In May 2023, Amanda Tapping (Samantha Carter in Stargate SG-1, Helen Magnus in Sanctuary) spent an hour answering fans’ questions at FedCon, the science fiction convention in Germany. The panel was filmed and shared by Achanqaray.
Stargate, Sanctuary and the writers' strike
When she was cast as Sam Carter, Tapping never imagined she would still be meeting fans more than twenty years later. Her first convention was in Vancouver in 2000. She explained how Sanctuary went from a web series to television: it drew so many views that networks started calling. The show was financed privately, and Tapping and her partners sometimes travelled to sell it to broadcasters themselves. When the Writers Guild strike began, she was directing an episode of The Irrational. She could keep shooting because the script was finished, but no line could be changed. She said the writers had every right to strike.
Several fans said Sam Carter led them to science: one became an astrophysicist, another is doing a PhD in robotics and AI. Asked about mental health, Tapping told how a friend once called her a bad friend. She was always there for others but never shared what she was going through, because she didn't want to be a burden. Her advice: don't go through it alone, and talk about it. That is the only way to remove the stigma.
A woman behind the camera
Tapping now directs for television (Supernatural, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Motherland: Fort Salem, Dead Boy Detectives). When she started, the industry was "a boys' club". Crew members questioned her technical knowledge and told her which lens to use. Things have changed, she thinks, less because women are more accepted than because people can no longer get away with it.
She described one show, which she did not name, where the showrunner was a misogynist who ridiculed her shots in front of the crew. She cried on the way to work and on the way home, every day. Years later, while shooting in Budapest, she wrote to him. He replied with compliments and no apology, but the exchange let her close that door. On her own sets she is protective of actors, especially actresses. On Motherland she was, in her words, the "mama bear" of the cast.
Her next goal is to direct a feature film, Homeless, about a young person who ages out of foster care at 18 and ends up on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. She calls it an uplifting story, because it is about community.