Actor Erick Avari is truly synonymous with Stargate. A pioneer in the franchise, he and actor Alexis Cruz gave Stargate SG-1 legitimacy as carry-overs from the feature film. Dial the Gate is beyond privileged to finally welcome to our show!

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Timecodes
00:00 – Opening Credits
00:44 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:35 – Shooting the Stargate Movie
11:43 – Erick’s Beginning with Acting
22:40 – The Milk of Human Kindness Documentary
31:57 – Auditioning for Kasuf
35:05 – Working on Dialogue with Stewart Tyson Smith
39:08 – Fan Interactions
43:39 – Giving Humanity to Characters
47:51 – Documentary Discussion
51:30 – Suggestions for Erick’s Documentary and Stargate Movie Sequel
54:00 – Wrapping up with Erick
59:05 – End Credits

***

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Thank you. Hello Gatecon, welcome back. For those of you joining me early thank you for cutting your lunch break so short, I apologize for that. For those who come in later this is going to be available online for free at youtube.com/dialthegate. If you enjoy what you’ve been seeing at Gatecon, please consider clicking that like button online. It will encourage the YouTube algorithm to share more content like this and if you have Stargate friends out there who enjoy watching this, share the video with other Stargate fans. I appreciate everyone who’s already turned up for this episode. This is a very special show for me because I get to invite someone that I’ve gotten to know a little bit better very recently Mr. Eric Avari to the stage with me. Can you please give him a warm welcome.

Erick Avari
Hello everyone. Small but select.

David Read
And they’re online as well. Thank you for joining me.

Erick Avari
Thank you for having me.

David Read
I have to ask upfront. One of the biggest moments in all of cinema, running down that hill in the Yuma dunes. What was that experience like? Just taking the charge in front of 2000 extras.

Erick Avari
I remember so vividly. It was a long day, as you can imagine. There were 1500 extras, there were all these explosions that were set off to go, which is a complicated process to begin with, setting them up, sweeping the dunes of all the footsteps and footprints so that it looked pristine, setting up the camera, making sure that they had all the angles. They had six cameras lined up down the bottom of the dune. We were brought up round the back and up so we’d never really walked the dunes. Being all sort of silvery sand, I didn’t really have a good perspective on how steep it was. That’s clue number one of what goes wrong. Anyway, we were sent up there, it was blazing hot and I could feel the 1500 people behind me just starting to flag. It was hot and they were tired and getting cranky.

David Read
So this is before take one. How long are you all out here in the desert at this point?

Erick Avari
We were already up there about an hour and a half.

David Read
In the blazing sun. No fans.

Erick Avari
No shade, no fans, no nothing. I knew this was the climax of the film. I knew I needed a lot of energy from these guys.

David Read
So you’re on the dunes. We’re an hour and a half [in]. Everyone’s got no shade, they’re starting to flag behind you.

Erick Avari
So I started doing like a striptease and things like that and dancing and getting them up. It amused them for a few minutes and then they got bored with that. So finally I said, “Okay, I’m going to challenge.” Back in the day I used to be a sprinter, I could run pretty quick. I’ve got a 15 yard lead on these guys anyway so I said, “you know what, I’m gonna do a day’s per diem to anyone who can beat me down to the bottom of the dunes.” Now I had their attention. They were like, “Oh, I’m gonna take your on, bro.” I was like “you bring it.” Now I felt a little more confident, we’ll get some energy, we’ll crack this thing and it’ll look great. We had a lot of Spanish speaking extras who didn’t understand English so we had a translator on the big boom mics and they said, “run toward the camera.” The problem with that direction was there were six cameras lined up right at the bottom of the hill, they wanted to get all these different angles. But the guy only said run toward the camera.

David Read
What was the direction for the English speakers?

Erick Avari
Run toward the cameras.

David Read
Oh, cameras. Oh, no.

Erick Avari
I think some of them said follow Kasuf, that’s me. So we go “and action,” finally. I started running down this hill, and it was steep. Once you build up momentum there was no stopping, unless you went like a cartoon and come to a screeching halt. Like “you go guys.” So we’re charging down the hill and I’m thinking “something not quite right here.” None of the explosions are going off.

David Read
Because they are firing the staff blasts at you and you’ve got the pyro’s going off in the sand.

Erick Avari
That was supposed to happen but they weren’t happening. At this point you don’t stop.

David Read
No, you’re running.

Erick Avari
You’re running. Plus I had this big bet going, I didn’t want to lose that. I had some speeders behind me so I’m trying. I must say when you’ve got 1500 people screaming and yelling with all that energy, plus you’re on a downhill slope, I was flying. I was just going way faster than I should have been going, there was no stopping. We make it down the hill and I heard all the directors “cut, cut, cut.” I said “what went wrong?” Roland says “come here and I’ll show you.” He shows me the playback, it looks great. I am up front and I yell and then we start the charge and it’s all exciting. All these guys start running and then all of a sudden the flanks start to peel off. They’re running to the wrong camera but it looks like they’re deserting me. Then running down, I popped my hamstring. By the time I got down to the end it was purple, the entire back of my thigh was purple. Someone went running to Dean and said “Erick popped a hamstring.” Without a pause and perfect timing Dean goes “good, he’ll run slower next time.” That was Dean’s reaction. I was supposed to be 85 or whatever.

David Read
Did anyone come and ask for their per diem?

Erick Avari
I beat everyone, popped hamstring and all. They were like, “oh man, you cheated. You were way ahead.

David Read
That’s the point. I’m the leader, you follow me.

Erick Avari
Actually, if you look very, very closely and do a pause. I think it was my left thigh.

David Read
Did they use some of that take?.

Erick Avari
Yes. You can see, at one point my tunic flies up, I flash a little bit. You can see my ice bandage if you look very closely.

David Read
I did not know that.

Erick Avari
What an experience, I tell you. That’s something that you could only experience in a movie like that.

David Read
Probably not now.

Erick Avari
Yeah, because it’d be all CG.

David Read
With the crowd shot with everyone there with the victory fist, was that all the same day?

Erick Avari
Yes, that was that evening,

David Read
I heard that they would lose extras by the multiple dozens day after day. People just wouldn’t show up again because they couldn’t stand the heat.

Erick Avari
And these were folks who were used to it.

David Read
What was the temperature on your first day?

Erick Avari
138. And people were going down.

David Read
Your cells start to die at a 108 degrees.

Erick Avari
Is that right? That explains a lot.

David Read
Your cells begin to die. It takes a lot of cells dying to kill you and you also regenerate several million cells every few seconds but you’re cooking, you are cooking out there on that desert.

Erick Avari
I was. Being a principal, every time they yelled cut I would go to the tent. They had a little swamp cooler, they’d touch up my makeup, give me some water. The other guys, the elders, and these were real elders, they were just sitting in the sand out in the open. I forget which scene it was but I remember walking back to my one mark while they were still sitting there. There was this older fellow, he had to be in his 80s and he was just sitting like this. He was just like this in his robes and everything. I came up to him and I said, “Man are you okay? I don’t know how you are because I just walked from there to here and I’m dripping in sweat.” He just said, “you move too much.” You’ve got a point. He was just so chill. That was such an amazing movie. Everyone involved was a character. It was a beautiful experience.

David Read
Tell me about how you found yourself in this career. We have a mutual friend going back to grad school, Chris Klug. Was that around that time? Was it before that?

Erick Avari
Well, before that.

David Read
Before you were Nari Avari.

Erick Avari
Yes yes. I was Nari Avari then.

David Read
As a nickname by the way.

Erick Avari
I wanted to be an actor ever since I can remember. The question was how? I grew up in a tiny little town up in the mountains in India. There just seemed no path to come to America to be an actor and I wanted to be on Broadway. That was my dream, I wanted to do Shakespeare on Broadway. Of course, they don’t do Shakespeare on Broadway much but that’s how little I knew. Long story, I came to America on a student visa and I went to college and did all of that. My very first gig in New York City was an Off-Off Broadway play. It sounds a lot more grand than it actually is. It’s really free theater and they called it showcase work where you get to showcase your talent for free. They would give you a subway fare for the week, $5 and something, whatever. My very first play was The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale Without a Plot, world premiere of this Rudyard Kipling play. There’s a reason no one did this play before, it didn’t have a plot. So anyway, I went out to audition. My dad was a British Army officer. These are all British Army officers in India back in the 40s. This is the stuff I knew really well. I went in to audition and the first thing they said, “so Nari, what kind of name is that?” Well, I’m from India. “Oh, great.” No audition, no, nothing. “Go see the director. Here’s his name, here’s the address. Go right now.” “Oh shit, I’m really rocking this one, my first audition. I’m going right to the director.” I go to this address and I’m sitting in the hallway, the door is open, I can see people wandering around in and out the the office inside. I’m just waiting politely and 10 minutes, 15 minutes, half an hour goes by, I’m still sitting there. Finally this one guy who’d been walking back and forth looks at me says “what are you here for?” I said “I’m here for the audition.” “What audition?” “I don’t know, it’s for the Rudyard Kipling play.” “Who are you.” “My name is Nari Avari.” “Oh, you’re the Indian guy.” I said. “Yeah.” “Okay, great, great. Okay, so we start on Tuesday baba baba.” I’m like “shit, I got the fucking part? I’m sorry. I got the part.

David Read
That was it? No audition?

Erick Avari
Well, that was the good news. The bad news was, it was a one line walk on part. I get this one line walk on park but it’s my very first audition in the big city and all this stuff, who am I to complain, right? We start the play and it is awful. It is just awful. That was the bad news. The worse news was it was incredibly well produced so we got every reviewer in town like from John Simon who is this notorious critic who would just rip you to shreds at the drop of a hat. He came, every critic in town, which normally they wouldn’t be reviewing an off-off Broadway play. John Simon’s review started with “now I remember why I don’t go to off-off Broadway” and it went from there. So anyway, we were getting panned and all the shit. Three days into the run, one of the actors in the scene that I was in, said he got a paying gig in Philadelphia so he was going to give notice and go do this. “Right. I know his lines, I know his blocking. I’m gonna give the director five minutes to settle down and then I’m gonna go in and tell him I can play the part.” Which I did. The director was just looking very concerned and troubled and I said, “can I have a word with you?” “What do you want man?” I said “I know Peter’s lines, I know the blocking, I can step into it right now if you want.” He said “Nari please, I don’t have time, I’ve got big problems on my hands right now.” The way he brushed me off it, it kind of galled me. I said, “I’ve been to every rehearsal, I’ve been to every performance on this, I never even got a chance to audition or show you my work. If you won’t even audition me then you’re gonna have to find a replacement for me.” At which point, he was like, “Oh, that’s a problem.” He says, “Okay, I’ll give you an audition.” We get on stage and I do it. As I said, this is the stuff I know, my dad was it, it came very naturally and comfortably for me. After the scene I looked at him and he’s just looking at me very quizzically. I said, “what?” He said “well, obviously you can play the part but no one will believe you’re a British Army officer.” I said, “why not?” “They’ll see your name in the program and they won’t believe it?” I went “you’re telling me that because of my name you’re not going to give me the part?” He said, “well, you know, isn’t it obvious?” So I said “if I change my name you’ll give me the part?” He was like “yeah.” I went “then I’ll change my name.” He said “Okay.” That’s how it happened. I go home and I think, “oh shit, I have got to change my name.”

David Read
So that’s when you became Erick?

Erick Avari
That’s my middle name. So I just went with Erick, that’s my dad’s name.

David Read
So Nari is your first name?

Erick Avari
Nari is my first name.

David Read
I thought it was a nickname. They’re saying it’s a nickname. Chris Klug I’m coming for you.

Erick Avari
I tell a story because that is the kind of stuff that we are confronted with. I won’t mention the director’s name, a very big name, I go out for this Russian part, a real bad guy. It was my scene, I’m playing the boss and there was a guy who was playing my secretary who had a line or two. I went in in dialect and everything else so I maintained Russian dialect from the get go. He asked this guy, “so where are you from?” And he goes, “Poland.” “oh okay.” On the next callback he wasn’t there, it was someone else. “Where are you from?” Monrovia? This is getting to the point where it’s ridiculous. I’m on my fourth call back. I’m getting a little irritated, I’ve got better things to do with my life than keep coming back and doing this. It’s one scene, how many variations of it can you show?

David Read
And you don’t get paid.

Erick Avari
And you’re sitting waiting and you’re nervous. Finally we get to this thing and he is sitting in this big, very beautiful, fancy office in Beverly Hills. He’s sitting there and he’s writing in his notes and he goes “Okay, so Eric, where are you from? And I said, “Well, originally from Georgia.”

David Read
Which Georgia?

Erick Avari
Soviet Georgia, and that is actually where the Avari clan originally is from.

David Read
So your not lying.

Erick Avari
Verbatim. Originally. “What does that mean? Where were you born?” He’s writing notes and I figured, “okay, now I gotta fess up right.” I went “India.” “India? Okay, so here’s the problem Erick. See, you look too much like Gandhi.” I swear he said this. “You look too much like Gandhi and this is a really bad guy. I really want to see some menace.” “You want to see mennace?”

David Read
I’ve gotta a reason at this point to give you some menace.

Erick Avari
So I launch and I’m really loud. Clearly, from outside, heard this and walked in to see if everything was okay. She walks and I wheel on her and go “who the fuck are you?” She turns around, it was his secretary. I was like, “is that enough menace for you?” The next thing I knew he was on social media looking for a real Russian to play that part. He was having trouble getting a visa for that actor.

David Read
You didn’t even get it. But it was a genuine performance.

Erick Avari
Boy, that secretary won’t forget me.

David Read
Absolutely. Should I bring up The Milk of Human Kindness now or should we get into that after Stargate? So you and I, I think we look at humanity very similarly in terms of its intrinsic nature. I think that we look at it a lot like Stargate does in terms of it has potential, but it has its issues. The wonderful thing about science fiction is that it tries to decode and move past the garbage that’s all up here that we live with, to what’s fundamentally beneath. You started a project – and god I hope you finish it. If there’s any help you need I am there – called Milk of Human Kindness. Can you please share your ideas for that project with us.

Erick Avari
Yes. It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot. Coming from India, or actually, a different culture coming to America, one sees certain things, from a different perspective. When I first came here, as an immigrant, on a student visa with nothing, I received so much kindness from so many people, people I didn’t know. They went out of their way to help me. We’re talking in the 70s. With each decade, I saw this dichotomy; this kindness that can turn on a dime and become hostility. I was fascinated by this. What is that? What is that within us that turns such a positive quality into something so negative so easily. I wanted to explore this and I had retired, it was going to be a sabbatical and now it’s turned into full on retirement. I needed to get away from Hollywood and I needed to get away from the roles that I was being offered or we’re going out for. They weren’t exciting me anymore, they weren’t really challenging me that much. I also felt like I needed to reinvent myself or at least take a step back. I bought an RV, I left California and I started traveling the country from one RV park to boondocking out on BLM lands. I met all kinds of people, different people that I didn’t meet in New York or in L.A or the few work stops in between where everyone who is brought in has the same sensibility. I felt I really didn’t have a grip on what America was really about; what makes someone out in Iowa tick? Is it any different to what makes a Hollywood producer tick?

David Read
What did you find?

Erick Avari
I started doing live interviews. At that point, I was also having back issues and getting ready to go into surgery, etc so I had to put it on pause. When I looked at the material, and I was just interviewing random people, I got some interesting comments. I wasn’t sure where this documentary was leading me. I had my surgery and I took a little time off. I looked at the footage and I said, “there’s nothing happening here. I need to really go in and stoke people and be much sharper with my interview process. I’ve got to push them and ask those difficult questions.” Then COVID hit. In spite of that, I thought “let’s try getting people to submit their responses and see if that helps.” But there’s nothing like a one on one interview and taking those moments to go, “Why did you feel that? How did you feel?” Those little things that open up the conversation and bear the soul, that’s what I was lacking, I didn’t have the expertise. As an actor I had never really made a documentary before. I had had lots of conversations with people but never really probing to get to that. So it’s just sitting there and then we hit this political patch where I feel like this is not even a relevant issue anymore. Can we really talk about being kind at at a time like this? Even though it’s most neededm is anyone really listening? Is anyone really going to respond in a truthful fashion? Are we so divided at this point, where it’s like, the other guy’s fault? So that’s where I’m at with it. Yes, I do need to help but I’m determined to pick it up. I think, coming around with our politics and the political cycle, that maybe we have a beginning, middle and an end, hopefully to this question. I don’t know.

David Read
I refuse to believe that the people I disagree with are beyond redemption. I have a really big problem with anyone who says, “those people that I disagree with over there, there’s no hope for them.” I don’t believe it. I think Stargate has taught me not to believe it.

Erick Avari
That’s a really good point. That’s a great point, David. When you think about just Kasuf’s journey, he was one of those who was like, “I’m just doing what the big guy says, I am falling in line because that’s the way to keep my people safe.” Nothing would have altered that in his mind until he actually comes around and sees what’s happening face to face. Then he brings this rage that’s been suppressed for all these years and felt what he was complicit in. That’s part of that rage that I think came out of me on that charge.

David Read
Would you like to see him continue to develop this? Yeah, I agree.

Erick Avari
Thank you. Give me some pointers. How do I get people to open up about this in a way that’s they’re not feeling defensive?

David Read
First of all, when someone’s willing to sit down with you, they’re automatically saying, “I’m willing to have a conversation.” I think that’s the big step one. I think now really more than ever, is a great reason because it’s all on our minds. I think it’s a great excuse to explore the conversation with different parts of the country all over the place. I think it’s a fascinating time to do that because it’s raw people and people seek out entertainment like this show to escape from that.

Erick Avari
Yeah, and I wonder if people would prefer to just escape it rather than confront it?

David Read
Some certainly do. [music plays] That was Stargate music. That was David Arnold. Will you tell me before I turn this over to the audience about auditioning for Kasuf. I have many more questions to ask you. I would love to have him back on Dial the Gate. Will he come back? Do you want him back? All right. Tell us about that audition.

Erick Avari
Okay, so I had recently come to L.A and I was a New York actor. I was skilled in my trade because we do it, we don’t yell cut, we just do it start to finish we’re so good. It’s such a myth but we clung on to that. I was a little fool of myself. My agent sent me this script and said, “they want you to do audition. They’re looking for people to improvise.” I am looking through it and I was like, “this guy has got wo lines, man. They’re looking an 85 year old guy. I am in my late 30s.” He said “Just go, you’ll meet the casting directors, improvise and have fun.” I wasn’t hopeful at all about the outcome of it. I get there and there are swarms of people, all kinds, young, old, all for different parts. The waiting room was jammed with people. I was waiting for a good long time and I was finally brought in and the reader was finishing his lunch. They brought me in and I didn’t introduce myself. I didn’t speak at all, I just walked in, I see this guy eating and I was like, “nice.” Right away I just like latched on to that, wandered in closer and watched him eat it.

David Read
Because people love that.

Erick Avari
I started speaking in Nepali, I speak Nepali, so that was good. I had a context, I wasn’t just speaking gobbledygook and gave it some purpose. Obviously he didn’t understand me and so we had this little rapport. Meanwhile Dean and Roland are just rolling over themselves. As an actor, man, you lap that stuff up. Like, “would you like me to drop my pants as well?”

David Read
That stuff is not necessarily funny on the page. You gave that to them.

Erick Avari
Yeah. I think that was one of the things that he likes about my work is that I look for the humor.

David Read
So it was just the ad libbing and that was it.

Erick Avari
Yeah, there was nothing else and then they said, “we want him.”

David Read
One more, sorry. Working with Stuart Tyson Smith on the dialogue.

Erick Avari
Stuart is the Egyptologist. It’s a fascinating process the whole translation process. Apparently every Egyptologist, worth their salt I guess, they have their own theory as to how to interpret the hieroglyphs. The hieroglyphs are like, the way it was explained to me it was, it’s like shorthand. What they do is they drop the consonants.

David Read
The vowels.

Erick Avari
They have the vowels.

David Read
So they have the vowels?

Erick Avari
They have the vowels but they drop the consonants that go in between, you know, so it’s [mu mu] and [queue queue]. There are a lot of vowels and no consonants. The Egyptologist puts those where they think and how they think and all that stuff. So here was the process. I had a line and a half in the script so everything else was all ad libbed at rehearsal. The rehearsal is in the morning. You’d start the day, you get your coffee, you get into wardrobe, we do a little camera blocking and a little rehearsal. Roland was great, I just love that man. He was so relaxed and always with a smile. There’s something about that kind of environment that makes you feel safe and allows you to jump in terms of making choices, making bold choices. You know you’re not going to be mocked or ridiculed. At best, he’d laugh at you so how bad is that? He would go, “Ja, so now you just say this, Ja? And then you do this and then we do the scene, Ja? I was like, “okay, Ja.” But now I’ve got to run to Stuart Smith and say “how do I say all this stuff?” He would pull out his laptop and then half an hour later, he’d go “okay, here it is.” “Oh, are you kidding me man? This sounds like you’re swinging a cat by it’s tale.” Dean Devlin warned us all, he said “look, you got to be letter perfect because we’re going to put out a book like Star Trek, all the languages are really set in stone.” We busted our asses doing this until Jay Davidson. He was in the last 10 days.

David Read
So he came in late.

Erick Avari
Yeah, he was in the last 10 days and then that didn’t seem to be an issue.

David Read
Yeah. He had his own issues for sure and then they flanged him. He wasn’t supposed to have his deep voice in the picture. They added that.

Erick Avari
Or the eyes or anything. They called Jay…my son-in-law, James Spader. I got so many son in laws I forget them. They brought James and me in after and we reshot that scene that explains who Ra is.

David Read
Yeah, because Davidson was supposed to be like a Lieutenant, he wasn’t supposed to be Ra. That changed later. Do we have any questions for Erick in the audience?

Erick Avari
Don’t all jump at once.

David Read
This lady over here? Is there a paddle? Perfect, thank you very much.

Audience Member
Hello.

Erick Avari
Hello.

Audience Member
I’m curious, when you get approached by someone and they compliment one of your films or any of the artwork that you’ve been in, for example, if someone comes up to you and says, “Oh, I love your work in the mummy?” What runs through your head, through those questions, because you’re so closely connected to your art. I might love this movie, but for you that was a really difficult one. What’s your feeling when someone says “I love this piece of artwork that you were a part of?”

Erick Avari
That’s a great question and thank you for that. 99% of the time, that is a wonderful compliment. Whether I enjoyed the work, doing it or not, that’s immaterial. What does touch me is that it affected that person and it’s a constant reminder how important what we do is. There are people who’ve come up with some very touching, moving stories about how something has lead them on another path or change their life in some way, shape or form. That’s a huge responsibility. Our ego is such a driving force in this, one tends to forget the impact that it’s making. Obviously you can’t perform thinking about the impact that it’s making, you’ve got to just internalize it and just be moment to moment within yourself. The fact that it does have an impact on people, I feel a responsibility to be as honest as I possibly can. That’s something that people go, “wait, it’s all a lie. What do you mean, honesty?” Yes. Once you get past that first lie, then it has to be completely honest. Your reaction, knowing that, “okay, I don’t get popped in the mouth in this scene. So I want to come up and be like Mr. Macho. ‘Oh, yeah. What you gonna do? What you gonna do?'” But in real life, you get popped in the damn face when you do something like that. Right? So that’s being dishonest.

David Read
But there’s truth in the story and that’s why we show up.

Erick Avari
You do have to constantly be aware of what your reality really is.

David Read
Can you believe that it’s been nearly 30 years. Can you believe that we’re still wanting to talk about it? Do you ever ask yourself before coming to things like this “do I have anything left to say?”

Erick Avari
I always have something to say.

David Read
I’m glad to hear that because I have a lot to ask.

Erick Avari
It was three months of my life in a very intense situation with so many different people. So many different situations, incidents, stories, lessons, exploring. No, I would not have believed that we’d still be talking about that. In fact, when it first came out, it was kind of…

David Read
Reviews were lackluster. But the idea is amazing.

Erick Avari
Yeah, it is. Then people got into it and the rest is history.

Audience Member
Do the script writers add humanity to the characters or did you have to try to do something about that yourself? A lot of book creators, the protagonist will always have this moment where they do something really brave where most people would just probably quiver or fear. That ends up alienating people from feeling [not as] connected to the character as they could be knowing that they feel related [to the character] and somewhat human as well.

Erick Avari
Good question. One of the reasons I brought why it’s so important to be relaxed and playful, especially in rehearsal, is because that’s how the best ideas come up. During a rehearsal, we would play. Daniel would do something and then I react. It’s all act, react. The whole thing about acting is reacting to whatever it is you’re receiving. If you’re in a playful mood you can react in all kinds of different ways that open up avenues. There are positive choices that an actor makes and then there’s sometimes a choice that dead ends. If you’re sitting there going, “not gonna play” it’s a dead end. So, during the rehearsal we would play and the director, and we have both Dean and Roland, they were the script writers as well, so there was a lot of confidence in there. I’d throw something out, if they liked it, they would go with it, or they would alter it and say, “instead of doing that, go here, do this.” It develops as a collaborative effort. When stuff like that is happening it’s so joyous because you’re creating. You feel like your contribution is greater than the part.

David Read
You’re in a different language but we do know the Abydonians have a sweet tooth. Was the 5th Avenue candy bar in the script or did you add?

Erick Avari
No, that was in the script.

Erick Avari
Okay. We were talking about Georgia earlier. How the Georgians, we were Persian, we were the old Persian. Now this is reality I’m talking about, my tribe, as a Parsi. We came from Persia and during the Muslim invasion and start of religious persecution, those that didn’t want to convert or die, got on boats, and the current took them to the west coast of India, which was then this tiny little kingdom called Goodra. The legend has it that we were met on the shores by the king of Goodra. He brought a tumbler of milk showing that this was his land, these were his people and we’re filled to the brim so you gotta go back. Apparently, sugar being a new spice to India and brought from Persia, some bright spark Persian pulled out this lump of sugar and said, “these are our people,” popped it in the milk and indicated somehow that we will sweeten, mingle and enrich your society without overflowing. So the sweet tooth goes way back.

David Read
Sweet Bani Whey.

David Read
That’s great.

Erick Avari
Anyone else? Yes, sir.

David Read
You. Yes, you?

Audience Member
Yes. Hello. In talking about the lies and talking about the truth in the story and how it relates to your own documentary project. Do you find that is sort of the same with the Americans that you’ve been interviewing in this process? Do you find that there’s always at first the lie and then you get to sort of the truth? How do you sort of unwrap that?

Erick Avari
That’s a great question and I don’t know the answer.

Erick Avari
I’m still searching for it. Yes. The thing is, I don’t know if it’s a lie, or just a different perspective. I’m sure they absolutely believe and then something in them makes them believe something else. I think that’s what I need to find out. It’s like, “what is it that can make you turn on a dime like that? Coming back to Milk of Human Kindness, I feel I could give myself a pass very easily and say “I’m a very kind person. I’m very kind to my dog.” “Hey you, back the fuck off.” You know what I mean? Or to someone we love, we’re so hurtful. What is that? I need to know. These are burning questions. I am in search of that and I don’t know if I’ll ever get past the surface of it.

David Read
You’re still finding it.

David Read
Has anyone seen the documentary The Bridge? They covered the Golden Gate Bridge with four cameras for a year and taped the suicides. They followed the news, they found the families and invited them at the appropriate time to talk about those people and their experiences. It’s one of the hardest films I’ve ever watched. The film does not strive to tell answers. The film asks the questions and leaves you at that.

Erick Avari
I love that David.

David Read
Don’t watch it in a dark place in your life but I invite you to watch it all the same. I think that we have to face those issues head on. We in the West particularly don’t like to do that, we like to medicate, and medicate we do, either through prescription or alcohol or whatever. If we don’t sit down with one another and dare to ask the hard questions, if they don’t get asked, whatever comes next for us, I believe we are accountable. That’s one of the reasons why I endeavored to do this show and thank you for doing it with me.

Erick Avari
My pleasure and thank you all for coming. You know, this is nothing without you really.

Audience Member
We know.

Erick Avari
Let me remind you. Good answer.

Audience Member
Going back to your earlier point, you were asking for suggestions. I always enjoyed watching Larry King and Charlie Rose just because they didn’t come with an agenda or to judge. They would ask a question and let them answer and let the viewer decide. The other thing I always liked about it is they held the question until they got a response, which I thought was really valuable.

Erick Avari
Yes. All right. I think it’s a cultural thing. Sometimes I feel like I’m being rude by pressing someone on it and I just gotta get over that.

Audience Member
Yeah and I find that so valuable. I do have a quick question for you. Over the years on again, off again there’s always been talk about a sequel to the movie outside of the confines of the TV series. If they did, would you come out of retirement for it.

Erick Avari
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it’s the one that brung me. I once told the Dean Devlin, he’s hired me so many times on every show that he does.

David Read
“What’s with the golf balls, you’re gonna kill me here.”

David Read
Oh, man, that was funny.

Erick Avari
That was an ad lib.

Erick Avari
I said, “Dean, I’ll do anything for you. You’re the one who was responsible for my Hollywood career.” He said “don’t blame me for that shit.”

David Read
Yeah, that sounds like Dean

Erick Avari
Both of them, I found that combination, the sum of the parts was greater than the whole. That combination, it was just magic and watching it. I wish they’d get back together and do more stuff again. I would definitely do it and now I’m the right age.

David Read
Absolutely. What other projects would bring you out of retirement? You were saying that you don’t have any material that really excites you right now. What type of thing would you be like, “okay, I’ll spend three months on that. That sounds interesting.”

Erick Avari
King Lear. It doesn’t have to be that. If it’s something that absolutely grips me in a personal way. I guess, work backwards, okay. I don’t want to do anything unless it’s going to be more significant in size, unless it’s going to be more better, you know if it’s going to stretch me.

David Read
Stretch you to the next level.

Erick Avari
Yes. I think I’ve had enough of this level that I’ve been working at and I’m bored with it.

David Read
Right. I think we’ve been talking about what the next step might be. I think you really should pursue it and I’d be happy to help in any way that I can. Alan, do you want us to stick around for a little bit? One more question for Nari Avari?

Erick Avari
How about for Erick?

David Read
What’s your favorite Abydonian word?

Erick Avari
Mu mu.

David Read
I was so hoping you’d make it for Children of the Gods and it was a scheduling conflict right? With the pilot.

Erick Avari
Yeah, and I didn’t even know about that until I read about it. Your just going “I was? Really?”

David Read
Also in Full Circle you were supposed to at the end of season six, you were also scheduled to go back for. That was a a scheduling conflict. Opportunities, they’re hit and miss and you have to grab I guess what you can, when you can and we’re lucky for when we had him.

Erick Avari
You know the old saying “it never rains, it pours.” That’s our business man. You sit around for months doing nothing and then you get two offers at the same time that overlap. You got to pick one and you don’t know. I have made the wrong choice on so many [occasions].

David Read
You think so?

Erick Avari
Yeah.

David Read
You’re standing there on stage and just like “Oh man, I picked wrong.”

Erick Avari
No, in retrospect. I’ll give you an example. Adam Sandler, after Mr. Deeds, he was like “Erick, come on in. I am doing this and I am doing that.” I was supposed to do Anger Management. I did the table read with Jack, it was great.

David Read
What a good movie.

Erick Avari
Yeah, fun right? I was supposed to play the part that Harry Dean Stanton played, the blind guy in the bar. Adam gets into a fight with the blind guy that sends him off to anger management. I got a pilot. So it was like, “oh man, a pilot.” You know what they make you do in a pilot before you even got the part? While you’re auditioning for it, on your final audition, which is called the network audition, you sign your contract for the next four or six years? All the numbers are right there and you sign it.

David Read
It’s longer than a military career.

Erick Avari
You’re thinking “holy cow. Oh yeah, in a year or two I’ll be able to do that and…..” It’s very tempting but there are no guarantees. I gave up Anger Management and Adam never called me after that. That was the last gig I gig and the pilot went nowhere. It didn’t get picked up.

David Read
Give it up for Erick please everyone.

Erick Avari
Thanks for coming.

David Read
Thank you, sir. Thank you and we would love to have you back on more Dial the Gate.

Erick Avari
I will be back.

David Read
My name is David Read. We’ll see you on the other side.

Erick Avari
Thank you guys.