UNIVERSE TODAY

Summer 1997 Vol. 5; Issue 3

Bruce Boxleitner, Babylon 5's Captain John J. Sheridan, has had a very ambitious acting career. Well known for his roles in the television series Scarecrow and Mrs. King and How the West Was Won, he has also appeared in four of the five Gambler miniseries and in the feature films TRON and The Babe. Bruce was recently awarded Sci Fi Universe's Reader's Choice Award as "Best Actor in a Genre Television Series."

Bruce portrays Sheridan as a very emotional character. Over the past couple of seasons his role has become increasingly dramatic. "That's all I seem to be dealing in lately as Sheridan: a lot of tragety going on, some very grim things happening. Today is a grim day... what we're going to shoot today. The day before yesterday was quite grim. I think when I first came on people were going, "who is this smiley character? This guy who was Mr. Cheeks-and-Dimple.' That's the way it was written, that's the way I was. You know it was quite a different thing than what was going on with Sinclair. Suddenly, Applecheeks is walking in and smiling and carrying on like, "Hey, I'm brand new here, hey everybody!' ...and then slowly I've been goint [makes sounds going down, down, down] as the story goes on. It's been a very long process and he's very much worn down now. he can barely crack a smile."

When Bruce joined the ensemble cast of Babylon 5 in the second season episode "Points of Departure", he had to quickly develop the character of Sheridan. "I started in the theater, and in the theater sometimes you understudied other parts while you played a part, and the one time I did get on Broadway, I joined a show when they needed an understudy. I studied everything. I got a few rehearsals. So that's the only thing I can liken it to. Suddenly I was called on, not in the same role, but suddenly, I had to jump into this mix here. It was like Sheridan had to run to catch up. He had to get up to speed with everybody else, and I think Joe [Straczynski] did too. They didn't have me specifically in mind, so those first couple of episodes, there was a generic Sheridan in there . . . whoever was going to be that character which Joe then kind of worked. The character was there, but I had to play it. Now the character and Bruce Boxleitner have become more one with the playing of it. In other words, that's Joe's artistic ability and what is implied in television writing. They have to take the actor and start listening to the voice, watching . . . that starts to go with what you're doing with the character. Because television is a personality medium. It really is. "When I came in and met on this, I had heard about the show,. I'd seen the show a couple of times, but I didn't give it much thought. But when, a few w eeks later, after hearing from a fan club person that they were looking for somebody to bring on to BABYLON 5, I said, 'Well, that would be fun, terrific ... and what next?'

Then, two weeks later, I hear from my managers, 'Do you want to go up to Sun Valley and meet with Doug Netter and John Copeland?' - who I'd worked with before about ten years ago - and I said, 'Oh yeah, I'd like to.' They said they're looking to find a new guy for BABYLON 5. I said, 'Well okay,' and they sent me some scripts just a couple of days ahead so I could get an idea, and then also the last two episodes of the first season so I could get an idea [of the show and story line]. Then I went up there and met. For me, at this point in my career and my life, this job (because we look at it as a job), kind of answered a lot things for me. It was so nice and different - different from what I'd been doing - that's what I was looking for, and it appeared. Something different, a new atmosphere, something... a new kind of material, so it presented itself. I read these scripts. I loved this wonderful mythology that Joe had created. This history, it was so detailed, and these characters and how they interwove. This great mythology that had never happened, but yet had resonance in things that we kind of recognize, history and so forth. I walked in and I said, 'Well, who do you have to know, to get on this show?' I think I really had to meet Joe because Doug and John knew me. He was the final one.

"As for the name, Sheridan ... there were all kinds of things [going on]. Joe was actually, bandying about a few different names, and we came to that one because I'm kind of a Civil War buff. Phil Sheridan was the General of the Cavalry in the Army ... and Joe knew about my horses... and we talked about things like that. I said I had some Civil War ancestry. Now, obviously, we had 'J' and 'S' there. You notice there's sort of a consistency there: Jeffrey Sinclair ... John Sheridan ... Joe Schmoe (laughs). So I don't know, I may be way off base, but at least that's the way I perceived it at first, and then I was very excited when I got the offer to do it. Running in when there's another character that's very popular, it's a daunting task. I likened it to what Sheridan had to do. He's a military officer. He received his orders to change his post and in the military you follow what the higher-ups say, so I did. I tried to do it to the best of my ability"

Bruce feels that in a way Sheridan's qualities are an extension of his own. "The thing that Joe had written was a much more mercurial character in that he was impulsive about things, about actions. And what Joe felt, at this point in the story, was required. Sinclair was a much more deeper character. You notice all of these characters, all of the people, the humans, are tremendously dysfunctional human beings. That's what I loved about them ... I loved about him. I think that I have tried to use some of my own life's experiences in this... in tackling things. You know, the wife [Anna Sheridan], Z'ha'dum, all of that. I think that's some of my own character coming back. That would have outraged me, because I was lied to, and tht's the way Bruce Boxleitner very much reacts to something. I tend to get very loud about things, and lose my "impulse to temper'... I was told by a therapist once. Yeah, (laughs) well, Sheridan happens to have that too. So I guess maybe Joe sees that. I can be very opinionated and I think that there's nothing subtle about Sheridan. And maybe these things are good things to have. These are not perfect human beings. These are people who have faults, and you want your heroes, today, in the "90s, to have some kind of layers. Yet, you also have to stick to a certain "these are the good guys, these are the bad guys.' We cannot be perfect people. We have to have flaws to identify with. I think I try to emphasize that he's a pompous son-of-a-bitch sometimes, and he tends to speechify. There's a certain arrogance about him. These are wonderful things. Maybe that's what I bring to him (laughs), that arrogance, I don't know. "I think I brought a certain energy and humor to him and that's important to have. Maybe we'll see that again. It's like people even in the worst of times we still maintain our humor because we've got to laugh. Things are so horrendous sometimes you need to smile. so we do. We still try to. You'll see this in the next few episodes coming up. He's a total wacko in one episode coming up, just a total giggling fool because he's got this great idea and he just gets crried away like a big kid about it. And you'll see that come in, so maybe that's going to help alleviate some of the gloom and doom." Bruce has passion for history, which works out well if you work for BABYILON 5. "This is a historical show, it really is. There are all kinds of elements in Babylon 5, and I know this from Joe. I came on and the very first thing I said on this show was a fantastic speech by Abraham Lincoln.

"John Copeland has had this passion for the Flying Tigers. He went to this reunion months ago and filmed these gentlemen, the last of them, they're getting less and less, they're all in their 70s and 80s, and did interviews with them for a documentary that National Geographic is very interested in. I did the narration, I'm the least part. So, we both have this interest, and I have a lot of similar interests in American history. We sent the General of the Air Force who was heading this reunin of the Flying Tigers some Starfury wings that he's finally earned. I signed a picture to him, and... Got, he got a big kick out of it! He talked to John and said he loves the idea, the concepts [on B5], and the Air Force is working on several things. They're very much influenced by these things that they see on this show. Yeah, the Starfury is a conceivable flying thing. NASA's been very interested in that as a possible work platform to be able to build the space station with... that type of thing. It could carry a lot of stuff and be maneuverable. The pilot can carry his tools and do what needs to be done in that kind of configuration and it's a possible thing Joe might have talked to them about that last year. They were kind of interested in it as a prototype. So out of fiction again, science fiction becomes fact.

"But I think there are a lot of elements of world history that we're seeing in here, and influences, certainly all by Joe, of the various mythological things from [King] Arthur to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, to all of these things. There isn't any one, but certainly there are influences on Joe, he's very well read in fantasy, science fiction, and history, so when all of this was his brain child, he incorporated all of those things in here. So, World War II is very much involved in this. There are elements from our Civil War in this. Even my Captain's name springing out of it. He didn't need to do that."

Bruce agrees that at times Babylon 5 parallels humankind's history. "You just project it into a place where we'd see it again, and I think that very much Star Wars was that way. Star Wars, the original movie, was all the various old genre of pictures: the swashbucklers, the war movies, all those things were put n there in a different look. So, I'm anxious to see how this turns out. I really am. I mean plot-wise it's really going some place, oh boy. And, we already know so much more than you do (laughs)!"

Would Bruce think of doing anything other than act: "I really don't know. I mean, as of right now, it's the only thing I can do to make a living, so if I hit some mid-life crisis and wanted to do something else, I don't have the skills to do it... unless I want to go out and throw a rope at cows on somebody's ranch and be a fence post mender, but that's too hard work (laughs). No, I don't know. I just always had a love for television and movies. I'm, ironically, living the dream. I'm living what I always wanted to do. I cannot remember wanting to do anything else, usless, maybe I wanted to be a farmer. To be an actor requires a very vivid imagination. As a boy, I didn't need a lot of playmates to have a good time. I used to watch TV shows or go to the movies and I would play those things I saw. I'm sure that's not unlike a lot of people, but I would play it for weeks, playing all aspects. So, obviously, I was doing that. I'm actually doing what I always wanted to do and that was be on a series. Not many people can say that in this life they achieve what they always set out to do."

Bruce feels that as an actor he still has plenty of room to grow. "The wonderful thing about this occupation is that it never gets stale. The things that one has to go through, that work on your own - you have to use yourself. It's not like a painter can paint, a sculptor can sculpt, the criticism of your work is the criticism of you. They're not getting any nicer about it either - they're attacking you as a person now more and more. It gets savage now, they comment on things that no other person would be able to handle, but we have to be used to that. Rejection is the name of the game, constantly. You know the old thing: you can't please everybody all the time. You've got to know that going in. There are just as many people that like what you're doing that night, as some saying 'God, I hate this guy,' or, 'I hate this woman.' They're saying that about you. It's not about your painting up on the wall. But I think that the wonderful side of this is that it's always challenging, you're always learning something new. Yeah, there are tricks you can use, but that's nothing. I feel I try to do something to bring something more. Some days, it's not possible. Some days your other life, your real life, you bring to work like everybody does. I drive home and I sit and I think about everything I did that day; I should have done it totally different. The Director will tell you that he does the same thing. He'll go, 'Ah, there's something I missed!' You know, all those little things. If you don't do that, you're not a conscientious actor. You're not trying. So, I think, in this role, there are people who could possibly say, 'Oh, it's just the good guy role.' And no, it's not wearing the wonderful makeup and having who I think are the finest actors on the show. Andreas Katsulas, I mean, his ability to come through that plastic and glue and really come out in character. We human characters, we have to do something. We can't hide behind those masks, I think, and so, you're actually a little more exposed (laughs). And so the good guy role isn't just something that's easy to do. The hero, or playing the hero, is not just an easy thing; and in everything you're always criticized, 'It's not acting, he's just being himself.' I beg to differ, I'm not this guy [Sheridan]. So this guy I'm portraying, this square-jawed type of guy is not easy to play. They may think it is, but it isn't. What I'm trying to say is it's not as immediately interesting... 'Oh my God, how does he do it? Look at the red, beady eyes!"'

What is a typical workday like for Bruce? "I walked in this morning. I got into makeup, and the makeup trailer's always an adventure (laughs), and then walked up to camera twice. And now I'm sitting around waiting. The typical day for any television set [is] there's a lot of time down. And a few moments of absolute terror (laughs) . . . or was that war (laughs)? It depends, it realIy depends. Some days are lighter than others. A lot of lighting, elaborate stuff, so you just have to sit and pace yourself. I've got a lot of words at the end of this day, the culmination scene, and it's got to be very forceful, commanding. I tell you about actors. It's very tiring sitting, waiting, and you want to go, 'Please, can we do this in the morning when we're fresh?' because by the end of the day, it's very difficult." Bruce describes the process of memorizing those long historical speeches that Sheridan is known for. "It's not getting any easier. You know, after many episodes, you can only absorb so much, believe it or not. Sometimes there are days when you have trouble with it. There are days when it just comes out and the memorization is very easy. I can sit and look at it for five minutes and then go in. And some days, depending on the material I have to go through, I try to look at it at least a day or two ahead of time and start just familiarizing myself with the ideas of the speech. 'What's my objective here?' . . . all those basic homework things that an actor has to do when he's looking at a speech. 'What am I trying to do here, what am I starting with this scene, and what am I supposed to accomplish?" Every character has something to accomplish in a scene. So, that's what I start to do, then the words, and some days it just isn't there. I had a scene down at the very beginning of this episode that I thought was very easy. 'I'll knock this off.' I waited all day. And then I'm going, 'Everybody wants to go home. I just cannot get this speech. . . .' It's the end of the day and take after take, and my professional pride starts to feel humiliated that I'm doing it in front of all these extras. I've got Peter and Andreas sitting in back of me in this scene, So there's no guarantee. Now I've got this scene down cold tonight. I feel pretty confident. Sometimes Joe hands you dialogue because he knows you can do it, but it's not about me talking to you, it's no about something an actor can relate to, it's all these big, grandiose things when we're meeting with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds, and all the alien races are there, and we're talking about all of these things that are very hard to relate to. S, they don't just jump to your mind. You can't get holy about it, or one on one, or let me talk to you, how I feel about this. Which is what happened to Peter later that night. He had a scene in which he's talking to G'Kar. It's the personal stuff between these two characters that's so wonderful. I'll sit and watch their scenes - I love to watch them, you know - and so they don't have those big pronouncements that I have.

"It's no use learning it a week ahead of time. You're not going to get to it. Like I said, I just mainly look about a day or two [ahead]. When I get the script, I read it all the way through, get the gist of it. Then pretty much the night before, or even sometimes the day of, I pretty much get it down. Then we have several run throughs, stumble-throughs, then we've got it. Then we work off each other if we've got a big ensemble scene with al of us. We've got to hear each other. It's one thing memorizing just your part, but then suddenly we all have to create it into a conversation where we're talking to each other.

"I will say we have no room here for changing dialogue. On any other TV show I've ever been on, we could change it. The writers had no say about it, so if you wanted to paraphrase it in a way that you could say it better, but still say the same thing, it was always perfect for you. We don't have tht. It is not a democracy here, this is a dictatorship (laughter)! Actually, if it's something you just can't get your mouth around, all the big man [Joe Straczynski] asks is "come to me and let me try to find something that will work.' But I like the challenge of saying the exact line, so I'm telling you everything you hear from my mouth is exactly as it's written on the page and you really can't say that about any other TV show that's on the air. Generally, the stars of any other shows, have much more power than any of the writers. And then they would say it like I would say it and hmmm, that's the way it is. You have the idea of what you're saying in your head, but what if you said instead of a "but' or an "and' or something... you said something else. I just cut right there because I know damn well that's not what it was, and that takes you out of the scene, when you suddenly realize you haven't said the same thing. But like any kind of classical verse or anything, you can't just start saying your own thing in Shakespeare or Ibsen or any of those. You can't just start paraphrasing, so we treat this material as such saying the exact thing, especially when it's very technical stuff. You have no freedom with the thechnicalities, because who can think up anythng like that, you know? But Claudia and I have to sound like we've been saying this a lot, and that was hard for me first coming on this series. I feel much more adept and comfortable with it now, but it was very daunting... to sound as though you've been saying this for years, these kind of things.

"You notice all those classical characters are from Greek tragedy. All of those things. I'm dealing with a ship called the Heracles right now... the Vesta... the Nemesis... all of these characters, and have to whip those out as though you know what you're talking about (laughs)."

Bruce describes some of Babylon 5's upcoming episodes a his favorites. "I think the one we're doing now is a standout: No Surrender, No Retreat. Basically in the last few episodes we've been off station on Mars and Minbar, so there's a minimum of things being done here [on the station]. We're back at the station right now and then we go to the White Star fleet, but we're getting a nice big leap in the direction of Earth. It's rreally moving along. This particular episode really is furthering the plot by a giant leap, and I get some good Sheridan stuff to do, some good, ah... kicking stuff (laughs)! Yeah!

"The storyline between Sheridan and Garibaldi becomes a little more intriguing, Jerry and I hadn't really done anything with each other in the last few episodes when he left after Z'ha'dum - really didn't deal [with each other] for four or five episodes - and now, suddenly, it's back and it's a whole different dance. Very different. I don't think it's going to be a very comfortable thing for the fans. They're not going to like it. It's going to really upset them. I hope it's going to upset them. We had a nice relationship. We had an interesting relationship. Sheridan and Garibaldi are wary of each other, but had, because of circumstances, a certain friendship going, and a certain trust in each other. And all of that gets blown out an air lock.

"I like those, I like when we get to those human conflicts. I love all this - the worlds are fighting each other and all their things going on. But what I really like, what I think a segment of fans [too] really like, is when we get in this stuff between people, because that's what you can more directly relate to. The other stuff is fascinating. The Minbari, the Narns. I like all the stuff... the standout stuff, Peter and Londo's whole thing with Cartagia. I loved watching that because I'm not any part of it. I can sit as a fan and watch, and I loved that. I wanted to slap that Cartagia's face! (laughter) you know? I really did. And I love Peter's trail of Londo's coming around. That's the guy we love. He turned into such a dark character for a while and such an unscrupulous creep, selling out, betraying the Narn, and then betraying himself. Every character has some time when he goes to darkness and then there's redemption and that's played in all heroic sagas in every culture... Joseph Campbell's writings, Hero With A Thousand Faces."

Bruce has worked with many memorable guest stars on Babylon 5. "Brad Dourif, I thought was very good in that sweet, sweet episode [Passing Through Gethsemane]... I love who plays Brother Theo [Louis Turenne], I mean he's not a famous guest star, but he's been a reoccurring character. We've had some marvelous ones: Roy Dotrice was a marvelous one last season as the Ministry of Peace guy. Oh... Jeff Corey... who for the acting profession here in this town, I mean, my God, he's only been in some great films. See, I love it when we get these guys that were in great movies... and I love to just listen. "Tell me some stories about working on...' whatever the heck it was. And, of course, Jeff has been an acting coach for many, many years. Adam Nimoy and Leonard went to Jeff's classes. Melissa [Gilbert, Bruce's wife] studied with Jeff Corey when she was in her later years in Little House on the Prairie... when she was trying to get out of that little girl role, she went and did that. It was great... and those eyebrows, you know (laughter)? I sat there... amazed with his facial hair moving.

"Back in my very first season, I loved Michael Ansara. I love that character, the Technomage. I'd love to see them come back in some way. I don't know if that plays in any way into the rest of the arc, but certainly they would be great characters to have again when we spin off too. Michael Ansara had speeches that were so wonderfully wirtten, but so complex... magical stuff. I took such pleasure because this man [has done so much], when I was a boy he had a series called Broken Arrow, and he played Cochise. And he was one of the original Klingons in Star Trek. And they carry such experience, and I respect that, and I want to hear from them and learn from them. So we get an opportunity to do that many times.

"I think the universe for this show is going to open up much more after we're done with this arc. Oh man, then there's no stopping where we can go with it because it will be a whole new ball game."

Does Bruce have a specific role in mind after Babylon 5 runs its course? "I think we're always looking for new things. Babylon 5 is really taking up everything, as it should be, and all my energies are focused, there's not really anything I have planned ahead. I have some scripts and things like that they'd like to have [done]. I am looking forward to enhancing our relationship - my personal career relationship with TNT - because in television they are the only ones doing period peices and they love this show. They anxiously bid for it and got it. Plus the merger with Warner Bros. has only helped. That is why we're goint to do these movies this summer. That's why we're not even thinking about something else for the hiatus, or what will be the next thing should we not get picked up.

"We're going to be able to watch this from prequel [movie] all the way through [the pilot, the series in order and another movie from the fouth season time period]. That's a marvelous thing, and it's going to pick up new people. Some of the kids that were just a tad young to really understand everything. I have an 11 year old - he loves to watch it once in awhile, but once we start talking a bunch, it loses him, because it's over the top of a lot of kids, but they do love the aliens and the CGI scenes.

"I've watched more of the old Star Treks now than I ever did when it was originally on, and I do remember seeing it once in awhile... but that's just one of those things. I wasn't in the mood for that when I was a teenager, but now it's much more interesting"

Would Bruce mind being recognized as Captain Sheridan for the rest of his career? " Well, I don't know about that (laughs). I'm very optimistic that this show could run for a long time, in whatever incarnation... like Star Trek did. It certainly has estblished itself, which I'm very proud to say, and I would love to play this. Right now I think all of us, our conviction is to see this through, and yeah, I think that's what I want to do. I don't know if that's the rest of the career, but certainly, I don't feel like ending it now. I really don't. I'd like to continue with this, and I hope the powers that be will do that.

By Cecilia Andrew, Mike Zmuda, and Sandra Bruckner

Thanks Karen H and Claudia!