Interview with Kate Vernon at FedCon XX

At FedCon XX we had the opportunity and the pleasure to meet Kate Vernon, who played the XO's wife Ellen Tigh on "Battlestar Galactica", for an interview.

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1. "Battlestar Galactica" is this wonderful character drama in a scifi setting. Did you expect the show to be that way without a lot of tech stuff but rather criticism, politics and human emotion basically?

Yeah, the thing that drew me to the show was the fact that it wasn't gimmicky. It was based on human drama, it was based on relationships and these really devastating circumstances, so it's a human drama set in space.

2. What did you think about Ellen? She wasn’t a bad person but sometimes really self-serving.

That's a good question, because Ellen is always classified as a bitch and I think that's an extremely limited point of view of who this woman was because she was a civilian stuck on a ship. She didn't have a job and she virtually didn't have her husband. She was in competition with Adama, she was in competition with the ship, she was really low down on his list of priorities and it devasted her. She was lonely and she was incredibly smart and not that mature and would just stir up trouble as opposed to taking the higher road trying to work something out with Saul. That was never their relationship. And then you throw in alcohol and bad behaviour... but that sort of role was incredible delicious to play. And in her heart Ellen was deeply in love with her husband and all she wanted was her man. She did everything she could to get him even if it looked wrong. She took the long way [laughs] to get him.

3. When you found out about her death in season 3, what did you think about her husband Saul's decision? Was that difficult to play?

Foto: Kate Vernon, FedCon XX - Copyright: myFanbase/Nicole Oebel
Kate Vernon, FedCon XX
© myFanbase/Nicole Oebel

It was terribly difficult to play. He was this spineless man for abandoning her after what she had done to save his life and it was devastating to her but she also knew his fragility and knew he could not spare her. She knew if he tried and we picked up and ran insurgence would take us down. There was no win for either of us. He had to poison me and my choice as an actress was to take the cup from him. As much as I wanted him to spill it and run, I chose to take the cup from him. I didn't talk to the director Ron Moore about this at all, it was more of a character choice to remove that act from him giving me the poison to me taking it and bringing it on myself. I felt incredibly generous for Ellen to spare him that segment of guilt. I mean the man was wracked with guilt afterwards but as least I didn't let him give it to me. You know what I mean.

4. Can you relate to the dilemma most of the characters were in at some point struggeled between the orders they were given and their own moral beliefs?

Well, I don't live in a military society so... I mean there are rules to follow that seem to work in this world, be nice to one another, treat others like you wanna be treated. So not having a military mind in whatsoever I think for me to relate to duty before family? That I don't get. I don't get that at all! I don't get that AT ALL! I'd say: What? No! I'm a mother and nothing comes before my daughter. That's my military [laughs]! I would die protecting my daughter, so that's my perspective. But I don't mean any disrespect towards anyone in the military, that's their training and that's their thinking and their commitment and that's their experience. It's not mine.

5. At the FedCon last year Aaron Douglas and Kandyse McClure talked about how "Battlestar Galactica" affected their personal lives. Did the show have an impact on your life?

I think the incredible impact of the show is that it was set in the future but not so far in the distant future that it was very relatable which made it really palpable to experience. The possibility of this whole thing happening to us was very very real because they laced in these current events into the stories. The suicide bombings and the cloning farms… it really provoked a lot of powerful deep thinking about what would really happen to me if I was really in these circumstances and then we come back to me as an actress making these choices as a civilian. So it was a lovely figurate of energy and thought and questions and ideas moving back and forth and it just made me very grateful for what we have today, the freedoms we have today.

6. You were also in the kult movie "Pretty in Pink", do you remember something in particular from working on that film?

It was such a long time ago [laughs].

What was Andrew McCarthy like?

Foto: Kate Vernon, FedCon XX - Copyright: myFanbase/Annika Leichner
Kate Vernon, FedCon XX
© myFanbase/Annika Leichner

Oh, I just done another movie with him a couple of summers ago, too. He was sweet! Everybody was really sweet and a lot younger that James Spader and I. We were really old playing teenagers. I think he and I are the same age. We were at least six years or seven years older than everybody else. It was quite wilde playing younger. John Hughes was very very dear and very funny, soft and kind and Howard Deutsch was just lovely and kinda wilde and manic and a really cool director. Molly was very very sweet. Everybody way incredibly professional. Jon Cryer... big crush on Jon Cryer! Duckie? Come on I mean he was insane and so so so talented and still is. So it was terrific. The movie was great.

8. If you could put together an entire crew for a movie or show: Who would be the director, who would write the script and who would be the main characters?

I'd have to combine all my directors from "Battlestar", all the writers from "Battlestar". The guys and Jane Espenson [stumbles on the name, laughs and apologizes to Jane] were so brilliant, you know, and incredibly gifted... Michael Nankin and Michael Rymer. Eddie Olmos directed episodes. I have no idea. I would just continue with "Battlestar Galactica", pick up on the planet where everybody sort of scattered and went their own way and then: "Action!" I'd like it to continue. That would be fun!

9. Can you tell us anything about your current projects?

Sure! I've just done a film for SyFy called "Red Faction: Origins". It's based on the game "Red Faction" set on Mars in the future and I play the matriarch of an indigenous society. A peace loving warrior queen who'd rather not fight but she'll bury you alive if you crossed her. It stars Robert Patrick, Brian J. Smith and myself. Directed by Michael Nankin.

Thank you!

Nicole Oebel and Annika Leichner - myFanbase

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