Interview with Dirk Benedict

Dirk is now famous amongst new BSG fans for his somewhat scathing post Starbuck lost in Castration. It was interesting to see him comment on the backlash in the interview at Jonja.net.

Jonja.net: I read Starbuck lost in Castration

Dirk: You did? That got me in huge, huge, huge problems. Did you see all the women’s reactions? Oh my god, they were mad. They called me a bitter angry old actor who can’t get a job and he is mad cause he is not on the new show. The article explained I hadn’t even seen the new show, so how could I saw it was bad, I never did say it was bad, a terrible show or awful, I never did say it. I just pointed out how different they are and why they are different. How they both reflect the times they were made in, a sign of the times. The destruction of the family is reflected in the new Battlestar Galactica, the dysfunction and the lack of spirituality and the dysfunctional man, the weak man, the drunk man. Nobody commented on that, it was just I was a bitter, angry; they assume everyone’s dream is to be an actor, to be famous. I don’t know, it’s so shallow and Katee Sackoff got it all wrong, she doesn’t have a clue, she is either brain dead or she must have never read the article. If she read that article and all she could say is “My feelings are hurt, He is just bitter man” Its like a child and I think oh my god this is what it has come to.

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He seems like a genuinely thoughtful man, but he still seems to take himself a bit too seriously. Honestly it is just a TV show. Using it as an example of the downfall of our conservative civilization is a bit of a stretch. There are far better contexts under which to debate changing cultural values...

Source: Big Dumb Object

Update 6/12/2006 2:26pm CST

Due to flame war the comments are now closed. It is all fun and games until people start swearing at each other.

Comments

[Ethan]

For someone who "didn't see the show" he sure has a lot of opinions about it. Pretty sexist ones, at that. Sheesh.

[RoadrunnerDM]

"Katee Sackoff got it all wrong, she doesn’t have a clue, she is either brain dead or she must have never read the article."

She did read the article, and she had plenty to be offended about. These are not the opinions of a "thoughtful" person.

[Trapper Markelz]

I was using the term thoughtful to mean "Engrossed in thought; contemplative" not neccessarily the definition of "Having or showing heed for the well-being or happiness of others and a propensity for anticipating their needs or wishes."

[Malnurtured Snay]

So, wait, the character he played was a slut, yet the original BSG was big on family values? What'd I miss?

[oopla]

I always take issue with the "good old days" mentality.

In the 1920s, an attempt to legislate morality, gave rise to an enduring criminal underword.

In the 1930s, the rich stood by as the rest suffered.

In the 1940s, GIs were screwing hookers in allyways.

In the 1950s thousands of African Americans were lynched.

In the 1960s and 1970s, we waged war for what turned out to be no good reason.

The 1980s, Drugs.

Call me cynical, but when I heard a bussiness lady pine for the old days I asked if she meant the ones with the monthly cholera outbreaks, or when Women were't allowed to own bussinesses?

I am just inherently suspisous of people trying to re-sell me the past.

From all I have read from him, I am actually kinda glad that he hasn't guest starred. He just seems so bitter about the world changing.

[mgl]

"Sets were built, I was playing Starbuck at age 50 and I couldn’t wait. The opening scene was you just see this smoke and then you see the cigar and then he turns and there is Starbuck. Same guy but now he is about 50."

That about sums up The Banality of Dirk Benedict: reintroduce *his* Starbuck using one of the hoariest cinematic cliches ever. Thank heavens Ron Moore was given the job.

I'm pretty conservative, and I don't agree with anything Benedict wrote. In Galactica, as in life, people are faced with excruciatingly hard problems to which there are no easy answers, and they often make the wrong decisions. Unlike almost every other show out there, Galactica doesn't tell you how to think, or present its characters with easy resolutions.

Benedict is much more reactionary than conservative: if it's new, he doesn't like it. Never mind that Katee Sackhoff's Starbuck is a much more interesting (and better acted) character, one that I suspect would whup Dirk's Starbuck six ways to Sunday. Oh, but I forget: that's part of his problem. In Dirk's World (est. 1979), women don't fight or take on responsibility--they "'hand out' babies."

Whatta maroon.

[Mark]

Hilarious. The original series is almost unwatchable in it's cheesiness.

[John Beeler]

I was at the National Popular Culture Conference this year and someone there presented on how he took a standard of gender, widely used sociological model of femininity and masculinity and applied it to Starbuck 1978 and Starbuck 2003.

According to these standards, SB1978 was far more feminine than SB2003.

Dirk's BSG is, true, "simple." But the world wasn't. Dirk is talking as if the world has changed, and that simply is not true - our TV has; thank God, and if it's more like the real world it just means we're in a better position to deal with it via fiction than Dirk.

[Kathryn O]

Wow!!! Dirk's commments on Katee reflect an immaturity on his part.
And watch out what you say about Dirk. His PR manager punishes people for stuff they say.

[Muttsley]

OMG - What is to LIKE about that guy? I read the whole interview, and others besides. He's so behind the times...

He's so non-metrosexual. He wants men to be men and women to be women. Equal footing, equal opportunity, but not genderless.

He's so non-PC. He calls things as he sees them rather than waffle and hem and haw and use all the right and proper language. He smokes cigars, even. Just like Kurt Russell (and we know about him and Goldie, right?)

And sexist? Here's a guy who's been a single parent to two sons for years - did the cooking, cleaning, soccer-mom thing and everything else to do with raising them. They're excellent atheletes, get good grades, and he's proud as anything of them. He's raised a couple of good, balanced kids. They're his life.

So immature of him. No nanny, no whining about the responsibility. Stepped up to the plate. What is this world coming to?

Dirk Benedict is a class act in an age that doesn't recognize class acts. And the character he played - rogue with a heart of gold - was an archetype, a reluctant hero, one ultimately with honor and integrity. Certainly fodder for a simpler age of entertainment, since this age is apparently interested only in dishonor, dishonesty, and the dregs of human nature.

And who would want to revisit a role that made them famous, and explore the character even more deeply than was possible before?

So, yeah - what's to like about a loser like that?

[Kathryn O]

Muttsley, you answered your own question. Dirk want's women to be his idea of women.
I'm not letting anyone tell me what I should be or do. I can figure it out for myself.

[Destiny]

As a woman I did not find Mr. Benedict's article the least bit offensive. As a matter of fact, I happen to agree with him. I am secure enough in my own femininity to not get the impression he was telling any woman to be his "ideal".
Television today is written by women, for women. Women writing men how they want THEM to act and talk.
So, to use your own words Kathryn O, it appears that Dirk is not letting anyone tell HIM what he should be or do. He already has it figured out.

[kathryn O]

AS a woman, I've never seen anything on TV today that seems to be written for me. I do not want the men in my life to act like the way I see them on TV, and that is were I got offended at Dirk when he was spouting drunk at Galacticon. He was trying to tell me what I want to see, and so are you. Nope. Not even close.
and I do think Dirk was immatture for calling Katee Brain Dead. name-calling is always immatture.
And maybe his boys turned out so well because they were raised by a man?

[Destiny]

kathryn o,

It appears you have more than just a bit of dislike for him as a person considering you're using phrases such as "spouting drunk". It is akin to name calling, as you yourself have said is "immature".
I'm wondering if you're able to keep perspective on the contents of the article itself, without making it sound as if he is attacking YOU personally. Which is the impression you are giving here.
And, I do not recall saying I was trying to tell you what I want you to see. On the contrary, I don't care which way you turn your dial and what permeats your tv screen.

[Sulfurous]

"I never did say it was bad, a terrible show or awful, I never did say it."
He said, backing and filling desperately after this:
""Re-imagining", they call it. "un-imagining" is more accurate. To take what once was and twist it into what never was intended. So that a television show based on hope, spiritual faith, and family is unimagined and regurgitated as a show of despair, sexual violence and family dysfunction."
I think that pretty much boils down to 'bad'. Please, don't try to unsay what you said. If you're going to be a curmudgeon, be a *brave* curmudgeon and stick by your guns!

And let's face it, the original show sucked. I was seven years old when it aired, and damn, even *then* I thought it was bad. "Hope, spiritual faith and family"? Coulda fooled me; I thought it was based on cheesiness and disco.

[Kathryn O]

Destiny, check out the Galacticon DVD, available at Amazon. It is a worth it if you like TOS anyway. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
I'm not name-calling. I'm just repeating facts as they were stated on the DVD. In one instance, by Dirk himself.

[Kathryn O]

Destiny, check out the Galacticon DVD, available at Amazon. It is a worth it if you like TOS anyway. You'll know what I mean when you see it.
I'm not name-calling. I'm just repeating facts as they were stated on the DVD. In one instance, by Dirk himself.

[justaguy]

same dirk felgercarb different board hey kathryn o? you must have got tired of nobody answering your insane posts over on yahoo.
troll.
you're getting tiresome. go away.

ps. i'm not a huge fan of his, happen to like the new series myself, but this dirk crap your posting all over the place is whack.

jag

[Skorsky]

Change of times? Well those times might just change BACK; Read up Foreign Policy magazine article "Return of Patriarchy" because guess what: Women acting like men, men acting like women does not come from a mindset that produces children. Red states have higher birthrates. In this case, like in most others, Darwin's theory decides, metrosexuals, ultraliberals people trying to say both genders are "same" instead of saying they should simply have equal rights will fail to effect the next generation. They, and their ideas, will simply perish.

Read up "Men are from Mars, Women from Venus" book like Dirk suggested. It's all in there.

[Kathryn O]

Actually, Skorsky, that type of stuff isn't really true. It's just made up to sell magazines. And conservative religions that don't allow birth control will naturally have higher birth rates. Take into account Moslems and Orthodox Jews or Roman Catholics, for example.
Numbers aren't the only thing to effect a generation. One charismatic influencial person is all the is needed. (like Jesus. Or Hitler).
And children do not always follow the views of their parents.
Myself? I'm to liberal to be conservative. I'm to conservative to be liberal. I don't fit in to either side, and I ain't alone in that.
And Jag, you telling me to 'go away' and name calling me a troll amounts to what I didn't like about Dirk...telling me what to do.
So in response, I say to you, "NO!"
Your insults are getting tiresome. Why don't you answer those dating adds the Dirkete Mafia put up with my cruise photos or something? You people really get sick sometimes.

[Kathryn O]

Maybe if Dirk read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, he might be able to have a real relationship again. Instead of having no friends.

[Destiny]

Kathryn O,

I would imagine that Dirk has plenty of friends and real relationships.
Saying that he doesn't makes you sound very petty. And frankly, his personal life is none of your business.
If you didn't like some of the things he said the article fine, but why must you continue to take swipes at him?
YOUR own insults are getting very tiring.
Stick to the issues and leave the personal animosity out of it please.

[James]

Dirk has plenty of friends, and friends who would die for him. It's really pathetic watching a troll like Kathy O spew her eternal hatred for a guy she wanted so much to bang. Maybe if this Kathy O would actually read a book... ah well, you can't educate someone who believes the world is out to get them and who is so obviously unwilling to learn because, you know, it would be like someone "making" them do something.

Dating sites? Um, Kathy O you shouldn't promote yourself like that, especially if yuo're still trying to tell people that you're some hot skinny thing when the picture might reveal what you really look like. Eek!

[MrsSpooky]

I can't believe some of the stuff people are getting out of Dirk's article. He wasn't so much slamming the new show as talking about the state of society during the time the original show aired and this new one.

Having portrayed the original Starbuck, I think he IS entitled to his comments and opinions on what was done with the character in the new show, as well as how the new show 're-imagined' it. Even people who weren't involved in either show except perhaps as viewers are entitled to their opinions about them.

I happen to agree with him on the points he made in this article. I showed it to a close friend who happens to like BOTH versions of the show very much, and HE agrees with Dirk. He didn't find anything offensive in the article, and didn't read into it what I've seen some posters in numerous blogs and message boards read into it.

I'm wondering if there aren't some reading comprehension issues at work, as he was pretty clear what he meant, but some of the readers are seeing something entirely different.