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With Cliff Simon
Stargate SG1 From Stargate SG1 comes an Interview with Mr Cliff Simon “Baal”. Wow. I felt great, it was actually the reason I entered the competition I was modeling at the time and I knew it would be a foot in the door for my career and I started studying drama at that time and the only reason I actually entered it was because one of the prizes was an audition on a local show and that’s the reason so luckily I won it and got my foot in the door. Did you ever intend to act in America? Yeah, yeah. It was my eventual aim to get out of South Africa partially because they have a good film industry very similar to Australia but what I found with me was that I was on a show for six years there and eventually it just became a little too small, I needed more challenges and that kind of thing. The United States is very tough and I’m very lucky that I managed to work on Stargate for so many years. I worked on Nash Bridges as well when I arrived the first year and I was very lucky to get that. So I’ve been very lucky but yeah it was my eventual aim to get to the United States. Did you find it hard to adjust to the American culture after South Africa? Not at all. We’re pretty similar to them. Los Angeles is very similar to Johannesburg, just a little bit bigger. Everything’s bigger in the United States. It wasn’t a major adjustment at all. Getting into the industry was a major adjustment because it’s so huge there. What was it like working on Moulin Rouge in Paris and would you do this type of work again? The Moulin Rouge was the best year of my life. Ever. Paris was beautiful to live in and that was sort of the pinnacle of my career from the dancing/ acrobatic side of things. The reason I wanted to go to the Moulin Rouge was to do the can-can which was a fifteen minute long can-can of just acrobatics. I had operations on my wrists from doing too many flip flexes and somersaults and all those sorts of things. But that was great. The Moulin Rouge was a beautiful place. It’s just such a traditionally French cabaret room. So it was great to work there I loved it and I wouldn’t do shows again but I would like to do like a guest spot in a show. Maybe a couple of nights, that kind of thing. Whether my body can stand up to it or not now I don’t know. Probably not. Do you have any new projects? I do. We’ve got a movie which we’re going to shoot next year, a CIA story. A true story based on events that happened in the 1980’s in Somalia. It’s quite a secret story because it’s one of the stories the CIA sorta swept under the carpet and it’s based on a true story of a CIA missionary who enters with a team of guys and that’s all I can say. So hopefully we’re going to shoot that early next year and we’ll probably film it in Cape Town in South Africa. What will your role in the film be? The son of the Somalian president. What is your experience of working with Stargate? Stargates been such fun I’ve never done sci-fi before. This is the first sci-fi show and I never realize actually what goes into it. I understand as an actor the technical side of things but only once you’re involved in it and you see what goes on a set, it’s pretty amazing. It’s been very interesting especially now that stories of my character being cloned and having to film scenes with myself that’s not there and there’s five of us in a room. But it’s opened my eyes. I didn’t really know that there was such a huge sci-fi following. I’ve always known about the huge Star Trek following but to actually be involved in it now it’s pretty great. Quite amazing. That’s what’s amazed me. Is the sci-fi world as big in South Africa as it is in Australia and America? No, no its not. I’ve done quite a few conventions in Europe, Germany is huge. They love their sci-fi shows. Stargate’s very big in Germany. This was the first time in Australia and New Zealand that I’m doing a sci-fi convention and not just a Stargate convention. The others have all just been Stargate. So my eyes have been opened. I mean it’s pretty awesome to see the outfits and all these things yesterday and in Sydney was amazing to see how people had dressed up and they make the outfits and so much work goes into them. It’s amazing. Thanks to Cliff for his great interview, Cliff was a great entertainer at our Convention and we wish him all the best for the future. Thanks again to the Beautiful, Maryanne Scutella for her great interviews.  |
