Geekscape Interviews: Richard Hatch, star of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and ‘Loadout: Going in Hot’

Golden Globe-nominated actor Richard Hatch is a legend among sci-fi fans. He is cemented in the hearts and minds of two generations with his starring role as the heroic Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica and the radical Tom Zarek in the critically-acclaimed reboot series. Now, Hatch continues his legacy in totally new territory.

The intersection of video games and film is rocky. They just can’t get along. I await the day to read the inevitable book about Hollywood’s ineptitude in turning the epic worlds and frantic action of video games into rich cinema. Yet, ever since Mortal Kombat: Legacy, I’ve begun to suspect it is in the online video culture and community where the people who actually care about video games can work in all stages of production, from pre to post. I enjoyed Mortal Kombat: Legacy and have been looking forward to seeing how the mediums — video games and online filmmaking — evolve together.

Edge of Reality’s third-person shooter Loadout, available on Steam and just released for the PlayStation 4, is the latest game to receive the web video treatment. Directed by Vincent Talenti and produced by Wayside Creations (the studio behind Fallout: Red Star), the short is set to premiere on Machinima Prime and just might further the venn diagram of film and video games in the way I hoped.

At the center of that hope? Apollo/Tom Zarek himself, Richard Hatch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8wRRIBMAqc

Obviously you are no stranger to the sci-fi genre, but what expectations did you have going into Loadout? Was there anything you were surprised by when the cameras started rolling?

Richard: The way the industry is going today, a lot of new business models and new ways of creating projects and distributing them and so on, and these days they’re finding new ways of going directly to the audience. Even Blood & Chrome played first online as opposed to TV. So, I didn’t know quite what to expect because I didn’t know Machinima, I didn’t really know Wayside Productions. But I loved the script. I loved the story. I loved the character. I loved the fact it’s something that really has been missing in the sci-fi genre for quite some time. Nothing out there is kind of on the level of a really fun sci-fi show like Firefly. And, [the script] had that wonderful dialogue, wonderful chemistry, and so I already knew somebody was talented. Someone had written a really, really creative, fun script. I love the character Gaz.

So, yeah, I showed up. And then I discovered, among other wonderful things, a really professional crew, a director that really knew what he was doing, knew how to communicate with everybody, and something that I would call a really laid back set. And just the way they filmed the whole thing, I was very impressed how it was laid out logistically. We weren’t [like so many productions] way over time, people didn’t know what they were doing or confused. Everybody knew what they were doing. It was a professionally run production and I got to be a part of a really, really talented cast and crew. We had a lot of fun shooting. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect.

What can you tell me about Captain Gaz? How different is he from your other roles, like Apollo or Tom Zarek?

Richard: Apollo was really that straight-forward guy that would watch your back. The kind of guy that holds down the fort, that’s always gonna step into the fray and save the day. He was kind of a true blue hero, you know? Straightforward, honest, has integrity. And the kind of guy that women can’t handle. [laughs]

And Tom Zarek, of course, the wounded idealist who ultimately realized he couldn’t get anywhere playing by fair rules. And yet he wanted to make a positive difference. So he liked to play the chess game, he was very smart and cage-y. But it was all for good purpose. He was never trying to destroy or take away the good things. He wanted to fight for what he thought was getting lost once again, which in this case was democracy in a kind of post-9/11 circumstance. Democracy can’t be pushed to the side. So he was a pretty intense guy, you know?

And I think the difference with Gaz, is really, for me, it’s not like playing jokes trying to be funny. It’s quirky characters being real and believable that creates very funny circumstances. It’s very much like Galaxy Quest, where the characters play them straight and yet each of those characters were so quirky and funny that just seeing who they were lent itself to a lot of comedy. And Gaz is an over-the-top captain who tries to hold this quirky, crazy crew together and outsmart all the big bad guys with bigger ships, more money, more guns, who try to take away their commerce. Because they’re trying to deliver. It’s their only way of surviving with this broken down ship. And Gaz has this misogynistic, love-hate relationship with his ship. He yells at it, he screams at it, he cajoles it, he makes love to it, it’s the number-one most important relationship in his life. And he would never give up this broken down ship for anything no matter how new and shiny somebody might present a new ship to him.

But, like I said, he can be volatile, but at the same time, maybe a little bit like James Cameron, he’s always trying to keep everything together to keep everybody moving forward. Because he knows that the commodities they’re carrying means they can live another day.

Kind of like Firefly.

Richard: Yeah! And I loved this character. He’s hilarious, but he’s honest, he has a lot integrity, he’s a bad ass with a gun, but at the same time he has to manage these wild, crazy, smart, brilliant nerd characters, each one with a unique skill and talent and trying to keep them all on the straight track and get through the day. He’ll do whatever he’s gotta do.

Loadout distinguishes it from other games by purposefully being like a Saturday morning cartoon, but for adults. It’s like a Looney Tunes from hell. The short film, Going in Hot, will it match that tone?

Richard: You know something? I think it will. It’s a very, very, I think well-put together pilot. They accomplished so much in so little time you see [the characters]. They’re trying to get in to deliver a load and they’re getting fired upon, everybody is trying to take them down, all the big bad corporate guys with the bigger ships are trying to stop them, and you know something? Nothing stops these guys. It’s the little guy against the big guy. It’s like, “Frak all of you, we’re going in hot, we’re gonna make it, we’re gonna do it, I don’t give a shit what you think.” And they keep finding a way to do it! So it’s really, really fun.

According to the filmmakers, Loadout: Going in Hot aims to present via cinema key gameplay elements. How difficult was it bringing those video game elements to life, and have you played the game?

Richard: I have not played the game, but I am going to play for the first time next Tuesday. And, you know, I’m gonna go in and kinda get a chance to see what the game is all about. But I like the fact that I didn’t play the game. Because I got the script, got the character breakdown, and a live-action version of a game, you’re gonna take that character and you’re gonna flesh it out. It’s going to expand, it’s not just going to stay frozen in time. Because a live-action flesh and blood character is going to be more dimensional. So our job as an actor, collaborating with the writer and director, is to flesh out and breathe life into these characters, and I like the fact that I was able to do that coldly from the script and the character breakdown and all the elements that were written in the script. And it will be interesting to go play the game and see what the differences are.

But I think there’s always going to be some differences, and hopefully you’re going to bring more exciting elements into the live-action version. And maybe the live-action version hopefully influences further renditions of the game. I think the two are starting to affect one another.

You have a huge audience from your time in Battlestar Galactica, but — and forgive me for this, I’m asking for my mom — do you meet anyone who recognizes you from Dynasty?

Richard: Not very often. [laughs] I think they’re all dead.

My mom is still around and is a huge fan!

Richard: I’m kidding, I’m kidding. It’s just, it’s been so long ago, it almost feels like another life.

What has been the most exciting thing doing Loadout? What can we look forward to whether we’re fans of the game or haven’t even heard of it?

Richard: I think what’s exciting is, instead of having a successful movie or television show and throwing out a half-assed game, here you have a successful game that people love, and here they’re doing a live-action version which is the reverse of what they used to. And I like that. It means we can take elements of the game that are so successful and can translate them into a live-action, living, breathing production where we can expand upon the characters and the situations. We can bring more comedy. More intensity. More excitement into that world. And remember, when you create a world, it kind of gives people a backstory. They get emotionally connected to the characters, and to the situations. And when they play the game, They already have that back story in their imagination. They’re already in a more self-immersive relationship with the game. And it will make the game so much more fun to play and going back and fourth between the game and the live-action version.

I think the two will really support each other. It’s what they tried to do with Defiance but unfortunately they tried to do something with a story they hadn’t succeeded at yet and then they threw out a game at the same time. I think they were trying to do too much. Here, you already have a game that was kind of been out there, fans know it, they’ve played it, so that’s already secured.

As someone who has been working in sci-fi films and TV for many years, did you ever see video games reaching this kind of mainstream appeal and reaching to the cinematic medium?

Richard: I think it has always been going in this direction, from the time  I did Battlestar, we had real computers on our bridge in the original and we were already playing games during lunch.

Nice!

Richard: We were already starting to enter that world. And then it was only a matter of time before the technology and the sophistication of where it’s going that you can really bring all these elements together. I think what they realized is [in the past] that you can have the most sophisticated game technology but wrap around it a story. Just some story to tie everything together. Now, games can have really great stories and you can actually have a story and build that game so that the story and the game really become self-immersive and people really relate to the characters and the relationships and the chemistry of it all, and they’re able to enter a world and be a part of it. It’s a very exciting time.

I don’t mean to dwell on Battlestar Galactica, but you were nominated for a Golden Globe in your portrayal of Apollo, you campaigned for years to get a revival done, and then you build a new audience in Tom Zarek. Years removed from the show, what do you fondly look back on? When you think Battlestar, what memory puts a smile on your face?

Richard: You know something? First of all, obviously the first time I ever met Lorne Greene on the first day walking on the set of the original Battlestar, watching film crews from all over the world never having any clue how big this project really was, the most expensive TV show in history at that time. And the next most powerful moment, after I met Lorne Greene and realized he was a real human being and he was going to play my father and from that moment that I met him, I realized I was home free. Because we had an instant relationship. That was a very powerful moment, to meet someone I grew up with on Bonanza. Never thought in a million years I thought he’d be playing my father on a TV show.

And the second most powerful moment, as Tom Zarek, was coming on the set on the first episode, after thirty-five years walking on a Battlestar Galactica set, with Ron Moore showing me around the landing bay, all these big ships, and meeting the cast. And sitting at the table across, was Edward Olmos. It was kind of a deja vu, coming back after thirty-five years and being in the Battlestar universe again. It was truly the most emotional days I’ve ever had.

Do you have anything coming up your fans can look forward to in the future? Anything to keep the Tom Zarek fanatics happy?

Richard: [laughs] Yeah! I’m starring in a steampunk film with Malcolm McDowell called Cowboys & Engines, which is going to premiere at the Landmark Theatre, in West Pico in Los Angeles. I’m directing a movie called With Arms, about a Vietnam vet who walks away from the war, and one of the big things I’m doing is a groundbreaking Star Trek indie film with one of the most talented actors and crew I’ve ever seen. It’s gonna be on the scale of a studio film, never before attempted, called Axanar. You can go online and check out the 20-minute Prelude to Axanar, where I play General Karn, and it is the battle between the Klingons and the humans and the rest of the Star Trek federation universe. It’s exploring a time frame that has never been explored in Star Trek canon. And, honestly, the production value is epic, the visual aspects are epic, and the director to me is a young Ridley Scott. We’ve already rented studios and they’re going to be building sets. We start filming the actual movie probably starting around March.

See Richard Hatch now in the brand-new short film Loadout: Going in Hot, based on the third-person shooter Loadout from Edge of Reality. The Star Trek fanfilm Prelude to Axanar can be found here.

You can keep up with Richard Hatch by liking him on Facebook. Also be sure to listen to him on this week’s Geekscape podcast!