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Patrick Bauchau: Xposé Pg. 2

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

From Xposé no. 26 -- September 1998
by David Richardson (continued from Page 1)

"Sydney has a whole gamut of grays -- a professional man who runs his program on the edge and could be seen as a guilty party to what's gone on before. Yes, he does feel guilty about the programming of Jarod, but at the same time he thinks it's also interesting. There wasn't really any way to research it, because the role sort of became as I endorsed it. I brought more colors that the writers could work with."

While some actors will approach a role by inventing their own backstory, Bauchau claims that he prefers to watch the series and its characters unfold along with the viewers.

"I like to discover with every episode what the writer thinks is the character of Sydney," he says. "I'm a great believer in finding out on the spot. The discovery for me is part of the fun of being in the series. Every week I discover what the following show will be like, and that's very amusing. Suddenly you discover you have a twin brother!"

Indeed, the season one episode "Under the Reds" found Miss Parker uncovering the facts about Sydney's brother Jacob, who also worked for the Centre. Seriously injured in a car accident, Jacob remained in a coma for decades -- until Jarod's research temporarily brought him back to consciousness.

"Obviously Jacob is the darker part of Sydney," says Bauchau of the character who, we discover, originally brought the four-year-old Jarod to the Centre in 1963. "Sydney has a pretty good idea of why and how Jacob became so dark, and he feels guilty about his brother and his fate. Guilt isn't a driving force in Sydney, but you can always punch that key, which many characters do -- Miss Parker is punching that key, and Jarod plays it all the time. Being in the grays, Sydney is a natural target for anyone who thinks he is white."

Flashback sequences have also allowed viewers to see the younger version of Sydney, training the adolescent Jarod. For those scenes, the part is played by another actor, although his voice is dubbed by Bauchau.

"The actor's doing an excellent job," insists Bauchau, "and I feel guilty right away for looping him."

It is, he says, a situation with which he can empathize. "In France the series is very successful, it's the really 'in' show. Of course, I'm looped into French, and that makes me feel very voiceless. They had promised me that I could loop myself, but then they went on the air before we had finished season one. I think he does a good job, but still I feel dispossessed. To think that all the switched on people in France are watching me with somebody else's voice."

The second season of The Pretender threw some new elements into the mix with the introduction of Brigitte (Pamela Gidley), a determined operative -- or cleaner -- who intends to recover Jarod at any cost.

"She interacts more with Miss Parker than me," notes Bauchau. "She had to take her into stride. There's endless potential for cans of worms in that character, but I don't know where they're going yet, and it probably won't have much to do with me. As far as I can see she is part of the Parker family nightmare."

Continued on Page 3 -->.

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