Syfy Conference Call with CCH Pounder, Warehouse 13
September 13, 2010 12:00 pm CT
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen thank you
for standing by. Welcome to the SCIFI conference call. I would
like to turn the conference over to Mr. Stephen Cox. Please go ahead.
Stephen Cox: Good morning and afternoon everyone.
Thank you very much joining us this Monday. We have the lovely talented
and overall magnificent CCH Pounder with us today.
Coming up on Warehouse 13, Mrs. Frederick’s life hangs
in the balance during this week’s heart-pounding episode airing
tomorrow, Tuesday, September 14 at 9:00 pm.
The season finale of Warehouse 13 airs Tuesday,
September 21, next week, at 9:00 pm. We’re really excited to have her
joining us and we will turn it over to your questions now. Thank you
very much moderator.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will
now have a question and answer session. To register a question via the
telephone, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone
keypad.
If your question has
already answered and you would like to withdraw your registration,
please press the 1 followed by the 3.
If you’re using a
speakerphone, please lift your handset before entering your request.
We ask that all
participants register only one question and one follow up question at a
time. If you would like to ask further questions, please re-queue up by
pressing 1, 4.
Our first question comes
from the line of Kenn Gold with Media Boulevard. Please proceed with
your question.
Kenn Gold: Thank you so much for your time
today. I really appreciate it. Hello.
CCH Pounder: I can hear you Kenn Gold.
Kenn Gold: Okay.
CCH Pounder: Yeah.
Kenn Gold: Hi. I just wanted to ask you, you
usually played some really memorable characters out there in a lot of
different genres. And I was wondering if you could talk about just
generally how you go about deciding, whether or not, you want to take a
role and specifically how you came to play Mrs. Frederick?
CCH Pounder: Well, only recently, like maybe in the
last seven years, I took a look at my resume and kind of went, ooh, I’m
kind of hitting my stride on touching pretty much every genre known to
man in the film world. Maybe I should just go for it.
And so, this - all this is
about timing. It wasn’t that I went out to seek a SciFi product, but it
- one came up and the other thing that came up was, police captain. And
I thought, well having just spent seven years in that end, perhaps I’m
going to go SciFi. So that’s actually how I found SciFi again.
And this way, the
character, Mrs. Frederick is so mysterious, that even the writers are -
haven’t been able to tell me who she is. She has no legend like the
other actors do.
And I thought, it might be
fun to just so sort of insert yourself in a place where you know nothing
about the character, except what’s written on the page for that
particular episode.
And so far, it’s been a
little scary, but still challenging and fun.
Kenn Gold: Hey, great. Thank you. And then as
my follow up, since you’re Mrs. Frederick on the show, there must be or
must have been a Mr. Frederick at some point.
Do you have any druthers
on who you’d like to see play him if they ever go that route for the
show?
CCH Pounder: Well, I’ve been trying to figure this
guy out. First of all, is he still alive? Did she take over his job? Was
there actually a Mr. Frederick and she knew so much about him that she
just took his place, which sounds a little bit like Avatar with the
dude, the dead brother and the living brother.
But, it’s a possibility.
And then again, there’s Mrs. Frederick with that fabulous beehive
hairstyle stuck in the 60’s, perhaps he was the guy in the audience that
- while she was singing in the nightclub, that passed on secret
information to her.
I really could go
anywhere. So, I have no clue, but I cannot wait to see who or what Mr.
Frederick was or is.
Kenn Gold: Right. Thank you. Thank you.
CCH Pounder: And does he look as real age?
Kenn Gold: All right.
CCH Pounder: So is he like 150?
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Troy Rogers with the Dead Bolt. Please proceed with your
question.
Troy Rogers: Hi CCH.
CCH Pounder: How are you?
Troy Rogers: Not too bad. Now, I’m - Ms.
Frederick has a connection to Warehouse 2. I don’t know how - how much
of her back story will we see in the “Buried” episode?
CCH Pounder: Well, some of it will escape, because
Mrs. Frederick is sick, and therefore, the computer/brain in her head
starts to spew out information. You just have to learn another language
to figure it out, but we’ve got the fabulous Claudia to figure that out
on the computer.
So, you will learn a
little bit more about her and maybe Warehouse 2 is, one of several
warehouses that she has participated in.
So, your guess is as good
as mine, but you will get a hint of it in this “Buried”.
Troy Rogers: Nice. And for my follow up, I’d
like to know what was it like working opposite Lindsay Wagner?
CCH Pounder: Oh, that was fun. It’s so funny,
because when you’re known for something, people never say, it’s sort of
like, “Oh, you know, who’s coming in on this set, it’s Lindsay Wagner.”
They go, ‘No, it’s the Bionic Woman”.
So, your mind goes back to
the Bionic Woman, what 30 years ago. And then Lindsay Wagner, the
actress, shows up and she is a fabulous actor of film and television and
theatre and you get to work with a pro and it’s cool.
Troy Rogers: Nice.
CCH Pounder: And the Bionic Woman, long dead and
gone.
Troy Rogers: Thank you.
CCH Pounder: You’re welcome.
Operator: Your next question comes from
the line of Lillian Standefer from SciFi Mafia. Please proceed with your
question.
Lillian Standefer: Hi CCH. Thank you so much for taking
the time to talk to us today.
CCH Pounder: You’re welcome Lillian.
Lillian Standefer: Well, my question is regarding the
regents. Will be able to see - to learn more about the (in matic)
regents and the right eye of Horace?
When we spoke to Allison
Scagliotti a couple of weeks ago, she said that regents were working
class people rather than government types.
And since the last two
episodes of this season are in Egypt, are we going to see more of - I
guess, behind the Egyptian symbology, between the regents and the make
some fault line?
CCH Pounder: Now, that’s really interesting that
Allison, young pup, only saw what looked like working class people in
that café, because in fact, there was sort of every level of humanity in
that café and the surprise was, was that, they looked ordinary and that
was the difference.
Lillian Standefer: Okay.
CCH Pounder: So, I would say that regents are
ordinary looking people with extraordinary responsibility.
Lillian Standefer: Ooh.
CCH Pounder: That’s the first thing. I think you’ll
hear a lot more about the regents because they are the big decision
makers of Warehouse 13.
Now, how did that’d all
come about? I have no clue.
Lillian Standefer: And is there anything that you can
tell us about the Egyptian symbology? But I kept feeling that there was
- that part of - refers to McPherson plotline that wasn’t fully paid all
up.
CCH Pounder: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think Warehouse
13’s probably really confident, especially when they already know that
there’s - the season three is going to happen, so that maybe they didn’t
have to explore everything and explain everything all together this
season, because we’ve got another season to come.
And I think all those
things kind of will reveal itself, but I don’t know which path that
they’re going down. I don’t know whether it’s the eye of Horace path. I
don’t know whether the Egyptian warehouse kind of Alexandria will come
back up again.
And I’m kind of clueless
as you are.
Lillian Standefer: Ooh. And I would love to learn more
about that plot line. I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t - that we
didn’t get more of that this season, but I’m really psyched to here that
we’ll be able to get into that next season.
CCH Pounder: Well, particularly because the - Egypt
basically is the origin of the warehouse, so I think the possibilities
of it going back and forth there is, you know, and plumbing those
stories is probably a reality for them.
But, it’s my educated
guess. That’s all I’ve given you.
Lillian Standefer: Well thank you. And my little follow
up question is, do you have any theories about what - what or who Mrs.
Frederick is?
CCH Pounder: Yes, I do. I think Mrs. Frederick is a
hologram.
Lillian Standefer: Oh, but she can touch things and
interact with people.
CCH Pounder: Yes, she can.
Lillian Standefer: And the mystery of how she is able
to transcend time and stuff. This is a very interesting...
CCH Pounder: Yes, how is she able to transcend
time? Why doesn’t she need to enter through a door? All these things.
Why is that hairstyle so prominent? Is that period that she liked and
said, “Okay, I’m going to go with this for the next 400 years”.
Did she see it in the
future and decide that’s a fabulous hairstyle? Is it a memory of the
past? There’s, you know...
Well, I’m always trying to
figure it out myself. I will tell you that, Mrs. Frederick has no legend
and I don’t know if you know, that most actors are given a kind of
legend or background story of who the character is. Mrs. Frederick just
got a blank page and said, “Not to be divulged.”
Lillian Standefer: I think your character is one of the
most amazing characters on the show, so thank you very much for bringing
her alive.
CCH Pounder: Thanks. I appreciate that.
Lillian Standefer: Thank you.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Tiffany Vogt with Airlock Alpha. Please proceed with your
question.
Tiffany Vogt: Hi CCH.
CCH Pounder: Hi Tiffany.
Tiffany Vogt: Okay, without knowing much about
Mrs. Frederick, her character’s background, what would you personally
like for the writers to do more of with your character?
CCH Pounder: Well, one of the fun things about
being CCH Pounder, is that the one quirk I have, is that I am rather
fascinated by what writers do. And so, I never like to put ideas into
their heads and I love to just sort of reveal what it is that they’ve
written in kind of flesh form.
I just like to sort of
create it there. So, I don’t have a sort of personal ego about, oh she
shouldn’t become this, and oh, she can’t do that. I’ve never had it.
And so, it affects this
show just as well as it did the others. And the others were very
successful for me, by not requesting that my character become so and so.
So, I kind of rather like my small ego-minded self and then the
character becomes the big deal.
Tiffany Vogt: Okay, great. And my follow up
question would be then, are there anything that’s similar between Mrs.
Frederick and yourself?
CCH Pounder: Besides the fact that we both wear
glasses, absolutely nothing. Even in the sense of women in authority - I
think most people know that I’m a giant wimp, so it’s kind of fun to be
able to play these characters in the fake world. That I have visions of
full of in real life.
Tiffany Vogt: Oh great. Thank you very much.
CCH Pounder: Okay. You’re welcome.
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Kenya Jones with ACED Magazine. Please go proceed with your
questions.
Kenya Jones: It’s ACED Magazine. Thank you. Hi.
It’s very great to talk to you.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Kenya Jones: Well, I wanted to take it back to
your classic characters and ask you about Avatar, if I may. I know that
I was one of the people who knew your voice so well, but because it was
a type of animation that you know, we were like to trying to figure out,
is that CCH? Is it not CCH?
And you know, of course,
you had the accent. So it was like, you know, when we finally saw the
credits and it was you, we were so excited. So I was wondering if you
got any of that from friends or family watching the movie and trying to
figure out, you know, if that was you?
CCH Pounder: Well, Avatar has huge credits. They’re
really, really long and I know lots of people who stayed to determine
whether that was my voice or not.
Yes, I got that a lot from
lots of mail, lots of Facebook reaction on that. But, it’s really
interesting that the folks that - who were under 15 years old who are
friends of Justice League and recognized - know Amanda Waller’s voice,
knew even in another language, even while speaking another language,
knew that it was me, which I felt pretty amazing.
So, I’ve got a slew of 15
year old young men who said, “We knew that was you.”
Kenya Jones: You do have such a distinctive
voice. It’s really - you have this great quality to your voice.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Kenya Jones: Another thing I wanted to ask you
about if - I’m so sorry. I’m taking it like way back, a cult classic I
know in my own household is, “The Tales from the Crypt Demon Knight.”
CCH Pounder: Ah.
Kenya Jones: And you have so many quotable
quotes in that movie man, we still watch it to this day and we quote you
non-stop. Like do you - did you ever get anybody coming up to you
quoting you from that movie or any of the other films you’ve done?
CCH Pounder: I do. I tend to get -people who’d make
their arm disappear. They like to do the arm disappearing and the
swigging the vodka moment a lot. Yeah. And so, even if they don’t speak
to me, right away you know exactly what they’re talking about and what
they meant and they get a thrill of like, “I thought you knew what I was
talking about.”
So...
Kenya Jones: I only get two questions, so I’m
going to come back around, so thank you so much.
CCH Pounder: Okay. You’re welcome.
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Joseph Dilworth with Pop Culture Zoo. Please proceed with your
question.
Joseph Dilworth: Hi CCH. Thank you so much for talking
to us today.
CCH Pounder: Got it Joseph. Do they really call you
Joseph? Or do they call you Joe?
Joseph Dilworth: They call me Joe.
CCH Pounder: Yeah.
Joseph Dilworth: My first question is, as you said
earlier, you played in pilot ones for seven years on the table where you
know, one of the regular characters and a cornerstone of the show.
And now you can do
Warehouse 13 where you’re this mysterious character who’s kind of
-floats in and out. Is there - acting-wise how do you adjust to the
varying difference there?
CCH Pounder: Well, there’s kind of really no
difference in the acting, except that in terms of how I go about it. But
what is really nice, is that I’ve always tried to either extend
characters that I did before sort of cameo style and I get an
opportunity to do say, like a police captain in another genre, in
another area.
For instance, I did a
police captain in the film and then suddenly I got the shield and they
had similarities. And I brought that one core thing that they had, which
was they were very tough and then tried to turn it into, why did they
become tough, how did it happen, etc., etc., and what made them the type
of character that they are.
So, with Mrs. Frederick,
who is - has no history whatsoever to be - for the writers to tell me
about and they won’t tell me about it, I can tell you that.
I’m just like a complete
blank slate. So they get kind of a thrill of me showing up and say,
“What is she going to do with that?”, and I get the kind of excitement
of, I have no clue as I have no idea where she came from, where is she
going.
Is she human? Is she -
what is she? And still trying to pass on information, so you’ve got a
story to tell.
So it has been kind of
like the hare’s wild ride and another thing, Mrs. Frederick cannot be a
regular, because some of the things, if you’re mysterious and you keep
showing up all the time, then it’s like not so mysterious. You’ve going
to eventually...
Joseph Dilworth: Okay.
CCH Pounder: ...have to say something that gives
people some kind of information as to who she is.
So...
Joseph Dilworth: Right.
CCH Pounder: ...I think she’s kind of going to
remain this sort of character that you sporadically see, but when you do
see her, something major’s going to happen.
Joseph Dilworth: Well, I know we all wish we could see
more of you and it’s always exciting when we do. So...
CCH Pounder: Thanks a lot. Thank you.
Joseph Dilworth: As a follow up question, I was just
wondering if there’s any updates on the progress of artists for a new
South Africa?
CCH Pounder: Well, right now we are in the throes
of a thousand tiny little projects. When a subject isn’t big news, like
Apartheid right now, is not big news, although, when you do something
for 50 years and it’s part of the fabric of a place, it’s really hard to
kind of have the independence, have ten years of Nelson Mandela and
everything is all fine and dandy.
The repercussions of it,
is it that there is still a lack of housing, that there’s still an AIDS
pandemic. And so we are working on all of those tiny things, but we get
a third of the amount of the donations, because right now all the
emergencies are very different.
Pakistan has a huge
emergency. Haiti has a huge emergency. There are all these immediate
things, so it’s one of those organizations who understand the ups and
downs of being recognized and right now we’re going through just in the
trenches, slogging from one part to the next to get funding for this,
that and the other.
And we’re still here. I
always like charities to disappear, because I still find that things got
better and something was remedied, and I try really hard to be patient
and proud.
It not being done in my
lifetime, you know, what I mean. So...
Joseph Dilworth: Yeah.
CCH Pounder: ...I have to hang in there.
Joseph Dilworth: Well, hopefully we can all get the
word out a little bit more about that. So...
CCH Pounder: I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Joseph Dilworth: Thank you and thank you for your time
today.
CCH Pounder: Okay. Take care.
Joseph Dilworth: Okay.
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Melissa Germante, with the Television.com. Please proceed with
your question.
Melissa Germante: Well, how are you doing today?
CCH Pounder: I’m fine. Thank you.
Melissa Germante: I wanted to ask you, coming from,
you know, The Shield, which was set in, you know, nitty gritty outlay.
How’s your experience been working in the Toronto so far?
CCH Pounder: In Toronto, in Yorkville, where the
restaurants are endless and the shopping is right at your fingertip and
you can walk anywhere freely, day or night, compared to the...
Melissa Germante: Yeah.
CCH Pounder: ...the risk with studios. But compared
to where the studio was in L.A. for the Shield, this is sort of almost
downtown and in the rough and tumble areas, but what I call very artsy.
And thank god for artists.
We turn everything into
shinola, which is really great. So, it’s very, very different, but the
physical place of where Warehouse 13 takes place, like when you actually
go to work, it is in a giant warehouse and it’s surrounded by a certain
amount of barrenness, which does kind of - well it doesn’t look like the
desert, but it does look deserted.
And well, it’s fine. It’s
very, very, very, very different. Because the whole situation for me is
different. In The Shield I was a regular and we were very family like.
We worked together all day long all part of the castings of the Police
Station, so, that’s very different after coming in as the mystery woman
and working once or twice per episode, one or two days for episode. It’s
very different.
Melissa Germante: And just kind of a follow up, and
I’m not sure if all of this was done in the studio or not, but how did
they transform Toronto into Egypt? Was that all done in your studios or
were there any locations that were suddenly transformed into Egypt for
these upcoming episodes?
CCH Pounder: Well, I’ve got tell you, they are the
specialists ex-king. I just don’t know how they pull this stuff off, but
they do and it was all done in the studio and you know, I think
cordoning offer part of a neighborhood and sucking it out turning it
into that Egyptian look.
And which, by the way,
because you know, Toronto is a really eclectic city and it’s got all
types of people there. There were - they didn’t have to go to any great
lengths to make it look like Egypt, by the way.
Melissa Germante: Yeah. Well thank you so much and
I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Toronto.
CCH Pounder: I appreciate it.
Operator: Our next question is a follow up
question from the line of Lillian Standefer with SciFi Mafia. Please
proceed with your question.
Lillian Standefer: Hello again.
CCH Pounder: Hi.
Lillian Standefer: I’m sure- well - will you lend your
voice again to play Amanda Waller in any upcoming animated movies
sufficient with the Justice League?
CCH Pounder: Well, it’s very interesting, because
there is actually a movie coming out and Pam Greer is playing Amanda
Waller. So, that was, I believe, the third Amanda Waller that there is.
I can’t remember who the
very first one was. So, I don’t know, but I do know that the Amanda
Waller’s voice that I’ve done is, probably the most recognized. So it’s
very possible that we could do something like that. We’ll see.
Lillian Standefer: Well, it sounds like you’ve got a
really big fan base from that, as well.
CCH Pounder: I’m very surprised. Yeah. It is pretty
surprising.
Lillian Standefer: Well, as a follow up question to
that, what are the different challenges do you see from doing voice
acting versus doing television or movies?
CCH Pounder: I don’t find them very, very different
at all. But there’s just one thing though that I really do want to clear
up, particularly for something like Avatar, which a lot of people
consider that voice acting, but in fact, you’re doing like a full bodied
acting where your physicality is what you’re actually seeing on the
film.
What you’re not seeing is
what I look like. You’re seeing what the Avatar looks like. So, a lot of
people got confused by that, and it took us a really long time to
explain that...oh, no this is not an animated voice thing.
This is actually actors
acting, but they look physically different. But all the physical stuff
that they did, all the gestures, all the eye movements, but that was all
us doing the work.
So, there’s going to be a
lot of changes then, because that’s basically, I think one of the new
things, new parts of technology and incorporated with acting that’s
going to be happening and it’s going to be a regular part of our lives.
So, the people who had not
considered using their voice as, you know, part of the acting world, I
think that very quickly now, they’re know, they’ll have to incorporate
that too, because there’s going to be voice acting. There’s going to be
performance capture acting and then they’ll be just regular everyday
acting that you see now.
Lillian Standefer: That’s fascinating how much
technology has changed.
CCH Pounder: It really is, because I can imagine
that the person who was in the silent movies and who suddenly had to go
to the talkies and hearing their voice for the first time, and suddenly,
you know, not be eligible because your voice sounds too squeaky or you
know, you look manly, but your voice sounded too soft.
All those things are in -
have to be taken into account, even from - yet going from black and
white to Technicolor and now from this idea of what we see as acting now
into performance capture where you put on this gear. You’ve covered in
electrodes. You’re doing the acting, but you don’t see the actor. You
just see the animated version of that actor or that Avatar.
And so, you can become
anything now.
Lillian Standefer: But the performance control...
CCH Pounder: You can become anything now.
Lillian Standefer: But the performance control - but
the performance that you give is still captured and it’s executed that
way, right?
CCH Pounder: Exactly.
Lillian Standefer: Wonderful. Thank you very much.
CCH Pounder: From now on, I can say any fact, any
age, and any race. Yeah. Equality at last.
Lillian Standefer: That is quite amazing, isn’t it?
CCH Pounder: Yes it is.
Lillian Standefer: Well, thank you very much.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is another
follow up question from the line of Tiffany Vogt with Air Lock Alpha.
Please proceed with your question.
Tiffany Vogt: Hello again CCH. I was wondering if
you have at the bar with Warehouse 13 as favorite episode or scene that
you’ve done?
CCH Pounder: Favorite. No, I don’t want to say I
had a favorite. I’ve had one that made me the saddest and that was when
I lost my bodyguard.
I don’t know if you’ve
seen - saw that episode already, but at the end of the first season, my
bodyguard got some kind of internal choking mechanism happening to him
while driving and he imploded.
It was horrible. I miss
him. Yeah.
Tiffany Vogt: Understandable. And a follow up
question, how did you land the part of Mrs. Frederick? Were you
approached? Did you have to go and interview for it? How was that done?
CCH Pounder: I think because I’ve done a series of
-for the fairly authoritative women and I think a lot of the times the
word CCH Pounder and Gravitas go together. Somebody there, I was just
asked would I consider that?
So, it was simple. At this
point, it’s kind of simple in the things that people know you well for.
What’s the challenges an actor is - the other things that you want to do
and they just kind of imagine you doing it, because you’re such a heavy
or you’re such a giggler or you’re all of those different kinds of
immediate recognition things that they give you.
So right now, I’m CCH
Pounder, the woman of gravitas. So when they’re looking for gravitas,
they call for me, but I could be quite silly and lighthearted.
Tiffany Vogt: It’s good to know. Thank you very
much.
CCH Pounder: You’re welcome.
Operator: Our next question comes from the
line of Jamie Ruby with SciFi Vision. Please proceed with your question.
Jamie Ruby: Hi. Thanks for taking our call
today.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Jamie Ruby: So how did you get started in
acting?
CCH Pounder: I grew up in England in a Boarding
School. And I got hit at the back of the head with a cricket ball. I had
short term memory and the nuns thought - it was a private school lead by
nuns, the nuns though, “Oh, you know what, if we taught her poems,
perhaps it’ll kind of get her memory going”.
And so I used to learn
these poems by rote and recite it back to the nuns. I should say the nun
- then the nuns, because the more I recited them back, the more poems I
learned, the larger the audience of nuns became.
So that was my very first
audience, me and my crappy memory reciting poetry to nuns. And then I
entered amateur theatre and then became professional, all in a nutshell.
But it was really because
of that cricket ball, because I was going to be a doctor, of course,
like every other kid in the world.
And so, that’s how it
originally happened and I was in the theatre for many, many years before
I came to television and film.
And they were all by
accident. So, this has been guided by sort of Kismet and good luck and
timing.
Jamie Ruby: Okay. Can you talk about - you’re
on two of my favorite shows. Could you talk about working on X-Files and
Millennium?
CCH Pounder: Sure. Well, I’ll talk about Millennium
first, because I thought that was the darkest show on earth and I kept
saying over and over to the Chris Carter, “But Chris it’s so dark.
There’s no hope.” How, I mean, he said, “No, but it’s something that
there’s a glimmer” and I said, like another thing, “I never saw the
glimmer.”
So X-Files on the other
hand, which is by the way, how I met Chris Carter, was Agent Lucy Caston
that I played in - for them, who was a marvel of efficiency. And I
really had a very, very good time in X-Files, and there was a moment
there when I thought, oh this would be recurring and then we moved onto
Millennium.
X-Files, I found that
really fascinating. That was terrific and scary and weird in lots of
ways, but Millennium I found scary and dark and dark and dark. And it
just - it was actually kind of depressing when I’d go to work. It was
sort of like, you’re never going to get out of this fog and I was
actually really amazed that there’s a group of people who are like
really staunch Millenniumers or whatever, like they are really behind
it.
But it’s - that’s a dark
series.
Jamie Ruby: Yeah, definitely. I think it
started to get a little lighter though as the show went on, but not for
a while I guess.
CCH Pounder: Not for a while and I think it also
sort of went lighter, because of pressure, you know. So they said
lighten it up. Come on. But, I don’t think that we’re in the habit of
seeing things that seem without hope.
Even though I thought the
writing in it was really super and the look of it was pretty amazing,
but I don’t know, I just thought that in terms of telling stories, that
lightness had to be a huge part of the story. I didn’t think there was
very much light in it.
I should have asked Chris
Carter was he was going through at the time.
Jamie Ruby: Well, I enjoyed it. So thank you
very much.
CCH Pounder: Okay. Take care.
Operator: Our next question is a follow up
question from the line of Kenya Jones with ACED Magazine. Please proceed
with your question.
CCH Pounder: Hi.
Kenya Jones: Hi again. Talking of your fan base,
I mean, someone has mentioned favorite shows you’ve been on and ER was
one of mine and I’m - you know, you must be approached by a range of
different people, on, you know, a range of different subjects and roles
you’ve played in general.
Like what is your life
that way to, you know, dealing with being recognized for so many
different things you’ve done?
CCH Pounder: Well, I think that there’s a through
line in all of them and that is the character is always very, very
believable. And a lot of the characters, people seem to sort of relate
to personally that there is truth in her that they recognize in
themselves or other people that they know, so that she’s not foreign or
distant or alien.
A lot of people when I’m
walking around the streets, think that I was their high school
principal, because she’s so amazing.
Kenya Jones: Wow.
CCH Pounder: So, they all - but it’s all this, “You
were in charge of that. Artbury- were you the principal of my school?”,
and it was so funny that you - that for some how or either, I’ve
impressed upon them that when they see me they’re supposed to sit up
straight and speak correctly.
But, the roles that I have
played so far have been, for the most part, my choice. And I am
fascinated by, I say it often, the extraordinariness of ordinary people
and the things that they pull out of their reserve to get things done.
My mother did and made it
by that. And I really think that super heros are you know, everyday
folks.
Kenya Jones: I wanted to congratulate on your
Emmy nominations for the Number One Lady Detective Agency.
CCH Pounder: Thank you.
Kenya Jones: And that was another of my favorite
roles of yours and a very, very good chill. I don’t know if you know
anything about the - what’s going on with that show or not, but I think
it’d be awesome if you did continue to - that you made an appearance
there.
Do you have any
information about that show?
CCH Pounder: Well, I’d love to visit it again, but
(Jill) recently had a baby and I know that she doesn’t want to have the
baby travel until- I don’t remember what month or how old she had
stated.
And so, I think they are
trying to work around that. But at the moment, it is on hold.
Kenya Jones: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much.
CCH Pounder: And the baby’s gorgeous.
Kenya Jones: I’ll bet it is. She’s gorgeous.
CCH Pounder: Yeah, worth the weight. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is a follow up
question from the line of Jamie Ruby with SciFi Vision. Please go ahead.
Jamie Ruby: Hi again.
CCH Pounder: Hi.
Jamie Ruby: I’m not sure how much you know,
you’ve watched Warehouse 13 other than your own part, but do you have a
favorite artifact or also if you could like pick some artifact to be in
the show, what would it be?
CCH Pounder: Well, the thing about what you guys
don’t get to see, is us when we actually walk down through the
warehouse. They- their artifacts there that have nothing necessarily to
do with the current show, but they’re there in the event that that might
happen, so they are some pretty amazing ones.
I like sometimes the
really simply ones, like the wallet that talks and influences. There
were the bronzification machine and to see that in person, the stuff
that they’ve built, is pretty extraordinary.
In terms of what else
could be in there, I’m kind of tickled by the fact that it is sort of
steeped in history in some way or another and that kind of steam punk
look is a huge part of our show.
And so, not necessarily
the artifacts, but I use computer to see it in reality is an amazing
thing. It is fabulous to look at how they put these -these keys look
like they’re from the old adding machines and then there’s - it’s
bronzed over.
And this case is
completely ornate. It’s - I don’t know where we get out talent for the
-for our props and the works, but this stuff is gorgeous.
Like fiber ware. Yeah.
Fabulous.
Jamie Ruby: Awesome. Now you talked a bit
earlier about kind of that you don’t know, you know, any of Mrs.
Frederick’s story or have an idea. But if you could write something, and
you know, make whatever you wanted up, is there something that you’d
either like to see have been in her back story, or see happen on the
show?
CCH Pounder: Oh yeah. Well, I told it once, so
we’ll spend a little time. I envisioned that Mrs. Frederick was actually
a back up girl for some singing group. And that the resolve is a fellow
in the audience that came to see her over and over again, and obviously
this was CIA agent, but she didn’t know that at the time.
And that on - he came one
time when he was sick, and after her performance, he approached her in
the hallway backstage and said, “Can I have a drink with you?”
And then, of course, it
was the ‘60’s and I think that Mr. Frederick was a white guy and they
have to find a place where a black person and a white person can have
this conversation.
And he tells her his
entire life and who is and what he does, and that he has this
information and he says, “And I want to feed it to you.” And by whatever
means he does it, through blood, through transfusions, through hooking
up to electrodes together, he implants all this information in the now
Mrs. Fredericks playing - who has moved from Show Girl background doo-op
singer to the incredible brain of Warehouse 13.
There you go.
Jamie Ruby: Okay. That’s great. It would work.
CCH Pounder: You like it? Thank you.
Jamie Ruby: Don’t tell that to the writers now.
Okay. Thank you.
CCH Pounder: You’re welcome.
Operator: There are no further questions
at this time.
Greg: Thank you very much everyone
for joining. Thank you very CCH for your time. We really appreciate it
and Warehouse 13 airs tomorrow night, Tuesday at 9:00 pm.
Thank you very much guys.
CCH Pounder: Okay. Bye, bye.
Operator: That does conclude the
conference call for today and we thank you for your participation and
ask that you please disconnect your line.
Back to the Main Articles
Page
Back to the Main Primetime TV Page
We need more episode guide recap writers, article
writers, MS FrontPage and Web Expression users, graphics designers, and more, so
please email us
if you can help out! More volunteers always
needed! Thanks!
Page updated 4/15/15
