Lani Tupu interview from SFX magazine. Interview by Chuck Wagner. All relevant ciopyrights etc etc....
God is love but the devil is sex. Just look at the evidence. Dracula. spike. The Borg Queen. their evil psyches merely add to the lust factor. People love the vicarious thrill of a bad guy crush. Which possibly explains the number of fans walking around the Burbank farscape convention sporting 'Crais lover' badges. While Crais is no longer Farscape's chief bad guy - having handled this mantle to a character only people into s&m prunes could fancy - his current role in the series as the captain and stepfather of the young, heavily-armed, living spacship Talyn and uneasy ally to Crichton and co, nevertheless maintains a dangerous, unpredictable, untrustworthy side to nature. Think Avon with a mirror universe goatee...
....."Crais is a most simple, yet complicated man" understates Lani Tupu, modestly dismissing his new status as Sex God while his cultured English intonation, formed from his roots in british Samoa, simply add to his attraction for the American fans. "I think he can be explained in that way. No-one really knows who he is. I made a choice when I created Crais that I was certainly not going to make him one-dimensional. Hopefully I've managed to acheive that so there's layers and layers and layers - with more layers to come - where the onion is peeled away. The question I ask myself is what really drives Crais? What is he searching for? I think he's on a journey as much as everyone else is. "
His posistion in the series has certainly shifted. While there is till the suspicion he will betray his colleagues given half a chance, his alliance with them has certainly had it advantages for both parties.
"The most challenging thing about playing a character in a long series is never to let all the surprises out' agrees Tupu 'You've got to, over a period of three years, eke them out. Otherwisde, everyone knows who the character is, and then it's done. No surprises anymore."
Tupu, a father in real life, draws on his paternal instincts to make 'baby minding' Talyn, the living spaceship he pilots, seem more realsitic than some guy muttering to a set...
"it's kind of crazy' Tupu agrees ' I go to work and I talk to the walls!'
While goatees are de riguer for SF bad guys these days, Tupu brough his clipped beard with him to the part, having sprouted it for a stint on the tv series Flipper.
"I did a couple of episodes where I was plating a Portugese count. My co-star - a spanish actor from LA - had a goatee. So I started growing my hair and decided to wear a goatee."
But even though he doesn't have to have false facial furniture applied in make-up when he arrives of a morning to record Farscape, he reveals that "my make-up takes an hour" adding wryly 'surprisingly'.
So what does the future have in store for Crais?
'That's the best part about it' Tupu says ' We don't know where he's going. The possiblities are endless. the one thing about Crais that you can't guarantee is that you can't underestimate him at all.' "i think crais is incredibly honourable. He'll actually hold a promise. Or he'll make a promise, but it might only be for that instant' chuckles Tupu menacingly 'but five minutes later, he'll do something else."
Crais lovers around the convention are rooting for their 'anit-hero to 'do the right thing'.Whether or not Crais comes good, Lani gets the chance to wear the white hat on a regular basis.
"I got the Crais role first' Tupu says 'Then I was called into the studio to read for Pilot. I said 'Sure'. At the time, the role played like a harrassed accountant!we did a series of tapes. They came back very quickly and said 'you're Pilot'. So then, the dilemnma for me was finding who Pilot was, and finding a completely different kind of voice. crais is really deep down in the boots. For Pilot, they do a little filtering on my voice."
So what happens when there's lots of both characters in an episode?
"I'll go in and do Pilot,' Tupu explains ' and then I'll do crais. In this season I'll be screaming a lot, so it means that if I do Crais first, then after so many takes of screaming, my voice actually drops. A LOT!"
Surely he'll never better the scream when he was strapped to the Aurora chair at the end of season 1?
"Oh, yeah!!" Tupu agrees "that was fun. The lights blew the first time we went for a take. The whole studio just went BOOM! So we did it again. more screaming."
Any hints about the rest of season three? Tupu chuckles
"i can't tell you anything. hang on to your seats. it's pretty exciting where we take the end of the season. We'd love to see the storylines for season 4 and 5, because where we leave season 3 is amazing. Awesome. I can't wait. "
[index]
[Wayne Pygram interview]
[Tammy MacIntosh interview]
[Gigi Edgely interview]
[Anthony Simcoe interview]