SIMON SAYS-HOLLYWOOD LIFE

From:HOLLYWOOD LIFE
Date:April 2005
By Sorina Diaconescu

As far as first-time forays into the Hollywood fray go,
Aussie thesp Simon Baker nailed a pretty spectacular one:
"I was the actor who ended up getting his throat slit in L.A.
CONFIDENTIAL," he notes. "The HUSH-HUSH magazine cover boy."

Though dispatched early on in that 1997 Oscar-winning pic,
he nabbed Hollywood's attention and spent the following years
steadily inching his way up to stardom, including a three-year
run as the lead on the CBS drama THE GUARDIAN, which was
cancelled last May. Baker -- off-screen an unpretentious,
soft-spoken and athletic man with a perpetuall dreamy
_expression -- now makes his home in Malibu, where he remains
somewhat removed from L.A.'s industry-town ambience.
"It's a little bit quieter out there. Occasionally I'll go
into town and shake my tail feathers, but then I come back
and retreat into a normalcy of sorts."

He may prefer to stay low-key, but with major roles in two
high-profile genre pics this year, the 35-year-old actor might
just find himself thrust into the limelight. In the sequel
to the enormously successful thriller THE RING, he explores
disturbing darklands with fellow Aussie actress (and chum)
Naomi Watts. "I play a character in the new town that
[she and her son] move to who sort of ... embraces them."
In the fall, he joins Asia Argento and John Leguizamo in
zombie movie pioneer George A. Romero's LAND OF THE DEAD.
"I never imagined myself doing a zombie movie, ever!
But I like the idea of not limiting myself. The aim is
to mix it up and have fun."