SFX magazine interview with Tammy MacIntosh. Interview by Chuck Wagner
She flips, cartwheels and flits from one side of the stage to the other between answering fans’ questions. A trained gymnast (a skill which is put to good use in the episode ‘Scratch’n’Sniff’) Tammy MacIntosh is making a big splash with her first ever convention appearance. At one point, she unleashes a shriek that her character Jool, who can melt metal with her sonic screams, would be proud of.
“It’s not about living up to things’ MacIntosh later tells me ‘It’s the spontaneity. It’s the synergy of the audience and myself. If that had been an entirely different audience, maybe I would have been entirely different. Maybe not as energetic. They allowed me to have fun.”
But if MacIntosh loves fun why didn’t she party in Puerto Vallarta with Claudia Black and Gigi?
“Because I’m saving all my money so I can buy myself a little house” MacIntosh purrs. “I’m 31 and I have to be a grown-up!”
But surely there must be some social life?
“I’ve no time to meet men!’ MacIntosh says ‘Men? What are men? I do get weekends, but I live in a great little cottage in Palm Beach in Sydney, which is akin to Malibu in LA. I’ve got a really gorgeous place up there and a brand new puppy.” During her Farscape auditions, which dragged on for nearly 7 months, MacIntosh ultimately found herself playing a scene with Farscape star Ben Browder, in which he suddenly hoisted MacIntosh over his shoulder, her arse sticking in the air. Startled, and not a little gnarly, she had, amazingly, won the part!
“It’s kind of the chemistry test, to see if there’s any chemistry between two characters,’ MacIntosh explained, grinning at the memory. Initially the character was different from Jool. I thought I would be coming in like a blonde Aeryn. I was told there would be this set-up between my character and Ben’s character and all that stuff, and then the character completely changed.
From a blonde military woman emerged the freeze-dried yuppie scum that is Jool.
“Initially, I was supposed to be painted orange. I wasn’t told at any audition that I’d be wearing a prosthetic, which is three hours of my day and a whole other job. Then all of a sudden in pre-production, we’re putting on things and I find that I’m wearing a prosthetic. A lot of things changed from that time to now.”
As a star of top Aussie shows, MacIntosh knows what it is to be recognised on the street. And now she’s known in the States…
“It’s a different cultural market. I wasn’t sure that anything I said would be understood, let alone heard, as far as Australian articulation is concerned, because it’s very lazy.”
She needn’t worry. Macintosh’s Oz accent is warm and friendly. No need for Mad Max-style dubbing so that easily confused Kansans can understand.
“I hope so’ she says ‘because I am 31!”
There she goes with the age thing again…
“My 20s were so angst-ridden, you know! Just wanting to get there. And after all the jobs, I just ‘became’. And now an extension of my profession is to hit the States and work on really good American programmes. It was an accomplishment for me, and something I planned and wanted very badly.”
Complete with Hollywood agent?
“I’ve had an agent here for three years.” She laughs after saying that. The Hollywood veneer of celebrity doesn’t fit her.
And her alien ingenue character with the sonic scream?
“I used Kate Capshaw’s character in Indiana Jones as a model,’ she jokes ‘Jool is from a very intellectual planet where merit in society is based on your knowledge and intellect. It’s a very privileged society and planet. There’s no war; there’s no violence. She was on a multi-civilisation tour for her birthday, and was hijacked.”
A poster on the far wall features Jool – and MacIntosh’s amazing abs. “And you wonder why I’ve got a flat stomach! Look at what they dress me in. I have to exercise otherwise I’d be fat!” she laughs.
Jool’ MacIntosh’s ill-fated character, has had her share of drudgery in scenes where she’s immersed in excrement. But there are rewards, such as…
“The scene with Anthony in ‘Revenging Angel’ she says ‘Jool is very princess-y, and complains a lot about the conditions, and she screams and she’s irritating and all that stuff. But there’s a scene with D’Argo where she drops all pretences. She really needs a friend she really needs some contact with someone on that ship that is true, that is pure, that is real. And for once in the writing of the series, we saw into her soul and saw that she had pride and honour and just wanted to let him know that she meant to cause no trouble. She just wanted to be his friend.”
So does this mean less screaming?
“I hope so. It’d be great if we used it in a constructive situation where we needed to get out of something and Jool could help with her scream. Otherwise one, it’s not good for the throat. Two, it’s not good for the audience."
[index]
[Gigi Edgely interview]
[Wayne Pygram interview]
[Lani Tupu interview]
[Anthony Simcoe interview]