[B5JMS] new interviews of Jerry Doyle and Peter Jurasik

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: janmschroeder at aol.com (Jan)
Date: 05 Dec 2002 02:19:40 GMT
Lines: 30

Don93 asked:

>What has JMS said concerning Lyta & Ivanova?  Is he not on good terms with
>these actors as well?
>This *seems* to be getting worse than I thought.  Of  course, it's really the
>fans who suffer.

JMS hasn't said anything of a negative nature that I know of about Pat Tallman
(Lyta).  During Crusade there was to have been a part for her in the episode
"The Path of Sorrows" but they weren't able to come to financial agreement. 
Quite a number of people assume that this means that JMS was 'crossed' somehow
and would make sure never to let her work on any of his shows again.

The problem with Claudia Christian is way too long to go into here.  Suffice to
say that it, too, involved money and was the reason that Claudia wasn't in the
5th season.  Yes, there was some disagreement over who said what, when, but
nothing I ever read from JMS indicated that he would never allow her to work on
his stuff again.

The only thing I can think of that would have caused people to decide that JMS
would be so spiteful is that when another actor (Gen. Hague, don't remember the
actor's name) bailed on them to do DS9, JMS re-wrote the script to kill off the
character.  He said online the one 'should never honk off the writer' and
people seem to have decided to take this as a serious statement of 'policy'
instead of being playful.

Sigh.

Jan


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 07 Dec 2002 02:12:17 GMT
Lines: 50

>JMS hasn't said anything of a negative nature that I know of about Pat
>Tallman
>(Lyta).  During Crusade there was to have been a part for her in the episode
>"The Path of Sorrows" but they weren't able to come to financial agreement. 

Which, obviously, was not my call, but hers.  Her work would have taken just
one day (closer to half a day, actually), and the fee was based on what we'd
paid her in her last season.  She felt she couldn't do it for less, we didn't
have the budget to give more, it's a fair disagreement, she opted out, so I had
to revise the script accordingly.  This sort of thing happens all the time.

>Yes, there was some disagreement over who said what, when, but
>nothing I ever read from JMS indicated that he would never allow her to work
>on
>his stuff again.
>
>The only thing I can think of that would have caused people to decide that
>JMS
>would be so spiteful is that when another actor (Gen. Hague, don't remember
>the
>actor's name) bailed on them to do DS9, JMS re-wrote the script to kill off
>the
>character.  He said online the one 'should never honk off the writer' and
>people seem to have decided to take this as a serious statement of 'policy'
>instead of being playful.

At the end of the day, however much one might grump, you have to do what's
right, otherwise the whole thing goes pear-shaped, as the Brits say.

Case in point: Foxworth, as noted above.  We needed someone for an important
part in Jeremiah this season, and his name surfaced as one prospect.  I'll be
honest: when that happened, I kind of got my back up over the Hague situation. 
But then, at the end of the day, you have to say, "Okay, he pissed you off, but
does that mean you don't hire the right guy for the job?"  

So we hired him for that episode, "Letters from the Other Side," part one of
our series premiere (with a quick shot also in part two).

Because you can't sensibly run a show in any other way.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
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