Brent Stait, who plays Andromeda’s linguist Rev Bem, arrives at the set by 4:45 every morning for 3 hours of makeup. SPACE.com’s Don Lipper got a chance to talk to the actor under the mask.

SPACE.com: Is it a requirement now for a Gene Roddenberry show to have a Brent working in the cast?

BS: Oh, I don’t know. I think it’s the age range that name started to become popular, Brent. I mean, when I was a kid there were no Brents. But now there’s lots of Brents.

SPACE.com: Why don’t you tell me how you got the job for Andromeda.

And I only did one audition [for it]. I didn’t have any callbacks, I didn’t go screen test. I went in, I had one audition and then they called me and I was cast. It was very weird, you know.

SPACE.com: Why do you think you knocked it out of the park so well?

BS: I knew that because he was an alien I had to wear prosthetics, and they had given me a description of the character. It seems like every time there’s an alien, he has a British accent, I don’t know why that is. So, I thought, well, I’ll come up with a [different] sound that the character himself would have made, so that he could speak English? [Slipping into character] So, I kind of came up with an accent and a particular sound for the character and I went in and I did that.

And, I kinda made a cross of characters between Ghich Nhat Hanh -- who’s a Vietnamese Buddhist, I read a lot of his books, I kind of took his philosophy -- and . . . Hannibal Lecter. The character is not really a priest, he’s more like a monk. He’s always in conflict with his dark side of his nature, which is his species.

SPACE.com: Is that how you would describe your character, Rev Bem?

BS: I think he’s innately hungry but because of the way he’s decided to choose to live his life, he fights that, so he’s in constant struggle with his own darkness.

SPACE.com: He’s always got this good and evil thing working within him?

BS: Yeah, always. The nature of his species is that they basically live to eat. But he’s trying to find a new enlightenment and also trying to pass on what he learns to other people. He’s searching for peace and there’s a big conflict. It’s like trying to make a house-pet out of a tiger.

SPACE.com: What species is he?

BS: He’s a Magog. Now, Magog, how they breed is based on an actual spider. He’s not a spider character but [the show adopts] the idea of the way they procreated, they inject their "sperm" [genetic material] into another being by paralyzing them. They paralyze them with this venom and then they inject their "sperm" into them and it grows inside them while the creature is alive and then they hatch out of them.

That’s how they breed. The victim usually doesn’t volunteer.

They also like to eat and the more they eat, the stronger they get and when they’re young, the faster they grow. So, basically, they're the most feared creatures in the galaxy because all they do is eat and regenerate themselves. So, he has to fight with that all the time. Hunger is a big thing for him that he has to overcome.

SPACE.com: So, why would anyone have this thing as part of your regular crew?

BS: Ah, you see, there’s the catch. He’s found the way. He was trained by a priest, he comes up later in an episode. The Way is an amalgamation of a whole bunch of Earth religions from Buddhism to Taoism, there’s Christianity involved. I wouldn’t say it’s a religion, it’s an idea, a philosophy of life that he follows now. You ever see the movie, The Mission?

SPACE.com: Yeah. It’s one of my favorites.

BS: There’s a slaver [played by Robert De Niro] and he’s full of anger and hate and then he kills his brother and he becomes a Jesuit. It’s kinda like that. It’s like he turns over a new leaf and wants to be good but because it’s inbred to him to be nasty, bad, evil, whatever, he has to constantly fight that. But, because he’s aware of the goodness in himself, that’s his conscience. So, actually, he’s a really good guy to have around except when he gets hungry, then they kinda gotta lock him up.

SPACE.com: But De Niro eventually forgets about becoming a priest and becomes a warrior again. Are we going to see that in you?

BS: Well, time will tell. That’s always the threat. See, that’s why he’s not the Buddha, he hasn’t become enlightened, he’s seeking the path of enlightenment? He could go, "The hell with enlightenment stuff, I’m gonna be Magog again and just eat everything I can get my hands on." So, there’s always the threat of that. Yeah, there is. He could turn.

SPACE.com: So, to my mind, it’s sort of like having Hannibal Lecter running your daycare center.

BS: Except that Rev Bem is for the most part very gentle and kind and it’s like having a wolf for a pet. They can be very gentle, very docile, you think you’ve got them trained but you just don’t know for sure.

SPACE.com: It seems as though you were born to play this character because you seem to have a very spiritual quality to your life.

BS: Yeah, you know, it’s funny. My buddy and I were laughing about that because when I did the audition, I [had just] read a lot of Lao Tze, Ghich Nhat Hanh, Socrates, the Gnostic Gospels and that’s kind of my reading material. It just so happens that I happened to be reading a lot of that stuff when I went in for the audition and my mindset’s just there.

I find it very fascinating ‘cause of that whole dichotomy. I’m a character. The most interesting part for me is where maybe he’s having a real dilemma here. It’s really difficult for him 'cause if you have a character who doesn’t have a conflict and you’ve got to do it for a year or two or three or whatever, it can get really boring.

SPACE.com: What’s been the most fun shooting?

It’s interesting, too, to see what you shoot and then what you see is different. Because they put the CGI in and all that stuff that you don’t see while you’re working. It’s not like if you’re doing a drama [where] you can have an idea what it’s going to look like . . . when you’re doing the sci-fi thing and you’ve got green screen all the time, you never know what it’s really going to look like and then when you see it, it’s really interesting, so that’s fun.

SPACE.com: Have you seen a bunch of shows now?

It’s interesting working in a rubber face because you know your own face. Now when you have another face on top, you don’t always know what it is your face is saying. Do you know what I mean? Like an emotion, if you’re trying to express a certain thought? You know how you express that thought in your own life but when you have another face on top of your face, you don’t know if it’s coming through.

SPACE.com: So, are you finding that you have to act a lot more with your face than you would have to because it has to go through so many layers?

BS: That’s the fascinating part! The face that I have is quite malleable, it really does move quite well. That’s why we have so many pieces and it’s fairly thin. So, I was surprised how much comes through. But sometimes you have to incorporate different things like head movement. Also the eyes are still expressive. I didn’t want them to do contacts because I didn’t want to lose that avenue of expression.

SPACE.com: Has there been a sequence that you shot that’s been really difficult or really fun?

BS: The first time we did all the explosions on the command deck startled me because I was amazed at the size and length of explosions that went on. And, that can be difficult because we’re there, we do a long 20-page day of these command deck scenes and it can get very hot in there.

SPACE.com: What is Rev Bem's job?

BS: We don’t really have titles because we’re not military. My job is a linguist, sociologist. Also, I man the sensors and put out the probes around the ship. I don’t fire weapons at all. My character has actually made a point in one of the episodes not to do that. It’s established that [Rev Bem won’t] fire guns because it goes against everything he believes in. [I also function as] basically kind of Dylan’s counselor and anybody else on the crew who is having any kind of spiritual dilemma.

SPACE.com: Do people treat you differently when you’re in makeup?

BS: People aren’t used to seeing me out of it sometimes. I’ve met a few directors on the show. I’m already three hours ahead of everybody, right? So, they come in, I meet them, end of the day, they leave, I go to take the makeup off and then I’ve met them, like, a couple days later and they don’t know who I am.

I’d met one of the directors and I’d had about three conversations with him at lunch, but always in the makeup. So, we went to this hockey game the other day and about half way through the game he says, "Oh, Brent, let me introduce myself, I’m George [Mendeluk]." and I went, "George, man, we had lunch three times, you know, what are you doing? I play Rev, I’m the guy with the face." He goes, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t associate you and him" and I’m just laughing.

SPACE.com: Have you ever had a problem of being stuck in makeup all day, just to say one line?

To tell you the truth, it was Kevin, not, me, who brought it up. He said, "Look, there’s no reason that you should have Brent here for these many hours if you’re not gonna use him in this scene. Bring him in later." He was actually the one and I didn’t prompt him to do that or anything, so I was very grateful for that. Because he had a lot more pull than I do. He was the one who noticed and said, "This is crazy, you shouldn’t be sitting around in this stuff." So, he’s like the captain in that way.

SPACE.com: So, he really is the captain of the cast and crew?

BS: Yeah, well, it seems that way to me a lot of the time. He didn’t have to do that. It was really nice of him. And, he’s good that way, too. If you have an off-camera line and you have one or two lines and you’re standing there and it’s really hot, he’ll tell you to "go sit down. I don’t need you for just like one off-camera line or whatever" which is, pretty decent, I think.

SPACE.com: He’s a pro.

BS: Yeah, he is, definitely that. Yeah, he is a pro and he’s always prepared. Which makes it a lot of fun to do the show when all the cast is like that and they all are. It’s good.