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 On
Monday, July 25th Lindsay Wagner returned to Warehouse
13 as Dr. Vanessa Calder, a physician to the members of
the Warehouse staff. Wagner is most widely recognized as Jaime
Sommers in the 1970s TV series The Bionic Woman.
PCM got to participate in a conference call with the legendary
actress who discusses the differences between acting today
compared to back then, her role on the show, and what she
has learned from her experience:
Question: What was your most memorable moment from
working on the show?
Lindsay Wagner: It was freezing. First thing that
came to my mind, I must admit, was orking outside very late
at night with the snow and the whole thing. Another moment
that stood out, they have a wonderful crew. And the people
are just so nice and fun. And you work really long hours.
And it sometimes, of course, in a series gets very grueling.
But the crew and the attitude that they maintained really
makes it helpful for everybody to kind of get through that
kind of grueling...
And our camera man came to work one day, he's Scottish and
he came in full garb. He was in a kilt. And he walked in and
I was like, "Excuse me?" It just looked so out of
context with him carrying a kilt and - I mean a big giant
camera on his shoulder, a walk-around camera, rather than
a sword or a bagpipe or something. And it's just fun. They're
just fun. So I don't know that I could isolate one particular
moment.
Question: Well is there anything that you were surprised
to learn about yourself from doing this show?
Lindsay Wagner: I don't miss the hours; not working
as much as I used to.
Question: Do we know this season -- if it's not giving
away any spoilers -- if there's going to be any more - anything
more in depth about the connection between you and Artie?
Lindsay Wagner: Yes, I think it'd be - it's going
to be very interesting for people who are interested in that
to watch this episode. And that's all I can say.
Question: I read online that your character of Dr.
Calder might actually be doing a little bit of show hopping
over to Alphas for an episode -- if you could talk on that,
if that's true, or if there's any other shows on SyFy you
might want to do that with?
Lindsay Wagner: Okay, so yes, Dr. Calder has gone
to visit the Alpha team. And I don't know that I can say much
more about it. It's kind of a cameo visit, like I did before
early on in the Warehouse show.
And I don't know which episode it is though. But I'm sure
that they can fill you in with that. But yes, she went to
see the Alphas. And I don't know of any other shows at the
moment that that's going to happen with. But you never know,
Syfy's pretty creative like that.
Question: Has the holistic lifestyle from Quiet the
Mind & Open the Heart, that you're a part of, crossed
over with your acting career at all?
Lindsay Wagner: Actually they're pretty inseparable.
The Quiet the Mind work that I do is very much an outcropping
of my own personal growth, which started even before I began
acting.And the studying that I did and the healing that I
went through with some physical ailment that I had, that I
- where I was able to avoid surgery by working with a couple
of people -- one was an MD and one was a minister who works
with not only prayer, but visualization and meditation.
And the doctor, who helped me physically and emotionally
learn to identify patterns that were in my life or in my thinking
- my ways of thinking that were a part of causing this disruption
in the body, which expresses as illness, how much they are
all connected. And so I actually was able to not go through
a surgery that I was scheduled for by working with these people.
And it only took me six weeks. And I was astounded. I was
on a severe fast as well.
And so that began for me when I was 19, a whole lifetime
journey of what all it means, the holistic lifestyle, what
it means in reference to the integration of body, mind and
spirit, and how we cannot separate them. We separate them
in our culture so that we can study them, but we've actually
kind of forgotten that they're all kind of one thing. It's
like if you only study a carburetor in your car and you get
so obsessed with the carburetor you forget that it's no good
without, you know, the battery and all the other things that
make it work. And so I think in today's world, in our culture
today, we're finally starting to get back to that understanding.
And so that's been throughout my career and I've used it
in many different ways. I've done movies about it. My very
first film, television movie, doctor - The Incredible Journey
of Dr. Meg Laurel was my first experience with taking an eight-page
treatment and turning it into a full length hour feature -
I mean a three-hour feature for - movie for television. And
it was about that very thing. I wanted to do a story that
represented the battle, if you will, between the allopathic
world and the naturopathic world, and how they negate each
other instead of working together, and looking to see what's
really best for the person rather than their belief system
and perhaps their pocket.
And so those things have been integrated for me for a very
long time. And when I pulled back from acting so much, I just
continued on because I had continued to study also throughout
the entirety of my career, different ways of working, and
of course my own personal healing journey. And in doing that
I found things that were very helpful to me, extremely helpful
to me. And things that not a lot of people knew about; some
techniques that are very quick in helping to heal old emotional
wounds and even physical pain.
And so I found myself just being inspired to share it with
people and started doing programs in my house with friends
who were interested in what I was doing. And then that just
started going elsewhere and it became viral. And here I find
myself going all over the world now doing it and holding retreats.
And it's just been this interesting outcropping. So I don't
know if that answers your question, but that's the only way
I can answer it.
Question: I was wondering, is there anything
else you can tell us about your guest starring role on Warehouse
13 and what it was like to work with Rene Auberjonois.
Lindsay Wagner: It was really fun to work with him
again. He's just delightful. He's wonderful to work with.
He's extremely creative. And of course so is Saul.
And Rene and I, you know he came and did an episode of The
Bionic Woman. And we just had a blast. It was a very funny
one; he played a French artist/conman. And I had to go undercover
as a lady of the night with him to crack the case. And so
it was kind of a fun in funny episode. But he's so creative
and inventive. It's just so fun to watch him work. And Artie
is - I mean Saul is also extremely creative and fun so it
was a wonderful chemistry. And that was really enjoyable.
Question: In last year's series you had a really nice
scene, you know with Claudia. Do you have any more scenes
with Claudia this year as kind of like a mentor figure for
her?
Lindsay Wagner: Actually no, not yet. She's absolutely
fabulous. I think she is so talented. And I really enjoyed
having the chance to work with her in that scene -- it was
wonderful. But hopefully someday I'll have another one. But
pretty much my character's involved with Artie, you know at
this point. She's in them, but she's kind of back there rooting
on our relationship.
Question: Now that you've been in semi-retirement
from acting gigs, what was it that drew you to wanting to
go - get back into television with this appearance on Warehouse
13?
Lindsay Wagner: You know I'm not entirely sure, other
than you know, it was an opera. And quite frankly I hadn't
even seen it; I didn't know what it was when they called and
inquired about doing an episode. And then I watched it and
I thought, "What a fun premise that is. It's very clever."
And I also liked the essence of it, that it is - that it was
a - that it's a private organization that is trying to keep
these power objects, not only from individuals but keeping
them out of the hands of, kind of self-serving larger corporations
or governments that could use them to hurt others.
Plus I think Saul is so talented and I thought it would really
be fun to work with him. And it's just - it's fun. It's a
fun idea and it's well carried out.
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