I was fortunate enough to chat with Saul Rubinek and Eddie McClintock in a Q&A session on Thursday 2nd, as they sat down to chat about the ‘Warehouse 13’ Christmas Special, ‘Secret Santa’ which airs December 7th on Syfy. Both were in fine spirits, chatting for well over an hour on Warehouse 13, life and their upcoming movies. Another interviewer stated that the Q&A session was the “best” he had been in. Seeing as this was my first I can’t comment, but both were happy to answer a wide range of questions, going quite in depth on various subject matters.
McClintock was in Bulgaria filming an upcoming movie, ‘The Boogeyman‘ and seemed in great spirits, his son heard a couple of times in the background of his line as his family were settling into the country during filming; Rubinek was in the States celebrating the holidays.
I have my SpoilerTV Interview with the pair below, as well as a full transcript of the whole Q&A session in a document below if you wish to read through and pick out various bits and pieces.
SpoilerTV Interview with Saul Rubinek & Eddie Mclintock
Adam Harris: Hi guys.
Saul Rubinek: Adam.
Eddie McClintock: Hey Adam.
Saul Rubinek: From SpoilerTV, Excellent. How are you?
Adam Harris: I’m good. It’s nice to meet you. How are you?
Saul Rubinek: Good. We’re good.
Eddie McClintock: Hey man.
Adam Harris: Good. I have a few questions revolving around Warehouse 13, the first is that you’d said earlier [a previous interview] that you saw yourself in the characters; in the writing and then in your portrayals, so I was wondering if you could use your foresight to say where you think Season Three might be going with your characters. With Pete, Myka’s obviously quit and Kelly’s left him ...
Eddie McClintock: Go ahead.
Saul Rubinek: You know, we have been told some stuff so I can’t really tell you. If I hadn’t been told anything I could’ve started guessing. Now I feel if I pretend to guess stuff I’m going to lead you away from what I actually know is going to happen and we’re not, and you’re called SpoilerTV so...
Adam Harris: So you know exactly what’s going to happen?
Saul Rubinek: I know some of the stuff that’s going to happen.[to Eddie] They don’t tell you that stuff because of your addiction to tweeting so we keep a lot of things from him, a lot of things. So I can’t tell you also because then Eddie would know and then if Eddie knows the world will know so that’s...
Eddie McClintock: My best friend used to call me the town crier.
Saul Rubinek: Yeah and all the rest, yes he cries and the rest of us weep.
Okay, here’s what’s really going on. They’re going to have to deal one way or another with the fact that Myka has left the warehouse and try to figure out what to do about that so obviously that’s going to be dealt with.
And the other thing is you’ve got a show that people like, the audiences have liked it, it’s a hit show for them [syfy], they’re going to continue doing what they’ve been doing, but that said you know we’ve had unpredictable shows; we’ve had two unpredictable seasons.
We’ve had villains who are not painted with just one color. They’ve been wonderful; Jaime Murray and Roger Rees have played multi-faceted characters, [they're] great actors and the writing has matched their inclusion in the show.
So giving them [guest stars] a lot to work with and I suspect that that’s going to be something that will continue; giving an audience the unexpected and continuing that family feeling that we’ve got on the show and that people care about.
As far as the particular adventures are concerned and what the arcs are there, that’s going to be stuff that’s going to be revealed probably starting with the first episode; you’ll start to get a feel for where that’s going to go.
And we love the fact that our fans guess and make [theories], and we like the fact that our fans are critical as well. If they’re involved in the show and there are things that they don’t like they talk to each other. A lot of people read what they like and what they don’t like and it’s a new universe as Eddie said a few interviews ago. It’s a brand new universe. We have an interactive television audience that’s never existed this way before.
Adam Harris: Definitely.
Saul Rubinek: I mean it’s really by leaps and bounds so it’s going to be a new media. I just read for example there was some kind of press release recently that said there was going to be a comic book of Warehouse 13.
I’m hoping that eventually there’ll be a really good game, that there’ll be webisodes dealing not necessarily even with our characters, that the universe of this show can expand on a lot of levels because it’s 3,000 years old this warehouse and been doing things for a long time.
A lot of great stories can be told in different ways so I think that the modern term for this is called transmedia.
Adam Harris: Yes.
Saul Rubinek: So it’s not just social networking sites, it’s gaming sites, it’s comic books, it’s webisodes, it’s shows, it’s documentaries about the show, it’s the reality shows that are based on the facts. There is a kind of reality show already that Syfy is doing that has to do with artifacts.
And so what I’m hoping is rather than to talk about just what our characters are doing and what arcs are going to happen and what adventures were going to happen. What I’m hoping happens is the show continues and if the fans keep us on the air. That’s what’s going to keep us on the air more than anything else; that the show deepens its platforms and that there is many more ways to explore the life of Warehouse 13, its history and its adventures rather than not just on the show but in many other ways.
And I think that the people at Syfy and at NBC Universal are thinking along those lines. As for the fans, Eddie had been to a few more conventions than I have but I’ve been to two or three and I’m amazed by how bright and involved the fans are and they can tell in a way that they never have before in any other decade how interactive and how important their contribution is; what they think gets listened to.
Adam Harris: Yes, On our Web site the general consensus is that one of the best aspects of the show is that it manages to mix the ‘story of the week’ stand alone episodes really well with the bigger mythology, and I think that’s probably another of the big pluses you’ve got because there so many different ways that the show can go in future seasons.
Saul Rubinek: Yeah, and the louder the fans are about what they like the more we’ll listen to them.
Adam Harris: Great. I have another question about Judd Hirsch joining for the Christmas episode. He’s obviously a very important person in Artie’s life and during the show we see Artie sort of tends to shy away from any personal relationships, he’s quite secretive. So was it really exciting for you to get to explore a relationship with that family member and what can you tell us about Artie’s relationship with his father?
Saul Rubinek: Yeah. Well it was a long lost relationship, I mean over 25 years of estrangement; bitterness on both sides and the show deals with a little bit of that, it doesn’t explore it too deeply but it puts them together in a way that they would neither of them have expected.
But as I’ve said before, Artie shies away from personal relationships, people that he’s hired to be agents, like Pete and Myka have been killed or disappeared or been in limbo or god knows what kind of places they’ve gone to if they haven’t taken things seriously enough.
And the dangers of working in a place like that are mammoth and as a result he’s afraid of losing people, somebody who hasn’t got a partner and doesn’t have children and doesn’t even have a, a cat or a dog. He’s learned to isolate himself for three decades or more.
Adam Harris: Definetely.
Saul Rubinek: And a personal relationship is just fraught with the possibility of loss, abandonment and death. Those are very dark things to live with when you have the responsibility that he has. And that’s what’s most fun about the character for me to play with is that there’s a line of madness that deals with that kind of isolation, that kind of monomania, that kind of obsessiveness that’s really fun to bring out just in parts.
We’re not doing a show like Fringe, as good as Fringe is, we’re not doing a really dark show where those qualities would come out so much. Eddie’s really a wonderfully, spontaneous performer and really, because he has that kind of wonderful ability to throw himself humorously into situations no matter what’s going on, It encourages that side of the show [a lighter tone] and so for all of us actually that’s a really, really good thing. I would say [it's] led by Eddie, Aand it’s encouraged by the writing and by all aspects of the show.
That said there’s I think Artie represents a darker side to that. But then there’s, as you can see from the show, Eddie has been really great when some of the darker stuff has played. He’s had two or three episodes in two years where really dark sides of his character have come out and it’s been some of his best work and I know he’s really proud of it and deservedly.
Eddie McClintock: Thank you.
Adam Harris: Agreed.
Saul Rubinek: And Artie has very light moments so we’re a little unpredictable and I think there’ll be more of the same, don’t you think Eddie?
Eddie McClintock: Yeah. One of the things I really love about the show is its unpredictability and being able to open up the script every week and go wow, this is what we’re doing, this is where we’re going, I mean it’s that kind of spontaneity that I think really keeps me energized in regards to what can be a pretty tedious, gruelling 15 hours a day, five days a week, you know 2,000 miles away from my family type schedule.
So the writers have created this world and it’s really exciting to be able to go there from week to week when we’re shooting.
Adam Harris: Definetely.
Just one very quick last question; If you had to do a one sentence statement about the episode coming up on December 7th, a one sentence teaser to get everyone to watch the show what would you both say?
Saul Rubinek: As magical as Warehouse 13 stories are, this one has extra spice.
Eddie McClintock: Mine would be watch this week’s stand alone Christmas episode of Warehouse 13 and win a chance at a million dollars.
Saul Rubinek: Yeah, great Eddie. Good. Please don’t publish that in any way, okay. Please. This is Eddie in you know, in Eastern Europe.
Adam Harris: And drinking his potato vodka... [a running joke throughout the session that Eddie is getting drunk on Bulgarian Potato Vodka]
Saul Rubinek: Yeah. Potato vodka. Yeah. There’ll be, for as many people that don’t believe it there’ll be people that do.
Adam Harris: Well thank you very much, both of you have great holidays. It was great to speak to you.
Saul Rubinek: You too.
Eddie McClintock: Good to talk to you.
Adam Harris: Thank you.
A full transcript of the entire Q&A session is available below for you to read through, there's some great stuff in the other sections as well, so have a read through.
Saul
Thanks for Reading:
Twitter: AdDHarris
Adam
Streaming Options
Sign Up for the SpoilerTV Newsletter where we talk all things TV!
Recommendations
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
