A Day In The Life Of Major Davis (aka Colin Cunningham)
Colin's Stargate Diaries (8x04 - Zero Hour)
 

MONDAY, April 29th - 2004

Had a bit of a panic last night. The clock was well past 11pm and I still hadn't received my call time. So I grabbed the phone and called Dylan (my agent). He said that he'd leave a message with the production office. I'd simply have to wait and hope for a call. And so, I reluctantly hit the sack.

TUESDAY, April 30th

7:00am

Phone rings. It's Vince (Stargate 3rd AD) apologizing for the mix up and that my call time was in fact 10:30 that morning. I thanked him and hit the snooze button for 9:30.

9:31am

What a mess. Brown crap everywhere. Towels, on the floor, mirror and my forehead looks like a caramel apple. As an actor I'm constantly changing my hair color. It's something few actors do actually, well at least as often as I do. My hair color can literally change daily, depending on auditions, work or my mood for that matter. Anyway, at the moment it is bright raspberry red. One of those colors that when indoors actually looks pretty good, but once you go outside and the sun hits it, I look like a flaming lolly pop. Might as well have an extension cord sticking out of my.... You get the drift.

So, it's 9:31, my head hurts and I've got to layer in all this colored mousse crap that I use constantly to bring my hair to a normal looking brown. Most of Major Davis' life, he's secretly had very bright ‘blonde' highlights to go with his dress blues, but nobody's ever known it. Well, today will be no different. And so, my hotel bathroom looks like somebody stuck some C-4 in a porta potty. The maids are going to freak.

10:30am

On time.

My dear friend and fellow thespian Madison Graie was kind enough to give me a ride out to the Bridge. I wave goodbye, walk up to the security hut and am handed a pass onto the lot. Perhaps it actually has to do with Stargate, not sure, but the Bridge Studios is hands down the tightest security of all the studios out here. They are real sticklers at the Bridge, no screwin' around. Anyway...

My trailer is warm and waiting for me. Gotta thank the location/trailer guys for that. I jumped into my wardrobe (this morning it's Maj. D's ‘dress blues' with the medals. - I feel kind of lame that I don't know what each one represents. - I guess Deniro I'm not) Anyway, I pop into the Hair and Make Up trailer for a few touch ups. Which this morning should consist of a blow torch and a large mallet.

I see Judge at first, then after Shanks comes in for a bit of powder. Hello's go all around and some one tells a joke.

"Why does Michael Jackson like twenty eight year olds?"

"Cause there's twenty of them."

11:00am

COFFFFEEEEEE!!!!! I need coffee. So, I'm off to ‘craft service', which is a strange term for something that has neither any crafts nor service. It's all just pretty much self serve coffee and donuts for the moment, soon to make way for celery sticks. Anyway. This is my first time back since they kicked up Atlantis and so, it's interesting to see the changes.

Essentially the building has been split down the middle. Stargate sets on one side, Atlantis on the other. The different crews are constantly crossing each others paths and getting caught at the wrong craft service tables. Apparently, there were a few complaints at first, “Hey go and eat at your own table!" But everyone was guilty of sampling the other shows donuts and so they finally just stopped complaining and started enjoying the pilfered jelly beans.

11:15am

I head over to video village, which is essentially where the Director (Peter Woest today) and the Producers including Rick, sit. They call it Video Village because that's where the video monitors are set up and everyone can see what's being shot by looking into the televisions. This particular episode features an alien life form that has been brought through the gate and is now creating havoc. What IS the life form?, it's a plant. Very cool. It's a great secondary story line. This plant thing is growing like mad and the whole SG is covered in it. General O'Neil has many other important things to do, but for now has to deal with this fern on steroids. I think it's great.

Anyway, Peter Woest, Michael Greenberg and Rick are all sitting around the monitors and it's good to see them. I really like these guys. So, we do some catching up and I look through the monitors to see the shot and it looks really cool. Kind of a Ridley Scott's ALIEN meets LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Very cool.

Rick and the other actor ‘Michael' begin putting on these oxygen suits, with the hooded helmet glass face thing that goes over your head. Rick jokes about why there is a ‘light' inside the helmet because we all know that the only reason there's a light is so the audience can see them.

I have to laugh because here these two actors have to do this scene and they can't hear a word each other is saying. God bless the movies. Love this business.

LUNCH TIME

Looks like they're not going to be getting to me for a while. So they cut me loose for lunch. Not all that hungry today (coffee will do that) and so, I kind of make myself a little sampler plate. Veggie Ratatouille. Yum a Yum Yummy. The food on the show is always great, but of course it's always a little sweeter when you get to share a meal with someone you like. Today, the lucky gal will be Amanda Tapping. She's kind of nice and some people would even say that she's kind of cute. I don't know. All I know is that she's been after me for years, but I have a rule about dating actors at work and so... She's just going to have to settle for lunch.

We talk a little about work. I'm certainly a little interested in some of the changes that have gone on over the last year, Atlantis, weather, sports... the usual. I will say that it's a little strange not seeing Don Davis or Teryl around. It's almost like growing up in a family house and all of a sudden, two of the kids go off to college. There's definitely an absence. But change is life I suppose and I'm still so grateful for the opportunity to come here and play once again.

5:00 pm

At last. I'm called to set. It's myself, Rick and Eric Breker (whose playing Col. Reynolds). We're all sitting around Rick's desk (which used to be Hammonds) and we begin the scene. It's a good scene. I'm happy with it. Peter gave me some good direction which I felt made a great difference. When doing sci-fi, it's not all that often that the director will actually give you any direction ‘cause it's so often about the special effects or the shot or whatever. Perhaps that's why this show stands out from the rest.

It's also nice having Michael Greenberg around. Usually having producer on set can create a bit of stress. But Michael is so hands on when it comes to the scripts, sets, everything. His ideas are great and he's always very respectful of the Directors.  It's nice to have that around.

Won't get into the actual scene too much. Hopefully you'll check it out it for yourself. It was a relatively small scene, but I think it went well.

6:00pm

All done. Actor Eric Breker said that his wife was coming to get him and that he could offer me a ride to the bus stop (he was going a completely different way). I spent a few minutes riding around on one of the bicycles that the bridge studio provides for getting around. I plucked this one from the side of Rick's trailer. Hope he doesn't see me.

6:10pm

And that's about it. That was my day.

Eric and I walked away from the studio to wait for his wife up on the main road and when we did, a funny thing happened. A car pulled into the parking lot we were standing in. We noticed that the driver and passenger were looking around, almost as if lost, or looking for something. Eric said, “Hey, check it out. I think they're fans."

I looked down and could see that the car had Minnesota license plates. There were two girls up front and sure enough, when they looked back they could see that the Bridge Studios was actually very close and that they'd simply made a wrong turn.  Very excitedly, they turned the car around and headed off towards the studio. It was probably the most perfect moment of the day. It somehow summed up my life, the nature of this business and a big part of what I like most about it. I took the moment to have a good laugh. For here were these two girls, having driven well over a thousand miles, all the way from Minnesota to get close to their favorite tv show and upon arriving at their destination got so excited that they completely missed Major Davis, standing there, out of uniform, ..... and waiting for a bus.

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