Interview: Christopher Judge chats with us ahead of Supanova on a changing industry since Stargate

Christopher Judge would easily have to be one of the most recognisable faces from sci-fi TV if you’ve had any passing interest in Stargate over the years. As Teal’c, Judge’s presence within the Stargate universe has been one that has traversed SG:1 and from there, the actor has gone on to flex that creative muscle both in front of the camera and behind over the years. For now, Judge is focused on getting to meet as many fans as possible in Adelaide and Brisbane at Supanova over the next few weekends.

The trip comes after solid few months of work for Judge, who’s been working on a project that – surprise, surprise – he can’t disclose much information about. What we can squeeze out of Judge however, is that it stands to be huge.

“I’ve been working on that for the past eight months and the company’s going to make the announcement next year at E3,” he says. “We’ve got a long wait to keep silent! It’s pretty odd how the business has changed; you go take meetings on stuff now and you have to sign all these non-disclosure agreements, or your agents and managers have to sign the non-disclosure agreements. You go in with very limited knowledge of the material and it’s not until you get it, that you find out it’s this huge thing. It’s very odd.”

Judge talks about the shift in trend with the recent rise of popularity in the demand for huge comic book/graphic novel adaptations on film, noting the significance of events like E3 and San Diego Comic Con, just to name a few.

“It all started with all the comic book adaptations.” he agrees “My first experience with it was with The Dark Knight Rises, because I had no idea! I went to two auditions without knowing what it was and on my third audition, they said I’d be reading with Christopher Nolan. I then realised! It’s just very disconcerting because the movies are so stylised now and especially with the big directors, everyone is so familiar with they style. It can really help you with your preparation but because, most of the time, you don’t get any of that, it puts you at such a huge disadvantage.”

Working on a show like Stargate at a time where the television industry was beginning to embrace some technology that would switch up the game for years to come has obviously given Judge and his co-stars the jump and a new perspective on how narratives could further develop and be brought to life.

“Even just with how things are filmed now to when I started back in the late 80’s,” he explains. “There were these big huge cameras and set ups took at least two hours. Now, the thing that I’m working on now, the set ups are like, five minutes! It’s crazy. With our rehearsals, it’s like we’re rehearsing a stage play! It’s completely different than it used to be. We not only were there for the genesis of television CGI, but we were the show that they tested the red cameras on.”

“I remember when we first got the red cameras,” he laughs. “Looking at the playback and going, ‘Oh my god, this looks awful. We look awful.’ You had very few lenses to choose from and depth of field and stuff like that were huge obstacles and I remember watching it going, ‘This HD thing will never catch on for television,’ – how wrong I was! I was in a meeting the other week and apparently the next thing is they’re coming out with 4D TVs, so they’re now trying to look for shows to shoot in 4HD now, which is incredible.”

The Supanova Pop Culture Expo comes to Adelaide and Brisbane in November. Buy your tickets and grab more event information by visiting www.supanova.com.au. You can see Christopher and the other guests this year at the following venues:

November 20th – 22nd: Royal Adelaide Showgrounds
November 27th – 29th: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

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