Excerpted:

[Note: I consider direct quotes the property of the speaker and not Warner Brothers. But I have excerpted the second article at the request of the magazine.]

OFFICIAL BABYLON 5 MAGAZINE 9/98
Vol.2 #2

Commanding Thoughts

The two actors agreed to sit down for their very first interview together, discussing the subject of heroes and the ways that B5 has affected their lives...

BABYLON 5 MAGAZINE: Let's start by talking about the concept of being role models. Once you've stepped into that role, does it still stay with you?
BRUCE BOXLEITNER: I think most actors would prefer it didn't, but it's part of the stock in trade that comes with playing that kind of character. Ideally, most people would like to be left alone in their personal life and be able to do what they wanted and not have that responsibility, but you just have to be aware of it and act accordingly. I think it's there with you no matter how you try and dog it. There are a lot of people who try to play the bad boy in their private life and that's fine, but speaking for myself, I think there is a responsibility to try and keep a good profile out there. As the cliché goes, it comes with the territory ­ I'm very good with clichés!
MICHAEL O'HARE: It changes your life. I think every part changes your life; you go to a certain place in order to play the part, and then it's difficult to let go of it. I agree with Bruce, we have an obligation that comes with the territory.
BRUCE: We're people, and we still have our own lives, and sometimes you want to say, 'Listen, I'm allowed to f**k up, I'm allowed to do things; I'm a person,' but unfortunately, you still have to live under it, if you want to continue. We both play very strong men, complicated men, but nevertheless, what they want in the end is a heroic archetype.
MICHAEL: That's a good word to use, it is an archetype.
BRUCE: We have so many people today, screen idols especially, who go out of their way to live a notorious existence, who really thrive on the tabloid headlines; that's really their career. I think Michael probably feels the same as I do in that we'd rather have our work speak for us instead of playing that image, although you still have to do it to a certain degree. You're right, Michael, it does change your life. This convention is the perfect example; how to people look at you in these autograph lines? Some of them are literally afraid of you, they don't know what to say and you want to say, 'Hey, we're just people here!'
B5: Does that happen to you, Michael, or do people realise you're just a regular guy?
MICHAEL: It depends. Both things happen; you do still get some people who are tongue-tied, who can't believe they're standing there in front of you, waiting for your autograph, and it's so weird. All you can do is try to put them at ease. Like Bruce says, we're just people.
BRUCE: I still find that difficult to fathom, although when I walked up to Buzz Aldrin [the former astronaut and second man on the moon], I stood in line to meet him. He did a book signing for this science fiction novel he wrote, and I just missed him at Forbidden Planet in London. So when he was doing this signing in Los Angeles, I took my sons, and said, 'Now this is a real hero!' This is a man who wrote two books talking about how tough it is to be a hero, and how after walking on the moon, his life went right downhill; he had severe problems with alcohol, divorce; after that peak, it all spiralled right down. I stood in line to meet him ­ I met him before, at a ski trip thing, and that was even worse ­ so I thought, 'He won't remember me!' All these people on line were saying, 'You're on Babylon 5!' and I'm pointing at Buzz, trying to tell them, 'No, you're losing it, that's the man!' He was wonderful, and took pictures with my son and his friend, and I was trying to tell them, if there's such a thing as a celebrity, that was a celebrity. "He managed to achieve something none of us will ever achieve. He walked on the moon, one of few people in human history who have done that. I think there are some sports heroes like that, because the responsibility was felt much more in our country in the past, people like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth; he would stay and sign baseballs for children for hours and hours, whereas today they say, 'I'm sorry, it's not the company ball I'm supposed to sign.' I saw one guy at an old-timer's/celebrity baseball game, and this young buy ran up to him as we were all heading out to this field to play, and he pushed that boy away. I think Babe Ruth would have come out of his grave with a baseball bat and hit the man right in the head. This boy just stood there, and I can still see that image today: a child who had to work up all the courage he could get, and he had this program and said, 'Could you please sign this?' It's my policy that I would never turn a child down; I would stop in the middle of the road, whatever. I certainly think Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner don't realise how much they altered the modern space program ­
MICHAEL: Because of Star Trek?
BRUCE: That's right. I was at NASA talking to all these bright, dedicated people, which was so inspiring, and I said, 'I'm just a hack actor in a plywood space station.' I felt so intimidated by these minds, but they said, 'No, you don't understand what you're doing. That's what creates all this. You work in the imagination, and that's what becomes inspiration and somebody having an idea.' They need these ideas to inspire them.

B5: Did you have heroes of your own when you were growing up?
MICHAEL: Mainly movie actors, like Spencer Tracy, people like that. I can remember being deeply depressed when Lucy [Ball] and Desi [Arnaz] were getting divorced. I couldn't believe it was happening, because they were such icons of the time.
BRUCE: Me too, I loved the old movies. Actually, I have a hero right now, and that's Sean Connery, my favourite movie star. I would probably still throw up if I met him. Film-wise he elevates anything he's in, even if it's not great material. To me, that's what a star is.

B5: When you finally worked together on War Without End, neither of you worried about what would happen, and can that interfere with the business of acting?
MICHAEL: Bruce was very nice to me when I came in. We didn't have any problem at all; if anything, we had a good chemistry together.
BRUCE: If you look at the episodes, they worked out fine. I think Michael will agree with this, that people made more out of it than we did. They were saying, 'Oh, my God, they're going to see each other and there are going to be problems,' and I'm thinking, 'What? We're actors, and we have a piece to do together' and we did it. I thought it was a wonderful two-parter. I think people tried to trump things up, and I would hear things out of the corner of my ear, but I never got involved in their conversations. I remember when Joe Straczynski first asked me about it, I said, 'Yes, it's a great idea.' We both feel the same way, about getting down to the job.
MICHAEL: I agree. It was just, 'Let's get to the work.' It's just people making things up.
BRUCE: It's their own sense of drama they want to create. We're both professional actors, we've been around for a long time, we've worked with all different kinds of actors and personalities and egos and experience and lack of experience. I was glad to hear that Michael was coming to this convention, because I knew the two of us walking out together would have an impact out there.

B5: When you play a lead in a series like Babylon 5, sometimes the cast and crew take their cue from that person. Was it strange for you, Michael, to come back with somebody else in charge?
MICHAEL: In my opinion, it's up to the guy who happens to be in charge, who's on the pointed end, to make the other people on the show feel at ease and all that stuff, and Bruce did that for me; he made me feel very much at ease. We had a great time talking about [long-running western, Gunsmoke star] James Arness. It wasn't awkward at all.
BRUCE: I've learned from experience how to be that guy, and that's [given] to every guest star, everybody. You're there all the time, and they're coming into it fresh. This man was already there, and he's an integral part of the saga, and we're now going to show that. It's not like he was coming on to the show for the first time. I was the come-lately, the new boy, but you just put those thoughts away and get on with it. I think your work on a television show can start the day or ruin it, and a lot of people do look to you whether you like it or not. God knows, you can be working early hours and maybe not feeling that well, but you have to pick up the reins and start it, and everybody goes off your cue. It's not always fun, especially if you have other problems going on with your life, but you don't want to say, 'You guys go ahead without me.' Michael already laid a lot of that groundwork for me by the time I joined the show. He fought the opening salvos, because this show has been a struggle, and it's never ended ­ that struggle for acceptance. You'd never know it [an event like this] but the show has always been dancing at the edge of dying and I guess Michael ran into a lot of nay-sayers at first, from people saying, 'They'll never get it going!' Michael paved the way for all that.
MICHAEL: I remember we were trying to get people to write in so that the pilot would be picked up, but the show has moved up in popularity over the years; it really has grown more popular.
BRUCE: But you still wonder, 'Are they not looking?', 'they' being the suits, but it has nothing to do with that. It's all to do with market shares and prices and who owns the rights. Maybe I should stick my nose where I shouldn't but, Michael, I think you'll agree with this:, if your name is on something, you have a right to know what is going on. Yes, you do get the praise if it's wonderful and brilliant, but if they hate it, it's that guy's show. If it goes down, nobody says, 'It was a lousy producer.'

B5: Several years ago, a journalist asked Gareth Thomas, who has been in a very similar position on Blake's 7, if the show had been a milestone, or actually a millstone, in terms of being pigeon-holed as an actor. Where do you two stand in terms of these two positions?
MICHAEL: It's a little difficult to tell, but from my own practical experience, I've ended up on the good side of it. It was a very good job to have had.
BRUCE: I have to say it's a milestone; it's been nothing but a great experience, and I will never say otherwise. If that happens and you get pigeon-holed, maybe a lot of people will disagree with me, but I don't think that's such a bad thing in the long run of an actor's career. 'Pigeon-holed' is a weird term; I think if you're known for a role in one's career, that's not such a bad thing. You may have played several great roles, but if there's one that people know you by ­ I'm sure we all remember our favourite movie stars from one or two specific movies ­ that's not such a bad thing.
MICHAEL: That's not such a bad thing at all. It's good to be remembered.
BRUCE: Especially in an occupation where there are so many wonderful actors, who ply their trade through every theatre and television and movie set in the world but will never be known. I think there are more who are known that don't really deserve it than the many who are out there still unknown.

B5: So for better or worse...?
MICHAEL: I'm sure Bruce will agree, I think it's for better.

Bruce is in excellent spirits, given that the worry and stress he's carried for weeks now over Babylon 5's future has just broken with the announcement of the green light for season five during the shoot. "I was absolutely sure that this was going to turn around and bite me in the back end, and what a powerless place to be in," he says, speaking of his recent mental state. By contrast, today he is feeling grateful and lucky. "Very relieved and thankful," he says. "I'm not cocky about it at all. For me, this has been sort of a personal triumph as well, because I've done another television series, and it doesn't make you feel more confident. It only shakes you more, because you realise how lucky you are that it's still going.

"I'm very humbled that I can still do a show. I know so many guys, my contemporaries that I started with, who are in very hard times right now, lean times, I feel very good ­ knock on wood ­ that this show has given me my career."

This version of Sheridan differs even from the Sheridan we met for the 'first' time when he joined Babylon 5. "I'm trying to remember my first episodes in the second season. It's this smiley guy, and I think he's a different guy in this movie. There's a certain rich boy arrogance I'm trying to give to him. He's a diplomat's son, yet he does want to be given promotion because of that. He wants to earn his way. I'm trying to find an image of that arrogance. 'I'm very good at what I do. I know it. And I'm going to prove it to you. I'll show it to you. Just give me a chance.'"

Bruce feels that In the Beginning, together with the other telemovie Thirdspace, will add depth and scope to the already intricate Babylon 5 Universe. "We're now broadening the B5 universe even more," he says, "becuase this is before the Babylon 5 station. You'll understand more when the pilot comes on and he says, 'A dream given form.' You'll now see where that dream came from. It kind of accentuates those opening lines and gives them a more dramatic impact. You'll know more about what that was about. There's more to Sinclair and to that situation. "It lends an epic feeling, and it just broadens the picture. It's very exciting. I hope when it's all put together, it will be the perfect opening."

Thanks Claudia!