Telepathic Warrior: An Interview with Patricia Tallman

By Anthony Van Pyre and Jerry Seward

It's been a long road to becoming BABYLON 5's resident telepath.

Patricia Tallman comes from strong theatrical stock. She first performed at the age of two on her father's radio show, then performed in summer stock throughout the Midwest in her teens and graduated with honors from the theatrically-acclaimed Carnegie Mellon University. She moved to New York and was immediately cast in the off-Broadway hit, BIG, BAD BURLESQUE.

She starred in many off-Broadway productions and then landed the leading female role of Rosalind in the Riverside Shakespeare Company's production of AS YOU LIKE IT. This performance led to a recurring role on the CBS soap opera GUIDING LIGHT.

Her role in KNIGHTRIDERS, starring Ed Harris, led to a longtime working relationship with director George Romero, who worked with her on MONKEYSHINES, CREEPSHOW II, and Romero's remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Tallman has both guest-starred and done stunt work for STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE (doubling for Nana Visitor), afterwhich she landed the role of the beautiful and gifted telepath, Lyta Alexander.

Anthony and I had a chance to talk with this talented lady at last November's VISIONS con in Chicago.

PAT TALLMAN: Out of the first twelve episodes, I'm in six. They have a very heavy telepathic storyline, which has been great.

I have trusted Joe Straczynski completely. He created the show's five-year arc, so he knows things, but they're on a "need-to-know" basis with the cast. I get scripts and I'm not sure what they mean, and I can get them clarified to a point, but he doesn't tell us anymore than we need to know. That's often been frustrating, but you make the best out of it. Well, with these last few scripts, I have been in his office, in his face, on his machine, on-line, all over the place, to the point where he sees a redhead walking towards him, says "Now what does she want!" and he runs the other way. (laughs) So, this has been so intense and there are so many new things happening that I haven't been able to just stand back and take it. I've had to say, "No, you've got to tell me more." Because he's given me Lyta for so long and I have trusted him for four years. Now, he's going to have to trust me.

Without giving away too much, what I wanted to say about the fifth season so far is that it's incredibly intense and Joe has brought up stuff that's just hit all these buttons, not only in me but in a lot of other people, and I think it will be really wonderful and edgy and scary all at the same time.

Lyta has some very sweet moments. I get to laugh. I've never laughed on the show.

I had an extraordinary day shooting one episode. I had the black lenses in, I incorporated my stunt work and my stunt abilities, and I had to do things that no one's been asked to do yet on BABYLON 5. I'm very excited about it.

Q: Do we get to see the Vorlon homeworld?

TALLMAN: No. The only Vorlon stuff that comes up so far is from what's residual in Lyta. She still carries around some memories and things.

Q: Is there going to be a third BABYLON 5 TV-movie?

TALLMAN: There's another movie, there may be a feature, there may be a sixth season, there may be a spin-off, CRUSADE. Who knows? I hear rumors I've never heard before. I'm under contract until the year 2002. From where I understand where Lyta's going, though, I really do not see her participating in CRUSADE except maybe as a guest star.

Q: There always seems to be some intimation about a relationship between Lyta and Zack Allan.

TALLMAN: Joe started that and Jeff Conaway and I got all excited, saying, "Whoopee! We're going to get laid!" You know, even the John and Delenn stuff is kind of chaste, but if they put Zack and Lyta together, they couldn't possibly be chaste. Jeff and I would love something to happen and I don't know where Joe's going to go with it. In THIRDSPACE, we have a wonderful scene. I don't know, there's a lot of sexual tension there.

Q: After the pilot, whose decision was it to replace you with Andrea Thompson?

TALLMAN: It wasn't mine. It wasn't Joe's either. I think there was enough opposition to the character and they had been through enough of the contract negotiations with all of the other actors that by the time they got to me, they were tired of negotiating. The powers that didn't want me involved made me an offer that I COULD refuse. It was horrible. I called Joe and his wife in hysterics, just sobbing. It was hard. Jeff and I talk about this a lot. We agree that everything works out for a reason and in a strange way, I've grown a lot because of it. It all worked out for the best because I got pregnant with my son during that time, and I don't know how that would have gone over had I been on the show. It was a whole life experience that couldn't have happened any other way.

Q: You've worked in STAR TREK, mostly as a stunt person. How did you find STAR TREK different from BABYLON 5?

TALLMAN: STAR TREK is a much bigger machine, obviously. There's a lot of tension on the set because the suits are right there; they come down from the offices and hover, which makes everybody a little nervous. We're not on a lot. We're out in the middle of nowhere, in warehouses that were converted into soundstages. BABYLON 5 has a very casual, fun, loving group of people. Over at Paramount, it's more of a job for everybody. Unlike STAR TREK, there aren't too many chiefs and BABYLON 5 has been protected enough that Joe is allowed to do what he does best in order to make a credible show.

What I worry about with Joe is that he works so hard, I feel like he's going to fall apart, so I keep coming in with vitamins and stuff, and he goes, "What is this - are you trying to kill me?" (laughs) He wrote that into a script. There's a scene where Lyta's giving someone vitamins.

Q: How was it to work with George Romero and which movie that you worked with him on was your favorite and why?

TALLMAN: KNIGHTRIDERS was my favorite. Watching Ed Harris work is incredible because he's such a force of nature.

I loved working with George. He's a big, sweet teddy bear of a man. Has no ego. Here I am, young and having never been in anything major, and I'm making suggestions. He took my suggestions, he'd incorporate them in the character. I was so relaxed that I felt I did pretty well in KNIGHTRIDERS considering how inexperienced I was. So, he gave me a lot of confidence and I'm really grateful to him for that. He's such a genius.

Q: Have there been any big-name special guest stars this season? In the past, they've talked about getting THE PRISONER's Patrick McGoohan to play the head of the Psi-Corps.

TALLMAN: No Patrick McGoohan but Penn and Teller are going to be in an episode. Neil Gaiman wrote an episode, "Day of the Dead."

Q: What exactly does Harlan Ellison do as Creative Consultant on BABYLON 5?

TALLMAN: I don't know. (laughs) He comes to the parties. I'm sure he and Joe talk a lot and bounce ideas off each other.