Corin Nemec had major shoes to fill in his year as Jonas Quinn on Stargate SG-1. Now DialtheGate is privileged to welcome him to discuss his journey through a pivotal era of the franchise. Join us LIVE and have your questions answered!

Share This Video ► https://youtu.be/6Rj_UodKjIs

Visit DialtheGate ► http://www.dialthegate.com
on Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/dialthegate
on Instagram ► https://instagram.com/dialthegateshow
on Twitter ► https://twitter.com/dial_the_gate
on Discord ► https://discord.gg/z7xRrs4cQX

MERCHANDISE!
https://dialthegate.redbubble.com

SUBSCRIBE!
https://youtube.com/dialthegate/

Time Codes
0:00 – Splash Screen
0:17 – Opening Credits
1:45 – Welcome and Guest Introduction
2:25 – What is it like being a part of the Stargate legacy?
3:25 – When did you first know this is what you want to do?
4:48 – How’d you get involved in Stargate?
6:10 – Replacing Michael Shanks
8:20 – Pride in Stargate
9:24 – Working with Dean Stockwell
11:32 – Christopher Judge’s Flatulence
12:57 – Working Around Rick’s Reduced Schedule
14:20 – Working with Amanda Tapping
16:38 – Returning for SG4?
18:42 – February Giveaway
20:11 – T-shirts!
21:03 – Like, Share, Subscribe!
22:58 – End Credits

***

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

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline

 

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read
Welcome to Episode 50 of Dial the Gate. My name is David Read, thank you so much for joining us. Corin Nemec is our 50th guest on Dial the Gate, and I’m very privileged to have him. So, let’s go ahead and bring him into the room right here. Hello, sir.

Corin Nemec
What’s up, buddy? I’m just glad that I’m only the 50th episode, and not 50 years old.

David Read
How the heck are ya?

Corin Nemec
I’m damn close though, damn close.

David Read
You good? You keep it keeping busy?

Corin Nemec
Yeah, I was saying earlier, we’re on location scout right now for Blackwater Blues, which is a pilot presentation I’m shooting with Jason London, and other people. [Inaudible] over there, you can see our director Steve Wise and another cast member over there. And we’re going around some of the locations. The location here is gorgeous, though. I mean, if you look around, I mean it’s just beautiful. That’s the bridge over there that goes to Biloxi where the casinos are. You got the fishing pier here. And then this is called Lovers’ Beach, this area.

David Read
Okay.

Corin Nemec
[Inaudible] right there. I mean, it’s just beautiful.

David Read
Wow. So you’ve been managing to keep yourself busy and sane through this whole situation?

Corin Nemec
“Sane” I’d say is not necessarily on the menu. “Busy” is.

David Read
Busy is good. Yeah. All right. Wow. Well, it’s a pleasure to have you. We have been going down Stargate memory lane for the past few months here, and hopefully going to continue to do it. But you’ve been involved in this franchise. You were in it for a single season, and a guest in five and seven. But the legacy of this show continues to resonate across time. What is it like being part of this thing?

Corin Nemec
Weird. Completely unexpected. Like I had no, except for The Stand, I really didn’t do anything that was necessarily like,

David Read
Cult following?

Corin Nemec
Con oriented, you know? And then when I did Stargate, I didn’t even know cons existed. I had no idea. And I started going to them. I was like, “What the hell?” you know. This is worldwide? I’ve done conventions, you know, on so many continents, so many different cities, so many different countries. It’s been the most amazing experience of my life.

David Read
How old were you when you realized that this is what you wanted to do? I mean, because you’re a child actor. So, I mean, you go way back.

Corin Nemec
About 10 years old, when I when I realized. It was when the movie Goonies came out. My dad was the assistant art director on Goonies. And when that movie came out, I had been on sets with my dad, and I saw what goes on behind the scenes. I understood the dynamics of filming. But when the movie came out, I was like, “I could do that. I can have that kind of fun. I could pretend I’m in a pirate movie,” or whatever, you know what I mean? And I was just, that was it. After that, I was like, I have to do it. I have to do it. And then miraculously, ended up moving to Los Angeles within a year of that movie coming out. And started acting pretty much right away and acting classes, and then got my first job within eight months of starting acting. It was amazing, amazing.

David Read
And still doing it?

Corin Nemec
Fortunately.

David Read
Absolutely. You know, it’s a hard industry. You know? It is cutthroat. And, the casting, particularly, is purely subjective.

Corin Nemec
No one will ever know how hard this industry is. No one knows. This industry is a nightmare. But it’s a lot of fun.

David Read
Absolutely. How did you get involved in Stargate? So, can you tell us about being cast as Jonas?

Corin Nemec
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was completely random. Oh, I was at MGM Studios or their corporate offices, auditioning for something totally different. It had nothing to do with Stargate. But the casting agents for Stargate were working there. And they passed by me when I was sitting in quad area, reading over my lines for this other project. And I’d read for them before in the past, and we started chatting. And at the time, I kind of had more longish hair and everything. And they’re like talking, and they start saying, “Oh, yeah, we just got a new role for Stargate” that came up that day. The very day they saw me, the role of Jonas Queen came up. And they’re walking around, they looked at me like, and they start whispering like, “He kind of looks like Heath Ledger.” That could be a good thing. And then they mentioned like, they said, “Hey, you know, we’re casting new role for Stargate, this new character and all that. Would you be interested?” Obviously, I said yes. So, all I had to do was send over my reels, my demo reels, up to Canada. And they looked at them and said, “He’s good enough.”

David Read
He’s good enough?

Corin Nemec
You know, it’s Hollywood.

David Read
Corin, I got to ask, did you know what you were walking into? Coming in after after Michael left, as far as the fan response?

Corin Nemec
No, not a clue. Because the original Stargate was on Showtime for five years. I didn’t have Showtime.

David Read
Yeah, one guest spot in Meridian was on Showtime.

Corin Nemec
Yeah, yeah. So, I didn’t know anything about the show, except for seeing the posters on bus stops, and buses, and billboards. That’s as much as I knew about the show. And I love the original film. The original Stargate film, one of my faves. Love it. So, I got into it. I had no idea, like I said, about the conventions and all that. Not a clue. I was shocked. And then when I took over the role of Jonas Quinn, replacing Michael Shanks, I got so much hate mail. So much hate mail, the first, like, month and a half of the show. And then it shifted, and I got apology letters from people. Yeah, they send me hate mail saying, “Hey, you’ve taken over. Meeeh!” Then I get a letter back, they’re like, “I’m so sorry. We love you as Jonas. You’re actually a great choice to replace him. My apologies for being a jerk,” or whatever. So, that was nice, because some of the letters I was like, “Am I about to be killed?”

David Read
People are very, very serious about…

Corin Nemec
Well, I thought I was getting [inaudible].

David Read
Yeah, absolutely. “Am I actually. I feel like Harold Lauder! They think I’m Harold. I didn’t blow anybody up! Man, well, what a ride. And at some point, I’d love to have you back for a longer conversation about that year’s journey. But I have…

Corin Nemec
Yeah, we should do that for sure.

David Read
I have some fans that have submitted some questions for you. I want to get, yes, Akos wants to know, “What’s the single thing you’re most proud of about that journey, about your Stargate journey?”

Corin Nemec
Oh, honestly, I’d say that being a part of such an epic sci-fi series, and branded show, I didn’t know until way after, just how big of a deal it was that I got to be on that show, as a series regular. That’s when I was like, “Wow, I was part of something big, you know?” It didn’t hit me at first, but later on it did.

David Read
Yeah, it’s a franchise that, and I said this earlier today in the previous interview, gets reinterpreted by every generation that watches it. Not necessarily completely differently, but they all find something in it for them. And that’s why I think sone of the cool things about sci-fi is that it blooms.

Corin Nemec
It’s timeless.

David Read
It blooms with every generation. Theresa wanted to know what it was like working with Dean Stockwell.

Corin Nemec
Oh my god, Dean. I worked with Dean Stockwell on the movie Tucker, my first film I ever did. He played… who created the Gray Goose, the big plane?

David Read
Oh, was it Hughes, Howard Hughes?

Corin Nemec
Howard Hughes. Yeah, so he played Howard Hughes, and Tucker. I had a scene, it was me, Jeff Bridges, and him doing a scene. And he’s so short that they had, do you know what apple boxes are? Apple boxes like these square boxes they use in the film business to stack things up, or whatever. And they had to do an entire, like, line of apple boxes.

David Read
So he could do a walk?

Corin Nemec
Because he’s supposed to be, because Howard Hughes was really tall. And Jeff Bridges is like six fucking two, sorry for the French. He’s 6’2″. So, he was like so much shorter, and they still they had to build this whole thing, this walkway of him, so he could be looking as tall or taller than Jeff. But what was funny about, if you ever go back and watch the movie, you’ll notice that his waistline is way too high for as tall as he looks. Does this guy have like six foot long legs and like a three foot torso? Like what is it? But so that was the first time I’ve worked with him. And to work with him again on Stargate was amazing. I mean, you know, it was just so great to reintroduce myself to him. We had great character scenes together. Amazing actor, amazing guy. And, a legend, to me, in the film business.

Corin Nemec
Oh my gosh, absolutely. I mean, another child actor, you know, who has made a tremendous success of his life means a Cylon for crying out loud. You know, Quantum Leap. You know,

Corin Nemec
I know. Quantum Leap was amazing. Forget about it.

David Read
It was amazing, absolutely. Michael May wanted to know, you worked with Rick, Amanda, Christopher for a full season. Any special memories?

Corin Nemec
Christopher “Farting” Judge

David Read
Oh my gosh, don’t get me started. Any positive memories or special memories working with that group of people?

Corin Nemec
One hundred percent every member was positive. See, I didn’t know that Chris Judge liked to fart before scenes until I got on set. So, he had this joke he would do. And he’d wait, and they’d say, “Okay, Roll sound. Roll camera.” And just before they called action, he would go [sound] I just rip a massive fart. And then they say, “Action.” And you’re like, “He just farted!” Yeah, so I learned early on don’t stage myself behind Chris Judge. I’m dead serious.

David Read
Or the stage direction says like, “I’m not going there. I know what he’s gonna do.”

Corin Nemec
The first two episodes, I kept being behind him, and I’m like, “Yo, that’s not cool.” So after that, I was like, “How about if I’m on this side of Tapping or that side of Rick? Not behind Chris, please.

David Read
This is Chris’s way of saying, “Welcome to the show.”

Corin Nemec
Totally. Totally

David Read
That was the first season where Rick had a reduced schedule. What was it like working with him? And his energy and also working around his schedule?

Corin Nemec
Who?

David Read
Richard Dean Anderson.

Corin Nemec
Oh, Rick? Yeah, he had a tight schedule at that point. And was trying to spend more time with his daughter, and do that kind of thing. So, they basically bring him in like three days a week, and shoot out all his stuff. So, schedulingwise, it was a little complex. But Richard Dean Anderson is one of the coolest dudes you ever met. He is as jaded…

David Read
I can’t hear you. Oh, I lost you

David Read
Still can’t hear you. One more time. There you go.

Corin Nemec
Yeah, no, no. Yeah, somebody just tried to call in

David Read
Oh, sorry. So, Rick

Corin Nemec
I was saying as sarcastic, and as jaded as he is as the character, same way in real life. Exact same way. But hilarious. The nicest guy ever, so approachable, very kind, but jaded and sarcastic. In a good way.

David Read
What about Amanda?

Corin Nemec
Oh my God. Come on, Amanda Tapping? I mean, if the heavens sent down an angel, and told her she should be an actor, that’s Amanda Tapping.

David Read
Absolutely. Rhys wanted to know…yeah

Corin Nemec
The most giving, most kindest. most attentive you can ever imagine. And not only that, you know all the technobabble she had to do. She memorized that stuff to a tee. We’re talking one take, print, done, moving on. It was incredible. She’s amazing.

David Read
You had a fair bit of that yourself, not so much technobabble but a lot of research, archaeological related stuff? Was that difficult to keep up with?

Corin Nemec
Oh, no, I mean, you know, just like her I’m a pro. I’m gonna do my at home rehearsals. I mean, everybody has a different technique about memorizing lines and all that. My main thing is to memorize what is the point of the scene. When I understand what is the whole point of the scene, the dialogue for me just suddenly comes naturally. You know, because I have to say this to get to that point. You know what I mean? So, I do spend a lot of time memorizing, but I use the Shakespearean technique where you just do one line at a time. You memorize the first line. If you have a paragraph, you start with the first line, memorize it, get it down, then add the second line. Memorize the two together, then add the third line. Memorize those three together, and you keep going like that until it gets to the end. And it’s like clockwork.

David Read
Wow. I don’t know, man. You guys, the muscles that you have to have in your brains in order to pull some of this dialogue off, just pages and pages of stuff at any given time. That’s something that you can lose over time if you’re not working it.

David Read
What an experience about being on this project. Would you be willing to come back to the the fourth series? Alaskan Ballistics wants to know, because Brad Wright is trying to get a fourth series off the ground, “Would you be willing to return?”

Corin Nemec
That’s true.

Corin Nemec
Listen, yes. Absolutely. A because Brad Wright. Great guy. Great guy to work with. Great guy to work for. I mean, just a fantastic, very professional, amazing writer, amazing creator. Of course, I would. I don’t think that they’re trying to bring too many people from the old cast into it, from what I’ve heard. But if that offer came through, New York second.

David Read
Fantastic. That’s great. Man. I really appreciate you taking the time. You know, I’m hoping that we’ll, once in person conventions come back we’ll be able to see you at a Gatecon, or something like that real soon.

Corin Nemec
Pensacon in late May.

David Read
Okay, what Pensacon?

Corin Nemec
Yeah, Pensacola, Florida.

David Read
Okay. All right.

Corin Nemec
Great convention. Huge Convention

David Read
Really? I have family there. I might have to go. We’ll have to see about that. All right. Yeah.

Corin Nemec
Listen, I’ll get you free passes.

David Read
Make that happen.

Corin Nemec
Come to the table. Hang out at my table. We can do a candid interview there. And I can hook you up with other actors or other people there if you want to catch them, you know, sideline, little bits and pieces.

David Read
I’ll send you a text.

Corin Nemec
You better

David Read
Corin, this has been a pleasure, and you get back to work. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap things up on this end.

Corin Nemec
Yeah, I will. We’re over here working right now, folks.

David Read
Well, you know, you never know. Corin on set.

Corin Nemec
We’re location scouting. We’re not filming today.

David Read
I know your location scouting. I’m kidding. But I appreciate your time, man. And we’ll have you back soon.

Corin Nemec
You bet. I hope so.

David Read
Be well, take care of yourself.

Corin Nemec
Love you buddy. God bless everybody.

David Read
Bye bye.

David Read
Corin Nemec everyone. He is on location today, and we’re going to be looking at having him back here in the very near future. So, I appreciate his accommodating us for his schedule. We have a giveaway for the month of February. And this is an actual Stargate Atlantis prop. If you would like this prop what you need to do is this: So, Dial the Gate is partnering with Empire Movie Props to give away this piece of the Pegasus dial-home device from the Atlantis episode Phantoms. So, to enter to win you need to use a desktop or a laptop computer, and visit DialTheGate.com. Scroll down to Submit Trivia questions. Your trivia may be used in a future episode of Dial the Gate, either for our monthly trivia night, or for a special guest to ask me in a round of trivia. There are three slots for trivia: one easy, one medium, and one hard. Only one needs to be filled in, but you’re more than welcome to submit up to three. Please note the submission form does not currently work on mobile devices. Your trivia must be received before March 1st. If you’re the lucky winner I will be notifying you via your email after the start of the new year to get your address. Big thanks to Empire Movie Props for making this item available to a member of our audience. And Dial the Gate is brought to you every week for free and we do appreciate you watching, but if you want to support the show further, buy yourself some of our themed swag. We’re now offering T shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies for all ages in a variety of sizes and colors at Redbubble. We currently offer four themed designs, and hope to add more in the future. The word cloud designs have both a solid background or a transparent background option, so that you have some flexibility between choosing a light or dark color. You just go through the menu and find which kind they’re all in parentheses as to what kind it is. Like in these photos here, the one with the white background is on the right, and like this one with this gal’s shirts, and his shirt that’s actually with a non white background around the words. So, you can visit dialthegate.redbubble.com, and thank you for your support. And if you like what you’ve seen in this episode, I would appreciate it if you click the Like button. It really makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm, and will definitely help the show grow its audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click the Subscribe icon. If you plan to watch live, I recommend giving the bell icon to click, so you’ll be the first to know of any schedule changes. That’s all that we have for this episode. I know it was an abbreviated show, but we wanted to get your Corin, and I wanted Corin for the fiftieth anyway, so I really appreciate his accommodation. Next weekend we have Kate Hewlett, a prerecorded episode with her that I recorded last week. And that’s going to be at 1pm Pacific Time on Valentine’s Day, February 14th. She has a special announcement in that episode as well. It’s a personal announcement. That’s all I’m gonna say. So come by for that episode. And thanks to everyone who submitted their questions for that. There was a number of questions submitted for that episode. It means a lot. Richard from Empire Movie Props, the company that’s bringing us our giveaway this month Empiremovieprops.com. He will be joining us at 3pm Pacific Time for an interview as well to discuss his company. And that’s what’s coming up this coming weekend. That’s all I’ve got for you. I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks to my moderating team, absolutely amazing people. Summer, I don’t know what I do without her on the team, because she’s she’s corrals and wrangles everybody and makes the schedule happen. And Linda Furey “GateGabber” these these two are my absolute right hand, and I appreciate everything that they do. Jen Kirby, Ian, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Reese, my mod team. Thank you guys so much for making another week possible. We’ll see you on the other side next weekend. I’m David Read. Thanks for watching Dial the Gate.

Corin Nemec
Cheers!