|
Modern-day
McGarretts
Frequent isle visits help Balfour
develop his "Hawaii" character
ERIC BALFOUR
If you didn't know Eric Balfour was starring in a network television series, you might not guess he's an actor, even while hanging around him during filming.
Location: HawaiiToday we begin a two-part preview of the latest made-in-Hawaii TV series, "Hawaii" and "Lost." Both will debut this weekend at Sunset on the Beach.
Tomorrow, in Features
PremieresSunset on the BeachOn screen: Pilot episodes of "Lost" (7:30 p.m. Saturday) and "Hawaii" (7:30 p.m. Sunday) Place: Queen's Surf Also: Entertainment and food sales begin at 4 p.m. Celebrity sightings: The cast and producers of both shows will attend the screenings, arriving at 6 each evening. After Sunday's show the "Hawaii" cast will move on to a private reception at Tiki's Grill & Bar.
On TV 'Hawaii': Premieres at 7 p.m. Sept. 1 on NBC 'Lost': Premieres at 7 p.m. Sept. 22 on ABC
|
When he excuses himself with an "I'll be right back," his companions look as if the co-star of "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," HBO's "Six Feet Under," "24" and lead singer of the band Fredalba has probably ditched them. But that's not Balfour's style. If the 6-foot-2 surfing and basketball playing actor is leaving, he doesn't sneak away.
"If I'm bored by something or someone or early on in relationships if I don't think there's a future, I don't stick around," Balfour says. "But I do make my feelings known."
A minute later, Balfour is back carrying a half-dozen bottles of water that he hands around. "Now, where were we?" he says. "Oh, yeah ..."
Balfour is half of a crime-fighting duo in the NBC police drama "Hawaii," which premieres Sept. 1. He plays Hawaii-raised Chris Gaines, a brash detective, partnered with Ivan Sergei ("Crossing Jordan") as Danny Edwards. The show also stars Aya Sumika, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Biehn and Sharif Atkin.
Balfour is a frequent Hawaii visitor, coming here to visit an uncle living on Maui or to surf, a sport he learned while growing up in Southern California.
"I would never be so presumptuous to say I understand what it's like to live here, but I do have an advantage over those who have never been," Balfour said. "I think that helps my character in 'Hawaii.'"
The actor began his career at 15 when he joined the cast of "Kids Incorporated," a TV series about a group of musically gifted youngsters.
The following year, he landed a regular role on the TV series "Arresting Behavior." From there his career took off, with appearances on several episodes of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," followed by guest shots on other prime-time shows: "Step by Step," "Boy Meets World," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Clueless," "Dawson's Creek," "Nash Bridges," "NYPD Blue, "Chicago Hope" and "The West Wing."
As a teen, hanging around all the adults on sets made him a bit precocious, which some of his teachers failed to appreciate. He won't say which Burbank high school he attended.
"My biggest problem was trying to relate to my teachers on a peer level, which, in hindsight, was wrong. I never, ever disrespected them, but I didn't blindly accept other people's opinions.
"I wanted to have conversations like I had with people at work, and that didn't go over that well with some teachers."
Balfour says his parents were free spirits, "hippies." The family lived for a time at the Escalen Institute in Big Sur, where his mother taught.
Balfour missed a lot of school due to work. By his own estimate, he was absent 90 days in one semester.
"I started writing my own absent excuse notes: 'Eric was absent from school because he was working. (signed) Eric,'" he said. "In my senior year they tried to kick me out because they said I wasn't on the premises enough, though I had a 4.0 GPA."
But acting had Balfour in its grip. He's so passionate about it that when he sounds childlike in describing his experiences.
"At 15, I started taking acting lessons because I really wanted to learn. I discovered that you don't have to create a character that is necessarily you.
"There's a difference between character and characteristics. The character is defined on the page. Characteristics come from inside you, and that's what you bring to it."
His favorite actors are "those who bring the truth in themselves to the characters they play, their own experiences into their characters. I think an actor's job is to study life," he said.
Balfour leans back on his stool and laughs. "I really do not take myself so seriously."
IF THE PILOT is any indication, the Balfour-Sergei buddy relationship could become one of the best duos on TV this season. These are two young cops who know what's right and, in their minds, the best way to deal with bad guys, which is not necessarily the Honolulu Police Department's -- or any other department's -- standard operating procedure.
"We struggled in the beginning to find the balance between reality and theater," Balfour said. "We want to be fun and have lots of action ... but at the same time I struggle to do truthful, honest, creative work. I don't want to be just a cop or fall into a formula of a character."
He credits "Hawaii's" creator and executive producer Jeff Eastin with allowing the actors to help create the back-stories of their characters.
"I suggested Gaines is from Hawaii, and Jeff liked that," Balfour said. "It creates a persona where I have an understanding of the island, and some of the criminals can be some guys Gaines grew up with or is friends with now.
"You have to create something you want to play."
That includes creating humor from situations the officers face. "When writers write a joke, you immediately think, 'Oh, that sounds like a joke.' Life is funny and life is tragic, and often they intertwine. In facing death, you face life; in great tragedy there is great comedy."
Gaines and Edwards are friends but not always kind to one another, and the audience can never be sure what they are going to do, whereas the characters portrayed by Biehn and Atkins are more mature, their drama straightforward, even comforting.
"Ivan and I have created this great dynamic where we bust each other's balls and give each other a hard time," Balfour said. "But we still maintain that these are real cops. The minute people don't believe it's for real, then it doesn't go anywhere."
Who is Gaines in Balfour's eyes?
"A guy who started out down the wrong road. He grew up a screw-up, involved in gangs and drugs, no direction. But he finally found that the only way to help his family and community was to become a police officer. He's got a chip on his shoulder, can be an antagonist, but has great respect for the rules of his job."
That makes for an interesting juxtaposition with Edwards, who, Balfour says, has "no respect for political correctness and procedure, is an angry, brash, sullen guy."
What both characters have in common is their existential approach to police policy.
"They believe the ends justify the means, and that makes the show fun. I don't think there should be a limit for them when they want to do the right thing for the greatest good. If you have to sign a judge's name to a warrant because it's a weekend and you need it now, you gotta do it."
Balfour loves Hawaii and spends much of his free time surfing, but he misses friends and family.
"After being here a month and understanding how long 'Hawaii' could stay on the air, these feelings are harder than I thought. I don't know how long I would stay with the show if it's a hit. I can see a few years. I've never been good at staying in one place for very long.
"This is a stop along the way for me."
Television work is a means to an artistic end for Balfour.
"I'm a perfectionist and TV doesn't allow for that," he said. "It's a compromise and I'm not good at compromise."
He hopes "Hawaii" will give him enough financial security so that he can pick and choose films to work on.
In the meantime he plans to buy a home here if "Hawaii" gets a second season; dates but nothing serious; writes music; and is never far from his iPod.
IT'S NEAR MIDNIGHT in Waikiki when Balfour and his uncle finish night surfing under a full moon at Queen's Surf. They forgot a cell phone, so they stop a couple of teenage girls to ask if they could use theirs. One of the girls recognizes the actor and is so excited all she can say is, "You're Eric Balfour, you're Eric Balfour!"
Balfour is polite and gracious.
"I'm always surprised by how an actor can affect someone, and it is flattering," he said. "It's fans who keep your career viable. I never forget that.
"No one should go into a high-profile business if they want to remain anonymous."
Then Balfour quotes one of his favorite actors, Tom Hanks: "Celebrity only allows you to be more of who you already are. If you're a little bit of an a--hole to begin with, then celebrity gives you free rein to be a bigger a--hole. But if you're a good person to begin with ..."
The next afternoon, back on the set, a smiling Balfour stares at the emerald cliffs rising dramatically behind Waimanalo.
"Man, I could be digging ditches or laying roofing," he says, shaking his head. "This is a good gig, a really good gig."
Like his cop character, Sergei can be
a brooding, acerbic perfectionist
IVAN SERGEI
There are several reasons Ivan Sergei doesn't enjoy being interviewed, but perhaps the best reason is one he doesn't even recognize.The co-star of NBC's police drama "Hawaii" dislikes being the center of attention, as well as interviewers who pressure him to discuss his off-screen life.
But if you're able to corner the 6-foot-4 actor with the striking dark brows and vulnerable though piercing stare, he's so candid about himself, his craft and ambitions that you almost want to turn off the tape recorder because you're entering such a private realm.
"This will sound odd for an actor to say, but I feel uncomfortable when people are looking at me," Sergei says. "In interviews I want to discuss my work, not my personal life."
It makes sense then that Sergei's ambition is to direct -- "to get the focus off my face and my name and more about the work I do."
In "Hawaii," Sergei, 33, plays Danny Edwards, the rather sullen, moody and quick-tempered partner of Chris Gaines (Eric Balfour). Edwards is a Miami transplant who moved to Hawaii to get away from a soured relationship -- but to live in a similar climate.
Sergei seems the opposite of Edwards, but the actor disagrees.
"I think he's bit of a perfectionist and has high standards like I do," says Sergei who has been acting for 12 years. "In my personal life I have a temper and bad moods, so there is kind of an extension there."
"Hawaii's" producers, including creator Jeff Eastin, are allowing Sergei and Balfour to develop their roles.
"Whenever anyone is in a bad mood and you say something you wish you could take back, that's a very human quality," he said. "Playing a character that does that means there needs to be some self-deprecation. ... Edwards and I are flawed; we're pretty much on an emotional roller coaster."
Sergei made a name for himself in the independent film world with his performance in "The Opposite of Sex," and later the romantic comedy "Jack & Jill."
Born and raised in New Jersey, he got his big break at an open casting call for the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer film "Dangerous Minds." He donned a goatee and landed the role of Huero, one of the troubled high school students playing opposite Michelle Pfeiffer.
After spending the next four months in Los Angeles on the film, Sergei moved west, landing the part of the dim Adonis seduced by Christina Ricci's character in the 1998 comedy "The Opposite of Sex." On television, Sergei is best known for "Crossing Jordan," which he quit to take the "Hawaii" role.
"I think Danny Edwards is a break-out role (for me), and 'Hawaii' is a break-out series," says Sergei, who has just hired his first publicist. "I haven't been too available to the media and they're not exactly breaking down my door, but I figured since 'Hawaii' is likely to be a major hit, I may need one."
Sergei says he was underused on "Crossing Jordan," working three days a week or less. "There's a complacency that befalls anyone when they're not stimulated, not asked to stretch themselves on a show. 'Hawaii' has turned me into a different animal.
"I read scripts days before we shoot, write notes to help better develop the story, work 12 to 14 hours a day."
He admits to turning into a bit of a workaholic.
"I'm always trying to write or read and find something to direct or produce," he said. "I've almost forgotten to do some of the things I love."
Sergei and Balfour auditioned together in Los Angeles. "We got along very well from the beginning, and we work off of one another well," Sergei said.
It's the subtle comedy of their character's interactions, as well as their sometimes blatant antagonism, that makes them fun to watch.
"You can script things once or twice, but in the grind of a series where you have to keep churning things out, it becomes the actor's responsibility to bring some of his personal things to the character." Sergei says. "In television the character becomes more of who you are, so you can sustain it for 10 months of filming."
Then, in a subdued tone, the actor admits that while he's enjoying being in Hawaii, it's been hard relocating from Los Angeles, leaving behind his wife of one year and three dogs.
"It's the biggest detriment about being here, and sometimes I think I get frustrated and act out those feelings," Sergei says. "I try to keep my ego in check, but sometimes I don't. I can be a jerk. ... I may have a tendency to take it out on the wrong people. Ego can get in the way, no matter how hard you try to stop it."
Then Sergei -- like Edwards -- switches emotional gears, mentioning an Adam Sandler film he recently watched.
Sandler "makes a living from characters who don't care about money, and I think that's a great way to go about life," he says.
"Sometimes I forget what's really important and lose perspective."
The emotional roller coaster continues.
"I think I'm making the same amount of money on 'Hawaii' that I was on 'Crossing Jordan,' and I was doing a lot less," he says, smiling. "If this show becomes a hit, we can change that."
Money wasn't the reason Sergei took the "Hawaii" job.
"I'm going to be reborn again, be interested again in what I'm doing and direct one of the episodes," he says.
Then the private Sergei willingly takes us into his home across the street from partner Balfour's.
"I'm really looking forward to NFL season," he says. "I just got Direct TV, the whole NFL package. One thing my wife and I did on our anniversary is watch preseason games. ...
"And I got gym equipment so I can work out four days a week, a new thing for me. God, I love the Korean and Chinese food here."
www.nbc.com/nbc/Hawaii/
Click for online
calendars and events.
