Edward James Olmos is known for his acting abilities. He has a commanding presence that captures our attention and imaginations. He took our breath away as Admiral/Captain William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. He has received numerous awards for his craft and and continues to impress us in shows such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He is attending Galacticon 4 in Seattle this weekend. You will not want to miss this event. Get your tickets here.
Earle Dutton: What attracted you to Battlestar Galactica?
Edward James Olmos: It was strictly the script and the story. It was stunning. The pilot itself had a three page intro, kind of a prologue, to what kind of a piece it was and how it was going to be understood as far as the culture we were dealing with. I was really busy at the time doing my own thing. There has to be a real passion and understanding in the piece for me to take the part. This was a five year project and boy it was worth it. Some of the best instances of television I have ever been a part of in my life.
Edward James Olmos
ED: What was your favorite memory of working on this program?
EJO: I think it was the ability to rise to all expectations by the cast and crew. I originally thought if we could just do justice to the material that it would be great. We did so much more though. We brought a real life to the story. When we were done with production, post production came in and augmented it to an even higher level. It was more than we had ever envisioned.
ED: What was it like working with Ron D. Moore?
EJO: Exquisite! He is a very committed artist. He really commanded an incredible ship. His talent for assembling a writing crew was amazing. It was only matched by the cast that was assembled.
ED: If there had been time to explore one more major social subject in Battlestar Galactica, what topic would you like to have seen Ron D. Moore include?
EJO: It would have been if we could have actually moved to the planet that we called Earth. It wasn’t really our Earth today but it was what we came to know as Earth. What we considered to be Earth had been devastated by nuclear holocaust. When we landed on this planet that we know as Earth, we landed over two hundred thousand years ago. There were humanoids. They were barely starting to speak. I would love to see them bring their understandings and knowledge from the devastation of their race and five years in space to modern day issues and problem. We are definitely living in a technology driven world which is going to come back and haunt us. I don’ think that the full perspective of what was spoken about in Battlestar Galactica will be understood for another fifty or sixty years.
ED: What is your favorite part of going to events like Galacticon and meeting the fans?
EJO: That’s fantastic! I used to look at this as something that I would never really want to do until I went for the first time. I went to one and realized it was completely different from what I thought. It is a love fest. It is a way to say ‘thank you’ to our fan base. These are the people that support our art form and our work.
