Thanks to Janet for sending this in!<\/p>\n
LIFESTYLE
\nALIEN ENCOUNTER HE’S 26 AND A VETERAN NOW, BUT THE STAR OF TV’S
\nROSWELL GOT HIS ACTING START AT AGE 5 PLAYING – A SUNFLOWER.<\/strong>
\nMELINA I. DE ROSE Staff Writer<\/p>\n07\/17\/2000
\nSun-Sentinel Ft. Lauderdale
\nBoca Raton
\nPage 1D
\n(Copyright 2000 by the Sun-Sentinel)<\/p>\nJason Behr has been practically everywhere on the WB map. Along a
\nrising path of TV and movie roles, Behr made stops on Buffy the
\nVampire Slayer, 7th Heaven and Dawson’s Creek. Until, like his alien
\ncharacter, he landed on Roswell .<\/p>\nBehr, 26, plays Max Evans, leader of the teen aliens left stranded on
\nEarth after the legendary spaceship crash of 1947. The aliens and
\ntheir show survived to see a second season this fall, backed by fans
\nwho flooded the WB network with bottles of Tabasco sauce, a spicy
\nstaple of the non-human diet.<\/p>\nOn television, Behr’s character has stayed close to Roswell , N.M.,
\nthe one place he knows as home. In real life, the Minneapolis native
\nmoved to Los Angeles at age 19 after graduating from high school. As
\nBehr tells it, he got a call from a long-lost skateboarding buddy who
\ninvited him to the West Coast. “So I got on a plane like a week later
\nand that was it,” Behr says. “It was just something that I felt I
\nneeded to do.”<\/p>\nBehr makes it back to Minnesota only sporadically. But he had the
\nopportunity to visit South Florida recently, appearing on Fort
\nLauderdale beach to sign autographs and pose for fan photos.<\/p>\nQ. You’re on the Monday night slot now [9 p.m., WBZL-Ch. 39] after 7th
\nHeaven. Are you happy there?<\/p>\nA. I didn’t know how it was going to pan out because it’s like the
\n“God and Science Hour,” you know? And they don’t necessarily agree
\nwith each other — it’s sort of like the two-hour block of
\ncontradictions. But … it really has been working out, and I’m glad
\nthat they decided to keep us there.<\/p>\nQ. Roswell is based on the books by Melinda Metz. Have you read any of
\nthem?<\/p>\nA. Yeah, when we first started the pilot, she only had three books out
\nthen, so I did, I read all three of them … What those books did is
\nthey gave us a great idea and a great starting point. I mean, that
\nbasically laid out the stage for us to tell the story. Without the
\nbooks, we wouldn’t have a show. We’ve taken it in a much different
\ndirection, and we’re going to continue to take it in that direction. .
\n. Throughout the entire season, we were always trying to find that
\nbalance between relationships and characters, and action and suspense
\nand mystery… And I think we found it towards the end of the season,
\nand we’re going to continue on with that darker, edgier, “X-Filian”
\ntone.<\/p>\nQ. Is there any risk of losing the relationships and the emotional
\naspects that have been so crucial this season?<\/p>\nA. I hope not. I don’t think it’s going to happen. It wouldn’t be the
\nsame show, and I know that a lot of people would not be happy… We’re
\nstill going to have those relationships that we’ve developed in the
\nfirst season. They’re just going to become a little more
\ncomplicated… At the end of the last season, we found out [the
\naliens] were actually engineered and they were put here on Earth for a
\nspecific purpose. … I think the second season is going to be [Max’s]\nstruggle to either continue on with the life that he’s built for
\nhimself in Roswell and the relationship with Liz (Shiri Appleby) and
\naccepting his so-called destiny and responsibility, and let that take
\nhim where it leads him. So it’ll be like the choice between being
\nhuman or being alien.<\/p>\nQ. What do you think of him as a person?<\/p>\n
A. I think generally he tries to be a good person and tries to make
\nthe right decisions, but I don’t think he always does. What I like
\nabout him is that he does make mistakes, that he does sometimes leap
\nbefore he really looks. That moment when he saves Liz in the CrashDown
\nis a testament to how much he feels and cares about her, because if
\nhe’d stopped and thought about everybody who he would be putting at
\nrisk, that little hesitation might’ve cost her her life. Those little
\ncharacter choices speak louder than words sometimes.<\/p>\nQ. Do you have a favorite episode?<\/p>\n
A. The last three episodes were my favorite of the season, for me as
\nan actor… I really enjoyed this one that we did called “Max to the
\nMax,” where I got a chance to play what could’ve been a very uber-
\ncheesy dual role (chuckling) — by being this other shape-shifting
\nalien who took on the guise of Max … What I wanted to do was subtly
\ngive hints as to who they’re watching, for people who are really
\npaying attention, but not just give it away, not slam people over the
\nhead with it. So I gave [the other] Max a little different walk, he
\nkind of prowled. He kind of had more of a sense of purpose in his
\nwalk, and [the real] Max was a little more tentative because he didn’t
\nreally know what was going on… But my other favorite one was this
\none called “The White Room,” where Max was captured by the FBI and
\ntested and abused and tortured, and I thought that whole episode in
\nand of itself was the strongest one because you’re seeing somebody
\nthat you care about in pain and pretty much helpless.<\/p>\nQ. Do you have a favorite character?<\/p>\n
A. I like everybody. … I don’t really have a specific character that
\nI like more than others, but I really do enjoy watching Bill Sadler
\n(Sheriff Jim Valenti) because in the beginning he was the antagonist.
\nHe was the one searching us out, but he had a reason, he was almost
\nvalidated in his convictions. And so, to take a character like that,
\nthat people don’t necessarily root for, and make him, not sympathetic
\nbut understandable in his actions, you understand why he’s doing that.
\nYou really wish he didn’t, it would be really nice if, uh, that mean,
\nold sheriff would stop chasing around them three alien kids, but you
\nunderstood why.<\/p>\nQ. You got an early start in acting. Something like age 5? What kind
\nof things did that entail?<\/p>\nA. (Laughs) Not a lot of dialogue, that’s for sure. I know that at age
\n5, I had done some theater. I don’t know the name of the play, and
\nneither does my mom, but I do know I played a sunflower.<\/p>\nQ. That was your first role?<\/p>\n
A. Yeah, I remember just having like a green outfit on and a yellow
\nheaddress of some sort (laughs). But I continued to do theater pretty
\nmuch up until I left for Los Angeles.<\/p>\nQ. So, why acting?<\/p>\n
A. Why acting at that young age? I think my mom was trying to figure
\nout something to do with me. Apparently I had a lot of childlike
\nenthusiasm. Just a little. (Smiles) So she just wanted to focus my
\nenergies.<\/p>\nQ. Would you eventually like to go back to theater? Or is the big
\nscreen your ultimate goal?<\/p>\nA. I would love to do it all. If I had the opportunity to go back to
\neither Minnesota or New York and do some theater, sure, I’d take that
\ninto consideration. I know a lot of people who are in my position do
\ntheater, I know a lot of people who have been in 20 different movies
\nand still go back and do theater. And from a financial point of view,
\nit’s not smart for them because they’re losing money by doing theater,
\nbut it’s a passion.<\/p>\nQ. What are some of the basics you look for in roles?<\/p>\n
A. First thing you look at is the story, are you telling a good story.
\nSecond thing is the people that you are involved with because you
\nalways want to work with interesting people and people who challenge
\nyou. And third is: Do I feel a connection with it? Do I feel some sort
\nof affinity towards the story, towards the character?<\/p>\nQ. Would you consider directing?<\/p>\n
A. Absolutely. I think it’s a different responsibility, but the idea
\nof being the ultimate storyteller, the ultimate decision-maker, and —
\nI should say the ultimate voice and hopefully the ultimate
\ndecision-maker — is a challenge I would love to take on. . . You’re
\nthe one with the paintbrush now, you’re the guy with the paintbrush
\nand the canvas, everybody else can add their color or multitudes of
\ncolors, but you’re the guy holding the easel.<\/p>\nQ. What was your most humbling experience as an actor?<\/p>\n
A. Probably just being an actor.<\/p>\n
Q. And perhaps you already answered what would be your proudest moment
\nas an actor … would it be “The White Room”?<\/p>\nA. My finest moment as an actor was donning that sunflower outfit. I
\ndon’t know why I’m still doing this, it must be just all downhill from
\nthere (laughs).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thanks to Janet for sending this in! LIFESTYLE ALIEN ENCOUNTER HE’S 26 AND A VETERAN NOW, BUT THE STAR OF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2375,3],"tags":[432,70,13],"coauthors":[2266],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jason-behr","category-leading","tag-florida","tag-interview","tag-jason-behr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28236,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/28236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}