Issue date: April 22, 2001

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Q&A: Stephen Collins

Stephen Collins and the cast of "7th Heaven" are wrapping the fifth season of the WB's top-rated series about a pastor, his wife and seven children. USA WEEKEND's Patty Rhule talks with him about his hiatus plans and how he stacks up against Eric Camden in the perfection department.

Q: Are you as perfect as Eric?
A: No, I don't think anyone is as good at any of those things as Eric probably is. I've made a lot more mistakes in my life than he has. He's not perfect. Part of the beauty of the show in a way is that he's not perfect, but you can always count on him to do the right thing in a pinch. That's why he inspires people and inspires me. In my life, I've made a lot more mistakes and been more selfish and hurtful.

Q: Do you have children?
A: I just have one [a daughter, age 11]. When I went to work the first day of the show, I said to my wife, "I don't know what I'm doing." I never even heard of the show until 36 hours before it was offered. My wife said. "You're playing your brother Mike (who has six kids.)" My brother Mike is a great father, truly one of the best people I know. He also is a guy who keeps his sense of humor around his family. Part of the reason people like these characters is that he has that thing that Hemingway defined as grace and courage under pressure. I could conjure Mike.

Q: How does playing such a good character affect your everyday life?
A: There starts to be an overlap between you and the character. Most of the things at home, when people are angry, when I can remember to have a sense of humor about it, it almost always goes better. There's something about this character in the show that creates a lot of good will in people. It's one of the great gifts of doing this, people are genuinely touched by these characters ... There's an extra measure in the way people express themselves to me about the show. I might be on the plane, people will kneel down and say, "I don't want to bother you, but I want you to know how much my family enjoys the show."' That kind of thing happens to me all the time. In a way it's that that keeps me going. The fifth year of a series, when you're putting something out that really touches them, to me, it's such a gift. It came to me at a moment in my life when I had been really working on somany of the things that the show is about. How do you be in this crazy business and be a good parent? Mostly, how do you become a good person in this life, how do you make up for your mistakes? I don't think this show would have come to me 10 years ago. It continues to be this wonderful miracle. It happened that [co-star] Catherine [Hicks] and I are two of the only regular churchgoers I know. The rector of the church I attend is somebody I see almost every Sunday and he gives me wonderful feedback, he was someone I called on very early. I interviewed him about what's a day in the life like. He's become a really good friend.

Q: Where do you go to church?
A: I go to St. Matthews in Pacific Palisades, an Episcopal Church.

Q: So this role is making you a better person?
A: The show gives me something to shoot for. I might be in an airport, late or angry with a ticket person, and I'm going to sort of check myself, because part of me is seen as Eric Camden. We all need as much help as we can get. It's a role model to me as much as to anybody else.

Q: Do you find yourself playing the father role to the young people in the cast, for example, saying to Jessica Biel, you shouldn't have posed for "Gear" magazine?
A: When you put a group of actors together who get along, and we have since day one, they don't become like their roles. What tends to happen is their age disappears and they all deal with each other as friends. We're like brothers and sisters. I can't come on like a parent to these kids, if I do, I won't be able to have fun working with them. The good news is they all have parents. The younger ones, their parents by law have to be on set.
It's not like Jessica came to any of us and asked if it was a good idea. We talked about it after the fact. Jessie was the first one to know she'd made a big mistake. She'd been manipulated, lied to. She learned about 8 million lessons. I said to her, "You're not the first beautiful young actress who has been led down this road. A lot of people have been down this road and survived it." There was no uproar here at all. There just wasn't ... most of the people in the cast didn't even see the magazine. Everyone knew what had happened. It doesn't change anything.

Q: You're finishing your fifth season and marked your 100th episode. How long will the show go on?
A: It's pretty hard to predict. All I really know is we're on next year. I'm signed for another three seasons. Would I do it beyond that? Yeah, probably. For me, as long as [creator] Brenda Hampton stays with the show. We are the highest-rated show on the network for over three years. It's still one of the better kept secrets in show business. I think how long some of the kids will stay with the show is the question mark. Brenda has an incredible imagination. She did something this year I didn't think was going to work. Jessie Biel went to college back East in real life. She handled it with a story line that was really bleak. I was concerned it would send the feel-good audiences away. It didn't happen. Our ratings this year are up over last year. With that storyline, the ratings went through the roof. She brought a new character into the house and it's worked beautifully. I can't say enough about her ability to steer this ship creatively. I compare her to Frank Capra. She knows how to take good people and write them interestingly and endearingly. There are such delightful people who are struggling in life but somehow doing the right thing. We have tons of problems, huge problems, but because they are decent people they muddle through. I'm touched at how people need that.

Q: Does the schedule give you much time for other work?
A: We shoot nine months of the year. In the four hiatuses we've had, I've done three movies, a book tour, a play at Williamstown (Theatre Festival), there isn't time to do much more than that. I don't really want to be working the whole time.

Q: How does your daughter react to the attention the show is getting?
A: She's 11... There are times when we're out in public when she claims me more noticeably... she loves the show. My daughter won't just watch something because (her mother actress Faye Grant or I) are in it. She's a great source of feedback. Her friends, sometimes I go places with her and you see mouths drop a little bit. Then they just see you're one of the dads.

Q: You've written two novels and are working on a third. How is it going?
A: I started one three years ago on a book tour for the last book. I wrote the first two on forced breaks of unemployment as an actor. I have my doubts I'll be able to finish it while "7th Heaven" is going on. Writing a book is such a full-time job. If you're away for a few days, you have to start again.

Q: Is there a cliffhanger to the season finale this year?
A: We've always done a two-part finale. There is a cliffhanger aspect to it -- there's a couple of cliffhangers involving two of the daughters.

Q: Do you have plans for hiatus?
A: My family and I always go to Hawaii for spring break. After that, I don't know. I'm doing "Hollywood Squares" for the first time. I've been on "Jeopardy!"-- I can't believe I'm doing "Hollywood Squares"! I've known Whoopi [Goldberg, producer of "Squares"] for years. I spent 26 years in the business without ever knowing what I was doing a month from now. I kinda like it. In Hawaii, we go to this wonderful place, all families. My wife and I go directly from breakfast to a beach chair where we read all day. My daughter goes from water to pool to running around with friends she meets, some of whom are regulars there. I take four or five books and I get more reading done that week than the whole rest of the year. There are no phones in the rooms, no TVs, life slows down.

Q: What's on your reading list?
A: Two people in the past week have recommended "The Power of Now" [By Eckhart Tolle]. I have a wonderful book I've been reading. I went to Amherst, it's by a professor there, William Pritchard, "English Papers: A Teaching Life." It's sort of an autobiography of his academic life, what his life was like and the things they talked about at gatherings and parties. It's the most civil life.