Katrina: "Good evening. I'm Katrina Skepper and welcome to VIP. Later, music and chat from Sarah Brightman but first an actor whose face you'll instantly recognise as one of Hollywod's leading bad guys. He is Robert Davi, who starred in the Bond movie "Licence To Kill", in "Die Hard" alongside Bruce Willis and in countless US television series including "LA Law" and "Hill Street Blues". Currently, with his good guy hat on, he's playing FBI agent Bailey Malone, a great name don't you think, in the NBC hit show "Profiler", which starts its second series throughout Europe shortly. Let's take a look at it. (show a clip from "Venom") Welcome, Robert. That really is a terrific series to be in, I would imagine, as an actor, with your good guy hat on. Tell me a bit about, sort of, profiler background."
Robert: "Well, it's something like -- initially science, behavioral science that started out at Quantico, the FBI Academy. A guy named William Teten (?) who, who was the first scientist who started to think creatively a bit more than just what the basic forensic evidence was. And he started to develop a whole process of being able to profile victims."
Katrina: "Analyse psychological profiles."
Robert: "Yeah, and the criminals."
Katrina: "And the criminals."
Robert: "You know, and there was a doctor at New York, Doctor Brussels (?) in 1956 who really started that, and this guy Teten went to him and said "Would you teach me?" and the guy says "You couldn't afford me". He says "But I'll do it for my country, I'm patriotic", so he started to -- And he brought it to the FBI, the behavioral science unit, and then a profiling unit started from that criminal profiling where they accessed criminals that were incarcerated. Serial killers and stuff like that, and they started to get unifying principles of their behavior and the statictical information, and that --"
Katrina: "That's why, I mean, the series is amazingly accurate, and I imagine the research you have to do is fairly in-depth. What kind of preparation do you do?"
Robert: "Well, initially I went to, a friend of mine knew the ex-director, assistant director of the FBI, a guy named Jim Greenleaf."
Katrina: "That's always useful."
Robert: "That's helpful, real helpful. And I got in touch with him and said I'm doing this show "Profiler", can you help out. And we had extensive conversations and I put him in touch with the writers and producers. And subsequently, this summer I went to Quantico and to Washington. The FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, and the headquarters in Washington. And I just met on all levels on law infrocement, the training division, the classes they have at the Academy, from ethics to profiling."
Katrina: "Did you meet anyone who resembles your character?"
Robert: "Yeah, yeah, I met the guy who is Bailey Malone in real life. His name is Bill Heidmeier(?). He runs the serial, the child abduction and and serial killer unit for the FBI."
Katrina: "When there is a news story, the people they tend to go to when they're looking for a serial killer is, is the psychological profiles, that they go to people in the FBI, specialists and call them on."
Robert: "Yeah, I mean, since Profiler there's been even more run on getting these experts, even with the JonBenet Ramsey case and all that you see, the Versace killings. It's interesting."
Katrina: "But for you, I mean, it's quite nice because in this you are playing the kind of thoughtful good guy. You have your emotional traumas as well at home and there are many facets to your character. It's a long way from this sort of more archetypal bad guy you played in the Bond movie, isn't it?"
Robert: "Oh yeah, well you know Sanchez was a Columbian drug lord who had a pet iguana and whipped his girl friend. So I mean, Bailey Malone's a ? , a bit closer to me."
Katrina: "But if you're gonna be a bad guy, that has to be, I mean, in a big movie, the Bond bad guy has to be the one."
Robert: "Yeah, that's the ultimate, I mean you know, it's the most successful series of films."
Katrina: "And everybody loves them, too, I mean, you know the moment the baddie's gone, the movie's over."
Robert: "Yeah."
Katrina: "But what kind of, I mean, what sort of fun I suppose you have on a large movie set liike the Bond set, compared to doing a very intense series like "Profiler"?"
Robert: "Yeah well, I mean, I've done fifty movies or so, big, small, but the Bond movie has been the most exciting... I mean, no no, you'll never find, because the whole machine of that, the way they run the filming, and um --"
Katrina: "The Bond empire that surrounds it."
Robert: "Yeah, yeah. It's just incredible, it's an incredible experience the whole thing. We shot for like six months, five and a half months, and then the press for four months."
Katrina: "Did you get to play with some of the toys, you know, the car?"
Robert: "Oh yeah, you know, Q has his little things so we went into the -- But that was a great load of fun."
Katrina: "Robert, in "Die Hard" you also played an FBI agent. Any lasting consequences from that role?"
Robert: "Well, it was interesting because I play this guy, Special Agent Johnson, and initially he had a nice presence and then it turned into a bit of a comical thing. But while I was at Quantico, some of these new agents that probably graduated already, I was surprised to see as I was going through the class rooms, several of them stopped me and said "Lose the grid or lose your job". Which I didn't remember but it was a line that I had in "Die Hard" and it's not the usual line people associate with that character."
Katrina: "But the agents, the real life agents."
Robert: "These guys did and they said "You're the reason why we're here". And I felt good about that, that was interesting. I'm glad my assistant was with me, otherwise no-one would believe me. But it's a true, it was nice to hear."
Katrina: "And Bruce Willis, what was he, is he a believable, is he a believable character?"
Robert: "Yeah, I mean, Bruce seemed to have a lot of fun, he's quite nice, actually. One time in Beverly Hills I was um --"
Katrina: "We shouldn't be surprised."
Robert: "Having a cup of coffee, and he made a u-turn with the car, he saw me out there, he said "Hey". He stopped to say hello, you know? He was always driving this little motor cycle, I mean one of these kids' motor cycles on the set."
Katrina: "He's the sort of grown-up kid, isn't he really?"
Robert: "Yeah, yeah."
Katrina: "Do you think he gets a lot of unfair press?"
Robert: "Yeah, at times, you know. But that's the, um -- It's a difficult, it's a difficult line, your personality and the public, um..."
Katrina: "Perception and keeping a low profile while being a big --"
Robert: "Well it's not even that, it's that... Because the camera sees a certain amount of revealed truth, and now we're getting heavy, I don't know what time your show's on, but you know, you can sense a separation of someone's character. And I think that sometimes when the public doesn't think they're rock solid, there is a, and they don't probably -- It's almost subliminal. I mean, Stallone's been trying to reinvent himself for twenty years now, since the period of "Rocky". There are so many different things, and you sense that -- So, I think it's being able to stay with you vulnerability and openness, and not try to have a veneer personality, you know? Lead with the heart, not with the head, basically."
Katrina: "You're a multi-talented man because I happen to know, which not many of your, your followers might not know, that you have a very musical background, you're originally trained as an opera singer. When you were nineteen years old, you were winning competitions and studying opera. How did you make the transition into acting?"
Robert: "Well it was concurrent, I mean, I used to like to, I loved singing, and it was just something that was an emotional, orgasmic release from singing, that was just so big. And the acting, I love film acting because of the subtlety of film."
Katrina: "And you had an early film, didn't you, where a you had a part opposite Frank Sinatra. I take it, it wasn't "Duel Crooning", was it?"
Robert: "No no, that was his crime drama. He was a detective and I was the Greek criminal, one of the Zinato brothers. But that was --"
Katrina: "What was he like to work with, it must have been quite an insight into --"
Robert: "Yeah. I mean, that was a thrill, because here I was, you know, young kid, and that was my first film job, I had seven hundred performances on stage but nothing in front of the camera yet. And here I was with Frank Sinatra, who's the icon of the American Italian community, let alone anyone who loves great singing, popular singing. And I remember... he was very gracious. And one evening we're shooting in Little Italy, and we're at a social club. And he said to me "Robert, have a drink". I said to him, "I don't drink, Mr Sinatra". He said "You don't drink, you're fired". And then I said "Give me the Jack Daniels", and then I started being on, nipping on Jack Daniels."
Katrina: "It's interesting, you mentioned that he nearly fired you, I know that early on, it seems probably very distant now, but you were fired from a quite a number of different jobs in your early days --"
Robert: "Oh you know that story."
Katrina: "Why was that? Were you in discipline?"
Robert: "No, I was a great, I waitered, and in New York a lot of actors do different things but I was waitering at a certain point and I kept getting fired from these waiter jobs. And, and you think yourself "Okay, maybe I scared the patronage, maybe not, or I used to --" but it wasn't that because I was getting great tips. And I think, I don't know, just destiny because --"
Katrina: "You were already giving performances."
Robert: "Well no, I, I always underplayed, I never liked to be performing as such, you know, I never liked that."
Katrina: "Actually that's one thing I'll say about you, is, is in all the films I've seen you and this series, I like the way you are on the screen because you do underact and you underplay. And I think that, hopefully we're gonna have not just one more series but at least another ten of Profiler, by which time you might be sick of it."
Robert: "No, I think that as long as the character is, they give it different twists and turns and get more into reality of things, it's challenging and as long as the public likes it. It's up to you, guys."
Katrina: "And Robert, plenty more movies in store?"
Robert: "Oh yeah, I hope. Barring any tragedy."
Katrina: "Thank you very much indeed for joining us."

| Robert's bio |