The Grill:interview-Simon Baker

Byron Bay–raised, Los Angeles–based actor and father of three Simon Baker (The Guardian), 35, has landed his biggest Hollywood movie role in George Romero's zombie flick Land of the Dead.

From:Who Magazine
Date:Aug. 03, 2000
BY DI WEBSTER

You'd never made a zombie film before and I'd never seen one. Was it as traumatic for you as it was for me?

Not at all! It was actually a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.

Are your kids allowed to see it?

No. My kids have said to me on numerous occasions, 'When are you going to do a movie that we can see?' If you go through the movies that I've done, in L.A. Confidential my throat was slit, in Ride with the Devil I got shot through the throat and in Red Planet I got eaten by some sort of bug. There's a lot of movies where I've died.

How much of the Hollywood stuff - first nights, red carpets - do you get involved in?

The last premiere I went to voluntarily was Lords of Dogtown, because I was interested in seeing the movie. A friend of mine produced it and Heath (Ledger) was in it. I don't like being under the microscope so much. I've given into it a bit more, but I used to just walk down the red carpet and put my hand up and do the Cliff Young shuffle straight through.

I understand Nicole Kidman taught you to accept praise?

She didn't teach me, but she told me, "Simon, you've just got to learn to breathe and say, 'Thank you.'"

How had you been responding to compliments?

Ah, I'd go red, shake my head, look at the ground and say, "F--k off." It's like when you're playing under-12s footy and you score a try under the post. You don't pump your fist in the air and jump around. You run back to halfway, head down and trying not to smile even though every fibre in your body wants to jump up and down and pat yourself on the back. It's just not right to do that.

Your nickname growing up was Smiley. Does anyone still call you that?

Not anyone I've seen for a while, but maybe in the next week or two I'll run into a couple of people who will... (Wife) Rebecca has always given me shit about it, like it was a really bad nickname. I went to school with kids called Snot, so I thought I came up trumps with Smiley.

Who gave you the name?

Poodles (laughs). Joshua Raymond Black, a mate I met at my under-7s rugby league team, the Ballina Seagulls. And I still know him. I went to his wedding last year. He lives in Germany now.

I read a review that described you as a "wiry but well-muscled bloke who'd punch you in the nose if you refused him a 12th beer." Would you?

If I wanted a 12th beer, that would mean I'd had 11 beers ... It could be likely (laughs). Certainly not if my wife was out with me, I don't reckon that would be happening. She wouldn't let me have 12 beers. I'm not here to promote that kind of behaviour (laughs). I've probably threatened to punch people after 11 beers in the past, but the future's unknown. I don't know.

And anyone refusing you a 12th beer risks missing your Mick Jagger impersonation.

After 12 beers I might be doing more of a Keith Richards (laughs).

From Who Magazine。