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Typhon Station is a very fastpaced PBeM RPG with skilled, experienced
players and a warm sense of bonding and community. We play at the
turn-of-the-century, 2400, and are located in the Typhon Expanses,
bordering the Neutral Zone, proximate to the Romulan Empire, and near
the Iconian Digs, and are on the first warning route of the original
Borg Incursion.
We have three stations to post from, SB 185, USS Odyssey, and USS
Wraith. They all have general and particular storylines and all
interact. This game is not for the faint of heart! The writing is
superb and comes hot and heavy. We have some open spots and also we
will consider character suggestions. So, longtime RPGers and novices,
check us out. See if you want to make Typhon Station your home away
from home.
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Posted:
00:38:01 on November 05 2002
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: TrekWeb Features
Written by Michelle Erica Green, edited by Steve Krutzler
Actor Bruce Davison is a veteran of over 100 films and television shows
and currently enjoying great fame among genre fans playing 'Senator Robert Jefferson Kelly' in
The X-Men (2000) film franchise. An Academy Award nominee for the AIDS drama
Longtime Companion (1990), Davison has played recurring characters on Seinfeld and The Practice and
performs frequently onstage. He's one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, making
several films a year, including the recent High Crimes, last year's
Crazy/Beautiful or the new John Grisham legal thriller Runaway Jury,
currently shooting in New Orleans. A veteran of Star Trek: Voyager
("Remember"), he appears in tomorrow night's episode of Enterprise, "The
Seventh," and the highly-anticipated X-Men sequel next summer opposite
Nemesis star Patrick Stewart.
"I would have to say that I'm an unabashed science fiction fan," Davison told
TrekWeb while taking a lunch break in the Big Easy. "I'm sitting in a
restaurant here, sort of being incognito, having a bib tied on me for lobster.
I'm here on the Mississippi watching the paddlewheels and sucking up more food
than I need. I hope I can slip into my pants tomorrow," he interjects with more than a
hint of jocularity. "I just did an audio book for Stephen King, From a Buick 8, because I've always been a King fan. The short stories, I love, and Shawshank Redemption."
Embracing his genre popularity, the affable actor was happy to introduce us to
this latest role as a Vulcan fugitive, the X-Men sequel, and his
full slate of upcoming television appearances and feature films.
How did you connect with Star Trek?
I ran into Rick Berman at an electronics store. I think I told him I'd love to do some, and that was back a ways. I did one for Voyager, worked with Patrick, and I've been friends with a number of people that have been on the show,
LeVar [Burton] for one.
Are you playing as bad a guy on Enterprise as you played on Voyager
('Jareth')?
I was a really bad, bad guy on Voyager! A Holocaust creator of sorts. I was the general, and I was very involved in the big lie. This one's sort of a mystery character. You don't quite know about him, and I don't want to tip it. It's going to be during
Sweeps week, which I was glad to hear. I was just watching part of it; I had to loop down here, and it looks pretty good.
T'Pol recognizes you but she couldn't remember who you were--'Menos' is your name?
Yes, and you've met my brother Mas? Mas o menos!
She's been hunting me for a long time. She's trying to track me down. She had a whole other life. This is some of
Jolene [Blalock]'s best work, I think. She's got a tough row to hoe in that character, and she does really well, in the iambic pentameter of her character which can reveal so little emotion. It's tough work.
You're also playing a Vulcan.
I'm a reconstructed Vulcan. I'm a Vulcan in disguise, sort of like the devil in disguise. I'm not on Enterprise. They come down and find me on this methane ice planet.
Things are pretty tense right now between Archer and the Vulcans.
And they're pretty tense between the Vulcans and what else they've been doing in the universe. My character was in fact a Vulcan spy -- a Vulcan plant on another planet. They were called back, and he didn't go. She's coming back to reclaim him. I'm somebody that she's been hunting for years, and they find me.
Like the Vulcan spies in the episodes with the Andorians?
Right. I'm one of those guys.
What does the title refer to, 'The Seventh'?
There were a bunch of people she had to bring back, and I'm the seventh.
Are you the last?
Maybe! [Hums Twilight Zone music].
Does the ending leave it open for them to bring you back again if they wanted to?
I sure hope so. I would love to come back. He's a fascinating character.
Whom did you work with primarily?
Jolene and Scott [Bakula] mostly, and Anthony [Montgomery] -- don't call him Tony! They were wonderful. I've done all kinds of acting, and it's one of the toughest kinds to do. It really is, to make that stuff believable, week in and week out. Especially when you have scripts where they write in '[tech]' and then they say, 'The antediluvian methane dicobloobliator is defused!' And you have to make it sound convincing, really fast.
You get your pick of TV roles. Is Star Trek fun for you?
It's a hoot. It's just a lot of fun. I'd prefer not to have to wear a rubber head, but I'd do that too. They just did little nose things and ear things so far, which is great. I see what some of those people go through.
Rene Auberjonois I've known from the stage for 30 years, and I remember the first season, he said, 'I'm having such a good time!' Then by the eighth season or whatever, sitting for five hours putting that rubber head on, between him and
Armin Shimerman. He was always very positive -- he said, 'It's a good place to learn your lines, in the makeup chair for five hours every morning.'
On X-Men, you must have had some serious prosthetics so you could melt.
Oh, a lot of that is CGI and rubber heads to squeeze through bars. But there was some prosthetics, yes, and a lot of blue veins. I remember one pretty horrible day when there were five hours of blue veins and goo and everything else, coming back to the trailer and washing it out, and having the AD stick his head in and say, 'You didn't wash yet, did you? We had bad light in one of those shots.' That was the day from hell.
Were you a comic fan before X-Men?
Oh yes, hiding out in the back with EC Comics till I'd get nightmares. I remember my parents were always trying to lead me back toward Donald Duck and away from EC Comics. I loved the conspiratorial nature, the government are trying to get us -- communists!
And you're playing that guy! Or if Senator Kelly is dead, are you actually playing Mystique playing Senator Kelly?
Oh, you know everything, don't you! She was playing Kelly in the end of the last movie. I'm not allowed to talk about that! But yes, I am in it and I'm feeling rather blue.
Are you allowed to talk about working with Patrick Stewart?
Oh, sure. I adore Patrick. One of my favorite all-time memories is a lot of the X-Men sitting on bar stools learning photon torpedo acting from Patrick, who would say, 'One through ten. Now, one is a little nudge; ten, you fly across the room.' We'd all be sitting there, and he'd say, 'Seven!' and everybody would go, blam! That's photon torpedo acting.
Is it weird being better known for X-Men than for Longtime Companion?
Not after 30 years working. It's better than being known for Willard.
What are you filming right now in New Orleans?
I'm doing a movie called Runaway Jury with Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman and John Cusack, based on a John Grisham novel. They're shooting it through December here. I'm having a ball. I'm playing an attorney who's defending a gun company from being sued by Dustin Hoffman's plaintiff, representing a woman whose husband was massacred in an office shooting. That's part of the plot; the other part of the plot is, John Cusack is on the jury and tells us that he will swing it either way for $10 million. The real brains behind my side is Gene Hackman, who is the jury consultant, who is really the wizard of oz who's running the show. That's what's going on here.
What do you look for in roles?
Something that surprises me, that intrigues me, that has a journey, that has, I don't know, good per diem and fun locations! I'd like to do a lot of different parts. I have two philosophies. There's one where you hold out for everything, and then I'm a character actor and I remember Anthony Quinn one time saying, do everything. Do a lot of stuff; don’t hold out for the great work of art or you may never work, or if you do hold out, nobody may ever see it, and maybe something that you think isn't necessarily the greatest thing in the world will turn into the biggest hit or may turn out to be really good. You never know. It's true. Some of them have been the best times I've had. Working with Paul Scofield was certainly one of the tops, but not a lot of people saw The Crucible. Everybody's seen X-Men.
Do you have a role that you're holding out to play -- Shakespeare or something?
They keep slipping away! Hamlet's gone, and Richard III is slipping away. I'll maybe get to play Lear someday when I'm old and everybody else has died off. I did Lear with Lee J. Cobb, one of the first things I did. I was just a kid carrying a spear running around in the back, but that was fun.
Do you have a favorite among your roles or is that like asking you to pick a favorite among your children?
You just answered the question. It's my own cliché I guess. A bunch of them jump out as the most fun. Ulzana's Raid certainly isn't my best acting work, but I had the best time -- I got to lead the cavalry with Burt Lancaster all over the West and charge and chase Apaches. I got the best wardrobe in Poor Little Rich Girl, going to Tangiers and London and Paris. That was fun. Willard was fun. I did a movie called High Risk that I had a great time in, in Mexico, being chased all over the Mayan jungles with Anthony Quinn, James Coburn and James Brolin and Cleavon Little and Lindsay Wagner. Longtime Companion was certainly good work.
It must have been stressful to live with that scenario day to day.
Yeah. But what's more stressful is getting the big foot on the truck. When there's great dialogue or great scripting, it makes things easy.
Are there things you're planning to produce for yourself?
I have scripts, some of which I've written, that I'd like to do eventually. I have a tendency to write things that aren't really commercial right now, more character-driven stories. My hope is that movies like Into the Bedroom open the door for a lot more of the small pictures. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the one that everybody's on the bandwagon about now for the small, independent film. Rarely do you get an ensemble picture that deals with an issue or that is character-driven. That's why I'm real excited about Runaway Jury. It's a big-budget film with a big cast, but really issue-driven, and a very complex ensemble piece.
I was trying to get The Lathe of Heaven remade for five years; I was in
the original, but I didn't have anything to do with the new one, they just threw
my name in because I had developed it for a number of years and then it went
south. I won't get into that, but it led to me being able to direct Off
Season for Showtime, and that was great -- we got five Emmy nominations and
won two for that one, with Hume Cronyn, Alan Arkin and Sherilynn Fenn. That was
the good part.
Does the casting affect whether you want to do a project?
Oh, certainly. This is just one of the rare opportunities to play with the big boys, and I can't tell you how exciting it is. This is truly one of the most exciting times I've had, getting to play with Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, John Cusack and Bruce McGill, these terrific character actors.
It looks like you've done a huge number of movies the last three years, like you really haven't taken a break.
I'm in them -- I don't necessarily do them like the people who develop them or run them. I come along and I'm a supporting actor in them, which I guess is why I've been able to maintain my longevity. On The Practice I was declared insane and sort of put out to pasture. I think basically David Kelly wanted to deal with the insanity issue in court, and once that was finished, my storyline was finished; I can't see my character going anywhere, except maybe coming back and shooting somebody else.
What else is on your wish list?
I've worked with so many who were on my wish list already. I'd like to work with Robert Altman again; he's one of my favorites. I would love to work with Martin Scorsese. I'd like to work with Steven [Spielberg]; we used to be friends years ago, but I don't know about this lifetime. I never know what's going to come down the pike and I'm always surprised when it does. My wish was to get to work with Hoffman, Duvall and Hackman, and I've gotten two out of three on this picture. So a big wish came true on that.
Oh, and I did a Law and Order: SVU. My wife and I finally got to act in something together, albeit very briefly -- we did get in a shot together. It's a great issue; it's stem cell research. They're probably going to sweep with it, because it's a great show. JoBeth Williams is in it, and Phil Bosco and myself. I'm a doctor who is harvesting stem cells from coma patients that I've impregnated, not with my own sperm, but with that of Parkinson's patients, and I'm using the stem cells to experiment to save them. It's very hairy. It deals with an issue, if you're not going to be able to have stem cells, you're cutting off all kinds of stuff that we're right on the verge of with research, dealing with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's and spinal cord injury and heart disease. All of it, if we develop stem cells, which can grow into anything. We can restructure the human body.
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