DCC EXCLUSIVE Interview: STARGATE’S Alexis Cruz Talks About The Legacy and Future of The Franchise

This past weekend, I had the marvelous opportunity to talk with Stargate’s Alexis Cruz, a lucky last-minute add to the Dallas Comic-Con line-up of featured guests. Now with Stargate Universe canceled, I know that fans everywhere are wondering what will happen to the Stargate franchise. Cruz and I discussed the legacy of the series and its possible future. Check out this excerpt from our conversation below:

SciFi Mafia: You are one of only two actors, the other being Erick Avari who played Kasuf, cast in the Stargate movie that also appeared as the same character in the Stargate television series, Stargate: SG-1. How were the two experiences similar and how did they differ from one another?

Alexis Cruz: They were similar in that they were phenomenal experiences. Stargate was my first big, big film. I had worked with other stars before but Kurt Russell and James Spader and the rest of the cast were such amazing people.

One thing that made it really special was that we had an anthropologist who was consulting on the film who actually taught us the ancient Egyptian language. It had never been verbalized. This was his life’s work. So as artists ourselves, we were able to contribute to his scholarly work by vocalizing this language and between what he was teaching us and what we knew as actors – our own ability to communicate, our own knowledge of behavior, we were able to shed insight on his work in terms of how people communicate and the real values of certain words, sounds, and intonations which he hadn’t considered before in sort of this real-life lab that we provided. So it was really a phenomenal experience. And that was really the first time that I realized that our work as actors could really transcend just being famous or just telling a story for entertainment.

SFM: It’s a very scholarly contribution to the world!

Alexis Cruz: Absolutely! We could add to humanity’s body of knowledge. And my path was set from there on in. This is what I want to keep doing and I want to do it properly. I want to learn my craft and I want to approach it from this particular angle.

And then the series was just plain fun.

SFM: [laughs]

Alexis Cruz: To see the dramatic tones of the film taken over by this new cast who did a remarkable job and put their own their stamp on it. Then I started learning about how actors can do that. How they can contribute to making a living narrative that suddenly became a world-wide phenomenon. And it shocked all of us. I mean, we always thought ‘This is really awesome and it’s really cool.’ But for ten, fifteen, twenty years later… really for it to rival Star Trek… and I can safely say that…

SFM: Yes!

Alexis Cruz: And to be a part of it from the beginning all the way through is a phenomenal thing. You just learn how projects can impact the lives of people all around the world. I’ve got fans who have come up to my table about how their whole family gathers on Friday nights and then on Mondays to watch Stargate and everything gets put aside. That a TV show can bring a family together like that and spark their imagination.

SFM: Exactly. That must be such a rewarding feeling.

Alexis Cruz: It really is. There’s a lot of times… our careers are difficult. There’s a lot of highs and a lot of valleys. So there are times that we often are frustrated and we wanna hang our hats and just give it all up. And then fans tell us their stories and it reminds us what we’re doing all of this for.

SFM: And we, fans, truly do love Stargate by following it through the different chapters of the franchise and we’re also really happy to see you reprise your role of Skaara through the years. What was it like to reprise the character over a span of years?

Alexis Cruz: Well, I’ve lived with the character for many years and I’ve created the character. And even Dean Devlin who wrote the origin of the character, while we were shooting the original film midway through, he turned to me and said, ‘You own this character. You know this character better than we do. It’s yours.’ And he was very sincere about that.

SFM: Skaara is so relatable. I mean they kept bringing you back and they want to give you more storyline.

Alexis Cruz: I had very strong ideas about who this guy was from the very beginning and where he would grow to. And then when we did SG-1 and they added the storyline of Klorel, it threw me for a loop because I wasn’t expecting that. It took all of my ideas to an entirely different direction. And I’ll tell you that I wasn’t happy about it at first. But that was me kinda being stuck on my own thing and being ignorant.

SFM: Oh no… [laughs]

Alexis Cruz: But I rolled with it, you know? I was so attached to my character, right? I was so wrong. But I rolled with it and I said well this is a new direction so let me figure that out and take what the writers and producers are giving me and make something out of it. And I’m glad that they took that direction because it deepened the character in a way that in my youth I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. So I’m really glad that they did that. They forced me to work above and beyond my comfort zone and the show is better for it.

SFM: Fans are all worried now since SGU was cancelled, and that other Stargate projects were put on hold because of it, everyone’s freaking out that this is the first time in fourteen years that there isn’t a Stargate series on television. I mean, we’re in it for the long haul, but this is a time of uncertainty of where the franchise is going next.

Alexis Cruz: There’s a huge vacuum right now in our enjoyment of it. And I agree because I am a fan of the show myself and I miss it as well, but you know, sometimes with something this powerful, there does need to be a break, some kind of lull.

We need to miss it.

The show in all of its forms,… different experiments have happened. Some worked really well, some didn’t work as well. But I’m glad that the experiments were made. And there’s going to be more. I think right now we all sort of need to take a breather.

SFM: So you think it’s a good break for all of us.

Alexis Cruz: I think it is for everyone involved. Everyone from the original people to the show franchise people, for the fans. It’s a good break. And even Star Trek took that break. And when it came back, it came back really strong and has gone on from there. Look, [Stargate’s] a worldwide hit.

SFM: It most certainly is!

Alexis Cruz: It affects people on this very visceral and primal level, you know. We can’t shake it. Of course, it will come back.

SFM: I have been hearing some negative feedback from fans about the series finale of Stargate Universe. They wanted storyline resolution and didn’t feel satisfied when they didn’t get it, but I felt that it left you with an awesome feeling of hope and the power of human determination to discover what’s out there.

Alexis Cruz: Yes. I agree.

SFM: I thought it was a good finale.

Alexis Cruz: I thought it was tastefully done as well because they were going with that arc before the news had broken of whether the show would continue or not.

SFM: Exactly! It was already written with that episode capping the season.

Alexis Cruz: It was a very bold season ending in the first place. So to match it up with the news that it was going to be canceled, it was just very tastefully done, very classy, and still plenty open for it to come back if they manage to work that out. But if they don’t, I was ok with that.

SFM: Yes, as was I.

Alexis Cruz: As an audience member, I saw that they were going into stasis, they’re going off somewhere and that last shot of Eli (David Blue) and that little smile that he gives…

SFM: That was a beautiful scene.

Alexis Cruz: …and it worked.

SFM: Now, looking at the whole Stargate franchise, do you have an all-time favorite villain?

Alexis Cruz: It’s Apophis by far. I loved what Peter [Williams] did with it. It heavily influenced what I ended up doing with Klorel. It was one of those things where saw his performance and was like ‘A-ha!’

[Above: Peter Williams as Apophis in SG-1]

[laughter on both sides]

Alexis Cruz: I know now! Thank you, Peter.

He was a smart villain. He was rather unpredictable and he kept coming back. So where the other villains started coming up and they had their own storylines and their own imminent dangerousness, you still didn’t know where Apophis sat! He just kept popping up somewhere. He was so crafty.