Issue date: June 6, 1999

Who's News

What did you think of Steve Jobs' management style?
Which incarnation of his management style are you referring to? He sort of had a couple of different ones as far as I can tell. It's not necessarily a skill that I would want to be managed by, but I don't know. It's an interesting question. I've read a lot of testimonials from former employees of his who say that like him or hate him, they've never been treated worse as employees but never done better work as engineers. So it's a style that seems belligerent and argumentative, and a tad belittling, but has reason behind it, and the reason is to bring out the best possible work that he felt he could bring out in them. That's not always the case but oftentimes it was.

How would you describe Steve?
A very complex guy, a very conflicting guy. A man who's on paper sort of a walking contradiction. But I would call him one third consummate salesman, one third visionary, and one third electronic technical genius.

Did you get a chance to meet him?
No, I've never met him. I hope I have the opportunity one day. The film isn't exactly a love letter to Steve Jobs.

How did you feel about portraying a living person in such a negative light?
Well, I was a little daunted at the task of playing somebody who's still alive but was potentially going to see it. But those were concerns that we really tried to push as far out of our minds as possible because then you start editing your performance around what one person's reactions going to be. And I think we ultimately came to the conclusion that we weren't trying to make a documentary, but we were sort of telling this great American story of how this revolution in technology occurred and who were the key players behind it and loosely how the story went, as factually and accurately as we could. But I don't feel like I did an impression of him. And I tried to, even though he is a bit of an a**hole in the movie, very hard, very difficult to understand, I always tried to give him some justification because I believe ultimately he always thought he was right, and even when he was wrong, there was a reason for being wrong. I think in so many ways, when he left the company in 1985, they lost a lot of their heart and soul that he also brought to the table. So and now that he's back and went back in 1997, the company's doing better than it has in the 12 years of his absence. He's a difficult one to figure out.

Were you a fan of the Brat Pack in the '80s?
I was certainly an Anthony Michael Hall fan.

What was it like to work with him?
It was fantastic. It was great. Michael and I got along very well. We had a very interesting relationship while we worked together because we were playing such adversaries. We didn't get to know each other personally all that well. But we sort of had twinkles in each other's eyes and we looked forward to finishing the movie so that we could get to know each other better.

Are you computer literate?
Aside from basic word processing and the occasional CD-ROM game I would say fairly illiterate.

Are you a Mac guy or an IBM guy?
A Mac guy. I have two, actually. One's old and one's new. I just bought a new G3 Powerbook.

Do you surf the Net?
I do on occasion, but usually for research stuff. I get bored sitting in the same place for so long and I get terrified whenever I start clicking around to the ER pages, so I tend to just sort of get on for one specific reason and then get off as fast as I can.

So you don't spend a lot of time reading what fans have to say about you.
Occasionally, I have.

Do you have a Web site?
From last I checked, there was a whole bunch of stuff that came up when I put my name in, yeah.

Does it freak you out to have fans writing about you all the time?
It's not weird that they write. It's weird that I can read it. I'm sure that people talk about people on TV shows all the time, but that's the strange thing about the Internet: Suddenly, there it is in black and white for everyone to read.

What effect do you think this technology has had on this new Generation Y?
Twenty-five years ago, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were sitting in their garage tinkering with the very first incarnation of the personal computer, Steve Jobs was a firm believer in "Information is power" and the more you could spread that information around, and empower the people, empower the masses, the less monolithic power-based structures could exist because there would be no more secrets to keep. And it's a really nice sort of post counterculture utopian idea of what society can be. But what I think we are also seeing is the flip side to it, which is there's a lot of negative information out there which is easily accessible. I read somewhere that it takes 50 years for a brilliant piece of engineering technology to become completely ingratiated into society. It took 50 years for the television to become a household staple. It took 50 years for the telephone to be an invaluable business tool. And we're only 25 years into it. So I think along with the technical advances that we're going to make in the next 25 years needs to come a responsibility for what it is exactly that we have unleashed on the world. And there's a huge generation gap between kids who are extremely well-versed in how to use this equipment and adults who really see it still as interesting toys or tools but don't quite appreciate the power of it quite yet.

What's it like on the set of ER now that George Clooney is gone?
Certain aspects are different, but not as many as you'd think. We had a nice party the night that he left. It was a very tearful, really sad night for me. And the next morning I had to be on set at 6:00 a.m. and makeup at 6:15 and on set at 6:30 and we went into our first rehearsal and shot the day's work and there's not a lot of time for grieving. We just really needed to keep moving along. There's a hole. There's definitely a hole. I mean I think he's a wonderful actor. We'll miss him on screen. But probably more importantly to all of us, he was just a really wonderful personality to have on the set. His sense of humor really diffused a lot of situations that come up when you're working such long hours in such close proximity to so many people. And he was really generous. Both with his time and his advice and I'll miss both those aspects. But he would have a way of welcoming people to our set that were coming into work oftentimes intimidated and he would make them feel comfortable and competent and welcome, all things that I try and do now. Because it really makes a world of difference. But I have him to thank for teaching me that. I learned a lot from Tony [Edwards, who plays Dr. Mark Greene], I learned a lot from Eriq [La Salle, who plays Dr. Peter Benton]. But George and I became excellent friends. And I really did learn a lot at his knee. He'd been through so many of these ropes before and I was anxious to bypass as many land mines as possible so I stuck close to his knee and asked him a million questions a day.

Do you feel the pressure of being the heartthrob in his absence?
No, I don't feel that pressure.

When's that wedding of yours going to be?
Next year sometime. We [Wyle and fiance Tracy Warbin] haven't really set a date yet. But I'm looking forward to it. I really can't wait.

Do you want to have kids?
Definitely.

What kind of dad do you think you'll be?
Hopefully, I think I'd be a pretty good listener. A lot like my parents were really. I thought that they did a pretty d*** good job. They definitely instilled a sense of self-worth in all of us and a sense of confidence and a strong work ethic and a decent sense of humor. But they really let us fail too. And fall and falter and stumble and find our own way. And I'm very grateful to them.

Is acting the job you always wanted?
It's one of those things where once I made the decision in my head I could sort of see that that's the way I was going anyway. I never had much affinity or aptitude for math and sciences but I really enjoyed language and history and philosophy and art, so I think it was the summer after my junior year in high school I did an invitational theater program in Chicago at Northwestern University. I came back from that program pretty much uniformly resolved that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

If being famous and rich didn't come with this career, would you still act?
Rich and famous doesn't come with this career. I'm in a union with a 99% unemployment rate. I'm an anomaly. I'm a freak of nature as far as this profession goes. I don't think there's an actor out there that doesn't fully understand and appreciate that fact. So I guess the answer is yes... Yes. And I fully intend to do it once I've squandered my fame and fortune as well.

When you look back, any regrets?
No, not really. I'm a little young for regrets. The first thing that would spring to my mind was not going to college, but I don't really have any regrets about that. Sometimes I think I might have missed out on four luxurious years of incredible resources at my fingertips and zero responsibility. But aside from that, I sort of am interested in education and love to read and think that some of the best experience you can get is on the job, and starting when I did, I think really gave me a leg up in a lot of ways.

When you look forward, what's one dream?
I really like traveling a lot. I'd sort of like to work in all of the countries I'd like to travel to. Working is one of the best ways of seeing a place because you're there for such a long time potentially. And working with a lot of local people. I worked in Czechoslovakia once and I worked in Lithuania once I spent a lot of time in England and I really liked that.

What's your favorite place that you've been to so far?
I just got back from Japan. I really enjoyed Japan.

What did you like best about it?
Kyoto, Japan, as opposed to Tokyo. Tokyo's wonderfully exciting, but it's like any other major cosmopolitan city. But when you get outside to a place like Kyoto, it's just sort of where all your images of Japan are. Cobblestone streets and Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples everywhere you look and huge five-story pagoda buildings and monks and cherry blossoms. The whole nine yards. ... I would say it was surreal to go halfway around the world to a country where I'd never been before and didn't speak the language and have everybody know my name. It's very odd.

What's the strangest thing a fan has done for you?
There's a couple in Maine that once sent me two live Maine lobsters. About a week before Anthony Edwards had given me a housewarming present of huge 50-gallon saltwater fish tanks, so I dropped them in there and they lived for a little while. I love eating lobster, but I didn't have the heart.

What makes you get up in the morning? How would you describe your passion?
An alarm clock gets me up in the morning, sometimes two or three. What's my passion? All told, in a 12-hour workday you're maybe doing your thing in front of a camera for an hour, tops. I would say my passion is that hour.

Favorite book?
I have authors that I really like. I tend to find an author and then buy most of the books that they've written and go through those and then move on to another author. I was on a big Kurt Vonnegut kick not too long ago. I like a Canadian author named Robertson Davies a lot. I like biographies. I like books on history. I tend to read more factually based stuff.

TV vs. movies? Which do you prefer?
They're very different. Each has its own benefits. I would say probably the biggest benefit to working in television is the opportunity to play one character for an extended period of time with really no end in sight. It affords you an opportunity to really explore very, very different levels and complexities within that character because you've got to constantly sort of reinvent it for yourself to keep it interesting. As opposed to a movie or a play where you're playing it for a finite period of time under a set set of circumstances. But there's something very refreshing about that too. One of the things I enjoyed most of Pirates, because it's been a while since I've done a movie, is to go through the script and every time you do a scene you mark it off in your script and pretty soon it fills up with markers and so there's only a couple of pages left and then boom, you're done. You told that story. And there's something very rewarding about the completion of one story.

Do you watch TV? What's your favorite show?
I do. I'm sorry Mad About You has gone off the air, though I wouldn't necessarily call it my favorite show. Larry Sanders, I like very much. I don't think I ever missed an episode of that. I like our show. There's two guys on HBO named Bob and Dave that have a show. I like a lot of cable shows, some network shows. That's a good question. I tend to watch movies. I have one of those satellite dishes that gives me 30 movie channels and I just go from one to the next to the next to the next.

Do you catch your show on Thursday nights?
Yeah. There's only been a couple episodes over the last five years that I haven't watched. But I try to catch most of them. That's another benefit of working in TV is the immediacy of getting to see your work and using the show almost like a gymnasium to come in and try different things out, see how they play. It gets you very familiar with working in front of the camera. I watch it more technically than I do for pure enjoyment.

Do you have friends over and watch it with them?
Usually it's just Tracy and me. Occasionally I'll watch it with my folks. Occasionally if a friend's in town or wants to come over, they come over. No set rule there.

What's the best thing about becoming successful? -- Money? Fame? Free clothes?
I think for an actor it's having a safety net of not really having to take work for the money but having the freedom of choice for however limited amount of time you have to just pick and choose the projects that mean something to you. The worst thing about success? Probably the transition period. Getting everybody on the same page and comfortable with it. It's awkward. It really is awkward. There's an old adage that says when you become successful you change, and I haven't really found that to be true. Maybe I'm too close to it but it seems that more people change around you. Or treat you differently or suspect that you're going to act differently so they treat you differently to second-guess what you may be turning into. It gets very complicated. But the longer people have to sit with it, the more they can sort of see that you haven't really changed much. You're just still doing your job, still going to work every day. Still trying to do the best job you can. Everything sort of balances out. But it was an awkward transition for sure.

Do you think that transition's over?
No.

Will it ever be over?
I don't know. I think it'll just be different. Eventually, I won't be on TV every week and the show won't be on anymore and people will talk about it like they talk about Hill Street Blues or St. Elsewhere or any of the great dramas that have been on TV and that will be that. And I'll transition into something else.

Do you worry that you'll go down in life as just being known as Carter?
Sometimes. In complete honesty, sometimes. But like I said, with going to Japan and having everybody ... They knew my name. They didn't necessarily all call me John Carter. And that was a question I got asked a lot over there: "Are you afraid of only being recognizable as John Carter?" And the only answer I could really come up with is, "If you're going to have to be identified with one character, you could do a lot worse." There's a million things I don't think I would like to be known for. John Carter's a pretty interesting, intelligent, dedicated guy. I like him.

You said that you're the one percent in your industry who's made it.
Not made it, just is able to support myself solely with acting.

How do you justify your wealth with the rest of the world?
It really depends on what you're measuring it up against. If you're measuring it against a guy that lays bricks all day long every day, it's obscene. If you factor in all the time that I potentially won't be in work because of whatever reason and look at the money I get now as severance pay, it balances out a little bit better. And if you look at the amount of money that the show generates for the network and the studio and what a fair percentage of that is attributable to the cast, it balances out a little bit more. I know when I turn on the television I can't help but think, "My God, my God, I am so fortunate."

Are you playing the stock market at all?
A little bit. I'm pretty conservative with my money. I'd like to hang on to it for awhile, so nothing too extravagant. Blue chip stock, pretty stable stuff.

What's the one thing you've learned about the ER that you wish you didn't know?
How little sleep sometimes these doctors get. As hard as they work, they deserve time to recuperate. I'd hate to be the patient that gets them on the 47th hour of their shift.

Have you had any emergencies of your own lately?
Not lately.

Where will you be at the turn of the millennium?
I don't know. I don't have any plans yet. Home. That sounds good to me. I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve, usually, and I don't think anything cataclysmic is going to occur. Maybe technically, but not cosmically.