AOL INTERVIEWS BEN BROWDER & CLAUDIA BLACK
OCTOBER 15, 2004

AOL Interview With Ben and Claudia

Transcript:

AOL: Welcome to AOL celebrity access. We are joined by the lead actors in the Farscape series: Ben Browder & Claudia Black. They will be answering your questions about Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, the miniseries premiering on the scifi channel on Sunday where they resume their roles as John Crichton & Aeryn Sun. We have received thousands of questions from your fans, and they are all very excited about the miniseries. So let’s get right to it. Our 1st question is from AOL member DinkyE(sp?) who asks, “Claudia & Ben, how long before shooting were you told the miniseries was given the green light, and what was the very first thing you did after hearing the news?”

CB: Age before beauty. You go, Ben.

BB: (laughs) Well, the green light, I heard about the green light, I guess it was in, for sure in November or October. Late October, early November, I was either in Canada or in Texas at the time, and the 1st thing that I did was call my agent. (laughs)

CB: I, um, Brian had called me on July 4th and asked me if I was interested, and he’d been asking us for awhile. He said, “Look, if you and Ben don’t want to do it, then it’s not gonna happen.” I said, “Well, of course, I’m in, and I’m sure Ben is.” (softer) But I would never speak for Ben Browder - ever.

BB: I had to make sure that Claud was coming back before I said, “Yes.”

CB: Yeah, It’s kind of like

BB: Get it in my contract.

CB: like primary school. I just attach myself to Ben’s contact. I just say, “I’m having what he’s having.” It never worked, you know but at least I’m codependent.

AOL: Very nice. We have this question from a couple of AOL users who want to know, “Was it difficult or seamless flipping back into your characters of Aeryn & John?”

CB: Well, It’s always impossible working with Ben but the rest is, you know, as seamless as Farscape ever can be. No, it was creepy putting on . . It was creepy seeing Ben in the costume again. It was creepy even getting into one that was modified for me. But, uh, all the fun stuff just comes back scarily, you know, too easily.

BB: It was very, very easy to get back into it. You know, it was basically a matter of putting on the trousers, slapping on the gun, and walking back and everything was familiar. Everybody was eerily familiar. That was the thing. It was as though you’d been transported back to high school.

CB: Yeah, Brian Henson was saying that he . . I was reading somewhere that, you know, he, they had a photo of them constructing the original series and then a photo of them reconstructing for the miniseries. And, you know, 5 years later, he felt looking at the 1st photo that they were kids, and that 5 years older, that they’d really aged. You know, it’s peculiar what time does to you. I was (crying voice) in my mid-twenties when I started Farscape.

BB: But now she’s 73.

CB: (crying) Yeah, and a half, don’t forget the half.

AOL: How time flies. The 2nd question I have for you is from AOL member jedishugs, “Was the work in the miniseries physically more difficult than the TV series?”

CB: Yes, cuz we’re older and fatter.

BB: (laughs)

CB: Or should I just speak for Ben? (laughs)

BB: Yeah, thanks, Claud. They had a new walker for me, so I was able to get around the set a little easier rather than prop me up in the corner.

CB: Aeryn had a bit of a lump for a little while. So, physically, she wasn’t moving around as she normally does.

BB: No, I do, I think that the miniseries, from my standpoint, was physically in some ways less demanding, because when we shot the series we’d be shooting for 7 or 8 months. By the end of the year when we were finally beginning to really blow everything up, you were tired. When you’d come in for 60, 70 hours a week for an extended period of time, and you were physically exhausted. I would look at pictures from the beginning of each season to the end and I’d go, “Crichton looks tired.” He looks like he’s worn out. So from that standpoint, the miniseries was easier because it was only a 10 week shoot.

CB: Yeah, I mean, you would look different, Ben, I have to say. There was just something. I don’t know if it was an expression in your eyes or something. But by the end of the series, I’m sure I looked, you know, horrific.

BB: Oh, you just got more radiant as you went along.

CB: But I would see you again at, say the convention after we’d finished ADR, I think you’d always be the one last released from ADR in Sydney, and I’d catch up with you up stateside. And you’d just look several years younger. It was amazing how the accumulative effect of television, fast turn around television. But knowing that we could just throw all our energy into this miniseries, that there was a finite, you know, there was a date where we had to have finished filming by. And it, for me psychologically, it made it a lot easier to just kind of throw myself into the mix.

BB: Mmm

AOL: So, did you find your make up sessions got longer and longer . . .

CB: Yeah, cuz if you got on really well with your make up artist you had a lot more gossip by the end of the season to talk about.

BB: There’s always more to talk about at the end of the year.

CB: Like what you’re going to wear to the wrap party. You know, those important things in life.

AOL: Of course. Our next question is from internet user in Delaware who asks, “What was your most memoirable moment out of the miniseries?”

BB: “Memoirable” moment? (Poking fun) Memoirable!

AOL: I didn’t do that well, did I? Memorable.

CB: You’re only human, honey. It happened on camera all the time for us.

BB: But we get to fix it in post, so it’s okay for us. What was the most memorable moment in the miniseries?

AOL: Yes.

BB: Was that the question?

AOL: I think so.

BB: My most memoirable moment. . (laughs)

CB: (In a small hilarious higher-pitched voice ) What do ya think? I’m dumb, or somethin’?

BB: (imitating CB’s voice from above) It says so right here.

CB: I’m a shining staa. .

BB: I’m a shining star in the cinema firmament.

CB & BB together: It says so right here. (Both laughing)

(Back to normal voices)

CB: Oh, the hours would fly by on set with Ben & Claud.

AOL: Uh, huh. I bet it never got old.

CB: Yeah, well, for us anyway.

BB: We did, but it didn’t. (Still laughing)

CB: What was our most memoirable moment? Hmm. Ah, probably a scene that in terms of teasers I can’t really give away details. But there’s a scene that involves Paul Goddard playing Stark. Crichton, Aeryn and Stark are in a corridor, and there’s something distasteful going on, and the look on Paul Goddard’s face was absolutely classic.

BB: See, I have a, yeah, I’ve gotta, a similar road. It’s a scene with primarily Paul, Claudia and myself in a jacuzzi. The jacuzzi scene that you didn’t want to do. (Laughs)

CB: What do you mean?

BB: The one with lots of screaming and yelling. The jacuzzi scene. I loved doing that scene. That was great. I loved that.

CB: That was great fun, and the fact that we sort of, you know, it scared a lot of people. There were certain females who were working on the production at the time, left the room.

BB: “I’m never going in a jacuzzi like that.”

CB: Exactly. This is a scintillating answer. Tune in on October 17.

BB: Watch 3 people in a jacuzzi scene on Farscape.

CB: I never understood what all the fuss was about with jacuzzis but, they. I’m an innocent, so.

AOL: Excellent. I have another question from aol member Gutpageant (sp?) who asks, “Farscape let you test your acting chops on so many things: intense drama, comedy, tragedy, farse, slapstick, action adventure and even cartoon voice-over. Did you discover you had a preference for anything in particular?”

BB: I’ve got to jump in here. I don’t actually think that Farscape adequately tested Claudia’s acting skills.

CB: Aw!

BB: I think she has a far greater range than she’s even shown on Farscape.

CB: Ohhhhhh (breathy)

BB: (laughing) Having said that. For my own part, what I enjoyed most about the show was, basically, playing scenes with Claud and the action scenes.

CB: Awwww. Cut to the sort of mess on the floor that was Claudia who just melted.

AOL: That was sweet.

CB: You had me at “Hello”, Ben. 5 and a half years ago. Um, well. Wow. Testing, testing ourselves. I have to say that there were things that I never thought I would learn, there were subliminal things. David Kemper said to me one day, “Look, there are things that you have learned. Take as a given that noone can really teach you how to act. You either can do it or you can’t.” There are certain skills technically that you can acquire along the way. Watching Ben was just an absurditiy, because he was, he’s so technically adept as an actor. There are a lot of things that an audience may not necessarily understand about the way he works as an actor that saves time and money for everybody and makes, enhances other people’s performances. It is the job of a leading man, but it’s hardly ever fulfilled. A lot of guest actors would come on and watch Ben with much interest and they were always stunned by his proficiency in that regard.

BB: Here’s a great calling card, “Hire Ben. Save time and money.”

CB: (laughing)

BB: I’m like an express service. Acting express service.

CB: Do you offer a discount at Christmas and on holidays?

BB: I have weekend specials.

(Both laughing)

CB: lastminuteBen.com

BB: As long as you shoot over Saturday night, you get a discount.

CB: I’m sure lots of people would like to shoot over Saturday night.

BB: Next question, please.

AOL: Now we’re going on, continuing with the acting theme. Aol member Westernhinge(sp?) asks, “Claudia, since taking on the role of Aeryn, did you ever take on any of the personality traits of the ex-Peacekeeper by accident? Ben, same question, did you ever take on any of the personalities of the space cowboy Crichton?”

BB: I took on some of Claudia’s personality traits. Er, actually, hit Claud a couple of times.

CB: Did you?

BB: All by accident, but yeah.

CB: When?

BB: When I was in season 3. . .

CB: I’ve conveniently wiped it, but which, when?

BB: When I was Scorpius, and we had the scene where you had the gun to my forehead, and I was supposed to hit you. One of the 2 times in the entire series where I actually made contact with somebody, and it was Claud that I hit. Remember, I clipped you right on the chin, and you almost killed me.

CB: Oh, you mean, Ben as an actor rather than as opposed to Crichton.

BB: I as an actor taking on traits of Aeryn, yeah.

CB: Oh. See, I didn’t remember any of that at all. We could’ve just kept that a secret between you and you, and now you just told half of America.

BB: That I smacked you around.

CB: Yeah. (Both laughing)

BB: I was just trying to get even for all those times you smack me around on screen.

CB: Oh, well, now that we’re here, let’s talk about me, what, breaking your finger? I think it’s cuz you were pointing it up at me the wrong way, and I had to do something about it.

BB: Yeah, she did break my finger. That’s true. Accident. Look, the show was physically very demanding at times, because we basically did all our own stunts. And you wouldn’t be able to get away with it in Hollywood. Some of the things, when I watch the miniseries. I watched one segment, and I came running through an explosion, and for all intents and purposes, it looks like I got blowed up.

CB: It was like the one out in the sand dunes. I thought we’d been completely exploded.

BB: Oh, yeah. And that’s the one where I pulled my hamstring.

CB: Oh, yeeaahhh

BB: It did. It looked like I got blowed up again.

CB: Ohhh

BB: But the original question was did I take on any characteristics of Crichton. Was that the question?

AOL: Uh, yes.

BB: Uh, no.

CB: (laughing) And for me the answer, well, actually, I was looking on, um - ah, nah. I won’t go there.

BB: (laughing) Other than the deep confusion about who was Crichton and who was Ben, there was no problem.

CB: That’s right. That’s right. No, I, um. Aeryn -Aeryn did affect me a lot in the sense that she went through a phase where, you know, she got put through the wringer. She met her mum. She met who she thought was her dad. She watched her mum kill her dad in front of her, and then it turned out it wasn’t her dad. Which was just as well because he looked like he was a lobster, you know, mixed in (Ben laughing) with a seashell of some kind. And then she dropped her mother off the side of a building after Crais accidently shot her on purpose. And then she fell in love, and that guy died. You know, she went through quite a year. And then, I just thought everyday turning up on set, finally letting open the floodgates that were Aeryn’s tears, that I was getting pretty - not down in the dumps- but it just put me in a certain mindset for awhile. It was fun the days when Aeryn was allowed to be in love and was allowed to be happy, but they were few and far between.

BB: Mmm.

AOL: On the flipside, actually, asking first whether you have taken on personality traits of your characters, how much of your own personality goes into making up John and Aeryn? For example, one of our internet users has written, “Ben, is that wild part of John that climbs on tables and waves his guns around you?”

BB: I’d be there everyday, you know, it used to be a source of embarrassment for people when I got up on tables and pointed guns at people. I’m not capable of commenting on how much of my personality is in Crichton. You know, I see them as 2 separate entities. I hope I’m 2 separate entities! It’s just that as an actor, you craft certain things, and then you live within the character that you’ve created. Although, you do get a bit confused on which is which. You do occasionally kind of go, “Poor John.” You start feeling bad for yourself because John’s having a rough day. But for the most part, I don’t know. I don’t know how much of me is in John or vice versa, really.

CB: Aspects on that: I mean, the characters within a dramatic context, everything’s always heightened for them, you’d hope. I mean, I found it amusing one day in “Green Eyed Monster”, when you’d scripted, Ben, that Crichton and Aeryn had an argument. And I’m just not used to having real lover’s tifts. You know, at the time, just deal with things in a logical, you know, rational fashion, which may surprise people. But the fact that Aeryn and Crichton end up in this argument gave me a fit of giggles.

BB: (laughing)You were just giggling at the badly written words.

CB: No. Well, it certainly felt funny to be having a pretend argument with you, Ben. That felt really, really ridiculous.

BB: We didn’t have many, did we?

CB: No.

BB: No. And they were short, too. When I wrote an argument, it went on for pages.

CB: Yeah. So, certain aspects of the character will be, I mean, I always say that I’ve got 2 left feet. I’m alright once I’ve got roller skates on. Somehow I can dance better on roller skates. But Aeryn’s a much more supposedly physically coordinated individual.

BB: Yeah, the one great problem is that they never managed to bring Claudia’s roller skates to Aeryn.

CB: We tried. Dave Elsey designed a character on skates for me, but we never had time to shoot it. That’s what they said to me, anyway. “Yeah, Claudia, we just ran out of time. Great idea, though. Brilliant. She’s so collaborative. She’s a genius. That Claudia. No time. Sorry, darling.”

AOL: Well that kind of ties into our next question, which is from AOL member LilOrion. She says, "Looking back over the first four seasons and knowing what the mini covered in terms of continuing story lines, was there anything that you would have been looking forward to further exploring had there been a full fifth season?"

CB: We just didn't have many kissing scenes on Farscape.

BB: Yeah, I thought there was a dearth of that activity. You know, we didn't get nearly enough.

CB: Yeah.

BB: Yeah, actually, I wanted to see Crichton and Aeryn as a couple dealing with the universe as a couple, and having all the problems that couples have. I wanted them to be having, you know, the couple arguments in the middle of fighting the giant rock monster. I wanted them to be arguing the way couples do about who's taking out the garbage.

CB: And 'are you wearing my socks?'

BB: (laughs) Well, you know we hinted at that kind of stuff... 'I can't believe you're wearing my socks again! Don't run and fight the damn monster with *my* socks on. Just go get your own socks! I *know* you have a drawer full.' I wanted to see, I actually wanted to see...

CB: ... the more domestic side of them in context.

BB: I wanted to see the way a solid domestic relationship, with all its good things and bad things would weave into this larger story. So, yeah, I miss that opportunity. That and more of those bedroom scenes.

CB: Yeah, and I didn't get to work enough with Ben, so...

BB: (laughing) You've had more that enough of that. You know that.

CB: Oh, no. That's not true.

AOL: That does remind me of one of my favorite parts in the first season where I think Aeryn shows up wearing Crichton's boxer shorts.

CB: Oh, yeah...

BB: Aeryn's wearing Crichton's Calvins, yeah

AOL: And he's not very pleased. I love that bit.

BB: Originally, that was scripted as a T-shirt.

CB: Yeah. And we all laughed. You know, when we read it on the page it was a very funny scene when everyone comes out in something in the middle of the night that reveals a little bit more of each of the characters then they would really want to show to the rest of the Moya crew. And it was before...you know, now they're making Y-fronts specifically for women... and I thought, look, you know Aeryn's such a tomboy and it'd be great if she'd found Crichton's drawers in his drawer and appropriated them without him realizing. But that presented a bit of a conundrum really because he probably only got into his space shuttle with one pair...

BB: (laughs)

CB: So does Commander go commando normally?

BB: (laughs) This is the question you get at the conventions, 'Ah, 'scuse me, Claud.. I'd like to ask you about the conundrum. Yeah, uh, episode thirteen...when you had Crichton's underwear...um.... Did he only have one pair of underwear? Because it's on you..." (laughs)

CB: 'How did he not notice the one pair had gone?'

BB: 'I mean, 'cause schematics indicate that, given where Crichton's quarters are, he could only have one pair of underwear. Now, another thing is, we've tracked your movements around the ship and, you know, quite frankly, unless you went through the duct system... Did she actually sneak in and get them? Because otherwise he would have known.' (laughs)

CB: And then you cut to Terry Ryan, our costume designer, saying, 'Oh, look, they just went down to a planet and bought stuff.'

BB: (laughing) Terry told me, 'Ah, now come on now, Benny.... (laughing)

CB: 'Come on, they just went down to a planet and they *bought* stuff.'

BB: (in an Aussie voice) 'Well they went and they bought some clothes, din't they?' (laughs) Terry... Terry Ryan... (still in an Aussie voice) ... sounds just like this. (laughs)

CB: Did we answer that question?

AOL: Uh, yes, I think so. (laughs)

BB: (laughing) What was the question?

AOL: Well, I'm actually going to ask another one...

BB: Okay, go ahead.

AOL: Continuing on your theme of the couple arguing through space, one of the AOL members, Bobcat1, asks, "So how *do* couples who are flying through wormholes, fighting critters or god-like aliens and saving the universe with an infant in tow manage to have some special time for each other?"

CB: Oh, gosh, you know, I used to ask him that all the time. 'When are you going to schedule me in for some special time?"

BB: (laughs) When is our special time....Look, you know, for some reason... and I don't understand how this gap occurs... that people think that in times of great stress, wars and otherwise, that people suddenly stop being...stop having relationships. Where do think all the babies come from during times of war? (laughs) I mean, you know, those kinds of frantic times are, oddly enough, the times where babies are made in droves.

CB: That's right. It's like that scene in the Scarran ship where they go down to the room with all the flowers and Crichton says, 'I got arrested once. You wanna see how?'

BB: (laughs) Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean , I always sorta took it from the point that Crichton and Aeryn were always grabbing the private moments whenever they could. We talked about that early in the series, even.

CB: Yeah.

BB: In season one, after they came back from.... After 'A Human Reaction', where Crichton and Aeryn got together. Farscape... we break rules repeatedly, but we got the couple together in season one and Claude and I spent the next couple of episodes kind of discussing 'so...when are they doing it?'

CB: That's right. But wasn't it in...was it... ah, not 'Mind The Baby'. What's the episode where Aeryn names Talyn?

BB: Uh...it is 'Mind The Baby', isn't it?

CB: When we did the tag scene and you and I decided... I don't know whether it ever ended up in the cut or not...

BB: Was it 'Family Ties'?

CB: Yeah...where we're all wrapped up in rugs. We're cold...

BB: Oh, no, that's a different one, yeah. That's, um, that's 'Bone To Be Wild'.

CB: Well, I just have a... Oh, 'Bone To Be Wild'. Is that where I'm sort of signaling to you that we should basically slip away and...

BB: Yeah, yeah. We were actually trying to leave command to go have a private moment. (laughs)

CB: (laughs)

BB: And if you watch it, we're sort of sneaking off and suddenly the announcer comes in, 'uh, Moya would like Aeryn to name the baby.' Yeah. So we were peppering that kind of stuff wherever we could.

CB: Yeah. We reckoned they were doin' it allll the time.

AOL: Mm hmm. So, I have another question about the ending of season four. Now how did you both feel about ending season four with the 'To Be Continued' when the future of Farscape was uncertain? Is is fair to say that the 'To Be Continued was somewhat defiant, somewhat mournful, maybe somewhat cheeky?"

CB: I like the dichotomy of the 'To Be Continued' against the first time ever roll of credits with no music.

BB: I was fighting to have 'To Be Continued' on the tail of the mini-series.

CB: Yeah.

BB: I... Honestly, I don't think the story ends where you think it ends. But, you know, when we shot the episode we did not know that we were cancelled. We were cancelled after we finished shooting the episode. So, the episode was planned as a 'To Be Continued' and, I guess creatively there was no reason to change it. That's where the story stood and... um...you know, as long a Rygel stills draws breath... if you can handle that conundrum...

CB: (giggles)

BB: Uh...then, you know, Farscape exists and there is a 'To Be Continued'. As long as any of the characters are still out there moving and kicking around in the Uncharted Territories then it's a continuing story. It is not a plot based story, it is a character based story.

CB: As an essentially amphibious creature, does Rygel, in fact, draw breath?

BB: (laughs) Or does he have gills?

AOL: And so, a couple of the AOL members wanted to know how do you two feel about the work that the fans of Farscape have done in trying to get the mini-series and are still doing to get even more Farscape.

BB: Well I think, first off, they should be collectively patting themselves on the back.

CB: Yeah, yeah.

BB: What they have achieved is something that no one would have given them a chance in hell of achieving.

CB: It's unprecedented.

BB: Which is taking a show which is not in the mainstream...uh...is not in the mainstream of public knowlege.... It's a small show which is expensive for the network which is producing it, expensive for the production company which is producing it, which has, you know, quietly slipped away into cancellation. And they bro... they managed to make enough (?) kick around and get it brought back. It's a miracle.

CB: It's affected the industry, too. It's exciting to read everything in the trade mags and all the press that we've been getting in the lead up to the mini-series that it's forcing cable network runners to sit up and take notice of their audience more, because it's harder to define just by ratings alone exactly, you know, where your viewership is, who they are, where they are and whether it's worth just putting it down to dollars and cents and turning the lights off on certain things. And I think with the media, the multimedia, taking...you know, diversifying people's interest, I mean... The audiences have so many new places to look, they have so many buttons to keep clicking down on their TV remote. It's hard to keep an audience. And when you've got one I think this has proven it's worth trying to keep them.

BB: I think that Claud's entirely right. They've accomplished sort of two things. They've accomplished.... The first thing they've accomplished is they've struck a blow for the proletariat. (laughs)

CB: Power to the people.

BB: They've struck a blow for the people and hopefully what they've also done is alerted the people who are in control of their programming that they need to be as attuned... more attuned to their audience than perhaps... uh... you know, it's difficult to do, but a network has to be careful about ruling by fiat. They have to understand that there's an audience. In the same way that we, as people who produce television and film... We always made a point of not talking down to our audience. We always assumed that our audience was smarter than given credit for and, to be perfectly honest, a lot of our audience is smarter than we are.

CB: (laughs)

BB: So it's an easy thing for us not to get too smart. And, you know, there's a tendency in television to tend to want to talk down to the audience. I don't know *where* that comes from, but for some reason, once people get their hands on the control, they want to.... There is a human tendency to kind of think less of the people that your handing stuff there and that's just not the case. And it's certainly not the case with Farscape. And it is evident by the fact that we are back on the air and we were employed again because of the efforts of the audience.

CB: Look at the...and, you know, I don't want to wax lyrical and put tickets on us, but, you know, Van Gough didn't sell a single painting in his lifetime and, you know, I was reading "The Confederacy Of Dunces" again... you know, I've forgotten the wri...the author's name...uh...John Kennedy O'Toole, I think his name is? He wrote "Confederacy Of Dunces"?

AOL: O'Toole. That's correct.

CB: Yeah. He didn't sell it in his lifetime and he committed suicide. And his mother had to peddle his wares afterwards because she believed so strongly in it... and he was given the Pulitzer Prize, I think, for literature...you know, I'll have to check up on my details.... but Farscape is, I'm hoping, going to become one of those shows where, you know... It's like coming off a planet and people... and you saying 'Seinfeld? What's that?' and 'The Simpsons? What's that?' You know, missing out on Farscape, I'm hoping, will be akin to not understanding what Seinfeld was, or the Simpsons, or South Park, or.... You know, I tuned in to watch an episode of 'The Family Guy'? Is that what it's called? I thought it was *hysterical*. And then my friends told me that it had been cancelled and there was a possibility of it coming back. And I thought, how can something of this quality, that's able to give me bellyache with laughter, be taken off the air? And I think nowadays, thanks to the Farscape audience, things can't just be taken down to the bottom line of dollars and cents.

AOL: Yes, I think you're right. Now we're going on... uh... We talked earlier about when you were approached with the Farscape mini-series and checking with each other, make sure you're still going to be in it. If the opportunity arose, would you want to be involved in future Farscape efforts? I think one of our fans wrote in quoting you, Claudia, saying, 'as you said before "I *am* Farscape"'.

BB & CB: (laughs)

CB: That was when I was denied getting in for party.

BB: Was that the wrap party they wouldn't let you into?

CB: No, it was the network party in Australia where they had all the stars names on the floor...When I tried to get in, they wouldn't let me in the door.

BB: (cracking up) I remember that.

CB: Yes... That was a good time. Wished I was dead.

BB: 'You're with Farscape?' 'I *am* Farscape'.

BB: oooh, gosh

CB: oooh, boy

BB: So would you...would you wanna do more Farscape?

CB: I'd do it wit chu.

BB: Okay, there ya go. It's a deal.

AOL: Another final question. A lot of fans writing in wanting to know what your other...what's down the road for you now, other acting plans you have coming up.

CB: Um...I'm currently working on an independent film in London called "Naked In London" and, no, I'm not naked in the film. Um...I'm sure that will *not* disappoint people that will...

BB: You know you could have just left that... and....

CB: I can't.

BB: Huge DVD sales.

CB: No. I gotta get in on that one. (laughing) 'Cause there's too many responses to that whenever I mention it.

BB: (laughs)

CB: Uhh...and also in development on another project which we're quite specifically tailoring for our Farscape audience because I want to do something, and the producers that I'm working with, want to give something to the Farscape fans that will be, we think, an appropriate springboard to a leader on (?) in film for me.

CB: What about you, Ben?

BB: Oh, you know, I'm just hangin' out. Fixing the sprinkler system.

CB: Yeah, right.

BB: You know, walking the dogs. Things like that.

CB: Whatever.

BB: (laughs)

CB: Ben's writing a film script at the moment. Been *commissioned* to write a film script.

BB: Yeah, I'm rewriting a film script at the moment and I'm doing my normal Hollywood shuffle... auditioning. And there's, you know, there's some other stuff down the pike but I tend to be rather reticent about talking about anything until the check clears the bank. It just my conservative nature...um...given the way Hollywood works. When it's in the can and I know that it's going to come out somewhere, I can tell you about it. Other than that, I tend to be rather closed-lipped about it.

CB: And they have...yeah, well I'm the same way, At least I can say I'm actually shooting... But, um, otherwise, you know....quiet existence in the meantime. But, you know, unless...you have to wait and see that they haven't revoiced you (laughing) and digitally enhanced your features...

BB: (laughing)

CB: ...before you put your name to it in the press.

BB: Why does she look so much like Julia Roberts?

CB & BB: (laughing)

AOL: Well, I want to thank you both so much for being with us today and remind everyone to tune in to the SciFi Channel on Sunday night for the mini-series Farscape ....

BB: And Monday.

AOL: And Monday...

BB: And look, if you miss it Sunday night for some reason... you're too hung over, you can't make it to your TV on Sunday night... You get a chance to watch both installments on Monday, so... We recommend being there on Sunday night, 'cause, you know, four hours of Farscape in one go can be traumatic to your health.

CB: Yeah. And to those people who actually have the mysterious ratings box things on their TVs, I *demand*...

BB: (laughing) Those are Neilson boxes.... (more laughing)

CB: ...those mysterious number collecting data collecting boxes...

AOL: I think the mini-series is going to be great. I am *so* looking forward to it. Thank you again.

CB & BB: Thank you.