Edward James Olmos On Adama’s Emotional State
3 September 2005
It is often said that the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica is more true to life, grittier and darker than its predecessor and one person who will wholly endorse that about the new show is Edward James Olmos who portrays the battle hardened Commander ‘Husker’ Adama in the new series, and during the tail end of the 1 st and start of the 2 nd season Adama has certainly been through it. Having his son side with Laura Roslin only to be shot at point blank range moments later by the Cylon Boomer, Adama has certainly had his share of emotional experiences and has barely come through them, though not entirely unscathed.
Facing death has admittedly taken its toll on Commander Adama and Olmos was more than happy to talk about this in a recent interview for TV Zone.
“He goes through it and afterwards he’s emotionally unstable, it changes his relationship with everybody and he drives into things he never would have done in the past.”
One noticeable change in Adama’s emotional state is the fact that he has gone from a buttoned up military pragmatist to someone who is more able to think emotionally which in turn has an effect on his relationship with his estranged son Lee [Apollo] Adama. To date Edward James Olmos is all too happy with some of the emotional twist that Ron Moore’s Re-imaging has presented and is enjoying the opportunity to bring a more realistic feel for a Space Show to the small screen.
“It’s very real drama, it’s not like creatures from the black lagoon are coming up or four – eyed monsters but it can still seem quite bizarre and crazy stuff,” he says. “But when you look at it all this is happening around us right now.”
“Something like what has happened on Caprica could become a reality real quick. There are nuclear weapons in China, Iran, Korea and Pakistan. It wouldn’t take much to send a couple of warheads off on this planet somewhere that would cause a lot of environmental damage, then if you have got someone who wants to retaliate you have real problems.”
Olmos himself is no stranger to living with the fear of a Nuclear Attack, having lived through the early days of the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The actor feels that many of the themes in the new show are being mirrored everyday in modern day life.
“Everything in this show, you are looking at and living it right now. So you can go to it and say, ‘I wonder how I would act and what would happen to me’.”
Olmos who is best known for his roles in more dramatic TV shows and movies stated when taking on the role of Adama that if he ever comes across a synthetic forehead being used to represent an alien race, then he would leave. As many will know Olmos played a role in the Classic Sci Fi Drama Blade Runner, and admits that he was attracted to Galactica because it had a very similar feel to Blade Runner.
“If there was an offspring of Blade Runner which would be it,” Olmos says. “If people liked Blade Runner they can tune into watch this because it’s a world with normal people and replicants. There is no heightened reality; the key issue is it’s all about normal people and how they would react in this set of circumstances. I think Ron Moore has created something that should go down as one of the classic moments of television Science Fiction.”
As to his message to fans of the Classic series of Galactica, Olmos stands by what he said and looks on the two shows as separate entities. You can read much more of this interview with Edward James Olmos in issue 193 of TV Zone.
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