By Josephine Agostino
When Alan Dale left Australia to chase his Hollywood dream, the odds were against him. He was a 50-something actor with a wife and young child to support, and he was struggling to find roles after playing Neighbours‘ nice guy Jim Robinson for so many years.
Now 61, he’s one of Australia’s most successful TV stars, with roles in The OC, 24, Ugly Betty and other series. And while a permanent return home isn’t on the cards just yet for Alan, his wife Tracey and their two boys, he couldn’t resist coming back to play a bad guy on Sea Patrol II: The Coup.
Is Sea Patrol II: The Coup is the first time you’ve worked in Australia since moving to the US?
Yes, it is the first time. We moved to the States in 2000. After Neighbours I was doing a lot of American work here so I thought, “Why not do the same work in the US and get paid in American dollars?” They get paid a lot more too!
Your character is a charismatic ex-pat businessman — not unlike the roles you’ve played in Ugly Betty and The OC?
It’s so much fun playing him. I’ve got a very pretty daughter that one of the boys decides he’s going to latch onto and I don’t like that very much. I’ve always been cast as these rich, enigmatic men, over and over again. Or a Vice President, on 24.
Who has been a memorable co-star among your roles in 24, Ugly Betty and The OC?
I don’t want to bag anybody but I didn’t get on with Kiefer [Sutherland]. I introduced myself to him but I find people who are insecure are not as outgoing. He’s happy with his millions of dollars and his dog and his durries. Good on him! Judith Light — she plays my wife on Ugly Betty and also from Who’s The Boss — she’s a great person and a superb actress.
What is your life like in Los Angeles?
Very, very homey. I live in Manhattan Beach. LA is like 80 cities all combined. The schools are great, the boys are happy and there’s lots of shops and restaurants.
Do you get recognised in the street there?
Someone will walk up to you and you don’t know if they’re talking to you because they’ve seen you on TV. I was in the gym the other day and an Israeli guy was there and I’m riding on the bike. He comes to me and says, “Have I met you before?” And I go, “Here we go…” And I said, “No!” Then he said, “I know your face.” That’s the cue for your resume and I’m always being asked to do that, whereas most people don’t. That’s why I don’t like going out in public.
How was it playing the Vice President on 24 with Keifer Sutherland?
They cast me for one scene, then it just grew and grew. I met a young girl who was on the casting team for the show at a Christmas party and she said, “You know, if we had of known how big this role was we probably wouldn’t have cast you.” What she was trying to say was, “We didn’t know who the heck you were but we liked what you did.” They wrote the character back in the next year but by that time I was doing The OC so they had to re-cast.
What happens to your character, Bradford Meade, on Ugly Betty?
I can’t tell you. [laughs]
Were you on set when Victoria Beckham did her guest-role scenes?
She came to the set for my character’s wedding but I didn’t see it! She always strikes me as being quite a shy girl because she rarely smiles. I love it when girls smile. She has this frosty look which is a bit frightening, to be honest. But everyone loved her and thought she did a good job.
Do you mix with co-stars or other actors?
Not really, but now and again I’ll meet someone that I really like. Ashley Jensen from Ugly Betty who was also in Extras, became a bit of a friend. Mostly I live as a suburban husband. Sorry it’s not very sexy!
Do you keep in touch with anyone from Neighbours?
Yeah, one person — Stefan Dennis. I missed him here in Australia because he’s in England doing a pantomime. He’s the only one, really. I saw Kylie in Cardiff a while ago. Just by chance, she walked into the pub I was in! She was with a whole lot of people who turned out to be 11 bodyguards! [laughs] So I strode over and gave her a big hug and a kiss and we talked for about 5 minutes, and that was it. I hadn’t seen her in 20 years!
Did you ever live a showbiz life when you lived in Australia?
I remember when I first met Tracey, 21 years ago. We were in Melbourne and there was a nightclub called The Underground. I’d just met Tracey so we went into town and there was a line at the club and they saw me so they gave me a card to go in straight away with free drinks. So we had a couple and a few drunk people came up asking for autographs and to tell me what they really thought. Suddenly I thought, “Why am I here? I would prefer a nice chardonnay at home and I’ve got some there, so why don’t I just go there where the beach is rather than in a seedy, smoke-filled place?” That was like an epiphany. That was the last time I ever went. My nightlife now is to go out for a nice meal and a glass of wine.
Is it hard having two television personalities in the one house with you and Tracey?
No, because we love money! [laughs] When Neighbours finished, Tracey started on Our House and it was gorgeous. If she does do something now, we fit it in. We talked about what would happen if we were both doing TV jobs at once. That would mean we’d have strangers in our house looking after the kids and doing our paperwork, and we don’t want that at the moment.
So let’s clear this up. Are you a New Zealander or Australian?
When you say you’re from New Zealand, it becomes a thorn for everybody. I’m a New Zealander and I love the country, that will never change. But my career is an Australian career. I’ve got a house in New Zealand because I grew up there and my parents were there until last year. I left there because of the work, and Young Doctors and Neighbours and other things kept me here [in Australia] for 22 years. I don’t want to have to choose and I don’t choose. Now I’ve been in America for eight years and when I talk about going home, it’s there.
Do your young boys want to take after you?
They’re good little actors, actually. We were driving to dinner and they were doing Toy Story robots in the back seat and correcting each other when they got lines wrong.
Would you encourage them to enter the industry as kids?
I have a strong aversion to it. Kristian [Schmid] seems to have survived, Jodie Foster survived, so did Ron Howard. But hundreds of thousands of kids who have been made stars didn’t survive. I just wouldn’t do that to them. I say to them, “I know you’d like to do it but it’s something you’ll have to decide about when you grow up. You’ll have my backing to help you then but not now.”
Do you ever get starstruck?
No, I don’t know why. When you see Clint Eastwood at the Golden Globes, that’s great but once you turn 60, you realise people are just people.
For more of this interview with Alan, see this week’s Woman’s Day (on sale May 26).
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