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Claudia Black had a secret, and
she didn't know how her bosses would react. Earlier this season,
the Australian actress burst onto Stargate SG-l a saucy
intergalactic thief Vala, a bodacious babe who immediately
clicked with viewers. The former Farscape siren vamped it up
while series regular Amanda Tapping was on maternity leave
tending to her infant daughter. But then Black herself
announced, "I'm pregnant."
"I was so worried the
producers were going to be disappointed," says Black, who
hoped to return for more episodes. As it turned out, Black’s
pregnancy couldn't have come at a better time. Executive
producer Robert Cooper told her he'd been toying with the idea
of bringing Vala back this winter, and using pregnancy as a way
of creating a new villain.
Black, who gave birth to a son
in December, "adds a new dynamic to Stargate," Cooper
says. "As an alien outsider, she creates a different
chemistry among the team." Most notably: the Tracy-Hepburn
banter-fueled relationship between Vala and scientist Daniel
Jackson (Michael Shanks). "1 don't think the teasing will
ever stop," Black says. "He's such an easy
target."
The actress, who'll be joining
her former Farscape love interest Ben Browder as a regular on
SG-1. next season, says it's fun to play the "naughty inner
child" for a change. "Vala's grating, frustrating,
irritating, but she's equally delightful. On Farscape, I was the
tragedienne. Here I'm the comedian."
But comedy's in short supply in
this week's episode, which finds Vala trapped in a village run
by religious fanatics. When a recently celibate Vala learns
she's mystifyingly with child, she marries a kindly local man
(Tim Guinee) after fooling him into believing he's the baby's
father.
"It's
an interesting turn for Vala- she genuinely cares for the
man," Black says. "She does something wrong, but she
must in order to survive. Kind of like Jessica Rabbit I’m not
bad, I'm just born that way." |
