New interviews with Skeet
These articles are from Australian sites. You may have seen them, but they are worth re-posting! It's great to read how Skeet's doing these days, and in his own words. We are all pulling for him and "Jericho", and that he gets the recognition he so deserves.
The rebirth of Skeet
LUAINE LEE
September 12, 2006 10:30am
THE first rule for actors in Hollywood is to stay visible at all times. But for Skeet Ulrich, that was the first rule to break.
The actor was riding high with films such as Scream, Newton Boys and As Good as It Gets, when his then-wife was expecting twins.
"I remember doing Ang Lee's movie (Ride with the Devil) and people would come to the set and do interviews. And I told people I would do six more movies, and that would be it," Ulrich said.
"I thought that might be the case. I had a leaning toward doing that and building furniture. And I bought a farm in Virginia and was living on it at that time.
"Then I took almost two years off when the kids were born. And I missed it so bad. I had no idea I would. There was just a void. I was getting so bottled up. I didn't have that form of expression that eased it a little bit for me ... I was doing really well, probably the best I've ever done.
"I was getting offered lots of good stuff, working with lots of good directors in good films and was just willing to toss it all away."
He planned his escape carefully.
"Knowing I was going to take time off when the kids were born, I did two really bad movies for money to sort of make my nest egg comfortable so I could take time off, which I didn't know it would necessarily be time off. I thought it would be forever-off."
After two years of rusticating on his farm with his twins, he realised how crucial acting was to his life. "I think it was such a huge lesson for me to kind of re-grasp what I felt (the first time he decided to become an actor). It was a big lesson and I felt when I came back that I was able to be much more real to some extent. I read those old interviews, and I just cringe sometimes. I know everybody grows up and hopefully grows wiser, but God," he said, with a grimace.
Ulrich is back, this time for good. He's starring the new thriller series, Jericho.
Ulrich plays the mayor's wastrel son in a small town in Kansas. Suddenly an unexplained mushroom cloud menaces the horizon, severs the power and throws the citizens into blind panic. What happens to the people in this crisis is the heart of the drama. And what Ulrich does with his character's catastrophe is both believable and inspiring.
Plunging back into the Hollywood swim hasn't been easy, he admits. He feels his exit was ill-advised.
"Some people had a bitter taste in their mouths about the way it was done, especially the press side of it. When I'm supposed to be promoting films and I'm saying, 'I'm not going to do any more films.' So I think I got what I deserved to some extent, in the film side.
"Now I don't notice it so much. Plus I have kids. I can't exactly disappear on location anymore. This is the best world for me."
Ulrich's twins, a boy and a girl, are 5 now. And their well-being is his prime focus.
"My ex (Georgina Cates) just did her first movie in a while, and I just hired my first nanny last week. I had them, like six weeks without anybody. They love her, thank goodness. We picked the right person. But it's a life-changing thing," he sighed.
At 36, Ulrich seems an old soul. When he was 10 he had open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. It bore a lasting effect, he thinks.
"It was so long ago that it's hard to barely know who I was before and after – it has to be defining to some extent. I had a 25 percent chance of living through it, so there has to be some message in it somewhere," he said.
courtesy: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20397360-5006343,00.html
Interview : Skeet Ulrich
Posted by Clint Morris on September 12, 2006
There's no way around it, "Jericho" is going to be compared to "Lost". The show - set in a community that's been exposed to a giant mushroom cloud - like "Lost", centres on a band of strangers who must band together when the world they know slips away from them at the most inopportune of times.
Actor Skeet Ulrich, playing the show's involuntary hero Jake Green, doesn't see the comparison though – because, well, quite simply, he's never seen "Lost".
"I haven't seen Lost", he admits. "I hear it's great though?"
Ulrich says that he is familiar with the stencil for the hit castaways series though, and from what he hears, it's a different beast than his new show.
"My understanding is there's another element to 'Lost'... this is sort of a realistic portrayal of what we would do as people in this scenario. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think 'Lost' sort of has a different unknown element to it.
"Jericho", he says, is " about what would we do if everything was destroyed and how would we react to that? And how we decide what comes first, and what's important. And what, in that scenario, do we realise is unimportant? I don't know how that relates to Lost, but it's kind of a crossover I guess.
It's that element of picking yourself up and making a fresh start that appealed to the 36-year-old actor.
"Yeah, that's what drew me to it, the element of rebirth and having to start again."
Ironically, "Jericho" marks a bit of a re-birth for the actor himself. Kicking of his career in films like "Scream", "Touch" and "The Newton Boys" – Ulrich drew a large fan base for his TV series "Miracles", but it was prematurely pulled a couple of years back.
"It was sad to see it end without being able to conclude a lot of the storylines", Ulrich says of the critically acclaimed 2003 series that lasted only the one season. "I liked that show a lot, I love the character and the ideas behind the show."
And no fans, there isn't a movie version in the works. "Actually, originally, that script was a film script, with Jim Caviezel in the lead, but Spyglass entertainment, who made the show, decided to turn it into a TV show. I don't think there's any plans for a movie [now].
Like "Miracles", Ulrich says the script for "Jericho" really spoke to him – he just knew he had to be involved in something so inimitable.
"Like any actor, I read it and if it speaks to me – I can never stop thinking about it. It's then that you try and get attached to it. This is one of those instances. I just couldn't stop thinking of the If's and the What If's [of the storyline] and the 'where's he been?' element to it." (In the series, Ulrich's character Jake Green returns home to his hometown of Jericho after a long absence – but it isn't clear where he's been.)
Ulrich borrowed the traits of real-life heroes to build his character – who in the first episode rescues a bus-load of children and their gravely injured teacher.
"We've seen a lot of situations like Katrina, the Tsunami and 911 where you find people that step up to the plate in a way that they didn't even expect they could. There are things you can take from true heroes, to build that side of the character, and then, I build the rest of the character from other things that inspire me – like music, books, films, and start trying to piece stuff together. You try and stay open to all the possibilities within a character and show as many human moments as you can."
Ulrich, who was also seen recently in the mini-series "Into the West", says he's gotten lost in playing Jake Green. "You just get into it, and you can't stop thinking of moments that might explain him more".
courtesy: http://www.moviehole.net/interviews/20060912_interview_skeet_ulrich.html
The rebirth of Skeet
LUAINE LEE
September 12, 2006 10:30am
THE first rule for actors in Hollywood is to stay visible at all times. But for Skeet Ulrich, that was the first rule to break.
The actor was riding high with films such as Scream, Newton Boys and As Good as It Gets, when his then-wife was expecting twins.
"I remember doing Ang Lee's movie (Ride with the Devil) and people would come to the set and do interviews. And I told people I would do six more movies, and that would be it," Ulrich said.
"I thought that might be the case. I had a leaning toward doing that and building furniture. And I bought a farm in Virginia and was living on it at that time.
"Then I took almost two years off when the kids were born. And I missed it so bad. I had no idea I would. There was just a void. I was getting so bottled up. I didn't have that form of expression that eased it a little bit for me ... I was doing really well, probably the best I've ever done.
"I was getting offered lots of good stuff, working with lots of good directors in good films and was just willing to toss it all away."
He planned his escape carefully.
"Knowing I was going to take time off when the kids were born, I did two really bad movies for money to sort of make my nest egg comfortable so I could take time off, which I didn't know it would necessarily be time off. I thought it would be forever-off."
After two years of rusticating on his farm with his twins, he realised how crucial acting was to his life. "I think it was such a huge lesson for me to kind of re-grasp what I felt (the first time he decided to become an actor). It was a big lesson and I felt when I came back that I was able to be much more real to some extent. I read those old interviews, and I just cringe sometimes. I know everybody grows up and hopefully grows wiser, but God," he said, with a grimace.
Ulrich is back, this time for good. He's starring the new thriller series, Jericho.
Ulrich plays the mayor's wastrel son in a small town in Kansas. Suddenly an unexplained mushroom cloud menaces the horizon, severs the power and throws the citizens into blind panic. What happens to the people in this crisis is the heart of the drama. And what Ulrich does with his character's catastrophe is both believable and inspiring.
Plunging back into the Hollywood swim hasn't been easy, he admits. He feels his exit was ill-advised.
"Some people had a bitter taste in their mouths about the way it was done, especially the press side of it. When I'm supposed to be promoting films and I'm saying, 'I'm not going to do any more films.' So I think I got what I deserved to some extent, in the film side.
"Now I don't notice it so much. Plus I have kids. I can't exactly disappear on location anymore. This is the best world for me."
Ulrich's twins, a boy and a girl, are 5 now. And their well-being is his prime focus.
"My ex (Georgina Cates) just did her first movie in a while, and I just hired my first nanny last week. I had them, like six weeks without anybody. They love her, thank goodness. We picked the right person. But it's a life-changing thing," he sighed.
At 36, Ulrich seems an old soul. When he was 10 he had open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. It bore a lasting effect, he thinks.
"It was so long ago that it's hard to barely know who I was before and after – it has to be defining to some extent. I had a 25 percent chance of living through it, so there has to be some message in it somewhere," he said.
courtesy: http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20397360-5006343,00.html
Interview : Skeet Ulrich
Posted by Clint Morris on September 12, 2006
There's no way around it, "Jericho" is going to be compared to "Lost". The show - set in a community that's been exposed to a giant mushroom cloud - like "Lost", centres on a band of strangers who must band together when the world they know slips away from them at the most inopportune of times.
Actor Skeet Ulrich, playing the show's involuntary hero Jake Green, doesn't see the comparison though – because, well, quite simply, he's never seen "Lost".
"I haven't seen Lost", he admits. "I hear it's great though?"
Ulrich says that he is familiar with the stencil for the hit castaways series though, and from what he hears, it's a different beast than his new show.
"My understanding is there's another element to 'Lost'... this is sort of a realistic portrayal of what we would do as people in this scenario. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think 'Lost' sort of has a different unknown element to it.
"Jericho", he says, is " about what would we do if everything was destroyed and how would we react to that? And how we decide what comes first, and what's important. And what, in that scenario, do we realise is unimportant? I don't know how that relates to Lost, but it's kind of a crossover I guess.
It's that element of picking yourself up and making a fresh start that appealed to the 36-year-old actor.
"Yeah, that's what drew me to it, the element of rebirth and having to start again."
Ironically, "Jericho" marks a bit of a re-birth for the actor himself. Kicking of his career in films like "Scream", "Touch" and "The Newton Boys" – Ulrich drew a large fan base for his TV series "Miracles", but it was prematurely pulled a couple of years back.
"It was sad to see it end without being able to conclude a lot of the storylines", Ulrich says of the critically acclaimed 2003 series that lasted only the one season. "I liked that show a lot, I love the character and the ideas behind the show."
And no fans, there isn't a movie version in the works. "Actually, originally, that script was a film script, with Jim Caviezel in the lead, but Spyglass entertainment, who made the show, decided to turn it into a TV show. I don't think there's any plans for a movie [now].
Like "Miracles", Ulrich says the script for "Jericho" really spoke to him – he just knew he had to be involved in something so inimitable.
"Like any actor, I read it and if it speaks to me – I can never stop thinking about it. It's then that you try and get attached to it. This is one of those instances. I just couldn't stop thinking of the If's and the What If's [of the storyline] and the 'where's he been?' element to it." (In the series, Ulrich's character Jake Green returns home to his hometown of Jericho after a long absence – but it isn't clear where he's been.)
Ulrich borrowed the traits of real-life heroes to build his character – who in the first episode rescues a bus-load of children and their gravely injured teacher.
"We've seen a lot of situations like Katrina, the Tsunami and 911 where you find people that step up to the plate in a way that they didn't even expect they could. There are things you can take from true heroes, to build that side of the character, and then, I build the rest of the character from other things that inspire me – like music, books, films, and start trying to piece stuff together. You try and stay open to all the possibilities within a character and show as many human moments as you can."
Ulrich, who was also seen recently in the mini-series "Into the West", says he's gotten lost in playing Jake Green. "You just get into it, and you can't stop thinking of moments that might explain him more".
courtesy: http://www.moviehole.net/interviews/20060912_interview_skeet_ulrich.html
