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Grace Park on Boomer & Battlestar Galactica

2003
 

An interview on the show, being the rookie, and representing humanity.

ME: Are you related to Linda Park from Enterprise?

GP: No. I think there are six Park clans. I'm not sure which one Linda Park is in.

ME: In previous interviews with Katee Sackhoff and Jamie Bamber, we've been able to talk about the connections between their characters and the original versions with Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch. But your Boomer has almost nothing in common with the previous character by that name. How did that affect your approach to the role?

GP: I certainly felt freer. I do love having Boomer be such an original character. But then, I think the whole Battlestar as it's coming out seems so fresh.

ME: Do you share your fellow cast members' hope that this continues?

GP: Oh, completely. I would love it to go to series. There's so much to work with.

ME: How do you see Boomer developing, if it does?

GP: Well, she's the rookie, but she's come to see these people as family. She wants to carry on, and she has a lover and Boxey. There's an interesting storyline just with that.

ME: If you don't mind my saying, you're something of a rookie yourself, and the production has some pretty impressive veteran actors with Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell. How's that feel for you?

GP: It's perfect that my character is the rookie pilot, and I'm probably one of the newest, youngest actors on the set. It doubles up on how much everything is new to me, and how much I have to learn, and how quickly I have to learn the ropes. I feel I have people to fall back on, in terms of being able to ask things.

The boot camp we did [before the filming] brought us all together. It really drove home how we're not separate people, but a team. We had to be there for each other. For instance, once a couple of the actors forgot to bring their pens and hats, and the rest of us had to do push-ups until they came back with their stuff.

ME: Highly motivational! I notice, though, that while Ron Moore's script includes a number of male/female friendships and romances, there's little emphasis on friends of the same gender ' male or female. Did you find that a problem in developing Boomer's character?

GP: In that boot camp, we established relationships between pilot and crew, soldier to soldier, so even though I didn't have to have a scene with Katee, it felt like the bond was there anyhow. Among all the cast, the bonds are so familial. It was so much of equals it didn't matter if you were a guy or a girl. My flight suit was the same as the guys, and so was what I had to do. They didn't try to make the girls look pretty, or any of that. They stripped it down to, "What are you doing? What do you contribute?"

ME: They were really stressing the whole team thing.

GP: Yeah. My biggest challenge with the flight suit was its size. I mean, it was for a gorilla, or something. They had to downsize it three times.

ME: And so how was it to see the finished product at the premiere?

GP: I was completely into the story. Only once in a while did I pop out and think, "Oh, look at those effects, They're so good."

[The destruction of Caprica] felt so 911 -- the hopelessness of it. I remember back then watching the towers fall over and over, and I remember how odd it was that a non-organic object exploding and how painful it was. And then there I was watching this and I'm crying, and I had to remind myself this time there weren't really people dying. But it really took me back there.

ME: Now, I have to ask if you saw any of the original show on your own before shooting.

GP: No, but I really liked the episodes we saw in boot camp. I'm ordering the Battlestar DVD to see the rest.

ME: What did you like?

GP: Well, I see the history of the show. I realize the significance of, "By your command," the weight of the power struggle, and what the Cylons have meant.

The original is so different from what we've done, but I think it's really of the time. I know in the '70s it was a popular show, but TV is so different now -- cutting edge visual effects, with computer and CGI that have to be top-of-the-line, because everyone is looking to see if it's CGI or not. There has to be so much put in to it on that level.

But I also think the audiences then were much more innocent and accepting. I don't think we could get away with copying just the same thing. Instead, our version has much more emphasis on having the good guys with flaws, and the villains with good parts. It's meant to challenge the audience that's used to black and white.

ME: Are you a sci-fi fan?

GP: I wouldn't call myself that. There are so many kinds of sci-fi within the genre. I love the Battlestar approach. And while I'm not a Star Trek fan, if I do sit down and get into an episode, I'll enjoy it.

ME: I notice that your TV work is almost all sci-fi. I have this theory that sci-fi actors get tagged by the industry. It's as if once you prove you can act in front of a blue screen, sci-fi producers put you in the “sci-fi actor pool.”

GP: If you have to create a full reality in thirty seconds in an audition, then you can do it on the set. You have to place yourself into a parallel universe looking through the Stargate. There's that element of fantasy or pure denial of looking at what's right in front of you and making yourself believe something else. I think that crosses over between sci-fi roles.

ME: Hmm. How do you get into such a fantasy state when you're in front of the cameras?

GP: I just reach deep into my personal denial.

ME: Well, if this thing goes to series, are you prepared to be a sci-fi idol?

GP: I would definitely love to have an action figure made. A friend of mine has some and it's really a whole world. Other than the toy, though, I think I'm pretty nervous -- I have no idea what making those things entails for me.

I do know that some of the cast members are getting hate mail and even got some before we started shooting. There's that much animosity -- acting is playing, and we wanna just play. Meanwhile, you don't know what people are typing into their computer at four in the morning.

But you know, that's kind of how it goes. The [showbiz] industry is really fear-based. You're not really sure what everyone thinks about you, but you have to go out there anyway.

ME: Well, it seems to be particularly hard for women and minority actors in sci-fi. They seem to be expected to lead the way in social behavior to prove equality, or something.

GP: I think there is an inherent pressure to represent the population -- and for me, there's really that Asian pressure. You have to be PC, and all you want is for people to look at you as a person and as a character.

Now Boomer, she is the rookie and she's not as tough as Starbuck, so I don't have as much pressure to be...well, people want to see that my character would be strong, able, smart. But at the same time I'm starting to see that people's strength is also their vulnerability.

Taking acting classes, you go deep inside and you're crying and you hate life, but after a while it's not that bad. Sometimes I feel that calmness in that state, and then so I realize that everyone feels pressure to "be a certain way" to hold on their values, but I think it's because everyone's really scared. So if you get to that place where they're scared and live through it and be brave, because you can't have courage without fear, I think that's a kind of statement for humanity. It doesn't matter how you do your hair, or if we look like Playboy Playmates, or the other extreme. It's really good to show people you can go through your weakness and succeed.

I think that's what I like about Battlestar Galactica: everyone is the most scared they've ever been, and yet somehow they manage to make it through.

ME: You know, you're talking about Boomer, but that sounds so much like the President's character, her journey from being Secretary of Education on a PR assignment to taking command.

GP: Absolutely. You know, at the premiere, when she and Adama are vying for control, people recognizing her female strength -- not weaker, just a different type of strength. It's complex, but people can see what's going on.

ME: Well, thanks so much for your time. I'll be watching it again on Monday, and I really hope it makes it to series.

GP: Me too.