosen
Why?

David Read
When the kawoosh happens and she jolts back? Do you remember that moment?

Elisabeth Rosen
I do and that’s all special effects, that’s not in real life.

David Read
Okay.

Elisabeth Rosen
They add that in later. I remember that scene really well. I was so inspired by the movie and when James Spader sees his Stargate for the first time. The most important part of Jennifer Haley is she is actually smarter than everyone; smarter than even the people in Stargate. Her equations, she sees a miss equation even in Amanda Tapping’s equations. For her to see that her ideas are real was so fantastic so I wanted to make sure that when she saw the Stargate it was as if the audience saw the Stargate for the first time. I really wanted everyone to experience to her like, “wow, she got an idea but all of her theories are correct.” She’s not in the military yet, she hasn’t even been briefed at this level so she still has that level of enchantment. She’s still going to be full of ideas and full of awe. Peter literally came to me said, “listen, you haven’t seen it but when it blows open it’s like an explosion; it’s like this incredible energy.” Amanda’s used to it, she seen it a million times. I wanted to make sure that everybody experienced everything through me like it was the first time they’d ever seen that. Imagine if you saw a Stargate come on the Earth or someone brought you into a tunnel and showed you a Stargate, I wanted it to be as real as possible so when it opens up and moves it’s as if you walked into the wardrobe of Narnia.

David Read
Yeah.

Elisabeth Rosen
And it was real, like, “oh my god.” I didn’t want her to be lackadaisical, apathetic, I didn’t want her to think “oh this is cool,” I wanted it to be really exciting.

David Read
The universe opens up to her when that Stargate opens. It’s almost like the some of her equations are vindicated when that moment happens because it clicks in her mind what Sam has been trying to communicate to her but wasn’t able to say.

Elisabeth Rosen
It’s not just that. Imagine if you were in the military and they were having you wrote a paper and you discovered time travel and then they told you that you were wrong. But actually, you were so right but no one’s supposed to know yet. She’s not just a mathematician, she’s actually a futurist; reading the future, so far ahead and they want to throw her out for what she knows is true but nobody figured it out yet. The most important part of her character which is so cool is if you look at scientists, say you look at Einstein, he figures out a theory, imagination affords in the real material place. All of her ideas are, they’re not just ideas that we’re chatting about, they’re mathematical equations that are correct. Because the people in the military haven’t gotten there yet they don’t even understand what her perception would be. She would be on par with Tesla. This would be in The Prestige with Hugh Jackman when he goes to visit David Bowie. Her ideas are so far out they haven’t even been able to create her thoughts yet. Imagine if Howard Hughes has an idea and then someone walked in and said “were totally on board with you. Here, we’re in area 51, your plane you imagined, we have a part of your plane here” and then he sees it for real. It would be that type of idea. She’s so far ahead she’s actually with AI, UFO technology, and no one’s supposed to know. By the way, nanotechnology now is everything, even in science. At the time, no one even knew what nanotechnology was so Peter DeLuise was very ahead. All of her episode is about light energy and she’s gonna visit other scientists who are actually already at her level of equation. All of these people exist but she has to go to school with a bunch of people that don’t even get her. The whole experience is, “you had thoughts that no one else had but you and then you might have a bunch of people who totally got you and you weren’t weird.” Her whole life she’s been misunderstood because the people who get her live in another dimensional realm. That’s such a cool thing.

David Read
And the people that she works with at the Air Force, they don’t know about this project it’s that top secret. They didn’t know what to do with her so you’ve got Sam who comes in and it’s like, “well, actually, I can’t tell you, but there is a place for her.”

Elisabeth Rosen
At that level they’re so well trained and so well groomed anyway that they have people who’ve gone to incredible schools. They’re there for military assessment, she’s on top of it. She would be a member of Avatar, she would be part of the Sigourney Weaver team that was discovering Avatar. She wouldn’t be part of the military industrial complex which is what they’re in. What she’s doing is counterintuitive to what they’re taught because they only brief them to a certain level and then what they say is “the rest would be classified.” Everything she’s saying is blacked out if they got a memo, and how could she know? They would either be thinking that she would be plagiarizing someone, maybe they think she’s making it up. So for them, everything she says is Swahili anyway because at that level she’s talking in a language…and they think she’s constantly insulting them because she’s understanding something on such a top level. They think she has always been insulting them. She’s just so clinical at that point where she’s just trying to explain such complicated theories that there’s no one there for her to communicate with.

David Read
She has no one to share her language with as she’s figuring out herself,

Elisabeth Rosen
Right. They speak English and she’s speaking the language of mathematics at the harmonic level.

David Read
Yeah.

Elisabeth Rosen
Howard Hughes had the same dilemma. Tesla had the same dilemma, I’m sure Robert Oppenheimer had the same issue. Einstein, who would he talk to? She’s really smart, her IQ is over 180. I think that is interesting, Will Hunting from Good Will Hunting, who could he talk to? His Amanda Tapping is Stellan Skarsgård and he’s just as arrogant and just as rebellious as Jennifer Haley.

David Read
I love it. Tell me about Amanda Tapping. Tell me about working with Amanda.

Elisabeth Rosen
I’ve actually stayed at her house. She’s a phenomenal person and a beautiful person. Once she knew she was up for the job she actually learned quantum theory so all the things she explains, she studied and learned. She can do huge, huge amounts of dialogue. She’s one of the most kind people in the world, completely down to earth, works harder than almost anyone. I cannot say enough good things about her. She wanted to produce her own show. She’s a phenomenal person, I had the best time. I worked with her twice and then I want to say to her house. She has an amazing husband. For an actor she’s very grounded, she’s very solid. She studied with theater for a long time. She really wanted to be on Stargate, I think she is really the essence of that show. All the men are kind of great and fantastic but she’d come and say huge monologues. She would have to sit and learn and she had to explain all of the concepts. One time she had to hang above a glacier for 12 hours. She did a lot of her own stunts. fun stuff. She’s a phenomenal person, never ever did she ever become impatient.

David Read
And for her, she can’t explain it unless she understands it herself. I’ve heard she has to get into the nuts and bolts of what they’re asking her to say because if she can’t believe it herself, enough to explain it on the page in terms of what they’re asking her to say, she can’t expect us to understand even the idea of it.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s how I work too with everything that I do. A cinematographer will tell you the story as we’re telling it too but you can’t expect the cinematographer and the editor to tell the story visually. When you understand the concept the audience will follow the thought process and it will slow them down and it makes the world more real.

David Read
Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
It’s really important. That way, it’s not just like a bee. I think they did it on Star Trek as well, that way it’s not just a silly show. When you really understand this concept and you explain them, I found that people who watch Stargate, they become smarter because you’re getting engaged with science.

David Read
You’re allowing your mind to be open to possibilities and that’s a huge gift that a cable show can give you. An opportunity to say, “hey, dare to open your mind.”

Elisabeth Rosen
For 12 years.

David Read
Yeah, that’s wild.

Elisabeth Rosen
They could have gone longer. Why did they stop? I can’t remember but they could have gone for 20 years, people were just so addicted to that show. I meet Stargate fans, people will say to me “I’m a Stargate person.” I think, “oh wow, okay.” I’m sure that they could fill Comic-Con every year.

David Read
For sure, absolutely. Can you tell me about what it was like to work with creatures that you couldn’t see; that we’re going to be inserted in post production. You’re eyelines, tell me about the mechanics of working with these light beings in the scenes that you had them in?

Elisabeth Rosen
It was cool because I have a very good imagination and I understand light technology and nanotechnology. To build rapport with an audience, if it’s exciting to me and they trust me and it’s going to not be boring, I find it interesting, they’re going to be interesting and they’re going to be interested. To me, the idea of the episode was so cool. Those little…they look like fairy lights and they look completely harmless but actually they could attack us and destroy us. That is incredible because look what they can do now with nanotechnology. For me, the idea that something so harmless you have anywhere would just be so available, is so cool. I liked the concept so it was interesting to me. But to me, when you look at it, if someone shows you a jar of light and said “if you let this light out it could kill the world” and they looked like fireflies, wouldn’t you be fascinated? Or if you’re walking through a room, say you’re walking into a room of curiosities and they say “oh, look at this hand. We found this lying on the side of a crater but it actually belcngs to what we think is a UFO.” Everything in Stargate is supernatural and extraterrestrial so nothing is real. All of her ideas are all around her and what Amanda is trying to teach her is “if you are patient, we will take you into this universe. This is the universe you belong in anyway. Hold out and just be patient because the place you belong is just right there.” The powerful message about that story is, I think for young people, because she’s very young, is that if you are smart, people can sometimes bully really, really, really smart people. Hold out and just wait and find the right place to go take your intelligence and then the world will be open to you.

David Read
That’s the conversation that the two of them have before going to SGC, where Carter is trying to tell her your universe is waiting for you. She doesn’t understand the magnitude of it. She’s like, “so what? So I can fly this certain type of plane, that’s gonna be the top of it for me. What are you talking about?” Sam turns to her and says,” believe me, it’s real” and this look that you have on your face is just the door creaking open to the possibility that her equations might exist somewhere practically for mankind to use.

Elisabeth Rosen
What it really was when we did it was she’s had a chip on her shoulder for so long. She’s really smart and imagine her imagination is so amazing so for Amanda to come along and say “everything, everything you imagined is real and even more.”

David Read
And more.

Elisabeth Rosen
She’s had to defend herself for so long that she’s afraid that they will open the door a little bit and then shut it.

David Read
Yep.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s why I was like, “the whole universe is real.” She wants to know that. You can have a theory like a mathematical equation to understand that the world is an infinite. It’s as if Alice falls into Wonderland and it’s all real. She’s willing to open the door for her – and my character who’s essentially Alice in way, falling into a universe – she wants to make sure, not that Amanda will explain everything to her, she just wants Amanda to say like, “this isn’t a dream. Don’t pinch yourself, don’t worry. You’re not going to wake up.” What we’re walking into, your removing yourself into something so much more. It’s a cool thing.

David Read
Oh yeah and it’s a great message to send to young people because it’s like, “don’t spend your time knocking into walls. Leep your nose down, keep your nose clean, do your job. Given the right set of circumstances, the world might just open up to you.”

Elisabeth Rosen
It’s good to stand for yourself.

Elisabeth Rosen
If people believe you because they’re threatened by you and to recognize that people believe because they’re afraid of the power that you have because you’re not what they understand. Beyond that place is where every great doorway lies.

David Read
True.

David Read
Yep

Elisabeth Rosen
Every great mind knocks up against these people. Not even to pay attention, just to be like a firecracker and not to worry what the outside world does. If you focus outward through your ideas, you will be transformed into another world. Not even worry.

David Read
I love Proving Ground.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s a fun episode.

David Read
Oh man that’s so fun. I loved Courtenay as Elliot, I loved Grace as Satterfield and David Kopp, man, getting his ass handed to him, the guy couldn’t get out of his own way, as Grogan. Tell me about that.

Elisabeth Rosen
Do you see yourself in him?

David Read
I kind of see myself in Grogan a little bit. Like, “yep, I’m gonna be the first to get shot.” I’m just going down, there’s nothing else to it. Tell me about that team.

Elisabeth Rosen
Well the cool part is at that point, I’m actually not being tested but they don’t know.

David Read
Right.

Elisabeth Rosen
I’m a plant. They’re all insecure and worried like, “Oh, this is a test and what are we going to do?” I’m the only one who’s in on the game. I’m the plant and I’m actually the inside person testing them to see if they’re good enough to say. Because they’re testing them all, right? I was in Los Angeles and I was between homes and I found a sublet and the man who subletted it to me, he said “I write for Stargate.” I said “you’re joking?” He’d written for Gene Roddenberry before that. He wrote me into the episode, he said “we should bring Elisabeth back,” which was awesome. It was so great because Courtenay was such a great great actor, a theatre actor, so wonderful, so talented. And Grace, I remember when I met Grace, do you know what she said? Her dream was to get a TV series and then she got Hawaii Five-0. That was her intention. She came and she said, “I really want to [inaudible].” That’s awesome.

David Read
And Battlestar.

Elisabeth Rosen
She wanted her own. She was amazing in Battlestar, she wanted her own show. They were all really good. What I really liked about them was they were all really, really focused. Nobody was a method actor which is great but everybody was focused. I remember we would be separate and everybody, when we were working, they were as if they were really cadets. They learned everything really quickly; they cast the actors really well.

David Read
Yeah, it’s hard to fake that.

Elisabeth Rosen
To be on the show you have to remember you’re actually in the military. Some people just don’t have that. I think David Kopp was also so great because I think everyone can relate to him. Courtenay is sort of the one who’s trying to do his best, but everybody had the right posture. We all wore the outfits, everybody came very focused.

David Read
Yeah, you believe that they’re the best of the best. I would almost think that they would have put you through boot camp for a couple of days just with the Air Force guys to make sure that you did that right because you are representing a real life organization in a paramilitary universe.

Elisabeth Rosen
They should have sent us to train with the Navy S.E.A.L.s, maybe if they bring the show back. We had really good stunt coordinators and they would take us and train us. There was not stunt people for what we were doing but every person they hired, we were all in good shape. By the way, that episode, I think it was 32 degrees the whole time. It was pretty close to 90 the whole episode. This is the thing I remember the most for the episode that was very distracting. We were shooting outside and we were right near a train station. We would get this amazing scene and then all of a sudden in the background a train would arrive. We’re just their like, [I don’t believe this!]

Elisabeth Rosen
The actors, I say this for Richard and every person, Amanda, but especially for Grace and Courtenay and David, they were quick. We would go and we would get the scene, like quick, because we have big long days. I remember the times we were outside, every time you saw us, we would have these beautiful long takes, one shot. They’re doing everything in one for us to get a good long shot, then there would be a train and I would think “oh my god”. Or, we were near a train station plus planes would fly over. We had to have clean audio so it would just be like, “oh” and we would just try to plan between the plane. It wasn’t intense and you had to really not be attached to your acting. You couldn’t think like, “that was the best take” because there would be a plane. You just think like, “okay.”

David Read
We’ll wait.

David Read
No, it’s gonna be blown.

Elisabeth Rosen
But when you’re shooting outside with Stargate you can’t be attached to “I love that take.” Every actor was consistently good, they’re very professional.

David Read
That’s cool. Did you guys have a firearms training process?

Elisabeth Rosen
We did.

David Read
I would think that they would want to make sure that you were holding everything right and shooting everything right.

Elisabeth Rosen
It’s not just that, we did and then when they would film us they would come and remind us again. Plus, you have to have continuity with that. On Stargate, they’re very continuity conscious, everything has a purpose. They would actually come and the props person would not only teach us with the stunt people, but then everything had its own explanation so we were very well briefed. X-Files, I was on the X-Files and they were the same. I think that’s why the shows were so long; the conscientious level was so high. Nothing’s just “oh, they missed that.” There’s no missing piece. No person says, “Oh, well they closed the closet, then how come the closet is open?”

David Read
They’re on the ball.

Elisabeth Rosen
Always.

David Read
Wow. Any other special memories from those episodes?

Elisabeth Rosen
Oh, there’s so many. I remember Richard, because obviously he was MacGyver. It was amazing. I’ve worked with Michael Shanks in the past so that was fantastic. Every person was so welcoming and so good. Peter DeLuise was from 21 Jump Street and it was so interesting because I’d known him for so long on 21 Jump Street. He’s such a good director, so caring about his scripts. I’ve never been on a show where every idea was so important to them. Not obsessive, but they cared about every box, every character mattered a lot to them. They were a crew of really connected people so everything we did was really important. The head of the US military was in the show with Richard. The episode was actually very special because they said, “we can’t believe we have the head of the US military at the being the show”. The whole show was very Top Gun actually. I just remember that every person I worked with was so caring and patient.

David Read
Yeah, I love Peter. Peter, in particular, he’s brilliant and he loved that show and the universe that they all made.

Elisabeth Rosen
Andy Makita does phenomenal composition. Peter is more of a character piece actor, everything kind of feels like Diner in a good way. Andy Makita chooses these really long, cool shots. So both directors are so interesting because one is more like in a character piece, like what’s going on with the character. Andy Makita is where you get like really great long tracking shots and he’s very laid back. Both phenomenal people.

David Read
Absolutely. I hope that there’s a return for the Brad Wright/Rob Cooper/Jon Glassner TV universe and if so, I really hope that you’re in it. There is a promise there, as Jack says, “they’re the future of the Air Force, the program, God help us.”

Elisabeth Rosen
Do you want the same people to write it?

David Read
I would be open to them contributing and writing, yeah. But I just don’t know if that’s Amazon’s plan, we’ll see. You would be a Major or a Colonel by now.

Elisabeth Rosen
No, the promise that was made to me was if I wait it out, I’m supposed to take over the entire Stargate group.

David Read
I wouldn’t be surprise.

David Read
That would be amazing.

Elisabeth Rosen
What if James Cameron and Rob Rodriguez would come and do Stargate with them because it feels so much like Avatar.

Elisabeth Rosen
I love that, they’re phenomenal. They were the people behind Outer Limits as well, they’re such good people. I would be open to anyone doing it, including a reboot. What if Sam Esmail wanted to do Stargate?

David Read
I’m curious if you know about the Stargate novels. There is a book that came out in, what year was this released? 2017, called Stargate Homeworlds. It was short stories and in the short story Sun-Breaker, Jennifer Haley is a Major serving as chief science officer on the BC-304 class USS George Hammond along with Colonel Carter. That’s a part of the expanded universe.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s so cool.

David Read
It is mentioned that she served at Stargate Command until 2005 when she transferred to Area 51 at the same time, as then Lieutenant Colonel Carter, took over as Commanding Officer of R&D and spent the next few years working on Earth’s starship fleet. She’s in there somewhere man, they’ve put her or to work, I’m sure.

Elisabeth Rosen
Does that mean Amanda took over the universe?

David Read
Basically yeah. Amanda is flying around the galaxy with her own spacecraft. This one right here actually.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s where Amanda is? With me?

David Read
I suspect that she’s aboard, I would sincerely think so.

Elisabeth Rosen
We’re kind of Star Trekking now?

David Read
Your basically Star Trekking while avoiding getting blown up by naquadah planets. But yeah, I think absolutely there’s room for her in the future, we just need to get the show back in some shape or form.

Elisabeth Rosen
And no one else made it except for her and I? They’re all gone?

David Read
Oh no, there’s plenty of crew. You can’t run the ship with just two people for sure.

Elisabeth Rosen
Who from the other Stargate made it?

David Read
I haven’t actually read the short story but a lot of the characters have popped up in numerous tie-in novels and short stories over the years. It is an actively working universe, if not on screen then continuing to be made by fans, for sure.

Elisabeth Rosen
I know that the Stargate people [fans], I love how much they love the show. You know that they have their own channel now?

David Read
Yep, on Pluto.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s how powerful Stargate is, it’s now a 24 hour channel. You know what I think would be cool? If they crossed Patrick Stewart’s Star Trek with Stargate. If they cross in the universe and then they fly into Star Wars.

David Read
The time warp; a galaxy far, far away a long time ago.

Elisabeth Rosen
Doctor Strange could meet them in the multiverse.

David Read
That’s right.

Elisabeth Rosen
You never know.

David Read
You never know, no. As we get more and more towards these AI generated stories where you can just tell a piece of software, “create this story for me.” You can put all those together right now in things like ChatGPT, “include this character, include this character, I want this kind of thing to happen” and you tell it to write it and it’ll write it for you. I can only imagine how long we are from, just a matter of years, from actually being able to see something like that as well. It’s wild.

Elisabeth Rosen
I’m very pro AI. I would love to be on Stargate and have them integrate in an AI character. I was such a fan of I, Robot. I think it’d be really cool if they have us with AI characters as well and watching how we interact with them.

David Read
Yeah, because one way or another I think we’re in this together, the rest of the way in. You don’t unring these bells; there’s a lot of development happening and they’re with us from here on in.

Elisabeth Rosen
Imagine if you got to talk to someone who was programmed to understand your consciousness, and then could help you work out ideas the way you would work out an equation. If you have an AI person and you have a concept and then you program them with the thought and then they can grow the thoughts with you.

David Read
Mind blowing, absolutely wild. I’ve got some fan questions for you. Tracy wanted to know – on your downtime, what is something you do for yourself that brings you joy?

Elisabeth Rosen
Oh, I go to really long walks. Wherever I go in the world, I always make sure I can walk. I go for really long walks, it’s really important. I also do a lot of meditation. When you’re working as an actor you never sleep the way you think. I learned to have a nap and meditate at the same time so that if I was working, at lunch I would often just go back and literally do forms of meditation so that I always have energy. I do a lot of energy work and meditation and walking, it’s very grounding.

David Read
It’s good that you found that. I think that time for ourselves is something that people misinterpret as “I’ll just eat and play video games” or something. I think that there’s room for discovering yourself in the quiet like going for walks. Not necessarily putting on a podcast or something but just having time with yourself. I think that’s where a lot of ideas come from.

Elisabeth Rosen
I agree. I think sometimes people think that being busy means they feel important. I’ve been around people who said, “oh, I’m so busy” and I think “you’re busy…and then you become exhausted.” I build my life so that I have a lot of time to become not bored, but have space. I think that with space comes more energy. You could call it boredom but I make a lot of space in my life. Also with acting, if you’re always listening to someone else, it’s very hard to hear a director. I spend lots of time clearing out my mind, I spend lots of time with space so that when I work with a director, I am just showing the director. I love video games, don’t get me wrong, I think they’re super fun.

David Read
Me too.

Elisabeth Rosen
I do. I study a lot of martial arts and they say that just by walking you can ground yourself really quickly and most people are really ungrounded. In Los Angeles I used to spend so much time in the car so if I can’t be in river walk, I will have a spin bike and I will train. I’m all about making sure that I’m not just leaving my house, getting in the car, driving to somewhere and then walking away. I think that’s valuable to people.

David Read
When I get out there I try to go out to the Hollywood Hills out by Griffith. There’s some beautiful trails out there.

Elisabeth Rosen
Oh, I know. The best time to go for a walk in a way is after sunset. After seven o’clock, go for a walk as the sun is setting and go through Silverlake. It’s so beautiful. Griffith Park is amazing. I go to, what is it called? The beautiful… Oh gosh, the planetarium [Griffith Observatory] there where they shot Rebel Without a Cause, that’s a phenomenal place just to go hike up.

David Read
Yeah, it’s beautiful and there’s dogs, there’s people, there’s bikers that try not to run you over. But yeah, it’s a beautiful place for sure. Urius Tosh – How long was the shooting process for an episode of Stargate from start to finish? How many days did you spend on set? What was the process like?

Elisabeth Rosen
I think it was seven, eight days and 12, 14 hours a day. The crews were good, they don’t spend a lot, it was a well oiled machine when I got there. Really well put together, we would be on location, get everything done. We never did company moves within the day which always takes a long time; they were very well planned. Some shows you move around, they were very well planned. They were phenomenal people, such good people, everybody was so caring, we had a really good time. You would fly in on a Friday and you come in and do wardrobe on a Friday and then they will give you the weekend to get prepared. You film on Monday and we shot until the next Monday and then we will fly home and it was just great.

David Read
Wow.

Elisabeth Rosen
I even knew Corin Nemec who I never worked with but I met him a few years ago through people I knew. That show, you really have to like science. I do remember, which I don’t want to admit, I remember looking up at some of the people with their weird alien symbols on their face. You know the scene where I’m with Chris and he’s got that…obviously, I remember looking up at his forehead. It’s so weird to look at in real life, it’s so good but it’s so weird. I remember he smiled at me and I look at him and I was like “I’m gonna start laughing, I have to stop.” He had this way of making sure you laugh and I was just like, “wow, okay, thank you.” It was so weird to look at someone with like a big golden symbol on his forehead because he’s such a tall cool guy, right? He’s got this massive thing [on his head] and I was still laughing. He looked at me almost like Aladdin and stopped me. He just nodded his head and I was like, “Okay.”

David Read
Now it’s real, now I’m on this moon.

Elisabeth Rosen
He brought me into the universe, it was cool. I don’t know he did it. I was like, oh wow, okay. Thank you, I just needed that to go.” Like, “I’m talking to you but you have something on your forehead and I’m going to have to pretend it’s not there. I need you to stop me from laughing.”

David Read
Cinder Block Studios wants to know “what sci-fi or other character would you most like to play Elizabeth?”

Elisabeth Rosen
In the whole world ever? Of all sci-fi characters ever ever.

David Read
Or any character.

Elisabeth Rosen
Does that include Dune?

David Read
Oh yeah, Dune is like pinnacle sci-fi.

Elisabeth Rosen
I’m a really big Timothée Chalamet and Denis Villeneuve fan. I met Denis years ago in [a] con, years ago before he was even making sci-fi. I want to be in the Dune universe and he was fantastic. I am so blown away by what they’re creating in Dune, so blown away by what they’re creating in Dune and I think the Dune Messiah is going to be so fantastic. I can’t even imagine the second one so I don’t want to talk about it.

Elisabeth Rosen
When I look at a trailer, I’m really good. I don’t attached and think “I like that” or “I wonder what it’s going to be?” I learned to teach myself years ago what not to do. Two directors I really believe in, obviously I want to work with Ridley Scott, he’s phenomenal, he’s a brilliant person. If he did another Blade Runner…and this is the best part. In the book, Dream of Black Sheep [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep] the Rosen Association is actually – the Sean Young character, her name is Rachel Rosen – we own the company that creates the android. If he ever made a prequel to Blade Runner about the Rosen Association, I should play the character.

David Read
Yeah, it’s gonna be epic.

David Read
I agree.

Elisabeth Rosen
No, it’s true. If they ever made the architect of the Matrix, it would be me, because she’s the prodigy, right? I really love Benedict Cumberbatch in Doctor Strange. I think they need to make the universe a little bit more mathematical because the second was so cool but so far out. I think Denis is amazing, What’s so good about that film is the film is so beautiful and so interesting and he’s so internal. In the second one, although I don’t want to jump ahead, he has to literally become a version of Moses. Everybody wants him to lie and just find something for everyone to follow. The whole purpose of that movie is for him to not fall into inertia and find the most amazing bolt of lightning to rise up with and to not tell the lie; not become Stellan Skarsgård, not become the evil. All the truth he can find and trust the truth is within him, which is really the story of the inner Christ which is so beautiful. Not to fall into evil and not to give in to the evil magician that would want to trade in what’s going on. Even his own mother wants him to just find a sentence to sell to people, “this is what we believe.” In a way, find a theory and then they can just follow anything. He has to trust that his own truth is more profound so that’s going to teach people so much about life. Like Cadet Haley, following your own truth leads you to a whole other universe. Obviously, if I could work with Steven Spielberg…I think he’s amazing; I love Jurassic Park. But the director that I think is really special, that people are just finding…obviously, if I could meet Christopher Nolan in person that would be incredible. I really love Matt Reeves because I feel like he’s the juxtaposition to all these filmmakers. He and J.J. Abrams worked together, he’s very influenced by, obviously, Steven Spielberg. What I liked about Matt Reeves is I heard his explanation of his Batman that he wanted to make. Obviously Tim Burton is so brilliant, Christopher Nolan made a wonderful James Bond Batman; unsurpassable in his own way. I heard Matt Reeves explanation of how he wanted to ground Batman into a dystopian universe, almost Blade Runner-esque. I feel like his Batman is almost real and I feel like every person can relate to this Batman because he literally is…the car could be built. The suit isn’t fake, the voices are all real, I was so blown away by everyone in that movie. The way that he made the Joker – rather than to compete with Heath Ledger’s Joker which you can’t – Barry Keoghan’s character is disfigured from birth. It’s a deleted scene, it’s on YouTube. When Robert Pattinson sees him, this is not someone who put on makeup. This is not Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, this is someone that has never been embraced by society. He’s never been seen as a human so he’s so far away from empathy and people even touching him. He’s probably never been touched in his whole life so to give that man that level of disassociation but it to be believable is so interesting to me. I think that Matt Reeves is super cool as well. I feel like that when you go to the Dune universe – because these men are making people that are believable for young people. When they feel like they’ve been disassociated; they’re not Generation X, they’re not going around looking for experience. These people are saving them from the disenfranchisation of being apathetic and they’ve done it all. They’re not giving you that feeling, they are there to believe in the good regardless of what’s hunting for them. I’ve given you a really long answer but I love all those directors. I feel like Matt Reeves is…he did so much for Planet of the Apes and to come from Felicity! Just so far out to go from Felicity to Batman, so cool. I’m also a really big David Goyer person, who wrote Blade, who wrote Batman. I met him through a friend of a friend a long time ago, not that long ago but a while ago. His universe is…I’ve always been taken by Blade. I know they’re doing Blade in the universe [MCU], I think they need to bring back Wesley Snipes as Blade as well. Wesley Snipes, there’s something about that battle he has with Stephen Dorff, there’s something about his energy. I think Mahershala Ali’s Blade is going to be brilliant but there’s just something about David Goyer’s/Wesley Snipes’ Blade that I’m really drawn to. I really love the future universes. Who’s your favorite sci-fi person?

David Read
I’ve been thinking a lot about Dune since you brought it up. I would have loved to see you as Irulan. Irulan is my favorite character from that series.

Elisabeth Rosen
Who played her?

David Read
It’s what’s her face who was Wanda Maximoff’s sister. It is going to be…Florence Pugh is her name.

Elisabeth Rosen
That’s funny. I’m sure she’ll be wonderful.

David Read
She better be.

Elisabeth Rosen
Do you know the director Peter Berg?

David Read
Yes.

Elisabeth Rosen
He was supposed to direct Dune years ago for Paramount. Many people have come to me, just as an aside, many people have come to me and said they like her, but they actually, this is the character she’s playing in Dune, not to hurt her feelings, they thought of me first.

David Read
Oh. Irulan, I’ve always loved that character. She is brilliant but she is trapped in her destiny, juxtapose to Paul who is unleashing himself from his destiny, but yet trapped in another destiny. It’s my dad’s favorite book. It has so many layers and I can’t wait to see what part two looks like. God, I hope that they do Messiah and Children of Dune. It’s like just peeling an onion; the universe just gets deeper and deeper and wilder and wilder as you go. I can’t wait.

Elisabeth Rosen
I know. The only element I would have liked to put into that movie, obviously I would never change anything Denis does [inaudible]. Hans Zimmer, the music of Dune, I own it. When I went to the movie I remember sitting back and thinking, “Oh god, David Lean would be so in love with this movie, it’s so beautiful.” By the way, Virginia Madsen almost played my mom twice, from the original Dune. I really loved her take on the movie. What I’m finding in movies that I don’t love is that they’ve taken all the seduction out of these films and they’re all very intellectual. Her approach to the part is very intellectual. I can see she does a lot of plotting and thinking and I feel like I wish and I hope that maybe I’m not meant to be an adversary to Timothée Chalamet. Maybe I’m meant to be something that’s more friendly towards him. I don’t know but the only element that’s missing in Dune is it’s not seductive at all. In the book he’s so in love with…

David Read
Chani.

Elisabeth Rosen
But with two women because he knows Chani is going to die and the one thing all the nuns should be, how do I say it again? The bene…

David Read
Bene Gesserit.

Elisabeth Rosen
Right, the Bene Gesserit. None of them are seductive; they’re all playing it like they hate men. It’s illogical because you think that they would be seduced by his gifts because they’re all telepathic with each other. I know Denis is so brilliant and everything they’re doing is really fantastic. Thank you for the compliment.

David Read
Absolutely. I think that you could really pull that off. Elisabeth, this has been so cool to sit down and get to know you a little bit. I was so excited when you responded to my message because this is such an important character to the Stargate SG-1 series. We’ve got 60 people watching right now.

Elisabeth Rosen
Do they have any more questions?

David Read
I think that that’s it. I think people have just been listening.

Elisabeth Rosen
Please tell every person it matters so much to me that you guys care about Everything I do, I always do it thinking about the people who have given me their precious time to watch. So these 60 people, who I hope I meet at Comic Con or something in the future, every person, your time matters to me. Thank you.

David Read
And thank you for spending so much time with me and letting us get to know you a little bit better. These are great stories that you’ve shared and I’m looking forward to more people seeing this episode over the next few days and weeks. Thank you for taking the time.

Elisabeth Rosen
Oh David, if you want to do another interview ever, I’m 100% here. Let’s hope that somehow Jeff Bezos and Amazon get the reboot of…If there’s one more universe, I love Mr. Robot. I think Sam Esmail is doing incredible work. If they ever bring that show, because I was on X-Files so long ago. Or if Ryan [Coogler], he wants to redo the X-Files. There’s so many cool universes coming in, I really hope Stargate comes back. Maybe Jason Momoa will make guest star appearances.

David Read
Ronon Dex is still out there so it’s entirely possible. Thank you so much, thank you Elisabeth. It was such a pleasure, you take care of yourself and I will be in touch.

Elisabeth Rosen
Okay, thank you. Bye.

David Read
Be well.

Elisabeth Rosen
Amazing guys. Thank you.

David Read
Elisabeth Rosen, Jennifer Haley in Stargate SG-1. This was cool. I’ve been working with her for a few weeks to make this episode possible and I’m really thankful that everything came together so well. A couple of questions from our interview with Brad Wright through companion. Lauren Nickols​ said “I’m curious if you’d ask Brad this at a later date, ‘how many roles were written with specific actors in mind and how many of those actors did they actually get? Like Dom DeLuise for Urgo’.” That is a great question. I do not know the answer to that but if we get lucky enough in speaking with Brad again I will find out. TuneTamasha – tip for future episode questions. Any footage from Stargate Command aka season nine’s Prototype and was there an episode with multiple scrapped scripts and outcomes? That is another good question. Um, Stargate Command, we were throwing a lot of stuff around a few years ago but the project got killed after a couple of years. I didn’t see anything personally. I know that there is a huge archive of deleted scenes that they were going through so we’ll see, we’ll see what happens. My thanks to Antony and Tracy, thank you both for being here to moderate this episode. Tomorrow we have Kendall Cross who played Julia Donovan in several seasons of Stargate. We’re going to have her at 12 noon pacific time tomorrow, Saturday October 28th. That will be live so tune in to get your questions submitted for her. Then Heather E. Ash on 29th of October at 12 noon, writer and story editor for Stargate SG-1. Then finally we’re gonna close out season three on October 29th at 2pm pacific time with Michael Shanks who played Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1 and then I’m going to go on a break and I’ll see you guys back next year. My thanks once again to my moderating team, to my Producer, Linda “GateGabber” Furey. Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb for keeping dialthegate.com up and running and once again to Elisabeth Rosen for making this episode possible. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side.