So Many Questions: Sylvester Dodd, hacker on TV's 'Scorpion,' sees potential for good in technology
As the socially awkward programming wunderkind Sylvester Dodd on the CBS drama “Scorpion,” actor Ari Stidham realizes the amazing potential of technology.
But, even within a cast of characters who represent the last line of defense against potentially catastrophic technological threats, he doesn't view technology as being a bad thing. He has high hopes that somewhere there are still some good guys hacking away behind a computer screen.
“Scorpion” can be seen at 9 p.m. Mondays on CBS.
Question: Is there more pressure when the storyline is inspired by real people or events?
Answer: You know, it doesn't stress me out. The pressure doesn't really fall on my shoulders as much as I thought it would mainly because we, being the actors, really don't have creative control. There is a lot of work that goes into acting, but you have to start with the words. And if the words are an accurate portrayal of what happened, then you can start there.
So, the pressure of a true story would come from if I played a character who everybody knew very well. That would be very stressful to me, because everyone has their own idea of who that person is.
Q: Does participation in a show like “Scorpion” make you hyper-aware of technology as a global threat?
A: You know ... I really don't comprehend it. It's hard. I told a lot of people that technology in my life is kind of a castoff of 2009. I never really got a new phone, got a new computer. ... In a big scale, it's the problem of today.
But I know that when we get past this problem, it will just be the new normal. And that's the thing about the Internet and technology. So much of it is still being defined because there are people who know how to use the Internet and know how to use computers, and they become super weapons. I'm not one of those people. I can play one of them on TV, but I'm very frightened as a normal human being.
Q: Are viewers simply looking for entertainment? Or do you get the feeling they're trying to make sense of our world?
A: I think that question can be asked about a lot of different entertainment. I think that people that watch “Scorpion” are captivated by a lot of different things. I don't think that you can boil it down to one specific reason. ... I don't think people are watching it to get closer to what is actually happening in the tech world, because we do some pretty grand things.
And the flip side of it is, we are this team of people, and you don't really see the good guys hacking. That's not something that you see every day — people who are doing it for the greater good, using their abilities.
Now, I don't like talking about famous hacking groups because I'm so scared about getting hacked. I respect people and their abilities, and I'm not trying to slander anybody. ... They can prove to the world that they are good, and that's in their hands, and it's not for me to say about them. But in “Scorpion,” all of us, our characters, are the good guys. And that's what I think puts people at ease because it gives them the idea that we could exist — the good guys behind the computer.
Q: Would you say Sylvester is a hero?
A: I think that every character on our show is a hero. Not to break it down and get too brainy, but every episode, people leave their ordinary world and they come back having changed by the end. And it's just ridiculous how every character has an arc.
Q: Is technology our greatest enemy or our greatest ally?
A: Look at bees, right? You see that they make honey and the way that they live their lives and do what they do — we can break it down and see so much of it. But a lot of it, we can't understand because we don't have the minds of bees, and we didn't create them. We can only comprehend what they are doing.
If we are bees, and we've created technology as our hives, maybe one day the hives are going to run us. And I'm kind of cool with that, because it's the next step. I believe technology is good.
Kate Benz is the social columnist for Trib Total Media and can be found at kbenz@tribweb.com, 412-380-8515 or via Twitter @KateBenzTRIB.
