Robert Carlyle on Stargate Universe

ROBERT CARLYLE, 48, from Maryhill, Glasgow, is due home next month when filming breaks on the new sci-fi series Stargate Universe. Currently on location in Vancouver, Canada, he explains why he's having a ball as the star of the show - and why he still wonders what the future holds.

You've battered junkies in Trainspotting, tackled dragons in Eragon and taken on the king's men in Plunkett & Macleane - how much are you enjoying fighting aliens in Stargate Universe (SGU)?

Well, I'm very much enjoying going to work in the morning. The guys make it very, very easy to fit into the whole thing.

If you had a chance to go through a stargate in real life, where would you go?

Tell you what, with all the travelling I do, I'd dial in one more sequence to my address in Glasgow. That's where I'd go.

So what's the strangest bit of acting you've had to do on SGU so far?

Well, I was floating in a tank and that was kind of bizarre. In actual fact, it's topped the list so far. To get kidnapped by a bunch of aliens actually got me too. My character, Dr Nicholas Rush, is left on a planet and then the aliens come and pick him up and stick him in a tank. So that was cool.

A lot of people consider you the star of Stargate Universe. Does that carry with it a special responsibility?

I don't think of myself like that. I don't like being The One. I don't like being that guy at all. The cast is very, very tight and it's really all about the whole lot of us. I think we are all in it together. That's what attracts me to any project - anything I've done in fact, I like to do it as part of a team.

How would you describe Dr Rush?

He's got a wicked sense of humor, but he keeps pretty much to himself. I don't think he's the kind of guy who takes pleasure in other people's discomfort or anything like that - but if he could actually run the ship himself, we would all be in big trouble.

He seems a bit broody and troubled?

He's troubled in terms of his wife - his wife is dead and he wasn't exactly the best husband. That's what causes an awful lot of Rush's problems. He's a very lonely man.

Tell us a bit about some of the other characters that Rush has to rub alongside in the series . . .

Well, the biggest nemesis for me is Colonel Young. Myself and Justin Louis get together a lot and we get on extremely well, because we have to I suppose - it's very tense stuff. I guess he's the mean one. And then there's the character of Eli Wallace, who's played by David Blue. Rush is kind of like Salieri and Eli is a Mozart. He needs this boy - but the lad is probably much more clever than he is and he's a bit outdone.

Can you talk about what's in store for you later in the series?

That's something I don't actually know. I'd like to know, too. To be honest, when you're in this situation of being in a series, you are always wondering what's in the future. I can't avoid thinking about what's next, especially in the long-running television things I've done like this and Hamish Macbeth. The reason is that sometimes with actors - with ANY actor - myself included, the temptation is to go clear to the end to find out what happens. We're at episode 20, but clearing up episode one is what's important right now.

How does the Stargate Universe series work as an entry point for people who may not know the story of Stargate Atlantis and the characters from that series?

We obviously have to give a nod to what went on in Atlantis, because we wouldn't be here without what went on in that series. But I don't think it's at all necessary to have watched any of that in fact - we don't have to be familiar with the past to take on the future.

The various Stargate series have a well-deserved reputation for being very long-running. Was that an issue when you first signed on? Is being committed to this for the next few years something you think about much?

I didn't think about it, to be honest with you. I think that's when you can get into difficulties, you know. Like I've said before, I'm always a man who plays the moment, I don't like to think too far ahead. Of course, you sign these contracts, which tie you to it for many years. But at the end of the day, that's only a piece of paper. So you don't concern yourself too much with that aspect.

You have had some strange experiences on film - including ripping your clothes off in The Full Monty, lindy hopping in Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School and battling zombies in 28 Weeks Later. But is there anything quite as surreal in Stargate Universe?

No, but we do all die and then come back to life. It's very, very interesting. There's an episode with Robert Cooper - the mastermind behind Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis - that's called Time. We go to a planet and when we get there we find out some terrible things.

Do you see Dr Nicholas Rush as parallel to the Dr Rodney McKay character in Stargate Atlantis?

No, not at all. I think that he's a lot different, in so many ways.

What was it like working with Richard Dean Anderson, who has played Jack O'Neill throughout all the series?

He IS Stargate, isn't he?

Well, he held the lead role in Stargate Atlantis for a decade and produced it too. Did he give you any tips on how to act in Stargate Universe?

No, but he was lovely, he really was. He was very humble about the whole thing in fact. And I think he understood, very quickly, that this is a different show to be on. It's a different thing. I think that he's in four or five of the episodes, but like I said, you don't actually need to know about his past in Stargate Atlantis. He has his own mythology . . . he's so solid with his character, and he's fantastic to act with.

STARGATE Universe is on Sky1, Tuesdays at 8pm

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