Gary Jones has spent eight years as SGC technician,
Sergeant Walter Harriman, opening the Stargate and closing the iris. He
recently paid a flying visit to London to appear at the London Expo and chatted
to Carole Gordon about his relatively late entry into acting, his past work and
his current projects.
Candid Photo © Carole Gordon, All Rights Reserved
Originally from Swansea, Gary still has family
there. It wasn't until his family moved to Canada that he found he had a talent
for comedy and acting, having started his working life on a newspaper. How did
he make the transition from art director for the Gazette newspaper in
Burlington, Ontario, to actor?
"There is no
real natural segue to it," Gary laughs. "I was working on the
newspaper and then I went from that to working in the world of advertising,
doing things like copywriting and art directing, laying out ads and picking up
ad campaigns. I started taking improv comedy workshops in Toronto with a
theater company called Second City and from there this theater company hired me
and offered me a job with a touring company. And so I learned to improvise and
learned to write comedy sketches. Basically I drifted into it and the other
stuff atrophied."
So, it became his
life?
"They offered
me a tour and once I went on tour, I thought, 'This is fantastic!' Like so many
actors do, you get the bug, you get bitten and that's it. I came back and said
to the advertising people, 'I don’t want to do this any more' and suddenly I
was working as an actor."
Initially, Gary's
work was in comedy.
"I did that
for a number of years and then they offered me a job with the same company,
doing a six-month run in Vancouver. That's how come I ended up going to
Vancouver which is where eventually Stargate got filmed. So from 1986 to now, I
have lived in Vancouver."
Since then, Gary has also written plays with
a friend, Shawn Macdonald, winning a Jessie Award for Best Play of 1994 for World's
Greatest Guy.
Gary explains how
this project developed.
"That started
out as a one-act fringe play, at the Edmonton fringe and we only did it because
nobody was hiring us. There wasn't a ton of theater work so we said 'Let's just
write a play for us.' And the easiest place to get that done is in the fringe.
So we did that and it just took off like crazy."
Of all his work,
it is this play, its development and eventually winning the Jessie Award, of
which Gary says he is most proud.
"We had such
fun doing it. We got two of our friends in to do the play with us – it was a
four person play – and it just built and built and built. It was the most
amazing thing to watch. We got into the fringe. The first show was half sold
out and then the rest of the shows, well, it caught fire – it was sold out
instantly. Then it got into the Pick of the Fringe which is where they
basically take all the best plays of the Fringe and put them in slightly better
venues. So we were in this one venue, which was a great venue, many more seats.
One night we were about to go on and they kept saying 'We can't go on yet, we
can't go on yet.' We're all back stage going 'What is the problem, is it a
technical problem?' 'No, no, they're bringing in more seats!' They were bringing
in more seats because there were people just lined up to see it."
What happened next
was thrilling for Gary and his writing partner.
"In that
audience was the director of one of the big commercial theaters and he came to
us and said, 'This is a good play, but I can't put on a one-act because it's
just not feasible. Can you make this into a two-act play?' We said yes and went
home and re-wrote it and fleshed it out. We made it into a two-act. It was
slated to run for a month and it ran for four months and it got held over. And
the capper was that we won the Jessie Award. So it started out tiny and became
The Best Play in Vancouver. You can imagine how great that felt. It was just
incredible."
There is no doubt
in Gary's mind that work is getting difficult to find. But having a writing
string to his bow, has also helped him spread his talents. He has also done
other work, such as hosting shows, which he compares to stand-up comedy.
"If I didn't
have Stargate, I wouldn't have as much film and TV work as I would like. But I kind of
forced myself to learn to write and I just do other things. I have taken on
jobs where I might not have done those before, like MCing or hosting, which is
a solo thing, and has elements of stand-up comedy in it. I just thought, 'Know
what, I've got to force myself to do this even though I might not want to do it
particularly.' And it turned out I just love doing it, I've really enjoyed it.
That of course really shows in your work if you get up and you really love
it."
But it was still a
challenge – at least at first.
"The
challenge was doing it once and saying, 'I've got to do this.' Once I got up
and did it, and I realized it wasn't as scary or as horrible as I envisioned it
might be. It was great fun, it was just like a big laugh and I just joke
around. So it's just me on stage, having a laugh with people, and it's kind of
easy."
What does he feel
he gets out of this type of work? Gary is completely honest, replying that it
opens up other avenues of income for him. But there are also creative benefits.
"It also
helps me grow. I'm a different performer now than I was ten years ago. I'm more
relaxed on stage and seasoned, that comes with forcing yourself to do stuff
that you might not do otherwise."
Is he planning to
do more playwriting? At present, the answer is no.
"I have
written a number of plays but they are really difficult to write and to get
made. It's great to get commissioned to write a play, but if you are going to
spend time on a play and try to sell it, it's just too much work and
traditionally there's not a lot of money in theater. So you could write a
really good play and it still might not go anywhere. I would have to have an
incredible alternate source of income to be able to survive in order to have
the luxury of writing a play."
He says he was
discouraged by what happened with his last writing project, A Town
Called Hockey.
"It was a
good play, it was a really cool play and it ran at the same place where my
previous play had run. But it just didn't really take off and ultimately it was
like 'duh.' It just felt disappointing. I spent a year working on it,
co-writing it, spent a lot of energy, and in the middle of that I've got three
kids, and you have your life. So no more plays for a while."
But he is still
writing for TV.
"The show
that I just co-wrote was a show that plays in Vancouver called The
Collector. It's about a dead guy collecting souls for the devil."
Like others
involved in TV, he recognizes the effect reality TV is having on the market. He
has even considered ideas for reality shows, which he sees as now being an
established genre.
"It's an
interesting concept because people want to see themselves on television. We had
a meeting with a production company where we were knocking around some ideas
because the guy liked our writing style and he said 'If you can give me a
sitcom about this and this and this' and then he said, 'Also of course, if
you've got any reality show ideas, let me know.' And of course, we do. Because
it's about creating shows and jobs and work and whatever. It now is its own
genre, so it's not really going away."
What about the
lure of Hollywood? Had he ever thought of heading south?
"I thought
about it many years ago but at the time I felt that I didn't have enough acting
credits because I got into acting kind of late. I started when I was 28 and by
the time I felt I had enough credits, I had also missed that window to head
down. The other thing is you can't just head down to LA. You can go down for
pilot season, and if you get hired, they want to know if you live there. So if
you get a job on a pilot, it suddenly becomes a mad scramble to get work
permits because the States don't just hand out work permits. Green cards are
insanely hard to get."
In any event, Gary
has decided not to uproot his three young children from Canada in order to
follow that route. He accepts that acting is a hard business and regards anyone
who continues to work as an acting hero.
"It's a hard
career. I act, I write, I host, I write comedy, I try to do as many things as
possible to open it up so I don't starve, but other people have got long
careers and if you can make a living out of this, then well done. If you can do
really well, that's incredible."
How does he feel
about being recognized, and meeting fans at conventions?
"The odd
thing [about conventions] is to be in a place with a concentrated amount of
people who are fans of the show. Back in Vancouver, you meet people on the
street but I don't walk up to them and go 'Hey I'm on Stargate.' But when they find out,
a lot of times people haven't seen the show. You have to be a science fiction
fan, you have to be into the genre to watch the show, so people go 'I've heard
of it, I haven't seen it. I don't know what you do.' "
The fans, he says,
usually know more about the show than he does.
"It's my job,
but then I come to places like this and everybody knows everything about the
episodes, even episodes that I'm not in and they talk to me about it and I'm
like, 'I'm sorry I don't know, I don't know what happened in that episode.'
They watch every single one, they have all the DVDs, they listen to all the DVD
commentaries. They've got me snookered."
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Photos © Ann Wortham, All Rights
Reserved
So what does he
think of the fans who follow the show so closely?
"They are basically
great people, they're nice, they are all really friendly, if sometimes a bit
star-struck which cracks me up because I'm like, 'It's me!' People come up to
me and say, 'I can't believe you're here!' and I just say, 'Let's have a chat'.
That always kills me, that breaks me up!"
Gary grins,
clearly still amazed at the recognition he has gained from his work on Stargate
SG1,
as yet more fans make a bee-line for his table, clutching glossy photos for his
signature and a chat with Sergeant Walter Harriman.
Candid Photo © Carole Gordon, All Rights Reserved
With grateful thanks
to Gary Jones for giving his time and to Katherine of London Expo for arranging
the interview.
Biography: Gary Jones was born in Swansea on 4 January 1958.
He moved to Canada in 1972, settling in Vancouver in 1986. He is married and
has three children.
Further information at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0428104/
London
Expo: A two-day event held in May
and October each year featuring guests from TV, movies and the world of comic
books. There are also guest talks and hundreds of dealer stands selling a huge
variety of collectible items.
Further details at: www.londonexpo.com
Interview
© Carole Gordon January 2005 / Website copyright © Our Stargate, March 2005,
All Rights Reserved
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