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"SG-1 and Atlantis may be officially six-feet under, but the latest instalment of the Stargate franchise is fast approaching. Last week, we gave you Robert Carlyle, and next up in our run of exclusive Universe interviews is this year&amp;#039;s US I&amp;#039;m A Celebrity... winner Lou Diamond Phillips. We sat down for a chat with Phillips to find out more about his role as fighter pilot Colonel Telford, his recent jungle win, and the infamous Heidi and Spencer Montag. How does Universe differ from the other Stargate series? &amp;quot;Stargate Universe is edgier, darker, grittier - I think it builds upon what came before it in a respectful manner but takes it in a slightly different direction. We wouldn&amp;#039;t be here today if Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis weren&amp;#039;t well received so I think [the producers] wanted to challenge themselves and do something new - something that kept this franchise fresh and exciting for them. It isn&amp;#039;t as episodic, it&amp;#039;s more epic. Even in the making of it it feels like a movie to me. What&amp;#039;s nice is none of the characters is black and white - they&amp;#039;re definitely not typical - and you never know what they might do.&amp;quot; What can you tell us about your character? &amp;quot;Colonel David Telford is a fighter pilot. He&amp;#039;s supposed to be the commander of the mission that goes through the Stargate to the ninth chevron so he&amp;#039;s pretty proud and full of himself. He&amp;#039;s got that Top Gun cockiness to him and when the Icarus base is attacked and a lot of people are stranded on the other side of the universe, he&amp;#039;s the quarterback who gets taken out of the game - he gets sidelined. Right now I&amp;#039;m a recurring guest star. I go up next week to do the last three [episodes].&amp;quot; Reiko Aylesworth is guest starring... &amp;quot;We cross paths briefly but I didn&amp;#039;t have any traffic with her. Not only was my character sidelined but I was sidelined for a little while as well while they figured out how to get me back on the ship, so there&amp;#039;s some storylines I&amp;#039;m not as familiar with and I can&amp;#039;t wait to find out either! Do you think Universe has the potential to be bigger than the other Stargates? &amp;quot;I think after this season Universe will be viewed on its own merits and there will be far less of a comparison to the ones before. I think people will suddenly go, &amp;#039;Okay, this is the new model and this is its trajectory&amp;#039; and I look forward to that. I think it will find a lot of success on its own terms but even in comparison it&amp;#039;s a very different show and we do stand a chance of not only pleasing the core audience that&amp;#039;s followed Stargate since the beginning but I think it has the chance to expand its universe.&amp;quot; Did winning I&amp;#039;m A Celebrity... earlier this year play a part in you getting a role on Universe? &amp;quot;I was actually doing Stargate Universe prior to I&amp;#039;m A Celebrity so the nice thing was I could go off and do I&amp;#039;m A Celebrity knowing I had a real job to come back to, so it was a bit of a lark! Stargate was on hiatus during June and July so it wasn&amp;#039;t a conflict and there was a very condensed and intense period of time where I could do this reality show and go back to being a real actor after all was said and done.&amp;quot; Are you still in touch from anybody from the show? &amp;quot;Oh, absolutely. About a month and a half ago we had a really nice BBQ with John Salley and Frangela. Sanjaya came and brought his sister who&amp;#039;s absolutely gorgeous, Damien Fahey popped in. A lot of us are on Twitter right now so we tweet back and forth. I hope I get a chance to cross paths with them again soon, because we really did forge some very strong bonds while we were there. I do feel as if I&amp;#039;ve got a couple of friends for life.&amp;quot; What did you think of Heidi and Spencer? &amp;quot;A lot of people have asked me and I can only say &amp;#039;believe the hype&amp;#039;. They put out a certain image and they&amp;#039;re doing it purposefully, they know what they&amp;#039;re doing. I don&amp;#039;t know if I&amp;#039;ve seen the real people behind the facade and I think they&amp;#039;re relatively proud of the infamy that they&amp;#039;re getting. To me it&amp;#039;s a case of, watch what you want - you just might get it. Yes, they are famous but I would ask anyone, &amp;#039;what exactly do you want to be famous for?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Stargate Universe premieres October 2 on Syfy in the US and on October 6 on Sky1 in the UK. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/interviews/a179716/lou-diamond-phillips-stargate-universe/>