2010 (August) French TVMag interview (translated) - Interviews 2008-2011 - File Catalog

With skin weathered by the sun –too much surfing in Australia, no doubt?– the Australian Simon Baker, all smiles, answers our questions as he slouches in a hollow of the comfortable leather couch of which his character Patrick Jane is so fond. This (Jane persona) has greatly rubbed off on the actor, who also likes to make his interviewer feel ashamed or ill at ease!

Interview:
TV MAG: Simon Baker, you were named by a magazine as "the sexiest actor of 2009”, succeeding Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy). In France you are also regarded as "the new Patrick Dempsey”…
SIMON: (Great burst of laughter) If I am the "new Patrick Dempsey", then one day or another, there will be a "new Simon Baker". And what will happen when I become the "old Patrick Dempsey”!? To some extent it is flattering, but not enough to get a big head over, since Dempsey, after all, is a hero of the small screen–one of many. More seriously, I prefer to see my career in terms of longevity, and not as "the latest thing”. I want to last and not be Patrick Jane forever, even if I remain so (that character) for six full seasons.

TV MAG: Why did you choose a Citroen DS 21 as a vehicle for the Mentalist: can one see this as a tribute to Columbo and his Peugeot?
SIMON: You want me to say "yes"! (Laughing) In fact, it is not so much as a wink to Columbo that I requested this car, but because so many series these days are a pretext to sell brands ... while I wanted my character not to be someone who has the latest trendy thing. I took the opposite course. And the fact is that I have always been a great admirer of this French brand.

TV MAG: You waited 40 years to know world success with the Mentalist ...
SIMON: (he makes a face) I did not have the sense of having to wait... It's right that it happened ... later. I had various levels of success in different parts of the world, particularly through The Guardian series or The Devil Wears Prada. When I was a young actor of 22 years, being able to pay the rent and my bills with this job was a great success.

TV MAG: And you're coveted by millions of women since The Mentalist, how does your wife view this?
SIMON: I have been married to Rebecca for 20 years: she is the only person in the world who knows who I really am. She knows my soul and she has my heart. (He points to his heart). And she has confidence in me. She knows that everything else is artificial.

TV MAG: Two of your children have acquired dual nationality, Australian and American; do you want this also?
SIMON: Perhaps one day ... You think that France could also give me a passport, as I dream?- I'll ask Carla (laughs)! I would like to have full passports, actually. To have the freedom to go to all countries and to live in different parts of the world.

TV MAG: You yourself chose the costumes for Patrick Jane, who’s always dressed to the nines ...
SIMON: I wanted to capture European elegance…the fact that you know how to carry off costumes in all circumstances without any false note. I don’t think that Americans really understand this art of living, but it is what I wanted for the character. So he has a sort of "uniform" that immediately identifies him when one turns on the TV. In his three-piece suit and casual touches, there is also a little bit of Charlie Chaplin in "The Vagabond”.

TV MAG: Okay ... Actor Tim Roth, the hero of Lie To Me, who, in that series, also detects others’ lies, has said he has learned to enforce certain "tricks”. And you?
SIMON: Me too, a little, but I'm too busy learning my lines ...

TV MAG: But still!?
SIMON: Okay, I’ve learned to play on innocent and guileless people, but that I could already do. I'm an actor; I manipulate in essence! The mentalist is an actor and vice versa, even if I would not describe myself as a "mentalist". But like Patrick Jane, I must confess that I establish connections with people so that they feel sufficiently comfortable and give you clues about themselves, entrust their stories.

TV MAG: Do you have time to watch other TV series, for examples?
SIMON: No, I don’t have the time. Except when I was able to watch the whole first season of Gossip Girl with my daughter. That series evoked in me childhood memories, of when I watched Columbo, Kojak, Happy Days ...

TV MAG: I've seen you being very concentrated on the set, almost gloomy ...
SIMON: On the set, I'm not always feeling happy because I’m striving to give the maximum, to be creative. As it is necessarily the style of Patrick Jane to be in renewal, I have to be inventive. When the episode is aired, if I see that it works, great. Otherwise, it affects me deeply. To be constantly inventive is very tiring.

TV MAG: You say that you absolutely do not believe in the 6th sense, and yet you have gotten Tarot readings around the world, from Paris to Tokyo!
SIMON: (He smiles) Yes, I know, it's only due to narcissism, because I like to hear about myself ... And it is very amusing to live with (these readings), because I generally do not understand what has been said to me, because so much of the English is approximate.