t may not always be easy playing the ultimate villain on the most innovative science fiction show to come along in years, but Australian actor Wayne Pygram is having fun. In fact, he's more than happy to pull double duty, playing both Scorpius and his quirky clone, as Farscape (Fridays, 9 p.m. ET) continues its third season airing original episodes through the summer.
A seasoned theatrical actor, Pygram has also appeared in many television shows, including The Lost World and Time Trax, and the feature films Risk, Farewell to the King and Careful He Might Hear You. Pygram is also a professional drummer who has traveled extensively through Asia.
Pygram spoke to Science Fiction Weekly about Scorpy's past, the clone and Looney Tunes.
Now that Farscape has started up again with new episodes, are there any teasers you can give us about what to look forward to during the rest of the season?
Pygram: From my perspective, there's a lot more of the clone, and I'm certainly having fun with him. I've got to be careful because I actually mentioned a bit of detail about the clone in a previous interview and I was told to behave myself. There's a lot more of him to be seen.
Particularly playing the clone, it certainly gives me a chance to get off of Scorpius. We put him in the cupboard so we maintain his power and credibility without giving too much away. I've been able to go to work and actually do quite a different performance. He started off quite subtle but it ain't subtle anymore.
It's almost like you're playing two different characters.
Pygram: Absolutely, particularly in Scorpius taking a piece of brain matter from Crichton, dumping the clone there, and leaving him to his own devices. He's certainly evolved into something that's very readily identifiable, and it gives me a chance to do quirky stuff. The clone only has two ways to get direct data for himself, and that is what Scorpius has given him, which is very little, and obviously what's in Crichton's subconscious, which is much, much richer to go and mine.
The chip was a nifty trick that the writers used to keep Scorpius around.
Pygram: Things evolved. It was like an idea that was there and slowly grew into something that was much clearer, much more profound. And also has the added advantage of keeping me, Wayne, at work. It gives us an opportunity to put Scorpius aside for a moment. I think there's a lot of danger in seeing too much of a character like Scorpius, who drives so much of the drama and so much of the action, with John particularly. He can start to lose his power and interest if you were to see him in every episode. But I like going to work at the end of the day [laughs]. It worked out nicely, because we're not going to diminish anything we've set up in the past. In fact, we're going to embellish and make it more interesting, I hope. And it keeps me at work.
It would be unrealistic if the real Scorpius showed up every week chasing them.
Pygram: Again, I can't give too much away. But there's a logical conclusion. You can work it out for yourself. Either Scorpius has his way and can either move forward with or without Crichton. Or maybe Scorpius, to get what he wants, might have to eventually change his tactics with regard to John Crichton.
How does Scorpius see John Crichton?
Pygram: I think he views him not as an equal, but certainly he's met his match in some regards. Because Crichton has these human qualities which Scorpius actually doesn't understand in that he has a heart and soul and is emotional. And all those things actually throw Scorpius. It makes John Crichton a much more complex and difficult person to understand, and certainly to manipulate. I think he has, in his own way, a real sense of respect for John Crichton. He knows stuff that Scorpius wants. There aren't many people in this world that would even hold up for Scorpius. But John is a match intellectually, on that level, and Scorpius also he sees him as a curio. He's something that's been dragged out from the bottom of the ocean that's thousands of years old. He's this ancient piece of antiquity that holds secrets. It's like the pyramids, in a sense. He's a mystery. He's a link to the past and a link to the future. And he's this wonderful [oddity] that holds all this information that he doesn't even know about himself. He's an innocent.
Now that Scorpius has the wormhole technology, he has to find out something else he wants from Crichton.
Pygram: He has to crack the code. ... And he will, in time. He knows that John can crack the code. John can't in his own mind consciously, but subconsciously he has all the answers. It's a case of, how do I get them out without killing him? How do I get the goal without destroying the mind?
I don't know where you're up to episodic-wise, but there's a fantastic one coming up, which is basically [where Scorpy came from, and] we get to see me as a child and get to see me as a juvenile, a young man, which I play. So we get the big backstory by me basically going into Crichton's subconscious and saying, "Well, look, John, this is why I am like I am. I need your help. Have a look at this. See where I actually come from. You might just understand me a little bit better." And I'm trying to convince him to basically push the data out of his brain. I can't say any more. But we get to the point where he has all the clues. He just doesn't know how to get them out.
Ben [Browder] is amazing. He's one of the hardest-working actors I've ever met. He really puts us to shame in some regards. Ben is the one who really drives the show. He's an admirable captain. Without Ben's energy we would be in trouble, I think. He's in every day and every scene. He's always out to solve the problem. He's got some Australian traits in him [laughs]. We got the right guy. He's a spiritual leader. He doesn't complain, he just shows you how to do it. He humbles people.
Are you ready to adopt him yet as an Australian?
Pygram: Well, his kids have got Aussie accents. They really love Australia. It's a good life for them down here. I'm sure they feel isolated from family and friends, at times. I don't know what's going to happen there when he does eventually go home. It's going to be really weird. The kids are going to have Aussie accents and all the strange, quaint little character traits [laughs].
Do you think John will ever make it home to Earth?
Pygram: Is it the year 2000, or is it the year 1952? Then again I don't know, but one presumes at some stage that he has to find his way home. It could be a great victorious welcome home. Or it could be 1860. It could be Armageddon. He could get back here and there's nobody left. There are all sorts of ways to go. Maybe ... well, I don't want to say too much [laughs]. I mean, that's the obvious journey for the big arc of Farscape in its entirety. One assumes that John has to get home. ... And what I know is that I'm approaching unemployment when I see that coming down the track [laughs].
I don't think you have to worry for a while.
Pygram: Well, I think we're in really good shape. I think ... well, here's a big, bold statement, but I think this is going to be the strongest [season] out of the three so far. So I think it does look good for the future. We've found our feet. Everyone's very confident in their characters, in what we're doing. Including our crew. Our crew can go to work. ... There aren't as many meetings. Every day is a problem-solving exercise. We just seem to be motoring along really well.
Do you think Farscape could end up being a major franchise like Star Wars or Star Trek?
Pygram: I hope so. It challenges the audience in a way that those other shows don't. It's a lot more adult show, I believe. ... I know you have to work with the Web pages and the fan mail to see the people side of it. [They see] a show that is challenging, that actually makes you feel uncomfortable at times. It's a touch of human emotion, so that we have to deal with this through isolation or through loss or whatever it happens to be. It's a clever show. There's a lot going on. I think the sci-fi audience is ready and certainly appreciates being challenged.
We're working in isolation here, which is sort of good and sort of not. There's a sense of being in a successful show. We're going to be doing some sci-fi conferences, which will be fantastic. There's one in L.A., and we're all really looking forward to that. But we can go to work here quietly and Ben can have a life. He goes surfing and Sydney is a real pretty town. He can have a life without having to worry about celebrity or any of that stuff. So that's the positive side. The negative side is that no one actually knows what we're doing here. We all might as well be Crichton, you know, somewhere lost out there in the universe [laughs]. But I'm thinking that in the long term, it's probably beneficial, certainly in terms of getting it done in the time that we have. Our conditions at work aren't quite what people expect. I think they're very surprised the conditions that we work under, that we achieve what we do. We just manage to get on. It's a really good balance. We've got good morale generally between cast and crew on the set.
What's the best thing about playing Scorpius? The worst thing?
Pygram: The best thing is to play a character that can walk into a room and not even utter a word and the whole room stops. It's a funny thing. I've never played a character that's quite so empowered as Scorpius. I don't have to do anything, in effect. The makeup, my characterization, the costume, all certainly support that. It's one of those things. I could easily get seduced by playing him. That's the danger. He's an effortless character. That's his arrogance.
And his makeup isn't an effort?
Pygram: Oh, that's Wayne. That's the Wayne side of it. If I work three or four days [in a row], I feel as if my face has been sandblasted. The biggest problem I have is with dehydration inside the costume. I'm sitting in there constantly topping off with water, but there's only so much water you can drink in a day. It's physical. It's quite demanding. When I've worked four days, back to back in a week, it takes me a day to recover. It isn't so bad at work, but by the time I get home I'm just absolutely wrecked. Not only physically, but your brain gets tired. There's something about being inside the prosthetic. It's a feeling of being removed at times, and it takes a lot more energy just to do anything. I don't quite understand it. It does zap you of energy. It's a mysterious thing working inside a mask. It's a thing unto itself. Also, believe it or not, I cook inside the costume. But we're in winter down here now and I have no insulation, so I also freeze. It's a Catch-22.
So you're probably enjoying playing the clone for that reason, too.
Pygram: Well, I get to wear other cossies [costumes]. It's been wonderful. I could appear as a cheerleader. I could be anything.
I'm looking forward to seeing that.
Pygram: Well, I'm not going to give away too much [laughs]. What's fantastic about the cossies, for one it's much more comfortable, but also it's just so zany-looking seeing me in that mask in a naturalistic Earth-bound costume [laughs]. It gets pretty weird and wild. But I think it's fantastic.
What's your take on evil and playing a villain?
Pygram: I don't think of him in those terms. I just think of him as having defined his goals really clearly. As a Sebacean/Scarran, he just hasn't got human feelings. I don't see him as evil or a villain. He just makes choices as a very cool and successful businessman would make. In our eyes he would seem immoral. But he has no sense of morality. He's an achiever, as you'll see. He's someone who had to train himself through torture to be as strong as he is. He's someone who's got lots of physical problems. And he's been brought up with a lie. Again, I can't say too much because it's all going to be discovered in the end. In his own development, certainly his physical development, he had to solve the problems for himself. He's had to bandaid himself to the point where he can stand tall and actually compete with other people.
Despite the fact that Peacekeepers hate half-breeds.
Pygram: Yeah, he's someone who shouldn't be there. He should have been put down at birth. And he's someone who would be perceived not so much as coming from the wrong side of the tracks, but he shouldn't even be on the tracks. He's someone who succeeded against all odds. He's very aware of that, I think. He's a very single-minded, driven character, who has succeeded through dealing with pain and dealing with torture ... and dealing with being told lies. He's like a bit of a black swan. He's evolved. He's the ugly duckling who evolved.
What's your favorite episode?
Pygram: The initial ones I'll always be very fond of. It was a great start. The episode set back on Earth last year where I play the drums, that was a fantastic episode. That really pushed the boundaries of the style for Farscape and what we actually can do in the show. It was bizarre, but it made absolute sense. The audience is very educated in sci-fi. If you make a blunder as far as continuity or history, they're going to pick it up. There's a lot of care, and we can go and have a crack at something as wild as that episode was and it all makes sense. You believe it. I think it's going to become a little bit of stylistic theme for the show that there will be one episode on Earth each season.
Farscape, unlike some of the other sci-fi shows, has a bigger palette to draw from because it's set now. Because the Crichton character can draw on so many cultural references.
It makes it fun to watch.
Pygram: It's an instant invitation to the audience, because the only people who get those jokes are the audience. The characters in the show don't know what he's talking about. It keeps it fresh and it keeps it bound to Earth, in a sense.
I think the audience trusts us. It's nice to do something that's challenging for us. They are the episodes that really excite me, the episodes that really push the style of the show. These are things that the other sci-fi shows don't do. We just finished a show, I could be sticking myself up here, but we go into Cartoon Land. Crichton turns me into a Looney Tunes character ... the clone Scorpius.
With Farscape, you're not limited by conventions. You can really use your imagination. I think the show is breaking boundaries even as much ... as let's have a go at this. Let's have some cartoons. ... I don't know where these ideas start or how they start, but it's very encouraging to see boundaries [expand] all the time.
Now that Scorpy has the wormhole technology, what would he think about Earth if he ever dropped by?
Pygram: He'd be disappointed [laughs]. He'd be disappointed to discover they're not all like John Crichton. About the wormhole ... I don't think Scorpius is the biggest threat. The biggest threat is if the Scarrans get hold of the technology, which is their plan. They're working on it as well. It's like the splitting of the atom. They're all working on it. Who's going to be the first man on the moon? Who's going to get there first? I have a sneaking suspicion they will.
As for Earth, I think Scorpius would be curious, but he'd be expecting a lot more. I think it's the humanitarian things that would confuse him the most. The famine and the wars and all this sort of stuff, that wouldn't surprise him. He'd be expecting more of that, more of the Peacekeeper style of world. I think he'd be surprised about people's freedoms, that people can express themselves. That people own property. All those sort of things. I think he'd see it as people living indulgent, wasteful lives. Going to the beach and playing golf. He'd be confused. Then he'd see the other side, the scientists and the intellectuals. I think he'd be intrigued, but disappointed. He'd be expecting a place full of John Crichtons [laughs].
That would be an interesting world.
Pygram: Yes, it would be. He'd have a little bit of difficulty fitting in, I think.
Are you surprised by the fan support?
Pygram: It's something that we're not used to out here, but having gone to one science-fiction convention, and I think I've gained a bit of perspective. I'm surprised by the level of commitment people go to to support the show. It's become part of their lives. We're not used to that sort of commitment here in Australia and we don't have a culture for sci-fi, at all. It's quite different. It's fantastic. It really pumps us up. And as I said, we're working in isolation. The Farscape convention we're doing in September, I gather it's going to be twice as big as last year and we've already sold a bunch of tickets. "Be prepared" is the message I got. If last year was overwhelming, look out. It's great. For most of us in Australia it's all very new. We don't sign autographs or anything [laughs].
Well, you may be signing a lot of them in the future.
Pygram: My autograph has a value [laughs]. It's crazy. But it's very nice, nonetheless, that something has come of it. I didn't even expect to be on the show beyond the four episodes. It's all been a shock and bonus for me. Bring it on!
Do you have any acting projects coming up apart from Farscape?
Pygram: We've got about 12 weeks to go and then we're finished. I'm going to be doing the conferences. That's the first thing on my agenda. I think it's pretty essential for people working inside the prosthetic makeup to go and do some other style of work. ... It's a funny thing. I did two little jobs between seasons, and it took a while to feel relaxed. I felt exposed. I certainly felt different and I didn't feel comfortable. I didn't feel as in control as I normally feel. I don't want to spend three of four years at it and then come back and spend three or four months regaining my feet. So if you don't see me at the [Farscape] conference, you know that I got a good job.
I understand you're a professional drummer. How do you approach the work differently as opposed to when you go to work as an actor?
Pygram: That's what I was doing last night. ... The drumming thing's more instant. It's one of the most rewarding things as far as instant gratification. It's physical. So it's almost like a form of exercise. Afterward I feel sort of clean and like I've done something. I haven't been doing any shows lately. I've just been doing writing and recording.
[Being an actor and being a drummer are] actually very similar in lots of ways. There's an element of just being available, an improvisational element. That every time you do the song or every time you do the scene it's going to be a little bit different, but hopefully will have a life unto itself. The drumming heavily relies on instinct, and at work there's a bit more of a controlled environment.
The music thing has been a good balance for me because I average 1.5 days a week [doing Farscape] and I have plenty of time to do other things. I just got a thing going at the moment with guys I used to play with 10-15 years ago. It's basically jazz-rock. I'm not a jazz drummer, but I'm doing my best. I'm doing okay [laughs]. We've been writing. We've got about six pieces we should record in the next month. I do corporate work, as well. I've got to see certain parts of Asia that I would never have gotten to see otherwise. It's been fantastic. I've been lucky in that I've got a bit of travel with these two jobs.
Do we get to look forward to a Scorpius-plays-the-drums CD?
Pygram: Oh that would be good, wouldn't it? [Laughs.] Maybe I'll do the Scorpy Christmas Album.
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