She has had two big events in her life since we last spoke, from becoming a mother to the critical success of “The Swearing Jar,” the movie she adapted from her musical play. Kate Hewlett joins us to bring us up to speed on both, plus share more stories from the set of Stargate Atlantis, LIVE!

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:44 – Opening Credits
01:12 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:18 – Welcoming Kate
03:04 – “The Swearing Jar” discussion
08:32 – History and Reaction to the Film
14:13 – Kate’s Inspiration for the Film (SPOILERS)
20:21 – Music for “The Swearing Jar”
23:38 – Surprising Performances in the Film
30:33 – The Play VS the Movie
32:29 – Did Kate ever have a swearing jar?
34:30 – Next Projects
36:27 – What Kate Brought to Jeannie Miller
40:00 – The Shrine – nagivating through the storyline
43:44 – Who Kate Admires
46:48 – Audiobooks and Voice Work
50:06 – Technology
52:10 – Future Stargate
53:25 – Competition Between Jeannie and Rodney VS Kate and David
52:26 – Wrapping Up with Kate
58:07 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
1:05:05 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 181 of Dial the Gate, the Stargate Oral History Project. My name is David Read. Thank you so much for joining, Kate Hewlett is joining us for this episode. She’s going to be bringing us up to speed on her life, on her film, The Swearing Jar, which she wrote and adapted from her play and we’re just gonna chat with her about life and Stargate and some of her experiences becoming a mother. That’s all in this episode. Before we get into the thick of it, if you like Stargate, well, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t, and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a great deal if you click that like button. It makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will continue to help the show grow. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. Giving the bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last minute guests changes. Clips from this live stream will be released over the course of the next few weeks on the DialtheGate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. She is one of my favorite people and I am delighted to have her back. Kate Hewlett, Jeannie Miller from Stargate Atlantis and the writer of The Swearing Jar. Kate, so good to have you back. How are you? How’s motherhood? How’s life?

Kate Hewlett
I’m great. I always think you’re gonna say somebody else. She is one of my favorite people.

David Read
She is one of my favorite people.

Kate Hewlett
Amanda Tapping is here.

David Read
Amanda has yet to do the show. And you’ve done it at least twice. So you know what?

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, motherhood is wonderful and crazy. I haven’t slept in a while. But no, it’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s like as life changing as everyone says,

David Read
Absolutely. So I was shocked to find out that you published the original play to this film in 2013, is that right?

Kate Hewlett
That sounds about right.

David Read
And long before motherhood. I highly recommend that you watch this movie. We will be discussing a couple of the major spoilers, but I will be telling you where you can mute. So you can skip that part and go and watch this because I don’t want to ruin it for you.

Kate Hewlett
It is a movie that is “you really don’t want to spoil this one”. We think you should see it first.

David Read
Absolutely. I thought that it was made after you had had your child because it’s so in tune with that perspective. With the perspective of becoming a mother and bringing a new person to the world and the relationships that are central to those experiences in life. How did you generate this without yet having that perspective? How were you so spot on?

Kate Hewlett
Oh, gosh, this project has been ongoing. I started writing the play in 2003. I started writing it when I was far too young to play the character and I finished writing it when I was far too old to play the character. I guess there have been little things along the way where I look back at it and I think “Oh, good. I got that right.” Once having gone through something, I got to look back and go “did I do that justice? Yeah, I think it’s okay.” But motherhood being one of those things. I actually I was supposed to be, I was supposed to play a small role in the movie. Then I got pregnant and I couldn’t play the part. I would have been nine months, eight or nine months pregnant.

David Read
The irony.

Kate Hewlett
I know. So then I couldn’t play that part. Then I was gonna do a little Hitchcock cameo and then I went into labor. I went into labor a few weeks early and I missed the entire shoot. I’m actually glad because I can be quite opinionated on set. I had been with the project for so long, that I’m sure I would have had all kinds of input. Lindsay, the director, Lindsay MacKay, did such a beautiful job. Jane Loughman does such a beautiful job. I am glad I wasn’t there to mess it up. They nailed it.

David Read
I am gonna be honest with you. I thought that it was a rom com. When I have people on for the show, who have done a lot since Stargate. First and foremost, what I want to do when I bring them on is showcase to fans, what they’re currently up to, and really focus on that. Sometimes the majority of the episode covers that. Other than the fact that if you didn’t write it, I would probably not have watched this movie. It’s just not in my wheelhouse. I love films like Music and Lyrics, that has this kind of an element to it. This has a very similar musical feel to actually a film called Rudderless. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of this film. It’s a good movie, completely different theme. The music element portion is very similar. I watched this movie last night, way last minute because I was dragging my feet on it. I really am kicking myself that I took so long to see it, because Kate, it’s so well written, it’s really good. Sometimes when I do these shows, I have to inflate my excitement for a project, because it may not be exactly my thing. If you’re listening to my voice, see this movie, this is a good film. I am really, really impressed. I was laughing the whole way through it. There are some lines that I’m going to be using personally, “she makes me want to kill someone with my bare hands.” There’s some funny lines in this. It plays with time. I was watching it on my iPhone, I’m gonna go back and watch it on my full screen now and see what I missed. I thought I was like missing details. I was like, “hold on, time is moving very interesting.” Someone like my mother, my mother would not be able to keep up with this film. She wouldn’t be able to detect the signposts that you’ve put in to follow the narrative and be surprised when things happen. “Oh my gosh, maybe she’s having an affair. Oh, wait a second, maybe not.” Maybe…I won’t get into that. I was so surprised at how wonderful it was. Then I was like, I shouldn’t be surprised at that at all. This is Kate Hewlett we’re talking about here. What kind of reactions have you had to the movie? Now I’m gonna stop blabbering and let you talk a little bit about it.

Kate Hewlett
The Swearing Jar is the name of the movie. It’s based on my play, which I started writing in 2003. It got published in 2013. Then I continued rewriting, it got republished actually last year by Samuel French. So that’s nice, because we have a new version of it.

David Read
It’s on Amazon. You can buy it. You can buy the play.

Kate Hewlett
So the Samuel French or Concord version is the new. It’s rewritten. Not majorly, but just things like in the play there’s like an answering machine that plays [inaudible]

David Read
Anachronisms.

Kate Hewlett
There are a couple of things too, that I didn’t realize. I kicked myself for not noticing but there are certain things even in…You wouldn’t know from watching it but we really wanted to have a very diverse cast for this film. That was always our vision for it but it didn’t work out with scheduling and things like that. Obviously, the cast is out of this world extraordinary.

David Read
Kathleen Turner steals the show.

Kate Hewlett
She steals the show but I mean, like Adelaide Clemens is brilliant and Patrick J Adams is brilliant and Douglas Smith is brilliant. Everyone nails it, there’s not a weak link. We’re thrilled with how it turned out. I’m going to stop playing with my…sorry about that. I’m just so thrilled with how it turned out. It was quite a journey getting there. One of the things I caught in the play was like, you know, remarks. In the audition I got to watch a lot of people’s auditions. What an experience to watch the talent that’s out there and the amount of time people put in to preparing for auditions and oh, my gosh, so many incredible actors. There were a few actors who were not white. There were certain lines in the script, like talking about, rosy cheeks and this kind of complexion, and certain people changed the lines for the audition and I was like, “yes, good on you, and also bad on me.”

David Read
Well it would work for them in the event that you cast them. They found a way to make it work.

Kate Hewlett
I was accidentally saying this character is white and he wasn’t. I think I wrote it so much in my own voice that I didn’t realize. Things like that I caught and I got to change for this version of the play so I’m very happy about the opportunity to do that. I’m not answering your question at all – how of the reaction has been. It’s been one of the best experiences ever to be able to watch it in a movie theater with an audience. I’ve done that now, four or five times at festivals, including Tiff. It was such an incredible experience to get to hear people laughing and then the silence when things change. At TIFF, it was almost like my wedding, I got to have a wedding. That’s what it felt like because all the people I loved were in one place, watching this movie. It was just like a big love fest. Also getting to watch strangers watch it and see how they respond and see people figure things out at different times. That’s all okay. Some people get to the end of the movie and don’t exactly know what happened and need to watch it again, that’s good too. It’s a very different film on second viewing, I think you’ll find if you do if you do watch it again. It’s very different once you know because there are little things throughout that are on purpose that might seem like mistakes the first time or omissions or odd choices. And when you watch it a second time, I think those things pay off. I was inspired by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Everytime I watch that movie I see something I didn’t see before, every time. So I hope this one has just a little bit of that as well.

David Read
It’s got your, I’ve mentioned it before, your play with time, will make it different from viewing where you don’t understand what’s going on to the viewing after. There’s a character who sees another character and in the very next scene, there’s a cell phone call that’s ignored. You think that you know what that phone call is about but then later on in the story, it’s like, that wasn’t what that was about at all. You’re using time as a tool to just to tell the story. In the play is it structured the same way?

Kate Hewlett
It is. Yeah. Yeah, the structure is the same. That was always something I wanted to do. Maybe we’re getting into spoiler alerts here, but not quite. It was always very important to me, that the viewer or the audience member was going on the journey with the main character, and seeing her the way she’s seeing herself and seeing her actions, the way that she is seeing her actions. I think that the nonlinear, my dad thinks that’s a hilarious word, but the nonlinear way the story is told, I think was the only way to achieve that. So that was always there.

David Read
That was always there. What was the impetus for this idea? What was the original kernel that popped this story in your mind? I’m curious, because there’s a lot of elements at work here. The Swearing Jar, the object itself, is kind of a through line. It wasn’t as as big a chunk of the film as I thought it was. It’s kind of like an anchor for her in terms of her relationship with her husband. I’m curious to know what was the first image that kind of came in your mind if Eternal Sunshine is a prime example of one of the things that triggered this story for you. Where did it really come from?

Kate Hewlett
Inspired. I think I think Eternal Sunshine always inspired me because I loved watching a film and not quite knowing what was going on. Her hair is different color in each scene and you’re sort of going “what is happening here.” You’re piecing it together as you watch it and I love that absolutely love that. I also love the tone; so much laughter in it and then also just very poignant.

David Read
It’s tragic.

Kate Hewlett
Tragic. Yeah. There are many things that inspire me that I didn’t realize until I went back and revisited them. Weirdly, I just watched Parenthood, the movie Parenthood, again. This has affected my writing so much. So yeah, lots of different things there stylistically I would say. As far as the kernel of the idea, I saw, there’s a Shakespeare quote the movie that’s from Winter’s Tale. I saw production of Winter’s Tale with a friend of mine, playing Paulina, she was just young, she was only in her early 20s, playing the part. She had lost her partner in real life and she was saying these words, she was making this speech and there was something just about that. That was one of the first things that struck me. That’s why that quotation has played such a big role in the film. Originally, when I started writing this, it was actually about a couple going through an infertility struggle. It started in a very different place and it started much more as a comedy. When I went when I was envisioning it, I didn’t have music in it yet then I went to see a another friend of mine, who has the most incredible singing voice, and is an actress, an actor. I went to see her do a concert and she’s very sort of eccentric and nervous. She was all over the place, she was tripping and you’re watching this person and you’re like, “Oh, God, this concert is going to be a real shit show.” The moment she started singing, it was just like…

David Read
Her confidence

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, everything else went away. There was something about that, that I was like, “okay, that’s definitely something I want to capture as well.” So sort of like these little feelings that I wanted to capture and then it was through writing it that I found the story, which I would not recommend, it takes 20 years. I didn’t have an outline, I didn’t break the story. I found the story through writing, writing and writing and writing and writing, I found the story. There’s a theater here called the Tarragon and I did the Tarragon Theatre playwrights unit. I think when I went into the unit, it was very different play from what I came out with. This is a spoiler, this is the first boiler now. So stop listening, if you haven’t seen the movie.

David Read
Mute if you want and then we’ll signal when you can unmute.

Kate Hewlett
Yeah. One of the actors came up to me who was playing Simon, he came up to me afterwards and he was like, “Are you going to kill him? You’re gonna kill him, aren’t you?” I wasn’t, I wasn’t. He said that and I was like, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God, I know what this is now. I know what story I’m trying to tell.” I wanted to tell the story of moving on from the love of your life and it is possible to move on from the love of your life.

David Read
I’m watching the film, and it happens at the middle part of the film. I’m like, “what story is there left?” I was really surprised at that. I was like, “this is quick.” We already know from the mother talking that he left, her husband died. That’s already playing in the back of our minds that he just dies. Then we get scenes later that informed that something’s wrong; he’s wearing glasses, he’s having headaches, so then it back fills it in. That was a great twist, hee just goes into the kitchen and then he never comes out. An actor helped you find that?

Kate Hewlett
An actor. I had all these little comments about death and dying, and I had him having headaches. It’s like I knew but I didn’t know. Again, the journey that she’s on she’s looking back at each of these memories and she’s realizing that she knew. She’s realizing that he tried to tell her. She’s realizing that she told him not tell her. She’s realizing all these things and she’s sort of piecing together the story for herself. Yeah, that comment was was the thing that made me go “oh my gosh”.

David Read
All right, everyone, you’re good. You’re good. I loved the music.

Kate Hewlett
Thank you.

David Read
I got home. I’m gonna lay one on you here, Kate. I got home and I looked up The Swearing Jar soundtrack and there wasn’t one. I’m very upset because there are a couple of songs though that my favorite songs. One that references May the 4th. I want this music. Can you send it to me?

Kate Hewlett
You will get it. There is a soundtrack coming.

David Read
Okay.

Kate Hewlett
Talk to Jane

David Read
Talk to Jane. I haven’t talked to Jane in years. That sounds great.

Kate Hewlett
Phone her on her cell, I’ll give you all the number. No, I’m just kidding. It’s been a process. Everything’s been hard to get done. It’s just very hard to make a movie, very hard to make a soundtrack. But everyone sees the movie and asks for the soundtrack. It is coming.

David Read
It’s so good.

Kate Hewlett
We have someone on board who’s who’s getting it done. Really incredible company actually, we’re very lucky to get them. It is in the works. So it’s coming. I wrote the songs, but the score was written by Tim Williams, who you must know, right?

David Read
I’ve haven’t come across him.

Kate Hewlett
The man’s a genius. If you look him up, he’s written massive. He does really big stuff. Recently, he did a movie called Pearl. Do I mean, Pearl?

David Read
Let’s have a look at it.

Kate Hewlett
Did I just make that up? It’s a horror movie that everyone’s going nuts for. Just let me check if that’s right.

Kate Hewlett
Cocaine Bear. No, I’m kidding. Composer of Pearl. You’re right.

Kate Hewlett
But also, I’ve lost you, what did I do? There we go.

David Read
I’m here.

Kate Hewlett
He also wrote all the music for Dogs Breakfast.

David Read
Okay, so you guys go way back.

Kate Hewlett
We go way back. His mother was best friends with my mother when they were younger. I remember I him, he’s a piano genius. He wrote the musical Napoleon, which [is an] international success. He’s written for some pretty major films if you look them up. I remember sitting in his lap while he played the piano at my mom and dad’s house, when I was a little kid. I remember being like, “Oh my God, he’s a genius.” And he is, he’s a genius. He can write any kind of music. He wrote the score for this. He was on board from the very, very beginning. Then one of my oldest and dearest friends, Chris Stanton, who played the role of Owen onstage I think every time it was ever done. He co-wrote a few of the songs with me as well. I would go to him with the, May the 4th is a good example, I went to him with the tune and the lyrics and he filled it all out and figured out the guitar part and added harmonies and was like, “what about if we had a bridge?” There are a few songs in there where we worked on them together and that’s one of them. I wrote the the majority of the songs and there will be a soundtrack in the next couple of months. I’m hoping.

David Read
I am interested to know what performances surprised you. In the finished product, like individual scenes that you go back, and you go, either, “I didn’t interpret that look that way” or “they ran that in a different direction” or “they pulled something out of this that I didn’t see or took it further than I thought”, if there’s anything specific.

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, I would say that with Adelaide, who played Carey and Patrick, who played Simon. I feel like they got inside my head and they heard every word the way that it was intended to be spoken. It was a very crazy experience to hear it for the first time, watch it for the first time having not been been on set.

David Read
So you weren’t on set through production?

Kate Hewlett
No, because of the because of this dumb baby.

David Read
The damn baby.

Kate Hewlett
The damn baby was born literally three weeks early. Patrick’s baby was born on the final day of shooting and he had to deliver him.

David Read
Oh wow

Kate Hewlett
It was just a big baby. I think I visited the set for a few hours one day after she was born, but I was like [funny face]. So, Adelaide and Patrick, they just sort of, I don’t even understand how they did that. Patrick asked me a lot of questions, had a lot of thoughts, incredibly smart theater questions. He challenged me on things, he wanted answers. It’s a hard character to play because of everything he’s going through internally and he ended up just just knocking it out of the park. Adelaide, this is so funny, because I don’t obviously see myself very often, but everyone who knows me said that it was like she was channeling me.

David Read
I think that she looks a lot like you. I think more creepy, her vocal cadence is very much yours. I thought you were talking through this movie. It was very strange.

Kate Hewlett
That’s what everyone says and I can’t see it. Apparently her singing also…all my friends were like, “did they dub your voice?” And I’m like “no, she’s way better than I am.” She’s Australian, she doesn’t sound anything like me. We had never met before she did the part so it’s kind of bizarre. She’s just a really good actress. Douglas, his performance surprised me in the most wonderful ways.

David Read
As Owen, the guitar player.

Kate Hewlett
As Owen yeah. I heard Owen in Chris Stanton’s voice, my friend Chris, who was a part of it for so many years. I always heard it in his voice and I always heard it a certain way. Douglas was very different but I loved it. There wasn’t a moment where I thought “I wish he was doing this a different way.” It was just he took it he ran with it. Tiny bit of improv, which I would have not been crazy about normally, but I love what he did. There was a bit of improv with the little kid, which was necessary to make it feel real so that was all really beautiful. He just added a little, just little moments of him that I thought were wonderful.

David Read
The scene with him with the bunny ears. It suggests that, the movie leaves a lot of this open at the end, but it suggests that there is a future with him and his family. I took it that way. Maybe, maybe not. Part of me wants to ask you what your intention is with two certain characters moving forward at the end of the film but the other part of me is like, “you’re probable intent is to just leave it open for everyone to interpret on their own.”

Kate Hewlett
She’s ready for whatever’s next.

David Read
Right. The thing is the journey of positioning herself for emotional… I don’t want to spoil it for what’s next. Right.

Kate Hewlett
She’s ready for what’s next. That’s what it’s about for me, whatever you think that is? I think I have my own take on it. I do have my own take on it. I don’t think it’s right or wrong. I wanted hope. I wanted a sense of hope. The director captured that perfectly. The one thing that’s not written into the screenplay is those direct address moments where the character looks right at the camera, I think there are three moments. I think those did a beautiful job of telling the story, in silence. She brought a lot to this project, Lindsay. She came on quite late, we had three different, four different directors in total. Three different directors over a couple of years. That was part of what was so difficult. You get attached to each person and to their vision and people put so much time into the project and then scheduling or things go wrong or COVID or, you know, conflicts or all kinds of..

Kate Hewlett
Life!

Kate Hewlett
Life. By the time we got to our fourth director, I was like “I don’t know. I don’t know anymore.” I love her. I love her. She so smart. We share a brain. No, she’s so smart. We share our brain. She’s so smart. We share brain on comedy. We really do finish each other’s sentences when it comes to comedy. When it comes to filmmaking, she much more about the silence. She’s much more visual than I am. There are all kinds of things that we differ on and I think it’s a beautiful partnership because we bring something to each other. I love what she did with it. It’s very much her. You can see her in this movie and I think it’s wonderful. She pulled things out. All those supporting characters, one of one of whom you may have recognized…

David Read
Just a wee bit.

Kate Hewlett
That was Jane, Jane in costume. it was supposed to be a woman, he stole a part from a woman. All those characters had more to do, particularly the character played by Jade Ma, who’s in the bookstore.

Kate Hewlett
Yes, Jess.

Kate Hewlett
She has a much bigger part. She’s comic relief. Lots of talking…

David Read
In the play?

Kate Hewlett
No, she’s not in the play, in the movie.

David Read
Oh, in the movie. Okay.

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, all those characters I added for the film. The play is just four people.

David Read
I see. I’m definitely going out and buying a copy of it. I want to see the differences. I want to see like the evolution.

Kate Hewlett
Well buy both versions then. I don’t even know if you can get the original one anymore. Simon, Carey, Owen and Bev are the only four characters in both versions so I added Cyrus who’s the barista, I added Jess who works at the bookstore. I added the daughter, I added… anyone else…oh, the doctor. All these characters that were spoken about, we didn’t get to meet them so I got to fill that all out and then, funnily enough, they got pulled back again, because the film is told through Carey’s perspective. It’s almost like that dialogue is there but it’s under score, or you can’t quite hear it because of stuff that’s going on. It’s just really interesting the way she did it.

David Read
Everything’s already in place and you want to make it more grand for a theatrical presentation, a movie presentation, but at the same time, I can see how those other elements were pulled back in because it’s like, it’s all here already.

Kate Hewlett
It was really smart and really interesting to see it come back to full circle. It was closer to the play in the end.

David Read
Have you ever in your house had a swearing jar?

Kate Hewlett
No, no. I haven’t ever considered giving up swearing I don’t think, since I was little. I’ve never swore in front of, well, once I swear in front of my dad. We still can’t swear in front of my dad and when my partner swears in front of my dad I’m like [cringes] so get so nervous. Not that he’s like, swearing up a storm, but you know, slips out sometime. I am a very big Swearer and having a child is the first time that it’s crossed my mind. She’s now just getting to the age where she’s repeating everything we’re saying. I’ve had a couple of things, but she’s like “shit” so I have to start being careful.

David Read
It’s a great framing device because it sets the expectations of standards for what the family wants to set, moving forward for this little person in their world. I thought it was a great framing device for the movie.

Kate Hewlett
Thank you. I can’t remember how that came about. I don’t remember. I think again, I just wrote it into a scene that it turned into it. The play had a different title before and everything. It’s funny how that evolution has just been epic.

David Read
I can’t recommend this thing enough for folks. Get your family together and sit down and watch this thing. I am sorry that I did not report on it when you were developing it or when it came out. It’s my job to know these things and I missed it and I feel really bad about that. It’s so good, Kate and I want to get to some fan questions because they’re probably going to ask the one that I want to ask next which is “what are you wanting to do next?” Do you anything that you’re going to want to do to try and top that and maybe make it a little bit in less than two decades?

Kate Hewlett
I know, right? I work mostly in TV. I’m work exclusively on TV I would say, this is my first feature. With TV you have to write stuff so quickly and I have that skill now that I think I didn’t have before. I would love to do a follow up feature and I do have a few ideas that I think would be good follow ups. What I’m working on right now is TV and I’m working on a project with my one of my best friends whose name is Andrew Musselman. We’ve known each other since grade 9. He was in grade 9, I was in grade 13. We are working on a project with AMC, AMC studios and Shaftsbury. I’m not sure how much of the this…I’m still not…I think I was talking about this last time we met. They still haven’t really announced it but it’s still going on. We’re on the second episode now. We’ve moved up the food chain a bit and we’re pretty excited. We have a Canadian producer now and we’re hoping for the best, really hoping for the best. It’s a really, really fun pilot.

David Read
Okay, I’m gonna keep my ear to the ground.

Kate Hewlett
It’s a comedy, sort of Christopher Guest sort of style and it’s got tons of music and it’s very silly. For the Dog’s Breakfast fans, I think they’ll get a kick out of it.

David Read
Right up their alley? Oh, man. Still a great film. If you haven’t seen the Dog’s Breakfast go and check it out, it is good. Lockwatch wanted to know – actors add so much of themselves to their characters. Rodney and David, are clearly similar. What did you carry from your life into Jeannie when you were brought on board for season three? Besides your irritation with your brother? I’ve snatched the low hanging fruit.

Kate Hewlett
I think that the sibling relationship actually was a big part of it. Having a brother who had accomplished so much in real life and who was in his element and I was coming into that. Obviously that was being mirrored in real life because David was on the show, this was his world, I was coming into it. Obviously McKay and David [are] very different people but he welcomed me and made it a very easy experience in real life. I think that’s still there. You look up to this person and you want to do a good job, you want to impress them and you maybe want to do like a better job? I’m just kidding. That was all in there. I think with the second episode, the third episode…

David Read
The Shrine?

Kate Hewlett
The Shrine. There was something very emotional about that. Acting those scenes with my brother where he was regressing and all of that. That was a gift that was sort of handed to us by the writers. It’s a weird thing to act with your sibling and play siblings, because it’s so real. The relationship is already there, the way you are together is already there. You’re not generating any of that so you’re going through an experience together that’s not real, but it feels real. There was something really cool about that. I guess the other thing with Jeannie would be I hadn’t acted very much before. I had done one show. I had done a show called 11 Cameras and I had done the odd guest star but I had never walked into something of this scale before. It was life changing. I think the story of that episode of her finding out about Atlantis and that all this was happening, what her brother was doing and the magic of it all. I’ve told this story before but seeing the little alien and being like, “Oh, you’re really here. I can touch your little head”. It was wild. It was wild. Stepping onto the set was wild. Doing walk and talks on that set, it felt real. I think a lot of the amazement, I felt as an actor and in the character too.

David Read
I drove a truck through the setup of the topic the last time I approached it when we were on, when we were on together. I want to come at it from a different direction because it was such a beautiful episode, The shrine. It is a it’s a personal story for Brad. I will not tell that story because he needs to come on and tell it. When you got that script and when you were doing those scenes with your brother, you’re in another galaxy. Yes. But you’re dealing with something that could be very real and happening. Tell us about navigating that story.

Kate Hewlett
David read it before I did. He said, “there’s another one”, you know, “we’ve got another episode coming.” I knew that and then David said, “I can’t get through this thing”. He’s like, “I can’t get through this thing without crying. Everytime I read it, I’m crying.” And I’m like, “[sighs] Oh, David, emotional.” Then I read it and had the same experience. I hadn’t been acting for that long and in rehearsal when you’re doing the blocking and everything you’re supposed to just sort of mark it you know. You are supposed to save your performance for when they’re filming, go figure. But oh god, the first time we said those lines out loud together, we were just, we were a mess and the cameras were off. It was a really extraordinary experience. It was really extraordinary. I don’t know what else to say about it really. I remember so clearly being in that room and…also David’s just so good. I felt like I was watching my brother deal with dementia, that’s what I felt like I was watching. It was very emotional. Then I got to run out and leap into the arms of Jason Mamoa. Can we take that again? I don’t feel like I got it. That episode was very special I thought. Beautifully written.

David Read
You take someone like Brad and you…I’ve always considered him to be a playwright. His best scenes are two people and just winding them up and letting them go. I think also, it comes from the added benefit that this is your third outing in terms of a full episode. There have been cameos, your third outing for the character so you had her established and you didn’t have to really deal with a lot of those kind of things. This wasn’t her first episode so even though you were still pretty early on in your acting career you can still say, “Okay, I know who this is at this point. We’re past that. What’s the meat of this story?”

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, I was more comfortable. I knew who she was a bit more. I knew who she would be in these situations. The character was more comfortable. The character has friends, the character knew the relationships and the dynamics and yeah, an incredible experience.

David Read
Teresa Mc – who do you admire in professional women?

Kate Hewlett
Oh my god. In the world?

David Read
I suspect yeah. If there is anyone who has encouraged you to set certain tones in your life.

Kate Hewlett
The original director of The Swearing Jar, the person who I pitched it with to Jane, her name is Lara Azzopardi. Oh, Mario. She’s Mario’s daughter.

David Read
Ah, okay. I know that name.

Kate Hewlett
So she’s Mario’s daughter, she grew up on set, She’s done everything you can possibly imagine. Every job in that business she’s done. She’s a very accomplished showrunner, writer, director now, living in L.A. Even though she’s younger than I am, because she’s a jerk, she’s someone I look up to very much. She has three children. Oh my gosh. She showran a show called Backstage which I’m very, very proud of. It was like a teen show, but it was very smart. Beautiful music, beautiful dancing, it was a great show. She showran that and that was my first co-executive producing job. When we went into the writing room, her third baby was a week old. Lara had a marker in one hand and a sling with her baby in it and she was breaking story and she’s writing and oh my god. The auditions, if you listen to the backs to the audition tapes, you can hear farts. The baby was in there and these poor kids are trying to audition, you hear [fart noise] the baby just let’s one rip. She’s just an incredible, very inspiring, professional woman who’s doing incredible things. She was supposed to helm the new Degrassi that was coming, but something went wrong with the network or something like that. I don’t think they’re making it anymore but she was supposed to be doing that show. She’s got like five shows on the go.

David Read
She’s going places.

Kate Hewlett
Oh, she’s going places. Yeah. We worked together on The L.A. Complex as well, on Martin Gero’s show. We work together on that. She’s just someone I want to work with forever. That’s one person, there’s so many.

David Read
That’s a great selection, though. That’s really cool.

Kate Hewlett
I’m so proud of myself for having an accidental Stargate connection.

David Read
There’s a couple. Tracy – would you ever consider doing voice work for audiobooks?

Kate Hewlett
I’ve done that.

David Read
That’s what I thought.

Kate Hewlett
I’ve only done one. I’ve only done one. It was so much work.

David Read
Which one? What was the title?

Kate Hewlett
It was called the Dow House. It’s called the Dow House. I think I had to do 40 dialects and accents. The whole thing is read in a British accent. The main narrator has a British accent and then I had to do like every accent under the sun. It’s a lot of hours. I mean, a lot of hours. It was a really cool experience but it’s time consuming. If I could get into that Audible world where it’s lucrative I think I would do more of it, because I really enjoyed it. It’s just not very lucrative for the amount of time it takes.

David Read
No, it’s a lot of time consumption for only so much.

Kate Hewlett
I do a ton of voice work. That was my bread and butter until we got locked out. All union members have been locked out of commercials now. It’s been a really bad 12 months. We’re not allowed to do any, any work at all. I’m not sure how that’s even allowed. I had four campaigns, they all got given away to non-union performers. Not only did we stop auditioning, we lost all our work. Most of the commercials now that you see on TV and that you hear are non-union. It’s been really, really bad.

David Read
That sounds like a cluster, like wow.

Kate Hewlett
I don’t even understand. There are a lot of people working to try and change it. It makes you wonder about the union and how to make the union more effective. I know they’re trying very hard. It’s just the ad agencies..I guess everyone wants to make a buck.

David Read
Yeah, you think that there would be some middle ground somewhere in there?

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, I know people who are having to sell their houses, people who were making a consistent living doing this. I would say I lost 50% of my income last year and had a toddler so that’s challenging. There are people who this was their entire living.

David Read
…and lost everything.

Kate Hewlett
They worked their way up over many, many years and it disappeared overnight because an agreement didn’t get signed. I’m hoping it comes back. I have my little booth set up in the basement gathering dust.

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. After COVID a lot of them set up their own. I love people in closets, you know, because all the fabric.

Kate Hewlett
I do like “I have to do a voice audition” and I just get under my duvet.

David Read
Absorb the sound.

Kate Hewlett
Recently now I can’t read my phone. If it’s too far away, it’s too far away from the microphone.

David Read
Right.

Kate Hewlett
Very sad

David Read
Flip-n-Burn asked an interesting question. “Was there any tech, any technology that you saw working in that world, that fictional world, that you would like to see in real life, that you would like to see in use?”

Kate Hewlett
I mean, the Gates pretty damn good. Is that an obvious answer?

David Read
That’s a good one.

Kate Hewlett
That’d be handy.

David Read
Absolutely.

Kate Hewlett
What other technology. Oh, my gosh, I can’t remember.

David Read
You’re seeing coming aboard the ship with David and Amanda and adjusting to that world. That was really great. That was really “how would I react in that situation?” Probably very much like her. So this is a spaceship!

Kate Hewlett
It was all practical. It was all practical. So it was that, it was that feeling of “Oh my god”. I’m obsessed with The Last of Us and I just watched a documentary on the making of The Last of Us. I didn’t know Bella Ramsay was British. Oh my god. Why is she so good?

David Read
She was in Game of Thrones.

Kate Hewlett
I know. I didn’t even…and she stole Game of Thrones and I didn’t realize it was the same person. She’s extraordinary, so is he. There’s a documentary on the making of it. They built towns, they build towns and there’s like a little bit of VFX here and there but when you get to act in those situations, it’s kind of a once in a lifetime thing because you’re really there, you’re not doing green screen. I hardly did any green screen work at all on Atlantis. I think when I’m looking out the window, that’s the only thing I remember.

David Read
That’s the star field, yeah. Otherwise you’re just dropped into it. You just exude that performance.

Kate Hewlett
Yeah, yeah. The walk and talk I particularly remember just because it was like, you could walk and walk and walk.

David Read
I know it keeps going.

David Read
Let’s see. Raj wanted to know – are you still up to return in a future Stargate series? There are rumors that another one’s coming down the pipe.

Kate Hewlett
I usually give a jokey to this and I’m like “no way”. I’m like right now, are you kidding? I’m not even gonna joke. In a heartbeat, I’d be there in a heartbeat. I loved working on it. It’s so not my world, but I loved it. The writing was so good. I don’t think I fully understood how lucky I was. I knew I was lucky to be on the show but you have those experiences very rarely where the writing is that good and the actors are that good and everyone likes everyone. Working in VC was awesome, working with David was awesome. I’m not even making jokes, my child stole my sense of humor. Can’t even be mean anymore, it’s depressing. No, I would go back in a heartbeat. I think David and I would love to do that again.

David Read
Theresa Mc, as someone who doesn’t have siblings I’m curious to this answer, Teresa Mc – Does competition between Jeannie and Rodney make them smarter scientists and better people? How do your siblings and you push against each other to bring out the best of each other?

Kate Hewlett
Hmm, solid question.

David Read
Or do you tear each other to bits?

Kate Hewlett
We just tear each other down. I think in the case of Jeannie and Rodney for sure, the competition made them work harder; constantly trying to outdo each other. They both, I think, believe the other one’s smarter, but they don’t want to admit it. That’s the perfect way to be because you’re constantly striving for more. It keeps you humble, maybe not Rodney.

David Read
Everyone else.

Kate Hewlett
Yeah. I don’t feel that there’s ever been any competition between myself and my siblings. I think with David and I, you know, we’re nine years apart. I like to remind people he’s nine years older than me. We don’t generally go in for the same mom roles. I think I would say with that he carved a path so I knew it was possible. I think that was a big deal. He jokes about this but it’s true. He told me not to go into acting, not to go to acting school. Everything I did he was like, “don’t do this.”

David Read
As genuine advice.

Kate Hewlett
Genuine advice. It’s really hard, don’t do this. If there’s something else you can do, do it.He laughs because every time he gave me advice, I did the opposite and then it was the right choice. He sort of took weird credit for that. I think he just didn’t want my life to be hard. He saw how hard it was for women as well and he saw the focus on appearance for women and what it did to women, and all that stuff. I think he just didn’t want that for me. In many ways he was right and it made me think about it more and it made me question how much I wanted it and I really wanted it.

David Read
That’s the key.

Kate Hewlett
I wouldn’t have done it if he hadn’t done it first. There’s no way. He made me realize that it was possible to make a really good living, doing what you love doing. That was massive.

David Read
Yeah. It’s a risk, you know, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? Kate, I’ve taken you over, I apologize.

Kate Hewlett
This has been great for me. Let’s keep going,

David Read
It’s been wonderful to see you. I can’t recommend enough this film, The Swearing Jar. Go online, type into Google “where to watch” in your area. In the US you can get it on on Amazon. There’s a couple of services that you can rent it or buy it. It’s also, where did we just say that it was, oh Starz in the United States. But iTunes, Google Play, it’s all there.

Kate Hewlett
It’s free on Starz. In Canada it’s on Crave. It’s on airplanes all over the world. I don’t know why. Everyone keeps sending me photos of it on the airplane and I think it’s recommended or something on the airplane. Yeah, it’s a weird place to watch it. Go for it.

David Read
I’m really tickled for you. Please stay in touch and we’re gonna wrap the show up.

Kate Hewlett
Okay, and I’ll let you know what the soundtrack comes out.

David Read
Please do. I was in pieces when I did. I’m so glad to hear that it’s happening.

Kate Hewlett
We have a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Song. But it’s for the swearing song. I don’t think we’re gonna win.

David Read
Oh, man that’s funny. It reminds me of Martin Gero with his film Young People F-ing. Another great film. All right, Kate, I’m gonna go ahead and wrap things up here. All the best to you. Thank you for everything.

Kate Hewlett
Thanks so much.

David Read
Good to see you. Bye.

Kate Hewlett
Talk to you soon.

David Read
Kate Hewlett everyone, Jeannie Miller in Stargate Atlantis and the writer of The Swearing Jar. I cannot recommend this film enough, go and check it out. You will have a good time. It’s got some sci-fi elements to it too in terms of the movement of time. it’s not strictly a sci-fi elements, it’s a presentation choice, but it works well. Next to my naquadah generator over here, we have a new set piece that I wanted to share with you. My friend Guillaume St. Pierre, otherwise known as Bra’Zat, he is making these Stargate Command flags. It’s very sturdy. Very, very well constructed. I love it. As soon as I saw that he was producing them I said “I want one for my show.” If you want one of these, you can go to [email protected]. Send him a message, let him know and get yourself one. I absolutely love it. He’s done a great job and it’s gonna be part of our set now going forward. That information is available in the description below and also in the credits as well. On top of that he’s also produced confidential documents. He replicated these from the show. He’s taken the folders that we released through Propworks and has made them into individual pieces that you can buy. This includes the mission report that was created for Politics, for the original Abydos mission in Children of the Gods. I’ve gone through and read these, he’s taken pretty much every document that I’ve been able to find that was released through the show, in terms of paper documents, and put them in here. So all the way from the Abydos mission in Children of the Gods to I think..there’s cool color pages as well, too…I think there’s a document for General Hank Landry. All the way up through at least season nine, there’s some cool things all the way through here. The folder, the replica folder of confidential information and the flag are available through Bra’Zat. All you have to do is email him at [email protected] and again that email is in the link below. Thanks so much to Kate for joining us on this episode and I really recommend the movie. DialtheGate is brought to you every week for free. We do appreciate you watching and if you want to support the show further, get yourself a t-shirt. We have tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies also available for all ages, as well as cups and other accessories in a variety of sizes and colors at DialtheGate.com/merch. Thank you so much for your support. We do have a couple of new items coming really soon here, I’m just waiting for more information on those. I think there were a couple of questions for me. Have you tried getting David and Kate Hewlett on for the same show? For this one, actually and David said we should just interview Kate. And then I watched the movie and I was like, “well obviously, that makes perfect sense”. Let me see here. Tracy – I would love to see David come in in a panel to discuss AI. We had Laurence Moroney from Google last week along with executive producer Robert C. Cooper. Great 90 minute discussion on artificial intelligence. Little bit of Stargate was woven in there, not as much as I had intended, but I was content to give Rob the floor on most of that one. It was a fascinating discussion so I really recommend you go and check it out. I would prefer to have David back for a Stargate AI that’s been modeled in the personality of Rodney McKay. I think that one exists and if I’m not mistaken I think David made one over at…let’s let’s have a look here real quick. You guys can go and check it. No, I don’t I don’t have that link anymore. I think is it character.ai? I’m gonna see. Yeah character AI and go and search the website beta.character.ai and do a search for Rodney McKay. Let me do that real quick here, if I can pull this up. Yeah, Dr. Rodney McKay – heroic brilliant astrophysicist genius leader @DHewlett created this. So, did “David Hewlett make you?” Let’s ask him. He’s thinking. “The heroic humble brilliant genius scientist. I was written by brilliant writers just like myself and played by the highly talented David Hewlett. So yes, I suppose he did bring my brilliant humble heroic self to life” and he created an image. Wow, what is up with that? Okay, we need David Hewlett on to to voice this character. So David, please consider coming on in a month and a half or so when when we’re ready to do another one to narrate these. Cuz that’s hilarious. We just did one with Jack O’Neill and it was a huge success. Everyone loved it. I think Rodney’s would be brilliant, if not more brilliant than Jack’s. I appreciate everyone tuning in for this episode. Thanks again to, I almost said thanks again to Jeannie. Thanks again to Kate. My moderating staff Sommer, Tracy, Jeremy, Rhys. Antony, you guys are the best. Big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb for keeping the site up and running. My Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, thank you Linda so much. I think that’s what we’ve got for you here. Robin Mossley is coming up in 50 minutes and we will be bringing him in to discuss Dr. Reimer from season 10 and Malikai from Window of Opportunity to share some about what is regularly rated as the number one episode of Stargate SG-1. My name is David Read for DialtheGate. I appreciate your time and we’ll see you on the other side.