Without Christopher judge there would be no Dial the Gate, so it’s particularly poignant that Stargate SG-1’s resident Jaffa (and God of War’s Kratos) joins us for our 200th episode. Christopher will bring us up to speed on his career and take your questions LIVE!

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0:00 – Splash Screen
00:27 – Opening Credits
00:57 – Welcoming Christopher Judge & Jenny Stiven
02:47 – New Stargate
03:44 – Dialing Home
06:30 – Teal’c’s Perfect Day
07:53 – Stargate Outtakes: Window of Opportunity and
11:55 – Stargate Outtakes: Wormhole X-Treme!
16:01 – Wrapping Up with Jenny
17:25 – God of War
20:59 – Teal’c and Kratos
21:40 – Twenty-Five Years of SAtargate
24:52 – Cor-Ai and Jack and Teal’c’s Relationship
27:46 – Meeting James Earl Jones
31:51 – Mentors
34:48 – Fan Questions: Teal’c and Kratos
35:21 – The Jaffa and Rick Worthy
38:23 – The Dark Knight
46:05 – Filming Talion
49:10 – Life Advice
51:44 – Golf trousers
53:28 – Working on Window of Opportunity
54:40 – Remembering Cliff Simon
57:18 – Stargate Thoughts and Scifi
1:00:18 – The Changeling and Tony Amendola
1:04:59 – Filming Threshold
1:06:17 – Carmen Argenziano
1:09:28 – Wrapping up with Christopher
1:10:18 – Post-Interview housekeeping
1:12:32 – End Credits

***

“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline

 

TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, welcome to episode 200 of Dial the Gate: the Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read and I am privileged to welcome to the show someone who is very important to me. Actually a couple of someones who are very important to me, Christopher Judge and Jenny Stiven. We have Teal’c and we have Jenny. How are you guys doing?

Christopher Judge
Excellent.

Jenny Stiven
Awesome.

Christopher Judge
It is so great to see both of you.

David Read
Christopher it is important for me that you are here because, especially for this episode, because without the two of you, I would not be doing this show. I found my footing with you on Dialing Home. It was thanks to our partnership that I found out that I could do this, just go off and spin off doing this. It means so much to me to have you here.

Christopher Judge
Thanks. You see, we knew you could do it. You just needed to know.

David Read
You’re right. You’re absolutely right. How have you been? How are things going?

Christopher Judge
Is that for me? Or Miss Jenny?

David Read
For you, for you?

Christopher Judge
Oh, I mean, I’m great. My kids are great moms great, brother, wife. Everybody’s great. My golf games good. I have no complaints.

David Read
I’m glad to have you on. Jenny, how you doing? How are things going on your end?

Jenny Stiven
I’m doing great. I’m so sorry, I’m in the car, but I’m doing great. It’s summertime in San Diego, we’re having a blast. I can’t wait to do San Diego Comic Con and doing all my fun fandom stuff.

David Read
Yes, absolutely. Well, Christopher, have you heard any rumors, any news about the next Stargate series? Have you been keeping your ear to the ground on that?

Christopher Judge
Um, [laughs]. You always hear stuff. But at this point, you know I really hope it happens. Because I think there’s a whole universe of stories to tell and I think the time is so right to bring Stargate back. You and Jenny have done such a great job keeping the fandom together, keeping everybody excited. It’s amazing how loud and boisterous and lovely our fandom is.

Jenny Stiven
Oh, I know. It’s very true.

Christopher Judge
Jenny, are there any questions you’ve composed for Chris before we get into the thick with him?

Jenny Stiven
I do, I’ve got two questions. So first, Chris, if you can remember, what was your favorite Dialing Home interview?

David Read
Aaaaaah.

Christopher Judge
That’s a loaded question. [laughs]

Jenny Stiven
I know. I thought it would be. But also it could be what was your favorite type? Like you can qualify it?

Christopher Judge
Well, they were all my favorite because the structure of it was something that I could wrap my head around; very little structure. Just chatting and catching up. It’s very rare now that I get to see anyone that was a great way just to kind of reconnect with folks you care about. So they were all my favorites.

Jenny Stiven
Yeah. They all were very special. I was thinking a lot about it this morning and yesterday about the elder statesman with Tony and Carmen with the doctors in Vancouver. I loved the thematic way we did it David. We had fun coming up with those ideas. Chris, thank you for always going along with our crazy ideas, because we have a lot of them.

Christopher Judge
It was fortunate that I got to do it with two people I love and trust. There was no idea or concept that was too out there for me. It’s easy when you trust who you’re with.

Jenny Stiven
Oh, that’s awesome.

David Read
I think I’ve told you this before but one of the things that you said to me that I have taken with me on this journey, and throughout the rest of my life, is something that I believe that your mother said to you. Which was, that if you’re not finding someone interesting, you’re not trying hard enough.

Christopher Judge
That’s right.

David Read
That’s your fault and you need to do something about it. That has that is attached to my spirit. I think that there’s so much there to unpack.

Jenny Stiven
I didn’t remember that. That’s so cool.

Christopher Judge
She literally said, “everyone’s smarter than you at something.” If you don’t find that person interesting, that’s your fault. It was just her way of saying that everyone has value, everyone has worth, everyone deserves respect. That was just a lesson I never forgot.

David Read
Wow. Wow. Jenny, what else did did you have for Chris? You’re still with me?

Jenny Stiven
I have one other one… Can you hear me?

David Read
Yeah, we’re beginning to lose you.

Jenny Stiven
Sorry. Hopefully, it’ll be clear for one more minute. Chris, this came from Tim. What would be a perfect day for Teal’c?

Christopher Judge
Wait, so is that from big Tim or little Tim? Well, no, younger Tim?

Jenny Stiven
I wasn’t going to say, we can’t say little Tim anymore. But for both of them. By the way, Timmy says “hi.”

Christopher Judge
Please, please, please give him a big hug for me.

Jenny Stiven
I will for sure.

Christopher Judge
A perfect day for Teal’c would probably be kind of the same as a perfect day for me. Starts the day off with golf.

Jenny Stiven
Yeah. Of course.

Christopher Judge
Golf with my kids and then my mom makes her gumbo and the whole family is there for a gumbo dinner.

Jenny Stiven
I love it. Maybe a little Star Wars watching in the middle of that.

Christopher Judge
Right and I finish the night off with my new drink of choice, Metamucil on the rocks.

David Read
I have a treat for the both of you. Joseph Mallozzi, a friend of ours and a friend of the show has done me the kindness of sending me a couple of clips from your time on SG-1.

Christopher Judge
That still exist?

David Read
I’d like to share them with you and with the audience now. If I can get them ready to go here. Can you see this?

Christopher Judge
Oh, my god.

Jenny Stiven
Oh, my god. Yeah.

Christopher Judge
Oh, wow. There was a bad decision there.

David Read
This stubble? I don’t know what you mean. All right. This is Christopher’s coverage from a very classic Window of Opportunity scene. So thank you Joseph Mallozzi and let’s have a look. [2 minute break in audio for clip].

Jenny Stiven
I don’t know how you get through that with him. I mean, seriously.

Christopher Judge
I’m sure there was a lot of those where I didn’t.

Jenny Stiven
So many. I want to say something because I can only stay on for about five more minutes. I want you both to know how much you both mean to me. Personally, professionally in my career, as a Stargate fan, the beauty of our friendship, the three of us, is it’s so tight. It’s so much fun. We don’t have to explain things to each other, personally or professionally. But most of all, I just feel blessed that I got to know you guys through Stargate. I would never have met either one of you if it wasn’t for the show. I would have been working at Fox, I could have been doing any number of things at MGM. But because of fandom I got to meet you, not because of production, but because of fandom. I love you both so much and thank you for all the amazing fun professional times and to many more, cheers.

Christopher Judge
Many more. Love you.

Jenny Stiven
Many many more. I love you both.

David Read
You guys are so important to this show and to fandom in general, in more ways than then people recognize Jenny. I really appreciate you saying those things. One more before you go. Let’s see how Christopher can get through a scene from Wormhole X-Treme.

Jenny Stiven
Oh geez. [2 and a half minute break in audio for clip]

Jenny Stiven
That made me giggle so hard. Well, your laugh is so contagious, man. Come on.

David Read
I have to wonder how you guys got some of that more serious material done. I guess you just kind of go into a zone and you just do it.

Christopher Judge
Well, a lot of our guest stars were kind of thrown by kind of how loose our set was. When it was time to do a serious scene we would all respect that. We would respect each other needing to be in a certain place to do a scene that was emotional or whatever, but if not, oh boy boy!

Jenny Stiven
Did you guys get in a lot of trouble sometimes?

Christopher Judge
Oh goodness gracious. Once you break, it’s hard to pull it back in. We always prided ourselves in being able to get other people to break. There were a lot of times when directors would be really angry because it was them who had to get their days in and we’re just having a grand old time.

Jenny Stiven
You guys are pushing the envelope with each other. I’m sure that was so cool. I have got to go take the dragon inside.

David Read
What is the dragon now that you’ve said that. People are gonna be like, “what the heck are you talking about?” You must clarify now.

Jenny Stiven
I know. We made a dragon cake. It’s for a wedding shower for my nephew who’s a huge cosplayer. I was in charge of all of the decorations so we have a big dragon cake. I will send you pictures later. I love you both love you. I wish I could spend more time but I will spend more time with you guys another time. Peace to everybody, love to everybody and most of all thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Christopher Judge
Love you Miss Jenny.

David Read
Bye. Give me just a second here to recalibrate my sensors. All right. This is how the sausage gets made everybody. Okay, all right, here we go. One moment more. All right. Yeah. When we have more than one person on the show I have to I have to switch a couple of things around.

Christopher Judge
No worries.

David Read
Right. Okay, my friend. I see your God of War memorabilia behind you there. What has it been like on this, yes, and I see Stargate. What has this journey as Kratos been like? Congratulations on your second game. Holy cow. What has it been like taking on the mantle of this icon and continuing him in your own direction?

Christopher Judge
Well, it’s been fantastic. It’s really just been an embarrassment of riches to get a part like this and thank God to be successful and for people to enjoy not only what I’m doing but what we are all doing. It’s a bit overwhelming to have a Teal’c and a Kratos on my resume, so it’s been an embarrassment of riches.

David Read
Has the technology behind capturing that performance, did that throw you some curveballs? Was it just a new direction of artistry for you? What was that experience like just being surrounded by the bare bones minimum? It’s basically what you’d be like on a theater stage?

Christopher Judge
That’s where I really had a leg up having done Stargate. I was familiar with acting with nothing there, to a green screen and to be in a volume. What’s always difficult with motion capture is, as an actor, you get lost in where you are spatially in a scene. We can always glance at monitors, one of the things six monitors they have, to see where we were in the scene. But for me, it was no different than film and television. It’s just the costume was different, you’re wearing a mocap suit. It took a little bit to get used to the tusks, the helmet, that camera that’s right in your face that attaches to your helmet. Other than that, the biggest thing for me to get used was how tiring it is. There aren’t, 45 minute, hour, hour and a half setups. It’s 10 minutes for a setup, 5 minutes for a setup. And because I’m Kratos, I’m pretty much on camera all the time, especially with the no cut camera. Every take was full go, you didn’t have the opportunity to rest while you’re off camera because I was never off camera. The biggest adjustment was truly just how much more physically demanding it is than live action. In live action you have an hour downtime, an hour and a half, two hours of downtime while they’re setting up lighting. In our game you don’t because all the lighting is done in post.

David Read
Wow, that’s extraordinary. Is there any of Teal’c in Kratos?

Christopher Judge
The biggest thing, love for his son. That was great because that’s who I am as a person; loving my kids. To play two characters, who they are no matter what the mask is, is that they’re dad’s. It was really easy to tap into that for me.

David Read
It’s been how many years? We had our 25th anniversary for SG-1 last year? Does it feel like it’s been that long in this journey? Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with the show across time because we talked about when you were doing Dialing Home and that you had wanted to kind of mentally step away from it. But at some point, you had a revelation. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Christopher Judge
Yeah, I was tired. I was going through a lot of stuff personally, all good, but I was still too close to it. I couldn’t see playing him any longer. But then when we started working together and I started watching episodes, I really appreciated it like, “this shows pretty damn good.” Just stepping outside of it and truly just watching it as a viewer. I would never say never, back then it was a never. I really have such a great appreciation for what we accomplished and for how long and how boisterous and vocal and loving the fandom is. I also have become a fan. It’s a show I would watch if it were on now. It just blends the right amount of adventure with humor and drama. In this day and age there’s a lot of humor missing from a lot of stuff. Now with the writers strike how long everything’s gonna be put off who knows? I really have my fingers crossed. Of course Richard was the lead, he was above it, but to me the Stargate was always the show, the storytelling of it and the unlimited possibilities of it. So to me, the Stargate was always the star, if you will, and just where it could take you. We had writers with such great imagination, just vision. Across the three shows to write that many entertaining and insightful and gripping episodes, it was amazing. It was amazing and I truly hope they get to do it again.

David Read
We have been watching the show, me, Nicole and Yvie on Wormhole X-Tremists. We’ve been doing a rewatch and we’re on season three now. We watched Cor-ai not too long ago and oh, man, is it so damn good, Christopher. That scene with you and Rick, my gosh. As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the greatest scenes in science fiction. You’ve got two warriors who are each recognizing the fact that they have done awful things in the service of whatever they were with. If you’re watching that scene you can see that Jack is also fighting for himself as well as for Teal’c because Jack knows that he’s crossed lines in the past, morally and emotionally.

Christopher Judge
That scene for me was when Rick stopped being an icon to me and like, “this dude’s a great actor.” There’s a reason that he’s who he is. Everything I’d had with him before that scene was always kind of light hearted. We were kind of searching for the dynamic between Teal’c and Jack and with that scene, I was like, “wow, this cat can act.” It was a moment of revelation for me.

David Read
Their relationship throughout the show is I think one of the pillars of it. He understood Teal’c and Teal’c understood him in ways that no one else who hasn’t been on a battlefield can truly understand. It was almost like Jack was his, even though Teal’c was 100 [years old] at this point, Jack was almost his older brother. I love the scene of the vibrating bed. It runs out of coins and he goes to Jack and Jack just gives him more coins. He throws himself right back in the bed, this grin on his face. He’s having a great time on Earth.

Christopher Judge
Absolutely, absolutely. “Hey, maybe this whole earth thing is so bad after all.” It was like that scene was tapping into the childish wonder of Teal’c where he has all this technology at his disposal but he finds such great joy in the simple things. That’s what I loved about that character.

David Read
Can you please tell us the story of meeting James Earl Jones and how that helped you articulate your physicality.

Christopher Judge
Mr. Jones had a series on ABC called Gabriel’s Fire and it was one of my first guest spots, if not, if not my very, one of the first. I was playing this hitman, flashy and gesticulating and all kinds of real rookie mistakes. I was being showy rather than inside out. It was very outside. We break for lunch and I have my lunch and there’s a knock on my door. The AD comes in and says, “Mr. Jones would like you to join him for lunch.” I’m like “Mr. Jones, who? Mr. James Earl Jones?” I was so petrified. I didn’t know if this is how they fire people or…

David Read
Is that code for you’re fired. Mr Jones will meet you for lunch?

Christopher Judge
Yeah. Hey, maybe you should find a new line of work. So with great trepidation, I went to his motor home and knocked on the door. He doesn’t speak in this big booming voice. He’s very soft spoken, which is surprising. I went and sat down and we started talking. He was asking me about how I grew up and schooling and stuff like that and he started explaining the craft of acting. I’m sitting there like a kid having Aesop’s Fables read to me and I just drank it all in. The thing that he gave me that I carry with me every time I’m on a set is “never move unless you have to” and he explained it. Now I get it, I’m not sure I fully comprehended that then, I just said, “okay, I’m never going to move again.” But if you watch older films, they would do extreme close ups and you can’t move because it’s so jarring. Their faces would almost be devoid of expression, because then the viewer will cast upon them whatever they’re feeling during this scene. I think I’ve done okay by listening to Mr. Jones.

David Read
There are those watershed moments in our lives where we meet the people who have helped shape us as people. I can’t imagine what that would have been like to sit down with such a master and just take that all in. I had asked you why Teal’c was so minimalist and where that approach came from. It’s such a defining characteristic of who he is because he when he decides to do something, he really means it and there’s a great deal of thought that has been put into his process or whatever he’s going to do. That was a great lunch.

Christopher Judge
Yeah, I’ve had the great fortune to have great mentors throughout my career. I mean Mr. Jones. Fish, Laurence Fishburne, we did a movie called Cadence and it was directed by Martin Sheen, who was also a mentor. Martin asked Fish to take me to breakfast every day and just talk about life. So that’s, what we did in Kamloops, Canada. I would go to breakfast every morning with Fish and John Toles-Bey, who wrote A Rage in Harlem and we just talked about life. It was wonderful. Rick, I learned so much from Rick, to have someone like him to kind of really learn from. I hope this doesn’t sound weird but I was a supporting actor on Stargate. But as Kratos I’m number one. He really showed me that number one sets the tone every day for not only the cast, but the crew, catering, everybody. I really took it seriously that I wanted every single person involved to want to come to work every day, they would wake up and go, [says positively] “Hey, I get to go to work today” and not dreading like, “oh god, I hope Judge is not a douchebag today.” So our God of War set is very much like the Stargate set; it’s really loose, it’s never quiet unless we’re actually shooting. I want people to be able to talk. I’ve been on sets where you got to whisper even when they’re doing setups, hour setups you sit about whispering and you got to walk on eggshells when certain people come on set. That’s no way to live, that’s not a good work environment. I just want it to be as fun for everyone else as it is for me.

David Read
Yeah. You talked about Rick and Mike Greenburg and all have you set the tone, you had said, “with the long days that you’re putting in here, we’re not going to do this if we’re not going to have a good time along the way, because it’s not worth it.”

Christopher Judge
Yeah, that was one of the first things. We talked about it doing the pilot because we were in the unenviable position of knowing we were going to do at least 44 episodes. So during the pilot, “we’ll just keep doing it till it’s not fun anymore.” It was always fun!

David Read
I’ve got some fan questions as you might imagine.

Christopher Judge
Absolutely.

David Read
Jeremy Heiner – If Teal’c met Kratos would he call him a false god?

Christopher Judge
I actually think there will be some simpatico between Teal’c and Kratos because once they got done with all the posturing and all that, they have that undeniable bond. They love their kids and they want their kid to be better than they were.

David Read
Absolutely. GateGabber – she loved your episodes dealing with the liberation of the Jaffa. Where do you think they are as a people now?

Christopher Judge
Well, I know where they are because I wrote a spin off.

David Read
Talk about The Return of the Jaffa, can you give us a taste? Can you please give us a taste?

Christopher Judge
It was very similar to our version of Black Panther. I am not saying it was taken from us, I am not saying anything like that all. But the warrior I wrote the story for, and the great Pete DeLuise wrote the script, some of the stuff that we had in there, “joma secu,” where anyone could challenge the leader for the right to lead, that was in Black Panther. The decision of whether or not to use technology to help others or just to protect our own, that was brought up in that episode. Then turning out to be a phony. All of that kind of was great fodder. People ask me, “what do you regret about the show ending?” Because we never saw what happened to the Jaffa when they were free. That is the great question to someone who has been enslaved for a millennia. What happens when you’re free? What do you do? What sort of government do you have? Who rules? I wish we had been able to explore it.

David Read
Rick Worthy is in my top five of favorite actors of all time. I am privileged to know him, just a little bit. What was it like when he was brought on that set and he started speaking?

Christopher Judge
Oh, good lord.

Christopher Judge
God, what a voice.

Christopher Judge
Our first scene was in a tent. Usually when you are in a tent it really dampens the sound, but when Rick Worthy spoke… It was the first rehearsal so we did all the pleasantries and all that stuff. When he delivered his first words… Because there’s the morning grogginess, you can literally see everybody [wake up and alert]. I was like, “oh boy, I better get into my base a little bit for this episode.” What a fantastic man. Oh that voice, good lord, wonderful, thunderous.

David Read
Absolutely. Philippe Canat – How was your experience with Christopher Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises?

Christopher Judge
Interesting. It was very interesting. Well, the audition process was really strange. My first audition, something had happened with the breakdown service. My audition was on Monday and I was supposed to get sides on Friday, they never came. So, I had to just show up and cold read it. It went pretty well because I’m a decent cold reader. There was a callback and then the third callback was just me and Nolan. You read with Nolan, there’s no reader. Okay, that went okay, so we started negotiating the deal. They call me back in and it’s with Nolan again and the sides have completely changed. Okay, that went okay. My agent says “we got it”, we started negotiating the deal again. I get a call, “Mr. Nolan would like to see you again but he would like you to do it with an Eastern European accent.” “What?” “Yeah, no, we’re not kidding, Eastern European accent.” I literally stayed up and watched, it sounds weird to say now, Putin’s speech to the Olympic Committee to get that sort of accent. So I went in and it went well again so finally, I get it. The weirdest thing is we didn’t get scripts. You would get your sides, on your first day, you got them in the morning when you got there then you had to check them back in at night. You could look at your stuff for the next day, but you couldn’t take it with you. You’d always have to get there kind of early in the morning to memorize before your shot. One day my call time was like at five, five or six. In L.A. it’s impossible to get anywhere at five or six so I came three hours early, I’ll watch a movie or whatever. I’m relaxing and there’s a knock on my trailer, “Mr. Nolan would like to see you on set.” “How does he even know I’m here, my call time is not for three hours?” The AD says, “do you want to tell Mr. Nolan that?” “I’ll be right there.” He says, “hey” and starts describing a scene that I don’t know anything about. So, I go and put on my wardrobe and we shoot this scene which is me leading all these prisoners through the underground holding area. I have no idea and he doesn’t give you critiques if it’s what he wants. He says, “okay, moving on.” So I ask Joe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, “does he…” he’s like, “na, when it’s what he wants, he just says moving on.” So really the only person he had conversations with were Bale and it was disconcerting. I’ve told this story before, the big fight scene, I almost lost my eye. I gotta say this, this is the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen. We rehearsed this stunt, the stunt fight for a week. Bale wasn’t there and Joe wasn’t there because they were shooting. Christian watches his double do it twice, say “okay, got it.” He does the entire fight, just watching it twice, perfectly. I’m like “wow.” Joe didn’t get to train with me for the fight so one of the first takes the punch is at the wrong angle dah dah dah. The coordinator says, “Joe, you gotta sell the punch.” No further explanation to an actor, that means you’ve got to be closer? Wrong. I knew I was going to get hit the next take but my head’s on the ground so there’s nowhere for me to go. He punches, his knuckle goes in my eye and my eye started spurting blood. We were shooting under the old Third Street Bridge which is now that new fangled thing they have. There’s fans who found out our location so there’s hundreds of fans on the perimeter. Over the walkies they are saying “okay, get an ambulance, get an ambulance. Chris is hurt. Chris is hurt.” They come and embarrassingly, they take me on a gurney but we have to go through the crowd. This is how you know your worth as an actor. Literally, there’s a simultaneous exhale going “oh thank god, we thought it was Chris Bale.”

David Read
Seriously?

Christopher Judge
I literally started laughing with the ambulance attendants going, “that’s where you know the pecking order.” I go, and thank god it wasn’t my eye. It was just kind of ruptured right by the tear duct. I got a couple stitches, go back and I’m leaving straight from set to go to, not Florida, Virginia.

David Read
So they got the shot?

Christopher Judge
Well, no.

David Read
Okay.

Christopher Judge
I’m packing up to make my 6am flight. They say “oh, Mr. Nolan would like to see you on set.” I’m thinking he’s gonna say what a trooper you are, “hey, it was great” and in my mind I’m thinking…what was the movie he did with DiCaprio?

David Read
Oh, yeah. For god’s sake, Inception?

Christopher Judge
Yes. So in my mind, because Nolan works for the same people, in my mind I’m going, “he’s gonna say, ‘see you on Inception 2′”. So I get to set, he goes, “hey Chris, how you feeling?” I’m like “oh I’m good, it’s nothing” and he’s like, “okay, cuz we gotta get the reverse.” I’m like, “whaaaat?” Warner Brothers call my agents, they call the other company that I was going to and they got it pushed a couple of days so I stayed and did the reverses.

David Read
What a trooper, you are my friend. My gosh.

Christopher Judge
But that tells you just how an actor’s mind works, “hey, I might have almost lost my eye but I think I got another gig out of it.”

David Read
You had a similar experience with Craig Fairbrass as Arkad on Talion in season 10. I remember, Bam Bam was telling this this story as well, it got a little too pushy, if I remember correctly. There was a little too much physical contact, the actor kind of got into it a little bit too much. Do you remember this story?

Christopher Judge
Oh yeah, I remember it very well. I’m not opposed to being hit as long as we talk about it beforehand. Some stuff is so hard to sell it there’s not actual content but we hadn’t talked about it beforehand. There was one part of it where Craig is choking me, and he’s really choking me, so I went to Bam Bam and I was like “this cat does know this is acting right?

David Read
Right. Some kind of simulation.

Christopher Judge
Bam Bam went over and talked to him, and Craig god bless him, he’s like, “I’m so sorry. Sometimes when I get into character, I kind of forget.” As a big guy, I understand it. When you’re with actors, you have the sense of, “okay, they’re not athletic,” the majority. So you have to really watch it but when you get with another big guy, you get “okay, I can be a little looser. I can be a little more rambunctious.” That’s all it was, but with the choke I almost went out a couple of times.

David Read
But you got to protect yourself at a certain point. If we’re not simulating anymore then….

Christopher Judge
I got to the point where, “okay Bam Bam, tell this dude I am going to fucking punch him if he keeps doing this.” It was a really long, drawn out fight and I had to go and rehearse another fight scene after we wrapped and I was so tired. It was with Brad Loree. I zigged when I should have zagged, completely on me, so he hit me by the eye, split my eye open. I was like, “Bam Bam, am I cut? Then the blood started.” This is what’s great about Vancouver, they’re taking me to the hospital to get stitched up and the admitting person was a Stargate fan.

David Read
Aaaaah.

Christopher Judge
“You know what, we’re gonna call a plastic surgeon to come and stitch you up so there’s no scar.” They called a plastic surgeon and stitched me up and there’s no scar.

David Read
Wow. There you go. Absolutely. Tracy said “Teal’c always had inspirational words that he shared with the team over the years. Is there a piece of advice that you have received from someone that you continue to carry with you over the years? Aside from James Earl Jones.

Christopher Judge
Well, my mom – everybody’s important, everyone deserves respect, everyone deserves love. Everyone. That’s how I live my life.

David Read
There is something at the core of science fiction that I think is is key. It’s two pronged for me what sci-fi is. Number one, it’s a warning about the future and what can happen. But number two, regardless of how awful the circumstances are, hope shines through.

Christopher Judge
That’s right.

David Read
I think that if you begin and end, as hard as it is to do with people that you disrespect or have problems with, from a place of love, your intentions will always be pointed toward the correct direction.

Christopher Judge
That’s right. That’s right. There’s a t-shirt, but to me it’s so true, love always wins. Love always wins. Let’s talk through it. I’m a person of color who lives in America and it’s a weird time. I try to not take different viewpoints than mine as acts of hostility, unless they are overtly acts of hostility. I don’t consider it to be an act of war for someone to disagree with me. Their opinion still deserves respect, they still deserve respect. But when it’s an open act of aggression, it’s something else. When I meet people, I truly start, not at zero, I start at respect, until you do something to make me not respect you.

David Read
Claire Cowan – are you still designing your own golf trousers Chris?

Christopher Judge
Well, here’s the funny thing.

David Read
On the set of Dialing Home, I was never disappointed.

Christopher Judge
I still wear them because I don’t own jeans. I wear them in my personal life. I either wear, or other kilts, but I don’t really wear them to the golf course anymore. I wear solid pants because I was so easily identifiable with my pants. People would come from fairways over to get autographs and take pictures and it was disrupting my golf game.

David Read
That’s great.

Christopher Judge
I decided just to be more incognegro. It’s true, I get it. It’s not a bother, well okay, when I am golfing, yes it is a bother. But, I don’t take it for granted that my success is due to people watching what I do. So, it would be hypocritical of me to not take a picture, sign something, when they want it. Because it’s because of them that I’m successful. You know what I mean? So I just made the choice to, on the golf course, let me make myself a little harder to spot.

David Read
Right, don’t broadcast it so much. That’s great. Speaking of golf, I don’t know if I told you this story the entire time that we were working together. I don’t think so. From one of the old Gate cons where I first met you, when you and Amanda and Michael were on stage, you had said that Rick’s ball in Window of Opportunity was CG.

Christopher Judge
It was.

David Read
Really?

Christopher Judge
It was. Why, does he say different?

David Read
I then asked him that a few years later, Rick this, and he said, and I quote, “that dick! That is so not true.”

Christopher Judge
Oh, that’s awesome.

David Read
So now I don’t know who to believe.

Christopher Judge
Okay. He put one through the gate, but that wasn’t what we used. I mean, he is right. But I’m right. That’s so awesome. That’s so right.

David Read
Jakub Olejarz – excluding Peter Williams, who was your most memorable goa’uld to work with on the show? There’s a lot. The late great Cliff Simon you and I haven’t spoken since we lost him.

Christopher Judge
Yeah. I’ve been open about it, and it’s not to take away what anyone else did because I love them all, but Cliff just had this panache about him. You knew he was the bad guy, but was he really? He so enjoyed playing Ba’al.

David Read
And playing ball.

Christopher Judge
Yeah. He was just so awesome. We were on set, God of War when, it might have been you who I got a text from. It was either you on Jenny.

David Read
I quite possibly did, yeah.

Christopher Judge
I was in my trailer, I think maybe it was lunch and by the time we broke from lunch the news had been announced so we actually took a moment of silence on the God of War set for Cliff. All the God of War writers are huge Stargate fans. So we… yeah, it was awesome, you know. Yeah.

David Read
His contributions to your show are numerous. SG-1 wouldn’t have been what it was if not for the right villains to really make you guys rise to the occasion. His was sensational, in performance and in dress.

Christopher Judge
Yeah, truly, truly. He loved being Ba’al, he really did. I had the great opportunity to travel the world with him and what a great spirit. What a great spirit. Rest in power brother.

David Read
Absolutely. Lockwatcher – what story can you tell us from the earlier days of Stargate? How true is the story that the three of you, you, Michael and Amanda found each other somewhere in the audition process? Is that an urban legend, or is that, or did you just kind of…

Christopher Judge
100% true. 100% true. We just kind of gravitated towards each other at the screen test. That first day on set when we saw that all three of us had got it, it was crazy. Crazy. It was meant to be.

David Read
Wow, there is something about that show that continually resonates with so many people that I continue to find, watching for the first time, as we move forward with with this project, there is an X-factor to it. I think that it all started from a sincere effort to create something that was genuinely fun, something that entertained but also would never fail to surprise you every now and then. With how poignant it was, it was just the right ingredients of people at the right time and you guys did it for ten friggin years and then some.

Christopher Judge
Yeah, it was lightning in a bottle, it really was. Just the mix of people, it was like the best gumbo ever. You know what I mean? It’s all these very different ingredients that all came together to make something great. You know? God, it’s weird though because I do have a great reverence for it now. Especially, when I look across the landscape of– and not to be demeaning to anyone, but a lot of sci-fi doesn’t start with hope.

Christopher Judge
It starts from dystopia. When you don’t have that, and we’ve talked about this at length, sci-fi is usually the inverse of what’s happening in society. It is now followed by it. There needs to be some escapism somewhere and there really isn’t. You know?

David Read
No.

David Read
The shows that are, are few and far between. Do you have a few more minutes?

Christopher Judge
Absolutely.

David Read
Okay. CarlosTakeshi – The Changeling is one of the more high concept episodes of the show. What was your inspiration for it and how was the process of development? I remember your answer and I remember laughing so hard because I was like, “that’s so simple and straightforward.” It didn’t occur to me, your story about the fire truck. Where was your place in starting this?

Christopher Judge
I wanted to ride on a fire truck from the time I was a kid. So I knew I wanted to make him a fireman because I wanted to slide down the fire pole and I want to ride the fire truck. Literally, that was the genesis. For a while there I was spinning out of control and Brad Wright, I owe him everything, he said, “If you want these stories, you have to write them.” And I said, “Okay.” Changeling was my, Warrior was my first story, Changeling was my first script. Oh, god, I’ll never forget when I turned it in. It was a long weekend. I turned it in on Friday. So I’m waiting. I gave one to Brad and one to Martin Wood. I’m waiting all weekend because I knew Martin was directing. Nothing. Nothing. I’m dying a thousand deaths. Sunday night, nothing. Monday, I went and golfed, came back, one message. It was Brad giggling. He said, “this is really good, this is really good.” I just burst out crying, I mean, uncontrollably. My wife was worried because she thought there was something wrong. I was like, “no, there’s something really right.” Then literally, within half an hour, Martin called and said, “this is great. I know exactly how I’m going to shoot it.” And that was it.

David Read
It’s one of my favorite episodes. In it is the kernel of giving everything to someone else whom you love for a chance for them to survive. Tony Amendola and you were brilliant in that episode.

Christopher Judge
Tony’s brilliant in everything. I loved working with him. Our relationship on screen is very much kind of like what it is in real life. As you saw when you saw us together.

David Read
I wanted to just step away and let you guys be together because you don’t get to be with your family for very long. It’s one of those where it’s like, “okay, we gotta give these guys room to catch up and spend time together.”

Christopher Judge
Yeah. I really loved who he is as a man and just his kindness and how he makes every single person feel important. I want to be like that, we had a lot of Donnie, how fiercely protective Donnie was all of us. I wanted to be like that. I’ve been so fortunate to, in a business that’s often not very nice and it’s often shitty, to really be around some truly shining examples of what it’s like to be a man. It’s not about demeaning. Its people. It’s not about trying to overpower people. It’s about facilitating people to be great. It’s about believing in people and standing by them and encouraging them and truly facilitating for them to be able to express whatever is inside of them that they choose to share. I had great examples of it.

David Read
Oliver wanted to know if you have any memories on filming Threshold. It’s one of my favorite Brad Wright scripts. It’s my favorite Teal’c and Bra’tac episode, especially at the end there “choose, renounce Apophis.”

Christopher Judge
I was just gonna say that. It was so powerful being there when Tony did that. I wasn’t ever big on rehearsals so we would go through blockings – I have to rehearse now more than I used to just because of filmography, it is so intricate. – so we never ran a full speed rehearsal, we just did a position rehearsal. I remember, I think they were shooting across or over me to Tony, when he’s going “choose” and I felt it. Holy shit, it was so powerful. Oh, my god. I wish you could see my arms wth all the hair standing on end. But wow, that still is one of my favorite scenes that I’ve ever shot.

David Read
When the show finds honesty, it hits it hard. There are just there are countless examples of that from Cor-ai, there’s a ton of that stuff. I don’t want to forget a gentleman you and I got to interview before we lost him a few years ago. Carmen died and I immediately emailed Amanda and I got a one word response from her, devastated. That’s all. That’s all she said. What was it like working with that Maestro? Was it like working with dad?

Christopher Judge
Wonderful, wonderful. One of the great things about Stargate was they would cast these legendary people that you had seen from the time you were young and now you got to share a screen with them. I mean, Carmen? I don’t want to start naming because I’ll forget someone.

David Read
It’s a long list.

Christopher Judge
Long list. There’s a saying, “don’t meet your heroes, you’ll be disappointed.” He did not disappoint. No one we had on disappointed. Brad and all assembled, Mike Greenburg, everyone who had a decision in who played what, they were such great judges of character. I’m not sure if they ever missed when they would bring on these [actors]. You would assume there will be some egos or some that weren’t nice or something. Never. Never. Carmen was the first with the Tok’ra. When we first met I couldn’t believe what a nice man he was. You would see him in everything so you kind of were always inviting, but you kind of were like, “who’s this guy going to really be?” He was just so lovely. Just so lovely. So yeah, it was– God, we’ve lost some great people.

David Read
But we’ve had the privilege to know them as well.

Christopher Judge
Right? That’s right. That’s right. I truly believe that they’re still with us in spirit, I truly believe and need to believe it. What wonderful guardians to guide us down our path.

David Read
Blank Space – I waited 16 years to ask this. He says, “Will you tilt your head and say ‘Die Hard’.” I don’t know why he’s bringing this up.

Christopher Judge
[tilts head] Die Hard.

David Read
My friend, this has been such a treat to have you.

Christopher Judge
David it has been for too long, my friend.

David Read
I know. I’d love to have you back in the future. I hope you can come back and join us. This has been a really special episode for me and I love you so very much and I really appreciate you taking the time.

Christopher Judge
Love you right back brother.

David Read
All right. You be well sir.

Christopher Judge
You too and it’s great seeing you.

David Read
Thank you, Chris. I’ll be in touch with you.

Christopher Judge
Okay, much love.

David Read
Bye bye. Christopher Judge, Teal’c in Stargate SG-1. There are people who you meet in your life that help to shape you in various ways. Christopher was that for me? He and I crossed paths at a point in my life when I really needed that kind of mentorship and a process. With him and with Jenny in developing Dialing Home for MGM, it was a great experience. If you go to YouTube and put in “Stargate Command Dialing Home”, you can see my original interviews with Chris. There’s a lot of that content over there and it’s some of the most important in my career. I really appreciate you all tuning in, it means a great deal to have you all for this episode. If you enjoy Stargate and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, please click “like”. Also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. If you want to get notified about future episodes, click “subscribe”. My thanks to my moderating team who have just gone all out; Sommer, Tracy, Jeremy, Rhys, Antony, my producer, Linda “GateGabber” Furey. You guys have made this show what it is, this is why we’re at 200, because of you. Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, my web developer, who’s continuing to grow dialthegate.com. We’ve got a lot coming your way. I have a whole squad of transcripters who are helping to bring the archive of the show to life and over the next few months we’ll be rolling that out as well. I think that’s all that we’ve got for you here. Teresa Mc – Who would you place a bet on to win? Teal’c or Ronan? Teal’c all the way. My name is David Read for DialtheGate. I’ll see you on the other side.