Photo by Alison “Boom” Baumgartner”
The theme of Saul Rubinek (Artie Nielsen) and Eddie McClintock’s (Pete Lattimer) Warehouse 13 panel was that the show is a family show, and their cast is a family. If this wasn’t evident from the way the two walked on stage (see left), it was by way they talked so lovingly of their fellow cast, writers, directors, and producers throughout the hour.
Here are some highlights from this amazing panel:
On Getting the Part of Artie: When asked how he got the part of Artie, Rubinek talked about how there wasn’t really an Artie part. Yes, there was the caretaker of the warehouse and his name was Artie, but Rubinek instantly recognized the reason they had so much trouble casting the character. It was there on the page. McClintock joked that they wanted Willy Wonka. Rubinek played the character the way he wanted to, which is to say that he played the role a little darker and as someone who put the task of welcoming Myka and Pete to the Warehouse at about third on the list of important things he needed to do. Artie then became a lot more 3D with Rubinek’s input and that was why he was cast.
On Getting the Part of Pete: I will never be able to do this story justice, but I’ll try the best I can. It’s best to preface this with two facts: 1. Before McClintock got the part of Pete, he had an acting dry spell and 2. Usually, when actors are asked to do a final reading for a part, it’s between two actors.
When McClintock arrived for the audition, he was surprised to find six Petes and six Mykas. Convinced that with those odds he wouldn’t get the job, he riped off his tie and babbles about how he just had his second child and was out of work for some time now. “Kids, are like birds!” he yelled “and they have their necks stretched out and I gotta regurgitate a worm! I’VE GOT NO WORM!”
In the waiting room with all the other Mykas, Joanne Kelly namasted him (his description of how chill she is) and tells him “Dude. It’s not over. You gotta relax”. (Side note: from that point on, they show had Myka always called Pete “Dude”). Then, both he and Kelly are called to audition, and they went in together. During the audition, Kelly mispronounced the word “showboat” as “showbot”, and McClintock decided that to save the line, he needed to do the robot. Not knowing what else to do, Kelly just punched in him the arm and said “Dude!” Naturally, none of this, arm punching included, were supposed to be in the scene.
That was when the head executive said “That’s our show”, and that’s how we got Eddie McClintock and Joanne Kelly as our two favorite heroes on ‘Warehouse 13’.
Eddie McClintock takes a question from a young fan.Photo by Alison “Boom” Baumgartner
The Power of ‘Warehouse 13’: To both Rubinek and McClintock, the power of the stories in ‘Warehouse 13’ is not about the artifacts, but rather what is happening to the “family”, meaning Pete, Myka, Claudia, Jinx, etc… They talk at great lengths about how the relationships in the show somewhat mirror their real life relationships with another. Rubinek has a daughter the same age as Allison Scagliotti (Claudia Donovan), so the father/daughter relationship evolved naturally. As for Pete and Myka? This is how McClintock recounts it:
I asked Joanne Kelly (Myka Bering) “Do I drive you nuts?” and she said “Sometimes, I want to stab you in the eye with a pencil. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
McClintock chuckled and said that she also drove him nuts, but wouldn’t have her any other way either. He then said that if he ever hears anyone say anything about Kelly, they will have words, and he knows it would be the other way around for Kelly as well.
On Dream Artifacts: Rubninek takes this question very seriously, and states that he’d like to have an artifact that could accurately measure ratings for a TV show. This is in reaction to the ‘Warehouse 13’ cancellation and how he thinks it relates to the fact that fans don’t watch the show in a traditional sense anymore, i.e. on television live. He also introduced a new hashtag (#Warehouse13Movie) for fans to ask for a ‘Warehouse13’ movie, which you can hear Eddie McClintock talk about in our exclusive interview.
McClintock’s dream artifact is a Janis Joplin backstage pass, which can get you in backstage to any concert from any time. The downside? Well, Janis loved Jim Beam, so you’d have down a lot of it to make it work. He’s mentioned this at San Diego Comic Con in 2010, and it looks like his answer hasn’t changed.
Photo by Alison “Boom” BaumgartnerAre You the Character? or Did the Characters Become You? McClintock joked that he is a lot smarter than Pete. Rubinek and McClintock agreed that there is a lot of themselves in the characters, if only because the writers watch how they interact with one another and often write that into the show. If two actors were having tension, often times there would be an episode with the characters they play having tension.
Who Would You Put in the Vault? Without hesitation, McClintock answered Justin Bieber. Laughing, he said “Sorry dude. Pull your pants up.”
What did H.G. Wells Mouth to Myka? Rubinek suggested that it was something sexual, or romantic, giving a nod to the Bering and Wells shippers. It also seemed like he believed in the relationship as well (though he gave no hint that H.G. would upset this relationship in the episode that aired last week). He then went on to say that no one knows, but Joanne Kelly and Jaime Murray (H.G. Wells) decided to do the scene with just the two of them for a specific reason. The only person H.G. had any real connection to in the Warehouse was Myka, so they needed that moment together.
So, if you should ever have the chance to see either one of these fine actors by themselves, but especially if they’re together, you really should. Their anecdotes are funny and they clearly love the show as much as their fans do. Even better, they really love their fans.
