By Julie Zied
Fancast Editor
Barry Watson has played his fair share of nice guy roles, from Matt Camden, the eldest son of a preacher man on 7th Heaven, to lovelorn Brian Davis on the brilliant-but-cancelled What About Brian, and now, to his current role as Todd, amnesiac Samantha Newly's (Christina Applegate) lovable photographer ex-boyfriend on ABC’s Samantha Who, which returns with a memorable second season Monday night. So what does this father of two and real-life nice guy have to say for himself?
What were you up to during the strike?
Well I just had a son in November, and I also have an almost three-year-old, so I just got to spend a lot of time with my kids, just really being dad for four and a half months, and it was a lot of fun. I got to take them to school and Chuck E Cheese, just doing dad stuff. But you know towards the end it was kind of like ‘uhh, OK, Daddy’s gotta get back to work’ [laughing], it’s tiring running around being a full time dad!
It’s a crazy job.
Yeah, I’ve actually been getting some rest at work the past couple of weeks, it’s been good. It’s funny to have to go back to get work to get rest, you would think it would be the complete opposite.
In the beginning of your career you played some smaller more villainous characters, but you’ve probably become most memorable for playing the nice-guy types….
It’s funny because you know that’s how my career started, guest starring on different things, playing these sort of bad characters, and you know 7th Heaven just completely changed that, and then I had to kind of fight against that for years, playing the nice guy, you know, ‘oh, he can’t do anything else but that’, but with 7th Heaven I was playing a nice guy but it was kind of just one level, and at least I can make Todd a nice guy but make him a little more well rounded, where he’s not perfect. I would be stupid to say I don’t want to play any nice guy roles though, ‘cause that’s where I’ve been making my money for the past ten years. So I’m happy playing nice guys, and a good bad role will come about at some point and hopefully I won’t mess it up!
Do you let your kids watch your work?
Right now I don’t want my kids to see me in anything, but my son who’s gonna be three in May saw me doing an interview on Regis and Kelly or something a couple of years ago, and he was much younger, maybe one and a half, and it just scared the crap out of him. He just couldn’t figure out why I was in the box, he was like 'why is Daddy in the box?' and he really just couldn’t figure it out, he went behind the TV, and didn’t understand why I was in there, and I was all the way in New York, it just freaked him out! [laughing] But I’m sure at some point he’s gonna discover Dad’s on TV…
Well at least you’re playing the good guy roles….
Yeah but then he’s gonna say 'Dad, you’re on TV kissing all of these different women all the time, what about Mommy?' [laughing]
Right, so how does Mom [Extreme Makeover: Home Edition style consultant wife Tracy Hutson] deal with it?
Well nobody wants to see their partner or their spouse kissing or doing anything with other people, none of that is gonna make anybody comfortable, but it’s not like there’s anything romantic going on with my co-stars. In all the years I’ve been working I don’t think I’ve ever dated another actor.
Not even Jessica Biel…
[Laughing] Yeah when I was 21 and she was 13, yeah right! I would have been a dirty, dirty guy.
Well you’d never fess up to it anyway!...
Right! [laughing]
Speaking of love and romance, what’s the deal with your character Todd and Sam (Applegate) this season?
Well I’m not going to give away anything, but I do think as much as probably Todd couldn’t stand Sam before her accident, I think there’s something very appealing to him now about her. She’s like a newborn child in a lot of ways because she’s rediscovering new things all over again, and obviously coming out of it a much nicer person. I think he’s also a little more attracted to her than he might have been before, so…we’ll see what happens. There’ll definitely be some things happening with Todd and Sam in the future, but we’ll see if it works out.
Well hopefully it will…
That means I get to do more seasons with Christina, who’s just great.
How’s it been working with her? Any memorable behind-the-scenes moments?
Whoever is number one on the call sheet – the star of the show – really has to kind of set the tone for how things go on set, and she just really sets a good tone, and really makes it light and fun, and it’s so important for that to happen. Before each scene there’s always entrance music, and our stage is now wired with speakers all around and we just blare dance music before each scene, and the crew is dancing, the cast is dancing, everyone is dancing before we start shooting, and it’s quite a sight to see a 260 lb. grip shaking his thing [laughing].
Any favorite dance song of choice?
We’ve only done three episodes since we’ve been back from the strike, so before a lot of it was Kanye West “Golddigger”, that was playing a lot before the strike happened. That was probably Christina’s favorite, she was kind of in that “Golddigger” mode.
Would love to see some photos of that…
No no [laughing], we don’t show photos [laughing]. ABC would take us off the air!
There’s news you’re working on writing a feature film…
Well I wasn’t allowed to write, wink wink, and I was busy being a dad so much I didn’t have a ton of time. But there is something I’m going to be working on. Where it takes place has kind of changed because of certain things that have happened in the world, but it’s still going on and it will happen, and it’s going to be very funny. I’ll probably win an Oscar [laughing].
Congratulations ahead of time…
Why thank you [laughing]. You know, this time next year hopefully I’ll be able to start getting it out there and passing it around and see who wants to jump on it, and we’ll see.
Any more details on the story?
Eh…nope! [laughing]
You have a birthday coming up on April 23rd, any big plans?
You know I do have a birthday coming up. I don’t have any big plans. It’s weird because I’m a big birthday person, but my kids' birthday's are so much more important that I’m like just give me a card and give me a piece of cake [fake sad voice], whatever.
Make you reminisce about the good old days?
[Joking] Man, I used to be sooo cool back then!
The second season of Samantha Who premieres on ABC Monday April 7th at 9:30 PM. Watch sneak peeks and clips of the upcoming episode here on Fancast.
