| Exclusive Interview with
Kevin Sorbo August 15, 2004 - London, UK By Sabina Witzel Kevin: Let’s begin! Sabina: First of all, thank you for this interview. It will go up on your official site. Kevin: Oh, my pleasure! Sabina: Your fascination for golf. What does it do for you? Kevin: Golf is an interesting game. My dad was a teacher and in the summers he worked at a golf course. I loved American football; I liked basketball which is probably my best sport and baseball. Those are the sports I played. So in the summertime my dad worked at the golf course. Golf was there. He said I work for the golf course you don’t have to pay for anything. It’s free for the family. So my brothers and I would go out and just sort of played between baseball practice and baseball games. And we all just got hooked. It’s a very addicting game. People don’t understand golf. Its one of the few sports out there that’s a test of yourself! That's what it was; it was a test of me. I got very addicted and I got really good at it as a kid. I played so much in my teenage years; I got very tired of it in my twenties and in my thirties started playing it again. So I am now hooked again. All of my friends who make fun of me for playing, they of course all play it now. We have one friend that used to say, “Why do you play a stupid game like that?” It’s a relaxing game, as frustrating as the game is. You’re out there with water and trees and the ocean, lakes, ponds, whatever it may be, grass and it’s like being in a giant park. And it’s a game of skill. It’s hard to describe. It’s just a very addicting game. I have a very addictive personality. There you go. Sabina: If you weren't an actor, what other profession would you choose? Kevin: I’d be a teacher. I would have followed my dad’s footsteps. I wanted to be a coach. I would probably be coaching football and basketball. I have a love for both of those sports. I would have been a good coach. You follow your passions and acting was by far way up here (raises hand). That's why I did it. Sabina: You have a great way of interacting with people, making them feel at ease. So, I am sure you would have been a great teacher. Kevin: Oh, thanks! I think I would have been! And I like kids, too. I think my dad’s 35 years of teaching 14 year olds kept him young. So, I think there is something in that too. That’s what I would do. Sabina: What do you find most challenging in your work? Kevin: The grind! It’s like a factory. On one hand, you’re doing something different every day, because its never really the same set every day, the dialog is different every day, but I think just going through the motions of memorizing lines every single day and trying to make it as real as you possibly can is probably the hardest part of the job. It never really changes in terms of the work pattern. You’re just going. So the biggest thing to keep your sanity (like I said yesterday on stage) is to have fun on the set and try to make each other laugh. The biggest challenge certainly, just every day you get home - it was a long day - and you realize “I’ve got ten pages I have to memorize right now”. So that's the last thing you really want to do after a long day. Sabina: So what do you do when you come home from the set? Kevin: Because I have a family, as soon as I get into the car (I have a driver that drives me back and forth to my house) - so I get that 40 minutes in the afternoon or in the evening when I am driving home, where I study my lines in the car and waste no time. I get off the set and - boom - I am looking at the next day. I am making my notes; I am calling the writers, whatever. I get home and then it’s my boys’ time until they go to bed. We have dinner together most of the time, and then bath time; I read them stories and put them to bed. By then its 9 or 9:30 and I am tired, you know. I try to watch a little bit of news, or maybe we’ll watch a sitcom (my wife and I) just to laugh and sort of finish the day on a good note. And then when I get up early in the morning I am on the bicycle or on the stair master reading my lines, studying and start all over again. I multitask. Oh yeah, hey I turn on the shower, and brush my teeth and pee in the morning all at the same time! You learn to take shortcuts everywhere. Sabina: So you work out in the morning? Kevin: Usually, yes. I do it around lunchtime as well. Because they have lunch late for me. They don’t have a break for lunch until 1:30 in the afternoon. I really eat 5 - 6 meals a day. I have a very high metabolism. Sabina: <I look down his length and nod approvingly. He laughs.> Kevin: I know, I burn it right off <laughs>. My biggest meal is breakfast, there's no question. I have a huge breakfast. I need that. And then I eat again at like 10:00 and have something more around noon. At 1:30 I don’t want to eat, I just want to work out. <Someone brings in cookies> Kevin: Ah, look they are bringing the cookies right now. These are really good cookies. Really good! Want one? Sabina: No thanks. Kevin: Come on!! Sabina: I don’t have a metabolism like you! Kevin: Have one! Have one! Kevin: So, anyway, I lift weights three times a week, but I don’t work out like I used to, but I keep myself in shape. Sabina: So, are you a morning person? Kevin: Yes, I am a morning person. On the set we’ve got Lexa, Laura and Lisa - the three L’s on the show - and they hate mornings. They stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, that's what they’d rather do. I can’t do that! For me to stay up last night until 1:30 in the morning with Steve was ... oh God . . . we went to a restaurant last night that turned into a disco and I just sat in the corner on a chair, because it got so crowded. And ridiculously smoky. So I said that's enough and finally just went outside. Sabina: So, you get up and are there!! That kind of morning person? Kevin: I don’t get up running, but I get up walking pretty fast. I am not that type of person that lies in bed for a long time. Sabina: How do relax with a schedule like that? Kevin: You know when I relax the most is when I come on trips like this. In airports and airplanes, that's when I relax. That's the only time I can do it. I don’t get moments alone anymore! During lunch hour, if I don’t work out I take that 45 minutes and I tell my assistant Margo to leave me alone. I get 45 minutes in my trailer and I just lay down and put on a sporting event (I’ve got TV in my camper) or I just lay there. I just lie in the bed, relax, maybe fall asleep for 10 minutes, and take a little power nap. But because I’ve got the wife, the kid, the kid, the dog, when I am not traveling with them - traveling to me - I don’t mind getting to the airport extra early, because I can always find a place in the airport that's quiet. I don’t go to my gate, because the gates are always packed with people. If they don’t have a lounge I can go to, I will find a gate that's completely empty. I don’t care if it’s a 400 meter walk to my gate. I’ll sit there until my planes about to leave. I just sit there read a book or I listen to music. That's the only time I listen to music anymore, which I find interesting. Because I don’t have time to listen to music anymore. My manager gave me an iPod and I love it. I probably recorded about 800 songs on it. So that's my escape. Also I have a DVD player like more and more people have on airplanes, so I can watch a movie that I want to watch, when I want to watch it. Kevin: The latest thing I watched (which you may not have seen yet), which was phenomenal was "The Band of Brothers". It deals with World War II and it deals with one airborne division. They still have about eight of these guys alive in their 80`s now and they interview them. It’s a Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg film. It was 120 million dollars US to shoot it. And in my book it is the most amazing TV or film I’ve ever seen in my life! I am completely envious I never got to be in it. There are twenty roles in there. I think they shot over about a 14-month period. It’s phenomenal. It’s called "Band of Brothers". Sabina: I’ll check that out! Kevin: It is incredibly touching. And it’ interesting, because it’s like a feature film. Part documentary - a very small part, but most of it is like a feature film. It’s wonderful! Sabina: So, how do you cope with not having time alone anymore? Is that hard for you? Kevin: It is hard. That’s why I grasp onto my solitary times when I can. Ever since I can remember I like being alone. I love being with people, but just as much - equally - I like the quiet time, I like the time to think! When I shot Hercules, I stopped dreaming for the time I shot Hercules. Because we shot for so long and the schedule was so intense that I am sure I dreamt, I just don’t remember any dreams. I fell asleep very hard for those 5 hours a night - that's all I got. As soon as my head hit the pillow - boom - I was out. And when the alarm would go off and all of a sudden it would be 4:30 in the morning and I didn’t remember falling asleep. So I have no recall of any dreams during the shooting of Hercules. It’s kind of weird. Sabina: That can’t be very healthy to be without dreams for a long period of time. Kevin: It certainly isn’t. That's why people get exhausted and pass out on sets and everything else. Sabina: What is your biggest goal in life - professionally and personally? Kevin: Professionally I want a feature film career. I think I’d be a very good feature film actor. I know I would be and it’ a matter of Hollywood giving you the opportunity. It’s weird, Hollywood views actors who are successful at one particular thing until you prove yourself and do something else. I would kick and fight my way to get on sitcoms in America. Once I got on one sitcom it started snowball for me. And they started saying, “Oh gosh, he’s funny!” What do they think Hercules was? Hercules was a funny show! Sabina: I second that!! Kevin: It’s not part of my ego. But I know I am a good actor. I know that if they give me the right material and the right opportunity, that I can carry a film! I’d be great in romantic comedies; I’d be great as an action guy. I am a big fan of Matt Damon. I would have loved to have done “The Bourne Identity"; I wish they had offered that to me. I’d be great in that type of role. I like Matt Damon and I think he is a damn good actor. Sabina: And personally what is your biggest goal in life? Kevin: Personally I think the biggest goal is to make family work. In society we make everything too easy in terms of just throwing up the white flag and saying: I surrender, I quit! I say its personal, but I think it also stretches beyond that. I am amazed at humanity today with what's going on and what we are doing in this world. This is very sad to me. So personally, I know where you’re leading, but it’s hard for the personal thing to become something more global in terms of what I would like as a person. I would just like to finish all this terrorism stuff. It’s just very sad and pathetic to me. But I make it microscopic and say it’s just to make family work and to make that successful. The family has sort of disappeared, that's sad and I think its one of the biggest problems raising kids nowadays. That leads to problems with crime and delinquency and teenage abortion. Sabina: Bringing up children. What values do you want to teach your children? Kevin: I think honesty and integrity. I think the moral high ground needs to be brought back into focus. We keep raising the moral curves, especially in America. And I think Hollywood is in the forefront of that. Trying to impose their lifestyles on people and say everything's okay and normal. But it’s not okay and normal. I think there is a huge moral decay in America right now and its spreading to the rest of the world. I am not the perfect person, you know. I’ve done a lot of things that I’m probably not proud of either, but I think as a whole I’m a pretty good guy. Kevin: I just think that most importantly we just have to start living by common sense rules that apply to everybody. We have people now fighting the Ten Commandments in America. And I’m like: Don’t look at them as a religious guideline; look at them as things that make sense. Like "Thou shalt not kill" - makes sense to me, you know. "Thou shalt not steal" - makes sense to me. You know what I mean? You don’t have to be religious to look at the Ten Commandments and say that there are some good moral guidelines there that are good to follow. Sabina: They should come from within. Kevin: Oh yeah. You know, the whole thing about doing to others as you would have been done unto you would work pretty well, if everybody really lived by that. Live by that and I think you have a better world. We have a very angry society right now. Sabina: And it doesn’t know what to do with that anger! Kevin: They channel it the wrong ways. Do what I did as a kid, get yourself involved in sports. You learn a lot of things about yourself as a young boy turning into a man and team work and living by the rules. We need rules. If society doesn’t have rules, it just turns into anarchy, its chaos. History has proven itself century over century that not having rules doesn’t work. It’s a downfall of society. Dianna: What kind of education do you plan for your children - public, private, home? Kevin: I want them to go public. I grew up in public. Sabina: I read that when you prepared for Andromeda and wanted to lose some pounds that you did breathing techniques and yoga! Kevin: I lifted weights for so long. Even before Hercules I had been lifting weights since I was 17 years old. After so many years of doing that and getting even more bulky and cut up for Hercules - I could have got bigger, but that's not what they wanted - I just said as an actor I can’t keep doing this. I want to stay in shape, but I want a different body type. I actually had nine month between shooting. I knew I got the part 3 months before Hercules finished. But then we had nine months off to prep the show, to cast the show. So during that nine months I dropped (it kind of fluctuates with what I weigh right now), because I am back up 5 pounds heavier now - but at its absolute peak I dropped 27 pounds of muscle which was hard to do. And what we did to drop that, besides tons of cardio, I lifted really light reps. Instead of doing curls with 65 pounds, I was just doing 25 or 30 pounds, but a lot. A lot of stretching to stretch the muscles. Basically they gave me dancer’s stretches. And I did a lot of Pilates and a lot of yoga, stuff I had never really done before. I had done some yoga before. But Pilates I had never done before and I remember my first time doing it, I was like what's the big deal about this, this is nothing (lifts stretched out arm up and down). At the end of the hour, I am dead. It’s exhausting! Talk about toning your body and stretching your muscles out! So, after nine months, actually after about five months, it worked. Sabina: Sometimes yoga also involves meditation. Kevin: Yes! Sabina: I am asking, because I am a meditation teacher. Kevin: Oh, are you really? Sabina: So, did that include meditation for you? Kevin: Yes, it did. I fluctuated in and out of the whole meditation thing and breathing techniques. I have been doing those off and on for about 10 years now. I need to be more religious about that, but once again it’s a time factor. When I’ll find time to do it, is after the quick workout in the gym, go back to my camper for those 15 minutes, and I just lay on the floor, close the eyes, center my breathing, you know, put on some nice soft music. I do a massage once a week. I am all for that. You know, with stress and all, you need to do these things, so that's what I do. Kevin: You want me to finish the sentence: "Love is"? .... "Love is a mystery!" Kevin: Thank you so much! See you guys out there! © Kevin Sorbo Official Website 2005 |