RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN 
IN “ISLAND SON”
DANISH INTERVIEW BY MERETE SCHRAMM
© 2003. Okihei Enterprise, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Tribute to Richard Chamberlain

 

 



 

 
I wanted to live and work in Hawaii so we invented a series to do that called Island Son. I play a doctor in it but he’s in a very fascinating position. He was brought up in a traditional Hawaiian family. He was sort of found—Hanaii as they say—adopted. And his father is this kind of Hawaiian-ancient Hawaiian spiritual healer; they call him a “kahuna”. And he shows as a child a considerable talent for the healing arts. So the father trains him in the ancient Hawaiian ways and then when he gets a little older sends him off to Stanford Medical School.

 

 
The whole community pays for this. And into the razzle dazzle of high-tech medicine. My character falls in love with all this high tech stuff. And when he goes back to the islands to practice he’s then in a sense has a foot in both worlds. He’s sometimes torn between both worlds. But very often he finds them mutually harmonious. 

 

 
And to be also caught between the, in a way, the modern world and the old Hawaiian ways in just plain life. I thought it was a fascinating position to put a character in and Hawaii plays a very, very important part in the series being so beautiful, lush, gorgeous.

 

 

 
MS: You are for the first time wearing two hats. 
You are not only the star of the show but you’re also the executive producer. How did you balance those two very strenuous jobs?

 

 
RC: Well, luckily, I was only one of the executive producers. 
There were two others and a ‘co’. But I did have duties in that area mostly in terms of scripts and casting and the sort of artistic side of the show. I let other people take care of the nuts and bolts details, which are really maddening. But it was hard; it was hard to do both. 
And I found, sometimes, that having to run up and watch dailies and all that sort of thing and get in on casting sessions interfered with my performance on the set. So, I leaned more toward the acting. 
But it was fascinating because being an executive producer you have to be listened to so I  had a lot to say and they had to listen to me. Which was different from being just a plain hired actor. 
They could say, ”Oh, yes, yes, sure sonny” to a hired actor and then go their own way usually. But, it was a most interesting experience and I learned tremendously about television production.

 

 

 
MS: Were you a good communicator between your crew and your co-actors and was it certainly difficult to be in the two positions at the same time?

 

 
RC: Sometimes it is. Sometimes I would take it upon myself to go up to an actor, as a producer, and say try such and such, or do such and such, or maybe the character should go in this direction instead of that, or maybe that dress or that outfit doesn’t look so hot.  And I would do it very apologetically. But because I didn’t come on real strong, I think I got away with it pretty much. It’s bad manners for an actor to tell another actor what to do. It almost never happens. Perhaps it should happen more because sometimes you can get an objective point of view of someone’s performance. But it’s considered very bad manners to do that. But as a producer, it’s OK. But it is tricky to try to divide the two.

 

 

 
MS: How much and what do you enjoy the most working on this series?
RC: Mostly the triumph, if it works, of beating the machine. Motion pictures are a very mechanical medium. And everything is done backwards and upside down and over and over and over again. And when you’re doing a scene you have to remember exactly what props you used and when because they go from here to over your shoulder and all the other shots. You have to have everything exactly the same. It’s a very technical medium. And if you can get a good performance going with all those sort of technical difficulties you’ve really succeeded and it’s fun. It’s almost like tennis; you’re playing against a machine.

MS: You like, I think, Daniel Kulani very much as a character?
RC: Yea, I did like him a lot.

MS: How much does he resemble you somehow?
RC: Oh, quite a bit I think. Quite a bit. And in some ways none. 
I, for one, could never be a doctor. But I love the idea of being a healer. I’d love to be able to lay my hands on somebody and heal them. Everybody would love that. But the vast technicalities of being a medical doctor quite beyond…but I, at least in my fantasies, would like to do what he did. And a lot of my behavior on the show, I think, is pretty much like me in real life.

MS: Are you allowing your viewers to see perhaps a little bit more of you-Richard Chamberlain-in this series than you have allowed them before?
RC: I think so. Yea. Than in a long time. Yea. So, I hope they like it, if they don’t like it then they don’t like me.

MS: You have a love interest in the show. You have several of them, but the one that is in the pilot show, a very attractive, intelligent woman.
RC: Leslie Bevins. She’s a real knockout. Really great. I love playing with her. She’s wonderful to act with. She’s very real, very spontaneous, very unusual, great body, quite an outstanding body, and real pleasant.

 

 

 
MS: Are you going to get married in the show or are you keeping that as a secret?
RC: I have been married. I have a troublesome ex-wife and I have a son, who lives with me. A teen-ager who’s also troubled. And that was interesting. Never having had a child I did feel actually rather fatherly sometimes. It’s amazing how those instincts are there no matter what.

 

 
MS: The breathtaking beauty of Hawaii. How much does that play, the people of Hawaii, and the backdrop of Hawaii play a part in the story lines?
RC: There have been a number of television series done in Hawaii. We used more Hawaiian actors in the first few shows than were used in 8 seasons of Magnum, in all of Hawaii 5-0. Yea, we really tried to use local people a lot and deal with Hawaiian stories as much as we could. Unfortunately, our writers were in Los Angeles and didn’t know Hawaii as well as we did. So, we didn’t get in quite as many Hawaiian things as I would like but there’s a lot of Hawaii in the show. And of course a lot of the physical Hawaii, the beautiful places, the beaches.

 

 

 
MS: Of the co-workers who flew in from the mainland, what did they learn from their experience?

 

 
RC: Well, I think it may have ruined some of their lives in the sense they all want to live and work in Hawaii now. They loved the place, most of them; they loved working on the show. We had a very special feeling on the show, I think, partly from being in Hawaii. And a lot of them have refused work hoping that we’ll get something else together to do in Hawaii. Luckily, I just got a great idea a couple of days ago for another show there.

 

 
MS: Are you a perfectionist?
RC: Yes, but, I’ve learned to tolerate imperfection because perfection is very elusive. And rare. I’d love it if everything were perfect all the time and I’d love it if I were perfect all the time. But, unfortunately, that just isn’t the case. But I try to get things as perfect as possible.

 

 
MS: Television, and the television industry, is a very nerve-racking industry. How much is talent to get a good part and how much is luck?
RC: Luck has a lot to do initially with getting good parts. A lot to do with it. But without the talent you don’t last on television. If you look at the shows that do last, you’ll see the characters generally have something very extraordinary about them. Something they do extremely well. And if the characters don’t have that then (gestures) goes right out the window. 300 pilots or something like that are made every year. 5 may get on the air and 2 or 1 may be very successful.
MS: What would you ultimately want us to feel when we start watching Island Son?
RC: Well, I hope people get a sense of the island and the spirit of the island, which is so unique and very rare, and very fragile. I fear for it, ah, you know commercial development and everything. And a sense of Kulani’s humanity. And the humanity of the stories, I suppose. Plus a lot of fun, a lot of drama, and lots of fights, and plus, a few laughs.