Mark Sheppard reveals Warehouse 13 secrets and his guest role

Friday, June 5, 2009

Mark Sheppard reveals Warehouse 13 secrets and his guest role

Mark Sheppard, who is well known to sci-fi fans for roles in Firefly and Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that he shot a quick-turnaround guest appearance on SCI FI's upcoming original series Warehouse 13.

"A while back, I got a lovely call from my friends at SCI FI, nine and a half pages of dialogue, to do in a day," Sheppard said in an exclusive interview Wednesday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, where he was promoting The Conduit, in which he does a voice. "I was actually out doing publicity for The Conduit on the East Coast. And they called and said, 'Can you go to Toronto to rehearse on Sunday to shoot on Monday?' I'm like, 'I'm in New York. It's not that hard.' So it was perfect."

In the show, two Secret Service agents (Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly) find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13, a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government.
Sheppard will guest-star as Mr. Valda, the enigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organization that controls Warehouse 13. He disapproves of Artie's (Saul Rubinek) methods as the team leader of the Warehouse and isn't afraid to let him know it.

Following is an edited version of our interview with Sheppard. Warehouse 13 premieres on July 7 and will air on Tuesdays. The Conduit comes out on June 23. (Possible spoilers ahead!)

You flew to Toronto?

Sheppard: I went up there and got to meet Jack Kenny, the executive producer. Amazing guy. There are really good people up there. I love what he's doing. SCI FI has been great to me. NBC and SCI FI. ... I went up and did several scenes with Saul Rubinek, who is one of my favorite actors, and CCH Pounder. They're just two powerhouse actors. They created a role for me, and I would like to think that the role will come back.

So tell us more about your character.

Sheppard: Well, Warehouse 13 is the repository of all supernatural stuff that has existed through time, and, as I understand it, tends to exist in the dominant superpower's realm. So one time it looked the Nazis were taking over, and it managed to burn itself down and reappeared a little later in America, who seems to have had control of it for a little bit. I've always liked the analogy that it's like the warehouse where they would have put the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But it's a little cleverer than that. It's funny and witty, and it's got some great acting in it, and I think it's something that could be really exciting for SCI FI. We're dealing with Lewis Carroll's mirror and James Braid's chair. Some interesting stuff there, you know? It's very clever writing and very, very good acting all the way around.
I've been brought in as spokesperson for the Regents, who are the organization who look after the Warehouse. Sort of a Knights Templar for the Warehouse, if you will. It's an interesting position. It will be an interesting time. We shot our scenes in a very strange location for what it is that we were doing. It's going to be very interesting to see how this unfolds.

So where was it?

Sheppard: No, no, no. I'm not going to give that away. That's the good stuff. It was a lot of fun. I'm on Leverage, where Saul Rubinek played the guest in the pilot. I kept crossing paths with him, and never actually meeting him. I'm a huge fan of his. He's a fabulous actor, and he plays the guy who's really in charge, who runs the scene but looks after the Warehouse. It's a really good story. ...

You've worked more than once with Joss Whedon, first in Firefly and now in Dollhouse.

Sheppard: Joss is special. I don't always know what he's doing. I don't always understand what he's doing. I don't know that he always understands what he's doing [laughs]. But he's still brilliant. He's a lot of fun to play with. He likes to mix it up a lot. I play a role in Dollhouse called Agent Tanaka. You want to work out why I'm playing an agent Tanaka as a character in the show?

I was wondering ...

Sheppard: Well, hopefully someday we'll actually explain it to you. If we ever get to it. And he likes to mix stuff up. I mean, I'm such the obvious bad guy when you bring me into something. But he put me in this role where you're never quite sure what I'm going to end up as. It's a lot of fun for me, and I'm sure it makes him giggle a lot. ...
So you're here at E3 promoting the Wii game you do voice work on, The Conduit.
Sheppard: I love these guys [High Voltage Software, the game developers]. These guys are straight up and dead honest. It's the same thing to me. A great storyteller is a great storyteller. They've had 16 years of building other people's games. They go to build their own game, and they decide to make a first-person shooter for the Wii. I mean, how insane has that got to be?

Until you play the game and you go, "Wow, this is the smartest thing I've ever seen. ... They made it for us." I mean, we all have Wiis, so we all want something to play on it. ... But they brought me in real early for this. ... And I'm a gamer, and I love to play, and there's nothing better for me than to go sit in a Conduit booth and say, "Hey, I'll play multiplayer with you guys. I'll play with you all day."

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Enjoy The Prologue From My Upcoming Book.. "Strolok"............by R.Goldberg

"WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOUR RACE WAS TARGETED FOR EXTINCTION?"

The Sun is a powerful force in our Universe. It brings us light, warmth and a promise of a galaxy beyond the stars. Often we associate massive flashes of light with the reflection of our Sun's light bouncing off of another surface.

This is not always the case though, especially if you believe that we are truly not alone in the Universe. When we witness things that we can't readily explain we sometimes turn our heads and shrug our shoulders in a display of apathy.

A display such as this occurred on Friday January 29, 1982 at the Crater Lake National Park just outside of Chemult, Oregon. The snow had been falling steadily for a period of four days. The winds had been whisking about at 40 miles per hour.
Then there was one of those unnatural flashes of light. This created an eerie silence as a lanky boy, just nine years old, seemed to appear from out of that flash. If he had walked to this point there would have been a distinct trail in the newly fallen snow.
There was no trail and as a matter of fact the only tracks in the snow were the ones that outlined his feet where he was standing.

He began to trudge through the snow wearing what could only be described as dark brown long johns. He seemed dazed yet, at the same time, very clear about the direction that he was travelling. This boy with no identity or name seemed to be on a mission that would take him to places he had never been before.
His main goal was to reach Chemult, Oregon and he had no intention of stopping until he accomplished this. As strange as it seems the extreme cold seemed to have little or no effect on him at all.

Why Chemult? What was so special about this town located at an elevation of 4,758 feet above sea level in a frozen winter wilderness in Oregon?

The town of Chemult was first opened to the local traffic in 1926 and here in 1982, with its population of only 241, offered little in the way of comfort for a nine year old boy who was all alone. This journey, although prompted by something deep inside of him, did not provide a feeling of comfort and yet he had hoped that he would at least experience a feeling of accomplishment once he reached the town.

The wind was getting stronger and he noticed a small piece of yellow paper tattered and torn from whipping about in the snow. He only stopped long enough to
pick up this paper..........it read:

.....With the winter season here there was a lot of fun to have. Travelling miles of open trails on snow mobiles skiing or simply hiking, but there are dangers of doing so. Please remember safety first. Do not travel alone and be sure someone knows where you are and where you are going before travelling our trails, and please read the safety rules and codes of ethics before hiking the trails...

Nightfall was near and he had already walked 38 of the 40 miles needed to reach Chemult. He was just off of Route 97 when he spotted an old barn just about 200 feet NE of his present location. Making his way to the barn he went in and found it to be totally deserted, it was a perfect place to rest for the night.

Morning had arrived and once awake the boy started to look around the barn in the daylight light to see if there was anything that was lying in the barn that he could use to assist him on his trek.

Over in the far corner of the barn he found an old metal locked box that had long been forgotten. It was all rusted out and the key was nowhere to be found. After several failed attempts to open the box the young boy closed his eyes, sat back on his tired limbs and placed the palm of his right hand on top of the box. All of a sudden a dull red glow appeared from his right palm and the box lid flew open. Strangely enough once the red glow disappeared all that remained was a faint thin black outline where the outside of the red mark had appeared on his palm. Inside of the box he found several items all of which were unfamiliar to him and it was obvious that they had been there
for a very long time.

The contents included a tattered passport with the picture missing, a pocket knife, a compass, an antique pocket watch with a broken crystal, a time-worn souvenir porcelain coffee mug with the words; "Atlanta, Georgia, The Peach State, A Perfect Place to Live", on it and a frayed map of the Metro Atlanta Area It was difficult to make out the name on the passport but with a couple of light brushes with his fingers he saw the name Jason Tredmore. This is now who this boy would become.

Sci-Fi Blast

Friday, June 5, 2009