Gatecon 2003
Day One, 10:00-11:00 am

Colin Cunningham

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Couldn’t get the audio recorder to work during this first panel, so I took lots of notes. I had to leave a lot of words out because Colin's mouth is much faster than my pen. So there's a lot of paraphrasing (except for what's in quotes), but I tried to keep the general energy of his talk. He really got the con going!

He was wearing a cream suit with a purple/pink-ish dress shirt underneath. I mention that because I always love a man who’s not afraid to wear pink!

What can you tell us about your experiences on Andromeda?

The crew member dyed my hair purple by accident, because I had the blonde highlights going whatever dye they were going for ended up purple. I told her ‘its gonna turn out purple, man’ ‘no no, it’ll work’." [He was right.] ‘Just use a little baking soda, it’ll come right out.’ ‘Dude, baking soda is not gonna get this out.’ [Again, he was right.] A hairdresser friend spent 8 hours on Sunday [the day before he was going to shoot Andromeda] getting it out, and only charged me like $120 since I knew her. So I go to the "makeup artist...[shakes head] wardrobe... [stamps foot] Jesus, hair person!" and tell her 'I don't wanna get anybody in trouble, but this is what it took to fix, and could you get it reimbursed' and hand her the bill. Then I get a call "The producer of Andromeda is not going to pay for your $120 haircut" and the set hairdresser is denying she ever turned my hair purple. "But Kevin Sorbo was a great guy to work with, so cool."

Chris Isaac said you were a great actor. Do you have any stories from that show?

"Isaac said that? I love that guy!"

How were you contacted about Stargate in the first place?

I auditioned a dozen times, even initially read for Shanks’ role, and they kept saying they’d find something for me eventually. So it was great to finally get one day of work, let alone have it turn into a recurring role. I've never had a contract with the show, they just keep asking me back. They did want me for season 7, but I already had other commitments.

We all know RDA has an "out there" sense of humour. Did he do anything when you first met?

[laughs devilishly] No, he’s great. I’m trying to think.... Mostly what I remember about the first day is walking in and hearing "HEY COLIN!" It was Don Davis. And he just started going off. I guess nobody else wanted to hear it anymore.

Another thing I remember is in my very first scene, I was really choking, having a hell of a time with the lines. There was this whole succession of dialogue "Chevron locking" and I was the last guy in the scene, I was killing it. My line was like "2" and I kept screwing it up, I’d be saying "4!" Next take, and I did it again "4!". Peter Deluise was directing - now I apologize for the language, but that's the way Peter Deluise is - so I hear this voice from across the room: "Who did you have to f*** to get this job!?!"

I saw you in an episode of (??) and I just watched it because I saw your name in the credits.

Halfway through, you’re like "This isn’t Corin Nemec."

Are you aware of the nicknames and websites about you?

Nicknames??? No. I am aware of some name-calling and some crap written about me.

Your nickname online is Major Cutie-Pie Davis

Major Cutie Pie Davis? [laughs] No, but I did know there was a guy..Pumpkin or Pumpernickel - some guy was making up s*** after last year’s convention.

What is your favourite scene as Major Davis?

The things you remember most are the ones you have the most riding on. I can’t remember the episode name, but the first one I did with Don Davis in the hallway.

And I remember doing the blocking for the scene in Prometheus, and usually blocking is just [mumbles lines monotonously] but we do this scene and RDA’s like "MAJOR DAVIS!" and really laying it on. You know, "MajorCutiePieDavis better know your lines this time." But I was on, I was like Bring it on, Richard. It wasn’t like I went "Uh, they took the ship. It was...here...and now its...over there."

What’s your favourite episode with and without you in it?

Easy. [audience laughs] No really, totally. I’m flipping through the channels one day "Hey Stargate’s on. Am I in this one? Wait, this is kinda cool." It was the one where Michael Shanks gets power-hungry, and then it ends up as a dream [Absolute Power]. Great piece, great acting by Michael Shanks.

With me in it - the one where me and Michael are staring at the TV screens [Nemesis], and the one where Shanks and I go to Russia [48 Hours]. Shanks? Is that what everybody calls him? Anyway, that scene got real hot and crazy. The director was telling us to bring it down. I was like "YOU CAN’T DO THAT, DANIEL! Damnit!" And Garry Chalk playing the Chinese guy Totally cracking us up. He’s the ultimate white guy but does great Chinese voices.

Major Davis is usually the information guy. What did you think of playing him in Smoke and Mirrors?

Cool. I remember most the special effects on that ep. But I remember thinking Major Davis was gonna show up and start hitting people with a briefcase.

We’ve heard a lot about the Puff and Ruffle. Have you ever puffed and ruffled?

Um, I puffed but I didn’t ruffle. [laughs] Ah, the puff and ruffle. [pauses, then speaks slyly] Only alone.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Colin didn’t realize how funny that answer was. Later, while on a panel with Jr and Corin, the question was brought up again to Corin and Colin said he’d thought puff & ruffle meant "letting one go underneath the sheets".
Puff and ruffle, of course, actually refers to Amanda and Teryl's term for the way the male actors puff their chests and ruffle their feathers whenever a pretty female guest star arrives.

Have you got any projects coming up?

Chris Isaac Show, Andromeda, The L Word, Wilder Days with Peter Faulke and Tim Daly coming in October, a small part in Stealing Sinatra. [mumbles about having a website]

What’s your favourite special effect on the show?

When you really think about it - how damn cool the Gate looks. Really, the show was based on that one pool.

Were you approached about doing Stargate Atlantis?

Should I say anything about Atlantis? I was approached when the feature script was in the works, before they knew there was going to be a season 7 and 8. Hopefully, yeah.

I thought I saw you in The Laramie Project with Christina Ricci.

I wasn’t in that. Musta been one of those mornings. When I’ve got dark hair, I get mistaken for Dennis Miller. Without the goatee, I get mistaken for Pauly Shore. I always denied that we looked alike until one day I was going by the video store and there was this poster for him in In The Army Now, and I thought "Jesus Christ, I do look like him."

What did you talk about during Foothold when you were strung up?

"Is your underwear going up your ass? Because my underwear is going up my ass." No, I remember being scared going up there with Richard Dean. I was trying not to say anything stupid. "Hey Rick. I love MacGyver. You look older now - did I say older? I meant mature."

Or just "How’s it hanging?" [mimes Peter D yelling again ‘who did you have to f*** to get this job’]

When did you decide to make Major Davis more three dimensional?

Day 2. I didn’t want him to be this Pentagon pinhead. I decided he was sort of caught between his orders and the reality of what they were dealing with so I made him sympathetic to what was going on.

Question about jazz music

When I first came to Vancouver, that’s how I paid my rent. I played jazz at amateur night at this club and eventually became part of the band. And all these great musicians would come in and jam with us.

What do you think about fans tendency to write Major Davis as gay?

[in a put-on voice] "General Hammond, they can’t go through the Gate. They’re not dressed appropriately!"

I dunno, I guess anyone freshly made up, really clean like that, it’s assumed they’re gay. I suppose it kind of fits, because I see him as a solitary man. I don’t really see him as having a wife and kids. So maybe it’s a twist on that.

What do you wanna see Major Davis do?

I’d love to play Don Davis’ role. We could do parodies of each other. Don could play CJ - the albino brother to Teal’c.

...Various Tidbits....

There was a hurricane for 2 weeks when we were filming St. Nick in Florida. And of course, it was gorgeous and sunny in Vancouver at that time.

I left LA for Vancouver film school. What really put me on a map is when I wrote and directed my own film. They started calling me then, instead of just going round and begging to get a role. And then I sort of adopted Canada.

When I was like 15 or 16, I put a firecracker on my mom’s glass table, right in the center of it. What a dumbass!! And now I’ve got a puppy. It’s allll coming back to me now. 'Are those your shoes?' [mimes squatting]

Someone else did my voiceovers for Smallville, because I couldn’t make it back to the studios.

I was acting for 7-8 years before getting his first job. Acting is an obsession. You act because you have no choice. I suck at everything else. I got fired from every other job I ever did.

In the L Word, I play a member of the gay mafia. I didn't even know what the gay mafia was....But when I first saw Jennifer Beall on set, I was like [imitates fast heartbeat]

When I was first starting out, I didn’t have a pot to pee-pee in "I’ve used up all my vocabulary words, so I’m reduced to ‘pee-pee’." My first apartment was a walk-in closet. No kidding. I had a cot in the closet of a friend’s place and I paid rent for that.

THE END