He attended the University of Oregon on a full football
scholarship, made all-American three
times, and played the Hula Bowl. Not bad for a guy who doesn't
really like the game.
Christopher Judge's goals lay off the gridiron. "I was in a
pre-med curriculum at first," he
says, "but quickly realized I couldn't do the math. Then I was
a psych major, and eventually
switched to telecommunications and film." Acting, apparently,
had been his ambition all along.
Calling from the Vancouver set of Showtime's Stargate SG-1,
Judge says his character,
Teal'c, an alien symbiont, will lighten up just a touch this
season. But it's hard to be totally
carefree when there's a 3-foot-long Goa'uld living in a slit in
your abdomen. John Walsh
It's nice to see that they've finally standardized the
pronunciation of your
character's name.
Yeah, they had a little fun with that last season. Every new
guest star had come up with
something different. I thought it was kind of amusing. People
would ask me for my
pronunciation, and I told them it was more fun if they came up
with their own.
You're easily recognized by fans. Is that a hassle?
I get recognized and pointed at, but Vancouver is very good
that way you can walk around,
do what you want. Occasionally someone will come up and ask for
an autograph, but the
people are generally very polite about it.
Michael Shanks (SG-1's Dr. Daniel Jackson) says you're better
at dealing
with fan attention than he is.
[Laughs.] I think Michael will grow into an ever more reclusive
star. We hang out together
quite a bit, and whereas I just go out as I am, Michael will
put on the hat and the sunglasses
and hunker down a bit. He's one of those theater guys who's
uncomfortable with celebrity. I,
on the other hand, had the good fortune or misfortune,
depending on how you look at it
to have grown up in L.A., where it's great to be recognized.
You hang out together? So there's a good social bond among the
cast?
Yeah, a huge bond. The three of us Michael, Amanda [Tapping,
who plays Dr. Samantha
Carter] and I bonded from day one. Richard was already, you
know, Richard Dean
Anderson when we arrived. Richard and Michael bonded pretty
quickly, because they have
similar senses of humor. I took a little longer to bond with
him. When we first came up here I
tried to stay in character, because I was still not too sure
about Teal'c. As a result I didn't talk
much. I might have come across as kind of surly, but that's
past now.
You know Teal'c better now. What's different about him this
season?
The original sternness, standoffishness that was a result of
his superobjectives: freeing his
people, being reunited with his wife and son. Now that he's
achieved some of those goals, I'm
really trying to loosen him up a bit. I'll still stay within
the parameters of Teal'c, but the
incessant frowning is gone.
Are you the acknowledged expert on your character? How much
freedom do
the writers and directors give you?
They've given me so much leeway in creating Teal'c. They trust
me when I tell them what
Teal'c's reaction will be to a situation. I've never been
reprimanded for changing dialogue
where it didn't fit what I felt Teal'c's reality was.
You see a lot of action on the show. You're a trained athlete,
but did you do
any special preparation for this role?
It all comes pretty naturally. I knew by the nature of the show
and the character he's a
warrior that I had to be prepared for some action. I like it,
actually.
Speaking of sports, you went to college on a football
scholarship. What lured
you from football to acting?
I always knew I wanted to be an actor. Football was a way for
me to make a name for myself. I
had always hoped that it would segue into entertainment. Even
though I enjoyed the actual
Saturdays of football the game itself everything else that
went into it I didn't enjoy. I
didn't enjoy practicing. I could never really put my arms
around the single-mindedness that
football encourages. I would often get in trouble for
questioning a play. One of the marks
against me, coming out of college, was that I thought too much.
Individuality was discouraged.
What made the experience tolerable was that I always recognized
it for what it was a
stepping stone to an acting career.
Are you developing your own projects, or are you happier as an
actor?
I've got a couple projects that I can push around in the
downtime. One's another sci-fi project,
and one's a buddy film. I've had some interest, and hopefully
in the next off-season I can go
somewhere with those. I have absolutely no desire to direct. I
don't want to deal with actors'
egos and quirks that would drive me bonkers. We've got a nice, long piece of downtime on this show, so I'd
love to do a feature. As a matter
of fact, if Oliver Stone is reading this, I'd like him to know
that I'm still waiting to hear back
about On Any Given Sunday. Oliver, please get back to my agent
as quickly as possible.
What did you know about Stargate before getting this role?
I had seen the movie, and I was a fan of the first half hour to
45 minutes. Then it was as if they
abandoned the mythology for the sake of wrapping up the story.
But the first part of it was
extraordinary. So when I heard about the series, I told my
agent to get me in on it.
Have you experienced the convention scene yet?
I'm just beginning to hear about some of those conventions. I
think I'm scheduled to do some
this year. I'm looking forward to them because everybody tells
me about the frenzy at these
conventions. I want to see it for myself.
TV Guide's Sci-Fi Q&A with Christopher Judge
By: John Walsh
September 1998
