Interview With Actor Jim Beaver I interviewed Jim Beaver back in 1995. He played Henry (Golden Boy) Barnes in the LOIS & CLARK episode "I'm Looking Through You." Here's the whole interview and the L&C stuff is at the end. This was an email interview and so Jim's answers are written by him and I did no editing, or rephrasing of his answers. Okay, Jim, if you don't mind I'd like to get as complete a background on you as I can. I'd like to know where you were born and where you grew up, giving your age is optional. I never push that one. I was born in Laramie WY, but raised in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, primarily in Irving. I'm 44 (at the time of the interview). Was there a particular moment, or event in your life that sparked your interest in becoming an actor? Do you recall what your first paying job was as an actor? I don't recall a specific thing that made me want to be an actor. My father's a minister, so getting up in front of people is something I had some grounding in, role-model-wise. I was a movie buff as a kid, and after I got out of the service and went to college, I couldn't find any film history classes, so I signed up for theatre instead, thinking what the heck, it's close. The bug bit pretty hard, almost immediately. That was in '71, and I had my first paying acting job a year later, at the Oklahoma Theatre Center in Oklahoma City, in Somerset Maugham's RAIN, as a young Marine. I made $25 for 7 weeks work. Was there any time that you felt it was frustrating, and wanted to quit? There never was a time when I felt like quitting. That's probably why I've made it this far, never considering not doing this work. It's been plenty frustrating at times, as I was an actor for 17 years before I could support myself solely from acting. But give it up? Never! I can't do much else but write, and that's a LOT harder work. The hard part about acting is not the work, but getting the work. Before you became established as an actor, did you hold down other jobs while trying to squeeze in auditions and readings? If so, what types of non-acting jobs did you have? During the years I was struggling I had lots of "civilian" jobs. I drove a cab, made corn chips in a Frito plant, worked as a movie projectionist, a rental film inspector & shipper, a bartender, a waiter, an attendant for a paraplegic, a tennis club maintenance man, a bus driver, a messenger, a door-to-door pasta salesman, a disc jockey, a ghostwriter, and most fun of all, a gunfighter in a cowboy amusement park. I guess that covers it pretty much. Do you consider yourself a character actor known for solid performances in a particular role type? Yeah, I do consider myself a character actor. Very few of us qualify for leading roles, but most of the fun is in character stuff anyway. What do you consider your best screen performance to date? There was a time when I'd have said my best screen role was in Norman Jewison's IN COUNTRY, as Bruce Willis's alcoholic buddy. That was my breakthrough role, and one I'm very proud of. Of all my feature film roles, I guess that is my best work, in my own opinion. As a Vietnam vet, just like the character, it was very close to home. I've had some more prominent roles, but that probably had my most dramatic stuff in it. I'm also very proud of my work as Detective Gaddis on the REASONABLE DOUBTS series.* I adored the character (a chain-smoking homicide cop), and working with Mark Harmon was one of my all-time favorite experiences. Have you ever been in a film or TV role that you felt uncomfortable with? I've never had what you'd call an unhappy acting experience in film or tv, really, role-wise. Some are easier than others. I played a child-molester in a tv movie (FOLLOW YOUR HEART), and that bothered a lot of people close to me, but I just thought of it as another role - it didn't bother me to do the work. It made me no less comfortable to play a child-molester than to play a killer, which I've played many times. I was uncomfortable in that case only about hanging around the child actor in the film -only because I was supposed to be scary in the film, and the little girl should not be comfortable around me - so I didn't act friendly or hang around her between scenes. It's tough enough on a kid to play that stuff w/o the other actor confusing matters by being a nice guy off the set. I didn't want to be mean to her off the set, either, so I just kept to myself. Have you ever worked in the film or TV industry in a capacity other than as an actor? I've worked in the business in one real other capacity, as a writer. I've written (or co-written) a few screenplays and a lot of television. I wrote four episodes of the recent ALFRED HITCHCOCK series revival (and got an ACE Award nomination for one), as well as episodes of TOUR OF DUTY (CBS), VIETNAM WAR STORY (HBO), and the short-lived LONGARM (ABC). I've also occasionally worked as a grip on industrial films for a friend. Well, Jim, for this next part, instead of Q&A, I'd just like you to put it in your own words (oh no, an essay question!) I'd like you to tell the readers about your personal experience working on Lois and Clark. As to LOIS AND CLARK: I had just finished the 2nd season of REASONABLE DOUBTS when Mark Sobel, a director friend, brought me in to meet Deborah LeVine, the L&C producer, for the role of Henry Barnes, the invisible man in the episode "I'm Looking Through You." I was excited as a Superman fan to be up for a part on this new version. I got it, but not before I was informed that Deborah had considered giving me another role instead, one more in keeping with the detective role I'd been playing on REASONABLE DOUBTS. That other role was that of Inspector Henderson! Well, that would have been just too perfect. After all these years researching George Reeves's life story, to end up playing Bob Shayne's old part on the new Superman show! But the director, I'm told, insisted he wanted me for this villain, Barnes, and he got his way and someone else (or maybe no one, I don't know) would play Inspector Henderson. I had a great time on the show. I became the first actor on the new show to bounce bullets off Superman's chest, and I have a piece of the first wall Dean ever crashed through. Dean is a wonderfully friendly fellow, though a lot younger in age and style than old George was in the role. He's VERY strong. As we were rehearsing Superman's capture of Barnes, they gave me a metal (real) gun to rehearse with, so as not to waste the breakaway gun Dean was to bend in the actual take. But no one told Dean it was real, and in rehearsal, he took it out of my hand and broke it in two like it was plastic! Just like Superman! Then a few moments later, as we rehearsed the end of the shot, he asked the director how he should take me to the cops after capturing me. "Should I just carry him?" Dean asked, and before the director could answer, Dean grabbed me under the armpits and w/o bending, squatting, crouching, or grunting, lifted all 6'1", 175 pounds of me up over his head! I have trouble lifting a 6-year old over my head! I was very impressed with the Super-abilities of young Mr. Cain. Everyone on the show was very nice to me, especially Dean & John Shea. It was a tedious show to shoot, w/all the invisibility stuff. For that sort of stuff, you have to shoot it twice, once just shooting the empty room, then locking down the camera and covering everything w/green cloth, including all clothing and body parts that are supposed to be invisible. Then the special effects people take out everything green and match the two shots so that wherever there was green, now only the background shows. It takes a long, long time, and everything has to be just right. You can't put a visible hand behind something that's supposed to be invisible, because then the thing that's supposed to be visible disappears too. It's complicated, and the green foam rubber suits were very hot in a cramped set in August. Early in the shoot, Deborah LeVine mentioned that they were thinking of having Jack Larson guest, perhaps as Jimmy's father. I suggested that the should consider casting Phyllis Coates as Lois's mom. I know Phyllis fairly well, she's a terrific actress, and anyway, all the prior movies and shows have always given Noel Neill the guest shot, and I thought Phyllis would like to have a turn (and that fans would like seeing her.) Deborah said that was a great idea and got Phyllis's number from me and told me I could tell her. Well, I ran into Phyllis 6 months later, & she said she'd never heard from them. Then another couple months go by, and I get a call from the studio asking for Phyllis's number again, and then I hear that Phyllis is doing the role after all, but now I hear in the press that Teri thought up the idea only a week or so earlier, just prior to shooting! Well, I don't doubt that she had the idea independently of my suggestion the previous August, but I do hope Phyllis knows it was me, me, me, me, me, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....sorry. What I mean to say is that I don't care whose idea it was, I'm just glad they used her, because she's a great lady and it was so fun to see her again. L&C has been taken over by Bob Singer, my old REASONABLE DOUBTS producer. I wish I had another opportunity to do the show (the Return of Henry Barnes!), but THUNDER ALLEY will probably not allow that!I don't remember what credits I sent you, but there's nothing since BAD GIRLS. Lots of prior stuff tho! Anyway, that's the whole thing. Jim was very generous with his time and is a big Superman fan, so we have a lot in common :-) * Like Leslie Jordan having been cast in an episode of Robert Singer's series CHARLIE GRACE, Jim Beaver was cast in REASONABLE DOUBTS, another Singer production, but so was Leslie Jordan. Others from LOIS & CLARK who ended up with roles in REASONABLE DOUBTS include Kay Lenz, attorney Constance Hunter who represented Superman in the episode "Whine, Whine, Whine," Nancy Everhard, who played Mayson Drake who loved Clark, but hated Superman, Jim Piri, the much hated (by fans) Agent Daniel Scardino, and there were also writers and directors imported to this series. Lastly, Mark Harmon, who has no connection to L&C, was the lead actor of both REASONABLE DOUBTS and CHARLIE GRACE.