| E.R. heartthrob Noah Wyle says he can whup George Clooney in pool By Michael Fleming |
| NOAH WYLE, who plays medical student John Carter on the hit television show ER, is the kind of actor who will make sacrifices for his art. Take his hair: Wyle had long hair when he won his part on the series, but he was forced to have it cut shortly before shooting began. ("We flew to Chicago, and this woman cut my hair, with trendy ridges on the back, long on the top, short in the front. I looked like a circumcised penis. And we had to match all the stuff we shot in Chicago, so I couldn't cut it. I had to leave it that way the first six episodes.") He is currently on hiatus, with a full head of hair, doing a worldwide press tour that has taken him to London, Athens, Amsterdam, Cologne, and Tel Aviv. He was surprised to find the show a hit in Israel. ("Israel is nothing I imagined it to be. It's very metro and the beaches are the most beautiful in the world. I floated today in the Dead Sea, where it's so salty there's no way you could drown unless you're a moron.") He says that most people realize that--though he plays one on television--he is not a real doctor. ("A few misguided souls get confused, but most recognize the difference.") He gets tips on his medical technique from his mother, Marjorie Spiro Wyle, who has been a nurse for sixteen years. He would rather not name her hospital; he's worried she'll get harrassed. He says that she is thrilled at ER's success. ("Everybody at the hospital watches the show, so she's the belle of the ball. People pay homage and ask what's happening in future episodes.") He is also pleased by the show's popularity. He has a good sense of humor, which he exhibits when asked if fame makes him sad. ("Leroy made me sad sometimes, but Debbie Allen always cheered me up.") He says, in all seriousness, that he likes fame, because it allows him to dress better, and because people treat him the way they should treat everyone. He recently used his fame to get a seat in a two-man F-18 Hornet with the elite Navy squadron The Blue Angels. He was fine until the jet hit 7.6 Gs, when he felt himself blacking out. Unlike Wings star Steven Weber, who took a similar flight, Wyle didn't need an air-sickness bag. He was born on June 4, 1971, by Caesarean section, at Cedars of Lebanon in Los Angeles, a block from Hollywood Boulevard. ("It's now this huge Scientology building.") He attended a co-ed boarding school, Thatcher, in Ojai, California--the hometown of TV's Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman. He describes Thatcher as a "prep feeder school to Ivy League colleges." He ran cross-country, played basketball, and participated in the school's theatre program. He was essentially well-behaved, though he recalls giving a high school classmate a thrashing over the affections of a girl. ("I don't subscribe to pugilism, and I felt awful--after I did my victory lap.") He caught the attention of a Disney casting director and was asked to attend an invitational theatre program at Northwestern University. He declined, skipping college to try his luck as an actor in L.A. ("I got an apartment with mustard-colored carpeting and worked at the Bel Age Hotel, first as a busboy, then as a waiter.") His first movie role was in Crooked Hearts, in 1991, which also featured Jennifer Jason Leigh and Juliette Lewis. ("Don't be embarrassed if you didn't see it.") He later appeared in the World War II musical Swing Kids, and got his "big break" in the Rob Reiner-directed A Few Good Men. ("I played a dimwitted corporal who drove the Jeep for Tom Cruise and Demi Moore, then testified.") He says he would work for Rob Reiner again "anywhere, for free." He danced in Swing Kids, but says that in real life he's not much of a hoofer. ("It depends on how drunk I am. But what I lack in talent, I make up for in originality. I'm a flailer. I spread a wide girth around me.") He enjoys shooting pool, and says that he can beat co-star George Clooney. His says that, traditionally, onion bagels have been his favorite, but he is becoming hooked on salt bagels, too. His character, like most medical students, is sleep-deprived, but Noah prefers to get a full night's rest. ("I'm a sound sleeper and can get by on eight hours. But if I don't have a reason to get up, I can sleep all day.") When ER is shooting, though, he sometimes has to make do on four to five hours a night. ("Some of my best work I did when I was exhausted.") However much he sleeps, he prefers to get his rest without pajamas. ("I'm a hippie child, and we all slept naked.") |