INTERVIEW: Alexander Siddig reflects on his ‘DS9’ experience and his new sci-fi film
Photo: Alexander Siddig, of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame, stars as General Radford in Skylines. Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment / Provided by press kit with permission.
Alexander Siddig, the accomplished actor who has appeared in numerous projects over the years, can now be seen in Skylines, the final part in a sci-fi trilogy from writer-director Liam O’Donnell. The epic movie, which follows Skyline and Beyond Skyline, follows Captain Rose Corley (Lindsey Morgan) as she leads a team of elite soldiers to stop once-friendly alien hybrids from clashing with what’s left of humanity. These extraterrestrials were once peaceful with humankind, but a viral pandemic has disrupted the global harmony, and it’s up to Corley to save the day.
Siddig plays the new character of General Radford, a take-no-prisoners military leader who believes in the mantra that the ends justifies the means. For the actor, who is perhaps best remembered for his turn as Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the opportunity to bring Radford to life was a welcome one.
“I’m actually very proud of this movie,” Siddig said in a recent phone interview. “I think this is something really interesting. … I didn’t watch the first two, and I didn’t say yes immediately [to the project]. I was puzzled by the script. I wasn’t sure. It was very familiar to me. It reminded me of scripts of movies that were probably made in the ‘90s and ‘80s, and yet I wasn’t sure if the director knew that. So I wasn’t sure what this kind of movie was going to be.”
The reason Siddig didn’t want to see the first two movies was because he wanted his judgment of the project to be honest, and he wanted to approach the Radford role with fresh eyes. As he put it, the first two films were “history,” and he was after the future.
“So I came at it totally fresh, and I had a feeling that we were going to make a movie that would qualify as a romp, as something that is just great fun — unashamed, honest fun,” he said. “And as soon as I met Liam in Lithuania, where we filmed it, I realized he was on board. He was absolutely doing that. He wasn’t trying to make some other film. … That’s really what made me happy. I just knew if he had been trying to make Citizen Kane or something, it would be a disaster. … Once I knew that he wasn’t doing that, and he really was trying to make a kind of camp, fun, glamorous pop movie, then I went, ‘Yeah, I’m on board.’ That’s exactly what I thought the script was.”
Siddig sees Radford as a character who will attempt anything in order to arrive at his final goal, and that means he can be quite scary within the narrative structure. The actor realizes that there are similarities between his role and world leaders in 2020.
“I think that sort of drive along with his definite charm was really interesting for me to play, and the ambiguity of the character that may or may not have hidden depths was really interesting,” Siddig said. “Liam basically said, ‘Hey, just go in there and have fun. Just do whatever you want. I trust you to have some fun.’ That was a really good combination of things for me.”
Luckily, filming for Skylines was completed in spring of 2019, so the COVID-19 crisis didn’t disrupt the shoot. That said, the sci-fi epic has only become more prescient with time, given that a large part of the story deals with a deadly virus that has changed the makeup of the world. “We had no idea that everything was going to go pear-shaped as it has,” Siddig said. “I think there were more references to pandemic and stuff like that in the script, which I think William put to the back because we didn’t want to get too heavy on the pandemic. That was such a coincidence.”
Although Skylines is now playing in theaters, many people will likely experience the epic film on demand or on digital platforms, and for Siddig, that’s perfectly all right. The actor actually believes the movie belongs in the safety of the living room.
“Obviously everyone wants to see their movie in a theater, but I think this one is just fine at home,” said Siddig, who is also known for his work on 24 and Game of Thrones. “It works just great here. It doesn’t require that communal thing that some movies need in order for them to take off. You can come home, be exhausted, just collapse on your sofa, and switch on the TV and watch this film, and it’ll bring you around. It’ll bring you back. You’ll be like, ‘OK, great, what’s for dinner now?’ I love that about it. It seems to do exactly what it’s supposed to do. I saw it on Friday with my wife, and we both really enjoyed it. So I’m assuming that a few other people will enjoy it, too, at least I hope so. It’s always difficult being interviewed because I’m actually obliged to speak really nice about the film. I can’t see it, and go, ‘Hey, it was terrible.’ … It’s really nice when I can be pretty honest. This is actually really good stuff.”
When Siddig signs on the dotted line for a new character, he has a certain checklist in his mind. For starters, he needs his roles to have a human side. Even General Radford, who has obvious character flaws, has a humanity to him. “The second thing is I don’t want to be in a film that would go out of its way to offend anybody that I feel shouldn’t be offended,” he said. “We should be making uncomfortable people comfortable and comfortable people uncomfortable. I’m borrowing that quote from someone much more distinguished than I am, but I love that quote. … Obviously it’s got to be a compelling story. I don’t mind what kind of story. I’m happy to do all kinds of different stories, but it has to be compelling.”
Whenever Siddig starts a new role, there’s always that elephant in the room around the water-cooler. How long does it take for his fellow cast members to geek out and ask about Deep Space Nine? Siddig laughed at the question because it almost always seems to happen.
“It’s actually weird,” the actor said. “Liam did it immediately. He’s like, ‘I’m a big geek.’ The director couldn’t help himself. That’s great. The actors are pretty shy about that. They’re like, [in a soft voice], ‘Hey, we’ve seen you in that.’”
Siddig is delighted that DS9 continues to attract new audiences, and in many polls, the series rises to the top of the Star Trek franchise. There’s definite love for The Original Series, The Next Generation and Voyager, plus admiration for Enterprise, Discovery, Picard and Lower Decks, but it seems that Deep Space Nine stands the test of time better than any other series.
“Who would have thunk,” Siddig said. “We weren’t miserable. We were happy doing what we were doing, but we felt under-appreciated at the time. We were insanely jealous of the success of The Next Generation, which I, by the way, love, but I never would have thought that this many years later that people would still be talking about it at all, which is really extraordinary. It’s Star Trek, and Star Trek will never cease to be talked about. It’s a part of the culture of the world now, and it’s an astonishing piece of work. But I just love it. I really am amazed. I love the fact that people talk about it. … Remember there was a time it was so uncool to even mention Star Trek. You were like crazy if you did. Now it’s not the case at all. I love that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Skylines, featuring Alexander Siddig and directed by Liam O’Donnell, is now playing in movie theaters, on demand and on digital platforms. Click here for more information.
