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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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