FATHER
knows best
John
McCook doles out parental guidance to colleagues young and bold
James
Brown is the godfather of soul, Marlon Brando is the Godfather
of film, and John McCook... he’s the godfather of B&B. At least that’s
what he’s been dubbed lately by the international press. And he seem so enjoy
the appellation. Since the show’s debut 12 years ago, he has played father
figure as haute-couture hot commodity Eric Forrester. „My joke with Ronn Moss
(Ridge) is that when we started, I was too young to be his dad, and now he’s
to old to be my son,“ laughs the actor, who was only 42 when he took on the
role of a man in his 50s. „ I am actually the right age now, really, and
I’ve just recently been exploring father-son stuff that I was never able to do
with Ridge and Thorne because they were older. This stuff with Rick has been
closer to home for me because I do actually have a 17 year-old at home. So
it’s touched a nerve.“
This
Papa Don’t Preach
McCook’s
role as nurturing father isn’t relegated solely to the screen. Many consider
him to be the Superglue that holds the cast together. „He keeps everybody
laughing and he has really motivated me,“ says Jacob Young, who plays Rick.
„When I joined the cast, he went above and beyond the call of duty and let me
meet his family because he saw that I was his kid from a little podunk town in
Oregon. He really helped me adjust.“
While
McCook has seen many actors come and go from the show, he says he tries to reach
out to young or inexperienced ones, but notes that it’s important not to
interfere too much. „It takes new
actors on our show a while to learn, ‘Oh, I’m supposed to do this
with the material’, but your’re not allowed to tell them that. It’s an
unspoken kind of thing. You don’t get to tell anybody, but when they get it,
you say, ‘You got it!’ Then, they belong here.“
Of
course, some of the best instruction new actors can get comes through simply
being in a scene with McCook, who constantly is looking at the script to find
new angles. The advice comes in doing, not telling. „You don’t want to sit
hem down and say, Now listen, kid... I couldn’ t have done that with Jacob at
the beginning, he was scared enough as it was. You can’t impose this job on
them. You have to put them n there and stand back and watch.“
World
Domination
When
McCook fist signed on the infant B&B, he didn’t think he’d still be
working on it more than a decade later. „CAPITOL had just gotten canceled
after five years. So when my wife [actress Laurette Spang] and I were discussing
the show, the bottom line was, even if it fails, it’ll be on for five years.
So I basically planned on being here for five years.“
It
wasn’t too long before McCook began to notice that the little half-hour show
was making big waves, and not just in the States. „As soon as the fist few
years went by, I realized that the success was growing all over the world. There
was no question that the show would be here forever. It’s such a cynical thing
to say, but our show doesn’t need to be number three or two or one in this
country. It only need to do okay. It’s such a phenomenal success for
Bell/Phillip (it’s parent company) overseas that there’s no way they’re
going to shut it down.“
Whistle
While You Work
It
seem certain that B&B will be around for quite a while, and likely that
McCook will stick with it for the long haul. „If I didn’t have children, I
might look at wanting to feel my oats as an actor in feature films.“
But
with three children still needing to be put through college, McCook says he’s
quite happy with the financial security of his job. Further, when you consider
that his youngest daughter Molly, is only 8, you can figure that he has more
than a few years before he will pnder movin on.
Besides,
McCook says he’s having way too good a time to hang it up yet. „My work
ethic has to do with being happy to be where your are,“ he offers. „When
people are uptight or nervous [on the set], I just say, ‘This is more fun than
that.’ If it’s not fun, it’s too hard.“
By
Amy Helmes
Soaps in Depth 03/16/99