Simon Says
Who Weekly, 1 June 2003
Kellie Hush

The Guardian star Simon Baker shuffles family life, a film career and a hot TV role. And for his next trick: directing

Perched on a stool in the smoky back bar of Sydney's Woollahra Hotel, actor Simon Baker is right now the guardian of some amber fluid and a classic Aussie mouthful. "I miss meat pies – they don't have them in LA. Actually, all I think about the whole time I'm in America is what I'm missing out on in Australia,” says the Los Angeles-based star of TV's The Guardian, holidaying in Sydney with his wife, actress Rebecca Rigg, and their three children. "I miss sitting in friends' lounge rooms watching the footy, surfing with mates and going to the pub for a beer and a game of pool. I don't get any of that in LA.”

So Baker is a little nostalgic for his homeland – he and Rigg are even looking to buy a home in Sydney's east – but for now the boy from Ballina, NSW, is happy to have a foot here and one firmly placed in Hollywood. The actor, 33, has signed on as the brooding Nick Fallin for a third series of The Guardian (series two wraps on Network Ten on July 9) and has had the opportunity to direct an episode. When Guardian creator David Hollander offered him the chair, "I was nervous,” says Baker. "My wife said, 'What are you afraid of? You can do it on your ear.'” The episode, "My Aim is True”, airs in Australia on June 4, and "I didn't fall on my face,” says Baker.

But before he slips back into Nick's slick suit in August, Baker will head to New York to star in the movie drama Nights in Phnom Penh, opposite Australian actress Frances O'Connor. It means time away from Rigg, 35, who will stay in Sydney with Stella, 9, Claude, 4, and Harry, 1. "We try to infuse a little bit of Australian culture into them while we're here but also try not to overdo it,” he says. Film roles such as this and The Affair of the Necklace opposite Hilary Swank mean Baker knows he's reached a point in his career where there are more options. And, importantly, good ones. "I've always had a my own issues with quality. I've always had a chip on my shoulder because I started out in soap opera.”

It's true that E Street and Home and Away made Simon Baker-Denny (he dropped the Denny in the late '90s) a household name. Ready to take on dramatic roles, he found they weren't on offer. "Unfortunately, Simon was tarred with the soapie brush early on in his career,” says Ned Kelly director and Baker's old surfing mate Gregor Jordan. "I think Simon suffered from the same thing Guy Pearce suffered. People got to know them via a soap and people then think they are a certain kind of actor,” says Jordon, adding that, ironically, the experience that Pearce, Baker and even ex-Neighbour Russell Crowe garnered in soaps scored them roles in the Oscar-winning L.A. Confidential. "I met [Confidential director] Curtis Hanson the other week and he said it was fantastic having all these Australians in the film because they were so experienced but no-one knew who they were.”

Now Guardian fans in more than 40 countries have their eyes on Baker, who says there are many benefits to starring in a hit prime-time series. Being able to afford a family home, for instance. Baker and Rigg are now putting in a pool at the Malibu beach house they bought in 2003 – which is patriotically complete with gum trees, surfboards, a chook named May and, at times, expats and close friends Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. "I've worked hard to get where I'm at,” says Baker. "I've finally come full circle.”

In 1995 the couple, who met in Sydney in 1991 and co-starred on E Street, packed up Stella and moved to LA, where Baker scored small television and film roles, including L.A. Confidential. They returned briefly to Australia the next year to be married on Rigg's family property outside Sydney (bridesmaid Naomi Watts ruined her dress by taking a dip in the lake). In 2001 The Guardian came calling.

"People always say I was an overnight success. No way! I've done nine movies – some of them were good and some of them were shit,” says Baker. "I've always had a family to support and bills to pay and people can look at my CV and go, 'I know why he did that.'” What Baker does next is finally up to him, but right now it's dinner and a movie with his wife. "I wouldn't be in this position, or anywhere near it, without her support and the sacrifices she has made,” says Baker of Rigg, who is waiting at the door. "I'm indebted to her.”