Esai Morales, Paula Malcomson and Eric Stoltz star in CAPRICA
The premiere tonight of Caprica on the SyFy channel isn’t notable only because it’s set 58 years before the hugely popular Battlestar Galactica story begins but also because it has a largely different feel even though it comes from the same creative minds of BSG. To get the lowdown on the new series and it’s inevitable comparisons to it’s predecessor, I took part in a press call with other journalists and co-creator David Eick and actress Paula Malcomson, who plays Eric Stoltz’s wife, Amanda Graystone, on the show.
Jim Halterman: I just want to know the intention to make the show different from Battlestar Galactica. Can you talk about that a little bit because it definitely has a whole different feel to it.
David Eick: Yeah I think we’re very intently committed to the idea that this show stand on its own, that it not in any feel like an echo or a descendent or a, you know, extension of Battlestar Galactica in any way. You’ll note that the title is not Battlestar Galactica Caprica it is simply Caprica. And the relationship that it has to Battlestar is purely inconsequential. It’s kind of in an Easter egg sense fun for the fans and audience that followed Battlestar Galactica but if you never saw a lick of that show it will have no impact on your ability to really get involved in and relate to the characters and the drama we’re doing on this show.
Alessandra Torresani as Zoe Graystone on CAPRICA
Jim Halterman: People can pretty much see pieces of Caprica or the pilot a lot of different places other than the Syfy Channel just because there are episodes being put online and stuff. Is that part of your design or does that come from the network?
David Eick: Well it was a network design but I believe – and I’m not certain about this – that it’s a release strategy or a distribution strategy that other networks had tried as well. I think Glee may have done something like this where the pilot premiered and then a period of time went by and then the pilot re-premiered as a launch to the series. And so I think in a multiplatform universe as it were where people are consuming dramatic material on their televisions, on their DVD players and on the Internet it’s really kind of smart and ahead of the game to figure out new and unorthodox ways to launch a show. And – but that was definitely the network’s call and we were happy to get aboard. And in fact it gave us an excuse me spend even more money on the pilot because the version that airs Friday is, you know, sort of tricked out with a bunch of new shots and visual effects and a couple scenes we even redid. So it’s been worth it all around.
Caprica premieres tonight on SyFy
Question: Paula, it seems like your character has a lot of really tough moments to play. And she makes a lot of choices that might make her unsympathetic in the eyes of a lot of viewers. How did you struggle with portraying that and making her a likeable character even though she’s kind of, you know, maybe not the best mother and she makes some decisions especially at the end of the second episode.
Paula Malcomson: It’s definitely something that occurs to you in the back of your mind but as an actor you have to sort of aside your own judgments in terms of whether the character is good or bad necessarily as, you know, I think being a good actor is sort of understanding the complexity of the human psyche and also knowing that we are none of us perfect. Yes, it was tough and I did think about – particularly that man would find perhaps this character unsympathetic. And I just tried to play, you know, I just really tried to tap into the loss and the pain and the fact that, you know, she has made mistakes and, you know, go from there you know.
David Eick: I would also add that I don’t think in the sort of canon of this show or shows like it there’s a tremendous amount of concern for what I would call old fashioned television tropes-like sympathetic characters. I think audiences want challenging characters and characters who are neither, you know, black or white but are somewhere in the middle that they’re morally gray and that they’re going to challenge the audience’s expectation in every way. I think the character that Paula plays and one of the reasons that she plays it so well is that you’re never quite sure what to expect from her. And there are times when you expect her to maybe lose her shit when she completely holds it together and vice versa. And I think that’s human and real and that’s part of what I think is the hallmark of the show.
Question: When is violence right or is it ever and the whole question of who or what constitutes a terrorist. And on top of that you’ve added something to the effect of what is the nature of the human soul. How do you translate these themes from the microcosm of Battlestar Galactica to the macrocosm of 12 colonies from a dozen planets and worlds in a star cluster?
David Eick: Exactly because my answer is, huh, I don’t know. No, I’m kidding. It’s really simple. Nothing is different which is to say whether you’re telling a story in the realm of a combat-rattled spacecraft where everyone is battle weary and desperately hoping to survive or in an environment like Caprica where we’re in a much more terrestrial world that feels more accessible and is perhaps more vast and expansive. The focus on the story is still all about character. And so whether the theme in question happens to be what kind of moral values are necessary for technological advancement or to use your example what is the nature of the human soul. Those themes still get explored on a very pointed specific point of view level in terms of those themes coming from character. And character is always where we start our story. And like Battlestar I would say Caprica is not terribly plot-driven. There are wonderful yarns and threads wrapping around episodes and through episodes but ultimately I think the audience for the Sopranos, for Mad Men, for Grey’s Anatomy, for The Shield and The Wire and the kinds of shows that really are about delving into character are going to be the audience for Caprica.
Question: Now David I wanted to know how much impact did female viewership play in not setting the series in space or relying heavily on space scenes?
David Eick: You know what most of the people I spoke to about Battlestar in terms of the fan base were women so the – this – the empirical demographic breakdown of the audience is something that I just choose to keep at bay and not pay a lot of attention to. So I never really think in terms of gearing a show towards a particular audience. In sort of general terms do I recognize that fact that perhaps a female audience might be more inclined to watch something that’s, you know, deals in story from a sort of, you know, soap operatic kind of melodramatic terms and without the accompanying visual sort of ghetto and spaceships and outer space? Sure. There might be – it might have more accessibility to a female audience just because of that generalization. But I don’t know, I mean, and certainly that was never a motivation for not setting the show in space. The motivation to not set the show in space was to make it as different and unique from Battlestar as possible.
Question: Paula, we all loved you as – not just in these first three episodes of Caprica so far but of course Deadwood as well. And, I mean, outside of the fact that you’re probably spending more time on a soundstage, I mean, how is this experience with Caprica different from Deadwood for you?
Paula Malcomson: Oh God, in a million ways. And we’re not spending so much time on a soundstage believe it or not. This show is very heavy in locations. So it’s kind of been, you know, last week were in the middle of a forest on horses with fires lit shooting in the middle of the night, you know. And that’s not uncommon, it’s been – it’s sort of been an incredible odyssey this show. And it’s obviously in some ways Deadwood was, you know, we were contained to one – what made that an easier show in a lot of ways was we were contained to one set, the writers, the producers, everyone was there on a ranch working together. And this has been more spread out so there are obvious challenges. But – and this is a longer run too. I’ve never done a series of, you know, as many episodes. We had 12 and I think it’s interesting to have to have to find a second wind and a third wind. I mean, you know, you approach the work in the same way always. And in a lot of ways this is – there’s been a lot of freedom here to really sort of feel as though almost anything is possible on this show. Like if we take a turn somewhere we can end up going down another road. It’s been quite an organic process and as was Deadwood obviously. I mean I think that was really, you know, one of the signatures of that show is that it felt like a living organism and this does too in a lot of ways.
Question: David, how do you really expect that new viewers will get drawn into this show or how do you feel, you know, how do you feel the show will draw viewers in that are not so familiar with Battlestar?
David Eick: Well as most people who know me might say I’m certainly not beyond arguing with my network and we have spirited debates and discussions about all aspects of the creative process. But one particular area in which I completely genuflect and am in complete awe of what they’re able to pull off is in publicity and marketing. They’re just – I think they’re the best in the business. I have no doubt that the show is going to be a sampled. I had very little to say about how the show is being marketed, where the show is being marketed. It was presented to me. It was as ironclad as you could hope for. They spent a ton of money and they really believe in the show. And so the real answer to your first question is – was a marketing answer which is you draw viewers to the show by making people aware of it by your marketing muscle and by the kinds of things we’re doing right now. And so I’ve never been anything but completely confident and absolutely relieved to have the team that we’ve got at the network in those categories.
I think the question about how do you keep them once you get them there has to be to make the show rich and compelling and to measure up to what we often, I hope, achieved with Battlestar just from a qualitative standpoint but without the baggage and without trying to – and without having the audience feel like any heavy lifting is involved from the standpoint of knowing or understanding or being, you know, a fan of Battlestar Galactica. So a great deal of very deliberate decisions were made very early in the process to make this show stand on its own, to have the Battlestar connected tissue extremely intermittent, inconsequential and really only kind of, you know, fodder for the fans and nothing at all that would be required by a new audience or misunderstood by a new audience. And so, you know, the answer is hopefully we’re telling great stories really, really well and that’s the thing that’s going to keep the audience. But in no way are we relying on the Battlestar faithful to support the show.
Caprica premieres tonight with a 2-hour premiere on the SyFy channel at 9/8c
Jim Halterman spends his days interviewing the top tier of talent and creative forces in the television world and then, because he's that kind of guy, he brings it all to YOU! And, because we all like free stuff, check back often for giveaways!! 
