Interview: “Au Pair’s” Gregory Harrison

Nice Girls had the opportunity to chat with actor Gregory Harrison in a conference call. However, due to some technical difficulties (BethAnne didn’t know how to use her shiny new version of Skype), all we could do was listen in. We didn’t want you to miss out, though, so here is the transcript of that interview.

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Question: I was wondering, what originally drew you to the role in Au Pair 1?

G. Harrison: Well, I thought it was a really charming, wonderful script. You know at the time, that was the year 2000, believe it or not, and it just seemed like it was a humanized character who came from big business, and it just felt like there was a sense of humor and a kind of bonding within the family that I thought was universal and would resonate with people. It was a character unlike any that I had really played before. I’ve played a lot of big shots, so to speak, in my life, but this guy had a kind of sweetness that I had seldom seen in characters that I’ve been offered and I wanted to go there with this character.

And as we were making the movie I also realized that there was a kind of sweetness in the family as a whole. And I think that is why the first one did so incredibly well in the ratings and deserved to become part of a franchise, you know, that it led to the next two.

Question: Well, we are on Au Pair 3, how does the cast continue to maintain such great chemistry between each other?

G. Harrison: I don’t know that we do anything on purpose to make that happen. It existed in the first one. We became very close friends. I do look at those two kids then as family members of mine and now they’ve grown up and become these young adults that I continue to think of paternally. And they kind of welcome it. I think we just have a really nice chemistry together that continues to translate well to the screen.

Question: And what’s been your most memorable moment you’ve had from filming Au Pair 3?

G. Harrison: Gosh, we had so much fun in Puerto Rico. We were up in the rain forest and we were shooting a lot of scenes – sort of struggling to act nonchalant and relaxed in a situation that was filled with mosquitoes and lots of hot sun. And you know it’s one of those – typical of acting in most movies there’s a lot of external, bothersome elements that you have to pretend don’t exist. So we had a lot of fun with that and we bonded even more with that.

When I was surfing, there’s a scene, I think you’ve seen it probably in the promos where I’m actually surfing because I am a surfer, but my son, Jake Dinwiddie – in the movie his name is not Jake, that’s who he really is – had to go out and surf – try to surf. And he has never surfed in his life. And what little you see of him failing in the movie was just a small taste of just how badly he ate it in real life. And I tell you, all of us showed up at the dailies the next day to watch that footage because we had tears running down our faces with what a, in surf lingo, what a kook he was. And I’m not sure he’s lived that down yet.

Question: You talk some about the relationships between the characters, but what kinds of different challenges were there to film this movie compared to the other two, or was it just more of the same?

G. Harrison: You know all of the movies had their specific challenges because they were all shot on locations that were not necessarily film-friendly. They were all very cinematic and beautiful, but we had to struggle. You know a television movie is shot on a very tight schedule and weather and language and all these other things can interfere with that schedule. And we had the same problems in Puerto Rico, you know, not everyone spoke English. Despite the fact that it’s a territory of the U.S. it’s mostly Spanish down there. And we were shooting, as I said, earlier in the rain forest much of it. And there’s only like one road that goes around the entire outside of the island and we shot in all four corners of that island, so we often had to make moves in the middle of the day and we’d run into traffic jams and not be able to get to our location in time to really do justice to how many shots we had to get.

It was just – it was a constant struggle against the sun, the mosquitoes, the elements of tropical weather. It was a rough go as film making goes, but on the other hand, I don’t want to sound like it wasn’t fun. I mean we are shooting in a tropical place that’s beautiful and being stuck in traffic in Puerto Rico is a heck of a lot better than being stuck in traffic in LA, let me tell you.

Question: That’s true. Well, what was your favorite part then about working on the show?

G. Harrison: That I finally was able to actually surf on film, something I’ve been doing since I was nine. It really is probably the passion of my life, and I was actually able to spend a couple of days just filming beach and surf and being probably closer to who I am than anything else I’ve done.

Question: What was your favorite scene or even favorite out of the three movies? I take it then that’s what you enjoyed the most.

G. Harrison: Yes, that’s true. It really is where I’m most comfortable. You know I was born on an island and any time you put me on an island I’m feeling at home. Anytime you put me in the ocean, I’m feeling even more comfortable than when I’m on land. So I was in my element.

Question: What is your favorite thing about working with Heidi?

G. Harrison: Oh, Heidi is just a really wonderful human being. And you know besides the obvious attributes of her beauty, she’s got a kind of sweetness and nobility combination that I think attracts the audience. And it certainly was attractive to me the first time I met her. And she’s easy to work with – you know always accessible and interested in the same things I’m interested in – you know in making the best possible film even under duress and kind of gorilla film making techniques that we sometimes had to employ in all three of these to try and get the best of the locations.

And she was always game. She’s always willing. And I really enjoy her company and I think it’s mutual. And she loves kids, too. She actually has a couple of her own now. So I think that she really enjoyed, as I think it translates in the film, she really enjoys spending time with our movie kids and they totally accepted her as the role of mom.

Question: That is just wonderful. And that leads me right into my next question, what is your favorite thing about working with Katie and Jake?

G. Harrison: Katie and Jake are – you know they’re not only adorable at first glance, as you get to know them you also see a mischievous side that I’m not sure that any of our movies really do justice to just how mischievous those two can be, particularly with each other. They’re brutally mischievous with each other and I can’t even go into some of the things that they have done to humiliate each other while we were on locations. But they’re pranksters and they make each other laugh and they are relentless. And I just love hanging around that and watching them do it.

They’ve done a few things to me, but nothing serious. I think actually there’s a video on the Web site that shows Jake took great glee in that Katie locked herself out of her room under a balcony one night. And he actually went out and videoed her. Rather than getting help to get her off the balcony, he videoed her stuck out there for the longest time just so that he could put it on the Web site and humiliate her.

Question: I know that you guys had a very tight film schedule, but did you manage to get in any vacation time while you were in such a beautiful location?

G. Harrison: Oh, yes, yes, yes. First of all, a lot of what we shoot is on the locations that if you were a tourist you would go to anyway.

And Puerto Rico is just filled with beautiful landscapes – some really interesting history in San Juan. And then it has the rain forest, which we shot a lot in, and that’s world class rain forest with lots of environmental and ecological tours and information. And we took advantage of all of it. We shot in all four sides of that island and of course I got to surf. And I did surf – every time I was off I found myself surfing one side or the other of that island. So yes, we had five weeks there and I felt like I really knew it by the end of it.

Question: Since it’s been a little while since the last movie, I was just curious why the decision was made to make the third one at this point?

G. Harrison: You know I think that’s a very good question, and I was more wondering why it hadn’t been made earlier because the first two were so successful. But I learned long ago as an actor not to question the higher authorities. They have their own agenda and their own rationale. But I’ll tell you two or three years after Au Pair 2 I thought okay, that’s it, Au Pair 3 will not be happening. So I was very surprised when six years after Au Pair 2 we got the call. But I was pleased and I know the whole cast, that’s why we’re all back because everybody was thrilled and looked forward to the chance to have a reunion and make another one.

Question: Are there any plans in the work for a fourth movie?

G. Harrison: Not to my knowledge, but then again like I say I don’t always know what they’re up to on the – up in the suits – the people who wear the suits they make those choices. So I don’t always know. I guess we’ll probably see how this one does and then that decision will be made later.

Question: That sounds good. And besides the fans of the previous movies, what kind of new viewers would you expect for Au Pair 3?

G. Harrison: You know maybe a new generation of the same kind of viewers. I think it’s people who want, you know it’s families who want to watch television that appeals to the youth but also appeals to the adults on some levels. And that’s what the first two did. Now in 2009 I think there’s a whole lot of new kids around who weren’t even old enough to watch the movies in 2001 and 2003 and so they’ll be watching it. So hopefully they’ll just be adding in to the overall audience.

Question: So you talked some about the kids on the set pulling pranks and that. Can you tell us, I don’t know, something funny that happened or one of the pranks they pulled maybe even on you or each other?

G. Harrison: No, not really. I mean I can’t remember anything specific that is clean enough for me to discuss publicly. But you know suffice it to say that text messaging will never be the same for me. They text message each other some of the strangest things and questionable in terms of taste and cleanliness, too. But they make themselves laugh so hard. And of course on the set they’ll always do whatever they can to break somebody up on camera. Bugs were used often, because there are a lot of bugs in Puerto Rico, sand fleas and cockroaches and whatever – you never knew what you were going to find placed somewhere in your clothes, your shoe, your handbag, whatever. It’s just relentless and endless, but extraordinarily funny too.

Question: Now I know that you’ve directed a lot in your career. Have you ever thought of writing the scripts?

G. Harrison: Oh, yes. I’ve actually done a lot of writing, but I’ve never finished a screenplay off. What I do is either come up with treatments and then hire writers, you know I’ve developed and produced a lot of movies over the years. So I sort of oversee the writing of things and then when I get the finished product sometime on the set I will end up doing some rephrasing and editing.

But no, I haven’t actually sat down and just said I’m going to be the writer on this and start from scratch and hand in a finished product. I guess really what I’m trying to do is create good roles for myself and to do that I need to be the producer and the executive producer where I hire people to develop projects or buy books and hire a writer to translate it into a screenplay for me.

Question: Do you enjoy, though, being in front of or behind the camera more?

G. Harrison: In front of – I really love it. I really love acting. I love the craft, whether it’s in front of a camera or in front of an audience. I love performing for people and making people feel things. But I really don’t enjoy the process of producing and directing as much. I like to create good roles for myself as an actor.

Question: What would be your dream role if you could have any role you wanted?

G. Harrison: You know it changes day-to-day. If you asked me tomorrow it would be different than whatever I might answer today. As I look in the mirror and I go well, I guess you’re not going to play that young leading man anymore, well then I have to let that dream role go and go to the next one. I really don’t have a dream part. I love doing musicals. I love doing theater. That’s it. I never know what else is going to come along down the road, so I just stay open to things.

Question: I wanted to ask kind of a followup if you thought maybe that was part of the reason they waited so long for the third one and if that’s something that they strive to do each time.

G. Harrison: You mean because of availability and all that?

Question: Yes, maybe or like them getting old enough to justify the next step in the story.

G. Harrison: Right. You know that might be the case. Really, I don’t think so. I think that it finally just occurred to someone, you know the reruns of Au Pair 1 and Au Pair 2 are doing better than our original programming, maybe we should make a third one. I think it just was as simple as a smart business decision that finally became evident. You know I don’t think that they were holding off because they couldn’t come up with a story or something.

Question: Right, but do you think they do strive to try to get the core – obviously they got the core cast back, but-

G. Harrison: Yes, absolutely. I don’t think it would have been made if we hadn’t been able to put the core family together. It’s a bit jarring when somebody in the family has a different face. It’s like watching one of those soaps where the same character-you know he just appears one day and he’s got a whole new face the next day.

Question: Where do you draw your inspiration from in your portrayal of this character of Oliver Caldwell?

G. Harrison: Well, you know the nice thing about this character is that he doesn’t act like your typical CEO rich guy. He wasn’t written that way. He doesn’t deal with his family typically as one would think the CEO does. This character, what I liked about him in the original, and has continued to be a through line for the character, is that he struggles with the balance between business and his family, that it never actually is in good balance. Excuse me one second. There we go – had a little delay there.

It’s never really in good balance and it’s a constant dilemma for him. Well that’s true in my own life. I’ve always been fighting. I have four kids who are all in their late teens or early twenties now and I’ve never found a happy balance between my work and my family. But I’ve always tried. I always strive for it. So I related to Oliver on that level tremendously and that really is I think the strongest part of his character through line. You know and it’s easy – I mean you play a scene in a plane or you play it in a tent, the scene is the same. You know if it’s his private jet or if it’s in a banged up old car the emotions of the scene are the same. So it’s really not about anything else regarding this character. It’s about what’s in his heart and what his priorities are.

Question: What got you started in acting in the first place?

G. Harrison: You know I grew up on Catalina Island and it was used as a kind of poor man’s Hawaii in show business, people would go there to shoot scenes that were supposedly in Hawaii or Tahiti or the Mediterranean. And I watched movies being shot there as I was a child. And my father, who ran the Glass Bottom Boat, was often hired to take casts and crews out to the various bays and coves of the island and drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the evening. So I met a lot of actors and I watched a lot of movies being filmed and I just went, this is not magic, this is a craft. This is a job. I can do this job. And I loved movies. I loved going to movies and I loved the magic that was being created on a screen. But when I saw that it was just like a complicated puzzle, I thought okay, I can do that. And I was lucky, at 15 years old I knew what I wanted to be and never wavered from it. I didn’t work until I was about 26, but I studied for many years and prepared myself. I always knew that that’s what I would be, so that’s what happened. That’s how I became an actor.

Question: Do you have any new projects coming up besides Au Pair 3?

G. Harrison: Yes, I’m filming a movie right now – a TV movie – actually it’s a miniseries called Maneater for Lifetime. And it’s a four-hour miniseries and it stars Sarah Chalke, who’s the beautiful young blonde actress in Scrubs, and it’s a comedy and she’s wonderful in it. Maria Conchita Alonso and I play her parents, and there’s a terrific big cast and it’s going to be terrific. It comes out May 30th and 31st on Lifetime.

And I have a couple of feature films I’ve done that are in the can that – I think Love ‘N Dancing is coming out with Billy Zane and Amy Smart – coming out next month in May. And then I just shot another feature called Give ‘em Hell, Malone with Ving Rhames and Thomas Jane. And the release date is yet to be announced on that.

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Be sure to tune in tonight at 8/7 central, on ABC Family, for the premiere of Au PAir 3. It will immediately follow Au Pair 1 and 2.