Katsulas: First I'd like to identify myself. I'm Peter Jurasik (tongue-in-cheek) and I never read the scripts you know, and so I don't really know what time or what's the name of this show again? Is it...Ha-ha. Uh...let's see. What was your question, yes. This takes place be...before the Babylon...the five years or four years of Babylon 5 that we've already done which is some time in the future. Well, this is also in the future, but a...a not quite as far into the future as the four seasons we've seen, so it's, I guess, Joe's attempt to give the background history. Okay, I've shown you what happened on those four years, you know, sort of time wise they were consistent. Well, here's what the people were like and how things were happening and coming together before the station of Babylon 5 existed. So I...I think it will be interesting for the fans from that point of view to see how things were, you know, what was going on immediately preceding Babylon 5.

Int: So who are the predominant species in this film?

Katsulas: Uh...G'Kar. Ha-ha. I think there are a few other characters I seem to remember in the script, but basically, it's G'Kar. No. Ha-ha. It's basically the Human-Minbari story because they had this great war and so this movie that we're doing is mostly about that, how that war came to be. What were the events that led up to that all based on misunderstandings. That's one of those incredible, highlights of this. It's all based on a misunderstanding. You know, you have great wars and you think it's about something really serious and major and principles and this is a misunderstanding, total misunderstanding, and you know, hundreds of thousands of people died because of that.

Int: Yeah.

Katsulas: Yeah.

Int: Talk about Joe a little bit.

Katsulas: No, I won't talk about Joe. I'm mad at Joe. Ha-ha. Joe is a guy...well, how can you talk about Joe, I mean. He just...it's...it's like...he's the...you know, he really is in a sense...um...pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. He's really the wizard and he is behind his office door which is the curtain, and he, you know, creates incredible, glorious effects, and everyone is in awe, you know, and sometimes you get a peak behind the curtain, and it's a very unassuming, unpretentious guy, who is just brilliant, and he works all this magic. And I don't have a real personal relationship with Joe. We don't call each other once a week. We don't go out together or do anything together. It's just through the work that I know him. What comes to my doorstep in a new script, that's how I know Joe, you know. And to see that his ideas are for me not run of the mill... It's so rare in this city, to find someone who has sort of principles and sticks to them, you know. Who really talks about the human condition and is not going to in any way I think compromise his story, to meet any sort of formula that would work. You know, let's show a little more cleavage this week, the ratings will go up, or let's put in a little more gratuitous violence. There's already enough splendor in the special effects just given the nature of science fiction, there's enough of that there. So he tells his story, and what a great storyteller, so that's perfect for an actor, and especially an actor who doesn't often get a chance because of just personal appearance and being sort of, you're a bad guy be sinister and that's it. For Joe to have given me this opportunity for four years to play out a character at great length and in great detail couldn't ask for me. And to pay me for it too, that's...ha-ha...that's even better, you know, so...

Int: What are some of the more philosophical issues he's taken up in his show?

Katsulas: Oh, boy, I don't think there's any philosophical issue he hasn't taken up, except increases in pay for the cast. That's about the only one I know that he's neglected. No. Just...ha-ha. I'd have to go episode by episode to say, here's the philosophical issue he's dealing with here and with there.

Int: Could you talk about maybe two or three?

Katsulas: Two or three. Well, you have built into the premise of the show, you have the question of racism. It's right there, right in the marrow of this story, but under the guise of alien creature, human creature. So it's separated from what we know and in fact we're too identified and too hyper about our tensions, racial tensions, that we exist with all the colors on the earth, so it's hard to talk about that in one sense. So he takes and removes it, he says, you think that's something. Here's these guys that got tentacles and here's a guy with spots on him and here's a guy with funny hair, and one with bone growing out of her head. So I think you watch the show without even realizing that that's going on, that that is built into it and how these people see each other, how they treat each other. I'm not saying it's all good or all bad, but it's built into it. Joe constantly brings up the question of acting on principle. You know, just as I was describing his attitude towards his work and (snaps fingers) you know. Sheridan is always faced with life and death situations. He never compromises them. He goes for the good of the whole. This is also a Minbari trait. G'Kar has been in this where he's suddenly seen the light. You have to sacrifice, make personal sacrifices, for the good of the whole, you know. And these are things that are so much missing from stories that are being told day after day on our television. So for an audience, especially a young audience, to be exposed to these questions, big life questions, I think it's very wholesome.

Int: Could you talk about the predominant species on Babylon 5, and what some of their traits are.

Katsulas: Hm... Well... This is not in answer to your question, but you've triggered another response in me. If I were writing the story, I probably wouldn't have the humans, 'cause to me it's very pretentious that some time in the future when all of these 'cause here you have Minbari and Vorlons, who already, according to Joe's description of them, are far, far more advanced than the human species, so why is it sort of an earth thing. Why isn't the predom...why aren't the people that are in control of it the Minbari? Why don't you have to go through Delenn to get clearance to come...you have to go through Sheridan. So it's a very presumptuous thing, you know. If you're going to say that there are other species living in the universe, to think that we are...ha-ha...you know, in charge or to put us in the main focus is a little, come on, but you've got to tell the story, you know. And you need to have solid characters that the audience can identify with. I mean if the main characters were indeed alien creatures, I guess an audience member would have a hard time tuning in to that reality. So even though...um... maybe I'm a little too radical (ha) about how I would have done, but I can't write a word, so...ha-ha.

Int: Where do Narns...where do Narns come from?

Katsulas: They're supposedly on...it's like three planets away from a galaxy next to the Milky Way. There's like this cabbage patch planet, and under these cabbages, these little Narns grow up and they're shipped in crates of 24 to...um...a planet...it's something like that, but I'm not quite sure...uh...you know Joe's very secretive about that.

Int: So we can pick some up at Toys 'R Us?

Katsulas: You could. You will be soon, I'm sure. Ha-ha. And you can even put them in your Narn lunchbox. Ha-ha.

Int: Do you like that?

Katsulas:I don't have a computer so I get no E-mail or anything like that. I'm not into that at all, but I answer fan letters. I mean, I send photographs and things. When people write a fan letter asking me questions, I generally don't respond to it. Sometimes on the letter they write, if it's yes and no, I will write no, yes, no, right on their letter and send it with a picture if that's what they want, but I try not to encourage people to be fans. No, I don't...I don't care for that at all. I mean, it's fun, you know, I mean, I can't take it too seriously but I think we all go overboard on, you know, enough's enough. For me, no one enjoys a certain TV shows more than I do, but I just personally, I think the enjoyment is there. That half hour of enjoyment that you get, that's where it ends for me, so I'm not someone who can understand sort of fandom mentality, this perpetuating, bigger than life, let's have every article of merchandising in our home, you know. I mean, I can't understand it myself, but the fact that I'm going to maybe have an action figure is just a hoot. It makes me laugh, but it's...it's...ha-ha...

Int: Do you ever answer some of the e-mail?

Katsulas: I don't have a computer so I get no E-mail or anything like that. I'm not into that at all, but I answer fan letters. I mean, I send photographs and things. When people write a fan letter asking me questions, I generally don't respond to it. Sometimes on the letter they write, if it's yes and no, I will write no, yes, no, right on their letter and send it with a picture if that's what they want, but I try not to encourage people to be fans.

Int: But you're aware of the tremendous Internet response.

Katsulas: Is it... is it big?

Int: It's huge.

Katsulas: Is it? I don't know. I...I don't...I'm not into that.

Int: Five hundred web pages. These people are living, breathing Babylon 5, but they've not tracked you down? When you go out in public, do people come up to you and ask you about that episode?

Katsulas: Just...just today somebody said, you look exactly like G'Kar. Are you? Ha-ha. No, I...no, I'm...I'm very safe...safe on that score, because nobody knows who I am.

Int: Oh, so they really don't. They haven't figured it out. Oh, dear, I'm sorry.

Katsulas: Ha-ha.

Int: What does it take for you every day to become a Narn?

Katsulas: The...the process of putting on the makeup is 90% of it, you know. And the other 10% is the costume, so if I've forgotten the character, or it's been too long since I played it, going through that ritual now just brings it back. And it's almost sort of like an inner response to the outer appearance...uh...which I guess got decided somewhere in creating this character way back when. It's almost like a conditioned response sss...sort of Pavlovian, you know, if I...I hear a bell ring, I say, chicken, chicken, chicken, you know. Uh...whatever it is, it just...it's just built in now so I'm actually a robot.

Int: The process brings out your pain. What about the contacts? Is that like grueling to wear them?

Katsulas: The first two years, you know, it was new to me. I don't wear contacts in my personal life so...in fact, I almost turned down the role because...uh...they had asked me to do the part. I said yes, and then suddenly there was a call from the production office setting up an appointment for me to go have contact lenses fitted, and I said, what? I didn't know anything about contact lenses. That wasn't a part of anything I'd heard about. So...and I had never put anything in my eyes, and I'm not someone who likes to, you know, put stuff in my eyes, so...ha-ha. So the director got on the phone and said Andreas, you're going to lose this part if you don't do this, you know, because for the creature to really look alien, we need to have the eyes. So I said, well, what can we do? So the only compromise was, is I said I'll be willing to go to the doctor and try it, but if I freak out or I can't sss...you know, tolerate them, what can I do? So I did and to my surprise, you know, because they're humongous, they cover the whole eyeball, I'm...I'm...I'm someone who can wear them all day and I...I don't bother taking them in and out. I think a lot of people get in trouble 'cause all the makeup on the eyes will get the thing dirty and that's when you have trouble. In the first two years we wised up because we were doing all the makeup and then putting the...uh...contacts in. And just in the technician touching, you know, she would just inadvertently, get some speck of makeup under the contact and then it's rubbing on your eye, and that...that you can't do. So then after about a year, we finally discovered, let's save the eye makeup, put in the contacts before we finish up the eyes. No problems ever since.

Int: So it's better now.

Katsulas: Yeah.

Int: How uncomfortable are you in all that get-up?

Katsulas: The getup is very uncomfortable. That's the...I mean, putting on the makeup is relaxing and that's not a big thing, you see. But it's very inhibiting for movements. So I'm actually fighting the costume a lot. It's never comfortable. You're never seated...you can never be seated comfortably and I don't even mean seated comfortably in a bad posture. I mean even if I were to correct my posture now, I'm comfortable with this, but with the weight and the restric... I can't move my head. I have no neck movement. My arms I can't bring higher than this because of those overlapping shoulder pads, and as someone who is very physical and approaches things very physically, I feel tremendously inhibited. But they always say, you know, use it, you know, in a sort of Actor's Studio kind of thing. I'm not from Actor's Studio, but I can see how in the effort to overcome that obstacle, it gives me a lot of energy for the character.

Int: Aside from the fact that you don't have on the makeup, I do not see you when I look at your character. But when I talk to other cast members, they say that really you don't come out of character much during the day, and I'm just wondering, they're such...they're jokers. So how does that work when you're not shooting and you're just hanging out on the set?

Katsulas: Well, a lot of it is just I have a bad memory, so I do go over my lines a lot, you know. So where everyone else is and everyone else has a lot more self-confidence than I do as...as actors. I've noticed that, you know. They really can just be horsing around and you're cue, and they go on set and they're in character. I just...I fear that I'll lose all my concentration, forget the character, forget the scene, the words, everything if I allow that part of my brain that responds to, you know, socializing, to take over. I'll just forget everything. So it's just insecurity really that keeps me in character, and I also see that on the set, you know, if I...if I allow myself to get pulled in too much to the monkey business, I do...I do lose it all, you know, and then... I mean, you know, the camera's rolling and...and suddenly I'm...I'm just far away and can't remember what the heck the...the next word is, you know.

Int: How is it there's so much computer special effects? Is that very hard to work with the computer graphics?

Katsulas: So much of what I do is just character to character. You know, it's Lando and me, or it's Sheridan and me, or whoever, and the only episode I can even recall where I had like a blue screen to consider was that one where I was taking dust, the character was on some drug and his eyes went black and I had black contact lenses and he went off and found Lando and suddenly he had all these visions and app... That was the only time I had to deal with something technical, so I don't get all these lock-offs. I don't even know what that is. It was technical when they sort of stop everything and freeze it because they're gonna superimpose something later. Luckily I haven't had. The only other thing was a scene with Jason where he had his magic stick that opens up, and I had to just stand there and pretend that it was open, pretend that it was closed or something, and...ha-ha...I just kind of stood there because I have no imagination. You know, I really don't, and if I don't see something there, I have trouble reacting to it.

Int: But most of yours is with the other characters. What is going on with you and Lando?

Katsulas: Ha-ha. Well, you know, he had an affair with my wife, you know, and...uh...G'Kar just can't forgive him for it. I think that's...that's what's really at the heart of it. Ha-ha. I don't know. It's just that kind of coyote and road runner, I mean, you know, just never stops going, although it looks like it's changing now. I don't want to give too much away, but it looks like maybe the possibility, the avenue that they might take together is opening up. And I...I don't trust Joe for a second because he's opened up lots of avenues and bang, cuts them off and takes you down a different path. But the way the fourth season towards the end is going, it's a different climate between the two. I don't know if that climate will be more interesting than the antagonistic climate which people seem to enjoy, you know. What will these two guys do to each other next.

Int: Yeah, it seems that the good guy/bad guy lines are blurring. Is that... (background voice)

Katsulas: Did I miss anything? I think I've said way, way too much already.

Int: Thank you so much.

Katsulas: You're welcome.

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