SciFi World
Linda Craddock:
What type of preparations do you make to stay in character going from Michael the wraith to human
and back again. They both seem to share similar compassion which, I am sure results in transformation
due to the retro virus.
Connor Trinneer:
It's not difficult, if you were to put on the make up, it's pretty easy to fall into playing that
side of him and then when he's well, since the first episode I haven't been human, that's not true
no I was again but I've done three where I haven't gone back to human and he doesn't want to. He
feels that have been manipulative to him and that they haven't been straight shooters on his situation
and they kind of gave up on him.
Linda Craddock:
In Stargate Atlantis, the episode "Michael", the human, appeared to be sensitive, humble and
genuinely trying to fit it. In the episode "Misbegotten", the second transition, you were a
lot more calculating, and devious.
How do you feel about the character change?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, I mean he's being devious because he's being acted upon and he has to react to all these
things so he knows what's going on, a lot more than he did before, and again Michael's MO is
about survival and he has found himself in a very, very hostile environment. It seems any
environment he's in it's hostile toward him, and again I go back to the humans have kind of
dropped him and the wraith don't really want him back and he's really just trying to build a
place for himself where there isn't one.
Linda Craddock:
Tell us about a day on the set of Atlantis, your interaction and chemistry with cast and crew.
Connor Trinneer:
Well, the cast is great and the crew is great, I mean they've got a really good show going
and it's a lot of fun to be a part of. You know a day in the life of playing Michael is while
I've got all the makeup on and that big giant costume on, most of which I can't take off so
you know you try to keep yourself as comfortable as possible (laughter) and you know you got
the contact lenses and everything and you know you've got all the stuff in your hair
and the makeup you can't rub off so you kind of got to be a little delicate with the way you
move around.
Linda Craddock:
So now the Atlantians have turned Michael into a human once again, but a rebellion against
taking the retro virus occurs and now Michael has a band of wraith brothers who want revenge
against the humans while waiting for the arrival of their fellow wraith to rescuer them.
Where would you like to see the writers go with the fate of the collective wraith.
Connor Trinneer:
You get to see a little more of what happens in coming episodes that haven’t aired yet?
And I think that you know ultimately Michael would like to a situation of his own where he
has a certain amount of power so that he can deal with both say the wraith and the humans so
I think that ideally he would try to band together.
Linda Craddock:
With this group.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah if he can, but ultimately he’s sort of a lone wolf not by his choice of course.
Linda Craddock:
Of course, no place to call home so to speak.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah, well put.
Linda Craddock:
In each episode of Stargate Atlantis where you have appeared as Michael, your character has
a particularly unusual connection with Teyla. Do you and Rachel Luttrell talk about the
interaction between characters up and coming scenes between Teyla and Michael as the story
evolves?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, they’ve sort of written in that they, of any of them, she has a sympathetic ear to
him and they’ve sort of set it up that way but you know, at this point in time, he’s hearing
much sympathy. (laughter)
Linda Craddock:
No, not after the second go round.
Connor Trinneer:
No, I don’t think he has a lot of trust in anybody. So yeah there is a connection with
Teyla but I think it is a very, very delicate relationship but again I’ll go back to saying
that Michael’s all about trying to survive in anyway he can do that, and I think he’ll use
anything that’s in front of him, including anybody.
Linda Craddock:
Yes, at this stage of his role, yes.
Connor Trinneer:
I would be curious to see what they do.
Linda Craddock:
I would be too actually, that’s why I mentioned that particular connection because it is
interesting, the sympathetic ear and the second time around I still believe he would trust
her over anyone else.
Connor Trinneer:
Well, if he trusts anybody, which there’s not a lot of trust floating around in the air.
Linda Craddock:
Right, that’s true, that’s a given.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah.
Linda Craddock:
In the episode “Misbegotten” Michael as a wraith, probed Dr. Beckett’s mind to discover
the bomb planted by Sheppard’s team. From an actors’ point of view, what other information
could Michael have extracted which could lead to even more appearances by Michael in the
coming season?
Connor Trinneer:
I think that the appearances by Michael in the up coming seasons are going to be dictated
by how he’s able to escape and again develop a scenario where he has some safety and listen
he’s pissed at them, you know, I think he’d like to have a bit of vengeance.
Linda Craddock:
At this stage, it seems that way. It does.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah and you know, like I said, you’ll see some stuff in regards to what we’re talking
about occurring near the end of this present shooting, this present season.
Linda Craddock:
Ok, well I look forward to that. Were you a Star Trek fan prior to landing the part of Tucker?
What were your expectations regarding the show, set, your character, etc? Were you concerned
about the survival of the show based upon the success of its predecessors?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, I was, I think like everybody else I grew up on the re-runs of Star Trek, I was not
particularly a fan, I wouldn’t say that, but, like I didn’t watch every episode of the
various shows but I liked it and when I got the job I was looking forward to the idea of
spending a lot of time figuring out this one guy “Trip Tucker” and I enjoyed the heck out
of it. My expectations, you know, you never really know with regards to sci-fi what they’re
going to bring to the table so that’s always kind of a surprise, even what they’re going to
do with your character is always a surprise because they have so many options, that’s one
of the things is interesting about science fiction is that they have such a wealth of choice
that they can make because there’s no real rule about space and what you’re going to discover
or who you’re going to encounter, so I didn’t really know what to expect but I was really
pleasantly surprised with how much they used my character and we were all hoping it would
go 7 years like the rest of them did but hey that’s the way the business rolls.
Linda Craddock:
It was personally one of my favorites, Enterprise.
Connor Trinneer:
Well thank you.
Linda Craddock:
You appeared in 83 episodes with Star Trek Enterprise. What motivated you to audition for
the part of Cmdr. Charles “Trip’ Tucker?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, it was one of the auditions I had during the pilot season and it happened to be the
job that I got.
Linda Craddock:
You’ve mixed it up quite a bit between sci-fi and dramatic TV series? What is your
preference besides just plain getting work?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, that’s the word right there, you just want to keep working. You know I think that
there’s inherently a lot of drama in science fiction sort of partial with the whole thing you
know I have a great deal of affection for having played Trip and gotten to know him as well
as I did and it was just a remarkable experience.
Linda Craddock:
Well, like I said it was one of my personal favorites. I’ve taken the opportunity to review
them, obviously for this interview, revisit them and it's still a pleasure and it's not just
in token of this interview but it was one of my favorites.
Connor Trinneer:
Well thank you.
Linda Craddock:
Do you have any plans for writing/directing/producing television or movies?
Connor Trinneer:
Well I had hoped to have an opportunity to direct some of the Enterprise episodes but the
climate in which we were under the studio, they didn’t want to have any first time directors
so yeah it’s still in the back of my mind that I’d like to do some directing. Writing is
always a possibility but you know I’ve got a one year old, so you got to pick what your
projects are going to be. You know at this point in time I’m sticking with acting and focusing
in on that.
Linda Craddock:
Well allow me to offer my congratulations.
Connor Trinneer:
Thank you
Linda Craddock:
What was the most intriguing aspect of the diverse line up of alien characters on
Star Trek Enterprise to you?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, discovering what they were about. You know I didn’t have a great deal of knowledge
about whom and what the aliens were. That’s one of the cool things about it because you’re
not just dealing with one particular type of individual you’ve got all sorts of different
species going around and I think part of the theme of Star Trek in general was to go
forth and discover.
Linda Craddock:
Explore, yes?
Connor Trinneer:
And I think that they kept that as their mantra. You know you kind of just had to roll
with how it was delivered to you. Ah, we did have a fair amount of input, they were very
receptive to ideas that we had and you felt like you were a part of the process as opposed
to being an actor being handed lines.
Linda Craddock:
I see. Here’s an interesting thing for me - In the Star Trek Enterprise episode
”Similitude”, your character “Trip” was cloned to harvest neural tissue to save the original
Trip’s life. Did the dual role require any special preparation?
Connor Trinneer:
No, I don’t really think so. They had set it up so well in the writing of it that they really
sort of laid it out for me and you know one of the great tools an actor has is imagination
and you just sort of let that go and you go with your instincts and hopefully you have
somebody who guides you with those and fortunately on a lot of the episodes that I thought
were my favorites and Levar Burton was my director and I was in very good hands with him.
Linda Craddock:
That brings me to the next question! You have worked under the direction of Levar Burton and
Robert Duncan McNeill, two veterans with the Star Trek franchise. What was it like working
for the two directors?
Connor Trinneer:
It’s good, I mean their both very good directors and Roxanne Dawson also directed a number
of our episodes and she was great as well. I think that having an understanding of how the
show works and having an understanding of what they’re looking for is helpful in directing
a show and they spent so much time in it that they had a really good feel for it. And I think
that added to that they are also very skilled directors.
Linda Craddock:
our character “Trip” had a very special relationship on screen with Jolene Blalock’s character
T’pol which seems to have started in the episode “The Xindi” T’pol’s effort to help “Trip”
sleep better by using the Vulcan neuro pressure technique. What do you attribute to the bonding?
Connor Trinneer:
I think that they wanted to show a relationship developing between a Vulcan and a human.
I don’t think they’d done that before to that extent and you know it was part of the role,
part of the show, it became part of the show and I think it's an interesting setup with
humans who are emotive and Vulcan’s who are not and how you navigate a relationship in that
regard.
Linda Craddock:
I’m sure you are familiar with the history of Vulcan’s and their pragmatic approach to life,
why do you think the writers in the Star Trek Enterprise with the episode “Damage” when it
was discovered T’Pol had an addiction to trellium which accesses certain emotions. Why do
you think the writers went in that direction?
Connor Trinneer:
Well, I think that one of the things about science fiction is that you can investigate things
that are going on in our own world and substituting them for what happening out in the
universe. You could have somebody with an addiction to something, you could be dealing with
race relations, you could be dealing with things of that nature and I think that you know,
that’s what they were exploring and they continue to and that is one of the good things about
Star Trek is that they explored topics that were relevant to what we all go through.
Linda Craddock:
Especially from the beginning, the original.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah, I think that is one of the things that draw people to it.
Linda Craddock:
That’s what makes it unique to me.
Connor Trinneer:
Yeah.
Linda Craddock:
Do you follow any fan based reviews/comments on what you are working on?
Connor Trinneer:
You know I get told enough, I don’t really need to follow it on line. You know I get enough
information otherwise. I have looked on line, you know I’ve got a website of my own and I looked at
it when I first started the show, but less now, I mean, you know, its got little to do with me as a
person and more to do with me as an actor, in a character, and you know every now and then I’ll
touch in and see what they’ve had to say no know, especially with the “Michael” thing, I never
really knew how much they were going to use me and how is was sort of coming across out there with
the fans. So I did check in on that a little
bit.
Linda Craddock:
Well I see a lot more opportunity for “Michael” as a viewer.
Connor Trinneer:
I think it’s an open book
Linda Craddock:
It is indeed.
- Linda Craddock - SciFiWorld.net, December 2006 -