Feb 09 2009
Simon Baker on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The lovely Simon Baker, star of hit show The Mentalist, was a guest tonight on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The handsome Australian was a bit more shy than I had expected, but still funny and charming, and like his Mentalist character Patrick Jane, a little bit quirky. Of course this combination is lethal when being interviewed by Jay Leno, who tends to make fun of everything a person says and deliberately misunderstand their stories or jokes until they feel completely flustered, stymied, or embarrassed. This is particularly true if the guest is ridiculously handsome, as Simon Baker is, and not scary enough to intimidate Leno. I’ve been actually looking forward to Conan O’Brien taking over The Tonight Show–sure, Conan is insane sometimes, but he doesn’t seem quite as obsessed with making himself look superior to his guests.
(I’ll always be grateful to Wanda Sykes for gushing over Jude Law in front of Jay Leno, dismissing Leno’s pouting by saying Jay was cute, but when Jude Law walked down the street, buildings fell down, cars exploded…she just went on and on about the sheer force of his beauty, while he sat adorably blushing next to her and Leno tried to look as if he found it all amusing.)
But I digress. Simon Baker did get to tell an awkwardly funny story about a charity offering he made for his son’s school — surfing lessons to the high bidder, which he assumed would be one of the kids whose parents donated to the cause. Turns out the bidding had been opened nationwide, and a 32 year old woman from Texas won. He was completely stunned, and after some putting off, finally went and offered his surfing lesson to a gal who was probably completely euphoric at having won a day with Simon Baker–who actually picked her up in his car and all. He’d thought it would be a quick lesson, as surfing isn’t easy and wears newbies out quickly, but he described the woman as “quite fit’ (and no doubt running on endorphins of being so close to Baker). She lasted three hours, until Baker himself was so tired he joked that he’d started trying to get her doused by bigger waves so she’d wear out. He then apoligized to her on national TV for his evilness.
Honestly, I give him credit. He neatly dodged questions from Leno about the lady’s attractiveness, in deference to his wife and respect for the lady. And a three hour lesson is a lot to ask of an actor who’s just doing a charity stint, especially since he thought it would be for a child. Actors can be wild and crazy, but a lot of them are just regular people like the rest of us, and the strange situations they sometimes get placed in with media and fans must be tough to get used to.
And speaking of strange situations, Simon Baker was actually nice enough to stick around for the entire show, though he wasn’t rewarded for it (except perhaps for his own amusement). Jay’s follow-up guests were Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt from the “reality” show The Hills. I have to say they were not as obnoxious as I’d thought they’d be, but I always judge a guest by how they treat the other person sitting on the couch–and Heidi and Spencer ignored Simon Baker completely. Here’re two actor wannabes, sitting next to an actual TV and movie actor and after saying hello, they completely forget he exists. I’ve always enjoyed when performers stick around during other interviews–you often get a different sort of interview and some funny interactions. Not this time. Simon Baker was there, but never made it on camera during their entire interview.
I’ll definitely be poking around the Net for video of Simon Baker’s other interviews. Jay wasn’t actually at his worst here, but I’d be interested to see if Baker’s more relaxed with other hosts.
____________________
Simon Baker screencaps, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, February 9, c2009.
____________________
