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Patrick Bauchau: Xposé

The chase is on... Patrick Bauchau, aka psychiatrist Sydney, is desperately seeking The Pretender.

From Xposé no. 26 -- September 1998
by David Richardson

On the face of it, The Pretender has a pretty familiar premise: Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) is on the run, and special operatives Miss Parker (Andrea Parker) and Sydney (Patrick Bauchau) must track him down. Yet the show is no simple copy of The Fugitive; Jarod was one of a series of gifted children taken to the shadowy think-tank known as The Centre, a private corporation located in Delaware. Programmed by Sydney, and kept in an isolated environment, his special skills were sold to the highest bidder - including the military.

As an adult, Jarod found a way to escape. Once in the strange, outside world he uses his skills as a Pretender to take on any profession with no preparation. He can become a doctor, a pilot, a lawyer, a policeman... and, after years in which his mind has been exploited for evil purposes, he vows to bring justice in circumstances where there is none.

Patrick Bauchau was the only member of the regular cast who did not audition for the producers of The Pretender. The actor was working in Rome on the movie We Three Kings while the casting sessions were in progress, and the script for the pilot episode was mailed to him. Upon reading it, he was immediately impressed.

"The script was very good," Bauchau tells Xposé. "I was planning to do a movie in Italy straight after We Three Kings. My manager said, 'Get them to postpone your Italian film a little bit. There's no chance that this will ever go to a series, NBC has a completely full slate. It's a good script -- just do it. This is a one shot.' So I sailed into it."

Of course, the pilot episode was so well received by test audiences that NBC commissioned a full series. The third season of The Pretender is now in production -- and Bauchau's one-shot gig has developed into a long-term engagement. Nevertheless, the actor has no complaints.

"It's great," he smiles. "The pilot was interesting enough, but the area it has to explore is extremely rich."

Bauchau is blessed with a character who displays many facets. Sydney is not an obvious bad guy; he is a psychiatrist in the Centre's Psychogenic Research Department, a scientist whose actions can be interpreted as both cruel and kind.

"Sydney is the moral conscience of the show," he insists. "He is the mentor of the Pretender. Essentially the show hangs on that complicated attitude of Sydney towards Jarod.

"Sydney is fond of Jarod and wants him to reach his full potential. This causes problems for the people who run the Centre when Jarod escapes, because he's so protective of him.

"He hadn't planned to let him run away. He is the mentor of Jarod, but at the same time his task is to corral him back. But he enjoys watching and sometimes even helping Jarod to get away. Another part of him would emotionally like to bring him back... it's essentially a surrogate father position.

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