'Mentalist' Simon Baker still has his first wife, three kids and a yawning disregard for stardom

By DEBBIE LITTLE October 18, 2010

 

Simon Baker is staring down 42 and has a daughter headed to college. The Australian-born actor has now starred in two hit shows — "The Guardian” for three years starting in 2001 and "The Mentalist,” now in its third year. Seen by 14 million viewers a week, "The Mentalist” is hugely successful by current TV standards. But its leading man, after all these years, is still something of a mystery.

 

Do you get back to Australia often?

Yes, as much as I can. I try to go once a year at least, which means my hiatuses are pretty full. Like I said, there’s a lot of things I want to do. I’ve got to fit everything in.

 

Aren’t you too young to have a bucket list?

It’s like a bucket list, but with me it’s more of a wheelbarrow list and it’s not even really a list because opportunities present themselves to you and I want to be able to be fit and healthy to take advantage of those opportunities when they present themselves. Put it this way. It actually helped me decide to come to America in the first place, the adventure of packing up my wife and my daughter and coming to America to give it a shot. I’d worked in Australia for five years as an actor beforehand and it’s a difficult business in Australia because there’s a lot of actors and not a lot of work. The idea of coming over to America in the first place was based on the fact that I didn’t want to become an old man and go, ‘I should have tried that or I should have had a go at that.’ I’d rather take the risk and fail miserably than never try.

 

After "The Guardian” went off, it was a while until you found "The Mentalist.” Was it hard on you?

Oh, I wasn’t even looking. It’s so funny because in hindsight people go, ‘He did that and that didn’t land’ — but I’ve had incredible success all of my career. That’s why I say I’m lucky. "The Guardian” was a successful show. It ran for three years and rated pretty darn well comparatively. It was always a top-10 or top-20 show while it was on the air. So I don’t look to seek out what’s going to be hugely successful. After "The Guardian,” I said, "I’ll never do television again because it’s just too hard.” And when you’re working that hard it takes a toll. I had a new baby born in the first season of "The Guardian” and a 2-year-old and it was tough to balance the workload. Then, when "The Mentalist” came along, I was at a flux point in my life, a turning point. There weren’t too many films being made and films they were making were really big budget films. And suddenly the leading men were all a lot younger and I was just like, "Well, my kids are a bit older. They’re in school, established. I’m older and wiser. I might be able to handle a television show again.”

 

People think since you’re Australian you hang out in a group with other Australians in LA.

I do have a lot of Australian friends. I’ve got a lot of very close friends from all different walks of life, all different ages, but I do have a core of Australian friends from my era, my wave, the wave we all came over together around the same time and stuck it out. You know.

 

Like Russell Crowe?

I haven’t seen Russell for years, though. Once he had kids I think he went underground. That’s what happens when you have kids, it’s great.

I would guess you don’t see Nicole Kidman [godmother to one of his children] very often because she’s in Nashville? I see her when she comes to town. You see, you know all this stuff.

 

It sounds like you love what you do.

I do love what I do and I don’t take it for granted. Sometimes I get a little down and I go, "It’s just TV.” But it’s entertainment and entertainment is less about me and more about the audience. That was the key and I’m really proud because that’s what we set out to do. Something that was entertaining.