The Point Radio: DARK MATTER Explodes Tonight

The new SyFy (and former Dark Horse) project, DARK MATTER premieres tonight on SyFy, and we begin our coverage with actor Roger Cross who tells us why this might be his biggest genre roll yet. DARK MATTER premiere tonight on SyFy, Then Dania Ramirez from HEROES and X-MEN LAST STAND takes us into the third season of Lifetime’s DEVIOUS MAIDS plus her new indy film project.

 We’re back in a couple of days with more on DARK MATTER.

Transcript

The Point Radio. Here's Mike Raub. We start our look at the new sci-fi thriller Dark Matter, directing comics to primetime TV. And they brought in the big guns.

Actor Roger Cross from X-Files, 24, and so much more. Talks about why this could be his best genre role yet. And Donja Ramirez from Heroes, Sopranos, Entourage, and so much more is pretty happy with the third season of Devious Maids.

And we'll find out why. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio.

After a run with Dark Horse Comics, Dark Matter is now taking a turn on television with a new series on Fridays on the sci-fi network. First, we talked to series star Roger Cross. He was more than happy to fill us in just

in case you missed the comics. Six strangers wake up aboard the ship. And they've got guns. They've got weapons. They've got a spaceship and no memory of who the heck they are.

And throughout the show, they have to figure it out while figuring out what they're supposed to be doing. Are they good? Are they bad? And people coming at them.

And some are friends. Some are folk. And you don't know which is which. And so you literally have to go, hi there, and have your hand on your gun, get ready to shoot,

just in case we kind of did something bad to these people. And we discovered that we have done some bad things as well. And then the whole idea, as you discover more things about yourself, are you the sum of your past? Or are you this new entity that you would like

to believe in yourself to be? And Roger's role in all of this? He is the sixth person that awakes on the ship. They're by the name of six. We named ourselves in the order we woke up.

And he basically, who would have found out he's a mercenary. And they're all mercenaries. And he is a great fighter. And he also finds out that he actually knows how to fly things and loves that.

And he finds out a lot of things about his character as he goes along, why he ends up where he is. And as we said, the sum of your past, your actions, that leads you to who you are today. But now, if you've given a fresh start,

basically, to start over, will you allow yourself? Well, definitely, others people won't allow it. But will you allow yourself to change and become a new person, or do you just, eh, I am who I am. Just go back to who you are.

It's pretty safe to say that Roger knows the sci-fi and action genre with parts in the strain, fringe, orphan black, the X-Files, and, of course, the X-Men films as well. I ask him, though, what drew him to this particular role? What drew me to it is, well, I was familiar with the writers.

And so then they're like, all right, give it a read. And I just started reading it. And I didn't want to put it down. I'm like, ooh, ooh, because I wanted to find out what was going on and what

was the deal with these people. And so it was great for me. And so right there, it said the script was tight. And so it was when I was like, OK, the execution and who was it going to cast and that sort of thing.

And so we got into that whole thing. And I read and gave them my take on the character. They loved it all for the role. And we also had to figure out schedule and all these things. And for me, it all just came together in the right way.

So did he start out to be a genre and action superstar when he began acting? Did these roles choose him, or did he choose them? One of the things, I did kind of get swept along with it. But what happened is, even when I was on 24, for example,

I was cast in the role. And I wasn't cast as an action person, per se. But then we were there. And then they're like, oh, you're a martial artist. And I'm like, yeah, I did some martial arts and had some fun.

And then they had to do this. So I'm like, you're really good. I'm like, you know, it's fun for me. It's not a big deal. So then they're like, oh, we should mix more

of that in the character. And so it's one of those things where, because I'm capable of doing it and seeing a physical guy, they like to blend that in. And I love that because it's kind of like a lot of people.

I'm sure you've heard the entire talk, because he enjoys doing the physical aspect, because it adds to the character and adds to it when the audience can see you going through it, instead of just, you know, you're stunned

while we're doing everything. Roger has also expanded his resume into voice work on some pretty big video games as well. Well, with the voice, as I said, it's such a different thing to have your voice tell a story

without your physical. You're entrusting someone else to do the physical, in that case. And so, as you know, with today's video game, there's so much more complex.

And you have to give so many more options to everyone. It takes a lot longer to record them. And you're in this for a long time, giving people every option, because if they go left or right,

it changes what you say, what you do. And so, but like everything else, you know, it has that arc, it has the high points, the low points, the points where you're yelling, the points where you're quiet.

So it's a very different process we do in just voice. But it is great, so you can go shopping. Well, you can't really shopping in Swiss fans anymore, because now you'd have to do behind the scenes stuff. When you usually hold a show up and you know,

you just went first look in the morning and just sit in the studio and just go for it. So with all these great projects, from 24 to Orphan Black and well beyond that, is there any particular role that Roger would like

to return to one more time? Not necessarily a do-over, but maybe have another crack at playing that character? Oh my God. I love playing Curtis Manning, as most of you knew, on 24.

And I'd love to have a second crack at some things with that guy. My other character, I still love to, love to play Travis Verta on Continuum. You know, it's a character that I just think

has a lot to say, and the show itself has a lot to say. And so those are two of them. And I've just been blessed to continue to progress and do all this stuff. And I'm more of a look forward kind of guy

and I wanted to find new intriguing, great characters. And I think I found one in six. And six is a great guy and he discovers a lot about himself and he grows. And in some cases, he's based on the reality

of some of the things he's done in the past. And that's all I can say. And it's kind of like, oh, that is me because I did that, but he doesn't feel like me, but it is me. And you've done certain things.

You've done them, whether you want to make up for it or not, this is you. And so I'm really just looking forward to continuing to play this guy for a while. We've got more on dark matter coming up in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, it premieres tonight on the Sci-Fi network. Get more information at sci-fi.com. The flight radio. You know what's coming. It is the latest in pop culture.

Get ready for the Seinfeld experience, at least if you live on the East Coast. Hulu has created a real world version of Jerry's Upper West Side apartment with the show memorabilia gallery

and interactive fan experience. It's called Seinfeld the apartment. It's open in New York City, beginning on the 24th of the month through the 28th, all to mark the Hulu debut of Seinfeld,

the entire series on the streaming service. You can get more information right now at Hulu.com. If you've been following Lucha Underground on the LRA network, well, there's a two hour season finale event

that'll take place in August. The producers say it'll bring all the storylines and characters together into one action packed with entertaining spectacle in their words. It takes place on the network

for two hours on August the 5th. The Heroes reboot, Heroes Reborn is also spawning a comic book series as well from Titan Press. It'll be written by the guys who produced the series as well,

which is set to be on NBC in the fall. And the comic series will be in stores in October. In the wake of Apple's announcement about Apple Play, Spotify has certainly laid down the gauntlet. It raised another $526 million,

bringing the value of the company up to a little over eight and a half billion dollars, posting 20 million paying subscribers and 75 million active users, meaning they're not gonna go away anytime soon.

Mont LeBlanc's series episodes from Showtime has been granted another season, that along with Shameless and House of Lies that have already been renewed by the network, no word yet on whether or not they will renew

though penny dreadful or happy-ish expect announcements on those, sometime over the next couple of weeks. Bradley Cooper's teaming up with the Sci-Fi Network again, this time to bring the best-selling novel Hyperion

as an event series to the network. Cooper will executive produce the project along with Graham King and Todd Phillips. The point, the point. Actors Donia Ramirez has done it all.

She's done action in X-Men The Last Stand and Heroes. She's been in comedy in Entourage and in Drama too, during the last season of The Sopranos. Now she's headed into the third season of Devious Maids on Lifetime.

But I ask her what makes this show so popular? I mean, I think what's great about the show is that it's about these friendships and love and sex and lies and murder and all sort of like engulf into one amazing show with four Latin women as the leads.

You know, it's got the same sort of like tone as far as comedic tone as Desperate Housewives. But it's a bit, it's got a different sensibility because the women are Latin and the comedic timing of it seems a bit different from time to time.

It's really, you know, just sexy and a great summer show and you're right. It's been sort of like the best kept secret out there but let's not keep it a secret anymore. There you go.

You mentioned a couple of different things. You talk about comedy, but you also talk about drama and murder. So if we had to label this, how would we do it? So Barbara, drama, comedy, how would you describe the show?

I would describe it as a, a dramedy that keeps you at the edge of your seat. And her character? I play Rosie Falter and you know, this is the third season of the show.

You know, when you met me, I was sort of like here working to try to get my son in from America. She's got a very interesting sensibility because she's sort of like the maid that doesn't speak good enough English.

So her, my comedy comes from that. It's about, she's sort of figuring out a little loss in translation and that's what makes her really funny effortlessly. However, she's more of a passionate woman.

She's looking for love and she falls in love with Mr. Spence. Season one, season two, they get married. Someone gets shot at my wedding. And season three, she's sort of now going to be

thrown into this love triangle, a very sexy love triangle. I get to play sort of like maid detective this season as well. So that's gonna be a lot of fun for me. So what's on the way for this season?

This season, there's a new maid played by Naya Rivera from Glee. She starts working for a household that you'll recognize from season one. And now they've adopted a very creepy little Latina girl.

And there's a murder, a couple of murders that sort of happened. Naya's character, Blonkai's involved in it. And my character gets thrown into the mix. And that's when I started sort of like playing

a very comedic sort of maid detective kind of role. There's a lot of, a lot of the other characters are going through a lot of changes. You know, Marisol's got a new venture as far as a new career path that she's going on.

Carmen and the Powells are just hilarious this season. Susan Lucie and Zoila are dealing with that friendship and relationship between maid and boss that's gonna be tried in a lot of different ways this season. You know, overall, I think the season I would have to say

is just sexier, dirtier, the bosses are filthier and the maids are cleaning house. Danya is also a filmmaker with a project that's pretty close to home. It's a video that I take a lot of pride in.

I co-directed it with my husband, Beth Land. We did it for Immigrant Heritage Month and we called it an American Alien in the hopes of sort of giving the immigrant a different phase.

Immigrants a different phase. Sort of like this misconception of immigrants not being productive members of society. And so we wanted to sort of like, I wanted to share in a very vulnerable way

my immigrant story, my parents' immigrant story, be thankful to the generations that came before us because without their sacrifice and the jobs that they've had to take and the sacrifices they've had to make,

we, I wouldn't be where I am. We wouldn't be where we are as a country. I think America is built on immigrants and it's important to sort of acknowledge the contributions of immigrants to the United States.

So where can people see this? You know, it's on my bio section. If you click the link, the YouTube link on my bio section of my Instagram, it's at danyajramires and I have the link right on top of the description box.

You can just click on that. You can find it at welcome.us as well. There's tons of articles already being written about it and I feel really humbled and blessed to have been a part of it

and to have gotten the response that we've been getting. And it's, you know, for me, the most meaningful part of it was, we called it an American Alien. We wanna unite the people.

I think united we matter more and we're more powerful than divided. And it's a new America and we wanna sort of, that's what we wanna strive towards. And I think our attention should be drawn to education

and educating not just the immigrants that are here because all they're here to do, a lot of people are here just to try to, you know, give their families a better future, but also educating and motivating the Americans,

the American citizens that are here now so that they can feel like, you know what, work ethic is something that's important. And if you work really hard, no matter where you come from or what economic stature you have,

you can achieve the American dream because it's real. And that's the main message behind it. Again, you can watch it on my, click the link, the YouTube link on my Instagram bio, Dania J. Ramirez.

What's coming up next? I just produced a film called Taboo County that I starring, my husband wrote and directed. And we're in the last bit of post for that. It should be done by the end of July.

So yeah, we've been trying to dabble in, I've been trying to dabble into behind the scenes stuff because it's important for us to create characters that we wanna play and tell the stories that we wanna tell. And unfortunately enough to have a partner

that's also in the creative field and, you know, an incredible writer and has my best interests at heart, but also very smart. And we're just trying to tell stories

that we really care about and touch the masses. So in everything she's done, is there any role out there she'd still like to tackle? What would Dania's dream role be? I'm lucky enough to play all these different kinds of roles.

I think right now my dream role, I'm playing as Rosie Faltow on TV is made. And my coming up film, Taboo County, I play Isabella Cruz. The movie is really about Emily Bird,

legends of Emily Bird, who's known as the Taboo County werewolf. And it's about this really disturbing, disturbed girl, Isabella Cruz, and she's got this disease.

And it was a very powerful, very sort of, it wasn't a superhero, but I get to be badass in it. And it showed a different side of me. So I think that's my great role that I wanna play right now, but I'm interested in telling all kinds of stories.

So I can't really, I can't really tell you that there's one thing I wanna do. I wanna do it all. Season three of Devious Maids with new episodes every Monday on Lifetime

and see more at mylifetime.com. Good point. That does it for the podcast. Now we're back with more on Dark Matter coming up in a couple of days.

In the meantime, don't forget to premiere tonight on the Sci-Fi channel. And don't forget to come back and find us on websites like ComicMix.com, michaeldavisworld.com, get the point radio.com

and in the iTunes podcast directory as well. On Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, follow us under the point radio and we'll see you right back here before you know it. Get the point radio.com.