Issue date: May 2, 1999
Mark Harmon, who plays the off-putting orthopedic surgeon Jack
McNeil on the Wednesday night drama Chicago Hope, was between
scenes on his first day of directing an episode when he made good
on his promise to call me. Because it was the third time we talked,
I knew Harmon to be easy-going, loquacious -- but most of all, thoughtful.
With his warning that he might have to run back to the set at any
moment, we jumped right into it.
Is
this your first time directing anything? Well, I'm just
beginning to direct where I'm now a guild member, yeah.
What
does that mean, you were illegally directing before? (Laughing)
No, no. Just that for all intents and purposes this is the first
time for me.
So
do you like it so far? It was something I needed to
try to do and this is certainly the group to try to do it with.
(The Hope cast) are terrific people both in front and behind the
camera and they are all friends. I'm thankful to get the opportunity
and I hope I don't mess it up.
Some
people would say it's scarier to direct the people you work with;
that'd be easier to be in charge of strangers. Not me,
I'm a team guy. You don't battle egos on this show. It's always
been about the work. I've survived my first day, so ...
Is
it the way you want to go from here? For me it's always
been about learning new things, growing, establishing some longevity.
The fact that I've been doing this for 20 years is in some ways
invigorating for me. I like this work a lot. What I like most about
it is that you can grow and change. I've always known that you don't
do that without risking things, without pushing the limits. This
is the time to try this. I always thought if the opportunity presented
itself i should take it.
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A
lot of our readers ask about your other career plans -- meaning
movies. Part of the reason I looked forward to Chicago
Hope is that before I was in New Mexico or in New Guinea or
Australia or France and we have a young family and I was missing
chunks of it. The location stuff is a different deal. I didn't enjoy
it as much. Basically that's what (an actor's) life is- - you pack
a bag, you go where the work is. But, for me, I realized you don't
get that time back. I like this job for a number of reasons but
one of them is, most days I have a chance to make breakfast and
take 'em to school or to read 'em a bedtime story. It's almost like
a normal life.
How
old are the kids now? 10 and 6.
You
and I talked once when you were doing (the detective drama) Charlie
Grace, which I liked. I'm not sure we got much of a chance.
It was the first show I had any part in producing. It was a real
learning experience -- a good one, a positive one.
You
were -- and are -- an athlete. It's the one similarity you and your
character have. McNeil and I are very different people.
That was the one thing (the producers) said they'd do when they
talked to me about joining the cast. They said, "We don't even know
what kind of surgeon he is. All we know is that he wears clogs."
McNeil is the guy you hope does your surgery but not the kind of
guy you wanna have dinner with.
No
kidding. He's like the worst boyfriend in America, the kind of guy
you just bristle at -- which is not the kind of guy you usually
play. But I'm in the business to push it. I'm not likely
to be attracted to characters I've already done. I have to be almost
frightened by the possibility of taking it on. Over the years I
realize I must enjoy walking that edge, I keep doing it. It's why
I like what I do. The only other job I've ever had that provides....that
time in the morning where you're going to work and you can't wait
to get there and the sun's rising and you're moving toward something
you look forward to getting up and doing every day was being a carpenter.
And it was because you're doing something different every day.
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You
and Harrison Ford. Harrison was a contractor and I never
was a contractor. I've always been a hammer and nail guy and I did
some finish work. What I enjoyed about it is if you do it right,
it lasts.
Mark, one of our
readers noted your courage in saving two teens from a car fire a
few years ago. She notes that you must be awfully brave. Or
stupid. I think there's a fine line. I don't think it has much to
do with thought, I really don't. I think it has more to do with
some sort of moral character you were raised with by your parents.You
either take part or you don't. Certainly there were people there
who could have (gotten to the boys) before I did. And I'm not questioning
them. I'm just saying it didn't have to be as close as it was. These
are lucky kids. Who else has a 12 pound sledge hammer in their garage?
None of it would have happened had my wife not got there first.
She was the one who started the process. I think it changed and
affected thought processes, and perhaps even lives, of everyone
who was involved in it that night. Certainly it did my wife and
mine and the two kids involved and perhaps every neighbor who was
standing outside watching. The bottom line is the kids got a second
chance and part of the great gift of all this is that it happened
to them at 16 years old. As time passes they more fully realize
what they were given back. That's a gift. That's about luck.
What
seems meaningful is that you think it's instinctive; I'd like to
think it would kick in like that fore me but I don't know.
That was part of the outpouring we heard from parents ...
You know, you were 16,
too, and you did things that were stupid. That's the other side
of the story. They were going 85 miles an hour in a residential
zone through a double stop light and never hit the brakes. No drinking
was involved; they were just going too fast. How many times have
you been on the freeway and had someone fly by you at 100 mph then
end up two cars ahead of you at the off ramp? What's the point?
One of the kids crawled
out of the accident on his own ...I never saw him till after the
accident but you realize that if you don't get the kid out who's
on fire, and he perishes, you destroy the other kid's life, too.
There were a tremendous number of issues in play. A year after this
happened both of them showed up at our door. Both of them had gotten
tattoos commemorataing the evening. That's 16. But they're now doing
well. They have lives -- and they know it. They know it.
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