This year at WonderCon in San Francisco, ITPR had a rare opportunity to sit in on a filmed interview between SidewalksTV and Billy Campbell.
Billy is well known for his role in The Rocketeer and most recently as Jordan Collier on The 4400. Here is a summary from the interview, which can be found on SideWalksTV.com and was used with permission.
Billy lives in Los Angeles, CA but is rarely there as he is usually filming in Vancouver BC for The 4400. He is originally from Charlottesville, Virginia and got started in acting when he went to Art School in Chicago, where he wanted to draw comics. From there he went on to Beacon Street Theater to do Theater work. He mentions Dungeon Master as the first acting role he had, which was a live-action production of the game Dungeons and Dragons.
Billy’s first feature film was The Rocketeer, which came out in 1991 by Disney.
Q: Do you like or enjoy doing Sci-Fi genre projects.
BC: I do, I’m drawn to Science fiction, I enjoy anything well written, especially speculative Fiction.
Q: What type of comics do you enjoy? (Billy has a hard back copy of THE LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND. Shrink-wrapped and he opened it up for us to look at with him)
BC: I don’t like super hero comics. I love all the old comics like THE LITTLE NEMO…
His other acting jobs included an opportunity to guest-star on Star Trek: The Next Generation as ‘Okona’ in the episode called THE OUTRAGEOUS OKONA with Teri Hatcher. Hatcher was uncredited for the role as a transporter chief as per IMDB.com. Billy states that it was fun to work with Teri and the TNG cast/crew and he thought that was her first time on camera.
Billy was approached by the execs for The 4400 and at the time he had plans to sail around the world, and they were ok with that. The powers-that-be had wanted him to appear as a recurring role in the beginning, so they worked it out. As the series became more developed, they saw that he would be more of a permanent character.
When asked about the shooting schedule for The 4400, Billy said that it would take 8 days on set for each episode, at 13 episodes approximately 5 months or so of filming up in Vancouver.
Billy stated that he doesn’t watch the show when it’s on the air, although he does watch some of the Dailies on the set. He did confess that he does wait and watch the show on DVD.
The next topic went on to a TV series he was on called Once and Again with Sela Ward which was on for 3 seasons.
Q: How do you feel now that Once & Again is gone?
BC: I’m very disappointed to not be working with people that I loved.
Billy went on to say that he had an excuse to see his co-stars each and every day and now he doesn’t. He dearly loves ‘MY’ Sela and “all of our kids” and that they still keep in touch with each other. It’s one of the joys and heartbreaks of acting, you meet people and then you have to leave them.
Q: Any chance for a reunion movie for Once & Again?
BC: I’ve heard nothing so far, but I’d be happy with a reunion to just see everyone again. I’d just like to get together with the gang again.
As we wrapped up the video interview, Billy was asked: Any advice for up and coming actors?
BC: One of my first acting teachers said this and it’s stuck with me. “Work hard. Keep working. You won’t make it if you quit! And you’ll never know if you would have made it or not.”
Well, that wrapped our interview time with Billy Campbell. He was very gracious and took pictures with some of us girls from ITPR for our personal collection.
Later, after another group did a video interview with Billy, he came back over to us and just chatted with us girls from InThePowderRoom and the SidewalksTV.com guys as well as Pat from Starlog Magazine. We spent about 30 minutes or so just shooting the breeze about everything from Dracula to The Rocketeer to The 4400. He is just so down to earth and was totally at ease with us.
Up next? The Drive panel with Nathan Fillion! Stay tuned!