I saved the best for
last: Warehouse 13’s Eddie McClintock and Saul Rubinek. They spoke on Saturday
and Sunday. This is Saturday. I’m splitting this into two entries because these
guys were very interesting.
They did a combo of
talking and questions. I liked how they asked “Do you want to hear us talk
about X?” The answer was always yes, like how he got the role of Artie. They
were having trouble casting him and Rubinek said why during his audition: Artie
wasn’t on the page yet. Rubinek said he saw Artie having a love/hate
relationship with the Warehouse and had a bit of darkness rather than a Willy
Wonka sort of character they had on the page. He made sure he liked the role
because he didn’t want to be stuck playing a character he didn’t like. Saul
said it was the most fun role of his career and the best job he’s had.
Warehouse 13 has
recently been canceled and they’re filming the final episodes. When asked why,
Rubinek replied “Cause you liked it.” It was part of SyFy’s rebrand and reach a
wider audience. It had the best numbers in the history of the network but then
they moved a family show to 10 PM. They also only counted live viewers and
ignored streaming and on-demand numbers.
Another well known
role for Rubinek was the villain who wanted to collect Lt. Commander Data in
TNG. Saul was in town to visit a friend who directing a few episodes. The
person who was supposed to be the villain was a little person who attempted
suicide (he eventually succeeded in taking his own life within a year). Rubinek
got the call at 2:30 AM (much to his host’s chagrin) to replace him.
The villain was
seriously evil and the bigwigs wanted Saul to tone it down. He said that he’d
love to talk to them about it but they refused to meet him or call him. Saul
didn’t want to tone it down, Spiner didn’t want him to tone it down, his director
friend didn’t want him to tone it down. Rubinek wanted to make enough effort to
talk it out before he could say “fuck ‘em.” The character was very memorable
but neither he nor his director friend were asked back.
Somewhere in here
Eddie stuck his head in and started booing and blowing really loud raspberries.
It was funny and shows the relationship they had on the show. When he was told
he could bring props home from the show, he said no. He wanted his memory of
the show to be about family. What he really wants are accurate TV ratings.
Other memorable
things he’s stared in was SG1. I’ve never seen it but I remember him being
really happy it was extended into 2 episodes rather than condensed. He was also
offered a role on the Outer Limits in a Holocaust episode. He was offered it as
his friend was talking to him about turning it down. Rubinek’s parents were
Polish Jews who hid for 2 years. The writer’s parents were in a camp. He liked
how the episode was handled.
Around when Saul was
talking about his favorite Claudia moment Eddie joined him. Rubinek met the
actress for Claudia and she is 1 year younger than his daughter. He was really
impressed with how professional she is and thinks of her more as an equal than
a daughter. One of his favorite bloopers were with “this monkey over here”
pointing at Eddie and “I don’t make mistakes.”
When you make
mistakes during filming the crew laughs with you for the first 3 takes. By take
9 it’s like laughing in church. Eddie said sometimes he just has to go “dead
puppies, dead puppies, dead puppies.” They don’t have too many on-set pranks
save for Eddie being really gassy.
Eddie was very funny.
One of their big advertisers was Cialis. Someone once told him “Your audience
doesn’t have trouble getting boners; they have trouble getting chicks.” He’d
been at Shore Leave before and said that he took his bunny mascot and snuck it
into one of the holiday episodes. Both agree that they like they’re leaving us
wanting more rather than dragging on to the point where we’re waiting for them
to just finish it out. I think the show wasn’t there yet but I could see shark
jumping happening in season 6 or 7.
One of the unused
artifacts they talked about using was Hitler’s microphone. It would have
captivated, and probably brainwashed, its audience. I think the writers and
producers were a little scared to touch it but given the right treatment, it
could have been a fantastic episode. They also had 3 different types of acting:
Acting (normal acting), Schmacting (green light acting), and facting (lots of
exposition). You see all in every episode since you need background on the
artifact, the characters have to interact, and the artifact has to do stuff.
Saul talked about how
they didn’t want Warehouse to be a procedural drama. That was Eddie’s cue to
use his glasses to do the CSI: Miami thing. He even did the “Yeah.” Eddie
talked about characterizing Pete. He wanted to make Pete similar to himself so
Pete liked comic books and he’s sober (Eddie’s 13 years). He also wanted to
honor the military by making Pete a former Navy Seal. McClintock was a
wrestler, the high school jock, so hearing from an astrophysicist “I love your
work” is a huge compliment.
A woman asked about
actors who turn their nose up at sci-fi. Neither Rubinek nor McClintock knew
anyone who did this. Rubinek said “Actors want to work” and had some stats to
back it up. 90% of SAG members make less than $5,000 a year acting, 9% make
less than 50,000 leaving 1% making good money off this. “You don’t choose
acting; it chooses you.”
This lead to Eddie
talking about the cancelation and the creation of the show. Warehouse had to up
the humor and down the violence to get more women to watch and it worked. Women
actually started bringing their husbands and boyfriends to the show. I’m doing
it once I get Boy Toy caught up on a few other nerd staples. Saul said “We have
to make them want what we can give them. They will always make crap if it
continues to sell.” Eddie chimed in with “Snooki, Kim Kardashian, Bieber. Hey,
who are we to judge?”
Once Saul left, Eddie
said “We’re gonna tell dick jokes and talk about poop for the next 30 minutes.”
He did better than that and talked about how inclusive Warehouse 13 is. Women
outnumber men, there are a variety of races and they added a gay character who
became a regular. “I wanted Pete to be the coolest straight man I’ve never
met.” He briefly touched on the issues in Russia and how he loved the
acceptance of Warehouse 13 and the fan community.
McClintock loves fan
run cons like Shore Leave. Suits are what canceled his show and this way he
gets to meet more people. “I feel like the mayor of Warehouse 13.” That’s why
he paid us a tribute by sneaking Gene Rodenbunny into an episode. He talked
about his favorite fan encounter. It was a veteran from Afghanistan and Iraq
who had done 3 tours total. He stepped on IEDs in both places mangling his legs
and earning him 2 Purple Hearts. He told Eddie, “I spent 3 years in the
hospital. Your show kept me alive.” He gave McClintock one of his purple hearts.
“I can’t accept this.” “Take it. I’ve got 2.”
A woman was getting a
text from her absent friend to ask Eddie something. He starts rambling while
waiting “I’m Irish. It gets cold. I’m a grower, not a shower. Oh, that’s not
the question. These are not the droids you’re looking for. Move along.” He then
goes up to the phone and says “Hi Barbara” on the video the woman is filming.
One of the final
questions was about any roles he feels he’s not getting proper consideration
for. “African American porn actor. I would like to do a great, impactful war
film.” He’s looking into possibly doing a movie with Kevin Sorbo but “it won’t
be as good as Sharknado.”
I was leaving that as
I saw him and asked him for a picture. He was so nice. I think he really does
enjoy the fans and seems like a guy I’d love to be friends with. Boy Toy and I
could totally double date with McClintock and his wife. This is entry #1
because there are still more fun stories to come…
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