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Patrick Bauchau: Orange County Register

Patrick Bauchau adds suave elegance to NBC suspense drama The Pretender

From The Orange County Register -- March 21, 1997
by Kinney Littlefield

Patrick Bauchau knows how to catch a wave. The sophisticated actor began his career in seminal French New Wave films of the '60s. Now he stars as enigmatic psychiatrist Sydney Green on The Pretender the engaging drama that anchors NBC's new wave - its "thrillogy" block of Dark Skies, The Pretender and Profiler on Saturday night.

"Sydney is a man of many colors," Bauchau said of Sydney's courtly but complicated psyche and murky past.

Indeed, Sydney reflects the cosmopolitan colors of Bauchau. Born in Brussels, Bauchau holds a degree from England's prestigious Oxford University, speaks five European languages - English with a charming softness - and has worked with legendary European auteur-directors Eric Rohmer and Wim Wenders in an impressive near-30-year career.

And Sydney's background is just as deep.

For years Sydney has worked at clandestine think-tank the Centre, where he trains child prodigies or "pretenders" to mentally simulate natural and manmade disasters - we're not entirely sure why. Sydney tolerates the Centre's nefarious way with kiddies, which includes wrenching the little geniuses from their parents and isolating them to hone their brains. Meantime the Centre sells the pretenders' services to the highest bidders.

Yet kindly Sydney is also loyal to escaped pretender Jarod (Michael T. Weiss), an adult genius who grew up in the Centre and now is running from it. Each week Jarod is close to dead meat as he's hunted by Sydney's boss, the ruthless Miss Parker, aptly played by Andrea Parker.

"Yes, Sydney does have a moral center," Bauchau said. "He makes it his mission to moderate Miss Parker's mission to get Jarod. But Sydney is like someone working for the CIA, recruited from his university in his mid-20s, and formed by the Centre. It is his whole life. It's the only place where he can continue his laboratory experiences - which hold hope for his twin brother Jacob who is in a coma."

"So right now Sydney is an organization man caught in a corner."

And how the corner tightens. On Saturday's episode "Under the Reds" we learn more of Sydney's crucial relationship to Jacob, who once worked for the Centre. Sydney and Jacob were arguing about the Centre - Jacob slamming its ethics, Sydney defending them - when their car crashed. Now Jacob is comatose. Sydney tries to revive Jacob by using an experimental substance devised at the Centre and refined by Jarod.

And we learn more of Jacob and a new part of the Centre called SL-27 in an episode called "Baby Love," airing May 10.

Shades of Mission Impossible perhaps, with elements of The Prisoner and The Fugitive woven through fleeing Jarod, who is constantly stymied in his efforts to find his real parents by persistent pursuer Miss Parker. And wherever Jarod and Miss Parker go, Sydney follows.

But that's just pretend. In contrast to his TV life-on-the-run, Bauchau keeps his personal side peaceful and centered. His life in Los Angeles - with an occasional European trek for film work - is filled with yoga, gardening and carpentry.

"Calm is sort of necessary for an actor," Bauchau says, after recounting the vines, wooden trellises, roses, magnolias and two huge avocado trees that are his domestic art.

"And yes, I take the calm with me to the set. It is in the nature of acting to be present with what you are doing, to be very effortless, to not attempt what is not possible - as in life."

Yet Bauchau's effortless manner has made much possible. It all started when he decided he wanted to be different from his poet-father Henry, yet still have a life in the arts. French New Wave cinema of the late '60s fit the bill.

Bauchau began as a runner, carrying 16mm film cans for director Rohmer, later snagging a role in Rohmer's La Collectioneuse. Later he worked with Wenders on Lisbon Story and State of Things and starred in other European features including Entre Nous and The Music Teacher.

Then there's Bauchau's Hollywood side - Choose Me, Blood Ties, The Rapture, Clear and Present Danger. And HBO's And the Band Played On, Canadian series Mount Royal, a stint as patrician vampire Archon on Fox drama Kindred: The Embraced and numerous turns on other U.S. series and telefilms.

Recently Bauchau starred in Italian feature Three Wise Men - no U.S. release yet - from director Sergio Citti, acting in Italian, playing a bum who comes to understand he's really one of the three magi.

A rich roster of roles. But ask Bauchau what experience he savored most and he pulls a shocker out of the hat - Columbo.

"I played a crazy painter on one of the great Columbos called 'Murder: A Self-Portrait.' I adore Columbo. Every episode is a lesson for me in how Peter Falk reinvents himself with every take, the way he varies the takes, the way he deals with material he's worked with for nearly 30 years. He makes it look effortless."

And so did Bauchau on late, lamented fangs saga Kindred, as elegant Archon, head of the blue-blooded Ventrue clan and mentor to Julian Luna, played by the late Mark Frankel, who died in a motorcycle accident after the show was canceled.

"Actually I wasn't sure the writers had gotten the hang of my character," Bauchau said.

"The best episode for Archon was episode eight when he finally got shot - although it was a good question whether Ventrues could really die that way. Sadly the series couldn't have continued after Mark's death anyway. I'd worked with him on (Fox series) Fortune Hunter. He was a dear friend."

So will Sydney be less closed than Archon was?

"We haven't said one-tenth of what we want yet in the series. It's always hard on a TV series, the pressure is so great, with decision by committee," Bauchau said, his Euro-independent streak showing.

"Sydney started out literally undefined and now every week it is amusing to confront all of our views and expectations on who he should be. He is very rich in potential. But it is a very mysterious series for us as well."

Oh, and just to clear it up - is there any significance to the Yale University T-shirt Sydney wore so prominently in Pretender's premiere?

"It's a question I asked at the time and I got no clear answer," Bauchau said, laughing at the memory. "I think it was just lying around the set."

Then, ever the diplomat: "Actually I'm an Oxford man - but I'm really quite satisfied with Yale."