When Anubis returned to possessing humans in “Redemption” Parts 1 and 2, he took the bodies of slaves. Actor Dean Aylesworth was this initial form, and he joins Dial the Gate to discuss the process of slipping into SG-1’s long-lasting nemesis, his career, and to answer fan questions!

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:45 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:28 – Welcoming Dean and Stargate fans
04:25 – Dean’s Early Life and Acting
10:20 – Starting in Vancouver
14:15 – Early Job as an Extra on 21 Jump Street
18:00 – Dean’s Idea for a Podcast
20:28 – Accident, Recovery and Project
28:04 – Gatecon
28:34 – Getting the role of Anubis
33:52 – Playing the Villain
36:46 – Cliff Simon
41:07 – How Do You Get Into Character?
45:08 – Future Stargate
47:20 – Social Media, Fans and the Work
51:32 – Wrapping up with Dean
54:14 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
56:58 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Welcome to Dial the Gate. My name is David Read. This is episode 156 of the series. Thank you so much for being with me here. A lot of Stargate news happening right now. It’s gonna be interesting to see what’s going to be coming out in the next few months. Our State of the Gate was last week. It’s gotten picked up by a couple of bigger sites including SyFy Wire, GateWorld — Darren published a very nice article on it as well, so big thanks to them. Dean Aylesworth, Anubis of Stargate SG-1’s Reckoning is with us in this episode, and we’re going to bring him in in just a moment. But before we really get started here, if you enjoy Stargate, and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, please click that Like button. It makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and will help the show continue to grow its audience. And if you want to see more, if you want to see the channel grow, please 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. And clips from this livestream will be released over the course of the next few days on the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. As this is a live interview with Dean, we have moderators in the YouTube chat ready to go, so you can submit your questions to Dean and they will be taking up the second half of the show. In the meantime though, he’s all mine. Mr. Dean Aylesworth, Anubis in Stargate SG-1. Welcome, sir. It’s good to see you again.

Dean Aylesworth
David, thank you for having me. It’s good to see you as well.

David Read
How is Mexico?

Dean Aylesworth
Mexico is fabulous. It’s so nice here. I’m enjoying every moment of it. Getting to see old friends and enjoying the sunshine right now.

David Read
Well, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy weekend to come and reminisce with us on this series. It was so nice to see you at Gatecon and have your involvement in the show then. Did you have a good con?

Dean Aylesworth
I really did. Yeah, did you?

David Read
It was a great year. What is it about Stargate fans that keeps you coming back? What is it about Stargate fans that you think keeps them coming back to the franchise?

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, right. It’s their generosity. It’s their real and genuine love and kindness. I made friends. It’s not just, you know, fans. Yeah, that’s what I like about it.

David Read
Absolutely. I am always blown away by the generosity of the people and how much they put into a piece of entertainment that has given them so much, how much they want to give back through charity, and through making connections in the real world. It’s so… the television show is almost secondary at events like Gatecon.

Dean Aylesworth
It really is, and just being a part of it and to be in the mix of it, and to have that good feeling, that generosity that is reciprocated over and over and over again. And with their memories and their interactions with the franchise. It’s overwhelming in some ways, but it’s also a really great time to sit down and just really talk with one another. And that’s what I got from it, for sure. That’s why I liked it.

David Read
Absolutely. Tell us when you knew you wanted to act for the rest of your life and be a part of this industry, or maybe not, for the rest of your life, at least up till this point.

Dean Aylesworth
Well, I certainly want to do it for the rest of my life. And so, yeah, no, you spoke for me well, I’ll take that, absolutely. David, it’s such a deep, impactful thing. I’ve gone through lots of things in my life, some wonderful, wonderful, joyful things. But a great deal of tragedies happened. When I was young, I had a lot of nightmares, and I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and my father would be out in the hallway. Well, the light of the television would be out in the hallway, my father would be out in the living room. And I would go out and sneak out and sort of see if I could see what he was doing, and he was usually watching magnificent films like, well, anything Humphrey Bogart was in, or Spencer Tracy. He really liked Jack Lemmon and those actors. He would see me come, because he knew I had a nightmare and that I was there, and he’d just make a little room and have me sit next to him and watch these shows. And then when he passed away, I didn’t have that sort of nightmare touchstone, which was my dad. But I did have what we did together. And what we did together was we emoted, maybe something that we weren’t allowed to do in our everyday life. Something we weren’t allowed to laugh with, or thought — we ourselves thought — weren’t allowed to do, that wasn’t socially acceptable or whatever. And he and I would do that. Laugh and cry and all that stuff in these emotional moments of the film. And so, in my going back to that touchstone after he had been gone, I knew for sure that that’s what I wanted to do when he was there, which was act. Be that other guy on that other end, giving me that sort of feeling, that thing that I believe all artists, regardless of what venue we are, want to achieve. Which is affect our audience, in hopefully an emotional way. And that’s when I decided, when I was six years old, and I started to get at it when I was like, 10.

David Read
Wow. OK. And where did it go from there? Take us along your journey that led you to Stargate.

Dean Aylesworth
OK, man. Well, I grew up in a religion that was very about talking, speaking, public speaking, and all the rest of that stuff in school. I stood in front of an audience of 200 reading scriptures from the Bible. And I took that training right there, and then talking and knocking on doors, and sharing the Watchtower and Awake! magazines and these things, and doing this on a constant basis. This wasn’t my faith, but it was my mother’s faith. And I guess, as a good boy does, I kind of kept along with it, right? I took out of those things, the things that I hopefully could use. I knew it was also shunned upon, to go out and to be in some sort of limelight, or to be maybe a little arrogant, maybe a little, you know, these are sins, right? And so I was like, “Oh, goodness! This is what I want to do. This is what I’m gonna do.” And I just eventually kept on using all the things that were coming to me and with me, and I asked my uncle one day if I could have $300 for a flight to Vancouver, because I had done some acting work in Calgary at the Calgary Playwrights Festival, and there’s lots of theater in Calgary — it’s Calgary, Alberta, Canada — it’s really quite progressive, and they seemed to recognize the talent in me and I was really grateful for that, because I have a heartfelt affinity for this. But I didn’t know film, and I didn’t know how to do that. And I didn’t have any money. And so I was going to do it. However I was going to do it, I was gonna do it. And I had a plan, and the plan was I was going to go there and get discovered and be a star.

David Read
And roll credits, right?

Dean Aylesworth
Exactly.

David Read
It’s that simple.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. And certainly, it was just that. Making that impactive choice. I had the opportunity of doing my first professional gig in Edmonton, Alberta with a friend of mine as, I guess I was the stagehand, the backup for whatever actor was gonna get lost or whatever. I just did everything, and I knew all the lines and I knew… And so we did the Edmonton Fringe and nobody got hurt, but it went off really well. And that was my foray to the running away to the circus, if you will. And that’s when I asked my uncle, “Please help.” And he said, “Yeah, I’ll buy you a ticket.” And I got there with 200 bucks in my pocket, and from crazy Calgary, Alberta. I’d never been on an airplane. I was 17 years old. Yeah. And I still, I kind of did whatever I could when I first landed. I even lived under a bench. You know, it was, yeah, it was a little cold. Because I had arrived in January of 1989.

David Read
Oh gosh. Yeah, I bet.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, but I had a lot of friends who were giving, who were generous, who understood the spirit of what I was doing and that they wanted to help. And I made lifelong friends. You know, Dax Belanger, he helped me out. David Howe and Gary Chapel, these guys say, “OK, man. You know what, you can come and work for me at this little restaurant, and it’s just here on mainland, which is right across the street from this fashion industry. And you’ll meet a lot of different people in the whole area, because you’re gonna deliver lunches.” I’m like, “Really cool. Let’s do that. OK, I’ll do this job.” And he says, “And by the way, we got a place you can sleep on the floor in the living room of the apartment that we have.” And I’m like, “Good enough for me, man. I mean, that’s…”

David Read
Got your feet under you.

Dean Aylesworth
Absolutely, right? So I got a job. “Now I got a job and a place to live.” And this was in about three weeks of me getting there. I did this job with a guy, the sample room was a very unique place. It was… fashion models also have to have sort of one size. And what they do is they make a sample of this — usually in that one size — of all the things that they’re trying to make to take to market. And in that market, they sell it to — with not only the name brand for the designer — but they sell it to a whole bunch of different places like Nordstroms, and so on and so forth. And in doing that, the sample sometimes are no longer useful. They go to work, right? In this case, they went to this place that I was working at. And they had a beautiful, wonderful coffee shop in the back. And I washed dishes and delivered lunches from this little place. And they would have, like, celebrities came in there every day, sat in the back, had their coffee, it was really quite fun. And all these samples were one of a kind and very unique clothings. But they had to be, obviously, just… I think there was two sizes. There was like small and [inaudible].

David Read
That’s it.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, yeah. It turned out the lunches that… the deliveries that I made, were to some of the first producers here in Vancouver — I’m not here in Vancouver, but in Vancouver — I had the joy of meeting Winston Rekert, and him and a man by the name of Danny Virtue. And they were working together putting together products like Highlander, the television series, Neon Rider previous to that, with our friend Peter Williams [who] played a regular role in that. So in that I was establishing, and have been establishing, relationships, right? And that’s kind of, that’s truly the course of action how I’ve been doing it. Is by staying the course, being consistent, being reliable and hopefully having a certain amount of talent. And befriending people by whatever means, regardless of who they are, what their gender, what their lifestyle is, but befriending them instead of making more enemies and being, you know, quite Anubis-like, I decided to make more friends. But I can definitely play the Anubis thing because I know what it’s like to have that other end, right? So it’s kind of fun, I get the whole gamut. Well in doing that, I went and I — because I wanted to act, and I didn’t have any money — I went on my day off, I went and did an extras job. And I was curious about the whole camera movement and the getting to your marks, and your lighting, and your eyeline, like, “What are all these queries? What are all these words? What does it do and how do I integrate that into my stage acting, the base of acting, really. How do I do that? And how have all of my other comrades in arms done it?” You know, so I figured I could go there and quietly learn and get paid at the same time. And that worked. So I did do that. And it turned out that I made some really great and wonderful friends who wanted me to come and be a regular extra, which is unheard of. Like, there’s no such thing. An extra goes and works for usually the one day, and then comes back and maybe we’ll do something on a completely different show. That’s how I knew it, that’s how I… Well, for a year and a half, I was on a television series in the background, as an extra, in the precinct of this police station, if you will. It was in a church and it was called The Chapel. And this was for a television series called 21 Jump Street.

David Read
OK.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. Yeah. And that was my first… that was my tutelage. For a year and a half, I was a background extra on 21 Jump Street. And I learned from, I hope, and think, I believe, from some of the best. And Peter Williamson, I mean, Peter DeLuise being one of them.

David Read
Absolutely. Yeah. A few notables cut their teeth on that show.

Dean Aylesworth
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

David Read
Absolutely.

Dean Aylesworth
All diverse careers from there. I mean, Holly Robinson Peete and Dustin Nguyen, and I mean, everybody, you know. It’s been a real gamut, and a real blessing for me. But once again, based on relationships. Because, I didn’t ask them to teach me, but they were my teachers, do you know what I mean? And eventually became friends. And, none of the other things came any easier, but I have, I guess I have the ability to turn the thing that’s not so fun and not so great into something worthwhile. Hopefully, you know, because we’re all going through it, it’s all, you know, I don’t want to swear!

David Read
No, you’re fine. It’s all a process and a journey and no man rows alone, or woman. You know, we all have to get there together and when you see something in someone that works, it’s like, “Yes, I’ll take more of that, please.” You know? And why wouldn’t you? Because, “Hey, I don’t need to reinvent the wheel, I’ve got it right here.” It sounds like you came off as an employee in this precinct, you know. Either that or you were just really lousy at getting caught.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, well, I was one of the young police officers.

David Read
Yeah. So that makes sense, you know, to establish some continuity there. And you definitely have the look for it so it worked.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, thank you, man. Thank you. And from there, I went and got myself an agent and I did the regular thing. And in fact, this has inspired me — just this, our talking — I have been talking with a friend of mine and I want to put together something like… because I was admiring how you talked just before all of this, David, and how you were addressing everyone and with with very specific words. Because I was talking about putting together a podcast. Something that I, you know, from my heart, to share with actors. Young, old, tall, short, I don’t care the color, I don’t care the religion, I don’t care, who need just a little of how to do it. And I thought I’d put a podcast together and just tell them how I did it. And, you know, maybe just prepare yourself for some reality.

Dean Aylesworth
A wild ride.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, yeah.

David Read
That’s a great… I’d tune in.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, cool, man. I’ll do that. I’ll shake that tree.

David Read
Make it happen, for sure.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. Well, I’ll be here for the next three months. I’m getting my teeth fixed.

David Read
Oh, OK.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, yeah. I’ve not enjoyed the teeth thing. It’s very much a… I’m sure no one even noticed, but it’s one of those… its like a self-esteem thing, you know, when you can’t… I love to smile, and I’d love to give you a big, toothy grin, but…

David Read
You’d be [surprised], maybe you wouldn’t be surprised, the number of people I know who have gone to Mexico and the dentists down there are apparently amazing. So yeah. It’s apparently the spot. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m happy that you’re… you know, the Mr. Rogers part of my personality is always in conflict with people who are like, “You know what, I’ve just gotta tweak this.” But you know, I’m not going to begrudge anyone for turning that corner and saying, “You know what, this is something about myself that I simply want to improve and leave me alone.” You know?

Dean Aylesworth
Well, yeah. Isn’t it? Yeah. I’m not doing any plastic surgery, I’m not doing any of that craziness, but I got a mouthful of teeth that needs fixing, you know.

David Read
I understand where you’re coming from.

Dean Aylesworth
And I tried to get it done in Canada and it was like $35,000.

David Read
It’s ridiculous, yeah. And they’re just as hygienic and everything else down there. I’ve seen pictures of some of these places, it’s like, “Man, you can eat off the floor.” So, good on you for moving forward with something that you want.

Dean Aylesworth
Yes.

David Read
Is there a role that pushed you or pulled you or stretched you in a way that you didn’t expect? No pressure. Just throw that on you.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. David, I fell off a roof in in 2007, February 22nd, 35 feet off a roof, shattered my right foot.

David Read
So this wasn’t on camera?

Dean Aylesworth
No, no. But it was just after my first appearance on Stargate. And so I was like, my career, as far as I knew, my career was over, I was done. I’m ruined, right? Because now I’m back to no money, no nothing, and what can I do? I’d even gotten chunky by my standards, because I had to keep my foot up for three months between surgeries. And this isn’t a sad story, and I’m not trying to bleed it, it’s just what happened. But seven surgeries later, I had to come out of bankruptcy, and my mother had passed during it, and there was many trials and tribulations.

David Read
Yeah, a lot happened at once.

Dean Aylesworth
Well, that’s kind of it, right? And so it was the recovery of that, the kind of coming out of that. And I’ll tell you, man, I have the most amazing, the coolest, the grooviest agent in the world. Because he’s looking at me and he’s going, “Yeah, man, you’re going through hell, and I don’t want you to off yourself.” And I’m like, “Dude, I’m not going to do that. Like, that’s the last thing I’m going to do. I love what I do. I love life, even if it’s just a little not great. So that’s not going to happen.” He said, “Well, let’s do something.” He says, “Let’s… I’m going to produce a play for you. We’re gonna do a play.” and I said, “OK.” And he says, “And I want you to do it all. I want you to find a director.” I said, “OK, man, I’ll do that.” He says, “I’m going to go and see my family in Sheffield, England, for Christmas, and I’m going to come back to you still alive, working on this.” And I said, “Yes, that’s exactly what you’re gonna do.”

David Read
You can never be too sure with people anymore.

Dean Aylesworth
Right? No, you can’t. And, you know, his heart was also invested. We’re going through it, everything right? And I’m not checking out, I’m just not going to do that. I’m going to make this thing into diamonds, you know. And that’s how diamonds get made with pressure, right? Yeah. So, all right. So I put together a few ideas that I was thinking about. And obviously, I really like Sam Sheppard, and then I went, “I want to do something original. But that’s not original.” It was… I want Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Because I got a broken foot, and I’m going to be onstage in a wheelchair the whole time, right? Transferring from one place to the other as if I couldn’t walk. It’ll be perfect as far as a lead role, as far as that dimension. “Okay, so I’ll do that.” And then I adapted — because I’d learned this screenplay adaptation from plays to screen, screen to plays, books [and] novels to plays to screenplays, and however we wanted to do it. And so I’d had that little bit of a skill set, which you know, and I have dyslexia, I can’t even hardly write my name.

David Read
My mother does too, bad. Yeah.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. So I’m also self conscious about my penmanship. But I can talk good. I do good talk.

David Read
I talk good.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, so I found… Where was I? I was talking about something. I’m completely blank.

David Read
No, with your play.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, that’s right. So I adapted this play, this Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window to a stage play. And then I worked with a director on how we could tell the story from that stage perspective. And he brought this amazing eye and talent to it. And in Rear Window, what’s happening is L.B. Jefferies he’s… well he’s broken his leg because he’s an action photographer and he was photographing this motorcycle race and I guess he was in the middle of it and they — boom — got him, but his photograph got on the cover of Time Magazine. James Stewart played the lead role in the film and Grace Kelly played his opposite. And I felt he handled it very well, but on the stage is a different sort of animal.

David Read
Well, yeah, the whole film is about perspective. And when you’re locked in to a specific perspective, how do you tell that story?

Dean Aylesworth
Right? Thank you, David, because you’re exactly and completely right. How do you do this? Encompassing the audience and tell the story with fluidity, right? And so we, by any other standard, we created a dance. Every time I looked up, a light behind me over there would light up, and there would be someone in a small cubicle…

David Read
Representing your view.

Dean Aylesworth
Exactly. Yes, thank you. Exactly. And such genius from the director, because we just took the front of the stage, and then they took the back of the stage, and it was all built up and squared out and with different sizes and everything, making it look like a cityscape. I thought it was… I thought he did a great job. I don’t know if my dance was so great, but he did a good job. And so to answer your question, which the original one was, which one challenged you in so many ways and gave you so much? Well, this one did. It gave me a reason to live. It gave me a reason to create, to swim in the scariness of live stage, and working at your craft at your highest level, and have people join you, and you be at the helm in this, and to hold it. And to get such help, I mean it’s more than anything than in the performance, that I enjoy.

David Read
Well, you know, you turned life into art. And when you first set it, “I’m going to act with a broken leg.” My first thought was, “OK, this is gonna be a cliche story.” And then it was like, “That’s really clever.” So you never know when you can turn one of life’s disadvantages into an advantage.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. You really can, each and every one of us. And this was one of the reasons that I enjoyed Gatecon so much as well — and all of the conventions — is because we’ve all gone through the pandemic, and we’ve all sort of [inaudible], and it’s been hard to even do that, like this, and to touch base, to see each other’s eyes and give each other a hug was really great.

David Read
Yeah, we’ve all done the alone thing. Sorry?

Dean Aylesworth
And not give each other COVID, it was good.

David Read
Yeah, exactly. Definitely, for sure. Tell us about getting Anubis. Did you see any of David Palffy’s performance beforehand?

Dean Aylesworth
Of course, of course. Yeah. And he was very, very regal in his movements, and that’s what I watched most of all. Because, I mean, how much more can you really convey other than in physicalities?

David Read
Yeah, it’s a mask.

Dean Aylesworth
Right? So I thought [it was] wonderful work, and all I could do is remain that consistent, in that level. Once again, I don’t mean to throw anything away, I was only there for a moment. And the recognition in that moment was that I give him his eight years due previous to [me], and to the unhooding. Yeah, yeah, I liked it. I liked it. I tried to! Did I? I don’t know.

David Read
I think so. Yeah, the physicality came through. We had never seen him. And you’re right, it’s all based on movement. The only one who ever got a good look at him was Daniel, and that wasn’t even us.

Dean Aylesworth
And you recognize — I hope — recognize that movement before it was… yeah, and I saw it in Peter’s direction though, too.

David Read
Tell us about getting that role.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, man. Yeah. I hadn’t had the opportunity for, I guess like a couple months, to see this casting director, and I found myself going, like, “What is that? What am I not doing? Like what’s going on?” And his assistant called me, and I thought, “Well, OK, well, they’re being nice to me, and thank you very much, OK.” And they showed me this part that had been established by someone else for eight years previous, and that we want someone to take it seriously. To be groovy about that there’s someone else in this. This is just a moment of time that is about reverence to what was there, and let’s… because… his name is Sean — Sean Cossey — he’s a great guy. He was the assistant at the time, and he didn’t let anything out of the bag, but he said, “Dean, I know you can do this.” I’ve never had that, really, in any other… from any casting director, whether they’re an assistant or any… because that was why they call us in, right? And we should know that as actors, that they want us to win too, right? But I heard him wanting me to win too, and wanting me to get this role because I could do it. And so I took it seriously when preparing, and it’s said that I knocked it out of the park in the audition, and that this is what Mr. Greenburg — Mike Greenburg — said and that… I’ve known Brad all the way back from Neon Rider, he was one of the writers on that as well. Brad Wright? Yeah. And I knew him way back then, and I didn’t want to intrude, he wasn’t even on set at the time. But it was… when they welcomed me, they welcomed me with that. And so I was like, “OK, the casting director wanted me to get this.” They wanted me to get it. And I hadn’t auditioned for Stargate at all, not even once, for the eight years previous. And all I knew is that, “Well, it’s kismet, OK? I’m not going to fool around, I’m not going to mince words, I’m not going to say the wrong words, because I’m dyslexic, sometimes I get them backwards. So, I’m not going to do any of that.” And I didn’t. Yeah, gratefully I kicked butt! And I’m so, just, overwhelmed by everything that came since. The relationships and the depth of performance, and things that Peter can pull out of anybody is just, once again, another lovely relationship culmination, to have Peter DeLuise to direct me in it. To have his laughs, and you know, we did it in one take. I got a scratch and go card. Yeah. They give you a — well, he did — he gives you a card, you know, like a scratch-winning ticket, you know, for cash. Like a prize, you know. He’s so funny.

David Read
Yep, he’s good about that.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. And I think “Hey, reward your little meat puppets!”, because we gotta [inaudible]. So, and in all of that, it was just love, right? And you… it just… and ever since, so. And I’ve taken that on to several other television shows, like Riverdale and Twilight and [shows] like that, that same sort of camaraderie. Yeah, it’s been cool.

David Read
There is something to be said for playing the villain. Especially the one villain that cannot be killed. Not sure how familiar you are with Anubis’s backstory, but this one, we can’t erase him, all we can do is keep him occupied. And there was something that was kind of scary about that because SG-1 was known for wiping out bad guys, and getting rid of the Goa’uld, but this was one that managed to get stuck, and you just can’t keep this one down. If it wasn’t for Oma Desala interceding later on in that season, we couldn’t get rid of this guy. Mama Nox Erika wanted to know, is there anything delicious about playing the villain? In this case, Stargate’s ultimate evil.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, there’s lots of delicious cookies, yes, Mama. I love that. That ability to not have to… We’re all in a place of masks, each of us as human beings, OK? And so in this guy, Anubis, he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to wear any masks, he doesn’t have to be a face, he doesn’t have to… his presence and essence alone is the ultimate that can’t, as you said, can’t be killed, right? His motivations and whatnot are not evil. It’s about power. It’s about that by [inaudible] from what I understood. And so that’s delicious. That’s delightful. That’s… “Mmm, what could I do with that?” Right? And you can chew that, I’m drooling as it’s happening.

David Read
There is, I think, a portion of all of us, that — I’ve talked about the shadow on this show a little bit — the darker part of our nature, that you get to indulge in when playing something so off the wall, there’s something that’s freeing about it. Not like you actually go out and do it, but your sensibilities can alter a little bit to a point where it’s like, in this particular case for you, “I am the ultimate badass, and I know I am the ultimate badass. And I am going to rule throngs.”

Dean Aylesworth
Yes, yes, yes, yes, David, everything you just said. Exactly, right? And no rules, no masks, no have tos. I am the end-all and be-all of what’s being said. And yeah, I judged me.

David Read
Absolutely. Did you get to spend any time with Cliff Simon at any of these events?

Dean Aylesworth
I had the most wonderful pleasure of not only spending a lot of time with Cliff, but getting advice, guidance and ultimately friendship from Cliff. Yeah, his passing, as I know for everyone…

David Read
It’s devastating.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. [It] will forever be a day that’s… but, you know, the thing about Cliff is he lived his life, man. You know, think about how he went. He went having fun, the blast, the most fun of his life, right? So, yeah, but with the gift of his friendship and the guidance, I truly have taken on him as a mentor, and did when I first came. It was 2005, my first Gatecon convention, or convention of any [kind], and then I crashed every other one. And Cliff really did take me under his wing. I was a smoker, he was a smoker, you know, he liked to roll up his Drum cigarettes, and we always had a lovely chat. And yeah, I love that guy. Yeah, and what he gave me was that this thing that we’re doing, this villain thing that sort of, it’s not a revival of it, but what it is, it’s like a mantel. Something that’s important to hold on to and to be reverent for, that these characters not only live in everyone’s heart as a viewer, they also live in infamy in history itself. And when him and I and Apophis, our friend Peter, get together with the old Anubis myths and all of these things were always part of a fun, loving and amazing conversation in the green room, as I’m sure you are well aware. Yeah, we had some great times in that, but he made it clear that it was as important to him to not, in any way shape or form, besmirch our thing, make it smaller or the people who regard it smaller. The people who have reverence and care for it, and have attached feelings and their lives to it, that those things are very, very important, and he taught me that. And that, I’m forever blessed with, and will take it and then hopefully the mantel will pass.

David Read
The villains are what sharpen the swords of the heroes and make them as good as they are. If the villains… whatever force in the universe that is pushing back against your heroes isn’t pushing those heroes to the brink, it’s not worth watching.

Dean Aylesworth
Here here, here here.

David Read
At the same time, you’re creating art. Are these sometimes mustache-twirling Comic Book Villains? Sometimes. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t pour reverence into it when you’re putting… [you] need look no further than William Shatner on the set of Star Trek.

Dean Aylesworth
Exactly. It’s Shakespearean.

David Read
I mean, well.

Dean Aylesworth
He was Canadian. That’s all [inaudible].

David Read
That’s funny. I have a… OK, my… sorry, my monitor keeps on blinking, I need a new one. Kevin Persinger, how do you get into character for something different from yourself? Be it a villain, be it a smarmy guy, be it a teetotaler. What is your approach as an actor?

Dean Aylesworth
Great question. It’s just that, first it comes with the text. But with that, in reading the text, no judgment, right? When you, David, you said, “allow”. Allow yourself. Because that’s exactly what we do, is we allow ourselves, without judgment, to read everything within the text that’s obvious, “And so obviously this is there.” So, they’ll say things like verbs, you know, like, “He’s…” I don’t know, what was one, he was sort of… what’s a good verb for grumpy? Do you know what I mean, it’s that.

David Read
Curmudgeon?

Dean Aylesworth
Exactly, exactly. They’ll say these words and you go, “Oh, click on that word, I get that, OK. How can I use this word?” All, once again, no judgment. And then I kind of, “OK,” and I see all of these words. Now, once again, I put dyslexia into the mix, because this is how I can do [it], is go, “OK. I’ve felt those words, they had impact on me when I was reading it. And especially I didn’t have judgment, because I was just an audience of that. So, how do I let all of those things be a part of me? Because I know I can be a curmudgeon.” Do you know what I mean? In all of those things, I know I can be that. How do I mix it into that, whether it’s in the verbage, the words, how it’s read. Because I just go about in the memorization of the text after that, right? Just memorizing, memorizing memorizing. So it’s about those moments in time when we make a decision about what’s going to happen. “My intention is to have you ask me another question, so I’ll go, “All right,” you know, and I think that’s the end of that.”

David Read
So a big piece of it is dialing up those aspects of yourself that you pull out from the text?

Dean Aylesworth
And let yourself have it without judgment. That’s how I found, it’s an easy way. Because there’s also that impact right? You talked about the devilishness of bad guys and all the rest of the stuff, now I’ve always, like I said, come from this background that’s all about, “Oh wait a minute, am I being bad? Is this a bad thing?” Right? When I talk about villains, villains are the best thing in every story as far as I’m concerned. They are the foil, the moral compass, if you will, for all the stories. What should and what shouldn’t I do? Well the bad guy’s doing this, maybe that’s the thing I shouldn’t do. I mean, that’s what I tell karma.

David Read
“The bad guy’s doing this, maybe that’s a clue to not do that.” That’s funny. I’m reminded of the line from, what was it, True Lies? Schwarzenegger’s wife says, “You kill people?” “Yeah, but they were all bad.” I sense a judgment call. That’s funny, that’s too funny. What would you… I’m assuming you would like to return in some form to the next Stargate that Amazon purportedly has, at least in the outer fringes of development. What would you like to do, and what do you think the next Stargate needs to do to be different but deliver to its audience?

Dean Aylesworth
I think that I would love to be a part of the next and new renditions of Stargate, in any shape or form. Of course, I’d like to revise the character Anubis in a new way. I’d like Anubis armor, I would like the head to come up and all that. I would like the hand thing. What else would you want me to… Yeah, I believe we’re on the cusp of, not a recreation, but I think a perspective change that’s always really kind of cool, which is the antihero of… we’ve seen it in all the movies, OK, there’s Joker, there’s all of these movies that are from that perspective. And what I would really like to see is that alien perspective or Anubis’, specifically, perspective coming through the Stargate with his minions, having a plan and conquering it. He rules the Stargate. He doesn’t just dial it. You know what I mean? It’s different, it’s a different thing. I don’t know, that’s just an idea.

David Read
Yeah, he’s definitely set apart from any of the others, for sure. He’s been around the block for 1000s of years doing all kinds of things back there. And only Lord Yu knew what it was and he would have nothing to do with him, which I think is telling.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah. And so many forms, right? And so many…. Yeah.

David Read
Sommer says, you have a wonderful reputation with your fans on social media, how do they affect your mindset and influence your acting or when you prepare for your next projects? Do you think about them? Are they a factor? Or do you, it’s just like, “I gotta go out and pay the bills, or do what I’m passionate about?”

Dean Aylesworth
I don’t know what that means. What’s that? I have a good relationship…

David Read
Yeah, you have a strong relationship with your fans. Does your fandom play a role in the work that you go out for?

Dean Aylesworth
OK, thank you. Thank you for asking it again. It was kind of skippy.

David Read
I apologize.

Dean Aylesworth
I have once again learnt this thing from these mentors, these men that have shown me — and that’s Peter Williams and Cliff Simon — how to address people who care about this franchise, who care about this role, who care about me, and how to have reverence for them, and how to be kind and gentle and understanding and not a pushy a-hole.

David Read
To be frank.

Dean Aylesworth
You’re right, just to be really frank. And so of course they affect my thoughts on little [inaudible]. I get a little dissuaded if I just went and got a show and I’m only on it for five seconds, like the pilot for Arrow. Not the pilot for Arrow, it was the season opener for Arrow season five. I literally died five seconds after you saw me, so it was like, that’s when I kind of go “Oh, I’m sorry.” Like you said, you gotta pay the bills, you’ve got to do what’s necessary to do all of that. And I believe in the lessons that come with each and every thing. I don’t think I lost anything by doing that. But I certainly can’t pump up my ego and say, “Look at me baby!” You know, I can’t do any of that with, “Don’t blink, you might miss me.” So that’s the only kind of effect that… but I’ve never been… I don’t seem to get heckles or things like that, and I’m grateful for that. Because I probably wouldn’t respond well. Everybody’s really just been kind and honest and my reactions are as authentic as they can be, because I’m reacting and typing and I’m not really good at that. It really does come from the heart that I care that you’re a supporter of me because just like the kid who was under that park bench in January, I need it. So, and I’m grateful for it. And the other thing is, I can still run and jump and play and do all the things that I’ve ever done. So your support is going to be beneficial. You’ll see. There’s lots of stuff.

David Read
Well, I have enjoyed following you and seeing you pop up here and there when you’re watching something, as with any performer that you admire, it’s always fun. I’m looking at your IMDB and I’m like, “I swear you were on the season two premiere of Altered Carbon.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, yes. No, I wasn’t. I wish I was.

David Read
I’m trying to… it was like, “I swore that was him.” And I guess, so that wasn’t you in Altered Carbon. I was like… I’m going to have to find the actor then, because there is a doppelganger for you out there, let me tell you. It’s rare that I get stumped, and I’m like, “I’m pretty sure that that’s him. No, no, that’s not him”. There’s someone out there, Dean. I’m gonna have to reach out to you and say, “Look at this guy. Go after him for royalties!”

Dean Aylesworth
Yes, and plastic surgery.

David Read
Right. I really appreciate you being on the show. There is a dog barking that has been barking in the background. Is it by any chance yours?

Dean Aylesworth
No, sir. No dogs. But my friend here has several cats. And he’s just taken in one and saved his life and [inaudible]. And he’s growing now, and he was doing just little squeak kind of meows, and now they’re full on meows. It’s pretty good.

David Read
I only bring it up because apparently people in the chat were asking about the dog that they were hearing, and if it was yours, they were going to demand to see it.

Dean Aylesworth
Yeah, no. Here in Mexico, there’s lots and lots and lots of stray dogs. Like you were saying earlier, it seems like it’s really impoverished, but it’s not at all. Everyone has got a job, everyone’s doing something, everything is well, you know, as far as places, as far as how much your dollar goes and how much… like in Canada how much it goes and in the United States with how far it goes, it’s very much the same, and here for pesos for them. It’s not as bad as it looks, you got to kind of live here and see what you can live with.

David Read
It’s a great country with beautiful people.

Dean Aylesworth
I’m enjoying it.

David Read
Absolutely. Well, I’m glad you’re there to you spend some time and do what you got to do. Soak up the sun and take in that experience. It means a lot to me, that you took the afternoon with us and I’d love to have you back in the future, sir.

Dean Aylesworth
Oh, David, that means a lot to me that you said that. And I heard the other things that you said too, and to think that you have some admiration for me is truly just a lovely thing. Thank you, David. And thank you for having me here. Thank you for these really thoughtful and heartfelt questions. And I appreciate you, and all of this, and I really want to shout out to all the fans of Stargate and all the Stargate [franchise] and thank you very, very much for your support and your continued support, Amazon or not.

David Read
Amazon or not, absolutely right. You know, it takes a village to keep this thing alive, 25 years after it started, at least in terms of of SG-1, but thank you again for taking the time and I will be in touch with you.

Dean Aylesworth
I look forward to it. Anything you need David. Thanks.

David Read
Thank you so much, sir. I’m gonna go ahead and close out the show. Take care of yourself.

Dean Aylesworth
Peace.

David Read
Dean Aylesworth, Anubis in Stargate SG-1. There were a couple of follow-up questions. Lockwatcher actually asked a question earlier on that I basically got around to on my side, so I apologize there Lockwatcher. Dragonan 567, did he play the part of the Russian that got sent to the frozen world at the end? I’m guessing… is that… I guess that’s Lockdown. That would be Gavin Hood. He played Colonel Vaselov, I would love to get him on as well. Really, really cool guy. He went on to direct Ender’s Game which is one of my favorite sci fi films of recent memory. So really cool. Alright, we have, if I can get my screen up here, we have Paul Mullie, who is Writer and Executive Producer of Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and Universe. He’s going to be joining us in just about an hour from now at 12 noon Pacific Time, so [he’ll] be coming back to join us for that, and we will be getting questions for him set aside. This is his first solo interview with us. He came on with Joseph Mallozzi earlier this year, so I’m really thrilled to have him back. If you enjoyed the episode, click the Like button, share this video with a Stargate friend and subscribe for future episodes. My tremendous thanks to Dean for joining me for this episode. My moderating team, my stellar staff, I appreciate you guys so much. My Producer Linda “GateGabber” Furey, Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, Antony, my moderating team. Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb, he’s the guy that keeps dialthegate.com purring like a kitten. And if you want our latest updates, go ahead and head over there for that information because we’ve got it there, as well as links to the Wormhole Extreme content, X-Tremists content rather. We’ve taken a break this weekend, we’ll be back December the 18th with Brief Candle and Thor’s Hammer. And we’ve also got a merchandise tab over there with all of our latest wares, so if there is a Stargate fan who is going to be needing something for under their Christmas tree, consider stopping by and giving us a look see. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate, I so appreciate you tuning in. We will be back on in just about an hour from now with Executive Producer and writer Paul Mullie. My thanks again to Dean Aylesworth. I’ll see you on the other side.