Photo by Michael Schofield
Q: Has your notoriety changed you at all?
A: Yes, I’m far more humble now. It’s so humbling in
fact. When you trying to get there in TV, it’s so rough
and you have to be self-centered to survive. You don’t
actually see all the people around that you’re working
with. It’s a very difficult business to make it in, there’s
so much competition; but when you actually make it,
you begin to appreciate everyone around you and all
the hard work they do to help you. The camera crew,
the support crew, everyone. I was shooting a pilot for
the History channel for 16 months straight – then it
got trashed but I wasn’t upset – I didn’t regret it a bit
because I made so many friends and contacts. To cut
through the competition, you have to be ruthless in
LA, once you’re there, it’s humbling. The super cool
thing about it is that every super star says it’s so easy,
but every one of them is a very hard working person
to get there and to stay there. Even Brad Pit might do
several castings a year but only land one or two roles.
The weird thing with television is that it’s like open
hunting season on you from the critics. The number
one rule in television is don’t read what the critics
write. The first thing I do is read and compile all of
them and once a year me and my friends have a laugh
reading them. Sometimes people can get so passionate
about what they are saying, we have a great laugh.
When you’re in the public eye you really inspire people
sometimes. I have a young boy, whom I’ve befriended
that has some problems. Every so often I send him a
little mission and ask him for help researching things
that I can’t seem to find any information on. I know
he loves it and his mom really appreciates it. It’s these
sort of things that make it truly humbling.
9
1961 Magazine Fall 2016