GATEWORLD: Once Upon A Continuum
Tuesday - April 16, 2013
by Chad Colvin
While many actors may call Los Angeles home, the city of Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia has become almost a second home for many of them — and you can count Stargate SG-1 veteran Tony Amendola, who played “Bra’tac” on the series in a recurring fashion for the entirety of its run, among them. After SG-1 wrapped six years ago, the actor kept busy with many other projects but is now making his Vancouver presence known again in full force as he juggles concurrent gigs on two very different genre series.
GateWorld had the pleasure of catching up with Tony Amendola a couple times in recent months, most notably when he was a guest at Creation Entertainment‘s Official Stargate Convention. In our latest chat with Amendola, he discusses how busy his life has gotten, how his casting as “Gepetto” in ABC’s Once Upon A Time came about, the political parallels that mirror his other current series Continuum, and more!
... GateWorld: From a scripting standpoint, do you think that the allegory between the two ["Liber8" and the real world "Occupy" movements] was something they were actively trying to invoke? Or just a matter of fortuitous timing that subject matter like that paralleled real life so closely?
Tony Amendola: "I don’t know. I think it was more just a matter of timing. I think that type of group on the show — a splinter group who is dedicated to social change and are sick of waiting and the slow road and become sort of violent — is a bit different. Because, thankfully and luckily, the Occupy movements never went that route. But the impetus behind it, in fiction and reality, has always been around in my opinion. It’s been around since the “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”-type of phrasing.
You know, the premise is that the governments have failed so it is the corporations that run everything. And that’s unabashedly a current worry in real life, especially coming out of this past election season and the economy and budget issues we’re facing now. You see the reports about the amounts of money spent on those fundraising campaigns by committees and companies, and it does make you worry. I think it was Time Magazine that had a picture of the White House on the cover with a sign that said “For Sale”. And some witty person responded online saying “Oh, no … the White House would never be for sale, but it is for rent!” [Laughter]
You worry about that. They talk about the world being in three different stages. There’s the traditional world where science and government and religions were created. And it was about creating some sort of system that stopped us from killing each other. And then there’s the modern era, where all of that takes a huge leap. And now it seems like we’re in the post-modern, which seems to be about social change more than anything else. With the exception of DNA. Since the discovery of DNA, I don’t think science has grown by the leaps it did in the previous hundred years.
Now it’s about social causes, and we’re finally catching up to dealing with social injustices. I want to live in a democracy, not a corporate democracy. I have nothing against corporations, mind you. But I do believe it should be about a better society and not about a bottom line..."
Continuum season two premieres Friday, June 7, 2013 at 10/9C on Syfy.
Once Upon A Time season two airs Sunday at 9/7C on ABC.
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