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Amanda is tall (about 6ft), blonde, very attractive and has the look of an English rose about her. It's no surprise then to learn that she was born in Rochdale and lived for a short while in Benfleet before her family emigrated to Canada. Her first visit to the country since she was child, Amanda agreed to promote the series and attend her first science fiction convention. "I'm really nervous about what they're going to ask me," she admits. "Science fiction fans are so intelligent. It blows my mind the questions they ask and they're so detail oriented. They pick up on everything. If there's a single flaw in the show they will find it. Which is great, because it keeps us on our toes."
Well into filming on the fourth season, Stargate SG-1 has proved to be an enormous hit. Based on the 1999 feature film, SG-1 is the name given to a special government team set up to defend the Earth against the dreaded Goa'uld, the alien race who designed the Stargate for inter-dimensional travel. Each week the team use the portal to visit other planets in their effort to stop an all-out invasion. Amanda's colleagues on the series include fellow scientist and linguist Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), an alien warrior called Teal'c (Christopher Judge) and team leader Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson). Anderson is also one of the show's executive producers, not that having a fellow actor both sides of the camera helped when the writers originally created the concept of Sam's character.
"I had to go in and really fight for not that woman in the character, but the human in the character," Amanda explains. "They were writing her in a very one dimensional way, a way that women are always portrayed. In the case of Sam, very bitchy, out to prove herself, raging feminist diatribe. I said, women don't speak like this, why can't she be this fully realised human being who just happens to be a woman?" Her perseverance worked; Amanda's belief in the character paid off and when she met up with the producers at the end of the first season she naturally asked them what plans they had for her character. "To their credit they said, 'we didn't expect you to do this with Carter. You've expanded her beyond what we thought she was going to be so now we've got this challenge.'"
Originally sceptical about being involved in a long-running television series, Amanda believes that the show's success is due to the camaraderie between the central characters. "I think what you see is this phenomenal chemistry between the SG-1 team, and I think the reason it's so good is because as human beings and as people we're so close and we're friends. During the first season we ate lunch together and we hung out together. Second season we started to grow apart a bit, find out feet and now we're back together again. It's like a family, these guys are like my brothers." Amanda's also well aware of the fan interest in her onscreen relationship with Colonel O'Neill. "In the third season I kiss Richard Dean Anderson. They're trying to play up the sexual tension between our two characters and Richard and I enjoy it immensely because we know it's not going anywhere between Sam and Jack. It can't because it will destroy the cohesiveness of the team. But, we get to play it out in alternative realities, so it's still a lot of fun."
Amanda also loves the physical aspect of working on a series that incorporates so many spectacular visuals. "I love the fact that they let me do a lot of my own stunts," she says. "The only thing they won't let me do is fall from great heights, but all the running and fight sequences I do myself. As much as it was important for me to learn the science, it was also important to learn about Carter's physical side. So I met up with an ex-Nave Seal, who showed me how to handle a gun. I'm not a person who likes guns." With Anderson serving as the show's executive producer, it's not unusual in long-running series for the cast to also try their hand at writing or directing the odd episode. Amanda is no exception. 'I tried my hand at writing an episode, just for me personally. I didn't submit it to anyone. I found it really hard because I'm too close to my character to write for her. And because I know the guys so well it's very hard to write for their characters rather than for them.' But whether Amanda will eventually see one of her scripts transferred to the screen or not, she hopes that MGM will consider a fifth, sixth, maybe even a seventh season. Whatever the studio decides, ratings for the show are excellent. Something that Amanda Tapping attributes to Stargate SG-1's loyal fanbase. "You don't really do television to please yourself," she opines. "You do it to gain an audience and once you get that audience you have to stay loyal to them, to treat them with respect. We didn't want our scripts to be in any way condescending. The real difficulty is keeping the characters alive and interesting. The challenge is not to fall into complacency. Stargate SG-1 is a sleek show and our special effects are phenomenal. Kudos to the powers that be for having the foresight to give it that much."
