Joe Flanigan is starring as a disgraced Marine colonel, who winds up guarding a science lab in the SyFy thriller, Ferocious Planet. Naturally, an experiment goes horribly wrong and tosses the lab into a parallel dimension.
“Of course there are monsters,” Flanigan tells us, “that’s the operative word…there are monsters.”
Fighting make-believe monsters can truly be a challenge, Flanigan explains with a laugh.
“You’re only told or occasionally given a drawing of what it will be like so you’re hoping that your acting is somehow calibrated to what the visual effects are going to be,” he begins. “And sometimes you don’t get it right. That’s why in science fiction you see this kind of discrepancy between what happens and the reaction of actors.”
His trick to making it appear realistic is simple.
“Yeah, I learned that as long as you scream, ‘I’m going to die! I’m going to die!’ it works in every show,” Flanigan deadpans.
Actually, Flanigan is an adventurer who mountain bikes, mountain climbs, surfs and more. In fact, the actor has been nursing an injury from one of his many outings.
“Right now, I’m currently a beat up adventurer,” he says. “I separated my shoulder in a mountain biking accident. I was coming down a single track trail at a furious speed – I just got brand new handle bars that were extra long – they snagged a branch and they just kind of threw me over and I landed on my back. I actually feel pretty damn lucky that it’s just an AC separation and not something more serious.”
Right, well apparently you can’t keep a good adventurer down. Flanigan is in Aspen, still thrill-seeking despite his injuries.
“I’m still skiing and snowboarding,” he confesses. “It’s about constant motion. I think I’m afraid of not being in a state of constant motion. My shoulder was immobilized for two weeks and I go back for surgery in another two weeks, so I thought I’d get the maximum adventure in before I got immobilized again – and I will be immobilized for quite a while.”
Crazy? No ways, Flanigan tells HollywoodOutbreak.com.
“I thought to myself, ‘I can’t hurt my shoulder any worse than it is – all the ligaments are separated – so what the hell…I’ll just go snowboarding and skiing. It hurts if you fall and I have yet to fall. So, when I do fall I’ll call you screaming…I could be screaming I’m going to die! I’m going to die!”
Ferocious Planet – the latest entry into the fun SyFy original movies – airs tonight, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT.