One on One with Edward James Olmos

Wednesday, 05 August 2009

By Jamie Ruby

http://scifivision. com

Edward James Olmos is a man of many talents, though he confesses he had to learn everything he knows, often saying, ?I have become the best I can be.? However, everyone knows that no one can be that great without a lot of natural talent. Olmos is known for his versatility in many roles, though is probably best known for his work in the movie Blade Runner and on the television show Battlestar Galactica, a remake of the old classic.

Olmos recently made a special appearance in Cleveland at the Screaming Tiki Convention where he participated in a panel discussion on Saturday. On Sunday he sat down with Jamie Ruby of MediaBlvd for an exclusive interview.

Olmos told MediaBlvd that he has a hard time choosing a favorite role. ?I really never had a favorite role because they?ve all been favorites. It?s like asking me which one of my six children that I like the most, you know. It?s not easy, but they?re all so different.? He did; however, find one role more challenging then the others. ?The hardest role that I?ve done was [for] Selena. Playing Abraham Quintanilla, the father, was very difficult for me, because it was so close to her death. He was the only one of the family who was around the set, so every time we would finish a scene, they?d holler cut; I?d see that he?d be in pain, in heaving sobs, in the corner, and it really became very difficult.?

Olmos had a lot to say about his work on Blade Runner, in which he played the role of Gaff. At the time the movie was released, it was laughed off the screen. No one knew then that over 20 years later it would become such a phenomenon. ?No one knew where this journey was going to lead us,? Olmos said. The actor had complete creative control over his character then. He helped create the culture of the show as well as invented ?city speak? for the film. Much of his character was his own improvisation that got used in the film.

Olmos often compares Blade Runner to the series Battlestar Galactica, for which he has gained critical acclaim for his role of William Adama. Like Blade Runner, its success was a surprise. He tells fans that the events in Blade Runner are what he believes happen to the characters of Battlestar Galactica after the series (and subsequent movie(s)) have ended.  In 2008 we finished the series [Battlestar Galactica]  The very last words that are said on Battlestar is, it has happened before,  it will happen again. That's the very last shot as Baltar and Six walk away. Grab the final edition, the final take of Blade Runner, put it right after, and you're going to see that the world of Battlestar connects directly to the world of Blade Runner. And you'll see how Adama fought Cylons - genetically his genes came out to be Gaff.

And Gaff is the only=2 0blade runner in Blade Runner. And he's the one who fights the rebels. So you're going see something.  Did Ron Moore know he was going to do that? Did any of us know that they were connected with it.   No. But you can put them right in. So if you want to know what happens to this world, what has happened before will happen again. Put Blade Runner right in there and you'll know exactly what happened.

When Olmos was offered the part of Adama, at first he wasn't interested. They sent me the script and I was asked to read it, and at first I didn?t want to read it and I ended up asking my wife and my wife read it and she ended up [telling] me that I should read it and the script was a very, very important piece, and I did read it after that and I was blown away by the story and by everything about it.

Olmos was hesitant in the beginning and told the show runners that Galactica had to be about the humanity.  I signed the contract and the contract stated, the first four-eyed monster I see, I'm going to faint on camera.  And then I'm going to be having a heart attack so you guys have to say, "Guy died!   I'm off the show. It's in my contract guys. They were so scared to do the hybrid. But I said, No, no, no, it's part human and part machine.  That's not what I was talking about.  I wanted to really make the thing a human story.  And they went for it.

When playing the part of Adama, Olmos didn't need to do research for his character. He draws his inspiration from music. It's really imperative that my characters have [music]. I have to learn something about them in order to expound on them and really create them, and in this case, I found Deva Premal's albums, and ended up listening to them which drove me into understanding Battlestar's world, and it became the centerpiece. It helped Bear McCreary, and it helped the editors edit the very first production. It was really ? I take my hat off to that music. And there were mantras that she was singing and kind of like prayers, but she had put melodies and sang them and they were so enlightening, it was almost like a cross between Gaelic and ancient music, just using her contemporary instruments, but they were so haunting that they became the centerpiece of how I could create this world? I needed my imagination to open, and that?s what the music does. Music has a tendency to be probably the most prolific way of honoring the lines to feel safe and to explore and to go into those places. Some people need drugs; I do it with music.?

Olmos has a hard time choosing a favorite scene from the series. ?I don?t know, it?s hard to say, this program was so beautifully constructed that it?s hard for me to say, ?This is my favorite scene, this is my favorite,? you know. I like the whole journey. So for me it?s just a matter of realizing that, you know, as far as I?m concerned if people really want to see something they should start from the beginning and take the journey.? Although he did say that working with his son Bodie on the show was ?probably the high point of the whole experience.?

However, during the panel, Olmo?s did talk about one of his favorite scenes in Galactica. It was one of the last scenes of the miniseries (which preceded the series), which was the first scene they filmed when the whole cast was together. It was his decision that as admiral he should stand with his crew as they gave their respects to the dead. They had not rehearsed the scene. After saying, ?So say we all!? with his power and conviction behind it, the cast repeated it themselves and it became one of the most defining moments of the series, if not one of the=2 0most defining moments of science fiction.

Olmos has also directed four episodes of the series as well as the television movie, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan. He enjoys working on both sides of the camera. ?I enjoy acting and I love directing. I love acting, I love producing, I love the ability to write - anything to do with the story I love doing. I love editing. And over the years I?ve been able to accomplish and understand how to do all of that.? It was also enjoyable for him to get to direct the cast that he had acted along side with for so long. ?It was great. I mean basically, the thing I loved the most about it was that we didn?t have to really go through any kind of studying to be able to direct a show. I?d been there since the very first day, so it became a real, beautiful experience directing them, and they loved it, and they rose to the level of expectation and they actually went further then the expectation.?

Olmos also has watched the series. ?This show is the only one that I actually looked at when I was done with it. It?s a tremendous story and the characters are so riveting you learn something from them all the time, so yeah, I do watch?I?ve been editing myself and directing myself?for 27 years.?

The hardest part now is leaving the show. ?Saying good bye to everybody - I think that?s been probably the most devastating part of the whole thing is having to, you know?A lot of us still stay in contact with each other, but it?s been very difficult.?

Olmos has more projects in the works. ?We?re working on about three or four movies that hopefully we?ll be able to find the money for.? Also, Battlestar Galactica: The Plan will be airing soon, which will be the end of the Battlestar Galactica series.

Olmos believes that The Plan will change the way you view the show. ?It will drive you to want to see the whole series over again, because you?ll have a different perspective on it. And that?s really the issue, and it?s been quite an experience, but once you learn the plan, what the plan was, then it gives you a deeper understanding of everything. So yeah, it will drive you to watch?and at the end you watch Blade Runner and boy you?re going to realize what has happened before will happen again.?

The series also has a ?real world? impact. Olmos, along with Mary McDonnell, Ron Moore, and David Eick, were invited to the UN where they held a Battlestar Galactica retrospective. The series deals with a lot of real life moral issues, including dealing with the reconciliation of two groups (humans and Cylons) after war. They showed clips and talked about how and why the series went beyond the call of duty and how it relates to the real world. However, they also ended up having a discussion of human equality, and as Olmos has often been involved in social activism, he was offended when of the UN?s representatives when talking about human rights used the word ?race.? Olmos went on to explain that race is not a cultural determinate ? there is only one race: the human race. Everyone was moved by what Olmos said, that weeks ago the representative came up to Olmos and told him that because of his speech that the entire UN charter was rewritten without the word ?race.? *

Olmos has been and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in life and on the screen. So say we all!

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*Note, this has not been confirmed, and other news outlets that originally reported this have retracted their stories.