John Sheppard’s arch nemesis is joining Dial the Gate! We are excited to have Robert Davi to discuss his robust career as well as his memorable role as thorn in the side of the Atlantis expedition.

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Timecodes
0:00 – Splash Screen
00:18 – Opening Credits
00:47 – Welcome and Episode Outline
01:05 – Memories of Stargate Atlantis
06:52 – Acastus Koyla
11:46 – Playing the Antagonist
16:19 – Working with Joe Flanagan and the Koyla/Sheppard Relationship
18:51 – Various Roles that have Impacted Robert
23:46 – Meeting Frank Sinatra, and Music
28:49 – George Peppard and Favorite Genres
30:10 – Robert’s Love of Music
31:26 – Using Props and Training
35:15 – Filming the Incredible Hulk
36:57 – Profiler
43:04 – Kolya’s Return in “Remnants”
45:10 – Wrapping Up with Robert
47:10 – Post-interview housekeeping
49:10 – End Credits

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

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TRANSCRIPT
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David Read
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of DialtheGate. The Stargate Oral History project. My name is David Read. I am privileged to welcome one of the greatest villains that the franchise has known, Robert Davi. We know him Acastus Kolya, but you may know him from several different things. Mr. Davi, Robert Davi sir, thank you so much for being here with me. It is a pleasure to have you and I had been looking forward to talking with you some time about this extraordinary character. How are you sir?

Robert Davi
I’m good. I’m trying to get the light, how is the the light behind behind me?

David Read
You look good.

Robert Davi
Behind me it’s okay? It’s not glaring?. Okay, good.

David Read
No, it’s not too bad at all. It’s not too bad.

Robert Davi
Getting you know, shattered by my glare.

David Read
No, you’re good. I really appreciate you being with me, sir. Tell me about some of your memories of this extraordinary character and role and tell me how you’re doing these days. Just in general.

Robert Davi
Yes. Stargate Atlantis. Stargate Atlantis? Yes. I remember. I had done Predator but not much sci-fi. My agent at the time said, “Hey, Stargate wants you to do some recurring character?” “All right” I said. They sent me the script, Acastus Kolya, interesting character. I like the name Acastus Kolya, it has a ring to it. So we did it. I spoke to the writing team and the production team. They were very open to my ideas, there were certain things I wanted to change. They were very open to all my changes, even the wardrobe ideas and it was very collaborative. I remember having a good time with the cast. We shot it in Vancouver. We did The Storm and The Eye, I think those were the first two episodes, we were drenched. It was kind of interesting to have those climate change aspects to the series and to be acting under those conditions is fun. Sheppard, of course, was fun, all the cast were terrific people, they were a lot of fun. I am trying to think back. I just always thought that, yeah, I did a lot of changing, a lot of collaboration with them in terms of the script, making the character fit myself. I think that the most frustrating part was I wasn’t in great shape for those initial taekwondo things.,

Robert Davi
Oh gosh, yeah. You did a lot of that physicality.

Robert Davi
There was a lot of that. If you’re gonna do that you need a month rehearsal. You get there the next day, “okay, we’re doing these moves.” You can’t, unless you’re already an expert at that, which I was not. I did a little bit of martial arts, a lot of dance and stuff. But to go into there and do all that stick work that was the frustrating aspect of that for me there. I would want to have been crispy with him and for that, you can’t do it overnight. That was the frustration. But the other times it was fun. It was fun creating Acastus Kolya. I thought he was a little short lived. I thought they could have done more to the character. I always saw him as joining forces with them for a period of time. I said “it makes sense, why not?” You have a strong presence of this character and it was interesting that they don’t see that sometimes. Theaudience sees it, but produces, they don’t see it, they’re locked into something else. They could have easily made Kolya a character that helped Sheppard and the rest of them fight. And then they could have had their… It’s like China and Russia right now joining forces. What happens in America and allies. You do that and then you break up and then it’s like World War Two with Russia and the allies. You could have done something like that and justify the antagonism that they felt toward each other’s lifestyles.

David Read
You know, it’s interesting because at the end of season one they do hook up with the Genii briefly to coordinate some weaponry, but Kolya isn’t there. He’s kind of stepped out to the side. It’s like every time they wanted the Genii as an antagonist, you were brought in front and center. It’s beautiful, because it works so great. The antagonism between him and Sheppard, they were excellent foils for each other, they really hated each other,

Robert Davi
You could have had that continue on and that could have just been a political frustration within it. Imagine being in there and having that tension a little more frequently because they’re both vying for power. They’re both vying to take the Stargate a certain way. Who was the creative? Joe right?

David Read
Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie, Brad Wright and Rob Cooper. Yes, sir.

Robert Davi
Yeah, all those cats. They were good guys. It was interesting, very interesting.

David Read
Tell me about who this character was for you on the page and how you brought him to life. Was he a mercenary? How did he feel about working for his government the way he was? Was he just a razor that when they needed some something sliced open, they would call him in and he would get the job done? Who was Kolya to you?

Robert Davi
Kolya to me was Kurtz from the Heart of Darkness, that didn’t go so over the edge, but had political ambitions. He was unlike any kind of politician lawyer, he was a Patton. He was a General Patton that had a different idea in terms of how to handle this stuff. You had the political people like Eisenhower and the other generals, but Patton was more of a warrior General. Had they listened to him it could have been different. He was tough. I saw more like a warrior leader as opposed to a tool for something else. My own thing, I had a different agenda behind that whole…and that was to take over the Stargate.

David Read
Absolutely, it’s a tool with remarkable power behind it.

Robert Davi
I did want to be inside Sheppard’s head.

David Read
I would think after he shot him back through the wormhole, getting kicked out of the house, it would have gotten pretty personal for Kolya pretty quick. There would have been other things added to his agenda aongside personal power. It’s like, “okay, I’ve got to get this guy back and I’m not going to let it go.”

Robert Davi
Yeah. It’s like politics, look what we’re going through today. American politics, in any politics throughout the world, you have allies, you have detractors, you have conflict, you have alliances. It’s very interesting David that whole thing. I think the revenge aspect was a little too petty for him. It wasn’t so much as revenge as control. That’s in my sub textual analysis. It’s not necessarily on the page, but it would lead to a few things if you were go back and look at some instances because he was formidable.

David Read
I’ve had some conversations with Torri Higginson and David Hewlett about being drenched out in that soundstage. It was just before they were going on break and Tory said that everyone got sick. They gave everyone, after that shoot was done, bottles of wine or something because they knew that they were all going to go home. Did you manage to survive that? Or did you get sick as well?

Robert Davi
I don’t remember. I don’t think I got sick. I don’t remember. It was intense, it was intense that stuff. It was, those conditions are always fun.

David Read
Do they help drive the performance? Or do they distract you from the performance?

Robert Davi
No, no.

Robert Davi
You’re in that condition. You’re in that condition, you’re in a circumstance, it adds, it’s a condition that adds. Sometimes an actor will put himself in that condition, mentally or psychically, that gives something to performance. He’s fighting the elements. He may be in a quiet office, but he’s fighting the elements. You know what I mean? That gives you another impulse that you have to then project something else. You don’t know that, you just know, “man, where’s this guy getting this stuff from?” That’s what we do as actors, we live truthfully, in the given circumstances. Most of the time, you have to imagine imaginary circumstances. Here it was created for you so that was helpful.

David Read
You’re soaked in rain.

David Read
What do you look for when you are playing someone whom the audience recognizes is an antagonist? You played some doozies over the years from Bond villains to the Goonies. What angle do you come at it from when you’re looking at one of these parts? Do you see that they’re the hero of their own story? How do you approach an antagonist as an actor? You personally.

Robert Davi
Not as an antagonist? Even when I did profiling, was good guy, FBI. I remember at the Actors Studio, Pete Strasford, there’s a legendary story the gave. He was a member of the Actors Studio who did all the stuff that actors used to do, before social media arose. We had intense training, craft of acting, the art of acting. My approach is to find the human being and then the circumstances and the actions that he plays an audience can justify. The audience will look at it, “Oh, that’s terrible.” Or they may go “I like this guy. What’s he about? He is interesting.” A lot of people have always said that when I played an antagonist or the baddie or the evil, there’s something they liked about him. They find something, “Oh, that’s interesting.” They don’t want to like the guy and that makes you hate him even more sometimes. It’s like, “why am I appreciating this guy?” I want to seduce the audience into believing that journey. I hate it when I see a cardboard villain or a villain that’s old style twirling the mustache. That repels me away. I want to do something that brings the audience to me, brings them into this, even though it’s not necessarily…I’ve turned down characters that have had a very banal and sometimes not nice…something that I don’t feel…You’re offered characters as a bad guy that could be against this or against that or be very bigoted and I won’t play a bigot of any kind. That’s where you lose an audience. The other thing is all fun, but I won’t play a bigot. Sometimes there are characters that have that and I have to say “let’s lose that aspect of it.”

David Read
Well, if you don’t think that you’re going to be able to portray it honestly and truthfully within the boundaries of yourself as a human being and then extending that out to you as a performer, then I agree, don’t waste anyone’s time trying. If you’re not going to be able to give yourself fully, to the performance, then find another one.

Robert Davi
Yeah and that’s it. You know, certain things are taboo, so to speak, that we don’t want to portray in an art form.

David Read
Absolutely. And on top of that, you have children. They’re going to be potentially seeing this, what kind of messages do I want to give? What does my art say about myself?

Robert Davi
Exactly, that is an aspect to it. Art to me is a pure form. Life, we go all over the place, we can be all over the place. But the art form lasts, now social media does to a certain extent, but the art form does lasts and that’s your message in a way.

David Read
That’s what you leave to the world. Are there any memories that you have of working with Joe Flanigan, specifically? Aside from The Storm and The Eye, where it was really Weir and McKay working against you and you against them, there was a lot of contact between you and Sheppard throughout the run. I’ve been reading through the comments, in anticipation for this, that’s really what people, the audience, sunk their teeth into. Do you have any stories or memories specifically of working with Joe and accessing the relationship between Kolya and Sheppard in these stories?

Robert Davi
Just that he and I got along marvelously. We liked each other from what I recollect and were very friendly to each other. It was a lot of fun. It’s like a little competition without being competitive, it was just playing our characters and enjoying that aspect of it. I always saw Sheppard as someone that even Kolya would be able to…I think he hated me more than I hated him. I think he disliked Acastus Kolya more than Acastus Kolya disliked Sheppard. [inaudible]

David Read
I could see under the right set of circumstances them putting aside there, if the hour were dark enough, I could see them putting aside their animosity and striving towards a greater goal and perhaps learning something about each other begrudgingly, Sheppard particularly begrudgingly, in the process.

Robert Davi
That’s how I wanted the future of Acastus Kolya to be. I wanted to do that turn around and I had mentioned it to the writers. It would be great if now there was this thing that had this mutual need that brings us together. Out of that a friendship emerged and then there could be some other battle where Acastuc Kolya dies heroically.

David Read
Robert. Go ahead. I apologize. Please finish.

Robert Davi
That was it, just finishing.

David Read
You have had such a body of work. Is there a specific role that helped shape you as an artist in ways that you didn’t expect? Or made you think about your place in the world and your place as a person in ways that you didn’t anticipate?

Robert Davi
Well, I think that just being human awakens you. Stella Adler was my mentor and a great woman. We had always been very self aware of the world that surrounds us. Me and my cousins used to do political skits back in the 60s when we were 10 years old before Saturday Night Live did skits and stuff like that. There was always something that was flirting around the background of life. It’s an accumulation of experience that you get over the years. Every film is another journey that you’re learning something about. Recently, I did a film called The Engineer about the first suicide bombing in 1992 in Israel. I did a film called Terrorist on Trial: The United States vs. Salim Ajami. A Palestinian kidnapped by the United States government to stand trial for acts of terrorism. That whole world I then researched and tried to understand the conflicts. Whenever you’re playing, it opens up another world, it’s another big world that you can go into to see. I was in the Amazon rainforest in 1990, doing a film with Mika Kaurismäki, the first ecology film about the [Spanish] and the gold diggers, there in nine weeks, sleeping with the Yanomami Indians in the jungle of the Amazon. You learn, and then you learn from your life experience. Anything you can incorporate into your psyche, into your being that’s of a positive nature and enlightening nature, you try to take into [the performance]. The Bond film, for instance, that was before everyone was talking about the drug lords of the world. This was 1989. So I knew that whole world. When I did Profiler, FBI, profiling in FBI before 9/11. I knew 9/11 was around the corner because I went to Quantico and I submersed myself in that world. I directed Dukes, it won nine awards with myself and Chazz Palminteri. Peter Bogdanovich, who is a great, great friend of mine. He recently directed a film that some people will like and some people won’t. It’s a satire like American Hustle or The Wolf of Wallstreet about Hunter Biden’s laptop. They should look at it, it’s a satire and it’s funny. But it also exposes a certain other element. I was in Serbia and researching and everything else and understood a lot of other things. The worldview changes as you get closer to…we’re in our little boxes, wherever we are, in our city, in our town, in our homes and on the media we watch and expose our ideas to. When you travel the world and you’re seeing so many different aspects of that world. I traveled doing my music. My music is the most, to me, my most profound communication because it’s me and the audience in the music. I am channeling the Great American Songbook and being able to express fully who I am as a human being. It’s a wide variety of things and being aware of the conflicts and the hypocrisies and so many different things in our world.

David Read
Lockwatcher says “your music is nothing short of incredible Robert. How much influence did meeting Sinatra have on you becoming a singer?”

Robert Davi
Well, first off, in an Italian household, there were two figures, especially Italian immigrant family, the Pope and Sinatra, and not necessarily in that order. I think I was the first to say that and now every Italian American say the same quote. I started saying that when I started doing my shows in 2010 and I said it in my documentary Davi’s Way, you should take a look at it. It’s on iTunes. It’s very funny. Very funny, self deprecating, and very painful. I know that when Leonadro DiCaprio screened it at his house for three nights the guys were all laughing. It’s like a real insider peek at the Hollywood thing and me wanting to do something for Sinatra’s 100th anniversary. It’s self deprecating, very funny and very moving. Sinatra was the first singer to come out against anti semitism. racial bigotry. There’s all this talk about Sinatra in the mafia and this and that, any Italian gets that, there’s always some kind of rumored aspect to whatever one wants to shake up something. To me the legacy of his fight against anti semitism, racial bigotry, he really busted open the lines of blacks being able to be accepted in Vegas and other places. That’s the message that I like because the American Songbook os also his Picassoesque contribution to music. Sinatra was the first singer really to apply Belcanto techniques of opera into popular music. He studied with a guy from the Metropolitan Opera, which I did, and then Feral Juilliard, and it went on. So all the techniques that he used to communicate in his song and the dept, he then later had with his acting and everything else. Italians in 1906, The New York Times said they were lower and dirtier than the Negro. That’s a quote from The New York Times back then. I don’t know if they bleached that quote, but that’s a quote that was there. There were more lynchings of Italians in 1886 in New Orleans in one day than any other race. Italians with darkies, they were brownies they were spit on. I myself remember my grandparents telling me stories. You would be looked at? You know, “one of them I-talians.” We believed in pull yourself up from the bootstraps, not to be victimized. Sinatra’s music had a very strong influence because you felt the Lyric. A lot of singers will sing pretty notes but you have to listen to Sinatra, he’s not background music. Whether he’s enjoy or he’s in pain, I call him the first method singer because his song is his diary. It’s quite interesting if you look at his body of over 3000 songs that he sang. It’s amazing.

David Read
No one sounds like him, not even close. He’s up there with Freddie Mercury. You hear that, you hear one second of it, you know exactly who that is. You’re hearing his soul.

Robert Davi
That’s it. I love all kinds of music. Like you mentioned, Freddie Mercury. That’s a great documentary, a great film, and Elton John. There was something about Sinatra because he not only did film, he did TV, film, and music. He was the first really major superstar like that back in the 1940s. He was such an affecting thing on my parents. I’m sure in utero I was listening to Frank Sinatra. Much like kids today are listening to Taylor Swift growing up, she’s like the phenomena of today in a certain way.

David Read
Mack Bolan’s conscience wants to know, what is specifically your favorite genre to work in, and how was it working with George Peppard?

Robert Davi
Ah, George [Peh-pard].

David Read
Excuse me, I apologize.

Robert Davi
Yeah, George [Peh-pard]. Yeah, he was a gentleman. He was an old style guy. He had connections with Shelley Winters and was a gentleman. It was fun. All those classic guys, they were all wonderful. I like multi genre, I like even comedy. I did Cops and Robbersons and The Hot Chick and I think even the Dukes has a bit of comedy, a lot of comedy in it. You can go to Amazon and watch that. It’s fun. It’s about a do-up group that pulls a heist of dental gold because Chazz loses his front tooth. I over hear we don’t have money to pay the dentist and I over hear about a bunch of gold in the dental lab. It’s quite fun, you’ve got to see it David, take a look. What was that question from…George Peppard. I like multi genres, it’s fun to mix it up.

David Read
Urius Tosh – Robert, what is more fulfilling for your spirit? Acting or creating music?

Robert Davi
Well, they both have it, but there’s something about the music when I’m singing. That’s another channeling aspect. It’s a direct connection to the audience. Film is wonderful, acting and doing a play is wonderful. For me when I’m doing a concert and I can sing what I want to sing, I could talk about what I want to discuss with the audience, communicate to them and feel what they’re feeling, that communal, there’s nothing…that’s beautiful. I’ve done it for 18,000 people on Long Island, I’ve done it for 6000 in the Estonia, 3000 in Budapest. All over the world I’ve been doing this and I’ll be in Massachusetts in September at the Big E. Anybody in that area, come and see me. I’m doing two concerts, I think it’s the 20th and 21st of September. Come and see what it’s about. There’s nothing like that communication.

David Read
Dan Ben wanted to know, what is it like using certain props both in Atlantis and in other projects that you worked in? Guns, rifles, other technology. What goes into that in terms of behind the scenes in terms of you getting the training that you need, being provided the techniques that you need to do it safe? There’s got to be a lot that goes into that. You can’t just pull it out and go bang, there’s a whole process there.

Robert Davi
Just to go back to that other question. The good thing for film is that it’s lasting. Once you do a performance it’s over but the beauty of film like Goonies, Bond, Die Hard, Show Girls and films that last on. TV, Stargate, decades from now people are going to be talking about it or see it. There’s that aspect of it that’s very satisfying to that. Going back to that training. An actor should train in many aspects. I did a Western early on. They said, “can you ride a horse?” I said “I can ride the subway”, I came from New York. Immediately they put me with the best, Terry Leonard. They taught me the horse skills and I was practicing on horses. I was practicing gunplay with the quickest fast-draw guy. They take it very seriously. There’s never never, never, never, [inaudible] of being able to protect yourself, because accidents can happen. I’ll give you one thing with myself. This was back in 1979 or something, I’m doing a thing called Legend of the Golden Gun. We’re at Spahn ranch and I’m rehearsing and I’m with this big quick draw guy, and he’s teaching me quick draw. There’s a certain way to do it that is safe and a certain way to do it that is not safe. I inadvertently being inexperienced, I’m doing the quick draw and it’s in your leg, you have the gun to your leg. I figured, “okay, I’ll skip one of the things to be quicker at it”. I was very quick and I do it and I triggered it. My jeans, about a foot of my jeans ripped up because the shot was a full load. It wasn’t a bullet but it was a full load that gave that spark. I seared the side of my thigh a little bit with that thing, it was nothing, it was just very superficial. I said, “oh my god, look at this.” They’re laughing. I go “what do I do? Look at this.” And the guy goes “Hey Bob, get some of that..Let that horse piss on his leg here. That’ll clean that up in two seconds.” That was there sense of humor about stuff. But all throughout my life, any gunplay, ten people can say “all clear, it’s a clear gun” and give it to you. You go “let me check it out for myself.” They say “don’t dry shoot it.” I go “fuck that. I am going to dry shoot it to make sure…” I check the chambers no matter who gives it to me and I’ve always done that. I know there was an unfortunate accident with someone. If you’re given a weapon, you check it yourself.

David Read
Absolutely. Brian Mccann wanted to know how was it filming an episode of Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno?

Robert Davi
Yeah, well Lou is always a friend, a good guy, Louis. Bixby was great. It’s funny. I’ve gotten along over the years, thank god, with everyone I’ve worked with. They were all very gracious and it was all fun. I got their respect and I gave them my respect. It was a collaborative and a fun experience. It was fun doing those shows because you met people of the day, you met those TV stars of the day on all those guest star shows. I kind of have an interesting thing because those days are gone. You gotta realize. Back in the late 70s, you had a lot in the 80s, there was a whole other vibe. It was a transitional time to what we have today. It’s creative but there’s a dignity that’s lost, I feel. There is a certain kind of je ne sais quoi that’s lost. It was great. Yeah, Bixby was great and Lou was amazing. Charlie Napier was in that to, Charles Napier.

David Read
Yeah. Your body of work! I’m looking at some of the stuff. I was on the phone with my best friend last night. He was like, “I loved him in Profiler.” Can you tell us about profiler for Zack?

Robert Davi
Yes, Zack. Profiler was a great show, it was the first of its kind. They had done shows dealing with aliens and stuff but never like Profiling like The Silence of the Lambs. So this was like that. I played a characterm Bailey Malone, who created profiling. I trained this young, blue light, Ally Walker, Samantha Waters, into profiling and she became the bright star of profiling. Julian McMahon was in it. We had a great cast, Peter Frechette, Roma Maffia. It was the first of its kind. I think NBC a night of three shows and they didn’t expect us to do so well at 10 o’clock. I think we got a 19 share, 19 share on a Saturday night at 10 o’clock. That blew them away. We beat the other shows and we continued on that way. We had great producers, Ian Sander and Kim Moses. Ian passed away recently. It was right after the OJ Simpson trial so I knew that the public was hungry about blood splatters, about crime scene analysis, they were glued to that set. So now this fed into that thing, gave you a lesson in terms of that. Ally, the show was very dark and she just had a baby and she didn’t want that darkness. She left the show and the producers, this [inaudible] guy who made a big mistake. It’s like changing Generals on the Titanic. They get rid of a guy that’s successful and they put a new guy in and he wants to now change everything that’s successful and put his own…and it doesn’t…he wanted to put on extreme football. We had a nice actress, Jamie Luner, take over for Ally. I told the producers and the writers, I said to them, “guys, you can’t divorce mommy and bring in the new mum. The audience won’t accept it.” They wanted to make Jamie Luner, who’s a terrific person, another Ally Walker. I said “you can’t do that. Jamie has a different energy. She came from Melrose Place. She’s a bit of a little sexy girl. You have to change this. What you have to do is you have to take Jamie Luner and you have to say ‘okay, Bailey Malone needs a new profiler’ and get six candidates because there’s several steps to profiling.” So he takes two inside law enforcement, three outside law enforcement and he starts training them. Each episode he’s trying to see who’s going to be the new profiler. Who’s Bailey going to train? There are steps so you bring the audience. Each episode, for the first half of a season, 12 episodes, you let them see the steps of profiling and the struggle of us. It’s more than one profile, we had other people so they could be around the table. It was Criminal Minds before Criminal Minds, which I then pitched to CBS and NBC in 2003. Hollywood is very, like Pac Man. What happened is they didn’t do that. Then who emerges is this cocktail waitress from Baltimore, Maryland, who’s working with local law enforcement and she’s becomes the person Bailey’s going to train and going to be this great movie. The audience is going to love her. She’s going to be scared, she’s going to be this, she could be that. She doesn’t have to come in and be the top dog right now, coming in and replacing Ally Walker. The audience won’t accept it. Like I said, you can’t divorce mommy, you got to subdue good. That’s what happened. The ratings got hurt. Garth van Seer wanted to put on extreme football and our ratings weren’t hurt, we were still doing 11/12 share. But, he cleaned out the whole Saturday night, put on extreme football with those helmets and took a $150 million bath and he got fired. Meanwhile CBS winds up doing Criminal Minds and they do Criminal Intent, all these other, and they’re still running. Profiler is off the air. So the stupidity of NBC, Universal at the time, or whoever they were, I pitched them. I pitched them a show while I was at Profiler called “We Get” about the FBI and international territories. This is in 2000 and 2001. A great show. I wanted immediate Internet access to the show. Stuff that’s happening now, 20 years ago I pitched to NBC. GE owned NBC at the time and then CBS in 2003, and got shut out for whatever reason.

David Read
When people see a good thing they run with it but sometimes in a different direction.

Robert Davi
Well, CBS said we don’t want to do any more procedural and then two years later an unknown writer comes up with the thing I pitched them. That’s a little bit of sour grapes but that’s the world we’re in. We’re in a world of corruption. Unfortunately.

David Read
Before I wrap up with you I want to come back Kolya one last time. I loved your return of the character in season five. First of all, I think the shootouts in season three which which knocked him off it’s, a great western moment, but it just drove me nuts. I didn’t think it was fair to the character to have him go out that way if I’m perfectly honest.

David Read
Kolya to go out that way?

David Read
Yeah, exactly. Sheppard shoots him dead, at least Sheppard does it, at least there’s that. Kolya doesn’t get shot in the back. But still, I wish they had gone a different route.

Robert Davi
Yeah, me too. I thought it was kind of rinky dink. They were better than that.

David Read
Right? They were better than that.

Robert Davi
They were better than that. You should ask Joe Mallozzi why the hell they chose that. Why was it that when it could have been many different ways of doing it? I was in Shepppard’s head at the time, right?

David Read
When you return in season five you were in Sheppard’s head. I thought that it was a great return because it was a fantastic sci-fi premise. He cut off his hand for frick sake. For a while there were sitting there like “oh my god, not only is this person brought back from the dead, he’s just made maimed our hero.” It was a great, great episode and then he turns around and he is a part of this other entity. Kolya is finally being seen as something neutral for the first, a glimpse of what Kolya could have been like if we had gone in a different direction with him. I thought it was a great return for you and I’m thrilled that they did it.

Robert Davi
Yeah. I am to, except getting shot like that.

David Read
You know, you can’t win them all. Robert, I have been looking forward to this for a long time. I cannot thank Angelique enough for making this possible. I hope you realize just how significant a part you played in Stargate Atlantis; in making that show what it was. This has been a treat and I hope you realize just how important you were to that show.

Robert Davi
Thank you David, it’s very sweet. I didn’t know. Every once in a while somebody will say [shouts] “Kolya”l. I’m surprised that there’s such a, you know…then I go tease along and say “Kolya”? Acastus Kolya, it was fun. They should bring him back and have him do his own thing.

David Read
Raj Luthra – If asked, would you return?

Robert Davi
Yeah. He was a great character, how could you not? I’m surprised. When stuff like that happens, if enough audience members really appreciate the character then they do something about it. You know what I mean? Sometimes, but who knows?

David Read
Absolutely. Would you be willing to do Stargate conventions?

Robert Davi
Stargate conventions? Sure. Yeah, it would be fun. Yeah, meet the fans.

David Read
Yeah, have them bring you up to sing as well for the cabaret dinner. That would be really cool. I think that you would be perfect.

Robert Davi
Yeah. No one’s approached me, so maybe somebody will?

David Read
Absolutely, Robert. Thank you again, sir. This has been a pleasure.

Robert Davi
Thank you, sir.

David Read
Absolutely. I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the show on this end. Thank you for everything.

Robert Davi
Thank you. It’s great to meet you and I’m sure we’ll do it again.

David Read
Thank you, sir. You be well.

Robert Davi
You too.

David Read
Bye. Bye. Robert Davi everyone, Acastus Kolya in Stargate Atlantis. One of my favorite guest stars in the franchise and this was a real treat. Thank you to Angelique, my dear friend, for setting this up, she knows him personally. Thank you all for joining me early this Wednesday for this episode. A big thanks to my team of moderators. I have Tracy and Jeremy and I think Antony in there as well. Guys, you really pulled this one out of the hat last minute, didn’t know until last night what the exact schedule was going to be. It was terrific to have him. Thanks to Linda “GateGabber” Furey, my producer and Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb for keeping dialthegate.com up and running. Let’s look at the schedule really quickly here because a lot is going to be coming up in really short order as we’re bringing DialtheGate Season three to its end here. Steve Bacic is joining us this afternoon at 12 noon pacific time to discuss Major Coburn and Camulus. I have Gwynyth Walsh coming towards you, a pre-recorded interview, she played Egeria in Stargate SG-1. I have it currently set for Saturday, June 17th. That may switch around depending on another guest. We have Stargate Trivia 9 hosted by Colin Cunningham this Saturday the 17th at 12 noon Pacific Time and then the 24th, the following Saturday, Rob Fournier, armorer for Stargate SG-1, Atlantis and Universe. We are going to be finishing season three with a bang as it were. Thanks so much for tuning in to DialtheGate. My name is David Read and I will be seeing you on the other side.