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shipperxGakked from a Farscape list. Browder's interview about the upcoming miniseries.
SFX magazine (July 2004) has a big interview with Ben Browder:
[Bad username or site: <b @ livejournal.com]CRICHTON ROCKS">
Yeehaw! Farscape is back! Thanks to the petitioning of fans and the far-sighted people at the US Sci Fi Channel, the mighty Ben Browder slams back into action as lovable John Crichton, braving bombs, brazen hussies, and - maybe - babies. At the end of Farscape's fourth and final season, Crichton and his new fiancee, the pregnant Aeryn Sun, were left in granulated form ... but is the ebullient Mr. Browder ready to divulge how the freeze-dried heroes return to their full-flavoured selves? No! He's hell-bent on discussing Crichton's sartorial elegance.
"Yeah, I'll be in some leather," he grins. "You know, the Farscape mini-series is so huge they had to rebuild the sets and build new critters and new prosthetics, and they had to make a bunch of other stuff so they couldn't afford to make me a new costume."
That's what we like to hear. There's nothing like a bloke in leather to raise female (and, indeed, some male) pulses - and ratings. "But," complains the actor, "I haven't had a new costume forever. Every season I'd ask, 'Can I have some new clothes?' but our costume designer was so happy with the costume that he gave me in the second series he'd go, 'Ah, Benny, it's perfect. Love it.'"
It's good to know that, despite the myriad innovations incorporated into the new series, some things never change. "I actually got into the same costume," Browder volunteers. "As a performer, there's a really nervous moment when you step into your old pants, and as you pull them up you go, 'Uh oh! If I've eaten at the Denny's all-you-can-eat-buffet just once too often, these things aren't going to go on!' The whole production gave a collective sigh of relief when they slipped right on in there, because the entire thing would have been shut down otherwise. I would have been walking around in just my underwear ... and with all the fighting we do ... This. Is. Not. A. Safe. Thing. All the stuff we blow up - it could get dangerous." Thank goodness he's wearing protection, then.
Referring to the spectacular scenes we can look forward to when the latest Farscape frolics unfold, the actor reveals, "We actually used so many pyrotechnics in Australia that we ran out of explosives and had to start importing them. The special FX guys responsible for our pyrotechnics were astounded. That's what happens when you blow up the universe. With Farscape we keep stepping up. Season one - we blew up a base; then we did something bigger. We blew up a planet and then thought, 'What can we do next? Oh, let's blow up the universe.' So we needed a lot of bombs."
Talking of bombing, how did Farscape go from cancellation (a gross misjudgement on the part of the powers-that-be) to a brand new production? Apparently the Sci Fi Channel didn't just sit in a bar one night and say, "Oh, let's do a mini-series." Browder assures us it was far more complicated than that. "Five minutes before we were cancelled Brian Henson was thinking of where to take the series after season five, and we were all right there with him. Then the financial packaging - or whatever it was - fell apart and the series was done. Then, not too much later, Brian found the money - in large part due to what the fans were doing by vocally supporting the show."
Browder hastily dispels any rumours that some of his own money went into the pot. "God no! I was happy to come back for my train fare and lunch money. That's what I'm getting out of it 'cause they spent all the money on pyros and rebuilding the sets. But it's worth it. It was amazing to walk back in.
"It's a remarkable thing to find yourself, a year after you leave, back in Australia wearing black leather trousers," Browder sighs, dramatically. "Because in the Australian summer you don't really want to find yourself wearing black leather trousers."
Couldn't he have had a little air vent inserted? The question is met with a shout of derision. "What? Air vent? No way! I was thinking more of a portable air conditioner - a kind of blower thing I could just shove up my leg. You can just imagine people asking, 'What's that thing he's hauling around?' and the crew would be going, 'Oh, that's to keep him cooled down.'"
Attempting to get the poor soul off the subject of clothing and onto more substantial topics, we try to tease out a wee bit about the plot - but Browder is mock horrified at the very idea. "I can't tell you about the plot," he splutters. "I know it's your job to ask, but all I can tell you is that everybody is back and delighted to be there. It was just this massive family reunion and we were genuinely happy to see each other, 'cause you know how family reunions can go. You're waiting for Aunt Bess to get drunk and fall into the punch bowl and the ruckus to start. But it was all great fun for us."
Trying to tease out a tiny spoiler, we shoot, "What did you call the baby?" but Browder is not to be fooled. "Baby? What baby?" he asks.
"Aeryn's baby!"
"Aeryn's had a baby?"
Browder then goes on to protest that he can't tell us anything other than the fact that he had such a blast, or that if there is more than one mini-series he would leap back into the leather trousers faster than you can say baby powder. Still laughing, he says, "At the end of the ten weeks I thought Brian Henson would be certain that he wouldn't want to do any more Farscape, because the scale of the miniseries is so humungous. But he actually turned to me and went, 'Now we need to start thinking about the film.' Brian's next take is he'd like to see Farscape on the big screen. I completely concur with that. He's already discussed strategies for having big screen airings of Farscape the miniseries."
So, we have to ask: can we look forwards to some bizarre alien sex in the new show? There's a second of stunned silence before Browder collapses in hysterics at the mere idea. Giving him a minute to collect himself, we confess that this question came direct from SFX editor Dave Golder (it's thought that said editor is a bizarre alien and that he has a vested interest in this).
Amid much wheezing, Browder gasps, "It depends on your definition of bizarre, but let me put it to you this way. We do have some bizarre alien penetration. Does that answer your question?"
Absolutely!
Browder continues, chuckling. "Quote of the article - 'Ben Browder does bizarre alien penetration.' Ach, my poor mother is going to be shocked ... Now, is it true that the editors on SFX are smoking crack?"
Um ...
"Oh, do you have more bizarre questions? Please! Give me one more of their questions." Happy to oblige, it turns out that Jayne {SFX reviews editor} is extremely interested in a question put to the actor during an online chat. Apparently, someone asked if Browder could be described as a furry yeti or a smooth dude? The actor doesn't miss a beat. "You know what, if you want to see if I'm furry or smooth, pull out Farscape DVD season four. Slap in episode three. There ain't no body waxing going on."
Teased about the back, crack and sac phenomenon, he groans, "Oh man! That ... aarghh! I tell you, the only way you're getting hot wax on me on there is if it's part of a script that's being done by James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. I don't get that whole thing with the wax and tape and glue or whatever it is. I know people who swear by it and they go, 'Man. It's unbelievable.' But I'm like, 'You're out of your mind!'"
Browder thinks that kind of depilatory action falls into the category of bizarre alien sex and comments, "This is the kind of thing they did in the Middle Ages. In medieval times they'd go in and ask, 'Are you a witch?' And they'd pour hot wax on your personal bits. 'You dancing with the Devil in the woods? It's the back, crack and sac next.'"
Settling down, he smiles, "People have to do what they want to do so I don't want to be dissing anybody for doing that kind of thing. Just don't go looking for me to be doing it any time soon."
Glad that's settled. Look out for a leather-wearing furry yeti coming soon to a screen near you. Sounds like Farscape the miniseries to us.
The Farscape miniseries will air in the US in the Autumn. The BBC are currently in discussions about buying it.
SFX magazine (July 2004) has a big interview with Ben Browder:
[Bad username or site: <b @ livejournal.com]CRICHTON ROCKS">
Yeehaw! Farscape is back! Thanks to the petitioning of fans and the far-sighted people at the US Sci Fi Channel, the mighty Ben Browder slams back into action as lovable John Crichton, braving bombs, brazen hussies, and - maybe - babies. At the end of Farscape's fourth and final season, Crichton and his new fiancee, the pregnant Aeryn Sun, were left in granulated form ... but is the ebullient Mr. Browder ready to divulge how the freeze-dried heroes return to their full-flavoured selves? No! He's hell-bent on discussing Crichton's sartorial elegance.
"Yeah, I'll be in some leather," he grins. "You know, the Farscape mini-series is so huge they had to rebuild the sets and build new critters and new prosthetics, and they had to make a bunch of other stuff so they couldn't afford to make me a new costume."
That's what we like to hear. There's nothing like a bloke in leather to raise female (and, indeed, some male) pulses - and ratings. "But," complains the actor, "I haven't had a new costume forever. Every season I'd ask, 'Can I have some new clothes?' but our costume designer was so happy with the costume that he gave me in the second series he'd go, 'Ah, Benny, it's perfect. Love it.'"
It's good to know that, despite the myriad innovations incorporated into the new series, some things never change. "I actually got into the same costume," Browder volunteers. "As a performer, there's a really nervous moment when you step into your old pants, and as you pull them up you go, 'Uh oh! If I've eaten at the Denny's all-you-can-eat-buffet just once too often, these things aren't going to go on!' The whole production gave a collective sigh of relief when they slipped right on in there, because the entire thing would have been shut down otherwise. I would have been walking around in just my underwear ... and with all the fighting we do ... This. Is. Not. A. Safe. Thing. All the stuff we blow up - it could get dangerous." Thank goodness he's wearing protection, then.
Referring to the spectacular scenes we can look forward to when the latest Farscape frolics unfold, the actor reveals, "We actually used so many pyrotechnics in Australia that we ran out of explosives and had to start importing them. The special FX guys responsible for our pyrotechnics were astounded. That's what happens when you blow up the universe. With Farscape we keep stepping up. Season one - we blew up a base; then we did something bigger. We blew up a planet and then thought, 'What can we do next? Oh, let's blow up the universe.' So we needed a lot of bombs."
Talking of bombing, how did Farscape go from cancellation (a gross misjudgement on the part of the powers-that-be) to a brand new production? Apparently the Sci Fi Channel didn't just sit in a bar one night and say, "Oh, let's do a mini-series." Browder assures us it was far more complicated than that. "Five minutes before we were cancelled Brian Henson was thinking of where to take the series after season five, and we were all right there with him. Then the financial packaging - or whatever it was - fell apart and the series was done. Then, not too much later, Brian found the money - in large part due to what the fans were doing by vocally supporting the show."
Browder hastily dispels any rumours that some of his own money went into the pot. "God no! I was happy to come back for my train fare and lunch money. That's what I'm getting out of it 'cause they spent all the money on pyros and rebuilding the sets. But it's worth it. It was amazing to walk back in.
"It's a remarkable thing to find yourself, a year after you leave, back in Australia wearing black leather trousers," Browder sighs, dramatically. "Because in the Australian summer you don't really want to find yourself wearing black leather trousers."
Couldn't he have had a little air vent inserted? The question is met with a shout of derision. "What? Air vent? No way! I was thinking more of a portable air conditioner - a kind of blower thing I could just shove up my leg. You can just imagine people asking, 'What's that thing he's hauling around?' and the crew would be going, 'Oh, that's to keep him cooled down.'"
Attempting to get the poor soul off the subject of clothing and onto more substantial topics, we try to tease out a wee bit about the plot - but Browder is mock horrified at the very idea. "I can't tell you about the plot," he splutters. "I know it's your job to ask, but all I can tell you is that everybody is back and delighted to be there. It was just this massive family reunion and we were genuinely happy to see each other, 'cause you know how family reunions can go. You're waiting for Aunt Bess to get drunk and fall into the punch bowl and the ruckus to start. But it was all great fun for us."
Trying to tease out a tiny spoiler, we shoot, "What did you call the baby?" but Browder is not to be fooled. "Baby? What baby?" he asks.
"Aeryn's baby!"
"Aeryn's had a baby?"
Browder then goes on to protest that he can't tell us anything other than the fact that he had such a blast, or that if there is more than one mini-series he would leap back into the leather trousers faster than you can say baby powder. Still laughing, he says, "At the end of the ten weeks I thought Brian Henson would be certain that he wouldn't want to do any more Farscape, because the scale of the miniseries is so humungous. But he actually turned to me and went, 'Now we need to start thinking about the film.' Brian's next take is he'd like to see Farscape on the big screen. I completely concur with that. He's already discussed strategies for having big screen airings of Farscape the miniseries."
So, we have to ask: can we look forwards to some bizarre alien sex in the new show? There's a second of stunned silence before Browder collapses in hysterics at the mere idea. Giving him a minute to collect himself, we confess that this question came direct from SFX editor Dave Golder (it's thought that said editor is a bizarre alien and that he has a vested interest in this).
Amid much wheezing, Browder gasps, "It depends on your definition of bizarre, but let me put it to you this way. We do have some bizarre alien penetration. Does that answer your question?"
Absolutely!
Browder continues, chuckling. "Quote of the article - 'Ben Browder does bizarre alien penetration.' Ach, my poor mother is going to be shocked ... Now, is it true that the editors on SFX are smoking crack?"
Um ...
"Oh, do you have more bizarre questions? Please! Give me one more of their questions." Happy to oblige, it turns out that Jayne {SFX reviews editor} is extremely interested in a question put to the actor during an online chat. Apparently, someone asked if Browder could be described as a furry yeti or a smooth dude? The actor doesn't miss a beat. "You know what, if you want to see if I'm furry or smooth, pull out Farscape DVD season four. Slap in episode three. There ain't no body waxing going on."
Teased about the back, crack and sac phenomenon, he groans, "Oh man! That ... aarghh! I tell you, the only way you're getting hot wax on me on there is if it's part of a script that's being done by James Cameron or Steven Spielberg. I don't get that whole thing with the wax and tape and glue or whatever it is. I know people who swear by it and they go, 'Man. It's unbelievable.' But I'm like, 'You're out of your mind!'"
Browder thinks that kind of depilatory action falls into the category of bizarre alien sex and comments, "This is the kind of thing they did in the Middle Ages. In medieval times they'd go in and ask, 'Are you a witch?' And they'd pour hot wax on your personal bits. 'You dancing with the Devil in the woods? It's the back, crack and sac next.'"
Settling down, he smiles, "People have to do what they want to do so I don't want to be dissing anybody for doing that kind of thing. Just don't go looking for me to be doing it any time soon."
Glad that's settled. Look out for a leather-wearing furry yeti coming soon to a screen near you. Sounds like Farscape the miniseries to us.
The Farscape miniseries will air in the US in the Autumn. The BBC are currently in discussions about buying it.
