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2008 (November) USA Today
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| 02-Jan-11, 1:48 AM |
Simon Baker, not so serious 'The Mentalist' star concentrates on having some fun
By Kelley L. Carter, USA TODAY – November 2008 LOS ANGELES
Simon Baker looks directly into the camera, using his hands to accentuate his words, the tips of his fingers drawing a square in the air. "Look at me. Look in my eyes," he says almost seductively to Robin Tunney, the actress with whom he's working through the scene.
"I'm looking," Tunney coolly responds.
He draws another breath, leans in toward her and delivers his next line:
"Imagine a simple, geometric shape, any shape you like. Picture it in your mind as strongly as you can, so that I can see it, too."
The episode's director, tucked away in another room of the studio set, yells cut.
"Did I get it that time?" Baker says, laughing heartily while reverting to his native Australian accent. "I was trying to have a little bit of fun that time."
The cast joins in the laughing. Baker, it seems, is finally having fun.
The 39-year-old actor who signed on for the role of Patrick Jane on CBS' The Mentalist (Tuesdays, 9 ET/PT) says he has spent too many years taking himself too seriously — a nod, he says, to the sharp critical tongues of Sydney. "I used to want to move people and let people identify with me as an actor, you know? But with this show, I just want to entertain people," Baker says. "I just want to have a good time."
Until recently, Baker's television success has been mixed, with a 2002 Golden Globe nomination for his work in the dour legal drama The Guardian and a blink-and-you-miss-it stint on the quickly axed 2006 heist caper Smith. But now he has a certified hit in The Mentalist, this season's top-rated new series with an average 16.2 million viewers and a full-season order from CBS. And Baker says he's finally able to let his guard down as Jane, a character who's quite a character.
Jane is a charming, impulsive independent consultant with the California Bureau of Investigation, a former stage "mentalist," or mind reader, who has an uncanny track record for solving crimes with his razor-sharp skills of observation. "You know what it is? Most of my friends were these snobby, highbrow things who would sit and go, 'Oh, I didn't really like that film. It's pretentious, there's no substance.' So I grew up in my early acting years around that kind of environment. I had a governor in my own head, 'Bah! Big studio movies — I'm not interested.' I got in the way of myself," Baker says, pausing to chase a piece of salmon with a sip of water while on break in his trailer. "I just needed to lighten up a little bit and have fun with it, stop taking myself so seriously," he says. "By all means, take the work seriously, but have fun doing it. And laugh at yourself. It's been somewhat liberating."
The notion of taking the lead in a police-procedural drama didn't immediately pique his interest: "There are a lot on CBS." But after he and his wife, Australian actress Rebecca Rigg, read the script, he recalls, "She said, 'Wow. This one is written really well, but …' She thought the female role was written better than the male role. I disagreed. I thought the male role — my role — had more room to play around. But we both agreed that it was really sharply written." And they also agreed the show could be the right fit for his fun-first resolution.
Baker is probably best-known for his film work. In 1995, he moved his family to Los Angeles, where he had a small role in the Academy Award-winning L.A. Confidential. That was followed by more notable roles in 2000's sci-fi flick Red Planet, then opposite Sanaa Lathan in Something New and Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, both in 2006. Slightly burned out, he took a year off to be with his family. (He and Rigg have three children: Stella, 15, Claude, 9, and Harry, 7, whose godmother is Nicole Kidman.) Baker says he ultimately realized he's happiest when he's working, and it doesn't matter if it's film or television.
The character he takes on in The Mentalist worked for him because he "reads people, (and) he doesn't use anything spooky or wooky. He's just straight-up a guy who's a bit of a con man himself, and he's able to gauge people. I love that," says Baker, who isn't abandoning film. He has a few projects in post-production, including The Lodger, a remake of an Alfred Hitchcock film, which also stars Alfred Molina and Hope Davis, but he is more focused on his television work.
His co-stars say Baker isn't afraid to approach the material in different, inventive ways. "He has everything dialed in. I've never worked with someone like that before. The talent. He's always committed. He's also a great teacher," says co-star Tim Kang, who plays Kimball Cho, lead interrogator in Jane's unit. "He's very giving with his experience and the things that he's done. He'll drop a little morsel of knowledge your way."
Amanda Righetti, who plays Grace Van Pelt, a newcomer to the investigative team, agrees. "He does take his work very seriously, but he brings a sense of wit to the character," Righetti says. "Once in a while you'll catch him doing a bit of improv. He does it in rehearsals to get everyone loosened up and into the moment. He really allows himself to have fun with it, and it's fun to watch. "Plus, he's very charming in the role," she says. "He has this very graceful charm that really makes the character pop."
Baker attributes some of his character's strength to series creator Bruno Heller (HBO's Rome). Heller "gave me room," Baker says, sitting at a kitchen table in his trailer. "He understood and liked what I wanted to do with the character. I felt respected as a collaborator. Not just as an actor for hire."
Heller says the character's arrogance called for "a genuine star," someone who could bounce between pompous and caring. "I'd seen a lot of Simon and thought that there was a charismatic, giving and empathetic side that hadn't really been seen — certainly not on the TV screen. "It's a tough character, being the character who always knows better than other people. And he manipulates other people and gets in other people's faces. So it needs to be someone that you really want to spend time with. That's clearly what Simon brings."
Co-star Tunney says Baker's innate charisma is one of his best assets. Between takes on that opening scene, due to air in December, the two laughed with the rest of the crew as the director was setting up new shots. Baker "comes in with the intention of wanting it to be a relaxed atmosphere," Tunney says. "He doesn't have the approach to his work where it's silence. And he can make fun of himself. That makes everybody around him feel more relaxed. You can throw a crack at him and he can take it. He's not fragile."
That relaxed, laid-back sentiment transcends the cast and crew. On a recent Friday, as a long week winds down, sheets are passed around announcing Monday's call time is 5 a.m. Surprisingly, there are very few groans. Everyone shakes it off, realizing that the shift from daylight saving time is what's throwing everything off. They need to meet at a nearby park to take advantage of daylight hours.
"Time goes a lot quicker when the work is a lot more enjoyable," Baker says. "I feel on top of the world. I'm blessed. The show's succeeding. And to walk in there in the morning and say hello to my crew and pat them on the back, and they're all excited and they're floating on air? I love that feeling," Baker says. "And then I don't feel so bad about working all these ridiculous hours and being away from my family."
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| Category: Interviews 2008-2011 | Added by: Fran
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