Back in October I had the great fortune to actually hang out with Eddie McClintock and
his family in Florida for the Syfy Digital Press Tour. Eddie was exactly what you would expect…an absolute blast to be around. Aside from being a great actor Eddie is also a dedicated father, a loving husband and an artist.
The following week I met up with Eddie again this time at the New York Comic Con at the Jacob Javits Center. Eddie was gracious enough to spend some more time with me (I even get sick of me after a bit) and chat about Warehouse 13, his geek nature and Rush. I hope you enjoy the interview.
James: Hi. I am here with Eddie McClintock – star of Warehouse 13 – where he plays Agent Pete Latimer. How are you doing today, Eddie?
Eddie: I’m well. How are you, James?
J: I am doing outstanding. Outstanding.
E: Good! Good…
J: Actually, I’ve spent a lot of time with you in the last week…
E: Yeah! That’s been pretty cool! We are the spiders from Mars.
J: Spiders from Mars – yes, we are! And that’s just amazing that you remember that! I have a question about the character of Latimer. Now, originally when we were at the SyFy con, and I was going to say, “How much of you is in Latimer?” but then I’ve spent lot of time with you I can see that you and Latimer are really pretty close. So how much do you improv? How much of it is in the script, and you go, “No, no, no…Latimer would do this”?
E: Generally…I would never do that necessarily, but I will say…I know, I know I think the writers have done such a great job that rarely would I say at this stage of the game would I say “Look, Pete would never do this.” I may say that to a director that has come in that’s new and she wants me to do something that maybe I wouldn’t necessarily feel is right for 
the character…but in regards to dialogue, it’s pretty spot on. I add stuff (but) I’ll alwaysask. Like, for instance, in season one it was in “Duped” and Pete was on the Farnsworth toArtie and when he got off he said, “Kirk out.” And I just….there was just something, like…I remember doing the communicators when I was a kid – you know, I had a little communicator – and, um, so I did that and the writers were like, “Can he say that? Is that all right? Can he say that?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” I mean, you know, check it out and see if it gets past Standards and Practices or whatever, and we found out that it’s allowed to stay in, so stuff like that I put in. Generally, it’s not much, it’s just maybe a button on the scene here and there, but again, the writers are so amazing they usually take pretty good care of me.
J: Now Pete’s a bit of a geek – with liking Star Trek and comic books – now is that part of you too? Or…you know, I’m looking at your face, I’m not looking at your t-shirt…and he’s wearing an “Incredible Hulk versus Wolverine”…it’s the first appearance of Wolverine.
E: That’s right! That’s right! Herb Trimp, who illustrated The Hulk when I was a kid, is my favorite and so I have all my original Marvel – I was a Marvel guy – and I have all my original Marvel comics and all my Mad Magazines from when I was a kid so I mean, I guess…yeah, I’m a geek, I suppose. I’ll say it. There! I said it! Okay!
J: You heard it here first!
E: That’s right!
J: Now there was a question I did ask you in Orlando but we were interrupted – you were being pulled in every direction – talking about the toys on Warehouse – the Farnsworth, the beautiful Tesla – what is your favorite thing to play with?
E: Oh…you mean…
J: Yeah, on the show!
E: (laughing) Whew! Wow!
J: (laughing) Wow, that was a loaded question!
E: Yeah, you saved me there! You saved me!
J: Okay, yeah, on the show…what was the piece of equipment have they given you on the show that you enjoy the most?
E: Well, you know, there’s this crystal ball that’s in Artie’s office…it’s, like, this big…and I love to play with it and throw it and Saul’s always taking away from me, or the prop master comes over, and he’s like, “This is not a toy, Eddie. This is not a toy, Eddie.” It’s this big thick crystal ball that probably costs a bunch of money, but that’s what I always mess around with. In regards to the actual things that you see on screen? You know it’s always fun to carry around a ray gun! Hi, my job is to pretend that I’m a secret agent man that carries a ray gun! So, I guess the Tesla is pretty cool.
J: They just introduced the Tesla rifle – how long did you know that that was coming? Was there a bit of excitement for you, or did they just one day go, “By the way – here”?
E: Uh…. it was pretty much the day that I saw it was the day I found out that we were carrying them. Well, actually, um, I guess it would have been the day we had the table reading. And as you’re reading you’re like, “Ooo! Tesla rifle! Cool!” and then, of course, I Tweeted it and my exec producer is like, “It’s supposed to be a secret!” So…I always get in trouble on Twitter…with my exposing of secrets on the show. But season two and season one I got into big trouble, and this year I didn’t do it at all because I was afraid to Tweet anything for fear that I would get in trouble from the network.
J: Now I overheard you speaking with somebody else, and you said that you don’t really like spoilers…
E: Um – that I don’t like to spoil?
J: No, that you don’t really like to know what’s happening on your show…
E: Oh, yeah, that’s true! I really kind of like to show up and learn what’s happening as I’m reading at the table read, or I’ll read it the day before just to be prepared for the table reading, but generally I won’t go in and ask the writers, “Okay, what are we doing this year? Who dies? Who’s gonna live?” and all that stuff, because I think that it helps my work to find out as I go. That may or may not be true, but I need all the help I can get when it comes to my work.
J: I remember with the season finale this year – that was a pretty devastating season finale….
E: Yeah!
J: It’s gonna be hard to come back from that. Granted…something to do with MacPherson’s watch – obviously – and I was sitting there watching the Warehouse be destroyed – spoiler alert! – and I’m sitting there and I’m starting to cry, and my girlfriend looks over at me and says, “They can’t destroy it.” And I went, “No, the dog! What happened to the dog?”
E: Nice! Nice! Um, actually the dog is okay from what I’ve heard because he has his own Twitter feed. What’s his name…”
J: Trailer.
E: Trailer, Trailer! He has his own Twitter feed! And apparently he made it out okay. But
yeah, the finale was amazing. I…watching it I was really proud of the show…really proud of our writers and proud of being able to make something that can gave such an emotional effect on people because really that’s why you do it, right? That’s why you become an actor. It’s to…convey a feeling and when we can do that, it feels good.
J: It seems like it’s really going to be hard to be something to come back from, though. I mean, you guys pulled out all the stops! You killed Jinks. Mrs. Fredericks in gone. The warehouse is gone. H.G who….Pete should have wound up with her…
E: Yeah! Yeah!
J: He was just starting to liker her too…
E: Yeah! It’s funny you should say that, because if you hear in Pete’s kind of trailing-out monologue there when she puts the force field around them both, and Artie and Pete start going, “There has to be another way”…and Pete says, “I was just starting to like you, again”…or did he say, “I was just starting to like you” period? Well, it was obvious he liked her when he met her because they made out, like, twenty minutes after they had met which was funny because actually I made out with Jamie twenty minutes after I had met her. So it was like, “Hi. Okay. We’re going to be making and here we go.” So obviously that’s not the tougher part of my job – to make out with Jamie Murray. Perks! I get to go to Orlando and hang out with you, and I get to make out with Jamie Murray!
J: I would rather make out with Jamie Murray than hang out with me. Now, how hard is it for you – you’re obviously a family man – father, husband – is it hard being away from the family for six months at a time?
E: It’s the worst part of it. Everything else is good, except for having to leave and go to Canada and leave my family. Thank goodness for Skype because it keeps me in contact with them. You know, generally my wife and I will just turn the Skype on and we won’t even necessarily talk. We just turn it on and sit there and that way I can hear all the noises in the house and I can see what’s happening at the house and the boys will run over and go, “Hey, dad, how are you doing?” And then they run off and do something else. Lynne will sit there and watch TV and so it’s kind of like I’m there – it’s the closest thing that we can think of as being in the same room as one another otherwise it would be just…soul killing.
J: What would you like to see for Latimer in the future?
E: I would just like them to continue to make him the same person that he has been so far. I think that for me, as an actor, and for me personally, he’s the perfect blend of all the things that I like to do as an actor and all the things that I’d like to be as a human. You know, he’s flawed and he’s funny, and he doesn’t take himself too seriously, but at the same time he loves the people that he loves and he’ll defend them with his life and he’s loyal and brave and that’s who you aspire to be as a human. I don’t have any real requests other than to just keep doing what they’re doing.
J: Going back to the whole geek aspect of Eddie McClintock…how does it feel to have Captain Katherine Janeway as your mommy?
E: I mean, come on! How awesome! I have a starship captain as a mom, and an awesome cyborg as an ex-wife. Jeri Ryan played my ex-wife, obviously, and I love the fact that we 
do the Star Trek tie-ins. We’ve had Rene Auberjonois, and Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner have both said, “So, when are you going to get me on the show, man?” I love the fact that we’ve made a name for ourselves and that these great actors have a desire to come and be a part of our show.
J: Personally, I think Warehouse 13 is the best thing on SyFy right now…
E: Thanks!
J: …and it scares me because every time something gets good on SyFy Channel, they go, “Hmm, we need more wrestling.”
E: They tend to eat their young a little bit. Hopefully, in this case, they won’t do that. I know that Mark Stern is running the network right now, and it’s his baby. He’s responsible for Warehouse 13 and I feel like as long as he’s around he’ll champion our show and make sure that we’re on the air.
J: From what I’ve read, you have a high female demographic.
E: Yeah, over 50 percent. It’s the highest female demo of any sci fi show ever. It says a lot for the writing, it says a lot for the sensibilities of the people running the network. I think that was part of the name change at SyFy. They wanted to change it from s-c-i-f-i –science fiction…they wanted to have their own brand but they also wanted to say “Hey, we’re not just for the niche sci fi audience.” We have great female characters and strong female characters and Artie’s hot, so we’ve got that going for us.
J: Personally, I don’t want any spoilers but I have a question…
E: Sure…
J: Anything we can look forward to in Season Four that you can say without ruining anything?
E: I’m coming back.
J: Wow!
E: It’s true! It’s true!
J: That’s great!
E: That’s pretty much it.
J: Because I don’t want to ruin it for me, because I’m a fan of the show…
E: I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t ask and I don’t know, and I like to be surprised.
J: So you start filming again in January…
E: Yes, but apparently that’s kind of a secret…
J: Then that will not be added in here…
E: I said it in front of people at the thing in Orlando and a bunch of the network people were like, “Oh. Oh. Whoa…” So I don’t know…no one says, “Eddie, this is a secret so you’re
not allowed to talk about it” because normally we start in February, I have a feeling – and I suppose I’m allowed to say this because this is just my opinion – but I have a feeling they’re going to try get us on earlier so we don’t get swallowed up by the fall network shows because every year we just get clobbered by the network fall shows…premieres.
J: This will be the final question because I want you to have time to get back to your table. Is there any one thing you would like your fans to know about Eddie McClintock the person?
E: Ummmm…
J: Is that a hard question? You know, people speculate, “He must be this way” or “He must be this way”…
E: Uh, I put my pants on one leg at a time.
J: Oh, crap, I actually have one more question…it’s a two-prong question. One, did you see Rush’s last tour?
E: I saw Snakes and Arrows…
J: Oh, you didn’t get to see the Time Machine Tour?
E: No, but this guy I know, Perry, used to manage them and he’s going to hook me up for the next tour. But, yeah, my wife and I saw Snakes and Arrows at the Hollywood Bowl in L.A.
J: And the other question goes with that – what is your favorite Rush album?
E: You know, it’s definitely between Moving Pictures and 2112. Moving Pictures was when I really started listening to Rush in the eighth grade, but 2112…my wrestling team my junior year, we came out to “Overture” which is the first song there on 2112 and it was my friend Mike Auker’s idea to do it and he set this whole thing up. We came out to “Overture,” and we had a smoke machine, they had, like, lights and stuff, and we came out onto the mat and it was really spectacular for a high school team and the fact that our coach let us do it! We were the best public school in the state of Ohio at the time and my buddy Mike unfortunately eventually committed suicide, and I loved him a lot. So when I think of the album 2112, it reminds me of Mike…so maybe it’s 2112.
You should also check out Eddie’s website at http://www.eddiemcclintock.com/
