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Interview: Move Over, Captain Jack. There's a New Gay in the Galaxy Named Sam Adama.

Move over Captain Jack, there’s a new gay character on the sci fi block, and he might just be as groundbreaking and kick-ass as you were when you first arrived on Torchwood.

His name is Sam Adama, and he’s a Tauron enforcer working for the Halatha Crime Syndicate on the planet of Caprica. Sam's already killed once in a rather spectacularly brutal fashion. But he’s also happily married to another man, and is the loving uncle to none other than Battlestar Galacatica’s iconic William Adama, the man who helped save humanity after the Cylons nearly wiped them out.

Sasha Roiz is the actor so indelibly bringing Sam to life. Indeed, the role of Sam was originally envisioned as only being in the pilot, but thanks to strong writing – and the magnetic performance of Roiz who initially read for another part – the role was expanded, and Sam is now one of the show’s most important characters.

AfterElton.com recently caught up with Roiz to discuss how he’s similar to Sam, gays in science fiction, and if Roiz had any concerns playing the part – not because Sam is gay – but because he kills people for a living.

AfterElton.com: The standard question actors playing gay roles used to get asked was are you concerned about taking on a gay role, but it's 2010 and I think we're past that. Nobody ever asks actors what they think about playing a character as morally complicated as is Sam. So what was your approach to that as an actor?

Sasha Roiz: You know what's great is that I think it's a wonderful addition to the character that he's gay. But the thing is, on Caprica, there's no discrimination as far as the sexes or sexual orientation. The discrimination is more cultural. We're more discriminated against as Taurons as anything else. As a matter of fact, the word gay wouldn't even be used on Caprica because it's not an issue. It's a completely normal way of life. You love who you love.

AE: Jane Espenson [Caprica’s executive producer] and I were talking about that. Frankly, I love that approach. And I love that we have enough gay characters these days that we can have some complexity in them. So playing a character who has already killed in the pilot, and in the third episode is asked to kill somebody rather shocking, basically you're a mobster hit man. Does playing a killer mess with your head in any way shape or form?

SR: No, because I think when you play any character, unless you have issues as the character about killing, I don't think you ever question what the character's motives are. You just embrace it. The way I approach it is that he truly believes in the organization he works for. He truly believes in the cause and the tasks that are asked of him. He doesn't question things.

Sam killing a corrupt, racist judge

There are moments later on in the series where he does question things, very much so. He's conflicted about things he's been asked to do or been forced to do, and those are really fun to tackle, but when it comes to the organization, the mob that he works for, he truly believes in his cause.

He has a real disdain for Capricans. This is a man who believes he's being treated as a second class citizen and the only thing he can do to survive and thrive in this world is remain loyal to the culture he's from and the people who look after him. That's the only people he cares about.

AE: Is that the difference between the Halatha crime syndicate and the Mafia, in your mind? The Mafia is basically an organization for extortion and making money, whereas the Halatha, as you just described it, is more like, "We're downright discriminated against so we're going to do whatever we can."

SR: I think it's not really reminiscent of that modern day mob. It's more like the turn-of-the-century mob. The early 20th Century when Italians, Irish, Jews all came over and had very limited opportunities. They were ghettoized and forced to create a life and survive any way they could. In response to being ghettoized and discriminated against, they found their own ways and their own rules.

AE: I talked to Ron Moore three TCA tours ago about Battletstar Galactica and how it was such a wonderful way to tackle different socially relevant issues.

SR: That's the thing we get to do in sci-fi that we can't do as literally in conventional TV that takes place here on Earth. It's fun to be able to discuss topics that are somewhat taboo or heated.

AE: Right, but gay issues are something that science fiction, for whatever reason, has really steered away from. Ron was really frank about it. He was like, "Yeah, as writers, we've really screwed up."

SR: He said that, straight up?

AE: Yeah.

SR: Wow. He's a very honest guy. I have a lot of respect for him.

AE: He tried to do it a little bit with Battlestar. He promised it was going to happen and he had another show called Virtuality, which was a FOX show.

SR: Yeah. I liked that show. There was a gay couple in there.

AE: Yeah. Very good! If that had lasted, it probably would have been the most groundbreaking science fiction show on U.S. television.

SR: But [Caprica] will be interesting: A married, monogamous, gay, mobster hit man who has tremendous integrity and has a sense of family.

AE: How was the character described to you when you first read or auditioned? Was he gay from the get-go?

SR: No, that's something that came about when we got picked up. I sat down with Jane and she revealed to me that the character was actually going to be gay.

AE: So you heard that from Jane?

SR: Yeah. I had no idea in the pilot, but like I said, because there is no discrimination sexually in this world, it doesn't really factor in to the way I portray him. It's something that is completely accepted.

AE: With what we've seen so far of your home life with your husband Larry, it seems very typical. How would you describe your relationship with him? What's their home life like?

SR: Well, I can't say it's a conventional relationship by our standards.

Sam, nephew Willie, and husband Larry

AE: Why not?

SR: Because I'm in the criminal underworld. That is the only part of the relationship that is strained. He would obviously take exception to certain things. He's accepted me for who I am, but it's more my career and the people that I fraternize with, the responsibilities and duties that I have that would jeopardize our relationship in any way.

Otherwise we're a very healthy, monogamous couple, and ironically, in the show, I think I'm one of the only people who has a stable relationship, and has a very concrete sense of what family is and should be. Everyone else's seems to be falling apart.

AE: Describe your relationship with your brother Joseph. What's the dynamic there?

SR: With Joseph, it's a fascinating relationship as we continue in the series. You're going to see some really great flashbacks and back stories to these two men. They flash back to our time in Tauron, and what's shaped us, the tragedy that bonded us, and shaped us, and brought us to Caprica.

We reveal a lot of that. It's going to be a really interesting insight into what Taurons are, who these two men are, and some of the dark secrets that they've held all these years. It also feeds into the decision making, why I'm in the mob, why I'm as zealous as I am about our cause.

Joseph and Sam Adama

Joseph is someone who has tried to assimilate. He dropped our name and tried to become more Caprican. You see at the end of the pilot he comes back to Adama. He realizes what his roots are. He's someone who's been educated and assimilated, and I'm someone who's refused to. I feel a strong loyalty to where I'm from and I refuse to let that go at any price. That brings us to a head often. I keep wanting him to revert back to his roots, and have that feed all his decisions.

We have very different perspectives on how to raise Willie. We have a very different perspective on how to go about in this world, but as the show progresses and the world of Caprica starts to spiral out of control and our tragedy becomes greater and greater, he slowly starts to come back to sort of my point of view on the Tauron sentiment and the culture. It's a wonderful relationship to watch because in the beginning of the series, we really butt heads a lot.

AE: Do you have a brother yourself?

SR: I do.

AE: Older? Younger?

SR: Younger. Yeah, it informs it a lot. My brother, like in this relationship, is very different from me, and there are times when we just can not see eye to eye, but there's always a love. I have a Russian background, my parents were immigrants. It's not unlike, in some ways, what I've been portraying here. There is this bond between us that is unbreakable no matter how different we may be or how different our experiences might be.

AE: So that experience growing up, are you able to draw on that?

SR: Absolutely. I was raised in a Jewish family. I can think back on the discrimination my family felt growing up in the Soviet Union, some of the family tragedy we experience over the course of communism and of course in the Second World War from that part of the world. Even looking back and reading and researching the stories of immigrants who came over at the turn of the century and launched into a life of crime and all the famous mobsters of that time and how they felt discriminated against and felt very much that they were entitled to make their own laws.

AE: You mentioned Willie before. It's not often you see — in fact I can only think of one other — a relationship between a gay man and a child. It seems like you're going to play a pretty important role in Willie's life. Can you tell us about your relationship with him?

SR: At some point in the series, Esai's character becomes absolutely obsessed with not just the tragedy that has befallen our family, but also reconnecting with his daughter who is trapped in this virtual world. He becomes utterly obsessed to the point where his life spirals out of control. So I step in to care for Willie and I become very much a surrogate father.

That brings Joseph and I into major conflict, obviously. Sam feels that Joseph has become far too Caprican and is taking Willie down the wrong path, so he tries to bring him into the fold, into Halatha and the Tauron community, and just give him a lesson on what his culture is and where he's from, and grow up with Tauron men.

AE: Is it fair to say that Sam has a very clear-eyed, cold, realistic view of the world, whereas Joseph is a little more idealistic?

SR: Joseph is completely idealistic, which Sam feels is almost just naïve.

AE: Some of those lessons, you're teaching Willie how to act and the effect of behavior were quite interesting.

SR: Yeah. I love the relationship between Willie and Sam. It's really fun to watch.

AE: What was the casting of the show like?

SR: I came in really late. I actually auditioned for the role of Tomas Vergis. They'd already done their primary casting, and I was auditioning for Vergis, and in the end, they offered me the role of Sam. It was sort of last minute. The pilot was about to get underway. I read it and I thought it was fantastic, far more interesting for me than Vergis. I came in simply as a guest star with the potential to be a reoccurring character.

AE: Really? Just a guest star?

SR: Yeah, with chances of a reoccurring storyline. By the end of the pilot I had the sense that this character had so much potential it would be a waste if they didn't use him. After the series got picked up, they offered me a contract as a regular, and it's been fantastic. As the show progressed, at first I was sort of supporting Esai's story, and then eventually, I guess the character really resonated with the writers and they started to develop fantastic storylines for Sam. It's been a lot of fun.

AE: How surprised were you when Jane said, "Oh by the way, he's going to be a gay character?"

SR: I was very surprised. But then at the same time, I realized it was going to be a really interesting layer to the character. He could have been a very cookie-cutter sort of mobster that would have been far more boring. We get to investigate this other side of him, but again, there's only so much investigation that's needed because of the world we've created.

I think for viewers it's going to be far more interesting. I think in the second episode I'm walking down Little Tauron telling Willie how Joseph used to hit on the girls and I would hit on their brothers. It's just so normal and casual, and just a wonderful thing to explore.

AE: I don't know if this is what you were doing, but it almost looked like some attractive guy walked by and you turned to check him out.

SR: Right! Sometimes you're checking him out, and sometimes you're checking him out to see if there's any danger. It could be anything. It'll be interesting to see where it all goes. Whether the relationship with Larry lasts or doesn't last it's just interesting. I'd like to explore that as much as we can.

AE: Tell us as much as you can about Sam's story arc for this season. How does he change?

SR: Sam's journey is one of surrogate father in the first half of the season, and not just a surrogate father, but kind of the pillar of the Adama family. It's really just falling apart. The tragedy has completely shaken Joseph, and he's obsessed with Tamara's existence in this virtual world, and no one is looking after Willie. The family is just disintegrating. So Sam picks up the pieces and become the cornerstone of the family. That brings me and Joseph head to head many, many times.

The latter part of the season, there are different storylines that bring us together. Joseph, I, and even Daniel Graystone, we have to come together. Joseph and Sam will have some issues with the Halatha, with their direction and where they want to go. He'll come into some sort of conflict about his choices and his commitment to that organization.

AE: Going back to the gay aspect of the character, when did you become aware, if you are aware, that you are sort of a groundbreaking character here?

SR: Is it?

AE: Yeah, I'd say it is. There's really only one other show of any importance that has a character that, in this case, they call him an omnisexual character because he's from so far in the future. It's a show called Torchwood.

SR: Right. I honestly love that. I love that there's something out there that brings in another demographic of people who don't have enough to connect with, perhaps, or not enough of themselves reflected in television. For me, it's a wonderful opportunity, a great responsibility. I fully embrace it. I hope they write for that aspect of the character. I hope they continue to break ground with it, and they make it interesting and maybe even controversial at times. I'd love to see that.

AE: Science fiction is often given over to the domain of straight boys, straight men. What would your response be to anyone that said — and trust me, if you go on the boards you'll see comments like this — but saying, "Oh, I don't want to see a gay character on this show."

SR: I was surprised to discover amongst my own friends, and some of the people I know that followed Battlestar, there is a significant gay demographic watching.

AE: Oh, absolutely.

SR: So there's clearly something that resonates.

AE: I'll tell you what resonates. For gay people, especially when you're growing up, science fiction is the one genre where anything can happen, anything can be different. It's really easy to read that kind of book or watch that kind of movie and think, "Oh, I could exist inside this world."

SR: You know, like I said, I'm really proud to take on a character, any character, that represents a group of people who feel excluded on TV, that they can relate to. It's a wonderful responsibility. I hope they can feel a sense of pride in the way I portray it and they connect with it. I have no patience for any intolerance or ignorance, so if people have issues with it, it's really not of any concern to me.

AE: Last question. I tried to do some research on you but couldn't find a bio. You have many TV credits on IMDB, but what personal information would you like to share? Where did you grow up? Where do you live? Family? Where'd you go to school?

SR: My family is originally from Russia. They moved to Israel. I was born there and lived there until about the age of six, and then we moved to Montreal. My whole family still lives in Montreal in Canada.

AE: So you speak French?

SR: I do. I grew up speaking Russian and French and English, and a little Hebrew, but that's kind of gone now. And then I went to university and played music for a long time, and eventually in my mid-twenties I decided to go to theater school. I studied in Montreal and England. Then I came back and worked in Toronto for a number of years. I moved to L.A. about three years ago, and find myself back in Vancouver, in Canada again, shooting. That's my bio in a nutshell.

AE: Where do you call home now?

SR: L.A. is home, but Vancouver is a lot of fun. I'm glad we had the chance to be up there. It's a beautiful city, just a gorgeous part of the world.

It's been a wonderful experience. I'd love to see it grow legs and go into a second season. I mean, the first season is always a difficult one. Everyone is trying to figure out the show.

AE: You guys have the double tricky task of taking on a prequel to a very beloved show.

SR: Yeah, but I don't feel any pressure about that. They keep asking about it and I'm like, "I don't know. Should I feel pressure? I don't feel any pressure." If it was a sequel it would be a different story, but a prequel is just...

AE: Have you dealt with fandoms before?

SR: Not in this capacity. This is something else. This is unparalleled. They take it so seriously. They're so devout, so protective.

AE: Do you follow that or do you just sort of ignore it?

SR: No. What can I do? Some people have their opinions formed already. Other people are open-minded to it. I really don't feel like we're beholden to BSG. At all. I really don't.

AE: I don't know how you could do your job if you felt like you really were.

SR: We're utterly free of it. The only thing that we'd like to see, we'd like to see fans appreciate this as well. Not in the same way, a different way. It's a different show. But we'd love to see some of them come on board, because it's a wonderful institution they've created, this world of Caprica and BSG. It's just phenomenal people involved in that. But as far as an actor, I feel no pressure in being the predecessor of BSG. It doesn't inform us in what we do.

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