Playgirl | March 1995 ::.::.:..

Playgirl March 1995

Great Scott!!

Quantum Hunk Scott Bakula is A Man of Many Talents.

Interview with Charmain Carl

 

Scott Bakula always wanted to be an actor, a master of his craft, entertaining people and doing it very well. After a few false starts, he established himself as a guest star on Designing Women and hit his professional stride as the amiable and heroic time-traveler Dr. Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap.

Scott's fans created an uproar when the show was cancelled, and we are beginning to see the emergence of a cult-like following around the world. While his faithful "Leapers" await the highly-anticipated movies, Scott has been busy playing "head doctors" in both the provocative Color of Night and A Passion to Kill. After starring in Francis Ford Coppola's Bridges, Scott has completed the lead role in Lord of Illusions, film noir master Clive Barker's supernatural thriller scheduled for release in February.

Scott arrived at PLAYGIRL's photo shoot after a long day on the set of Murphy Brown. Always the consummate professional, one could almost see his mind shifting neatly from one project to the next. As we began working, the trademark furrow of his brow confessed the sincerity of his concern to do the best he can at whatever he's doing. I wonder how many women would gladly take him in their arms, hold him closely, and smooth away all his concerns.

Suddenly, his eyes twinkled as he saw photographer Greg Gorman's dog come running, flopping and snorting, to his feet. As man and animal exchanged greetings, Scott's face relaxed, and the shoot was on…

Did you start working as an actor straight out of college?
No, not quite. I wish right out of college, but no, I was in the middle of my junior year. I dropped out of school and stayed home a whole year (in Missouri), then went to New York. I worked, saved money, did a couple of small parts. I was at an odd age - I wasn't really young enough to be the teenage heartthrob, and I wasn't old enough to be a dad.

Tell me about Lord of Illusions. Clive Barker has taken his two favorite genres - the horror film and the noir detective character - and brought them together in the '90s. He's brought Harry D'Amour, the character he's been writing for ten years, to life. So, he's very excited, very nervous and very anxious about who Harry should be. He's this New York detective who specializes in demonic possession, exorcisms, cults - the things police say are too weird [to handle]. Harry takes these cases all the time; he's kind of a freelance guy.

Through some karmic debt, Harry is constantly drawn to these clashes between good and evil. The good and evil are constantly trying to assert and disrupt, and Harry's one of the guys who holds them off. He's always watching for them and is aware that they're there. He believes anything is possible. He walks on the dark side - the line between heaven and hell.

When Clive said the movie is going to be a stylistically a combination of Chinatown meets The Exorcist, I said, "I'm there." Those are two of my favorite movies.

You play these characters that have fate thrust upon them. Is there a part of that reality in your own life?
I'm kind of a person who has spent a lot of his life putting out fires and helping people. So yeah, there's a lot of that. I'm actually trying to pull back a little because it can kill you.

It's not about getting it back, but more about survival. It's an adjustment as I get older. I'm being pulled in a hundred different ways all the time with work, family, life and friends. I just don't have as much time as I used to.

When Quantum Leap was taken off the air, there was a big uproar. Why was it cancelled?
There was a changing of the guard at NBC. The show hadn't performed well in the time slot that we'd been given in the last season - our sixth time slot, I think - one we had no business being in. NBC was desperate for us to perform better than we could. They wanted us to lead off a night twice, and we didn't have the numbers to do that. The bloom was off the rose, and Universal didn't need us for anything else. They had 97 shows, and that was enough to syndicate. We cost a lot of money and were kind of a pain in their sides. A lot of varied minds got together and egos ended up butting heads and everybody lost. We could have stayed around longer.

The great thing is that the show is huge around the world. That's really been a big high point in it all. I'm going to France next because Code: Quantum, as it's called over there, is huge. There's tremendous reward in that. So we miss it and hope we'll get to do it again.

Sounds like a feature film, maybe?
That's when we'd do it again.

If you could control your destiny, what would you be doing work-wise right now?
Pretty much what I've been doing. I've been really, really lucky. When Quantum ended, things didn't go the way I would have liked. I've been up for a lot of things I thought I would get and didn't. I was like, "Man, this sucks." I didn't understand why. I was a guy who was known for certain things, but I didn't have the recognition and the notoriety that came out of the show.

Frankly, I was hoping that things would open up for me in a different way. They didn't, but it was great because it put me back out there again.

The hunger?
Yeah, a little bit, and it was frustrating. It's important to have perspective in this business because it's easy to lose it. My family has always been a great perspective. When my daughter was born, it was like, "So what else is important?" I didn't get a job, so what? It's great for me to have that kind of perspective.

Would you like to do Broadway again?
I'd love to go back and do a Broadway show. But it's hard to do. Moving to New York, taking the family, changing schools and everything; it's a big deal now. As life goes on, you're not making a decision for yourself anymore. Your decisions affect other people, and you have responsibilities.

And whatever you decide, something else happens. I did Carol Burnett's show this summer. She's an incredibly gifted and beautiful woman. I got to work with her for a week and laugh. It wasn't about money or anything like that. It was about Carol Burnett wanting me to be on her Special.

You're so versatile. You have dramatic, comic and musical sides. 
You even had an album out a year ago.
Well, I had a very diverse childhood. I never did what a lot of kids do now. They take on one thing and they do it to the best; that seems to be the way it is now. I didn't play one sport, I played a bunch of sports. And I sang, played the piano and had a band.

When you were doing Quantum Leap you said, "Well, no one's coming up to me saying, 'Oh Scott, I want to have your baby.' I'm not the Miami Vice sex symbol." Yet, you do have women who just love you. They acknowledge that there's more depth, and they think you're a hunk.
Oh, yes, the word's been used. I've heard it.

Did girls swoon over you in high school?
If they did I never knew it.

You don't really acknowledge it now, do you?
No.

Is it that you really don't like it?
It's not that I don't like it, it's just that everyone's entitled to how they feel. But I can't base my own feelings on how other people perceive me. If four girls didn't come up every day and say, "We love you, we want to have your baby," or whatever, that wouldn't be a bad day for me. The conceit of this town is that you can be exposed to that kind of wildly misplaced adoration and adulation.

I'm a actor, and acting is what I do for a living. I didn't say, "I want to do something with my life so that people will fall over to get to me or be seen with me or be with me or sleep with me." I wanted to get on stage and do a role and have people appreciate that role.

I have a very healthy ego. I like to get applause, and have a strong sense of that. But you can get lost in that other stuff. I know some young kids who are coming up, and I have seen them handle it in different ways. I'm also thrilled that it didn't happen to me when I was younger because I don't know how I would have handled it. I certainly empathize with all of them who are having difficulties.

Describe an ideal day or night…a scenario to really make you say, "This is what life is all about."
Any day you can be out in nature is a great day. I had a really great 40th birthday recently. It involved being with friends at the beach for a whole day, at the ocean, in the water, seeing dolphins, sand castles, my kids running up and down like crazy and having a blast, good conversation with my parents. One of my best buddies from New York flew in. We got to see a beautiful sunset in the ocean later than night. We took a nice walk in the dark; it was a great birthday. I kept saying, "I'm in one of my favorite places on the planet," which is around water with a lot of friends and family.

As a child, did you get teased a lot about your name?
Yeah. It was Drac or Dracula or the Count. We all got it, my brother, my sister and I. When I came to New York, some people talked to me about wanting to change it and make it an easier name. I ended up keeping it.

What's the derivation?
It's from Bohemia, what was once Czechoslovakia.

Is there a Bohemian spirit in you?
I like to think so. It's poetic. I've certainly followed al little bit of that road with what I do.

When did you first want to act?
I really didn't think about it seriously until I went to college. There was a small college outside St. Louis. They had a wonderful summer program, and I got involved in that. The first summer they did Godspell. It was a big success, and I met a lot of people. A couple of months into my sophomore year, and started theater in January.

At the end of that summer I was offered a national tour of Godspell that was going to originate in St. Louis. I was faced with a dilemma since it meant I had to leave school. Then the tour fell through, school had started, and I was sitting at home. So I started doing theater around St. Louis and decided that I was just going to go to New York the following year.

How did people who knew you back then see you?
I think they thought I was friendly. I would say I was considered popular in high school.

Popular with the girls, too?
I was just popular, doing a lot of different things. I had a lot of friends, was in a lot of cliques.

What was your first big break?
Coming to New York and getting a show the third day I was there - even though it was on the road.

That was a really big confidence booster.

Which show was it?
Shenandoah. It was a touring company, doing dinner theaters in North Carolina. I got to New York on a Wednesday, and I was able to call home that Friday night to say that I'd been offered a show. I took my hundred dollars a week and room and board and off I went. I didn't know anybody when I came to New York, I'd never been there before; I got a bunch of friends and an agent. When I got back to town, I was able to start pasting together a resume. That first summer I got my Equity card and kept moving from there.

What was your first TV role?
It was on a show called On Our Own with Bess Armstrong and Lynnie Greene. The best part of the story was that it was with Dixie Carter, because the next television role that I did nine years later was Designing Women and that with her again. So we always laughed about that. I was like, "Hi Dixie, you probably don't remember me."

I'm sure she did.
She said she did. She's so sweet that way. She's a doll.

Did you enjoy playing Peter Hunt on Murphy Brown?
Yes, it's been great, and it's really been a great experience getting to know Candace (Bergen) and the whole group over there. It's a tremendously talented cast up and down the line. They deliver every week.

I remember my agent calling me - she was kind of laughing - and she said they wanted to create a role for me on Murphy Brown, somebody who stood toe-to-toe with her, kind of like a male 'Murphy'. I stared laughing and said, "That might be kind of fun." The guy is a pretty interesting character.

Would you want it to become a regular role?
No, I think it's more effective the way it works now.

Is there a part of Peter Hunt in you?
He's a lot more ruthless than I am, but his devotion to getting his job done to the best of his ability is certainly something that we both have in common.

What about his extreme confidence?
I'm not as cocky as he is. Although, underneath him, somewhere, he's probably insecure, too.

Would you ever do nudity in a film?
I might. The situation hasn't arrived yet where I've ever had to seriously consider it. I've done a couple of love scenes that appear to be nude scenes in the movies. I don't have a problem with it. It has to be the right situation.

What is the first thing you notice about a woman?
There's a certain energy about a woman that hits me and it's usually something in the eyes that you can pick right away.

What do you think makes a woman sexy?
A woman's sense of herself… a woman who has an understanding of who she is. Most of the time it's a woman who's not trying to be sexy. To me, sexuality is a very individual thing. That's what makes the  world go around.

Hallelujah.
Yes, hallelujah is right. People can be sexy in their own way and in different ways. It's always interesting to see who has that.

What turns you off in a woman?
I like a woman who is confident, so I guess whatever the opposite of that is. My reaction to women and women's reactions to me have changed a lot in the last few years. Women now come to me with a different attitude.

Because of your fame?
I guess so. It's seldom that I meet a woman for the first time who's not in the business or who's not somewhat familiar with me, so I don't necessarily get a true reaction.

It's interesting that you say that. When I met you I sensed that you don't want to give more of the personal than you have to. At the photo shoot, when I said you looked great, your reaction was rather muted.
The only way for me to maintain perspective is to tune out a lot. I've never really been comfortable with those kinds of comments. I want to look good for these pictures; I want the pictures to come out well. If I look great, that means that the photographer lit me well and the clothes I was wearing or wasn't wearing looked good, and the makeup artist did a good job, and now I just have to figure out how to do these bloody pictures because I'm trying to be better.

Once people become famous, others have a tendency to use them. Can you tell who is and isn't sincere?
I think so. Most of the people in my life have been there for a while. I'm not a perfect judge of character, but I try and take each person and get to know that person and give that person the benefit of the doubt.

I always go five times further in terms of trusting people, giving them a chance and letting them make mistakes. I give people a lot of respect, and they give it back to me. I expect them to do their job, want them to do their job because I think that's how it works.

I love people; I like meeting them and finding out what makes them tick. I meet so many people just working in this business. There always seems to be 70 or 80 people around. You're constantly bumping up against new people, people with strange energy, good energy, bad energy, people all over the place. It can be difficult, but most of the time it's pretty wonderful.

How do you keep your head straight on?
Well, it's a lot about living in the moment and enjoying where I am, who I'm with and what I'm doing at the moment and not looking ahead, not wishing, not trying to change, not trying to affect. I desperately try not to control what is going on around me. And I love nature. It's a meditation time for me. Being out in nature, being a part of it is really great.

What is it that attracts women to you?
I don't know…I probably have a certain confidence that isn't necessarily on the surface but is there, a good sense of myself. I'm a pretty positive and happy person. I like to have fun.

In speaking of yourself, you don't seem to focus on the physical at all.
I understand that people say that. Do I feel like a sex symbol? No.

Would you like to feel like a sex symbol?
I don't know. I'd have to call up a sex symbol and ask him how it feels. In the beginning of Quantum Leap there was a big concern among some of my producers that Sam Beckett wasn't sexy enough. They wanted him to be sexier in the early testing. The bottom line was probably, "Do you want to sleep with Sam Beckett?" I guess they weren't getting the percentages that they wanted, so there was a talk about how to make Sam sexier. I said, "Look, Sam is Sam, Sam isn't Scott, and if you try and make Sam into Scott I think you'll lose a lot of the charm of who Sam Beckett is." There's something in a lot of women that definitely want to take a naïve guy like that and educate him, as it were.

Did you enjoy dressing up as a woman for a couple of episodes?
Most of the time. In the beginning, certainly, it was painful. Getting used to the heels was tough, and……

The bra?
Yeah the bra. I had to wear a very constricting corset in one episode. I got a little claustrophobic.

It was always funny. It was people's response to me dressed up as a woman that interested me more. It was wardrobe that I had never worn before, and by the fifth or sixth time I did it, it wasn't necessarily ho-hum, but it was, "Here come the heels, okay fine," and "What do I have to do in these heels this week and what do the dresses look like?"

Did you ever get picky about the nylons, makeup or clothes? Like, "That flowered dress doesn't go with my complexion?"
(Laughs) No, I didn't get like that. But it was a trip, certainly; in the beginning I'd get whistled at all over the lot. The crew guys were holding doors for me. But by the end it just became, "There goes Sam again."

What would you like most like to be remembered for in your career?
Variety. What I'm going for is not being pigeonholed and getting to do a lot of different work in a lot of different arenas and hopefully doing it well. I'm very much into the fact that what we do is entertainment, not brain surgery. We're entertainers, and if we can provoke thoughts and make people laugh and cry, then that's it. That part of being an entertainer hasn't changed since the court jester's day. I like being part of that.

What would you like your epitaph to say?
I'm constantly rewriting my epitaph. That's the idea. I'd like it to read, "A guy who looked at each day as a blank page and wrote and adapted his daily script every day, a guy who experienced life one day at a time and lived it and loved it a much as he could each day."

I like that.
I'm a work in progress.