When FADPOV had the chance to chat with actor Ryan Robbins a little while ago, we were more than thrilled to spend a slightly overcast afternoon in North Vancouver with this iconic star. Two hours later and Ryan's charm and wit has completely won us over as he regales us with fun stories from various sets, and what it's been like to bring characters to life in favourite shows like Battlestar Galactica, Stargate: Atlantis, The Guard, Sanctuary, and so many others.

It certainly also doesn't hurt that Ryan's animated tales are shared over luscious organic coffee as we get sneaky peeks at the tattoo of his daughter's name over his shoulders, all the while wondering how we should raise the fact that we think he looks the spitting image of an adorable Viggo Mortensen…

As we got to spend so much time with Ryan, we've decided to break this interview into two parts so you don't miss out on anything. We certainly hope you enjoy this little insight into Ryan's life as much as we enjoyed talking with him!!

FADPOV: So Ryan, have you always lived here in Vancouver?

Ryan: I've lived in L.A., I've lived in New York, all over the world at times.

FADPOV: You lived in L.A. as well as New York? Were you acting there?

Ryan: LA was acting. New York was a performance related. I spent time as a musician there. I don't know if you've ever seen this group "Stomp"? It's very percussive. They were over here and some of them had seen my band ["Hellenkeller"]. They really liked what we were doing.

One of things we were doing involved me standing on an oil drum (I was wearing combat boots), with two drummers. Anyway, these guys asked me to come to New York to try out for "Stomp". I didn't end up doing that gig but I stayed in New York for a while. I lived in Brooklyn back before it was cool to be there… Brooklyn is now where all the cool people live. I love it there though. It was great, I used to walk from my apartment over the Brooklyn Bridge.

FADPOV: Sounds like you had an amazing time there…

Ryan: Oh, I did. Brooklyn is cool because Brooklyn has every sort of demographic, including the Irish.

FADPOV: Do you come from an Irish family background?

Ryan: It's totally mixed but, yes, there's Irish in there… and Scottish.

FADPOV: It seems to me like every person you come across has an Irish background in some form or another.

Ryan: The thing about being Irish is that they're very proud about it. I know I've got Scottish blood in there and some Norwegian… there's a bunch of stuff… but I grew up Irish. We all have Irish names… Ryan, Sean, Kelly, Jerry… it's all very Irish.

FADPOV: At least you don't have the Irish names that are spelt completely different to their pronunciation!

Ryan: Weeeeell, my daughter's name is Meelah, which is actually a Russian name, but we spelt it to look like an Irish name… M-e-e-l-a-h. [Note: Ryan shows us where he has had Meelah's name tattooed on his back near the shoulders… it's adorable!!!]

We thought it would be great because no one would mispronounce it. But we didn't really realize that people don't read your name so much as you tell it to them and then they write it down, so I'm sure she's going to have more problems than we anticipated.

But if we'd stayed truly Irish with the spelling there'd have been a ‘g' in there or something. [*laughs*]

FADPOV: So did you grow up in Canada then?

Ryan: I was born in Victoria, here in BC.

FADPOV: We spoke with Dan Payne recently, and he was in the movie Smile Of April with you, wasn't he? Being based here in Vancouver, do you find you come across all the same people when you arrive on movie and tv sets?

Ryan: No, not really, but depending on the community you're in. The girls who made Smile Of April, Sabrina and Jessica, they're from France, and I met them on an unrelated movie called Taming Tammy that they were working on. They wanted to go to film school, but it was expensive so they just came here and started working in film to get the experience they needed. They're big sci fi fans, by the way. And they're so ambitious and tenacious and they're very, very talented people.

Anyway, I met them on Taming Tammy and it turns out that they knew who I was and they're big Stargate fans. They started talking and they said to somebody I knew on the show, "Oh we're doing this short film and we'd really like Ryan to be in it, but we don't want to ask him because he won't do it." So somebody asked me on their behalf and when I read the script I was happy to do it.

And so we did this short film and from there we formed a relationship. They'd gotten to know a lot of us from being fans of the shows we've been on and meeting people at events. And once they realized is all you have to do is ask, they figured out we're not mean people. We're going to look at it and if we can do it, if we like it, we'll do it. If we can't, then it's no big deal, but it's worth asking, right?

FADPOV: Tori Higginson was also in Smile Of April, wasn't she?

Ryan: I love Tori! I've worked with her a lot. And the girls [Sabrina and Jessica] got to know Dan Payne through… something to do with Sanctuary maybe? I can't remember how he fit into the equation, and I know he nearly couldn't do it because of something else he was filming.

Then they had somebody else in the lead role and that fell through at the last minute. I had just been talking with my friend Ann Marie DeLuise [Peter DeLuise's wife]… we were talking about doing Indy films. She works a lot and is a successful actress but she wanted to do some of those smaller films so asked me to tell her if I heard of anything coming up. Literally, within a week, I get this call asking if I had any ideas for who could be the lead in Smile Of April. So of course I got them in touch with Ann Marie. She ended up doing the job and she's really brilliant in it. I think Peter [DeLuise] had a little part in the film too…

I'm curious to see the film when it comes out! It's a series of stories so I just had my little bit and I haven't seen any of the rest of it.

FADPOV: Your filmography covers just about every single sci fi show that's been filmed in Vancouver… do you seek out sci fi at all? Or is it that a lot of science fiction is filmed in Canada and you just get the calls for these shows?

Ryan: I never used to get the sci fi calls at all! I mean, other than Beyond Belief and an episode of The Twilight Zone… and Outer Limits kind of early on, smaller parts… but no one ever auditioned me for sci fi stuff. I don't think I even auditioned for Stargate SG-1.

FADPOV: You weren't called in for SG-1 at all?

Ryan: I might have auditioned for it somewhere along the line, but I don't recall ever doing so. But what ended up happening, was when they were casting the Atlantis pilot and I auditioned for the character that later became McKay.

Then they brought in David [Hewlett] and made the character his character from SG-1, which I think was really cool because he's just the most fantastic guy. I have lots of respect for David.

So the season went by then I got his call saying there's this role… a scientist for a couple episodes and did I want to do it? Of course I was happy to. I figured it was just going to be a small part and I was going to die. Then Martin Wood, who was directing, said "I don't think I'm going to kill ya. I'll kill somebody else, I like you."

So he didn't kill me and then not long after that they had written this storyline for Robert Davi, the Koyla character, to come back in and try to take over the Genii. Well Robert was making his own film so he wasn't available and they rewrote it for my character instead.

And then what happened was we got in there and it was written a certain way. The role was written for Koyla, so when I got the script I very tentatively spoke up and voiced my opinion that I couldn't really justify this scientist guy suddenly becoming a vicious, ruthless killer…

So we talked a lot and what eventually happened was Ladon became more conflicted. And that made him more interesting, so they wrote more stuff and Ladon got to stick around for a while longer. After that I don't know what happened to him. [*laughs*]

And you know, it was cool getting to bring this character to life. I mean, I got to work with Colm Meaney!

FADPOV: Oh for sure! What was it like working with him?

Ryan: He's just great. You know, I'm a fan of his outside of the sci fi world from films like Layer Cake and The Snapper. He's just a brilliant Irish actor. We sat down next to each other and I just asked him a bunch of questions… he told me story after story after story, and all these great Star Trek stories… all these reasons for the choices he makes. It was great.

There's a scene before I end up blowing him up in Atlantis… we just came up with this thing on the spot about his ignorance and my frustrations with him being so pig headed and ignorant. It became this little thing with the radio where he kept trying to talk into it and no one's responding, then he looked at me and handed it to me and I turn it on to make it work. We just did that ourselves and I'm sure if it was anybody else I don't know if we would have gotten away with it. But because it was Colm Meany, it was super funny and we got to play around with it.

It was pretty hard to keep a straight face, though. I mean, we were playing these characters that, at that time, weren't ever really referenced by name, so no one was really sure about them… if they were the Genii or the Genii

[FADPOV Note: *Work with me here people… Ryan is talking about where the emphasis falls on the word*]

And actually, I think the jury is still out on it. Sometimes you can be watching an episode where it's the Genii and at other times it's the Genii.

FADPOV: A bit like the ‘Goa'uld' and the ‘Gooled'.

Ryan: Yup. I just like to explain it by saying that people from different parts of the Omniverse have different accents from others. [*laughs*]

FADPOV: What pronunciation are you plugging for personally?

Ryan: I like Genii but only because it sounds like Jedi. [*FADPOV chuckles and loves it that Ryan secretly wants to be a Jedi*]

Colm and I were running lines and he's asking me, "So, what are you? Ladon? Laydin?  What the hell's your name?" And I'm like, "I don't actually know!" No one had ever actually said my name.

He keep on at me… "What is it then? Ladon Radim? Or you Laydin Radeem? What are you?" And I said, "Yeah, I don't know. I think I'm going to be Laydon Radeem. I think it's a little bit more ethnic. It's a little more exotic."

I don't know what everybody else calls him, but that's what I call him. And I figure his middle name is Rex. Yeah, his dad was a big Genii soap opera star…

FADPOV: Out of all the roles you've played, what have been some of your favorites?

Ryan: Oh boy, I'd have to say I haven't played it yet. And I think I'll know it when I do get to play it. That sounds a little bit ungrateful I think, but I haven't disliked any of the roles I've played. I really try really hard to bring something new, something different to every character.

My whole plan all along was to be a character actor. Somebody told me once that I wasn't good looking enough to be a leading man but not ugly enough to be a character actor and I thought, well I could ugly myself up. I'll do that!

But then I realized longevity is what's important for me. It's true that I don't have that all-American look, but then I don't want that job. I'm not as challenged when I'm just bringing myself into a character than when I'm trying to create something completely new to bring the audience in. I've always wanted something as far away from myself as possible.

There were definitely things about Ladon I liked a lot. But being a secondary character like that, there were a lot of things in my mind about who he was that you never got to see in show.

I liked Charlie Connor in Battlestar Galactica a lot too. That was the same thing… the idea of him, had the show had gone further, would have been very interesting to explore. And it was something they wanted to explore as well… they really loved the character and the way they went with it, especially when they decided to wrap up the series.

I'm also playing a character right now on the series called The Guard, named Wendell. I like that guy too. He's a series regular on the show.

You know, I think my some of my favorite characters have been in Indy films and short films that not nearly enough people have seen. There was a character called Harold in this film When Jesse Was Born and another character in a brilliant short film called The Visitor… but, you know, they're festival films and not a lot of people get to see them. I won an award for a show called Man Feel Pain and that guy was great, I love that guy, I love that character.

FADPOV: Do you think that you'll get to come back as Henry Foss now that Sanctuary has been picked up for tv?

Ryan: I hope so! Now, there's a fun character. I had a meeting with Martin [Wood], Amanda [Tapping] and Damian [Kindler] a couple of months ago, talking about Sanctuary. I know its going and will be happening, but I don't know when. I know what the ultimate plan for the character is, though, and it's awesome! Who knows what will happen by the time we get to developing, but right now I love what's on paper.

It's stuff that Damian and I had talked about last year after we shot the webisodes. We talked about the future of the show and the future of the character and threw around some ideas around. He hit me with a couple of ideas and I was like, "That's awesome!" So fingers crossed it works out and I can do it… that the scheduling doesn't clash with The Guard.

I actually got that job through Martin Wood you know. He said to Damian, "You know who you need for this role… Ryan Robbins." And Damian was like, "Ladon? Ah, no. He's got to be quirky and funny and sarcastic." But Martin was like, "Trust me, Ryan Robbins is really good." The way Damian tells the story, he says Martin told him, "Trust me, Ryan Robbins is really weird, a total weirdo… he's perfect." Typical Martin Wood. [*laughs*]

FADPOV: We're big fans of Sanctuary, so we can't wait to see what happens with it.

Ryan: Me too, and Damian Kindler is really active in the sci fi community and really appreciative of the fans. He goes to everything, he hangs out with everybody. He's really good at talking to people about it. He's really great, he took a risk, he took a big risk doing Sanctuary and he is very aware of why it's paying off, who's responsible and who watches it. He's so loyal to his fans. He really is.

FADPOV: It's so great to hear it all coming together.

Ryan: Actually I just had a meeting with the creator of The Guard last night and I happened to bump into John Smith, the producer for Stargate and Sanctuary and Peter DeLuise as well - I know Peter quite well - and we start talking a little bit, but you know what? I can't seem to get any information. From what I know, the hope is to see Henry Foss in all 13 episodes of Sanctuary.

The ideas for the direction of the show are really cool, though. And the fact that it is going to television should not deter people from their allegiance to the web presence.  They have a lot plans – nothing that I can talk about unfortunately - that are going to continue to break ground and continue to press forward and wow people.

Sanctuary came out with a lot of success online and now major, major Hollywood studios are creating entirely separate web divisions. I think a lot of people who had heard about this Sanctuary thing thought they'd just let them be the guinea pig and see what happened. And then of course came the writer's strike and everyone was suddenly talking about the Internet. It's become very, very real. And people can say Sanctuary was a coincidence, but I was there. I saw the struggles and I know what we had to deal with, with money and unions and how things were going to work.

You know, they offered me the job and there wasn't a lot of money in it but it was so cool and I thought this is going to be huge or it's not going to work, but either way it's ground breaking and I want to be a part of it. And I like Henry [*smiles*]

FADPOV: Did you work extensively on a green screen for Sanctuary?

Ryan: Everything I did was inside the studio and all green screened. Everything I touch, like this table in front of me… that's real. If I'm interacting with it, it's real. But things like the room, the walls, the ceiling, the floors… that's all CGI. And they'll shoot it so you can come and look at a monitor that's linked directly to the CG world so you can see a rough rendering of what the room will look like and what I'm walking around.

FADPOV: And when you're with monsters and CGI characters, are you acting against a real person? Or is it added in later?

Ryan: Yup, James Bamford – Bam Bam - plays Steve [the creature Henry stars with]. Bam Bam, of course, being the stunt coordinator extraordinaire for Stargate. Everybody knows Bam Bam. He's taller than me, but Steve is supposed to be a lot bigger still, so I have to remember to look slightly above Bam Bam's head… but I've known him for so long and we goof around a lot. He'll start making jokes when I'm trying not to look at him in the eye.

But I really liked the whole Steve/Henry dynamic… and I guess so did everyone else, so I hope to see a lot more of that in the future.

TO BE CONTINUED…

FADPOV: What's the craziest costume you've ever had to wear on the set?

Ryan: Wow. Probably not the craziest but the most intense and least comfortable costume was when we shot the first episode of the mini series for Battlestar Galactica. I played the old man and it took six hours in prosthetics to age me. To have the walk and the suit… those suits are really tight!

Ladon's costume in Atlantis. I mean, god bless the costume department, but it's one of the most uncomfortable costumes ever.

Actually, I find myself wearing very little quite a lot of the time. I shot this mini series called Taken. And there's a shot where there's a bunch of us sitting naked in the field. That's a strange costume because it's actually this nude-colored cloth. You're not naked, but you might as well be.

Then I did a movie with Judy Davis called A Little Thing Called Murder and I was naked in that. They wanted to put one of those little loin cloth things on me and I was just like, "Ah, forget it. Don't even worry about that thing, it covers nothing anyway."

It was the middle of October in the pouring rain and I'm running through a golf course completely naked. So I think the craziest costumes are the lack of costumes. I've dressed up in some weird outfits but nothing like, say what Dan Payne has to wear. Damian Kindler calls him "Dan ‘what monster will I be this week?' Payne. [*laughs*] I don't get to be characters like the Wraith unfortunately.

FADPOV: Oh, they're really creepy to see in real life, aren't they?

Ryan: I was shooting Atlantis… the episode where the Wraith, played by Chris Heyerdahl, is sucking the life out of Sheppard… and I'm in the lunch line and I get this hand on my shoulder and this deep voice in my ear asking, "How you doing?"

I'm like, "Who the hell are you??" And the makeup is so good, when you see them in person, they look just like you see them on screen. Right up close the details are amazing. Like freckles… the Wraith have freckles! You've seen them, am I wrong?

FADPOV: You're not wrong! So what are some of the more unusual things you've had to do while filming?

Ryan: Coming from a circus background, I tend to be given the opportunity to do more stunts than perhaps other actors. When I first moved here, I went to stunt school and started to learn the processes, so I know a lot of the stunt guys here. There's an understanding that I'll be able to do certain things, so I often get to give them a go.

When I was filming Walking Tall, I was supposed to do a fight scene where I ran around the corner and hit The Rock with a stick. But when we went to the location, the Director was like, "You know what would be cool? If we got him to jump off that 15 foot balcony onto The Rock and have him thrown through the table there… that would be fun." They asked me if I wanted to do it and I was like, "Hell yeah!"

Dwain Johnson is just the most fantastic guy, by the way.

FADPOV: Oh… I looooooove him!

Ryan: He found out when we were filming that I was going to have a baby and we had this great chat about it. Then when I saw him at the film premiere… he was surrounded by people but he called me over, grabbed me and said, "Did you have your baby?" I told him we had a girl and he called over his wife, told her, and congratulated me… he was so awesome about it all.

Anyway, when we were going to do the stunt in Walking Tall, he called me over and said, "Listen, there's something so cool and fun about crashing through a table… you're going to love it, trust me." So I did a bunch of versions with Dwain, then a bunch with his stunt double, who is actually his cousin. Those guys were so full of life and so great. I had such fun with them.

A couple of times I'd be on a descender cable to do these takes, where I hover about a foot above the camera, just hanging… and Dwain would come over and prop me on his shoulder. I'd be balanced there like a muppet! And he'd just stand there chatting to me while I was perched there on his shoulder. [*laughs*]

I had to put on weight for that film because I wasn't very big compared to most of the other guys, and it had to be at least a bit believable when I knock out The Rock. [*laughs*] So I was trying to bulk up during filming, but they kept bringing donuts on set. I'm like, "No, no, no… I can't have them. I'm trying to get in shape". And then there goes The Rock, with four donuts in his hand… and he's cutting weight. He dropped 25 pounds for the movie! I'm like, "Are you kidding me??" And he's responding with, "Man, you have to treat yourself or you won't have a good time." [*laughs*]

FADPOV: I read an interview with Dwain Johnson one time, and it said Krispy Kreme donuts are his complete weakness…

Ryan: That's entirely true. They were sending people across the border to the States to pick up boxes and boxes and boxes of Krispy Kremes and bringing them back. I think Dwain actually designs his diet around allowing for Krispy Kreme donuts. He must, right? I mean, how do you eat a box of those things and drop 25 pounds?? It's the Krispy Kreme diet, I'm convinced.

But… they're so gooood, aren't they? [*laughs*] You know, I personally prefer Tim Horton's donuts though.

FADPOV: Ooooh! Controversial!

Ryan: Well, I'm a Canadian kid. Yup… write that down. Tim Hortons over Krispy Kreme any day. And add a "Booyah!" [*laughs*]

FADPOV: Finally, from all the actors you've over the years, who has kind of stood out as being the most genuine?

Ryan: Edward James Olmos is a shining example of how to behave on set. He's an icon! He is a great mentor, he is incredibly loving and kind, and he cares very much about whatever projects he's working on. Every time I've met him and spoken to him he's been absolutely lovely. He commands respect, and gives you the opportunity to be respected, but at the same time he has no problem expressing his displeasure in something because he doesn't do it in a petulant way. He does it in a very dignified way.

The word magnanimous comes to mind. When someone comes up and compliments me, I don't really know how to take it. I'm so overly thankful that it must come across as disingenuous, but really I just want them to know that I appreciate the effort so much. And then you see someone compliment Ed and the way he says a simple thank you is enough and so sincere. It's exactly what the fan wanted to hear, and it's truthful. I really admire the type of man he is.