On the eve of his next big project, actor Colin Cunningham returns to Dial the Gate to discuss his time as Major Davis in Stargate SG-1, perhaps reveal why the character has yet to be promoted, and take your LIVE questions!

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:46 – Welcome and Episode Outline
02:09 – Welcoming Colin, Upcoming Roles, Memories of Oliver
09:48 – Major Davis, Prometheus and Richard Dean Anderson
14:43 – Stargate Actors and Staff, and Don S. Davis
22:20 – Cliff Simon and JR Bourne
28:27 – Centigrade Rising
40:31 – Fan Questions, Preparing for Centigrade Rising
42:51 – Major Davis in a Different Language
48:02 – Wrapping up with Colin
49:08 – Post interview housekeeping
52:01 – End Credits

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, my name is David Read. Welcome to Dial the Gate episode 102, if you can believe that. We have Colin Cunningham joining us for his second appearance. Colin is a friend of mine, I’ve gotten to know him really well over the past few years and we have some interesting things to share with you, some exciting projects that he’s working on. But before we really get into that, I want to invite you to share the program. If you like Stargate, and you want to see more content like this on YouTube, it would mean a lot if you click that Like button. It really makes a difference with YouTube’s algorithm and helps the show grow its audience. We’re nearly at 20,000 subscribers. And if you want to get notified about future episodes, click that 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 guest changes. And clips from this live stream will be released over the course next several days on both the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. This is a live stream, it’s not pre-recorded, so if you’re in the YouTube chat at youtube.com/dialthegate, which is going on now, submit your questions to Colin. It is free to do so, we do not do superchats here, it is 100% all you from anywhere in the world, and the live stream will be available after the fact as well. So let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let’s bring in the man of the hour himself. Mr. Colin Cunningham. Hello.

Colin Cunningham
Is this on? David, how are you?

David Read
I’m well, my friend, how are you?

Colin Cunningham
It’s great to be here, it really is, man. I mean, it’s funny, and I’m glad you introduced me as your friend because it’s certainly become that and I’m honored to have your friendship, as well as many others that I’ve met through Stargate and beyond. So and it’s just great to talk to you, whether we’re sitting having a cup of tea or a pastrami sandwich in New York City or whether we’re… I’m sitting here in my van, talking to you wherever you are. And my apologies. Let me just say first off, I’m sorry that I happen to be in my van, it’s the only way that my schedule could make this happen as I’m rehearsing right now for two shows, actually. One’s called Mara, here in St. George, and that explains this. We’ll get into that later on, but anyway, but my apologies, this is my office at present and I hope it suffices.

David Read
It absolutely suffices. So, tell us about the white beard.

Colin Cunningham
Basically, I’m playing an old captain of the sea, kind of washed-up and later on down the line in his life, and I’ve been growing out the beard and it’s always been my thought that, “Wow, what if I bleached it?” And it took some doing because it all came out yellow. I looked like a lemon! Right? But I went the second go yesterday and just bleach the snot out of it. So I don’t know if the two-tone Oreo cookie thing is working for me, personally, because I’m going to be wearing a hat. So I’ll just look like an old… I think I’ll have something like this. It’s going to be kind of similar to this guy. So, you know, and with the trench coat and all that kind of stuff, so that’s kind of the look for the character, but it’s still a couple of weeks away.

David Read
What year is it set?

Colin Cunningham
It’s… well, it’s kind of… let’s just say the Maritimes. Anywhere between 100 years, it could just… anywhere from the last 300 years for the last 100 years. It takes place… It’s a beautiful, extremely gorgeous play — a musical — and I’m singing! Oh boy! Major Davis sings, so that’s a weird… no, it’s a weird thing. It’s great as an artist, as an actor it’s another discipline and it’s super fun to do. But I’m not a singer, other than belting in some basement of some high school band. But it is weird because anytime I go to see an actor that I know from television or whatever, and they’re on stage singing, I’m like, “What are you doing? I want you to play the guy that I know from TV, don’t get up there on stage and start crooning!” Because then, I don’t know, there’s just something about somebody’s voice when they’re singing. But I’m terrified. I’m absolutely trying to do my utmost best, but I’ve got this inability to quit, so if somebody says, “Hey, you want to do this?” My answer is always “Yes.”

David Read
As a performer, if you are not stretching yourself in ways that are uncomfortable, or at least unpredictable — if not you, to the audience — what are you doing? I mean, I suppose you can… I mean, if you’re successful in doing the same thing over and over and over again, I suppose that you… I mean, look, the Stones, they just came to Nashville. And Jagger is 80 now and he’s still singing the same old songs, and he’s still loving life. But I couldn’t do that. I would have to be growing in different ways.

Colin Cunningham
Well, it was funny because after our first rehearsal, after I sang my first song, a friend of mine came up to me and asked me that very thing. “What are you doing?”

Colin Cunningham
No, it’s not that bad. Here’s the thing, honest to God, I’m not a singer. I mean, I can hold a tune if it’s between here and here, but what I’m relying on…

David Read
Was it that bad?

David Read
But you wouldn’t necessarily do a solo album.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. But fortunately, I can tell a story, and I’m looking at these lyrics as dialogue.

David Read
Correct.

Colin Cunningham
And the dialogue’s really, really good. It’s one of the most beautiful musicals I think I’ve ever heard in my lifetime.

David Read
And this is Mara?

Colin Cunningham
Yeah. And to find it here in St. George, Utah, is actually really kind of messing with my head. It’s not Broadway, it’s not Chicago, it’s not London’s West End, it’s St. George, Utah. And it’s an original piece written by a gal by the name of Tammy Smith. And it is exceptional and I’m blessed to be a part of it. But yeah, man, I got to deal with the fear and the… I got to work, I got to work. Nothing but weakness. And it’s like, “Okay, let’s just work on the weaknesses and then I’ll hopefully get a handle on that.” But I’m having a great time.

David Read
When is the premiere?

Colin Cunningham
Two weeks from this… what day is today? Today’s Saturday, so two weeks yesterday. So, it’s Friday the 26th. And listen, since we’re plugging now you can get it over and done with, but right now I’ve got a show tonight at the Cox Auditorium at Dixie State University, Saturday and Monday, and it’s called All Together Now and it’s some of the folks that I met… I did a play called Oliver. Didn’t you see Oliver?

David Read
I came out and saw you with Oliver.

Colin Cunningham
You did come out! See, this is why David is just the greatest guy on the planet. You drove out from Phoenix, Arizona, am I right?

David Read
It was five, six hours. That was nothing. I’d swim to see you.

Colin Cunningham
Anyway, that’s a testament to you, to our friendship and just how awesome the Stargate community is, thanks for coming out. Anyway, so some of the people from Oliver are doing a show called All Together Now and they’ve invited me to come out and reprise some of the music we’ve done in the past. And it’s here. It’s a 1200 seat theater, so it’s gonna be a big show tonight and Monday night. So there’s stuff going on.

David Read
That’s terrific. I have to insert. Some buddies of mine and I went out to see you in Oliver, and you played Bill Sykes and you took over. You absolutely ate the stage and we woke up the next morning and two out of the three of us had nightmares all night long and it was like, there was no question that you had gotten under our skin as Sykes and had rattled something around inside of us and it just stuck with us all night. And it was like, we went to breakfast with you that morning, it was like, I remember telling this, there was no other explanation for exactly what that was. We had been given such a visceral performance that it kind of just vibrated with us for the rest of the day and into our sleep!

Colin Cunningham
Thanks, man. I appreciate that, I do, thank you.

David Read
It’s just crazy. And the humor of that particular character in that particular role, especially when he makes his first appearance, he almost has nothing to say for the first several minutes there, and you’re pulling stuff out of your mouth and everything that you’ve absconded with and lifted off of passers by. How much of that was you and how much of that was in the script? How much play were you given in that kind of character?

Colin Cunningham
No, that stuff was in the script and then I was able to take some liberties at other points in time in the story, but yeah, no, and pulling the pearls out. Pulling out silver spoons and all sorts of stuff. Yeah, man a few words, but many, many, many jewels.

David Read
Let’s go back to Stargate. Those old days in Vancouver. You had quite a run with that character, all the way from… I think it was, if I’m not mistaken, it was A Matter of Time, being introduced in a scene with Don S. Davis, and then finally through Continuum. Major Paul Davis. Tell us, if you will, some of the… you know what, the one that always gets me is Richard Dean Anderson and you in… the episode is Prometheus and there’s a ship beneath the surface and it has been taken over by John de Lancie and his NID people, and all you have is the facts of what happened and Richard Dean Anderson is running at you going “Major Davis! What the hell happened?”

Colin Cunningham
Yeah. I’ll tell you. I’ve got two responses to that, two things that I wanted to talk about with regards to that. I remember when that happened I was like, “Oh, yeah!” It was just like, “Yes!” Like, it was just real, there was just no pretending it, it just became straight acting. You’ve just been engaged, Richard just went into gear, and he’s hitting, he’s coming right at me, man, and it was great to just ping pong off of that, because I was ready. Absolutely ready for it and I reveled in it, I’m like, “Oh, this is great!” Because I didn’t have many scenes with Richard, ever, so it was just great to have something to do with Richard. The second thing I remember, in that blink was, “This guy’s one of the executive producers on the show and he wants to see if I know what I’m doing here. He wants to see if I’ve memorized my lines. He wants to know if I’m prepared.” I don’t know if Richard would even remember this, but I certainly did because I really wanted to be there, I really wanted to be invited back, and it was a test. It was a test, as the lead, he was the lead actor testing somebody who’d come in to support for the day and you’d better not be sleeping through this because we’re here to make something happen. And I hope I rose to the occasion. I felt that I was prepared. And it was like, so prepared that it just became fun. I was just able to not think of anything other than responding within the scene and the dialogue that was given. And it was just, it was great, man, it was a lot of fun. Because, again, oftentimes you’ll just show up just to… the trick is to not show up to some of the sci-fi shows that were bandied around, or many of the shows that are on TV or that we’re shooting in Vancouver at the time, the trick was not to show up lazy, the trick was to make it as sincere as you could, even if it was an absolute piece of crap. Fortunately, Stargate wasn’t a piece of crap, but one of the reasons why it wasn’t was because nobody ever showed up lazy. They showed up to play. The directors, the writers, the crew, I mean, everybody was trying to make this the best that it possibly could. And they believed in it. And I think that’s what came onto the crew after a while, because you show up and you give it your best, and you hope that the show is worthy of your effort. I think after a while, or very soon into Stargate, I think it was the crew and the other cast members realized that, “Hey, we’ve got something special here and so not only will I bring my A game, but it will be appreciated, because that’s what this deserves.” And you just keep feeding into that. So, it becomes a personal discipline, just from an actor’s standpoint, to show up and give it everything you can, because sometimes after so many years, you’ve done it so many times, you can you can tune out a little bit and it’s hard to keep the bar high. And the second thing is, this is… let’s just say a show like Breaking Bad. Nobody knew what they were making when they were first making Breaking Bad, but season two, you can bet they now, we now know what we have a shot at here and, man, if you show up and you’re not prepared, because everyone else is, they will eat you alive. So I remember being frightened of Richard at that moment in time but also respecting the snot out of him, as in, “Yeah, let’s go man. Let’s play.” It was great.

David Read
Who else do you remember fondly from those years? Don S. Davis was your first scene.

Colin Cunningham
David, the question is, who didn’t I…?

David Read
Yeah, that’s fair too.

Colin Cunningham
…don’t when I think back. But I’m gonna try and put myself in way back then. I remember the people that were… Don was the only one I knew and it was… And I’ve said this before, I was just happy to see him because he kind of took me under his wing when I was still just a young actor in Vancouver. And we did… I can’t even remember the titles, but every time I was on a show, it was like, “Don!” and Don, I said, “Don,” and he remembered me, so that was great. So I felt like… only now I was coming into his house, but I wasn’t showing up empty handed, I had a bottle of wine and some muffins. It was like, “Hey, man, I’m here, and I can do good and I’m here on your show.” And so the stakes were all the high higher because it was his house, you know? But I also remember, Teryl being extremely friendly. I don’t believe… because I’m trying to think, because I didn’t meet Amanda that first day, I don’t think I did. So I’m trying to… and I remember the the boom operator, because they’re coming up to you and they’re putting little mics on you and clips and so they’re close, right? And he was super nice. I forget the man’s name, and forgive me for that, because he was a genuinely nice man. And the makeup department, again, these are the people that you first meet when you first show up, and they were just an absolute… they were just warm. And there was no attitude. Sometimes… Look, if I ever run into, if I ever have a problem with anyone, it’s always been the makeup department. The few times it’s ever happened in my life, I hope, well, anyway… like, I’m not going to get into that because we’ve all had our good days and bad days.

David Read
Of course.

Colin Cunningham
I think it’s the word makeup ‘artist’. They’re the only person on the set with the term artist after their name. And I like to show up and spread my nose and I’d love to put a collodion scar down here, and — I’m not talking about Stargate at all — I’m just saying, I’m a character actor, so that’s what I love to do. And sometimes I’ll show up with some ideas and they’ll look at me like, “No, no, no, no. We don’t talk to you, okay. We’re going to sponge your face and then that’s it and shut up, we’re not here to work…” They’re not into it. Whereas… so that said, there’s sometimes this an aloof, maybe just a bit of an artsy-fartsy quality to that particular department. Stargate did not have that. It was just, “Good morning. How are you?” Everybody was…

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, they were just fantastic, man. And even the people that would come in, sometimes when there was a lot of cast and they needed help, even the substitutes, or the people that came in to assist, they were all just great. They were confident, so they didn’t need to push any attitude on you and they were always open to ideas and stuff — not that Major Davis had crazy wigs and scars or anything — but they were great. I just remember just feeling like, “Okay, this is a safe place.” It felt like a bit of a sanctuary from day one.

David Read
Jan Newman.

David Read
Was there a military advisor on set that you could consult?

Colin Cunningham
Well, I’m gonna say yes. I can’t remember them specifically being on set, but I always remember them there and I was only ever on set, so where else would they have been? I do know Barry… oh my god, what was Barry’s last name? Barry Barry Barry Barry Barry… Wardrobe, man. He was on it. That department was on it, because once you put on that hat, it had better be right.

David Read
Barry Peters?

Colin Cunningham
Barry would have your ass, man. Because it was respect, it was like, “We are portraying the United States Air Force and people in positions of power and loss and sacrifice,” and what have you, and it was just… Not that anybody ever got into that but there was a sense of reverence for, “Don’t just throw that on.”

David Read
Would that have been Barry Peters?

Colin Cunningham
You know there was also… sorry, I don’t mean to talk over you…

Colin Cunningham
It gets me excited. It gets me excited, because it was, again, it was just this attention to, “We can be better and we can be good and there’s no need to phone any of it in.” So the wardrobe department wasn’t phoning it in. The craft service people weren’t phoning it in, and everything was about “How can we make it better?” That’s all.

David Read
That’s fine.

David Read
How did Don improve you as an actor, through the pace that he set on his set or his consummate professionalism? What takeaways did you take away from Don?

Colin Cunningham
On a personal note… again, I strove to be as good as I could be, because I was in his presence. And that’s our own… that was our own, is our own thing, between Don and I. Sometimes I’ll still go onto a film set and I’ll hear him behind me, you know? But also just the stature of the man. I mean, again, here was a vet. I never saw Don nervous, and if he did, I never saw him show it. There was just a sense of an air of credibility around the man. And he could joke and he could tell stories and all that kind of stuff. But there was just this… you knew you were in the presence of someone with presence. And it was great. It was just really, really cool. I mean, just everything from the bald head, man, to the voice, the booming voice, to the drawl that he had. And I can’t remember Don Davis in anything, that he ever did, that sucked. Everything he ever did… Look, he may have not been like me, with the contact lenses and the wigs and all that kind of stuff, but Don Davis was like… it was like a page from the Gene Hackman book, man, he’s never turned in a bad performance. Everything was always… he was always there. Anyway, so I just respected him all across the board. And then the more you got to know him, you got to know his family and you got to know the people that he cared about. And then after you’d even heard the stories a couple of times, it then became about the man who was telling them, because you’d hear this, “I’ve heard this story four times, and I’m enjoying it just as much.” Not so much because the story changes, but because of the passion of the man who’s telling the story. And it was just great, he was a great guy, man. He was just a phenomenal human being and God only knows, he had his bad days as well, as we all do. But, anyway, I look back fondly and I’m keeping that, that’s my story and I’m not changing it for nobody.

David Read
The conventions gave you guys — not you specifically and Don, but you guys in general — a chance to continue to evolve your relationships outside of the set as well. Who would you look forward to really seeing and connecting with at the cons in terms of the cast?

Colin Cunningham
Well, two come to mind right now. Cliff Simon was a brother from another mother. And I think JR Bourne just felt like a close cousin from another galaxy. And I don’t know what it was about those two guys, but JR, I’ve just always felt a kinship to… maybe it’s because we came up through the ranks, and a lot of the stories that Cliff would tell me, just the one-on-one stories that he told me, because he had quite the life and it didn’t stop and it never stopped. Up until the last second, that guy was just heading for the sun, always. But some of his earlier stories, when he was in South Africa, and some of the places that he’d been, and some of the spots, let’s say, he’d found himself in. Because, I mean, look, we’re talking here, I don’t know what the hell this is. I got my phone strapped to a rear view mirror, you’re in wherever the hell you are and we’re broadcasting across the globe. And so, oftentimes you — and we’re talking about Stargate and it’s fantasy, it’s a show — but also, life is friggin’ hard, man. It can be really, really hard, and Cliff went through some shit.

David Read
He did.

Colin Cunningham
JR has been through some shit, we’ve all been through some shit. So, it’s weird, I’m trying to walk this line between Major Davis and Ba’al, you know, in the different characters that we play, and how I know some of these people and I know them as human beings. And, life is full of scars, man, and laughter and overcoming stuff and all sorts of stuff, so it’s weird. So I guess my experience, it’s hard to articulate it because it’s within this format that you and I are discussing and it’s like, “Well, what’s appropriate? What isn’t?” Yet, it’s all magical and it’s wonderful, but to answer your question, those are the two that come to mind. And Martin, just as a director. Peter DeLuise is fantastic. He’s hilarious. They’re great. I mean… they’re just great. They’ve all either had a kind word to share when I needed one, or gave me some support when I probably didn’t even deserve it. And those were the seeds that they planted and so when I reflect back, I don’t just reflect back on what it was to see the gate for the first time or Gary Jones cracking me up, or money raised for charity. Sometimes it’s just, “Wow, that person actually covered my ass just there and I don’t even think I said hello to them this morning.” So it’s that kind of stuff that you remember, as well, and I can’t really… that. I’ll shut up now.

David Read
No, I remember, when finding out that we lost Cliff, and you and I, I think we talked the same day. It was like, “What the heck? What happened?” And it was a real… that was a hard week, to say the least, but it was also a reminder of mortality and a reminder that if you have the choice in how you, I suppose, go out, why not, in a form that you love? In performing art, basically, on the water, which is what he did with kiteboarding. I mean, the man he was so… the sun would never have caught him in bed, I don’t think. If he had a chance to be out there on the water — which was his temple, the beach was his temple.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, and it’s funny, ’cause I remember when we spoke, and I didn’t… I’d only heard that he’d passed, but I hadn’t heard where, and I think it was you when you said… I knew kite surfing, but then I heard… I think I asked, “Where?” and you said, “Topanga.” And I was like, “Ah,” because I used to live there. So I know it well and that was the only word I needed to hear, for anybody who’s ever been out to that beach. But yeah, man, and I ain’t going to tears, I feel so empowered by Cliff’s life and I still… just everything that we that he was about, and I can’t wait to get out and go kitesurfing in Topanga. That’s one of the things on my list, simply because it’s a good place to go, man, you can’t be afraid! You can’t be afraid of it, you got to go, you got to go towards it. But look, I still got a list of places to hit in Portugal and Spain and a couple of little secret spots that Cliff gave me last time I spoke with him. And I’m gonna get to that list and I’m gonna do it with a big smile and an open heart and a laugh and I’m gonna raise a glass of wine to his memory. Because he’s still with us, which is great stuff.

David Read
Absolutely he is.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah.

David Read
You are in the early stages of quite the project right now and I wanted to know if you could fill us a little bit in on Centigrade and where this idea started originally, for you.

Colin Cunningham
Oh, wow. Well, first off, and just a little back[ground]. Centigrade. I am going to direct. We are in the process of developing Centigrade The Feature Film. Some of you — many of you — are already familiar with Centigrade, the short that I produced and directed and acted in, way back when. We have been trying for a long time to… it was always meant to be a feature film, but a few things happened. Number one, once we got it out there, we won a slew of awards and MGM optioned it as a TV show, so it was like, “Great.” So that took up some time and energy and then MGM had some financial restructuring and everything went off the shelf, the rights came back to us. Then it was like, “Well, what are we going to do?” And I said, “Well, hang on a second, I got an audition for some show called Falling Skies. That’s not going to go anywhere, so let me just finish this up and it’ll be finished.” So that, yeah, so that took up five years and all this kind of stuff. So, long story short, we all woke up very recently, yet again, and said, “Why haven’t we made this film?” We tried going the five, ten million dollar route, and we tried doing the TV Show and we tried all these different, very legitimately, very professional high caliber avenues to make it happen. And they, for whatever reason, they didn’t happen. So, we decided we’re gonna make this thing come hell or high water. So, Centigrade has now become Centigrade Rising and we’re in development. We have built a website that gives you the back history on the project, the film, what it’s about, at this stage of the game who’s involved, and we’re gonna make this thing no matter what the hell happens. So we’ve decided to do it on a shoestring budget. We’re looking at between 75 and $150,000. We’re still reaching out to other higher echelons of funding and stuff like that, because the script is so good. But, basically, we’ve just decided it’s time to do this, so, we’re going to do it. And, David, you’re part of that. I remember reaching out to you, way back before now, saying, “Have you got any ideas? How can we make this happen? Can you help?” And you were one of the first people to step forward and say, “Yes, I can, we can.”

David Read
Absolutely. I’m so excited to be a part of this project with you. It’s a… I think some of these smaller stories have some of the bigger ideas and the premise, largely, of the original short was that chickens will come home to roost. There are bad people who do bad things to other people, who mistreat the innocent, and I’d like to play the 45 second teaser for the original, if you don’t mind?

Colin Cunningham
Yes, wonderful.

David Read
Okay.

Colin Cunningham
Thank you.

David Read
[Teaser plays]

David Read
I just love that short, and it’s the one credit — other than maybe an episode of Battlestar or Stargate — that I’ve purchased on Apple.

David Read
Centigrade, I got it. So, I have the website up and so the short film is… the full thing is linked there. Is that…? So, we can watch the whole thing there, right? As well?

Colin Cunningham
Nice!

Colin Cunningham
Yes, the short is there, and essentially the short is a sequence that would go into the feature film. But as you said, it’s basically a film about what happens when karma rolls into town and basically accelerates the karma of everyone and everything it comes into contact with. And the karma in this particular story is personified by this big, black pickup truck and it will take place during the hottest week in recorded human history. So we’ve got that element, that’s just kind of the pressure-cooker in which the story unfolds. And the guy trapped in the Airstream is one of the stories. Basically four or five people that do something that they shouldn’t have done and karma comes back with the bill. And so that’s basically what it is. Somebody referred to it as a… what did they call it? “A faith-based film on steroids.” I thought, “Okay! I don’t know if we’ve got any religious stuff in there, but karma comes to town and he’s coming to get you.” So, we’re excited about it, we really, really are.

David Read
There is this prescient-like instinct, especially with people who have been raised in a faith, that, “I could go down this road. What will happen to my spirit if I do? Maybe self-punishment, or maybe an external punishment of some form. Maybe from elsewhere, maybe from over here?”

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, not that the film really gets into any of those themes, but it’s does… it’s nice, at the very least, you look at everybody getting away with it. Politicians are getting away with it. They’re getting away with it in the big cities, and that guy got away with it, this guy got away with it. And no one’s… you don’t have to be accountable for anything anymore. There’s no… everything… what was up is down and down is up and what was this way is now that way and nobody… and it’s like, “Woah! Stop!” It’s important that at least the idea that people who do bad things shouldn’t gain reward and be blessed forevermore because of it. There is something. I personally believe that it is a reap what you sow kind of thing. And if you don’t reap it soon, it may be a year or two or ten or maybe even twenty down the road, but there’s a bill for every meal, and there’s no free lunch.

David Read
There’s no free lunch.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, there’s no free lunch. So, you do as good as you can and try and spread that energy, you know? At least that’s what I’m trying to do, that’s what I’m trying to do with this film! So even though, yeah, it’s a thriller, and it’s a guy, lives in an old beat up Airstream Travel Trailer, and he does a bad thing and he wakes up one morning, and it’s rolling down the highway. And the doors won’t open and the windows won’t break and he’s burning up and he can’t get out. So these are just the great old Black Mirror, Twilight Zone, good old thrillers that I’m always gravitated towards. It’s good stuff.

David Read
If your fans are having their ears perked up from this, how can we help? What do you need?

Colin Cunningham
Thank you. Well, I suppose the easiest way is just to be aware of it and to talk about it if you like it. Then there’s, you can hit the like button, you can like us and spread the word. If you want to do more than that there is a donation button on the site. Look, it could be $1, it could be five bucks, for the price of a cup of tea, and today, the miracle of this social media online stuff, literally, you could donate $1 and you have no idea, because of the spread of this amazing technology, that is significant. Because 1,000 people, 5,000 people, 20,000 people hit $1, that’s… we’re ready to shoot all of a sudden! So, don’t think that even a little as a buck, it won’t matter. It matters, it really, really does. And if you got a little more then it’s a little bit more. I mean, I always feel a little self-conscious, asking people for money, David.

David Read
Of course.

Colin Cunningham
It’s as simple as that. It’s just weird because I have been blessed more than anyone who’s ever lived, simply by virtue of having a gig on Stargate SG-1 and playing Major Paul Davis, so I don’t… So, here’s the thing. Don’t donate, don’t give me any money, but give me a prayer, send out a prayer. Maybe come and see it? I don’t know, if there’s anything you can do that can help, we’ll be grateful for it, it’s as simple as that. But you can certainly go to the website to learn more or just to check it out. Play the trailer, play the short, and it’s www.centigraderising.com. And at the very least you’ll feel, “That’s what I’m working on.” People say, “What are you doing?” “I’m doing that!” Well, I’m doing a bunch of things, but that’s the one that’s close to my heart. And it’s like, it’s a trip! We’re just not going to stop until we get it done. And it’s scary man, because I got to announce to you, and the whole world, that I’m doing this. That’s friggin’ scary, David, because it means I have to do it!

David Read
You’re putting yourself out there and saying, “Okay!”

Colin Cunningham
Sometimes you don’t want to. It’s hard, man, it’s hard.

David Read
But those… you gotta scare yourself though, to get ahead, you got to scare yourself a little bit to get down the road. Otherwise, the journey isn’t worth it. And the fact of the matter is, I believe in you and I believe in the work that you do and the standard of it and the quality of it. And the fact is, I want to participate in that process. And I’m asking that anyone who has the means — and I know it’s rough right now, I know a lot of people are having trouble feeding their families — but if they have the means, consider participating in some aspect. Maybe it’s going on the website, reaching out and saying, “Hey, you know what? When you start shooting, let me know where you are and maybe I can help in some other way, shape or form.” Or maybe, “I’m good with graphics,” or something else. And so www.centigraderising.com

Colin Cunningham
www.centigraderising.com and I will, if anything… look, I just… I don’t know, I’m just so filled with with appreciation and gratitude. When I when I look at some of the charity stuff — and not to compare this at all with that — but I’ve always been blown away at how generous, like the GateCon, and Fran and all those incredible people that raise all that money for Make a Wish and all this kind of stuff. So, you guys have already made the world a better place, tenfold. Let me just express that I’m grateful for that, and yeah, as far as my own little personal project here, I have great conviction about it, I think it’s a message that’s strong, it’s a creative endeavor that I’ve been dreaming of pulling off for a long, long time and nothing’s gonna stop me.

David Read
I’m really happy for you, man.

Colin Cunningham
Thanks, man.

David Read
GAP Stargate wanted to know, “How do you put your head in a space to prepare for a role like Centigrade Rising, like you did in the short?”

Colin Cunningham
I’ll tell you, if that was the only thing that you needed to do, it would still be challenging. But, if you’ve had an argument with your girlfriend or with your mom or with your dad, or your boss is giving you a hard time, the hardest part of acting is when those things, those challenges come up, is to navigate through them, because it’s different. Some days you can call in sick. You can’t call in sick when you’re working on a show or in a movie. So, it’s about shutting everything completely and totally out. Just from an acty-shmacky kind of way, you never play the bad guy as a bad guy, ever. Never. There’s no such thing. Hitler had a dog, man. I mean, everybody… you know what I mean? Everybody is, let’s say, doing what they feel is best. So you can’t… the most dangerous type of malevolence, if you’re going to play evil, is to not think of it as evil. Then it really becomes evil, that’s when it’s really scary, man. So, if anything, the trick for me, for Centigrade, was to play a guy who was a bad guy, and to see if I could make the audience feel sorry for him, in a way. Because there’s still a human being in there somewhere. Yes, they should spend the rest of their life in jail. Yes, they should sit in the electric chair, I don’t know, but it should still be uncomfortable to watch.

David Read
Yeah, that’s right. You shouldn’t take pleasure in just anyone suffering, per se.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, they’re not a caricature, they’re like a real person. And sometimes you don’t want to know that you’re… what do you call it? Your enemies or people you hate are human beings. You know what I mean? You may disagree with them, you may want to hate them and sometimes it’s not so easy to do if they reveal themselves as vulnerable.

David Read
DjEricSuprasl. “You told a story once about a time you heard yourself as Davis dubbed in a different language.”

Colin Cunningham
Yeah!

David Read
“How did that make you feel and what was that like?”

Colin Cunningham
That was great. I felt like a dog, listening to a phonograph, or a dog that’s looking at a stuffed toy dog, you know? “Is it a dog, is it not a dog?” It was just so shocking, I didn’t know how to gauge it in my brain. And then I thought, “Wow, there’s a dude in Germany, that probably had to audition to have my tonality or whatever.” And like, he’s employed! So I felt happy that some unemployed German dude had a job doing my voice! You’re always thinking about, “Where’s my next gig coming from?” So I was happy that some dude in Berlin was able to buy lunch that day, you know?

David Read
The things that we take for granted when a product, like an episode of SG-1 comes out, then it has to be made for other markets. And the tweaks that we now have the ability to make in movies, like, I remember the one that I think about is when Disney came out with Inside Out, and the little girl at the beginning of the film recoils at something on the table that she’s supposed to eat. And in every region of the world that item is different based on the kids and their sensibilities in that part of the world. It’s those kinds of things that, as an actor, you’re not really thinking about, when you’re making a product, but someone somewhere has to deal with those things now, and with technology we can.

Colin Cunningham
Yeah, no, it’s phenomenal, it really is. But, it is, it’s a trip to flip on a television and see yourself! Look, my dad was in Muscle Beach Party with Frankie and Annette. Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon. I don’t even know if anybody even knows who that is anymore. But, the story is that it was back in 19… God, I don’t know, ’59, 1960? 61? They made these movies, these Muscle Beach Party movies, with muscleheads and stuff, and my dad was a natural bodybuilder and he’d just come off the boat from Ireland and he was in the movie! Long story short, I come home one night when my dad’s 70, 73. He’s sitting on the couch, and I’m like, “Hey, Dad, how’s it going?” And he says, “I’m just sitting here, watching the television and I just saw myself as a man of 21, 22.”

David Read
Oh wow.

Colin Cunningham
And he’d completely forgotten about it, and, “There I am in the back.” And, I think he was doing background or something in this one scene. And so it’s a trip to be 72 years old and say, “Wow, there’s me at 21.” Look, it’s a wondrous thing, it’s a weird thing, it’s a crazy thing. I mean, I’ve told you the story, there was that one Christmas Eve, I was just down and depressed, and I was in Vegas, didn’t have a girlfriend, and meh meh, I was kind of… the family, and I thought, “I’m going for a drink.” And I went out to some bar on Christmas Eve, and there was nobody there, but me and three other losers. And we’re sitting at the bar, and I look up, and I’m on, like, four of the five televisions.

David Read
I have never heard this story.

Colin Cunningham
Dude, three of them were Stargate and the fourth one was some — I don’t know, it was The Commish or something — and I remember just looking at that. And, in a way, I wanted to turn to the guys and go, “That’s me!” But then I realized, I’d only look like a bigger loser! You know what I mean? It’s loser enough to see yourself on… It was a sports bar, I was on three, four of the five televisions, man. And now I wanted to say something, but I realized that would only make me look all the more stupid, but I did think to myself, like, “Wow!” Because I was, I was legitimately down, wasn’t feeling good. I don’t know what the girlfriend… whether we broke up or didn’t, but it was… I just felt alone, and small. And I looked up and there I’m on these TVs. And it was like, God, providence, the universe just coming up and saying, [hits the back of his head] “Get yourself on, you horse’s ass. Do you have any idea how lucky you are, you stupid little man?” And I never forgot that, that’s a God-strike-me-dead true story, man, that was just nuts. And I couldn’t tell anybody, I couldn’t say anything to anybody there.

David Read
That was meant for you, yeah, and you alone.

Colin Cunningham
It wasn’t for anybody else, it was just, whatever that was, said, “Get yourself on, wake up, you silly little man.” So, that was that.

David Read
You are living your truth and the life that you want to lead and you’ve put yourself in a place, geographically and mentally and spiritually to do it and I admire you for it. I’ve taken your lead in doing much the same thing myself, and I think that you’re going to have nothing but continued success.

Colin Cunningham
Thank you, David, I appreciate it very much, I sincerely do. Thank you Stargate, thank you Stargate fans, thank you, Stargate producers and writers and thank you MGM. I just don’t think any of you had any idea the domino effect that this entity that is Stargate would become and how many lives it’s affected. And I’m certainly one of them, so I’m in the deepest gratitude to each and every one of you. Thank you.

David Read
And thank you for coming on. Colin. I will be in touch with you real soon.

Colin Cunningham
Thank you, David. Catch you guys later. Bye everyone!

David Read
Later, man. Colin Cunningham, Major Davis in Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and Continuum. My name is David Read, you’re watching Dial the Gate, so if you enjoy that, be sure to like and share the show because it helps grow our audience, and I do have an update, for those who were curious, of the merch. The Stargate-themed merchandise on Dial the Gate. The link has been updated. So… let me see here. Dial the Gate is brought to you every week for free and we do appreciate you watching, and if you want to support the show further, we have a merchandise portal where you can participate. And that is — if I can get my buttons all right — that is here. So you click on Merch, you click on any item and this just has been updated in the last couple of hours, last hour here since I brought up the point in the previous stream. So you can go to dialthegate.com/merch and click on an item and it’ll take you, now, to the page where all the different items are available. So it’ll give you an overview of our designs and you just click on the one that you want and now you have access to all the merchandise that is available in that design. So, Frederick, thank you so much for fixing that. So, we’ve got t-shirts, tank tops, sweatshirts and hoodies for all ages in a variety of sizes and colors, and cups and other accessories and this is My Spread Shop, so you can click on a specific design to see what items are being offered. And check out is fast and easy. So just visit dialthegate.myspreadshop.com or you can visit dialthegate.com/merch and we do appreciate your support. My continued thanks to my team of moderators, and Rick, Frederick [Marcoux]. He is the guy who’s responsible for bringing our websites to life at ConceptsWeb.ca. Linda “GateGabber” Furey, you’re the best, Sommer, Tracy, Keith, Jeremy, Rhys, and Antony. You guys make the show what it is, and I really could not do it without you. We’ve got David Hewlett coming up in just a few minutes, so I’m gonna go fetch Dr. McKay and we will see you on the other side very shortly. Thanks so much, everyone.