Bonus Disc - [Page 2]
My second
interview took place at the estate of Mr. Murray Scott, who lives in a small
village just south of Bristol in the United Kingdom. He invited me in and we
sat and talked in his library by the fireplace. There were probably several
thousand books on the shelves, though he mentioned that he was still working on
reading the other half. He offered to get me a drink, but I declined and he
settled down with the glass of Scotch he'd had in his hand. The glass was small
by his standards, yet larger than my torso. He sat down in a gigantic chair
while I pulled up a normal one and sat across from him. He dwarfed me, but dressed
as he was in his robe and spectacles, in addition to his charming mannerisms, I
was immediately put at ease.
SCU: Thank you for inviting me here, Mr.
Rid- Sorry, I mean Mr. Scott. I must admit, this is really much more that I expected.
Ridley: Go ahead and call me Ridley. By now I've accepted my fate as the
Leonard Nimoy of video games, though luckily I don't have any eyebrows to trim.
SCU: I didn't mean to insult you or your work, Mr. Scott, especially after you
went to the trouble of allowing me to come to your home.
Ridley: I’m serious about that. Don't consider it an insult, I don't
anymore. And don't think of it as any trouble. You're the one who had to come
out of your way. I'm contractually bound to give interviews for Nintendo, and I
didn't feel like flying that far.
SCU: Yes, I'm sure it's tiring.
Ridley: [Pauses] Oh, you thought I meant [Hoarse Laughter] No, no, I
use the airlines just like everyone else. Going through security these days
makes me reconsider now and again, but I'm no longer the young dragon I used to
be and I have to make concessions.
SCU: Well, Mr. Ridley, I'm screwing this up already. Ms. Hawkins recently made
me discover a lot of my faults so it's not entirely inspiring my confidence to
be off to a start like this.
Ridley: You're doing fine, Mr. Mills. How is Julia, by the way?
SCU: Not too bad, as far as I can tell. Insightful, pleasant, and full of
nothing but praise for you.
Ridley: She was young then, and still is. A large, over the hill dragon can
make quite the impression and make himself out to be worth far more than he
truly is on a girl like that. But she was already acting as good as any veteran
during our first project together [Metroid] and I respected her for
that. I'm glad to see that her success has continued and increased. She
deserves it and more.
SCU: Yes, though I'm sure she'd say much the same of you. She also said it was
a shame you haven't been able to get the roles to match your tremendous talent
following Super Metroid.
Ridley: Ah yes, typecasting. She and I have talked about this in the past,
but I'm more than content to think on my actual accomplishments, rather than
what might have been. She's a sweet girl, but really, there are just a lot of
parts out there a dragon with some pride can't make himself play, and even more
a dragon can't play at all. Othello was fine in the early days but how
many stage actors would give a limb to start in something as popular as Metroid,
much less the games that have followed it with equal success? Dragons are like
little-people in many ways. We rarely get work unless all of us get work, and
leads are almost nonexistent. But on the bright side should I mismanage my
funds in a significant way there’s always the comfort that dragons are needed
for a variety of mediums. Julia has no such safety net and can’t get by on
half-hearted performances as I doubtlessly could. That she still finds work is
far more impressive a feat.
SCU: You both speak very highly of one another. Much of the fiction about
the Metroid series revolves around the personal relationship of Ridley and
Samus and I've heard rumors that your relationship in the real world extends
beyond the professional level. Though I have large doubts of my own, I was wondering if
you'd like to comment on that.
Ridley: Oh yes, the infamous scandal reported in such reputable news outlets
as the Weekly World News and the Daily Sport. Yes, we do have a
relationship outside of the business and it's called friendship. Anything of a
romantic or sexual nature is beyond absurd. For some reason which I have not
yet been able to decipher, there is a fairly sizeable segment of the fan
population that seems to enjoy this perverse idea very much. As close as I can
guess, I would say that my role as the most prominent male lead and hers as a
female protagonist leads this segment to put the two of us together. But again,
it really is quite absurd.
Now let me first say that every time a person takes the time and effort to
write about you and your work it is an honor on some level because it shows
they care. Every creator or actor wants to know that people care about what
their hard work has produced. While some may not agree that fanfiction is the
proper way to express that, I think it's an even more valid expression of care than
buying the product because a person can't just buy his own written words on a
page, be it paper, or nowadays, the monitor. But the idea that one species
would find another so vastly different from its own attractive or that a large
reptile such as Ridley would find the finer points of anatomy of such
a small mammal sexually appealing is flawed, terribly flawed. How many
times have you looked at a female crocodile's cloaca and become aroused? I mean
honestly, platonic friendship between these characters is a stretch. Romance
tears the limits of reality past its stress point. Look, I've read the script
and experienced the final product of all of our work together. The characters
and plot simply do not lead a rational person to the interpretation that Samus
and Ridley have a relationship of amity on any level. My own acting operates
under the assumption that they despise one another on every possible and
impossible level but I will grant that mutual respect between them is a valid
interpretation, if only because it presents a more interesting dynamic between
them than might otherwise exist. Of course it's been used so often by now that
all of that interest has been drained away, but it's certainly a valid
interpretation.
And yet there are some very well written fanfictions operating under invalid
interpretations, the details of which I won't expand upon. There is talent in
some of them that could produce something great if it could be put in the right
direction, to the right use. There are definitely worse stories operating under
better interpretations. Certainly there are better, but many worse. And the
truly sad thing is that Metroid section of fanfiction is one of the better in
terms of average quality! I enjoy reading such things to keep up with how my most
famous character is regarded, but not for true pleasure. A wise man I knew once
said, "Fanfiction is the laziest, most useless form of writing, lying
miles behind television guides and pornographic magazines in quality,
originality and reason for existence." I certainly wouldn't go that far
myself, but it's true more often than not. If you want to read quality
literature read Orwell, Swift, Melville, Tolstoy, Heinlein, Tolkien, or a
hundred others. Fans can read fanfiction for pleasure but to kid yourself that
it's anything more than that is wrong and in some cases just sad. Some people
genuinely think that a story about Samus hunting down Ridley or the newest
strain of Metroids on an unexplored planet is the "best thing they've ever
read". I cannot express the sorrow that such a statement causes me because of
the literary ignorance that comes along with it.
I've derailed this long enough and gone far beyond your actual question but as
you can see such rumors of a sexual romance between Julia and I are as anatomically
implausible as that between our respective characters. Romantically, it would
be unlikely anyway but because of my orientation, it's simply impossible.
SCU: Perhaps you'd like to clarify that. Some people might take that to mean
you're gay, after all.
Ridley: Yes, actually, I am a homosexual. I've always been out to my
co-actors, but publicly I've more or less kept it quiet. It's just not an
important thing to me, nor is it something I try to throw in people's faces,
but it's also not something I've ever chosen to lie about. Generally, it
doesn't come up. My sexuality is just one part of my life, a private part, and
I don't think it has anything to do with my acting or anything else, for that
matter.
SCU: Wow, this is quite a shock, especially that you'd consider revealing it
here after so many years. If you'd like, I can get this removed before the
final cut.
Ridley: No, don't worry about it. Ian has been pestering me about it for
years so at the very least this will get him off my back for a while until he
finds something new to nag about. Actually, a couple of the more reputable
tabloids have already gotten hold of the story and will be printing it soon, if
they haven't already. By the time this 10th Anniversary Edition comes
out, my sexuality will be old news.
SCU: I see. Uh, well, is there anything you want to say about Super Metroid
now that ten years have come and gone?
Ridley: Mr. Yokoi and Sakamoto are both amazing visionaries and I think that
in the ten years since the game has gone out has proven it to be even better
than it was first regarded, rather than outdated and over-hyped. If I'm
destined to be known for one role, then I suppose Ridley of the Space Pirates
is as good a role as there is.
SCU: Thank you for your time, Mr. Ridley.
Ridley: Thank you for your own, Mr. Mills.
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