(Note: There are some inaccuracies in this article)

 

Mentalist star is usually the freak

Simon Baker returns this Thursday on television in the sequel of the fifth season of the successful thriller series The Mentalist. The 43-year old actor – who at present gets a quarter of a million per episode – is still surprised over the popularity of his character, Patrick Jane. "I have never really understood what women find so attractive in me”.

Just what explains the success of the hit series The Mentalist? The only answer to that question can be: protagonist Simon Baker. His blond curls, his radiant smile, his sparkling green eyes and his roguish Aussie-accent make millions of women melt every week. Gruesome murders? Sideshow! As long as Simon Baker looks seductive into the camera.

Yet, the 43-year old actor is the last person who can do something with that information. "If I’m often typecast as a heartbreaker?” He bursts out laughing. "I’m usually the freak. In Margin Call, about the bank crisis, I was a creep. In The Devil Wears Prada I was the devil in person. In the romantic comedy I Give It A Year I am a bumbling American.”

Baker is just glad that his own wife finds him attractive. "But otherwise I am someone who prefers not to be noticed. I walk preferably very fast down the street, shrouded in a big raincoat. I always feel a little uncomfortable when fans tell me how much they like me.” He enjoys being an actor and the fact that he makes lots of series and movie for a big audience. "But all the attention is actually just a nasty side issue. In my heart I am a normal ‘bloke from Australia’ who loves to do simple ‘bloky things’.”

The makers of the hit series The Mentalist, however, did see what attracts the millions of fans to Baker, who weekly solves gruesome murders as Patrick Jane. The series has an average of 15 million viewers in the US and has been undiminishing popular in its five seasons. The sixth season will be filmed this summer and the protagonist has recently signed for a seventh season. "You notice that after 5 years it is a huge challenge to keep the show fresh every week.” The writing team is thinking about a big storyline in the upcoming two seasons towards a spectacular finale. "Even if I knew something about that, I would not be allowed to say anything about it.” He apologizes immediately.

The protagonist also thinks that The Mentalist particularly strikes because the characters are so normal. "There is nothing psychic of spiritual in the way we solve crimes”, he says. "We don’t have a high tech laboratory where we find the information that leads to the killer in no time. We just look at the involved suspects and then deduce who the perpetrator is. That’s all you need for a successful thriller.”

The preparation and shooting of the series demands about 6 months a year of the attention of the actor. He spends the rest of his time with his family in California or shoots one or two movies. Even though that can be quite difficult, admits Baker. "Studios are, because of the crisis, very careful with initialising new projects”, he explains. "So all actors of my age have to fight very hard for one of the few interesting scripts that are produced.”

He considers himself lucky with his role in the British comedy I Give It A Year. The actor plays a seductive American professor who falls in love with a woman in London. "The movie pokes fun at all the clichés from the romantic genre”, explains Baker. "I actually laughed while reading it. That doesn’t happen very often; I actually really am a critical comedy watcher.”

Despite her wedding ring his character tries to court the lady in any way he can. The moral of the story therefore is that it’s not a shame for a couple to admit that they made the wrong choice. However, the charming actor quickly adds: he himself does certainly not belong in that group of people. "I am the last one to deny that a relationship can be hard work sometimes. But after 15 years of marriage I can still say from the bottom of my heart that my marriage with Rebecca has been one of the best choices of my life. Baker, in contradiction to his character in the movie, has never been a man for big romantic gestures. "I am someone who believes that romance is more in the small gestures. Like a surprising cup of tea in bed on Sunday morning.”