Being Erica: An Interview with Erin Karpluk

Have you ever wished you could revisit your past and change a certain event to see if the outcome would be different? Or wish that you could straighten out a previous mistake in the hope it would influence your future? That’s the premise behind the Soapnet TV series Being Erica, currently in its second season and airing each Wednesday night at 10PM. The series, created by Jana Sinyor who executive produces with Aaron Martin, stars Erin Karpluk as Erica Strange, who, via the therapist “Dr. Tom” (Michael Riley) is able to revisit key moments in her life to make changes where necessary, but, more importantly, to utilize the past to illuminate the present.

Tonight’s episode — “Yes We Can” — is a perfect jumping on point for viewers as it nicely re-establishes the rules for the show, and then breaks them as Dr. Tom gives Erica a “do over” day in which nothing she does will have lasting consequences.

In the following interview, Erin Karpluk discusses the evolution of the series and the impact that Erica has had on her own life.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Considering you’ve gone back in time to high school and college days, do you ever feel as thought you’re playing different characters?

ERIN KARPLUK: I do. I really find that when I’m with my brother or my family on the show, back in time, I just take on this younger energy. But I, as Erin, even going home at Christmas, I’m a 31-year-old woman, but as soon as I’m home, I’m, like, “Mom, can you do my laundry?” I’m pulled back there, and on the show I think Erica certainly has fun with being back in high school and taking everything in. But I almost have it easier than some of the other actors, certainly the actress that plays young Erica when she’s 12. They [the producers] don’t think I can play 12, so they hired this fantastic actress. But she was a 12-year-old girl who had to play 32, and I thought that she did a fantastic job.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Can you describe the difference in tone between season one and season two? Season one seemed a little light-hearted with heavy moments, but season two seems different.

ERIN: It’s the same show, though we do get into the time travel aspect a little more. But I look at the time travel as the catalyst for her learning and growth and development. One thing I have to give credit for regarding the second season is that I remember when I read the pilot, I said, “How many regrets can this woman have? How many times am I in Dr. Tom’s office; where he is the teacher and I am the student? Is it going to be repetitive or stagnant?” But that hasn’t happened. Season two was so much fun to shoot. Erica is more worldly and responsible and accountable in the ways of the time travel and uses her experience from the first season and applies them into the second season. It’s not only in helping and developing herself, but also to help other people. That’s something that’s very fun to play, to see her kind of step outside of herself. Depending on what the particular regret is, that will shape the episode. It’s still the same show, but if it’s dealing with the death of her brother, it’s obviously going to be a bit more heavy than if it’s her singing Britney Spears to try to stand up to a professor.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Are there ways this has affected you as a real person?

ERIN: I’ve learned so much from Erica. Just that regrets are the kind of thing that can fester inside of you and you can hang on to for years. It just seems so pointless. There’s one episode where Erica wants to go back and relive a regret, but she realizes that, in fact, it wasn’t a regret at all. It was a hard thing that she had to go through, but given the chance again, she would do it the same. I thought that was interesting in my own life, and it helped me kind of let go of certain things that I may still be hanging on to. I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned from playing Erica, and just as an actor on the show and the experience, is just to let go of things. It’s a lot easier.

Look for much more on Being Erica in the weeks to come at SciFi Media Zone.

Smallville: Exclusive Interview with Erica Durance

In this exclusive audio interview, actress Erica Durance discusses season nine of Smallville, the evolving relationship between Lois and Clark and her feelings about the show delving even deeper into the mythology of the Man of Steel.

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Smallville: Michael Shanks on “Absolute Justice, Part 4″

In the final installment of SciFi Media Zone’s exclusive audio interview with actor Michael Shanks, he shares his feelings of becoming a part of the Superman mythology as well as the physical rigors involved in his portraying Hawkman.

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Smallville: Michael Shanks on “Absolute Justice, Part 3″

In the third of our exclusive four-part interview with actor Michael Shanks, he continues his discussion of this Friday’s two-hour Smallville event, Absolute Justice. This time out he talks in more detail about the character of Hawkman as well as Hawkman’s impact on Clark Kent as well as Clark’s on him.

Look for the final part of this interview on Thursday.

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Smallville: Exclusive Interview – Michael Shanks on “Absolute Justice, Part II”

In the second of our four-part conversation with Michael Shanks, he discusses Smallville’s moving away from teen angst and more into the Superman mythology, as well as what it was like to work with Tom Welling, who directed the second hour of the episode; among other things.

NOTE: Look for part three of this interview on Wednesday

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Smallville – Michael Shanks Audio Interview on “Absolute Justice, Part 1″

In its ninth season, Smallville has done an impressive job of rebounding creatively, with the show more fully embracing the Superman legacy. This Friday night, February 5th, the CW will present the two-hour “movie” event, Absolute Justice, in whick Clark encounters members of the Justice Society of America. Among those heroes is Carter Hall/Hawkman, portrayed by Stargate’s Michael Shanks. In the first part of a four-part conversation, the actor discusses his appearance on the show.

Look for part two on Tuesday.

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Check out the Superman-inspired hero, Fleischer:

“The Walking Dead” Goes to Pilot at AMC

The AMC network has given the green light to a pilot for a potential series based on Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead series of graphic novels. As AMC’s senior VP of programming Joel Stillerman explains it, “This is not about zombies popping out of closets. This is a story about survival and the dynamics of what happens when a group is forced to survive under these circumstances The world is portrayed in a smart, sophisticated way.”

Kirkman is supposed to serve as an executive producer on the proposed series alongside writer/director Frank Darabont. “When I heard that Darabont was interested in doing it a long, long time ago,” Kirkman explained in an interview with MTV, “I was just ecstatic. For me, The Walking Dead is not necessarily a horror thing. It’s not all about the shocks. It’s about characters and all of that dramatic nonsense. And Darabont does that better than anybody.

“Frank understands the material 100 percent,” he continued. “It’s always been shocking to me, doing Hollywood meetings over the years, just how easy it is for someone to come in to the meeting and say something like, ‘We want the zombies to have super powers.’ Knowing that, I’m really excited about it, because from my discussions with Frank, he likes the right things about Walking Dead.

“One of the concerns I have about zombie fiction is when they rely too much on the shocking gore aspects. That’s not really the point of Walking Dead, so to a certain extant, I think it will work better at AMC— because it forces people not to rely on that stuff. As far as Walking Dead not having teeth on AMC, if you’ve ever seen [certain episodes of] Mad Men or Breaking Bad, they push a lot of boundaries as far as content goes.

“In fact, I just had a meeting with a bunch of the executives at AMC, and Darabont, and Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert at Circle of Confusion, and the executives were talking to Darabont about his script and they said, ‘You can’t use the F-word.’ That was the only limitation they gave him. We were all stunned.”

Torchwood, American Style

It seems that the American networks are finally realizing something that scifi fans have held true for years: Britain is a great source for genre programming. Following on the heels of Syfy’s announcement that they would be producing an American version of Being Human, Fox is now developing the pilot for Torchwood for the good old U.S. of A.

The good news, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is that the original’s producing team of Russell Davies, Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter are behind the “translation.”

While the article explains that the scope of the show will be global rather than “localized,” it also describes the premise as being about “a covert group that investigates and fights alien activity.”

The same article suggests that the long-running Doctor Who could also be a candidate for an American make-over (which would be the second attempt to do so).

Meet the “Human Target”: Mark Valley

Airing on Monday nights, and based on the DC comic of the same name, HUMAN TARGET is Fox’s big-budget midseason series. As evidenced by the first two episodes, it promises to up the action quotient on television. At the same time, it seems likely to elevate Mark Valley’s position as a leading man.

Born on Christmas Eve 1964 in Ogdensburg, New York, Valley’s early credits include the character of Jack Deveraux on the NBC soap opera DAYS OF OUR LIVES (a role which spanned 1994 to 1997), as well as Detective Eddie Arlette in the TV series KEEN EDDIE. BOSTON LEGAL, in which he played Brad Chase followed. In 2008 he appeared on FRINGE as FBI agent John Scott, and ultimately ended up marrying that show’s leading lady, Anna Torv.

In HUMAN TARGET (the comic of which was created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino) he plays Christopher Chance, who steps in to take the place of people in dangerous situations, willing to take a bullet for them (though obviously he’d prefer not to) as he uncovers whatever mystery he’s involved with. And then there’s the action!

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: You must be pretty tired, physically, from doing this show. I watched two episodes and was exhausted.

MARK VALLEY: Yeah, it’s pretty tiring making it. How did you like it?

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: I had the same reaction to the second episode as I did to the pilot when I saw it at Comic-Con, which was how the hell are they going to do this on a weekly basis?

MARK VALLEY: Well, we’re doing it. That was one of the dramatic questions facing us in the beginning, too. But I think with the second episode we were able to prove that we COULD do it on a weekly basis. I think what’s working is we’re doing a couple of days second unit while main unit is shooting most of the dramatic material with the principals.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: When you read the script for the pilot, what was your feeling about the character? What was his appeal to you?

MARK VALLEY: What appealed to me is that it was an opportunity for some subtle humor, which is one thing that is rarely seen on television dramas. Being able to write that sort of irony, or having the willingness to have an ironic character in your show, is really something that attracts my attention. By that, I mean a dark sense of humor, a dark commentary on what’s going on around him. He’s got kind of a gallows humor about him, which is kind of cool.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: From what I’ve gathered, the attempt with this character was to create a hero who has his roots in the past and films like LETHAL WEAPON and DIE HARD.

MARK VALLEY: I asked Simon West [who directed the pilot and worked with Valley on KEEN EDDIE], “How do you think this character is different from Keen Eddie?” and he said, “Eddie was the one who took the beating, but this is the guy more likely to GIVE the beating.” I took that and kind of ran with it. He’s a little bit of a bad ass, and kind of fun. God knows I wasn’t a bad ass in high school, so I get to make up for it now.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: When you look at a show like this with so much action, is there a danger that there could be a lack of character evolution?

MARK VALLEY: If you look at it, once something becomes a real hook for the show, that becomes a risk where you say, “Oh, wow, we have to figure out where to put a chase into the episode.” I find that’s going to be more guidelines than a demand of the show, which inspires the writers to come up with some very clever material and a story that can kind of carry the conflicts that are set up. I’ve got complete confidence in those guys, and to be honest with you, I think that’s more their challenge. Mine is to be able to handle it all in the time we have available and to make the character believable.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: I guess what I’m getting at is that if you have a show that has action, action, action, it has a danger of repetition and, really, boredom if there isn’t a genuine character at the center of it all.

MARK VALLEY: The character is something that they’re very focused on, and it’s been so much fun trying to find this character. In every episode I learn a little bit more about him because you get an opportunity to see him in different situations. From an actor’s standpoint, I don’t think we’re going to have a problem with that, just by the way the writing has been coming out. We’re on episode six or seven right now, and I’m pretty happy about that. That was my concern as well; that was my fear: what if this guy turns into an enzyme for action? But he’s definitely his own organism and it’s working out pretty well.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: I’ve been enjoying the interplay between you, Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley.

MARK VALLEY: I think they cast this thing really well, to be honest with you. Jackie, Chi and I both have experience, but from different angles, and we all share this attitude of enjoying ourselves and making the most out of every day and every scene, and let the cards fall where they may. The attitude is kind of infectious and everybody seems worried about the right things, and not what the numbers are going to be or selfishly only worrying about their own character.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: You can’t control the numbers anyway, so all you can do is make the best show you can.

MARK VALLEY: Like Chi says, “I want you guys to like us, not love us.” We’ve all done shows we’ve fallen in love with but really didn’t get the majority of votes with the Senate, so to speak. Whatever happens, we’re making a show we’re proud of and that’s something I’m pleased with.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Now that you’re playing an action hero, who were the ones that you looked up to when you were younger?

MARK VALLEY: I liked Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford as Han Solo was pretty cool, too. When I was a little older, probably in high school, I thought Bruce Willis was great. On television, I used to watch shows like MAGNUM P.I. and SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN. I loved those guys, and the way they played it with that kind of shrugging the shoulders, ROCKFORD FILES kind of casualness. I used to really enjoy that. Of course, there was William Shatner in STAR TREK, too. Those are the heroes. Now I’m meeting them out here in Hollywood.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Is that exciting, given your own celebrity?

MARK VALLEY: Oh my God, yeah. It’s like you’re a kid and somebody saying, “You’ve got a phone call.” “From who?” “Santa Claus. He wants to talk to you.” It’s sort of a two-edged sword. On one hand it’s such a thrill to meet them, but then you also have to kind of give up on the illusion that the characters they played actually existed.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: In watching the show, I’m often wondering how many of the stunts you insist on doing and how much of it they’ll allow you to do.

MARK VALLEY: It’s worked out pretty well. We’ve got good riggers and stunt people, so by letting me do stunts it doesn’t me that they’re shoving me off of a cliff. It’s all pretty safe.. well, except for a couple of things [laughs]. On one hand, I like to do as many of the stunts that I can because, in kind of a selfish way, it makes it a little bit easier for me to play Chance, having really experienced some sort of facsimile of the thrill that he is experiencing. That’s probably why I like to do it. Also, if I’m able to engage myself physically in the job as well, it’s that much more rewarding. I like to keep moving on the set. It’s not like I’ve been turning down a bunch of film offers by any means, but I really like television. Especially this show, because we’re always moving and always shooting something or moving on to something else, so you have to trust your first instincts and stay engaged. It’s a real vigorous production.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: So what are your war wounds, I’m wondering?

MARK VALLEY: Well, I got kicked in the face by the stunt girl, but that was more of a wound to my ego than my lips, even though I was bleeding a little bit. I found out from the other stunt people that a stunt person never complains, they just kind of quietly walk off the set as though they’re walking into the woods to lick their wounds like a dog. But I’ve been hanging in it pretty well. I had a really good trainer in Los Angeles, who kind of prepared me with a variety of exercises to keep my general core strength up. I haven’t had any problems with my back or anything like that.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: Of the six episodes you’ve shot so far, what has been the highlight?

MARK VALLEY: Oh, wow! A couple of scenes in Spanish was a lot of fun, because it takes place in a South American country and Chance is helping out this beautiful revolutionary he knew before. He has to go back and work his way in. Then of course driving the jeep through an army camp, which turned out to be one of the comedy milestones I think I’ve reached in my career. Then there was flying down an elevator shaft. There’s a scientist held captive by this defense contractor inside this huge building. We had to make our way out of it, and one of the things we had to do was slide down an elevator shaft attached to a cable in a kind of makeshift little harness. THAT was exciting, because I was actually flying down an elevator shaft, firing blanks at an imaginary enemy down below. That was really a thrill!

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: In a role like this, you kind of get to be a little kid again, don’t you?

MARK VALLEY: Oh my god, yeah! I just have to pinch myself sometimes. I really, really get to be a kid again and run around and do these things, and then be the tough guy you always wanted to be. While not taking any of it really that seriously. That’s been fantastic.

SCIFI MEDIA ZONE: How would you describe this show for someone who is unfamiliar with HUMAN TARGET?

MARK VALLEY: First of all, clear the slate of expectations, because it’s not something you’ve seen on television for a while. It’s not a movie and it’s not a TV show, but it has elements of both. It’s a one-hour drama about an unorthodox security company that protects people who are marked for death by someone. Based on a DC Comic, I play Christopher Chance, Chi McBride is Winston and Jackie Earle Haley is Guerrero. Together we help figure out a way and a plan to insinuate ourselves into the client’s life, to appear vulnerable, draw out the threat, identify it and eliminate it by whatever means necessary. And you know what? We don’t do any more violence, action, explosions or fight scenes than is absolutely necessary to accomplish the task at hand [laughs]. It just happens that there’s a lot of them. — Interview conducted by Edward Gross

“Stargate Universe” Interviews

In a pair of interviews with Scotland’s Daily Star and The Express, actor Robert Carlyle discussed Stargate Universe, his role in as Dr. Nicholas Rush, and the resistance some fans have towards the new series. “We’re dealing with 15 seasons of expectations with a certain fan base,” he said. “Hopefully, as the show goes on, people will appreciate Universe for being its own thing.”

He noted that there would be a new alien race introduced on the series. “There is a big story point coming up that does introduce an alien race. It’s more along the line of a District 9-type alien. They’re not the typical Stargate alien bad guys.”

One thing he admits is that, “The producers took a big risk on casting me, as I had never done science fiction before. But I immediately felt comfortable with the character and that is important. We’ve been discussing my input in the directing arena. They are well up for it.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Australia’s Northern Territory News, Lou Diamond Philips, who plays Colonel David Telford, says his role is one he is especially proud of. “There’s nothing etched in stone at present, but everyone seems to be very enthusiastic about my character Colonel Telford – it’s no secret that I’d 100 percent step into that in a more regular way if it was offered. I love the show. I absolutely love the writers – I think Brad Wright and Robert Cooper are brilliant — and the cast is amazing. I really do feel as if it is original and unique and it’s exciting to watch. Hey, I’m a fan even of the shows I’m not in.”

Finally, in Australia’s The Sunday Mail, actress Ming-Na shared her feelings about the sci-fi genre in general and her role as human resources executive Camile Wray in SGU. “I came to America when I was very young and didn’t speak the language and always felt a little bit out of place growing up,” she admitted. “Sci-fi was just a wonderful form of escapism for me where I could pretend to be someone else in another world. “After talking to (executive producer) Robert Cooper about the character and where they wanted to take her, I was very excited. You think she’s the typical IRA officer trying to strut her power and get into everybody’s business, but you slowly find out she’s a strong woman who’s had to figure out how to succeed in a man’s world against the military and the scientists, and yet there’s a great deal of vulnerability. That’s what I love about her, she’s misunderstood in the beginning. I feel a connection to the character. I think she’s similar in the sense that being an Asian woman in this business I too have had to deal with a lot of rejection or prejudices or lack of roles and had to really fight for the parts that I have gotten. As far as our sense of humor though, I just love to have a great time and she’s very serious and by the book. I’m far more spontaneous.”
Of the series itself, she offers, “Ultimately you have to believe in what you’re doing and take pride in what you’re doing. Whether we get a fan base who loves us or try to please the old Stargate fans, I think ultimately we are putting together a wonderful show with a lot of adventure and humor and great characters and we will find our audience. I’m very confident about that.”

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