"I was quite impressed by the first half of it. The first half I think was wildly imaginative and had endless possibilities and was infinitely interesting. The second half of the movie kind of left me a little disappointed. I believe we picked up the ball from more so from the first half of the movie in exploring the different mythologies and the different worlds that this crazy thing known as a Stargate can do. It occurs to me that we get a lot more into the different characters and the interpersonal relationships than the movie did. I feel we have become our own animal. We've taken the concept, the original idea to another step, to where the people who saw the movie, thought the movie was headed and kind of veered. To get back to your question, yes I had seen the movie before I took the role."
Prevue Chat, 1998
"As I understand it, they had pretty much seen all the actors in LA and New York and Canada, and I kind of heard about the audition through a friend [who was trying for the role himself!], called my agent, and told him to get me in. So I actually came in on one of the last days of casting. I read, they put me on tape, and two weeks later I went in for my screen test, and pretty much found out at the screen test that I had got the part. It was obvious to me, because everyone else that had come in to screen test, they sent home. So I had a pretty good inclination that I was going to get the part."
TVgen/Yahoo! Chat, 1998
"I think my favourite thing is the great food." (He laughs) "It has to be the people that I work with. It's very rare that in this business that you get a job where you truly enjoy coming to work everyday and you enjoy the people that you work with, both cast and crew. We have an extremely tight cast and the crew is just excellent. The thing that I least enjoy... probably the people that I..." (He laughs) "I think it's the hours, while they aren't terrible. I have three kids so while we're filming that doesn't give me much time to spend with my kids or my wife. That's probably the hardest thing about it."
Prevue Chat, 1998
"I get up at 4am and work out and head to the set around 5:30am and go to makeup around 6am, eat breakfast and shoot from between 7-7:30 to 8pm at night, then I go to the driving range and then go home. That's pretty much a typical day for me."
Hollywood Spotlight Chat, 1999
"That's not bad, on Sirens, I had 17, 18, 19-hour days, and that was the norm. There were something like 900 people in the principal cast on that show, or at least it seemed that way. Talk about conflicts between cast members! It was a nightmare. Compared to that situation, Stargate SG-1 has been Nirvana."
Starlog, June 1998
"It's been great working with this cast. I think anyone going into a series starring Richard Dean Anderson would do so with trepidation. He's arguably one of the world's biggest television stars, so you'd expect him to have a huge ego or be on some sort of power trip but there is absolutely none of that. Richard's an intelligent, ordinary guy and, in fact, I hung out with him quite a bit during our first hiatus. Michael Shanks and I are best friends; he's like a little brother to me. Everyone as a whole gets along well and this includes the crew. We have a huge group of golfers on the set and the producers golf with the crew and the actors golf with the crew. There aren't any lines drawn that can't be crossed and that's somewhat unusual but it also makes for a relaxed and co-operative working environment."
TV Zone, June 1999
"I've worked on a lot of shows where I've done the job and gone home and not spoken to the other people until I've gone back to work. But here it's like a big love-in."
Sun Herald, June 1998
"This part really came along for me at the right time because as an actor I'm more confident now than ever before with my work and in my abilities. I remember talking to Jay Acovone [Major Charles Kawalsky] and Michael Shanks during the pilot and, after shooting for a couple of days, I asked them, 'Do you think the viewers are going to get it [his performance]?' So much of what Teal'c is about is internal and you really have to watch his eyes and face to understand what he's thinking and feeling. They both said, 'Yeah, they'll get it,' and, thank God, it seems like everyone has."
TV Zone, June 1999
"Teal'c has so many emotions and, yet, very few ways in which to show them. I think the hardest thing for an actor to comprehend as well as trust when it comes to their performance is stillness. I had the opportunity to once work with James Earl Jones and he gave me some advice which I've never forgotten and that is, 'Let stillness be your strength.'"
TV Zone, June 1999
"With him, it's all in the small gestures and in the eyes, the tilt of the head. All of that has to communicate his feelings. I'm a big guy, but I can't use that physicality to get my message across, so it's difficult. I'm always cutting up between scenes because I'm always so serious on the show! I'm outgoing and gregarious, not like Teal’c at all."
SFX, January 1999
"When something amusing happens in a story I have to struggle as Teal'c to keep a straight face. There have also been moments in certain episodes that have really moved me as a human being and have made me want to cry but that isn't how Teal'c would react. I have to register the emotion, whatever it may be, and relate Teal'c's feelings to the viewers but not overplay his reaction, and that can be incredibly difficult at times."
TV Zone, June 1999
"The hardest scenes are the ones in the boardroom where all this conversation in going on, and I rarely have a line. I'm usually reacting to three or four pages of dialogue without saying anything. I'm ready to be able to laugh and joke again...
"They've given me so much leeway in creating Teal'c. They trust me when I tell them what Teal'c's reaction will be to a situation. I've never been reprimanded for changing dialogue where it didn't fit what I felt Teal'c's reality was."
TV Guide's Sci-Fi Q&A, September 1998
"I liked Message in a Bottle. It was a bonding episode for Rick and me. I liked In the Line of Duty. I liked everyone else's work in that one. I liked the way the show was shot. We've done several episodes that stand out. I have to say that as much as I like shows in which Teal'c has a lot to do, I also enjoy watching the other characters and their evolution, the things they go through. On a personal level, I liked Family. Teal'c went back and dealt with some things that had happened to his family since the last time he saw them. That was a good show to do and to see. It came out nicely."
Sci-Fi TV, June 1999
"Yes, Secrets. It had the technological aspect of it, but then it had that great story and those moving scenes where, you know, your wife is having another - guy, god, whatever - his baby. And I just love Michael Shanks' work."
GateGuide Interview, January 1999
"I think probably...oh, I know exactly which one. The last scene I did in the last episode of second season [Out of Mind] - which hasn’t aired yet, so I can’t say what it is! But, yes, it was a real tough scene because the scene was not only about my character but it was also about what was going on in my life at the time."
GateGuide Interview, January 1999
"They had been outcasts from their village, but my wife had gotten back into favour with the local priest. My son was going to undergo this implantation ceremony, where he was going to get his first symbiote. Unbeknownst to me, she agreed to it because he had scarlet fever and was dying, so he need the symbiote to live. I mistakenly thought it was my wife's selfishness in wanting to get back into the upper levels of this society. I stop the ceremony and end up giving him my symbiote, and Daniel and Carter go to the temple and steal another one, which I'm implanted with."
Starlog, June 1998
"I love the Nox. There was just something really magical about them. Even the people that played them - Armin Shimerman, and Ray, and Addison, who played the little boy - they're just great people. There was just something otherworldly about them, and about the way they portrayed those characters. I'd like to see them come back. I'd like to see Erick (Avali), Sha're's father. I'd love to see, most of all, in some way to get Jay Acovone, who played Kawalsky. It's a universe where you're only limited by your own mind, so there's got to be some way to bring Kawalsky back. Actually, he does come back very briefly - in the Gamekeeper - and I think there’s talk about him coming back in a future episode. It would be nice to have him around all the time. He's a great guy."
GateGuide Interview, January 1999
"We shoot in Vancouver [British Columbia] and during the recent hiatus between our second and third seasons I went back to Los Angeles [California], and it was there that it really hit me how many people watch the show. I was out driving one day and there was a young lady driving next to me in her car yelling, 'Teal'c! Teal'c!' That's the nice part of it, actually." (He laughs) "Anywhere I go it seems that everyone knows about the show and my character, so it's gratifying to discover that so many people watch us and enjoy what we're doing."
TV Zone, June 1999
"I get recognised and pointed at, but Vancouver is very good that way - you can walk around, do what you want. Occasionally someone will come up and ask for an autograph, but the people are generally very polite about it."
TV Guide's Sci-Fi Q&A, September 1998
"Syndication has been great for us. It has made the show available to a lot more people. When I came back to LA [from Vancouver, British Columbia, where the series is filmed], around Christmas and New Year's, it was just amazing to me to see how many people watched the show. It was frightening. Everyone seems to love it. It really seems to have caught on, so much so that I grew hair and a goatee because people were recognising me so much."
Sci-Fi TV, June 1999
"When I first came down I was still bald and clean shaven so it got to be disorienting that a lot of people recognised me but I don't want to be a geeky person that thinks they're persecuted. It was flattering but I didn't grow hair and a goatee, I'm recognised but not nearly as frequently... so pretty much I do whatever I want."
Hollywood Spotlight Chat, 1999
"I would be one of the first to sign on if there were Stargates."
Sci-Fi Entertainment, October 1997