Morena Baccarin

MORENA BACCARIN, STARGATE SG-1 INTERVIEW

Morena Baccarin first made waves in the sci-fi genre as Inara Serra in the wildly popular space western Firefly. After Firefly made its way to the big screen as Serenity, Morena moved on to other projects, including stints on Justice League, The O.C. and a regular recurring gig on Stargate SG-1. With the show now in its final season, Morena chats about what Stargate has been like and what it’s like to be so far removed from Firefly a couple years after the fact.

Morena Baccarin on how Firefly prepared her for the sci-fi world and for Stargate SG-1:

This show has a completely different feel from Firefly. Firefly had a little more of a Western thing going, more cowboys and sawed-off shotguns. This is very sci-fi. I see it as two different shows. But I guess a lot of people could compare the two, but this has an element of superpowers and telekinetic things, and it’s stuff that I’ve never really done before.

Baccarin on her Stargate character:

I would say I’m a full-on villain. I mean, I’m killing people. You can’t get much worse than that. It’s really fun to play evil. I’ve never done that before. You can pretty much do whatever you want. You can never really be over-the-top, and I’ve found that the sweeter she was, the sicker it was. She’s snapping these big guys’ necks going, "Oh, I’m sorry."

On landing so much work in the sci-fi genre:

It is how it’s worked out for me, but I do enjoy it. I had a really good time doing both shows, and I haven’t done any more sci-fi other than these two shows, but it’s been great. I don’t think I’m stuck in a genre thing, I think it’s just one led to the other.

On the interaction between Stargate fans and Firefly fans:

I’ve only met a few people, because I think it hasn’t really aired yet, and I think a lot of people don’t know that I’m on it. I thought that most fans were fans of all sci-fi shows, but I really found a difference between the Stargate fans and the Firefly fans. I don’t really understand what the separation is, but a lot of people who were fans of Firefly don’t really watch Stargate. It’s surprising to me.

Baccarin on the strange dynamic between her character and Claudia Black’s character:

Claudia’s awesome. It’s been really fun. I feel really bad that I’m playing her daughter, because it’s ridiculous. She’s my age. But it’s really fun, she’s really sweet, and I love the dynamic her character has with Michael and with my character. She’s got such a great thing going, and it’s fun to play off of her.

On her future projects beyond Stargate SG-1:

I’m waiting to hear about a pilot I shot called Heartland, to see if it will be picked up by TNT. Other than that, back to auditioning.

On Adria versus Inara and who would win in a battle between characters:

That’s a good question. Probably Adria, because it’s not fair, she’s got superpowers.

Morena Baccarin on where Adria is heading for the final season of SG-1:

My character is really trying her hardest to convert the entire galaxy to her religion, sort of like a Nazi. But, she’s got a fight ahead of her. It’s interesting, the turn it takes at the very end is not what I expected when I was reading it, and I had to ask them ’what does this mean?’ It’ll be interesting.

Morena Baccarin on whether she watched sci-fi as a kid:

I was a huge fan of all the Star Wars movies. Is Dungeons and Dragons sci-fi? That was my favorite cartoon growing up. And, I used to love reading sci-fi books. Then I just lost interest and stopped. And, here I am again.