Although he came to the series late, Ben Browder fits right in on the set of Stargate SG-1. The actor, who plays SG-1's leader Cameron Mitchell, signed on to the show at the start of its ninth season, following the departure of Richard Dean Anderson (who played Jack O'Neill). The cast and crew that Browder joined is characterized by an unpretentious openness and enthusiasm. The ebullient Memphis-born actor shares those qualities. He also has an infectious sense of humor that, by his own admission, is hard to contain. All of these traits were evident in an interview he gave earlier this year at Bridge Studios in Vancouver, where Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis are filmed. During the chat, Browder discussed his experience of coming aboard SG-1 towards the end of its 10-year run, what he likes and dislikes about Mitchell, why he's worried that he didn't get the girl in the direct-to-video movie Stargate Continuum (released in July), and what he thinks about being typecast as a sci-fi actor. He also asked for advice on weed-whackers.

Question: What was it like trying to integrate into the Stargate SG-1 clique?

Ben Browder: It was surprisingly easy. I was, I wouldn't say concerned, but it is something you are aware of, when you come onto shows that have been going on for so long, that they have their ways of doing things. The first day that I worked I was working with Chris Judge [who plays Teal'c] and the odd thing is that Chris and I actually get on really well. We relate. We have a shorthand way of relating which clicked in rather quickly. Somehow we get one another. We're completely different kinds of personalities but we completely get one another. So my first day was with Chris and luckily he was doing most of the dialogue, which was switch for him, and it was just very easy. It was very, very, easy and it was always sweet. Mike [Michael Shanks, who plays Daniel Jackson] and I think the same way about the work. Mike is one of the hardest working actors I know. Ten years on a show and he's still marking up his scripts like the first day on a job. Tremendous dedication to what he does. So it was easy actually. And as far as the crew goes, the experience of coming back up here after not having been here for a while, I feel really bad not being here because they're so damn nice to me. And they seem to be genuinely happy that I'm here. I'm not sure. They could be shining me on. They me be that way to everybody.

CinemaSpy: You said not having been here for a while. When were you here before?

Ben Browder: Well I haven't been at Bridge since last year. It's been 11 months since I've been here and obviously a lot of the crew is working on Atlantis. All the folks that are behind[-the-scenes], the directors — the Andy Mikitas of the world and Will Warings — are over there shooting on the stage today and I come in and it's just a very comfortable place for me, which is surprising really because I did come in late in the day.

CinemaSpy:  When you were filming the series on a regular basis, how did you find the traveling between here and LA?

Ben Browder: That was a pain in the ass. That was a bitch because my family is in Los Angeles and I have growing kids that get bigger and bigger by the second. And I'm not going to spend time away from my wife and my kids for extended periods of time. And again, we had just basically a year or two before come back from Australia, moving countries again when the kids are finally getting settled in school. We've bounced back and forth...Farscape, because it was canceled, and we went back, and then moving the family again was not an option. So I was commuting home on the weekends. And it was tiring. It's not that big of a deal, but how many times do you need to go through customs and declare what's in your bag? Luckily were in the same time zone. Flying is not that bad Vancouver to LA. It's actually pretty reasonable. It's like two and a half, three hours. That's not a bad flight. But when you factor in getting to the airport in Vancouver, getting home from the airport in LA, you've just gotten worse. Going through customs. Going through all the process that goes into airline travel these days. Going through your fifth metal detector of the day. [laughs] It's like, "I don't have any metal, I promise you. It's the same thing as last week." You get on a first name basis. You actually start to know the guys at passport control.

Question: Does that help?

Ben Browder: No. They still take the time that they need to take, and ask the questions that they need to ask. And we say, "How are you doing? How are the kids? See you next week." And, the odd thing was — you know they have those passes where you get the retinal scan and you can zip through it — because I had not been resident in the States because I was in Australia for three years, I couldn't get one. [laughs] So I was, "Oh My God. I guess I can't jump the queue."  I'm at the back with the rest of the punters, which is fair enough. It's just that when you do it every week...

CinemaSpy:  Have you found the experience of filming in Canada, Australia and the US different?

Ben Browder: Well, I have more experience filming in Australia and in Canada than I probably do filming in the US just because of the longevity of the work. They're surprisingly similar in many ways. The differences are more cultural. The physical mechanics of making movies is similar. Every set has its own culture and vibe, so I really couldn't compare Canada to Australia. I could compare Stargate to Farscape. I'm sure you guys have probably been on more sets than I've been on. You go on a set... everyone has a different vibe. It comes from both ends of the food chain in regards to how a set is because of what the script is like, how successful the show is, what's the creative process. So every show has a different culture, and I don't know how to compare those in regards to nationalities because I think I would probably be only speaking specifically about the two shows. And there's a danger in there because I'll end up saying something like, "Canadians sound really intelligent, but somehow evil, eh. They sound like they're from Minnesota, but smarter, eh." [laughs] I made the mistake of talking to RDA [Richard Dean Anderson] about it. He appeared in one the later episodes of Stargate, I think it was Moebius, where he's on the boat, and I thought he was affecting a Canadian accent, not realizing it was Minnesotan, which is his native accent. I said, "So why d'you choose to do the Canadian accent?" He said, "What are you talking about?" [I said,] "You know, when you were on the boat and it was the separate timeline thing. Was it like a homage to the crew or something." [laughs]He looks at me like, "What?" [I said,] "You know, the timeline thing, and you were on the boat and you were like, ëeh'" He goes, "Like, 'I'm from Minnesota,' eh?" I went, "Oooh, right." [laughs] I thought the Canadian's had a lock on "Eh." No?

CinemaSpy:  Have you never seen Fargo, eh?

Ben Browder: "Eh." I know. No. It's not my part of the world. See, I thought rednecks had the corner on 'reckon.' "I reckon that's true, right?" My mother would wack me upside of the head [and say,] "Don't sound like a redneck!" Then I got to England and everybody's saying ëreckon.' With the English, ëreckon' is perfectly... It sounds intelligent when they say it. If I say it, it sounds like I have a weed in my mouth and I'm wearing a pair of overalls. [Fakes a rural accent] "Well, I reckon if I went down there and fixed it..." [laughs]

CinemaSpy:  Did you, err...Did you, umm...

Ben Browder: [laughs] Did you chew tobacco when you were young?

CinemaSpy: Did you follow Stargate at all prior to coming on the show?

Ben Browder: Once I got the job I watched the entire show. I watched eight seasons of Stargate in one sitting.

CinemaSpy:  Did you really?

Ben Browder: Yeah.

CinemaSpy:  Wow. That's surprising.

Ben Browder: Brain damaging. [laughs] That much television of any sort. I mean, it's kind of like watching the Olympics 24 hours a day. That's gonna be bad, too. Luckily in the States you can't get it. If you go to some other country, like the BBC, they'll show the whole thing. They'll show the entire Olympics. In the States they only show the highlights that involve Americans. It's like, I know that they're gonna do well because you're showing it. Forget it. Where's the drama in that. I want to see the Olympics, not the highlights of...I don't need to see the Carl Lewis highlights. I need to see the Olympics. [laughs] I want to watch the Russians smash us in the pole vault.

Question: How did you enjoy going from something that was very action oriented and continuity heavy, like The Ark of Truth, to something that was more dialogue driven and standalone, like Continuum?

Ben Browder: First up there was some action in it.

Question: But you didn't get beat up in this one.

Ben Browder: I didn't get beat up. But you can't beat me up every week, you know. This was like a break in the pattern. You know I didn't really register that when I was doing them because when you go to the Arctic and you're  walking out on the ice and then you've got  a freighter and its shaking and they're shaking the set and its cold and then you're wearing prosthetics, you're not really registering, "Oh, there's not enough action in this." It was a different kind of action. And as an actor, all of the days were interesting. There's something new and it's the great gift that [writer and executive producer] Brad Wright gave the actors in Continuum — but I think especially he gave me — he gave me some cool stuff to do. And I've thanked him for it but I'm more than happy to thank him publically. Thank you, Brad Wright. You really gave me fun stuff to do. And if you can make a living getting fun stuff to do, you know...