The smile never left his (unshaven) face.
He was flashing a wide smile when he entered a function room of the Beverly Hilton, rubbing his palms against each other as he greeted everybody with a sunshiny “Hi!”, and when he left, waving everybody a friendly goodbye. During the 20-minute round-table interview and, earlier that Friday (Nov. 2) morning, in the TV interviews, he proved to be a Darling of the Press, effortlessly overwhelming the international journalists gathered for the junket of his latest movie, Walt Disney Pictures’ Enchanted (released locally by Buena Vista International through Columbia Pictures), with his easy friendliness, wit and humor — and punchlines.
Dr. McDreamy in full play?
No. Patrick Dempsey as himself.
He was the same engaging Patrick I first met in the 2002 junket for Sweet Home Alabama (as one of Reese Witherspoon’s leading men, the other being Josh Lucas, then described as “the new Paul Newman”). Then and now, the interview was free-wheeling and no-holds-barred. Patrick wasn’t as big a star at that time as he is now, thanks to his role as the suave Dr. Derek “Dr. McDreamy” in the hit ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.
He’s not an overnight sensation, definitely. An Irish-American, Patrick, 41, began his movie career at 21 in the teen comedy Can’t Buy Me Love in 1987, followed two years later by Loverboy (with Kirstie Alley) and Happy Together. In the ’90s, he appeared on a few TV shows (among them The Player, About A Boy and the straight-to-TV film JFK: Reckless Youth as the title role) and got a long-delayed, well-earned, public notice when he played a sportscaster in the hit comedy Will & Grace. And then came Grey’s Anatomy.
As you can see, Patrick went through a decade-long “rough patch” which, he admitted, got him to a breaking point. “It was demoralizing,” he said.
And like in Enchanted, in “the real world” things have ended “happily ever after” for Patrick.
McDreamy fans will, I’m sure, fall even harder in love with Patrick in Enchanted, “where the real and the animated worlds collide,” directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan) from a screenplay by Bill Kelly (Blast From the Past), with original songs by the tandem of Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz (Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame).
During the press preview at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood the day before the TV-print interviews, Raoul Tidalgo (who joined me from New York) and I felt like kids all over the again, “enchanted” by the fairy tale which reeled off as an animation and then dovetailed into the “real world” when the beautiful princess Giselle (delightfully played by Amy Adams) was banished from the magical land by the evil queen (played by Susan Sarandon whose performance struck Raoul and me as a combination of Rita Gomez and Celia Rodriguez). James Marsden (of X-Men) plays the prince and, yes, Patrick the charming single-parent divorce lawyer with whom Giselle falls in love after he and his little daughter rescue her while she’s wandering, lost in the asphalt jungle that is New York.
Patrick is married to make-up artist Jillian Fink, 41, his second wife with whom he has fraternal twins, Darby Galen and Sullivan Patrick, born last Feb. 1. He has a daughter, Talula, five years old, with his first wife.
A sex symbol at 41. How do you feel about it?
“I love it! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! It’s fun, you know. It’s enjoyable, certainly. It’s fun! I love the attention absolutely.”
What do you think is the sexiest part of your body?
“Ha? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! It’s hard to tell, you know, even if you’re looking at yourself in the mirror. I don’t have any idea. Is it the clothes I wear? My suit? I don’t know. It’s a difficult question to answer.”
I think it’s every part of you.
“It’s a super package, baby!”
Enchanted is such a delightful movie. It makes me feel like Christmas.
“Oh yeah?”
I wonder, do you believe in fairy tales?
“Oh, certainly I do. And Walt Disney is famous for fairy tales, from Snow White to Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty — they’re all in the movie which pokes fun at the genre in a delightful way, complete with a prince and a princess.”
Who’s your favorite prince?
“Freddie Prinze! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!”
Would you describe the path of your career as “enchanted”?
“Well, I can say that. You know, it’s all about survival. There are good periods in your career and there are bad periods. For a while, I thought I didn’t qualify for anything but now everything’s going okay. I really enjoy it now. I think it’s been a long time coming from the hard road, so I really appreciate what I have now. I know what I want to do and what I don’t want to do. I think that’s very important. It just feels nice to be working. It’s amazing that all this is happening at all. It’s been such a struggle to get to where I am now. When I feel that I’m losing perspective, I sit back and look back where I was four years ago and appreciate where I am now.”
Yes, finally, the “happily ever after” in your life and career.
“Well, it’s also a lot of work. Don’t ever look for complete happiness because it’s never really there. You keep striving for something else, you continue to move forward. That’s the important message of the movie — life is not always happily ever after, there’s always something going on, there’s always some conflict. Life itself is a conflict.”
You bounced back from a slump in your career. How is it the second time around?
“It’s a lot easier because you know what to expect.”
In the movie, you play a lawyer, a single parent. In real life, you have a five-year-old daughter and little twins. How are you as a father?
“Great! I mean, I love being a parent. I’m glad I waited to be a parent — when I was 36. Talula is five years old but she feels like a teenager sometimes. Being a parent changes everything. You want to give your children everything you can possibly give them. It’s a lot of fun watching them growing up.”
What did the movie bring out in you as a father?
“That you have to be somebody who’s gonna entertain your children...you want to give them beautiful memories. It was nice to have an opportunity for me to bring Talula to the set, for her to see what her father does, and to introduce her to the princess, and to see the delight in her eyes. It’s a great thing.”
Are you like most fathers who are spoilers?
“Oh, certainly. It’s hard not to soil your children and keep them well-mannered at the same time.”
How do you think your children will react to the movie?
“Oh, Talula has seen the movie and she just loved it! I think other children will also love the chipmunk and the princess. I love the chipmunk.”
Would you let your children join showbiz later on?
“No, I won’t. I hope they don’t. Acting is a very hard profession.”
I bet that, being a father, you didn’t really have to make so much preparation for this movie.
“My daughter in the movie is a little bit older than Talula so it’s a different thing. The biggest preparation was, I think, the dancing.”
Oh, the dancing.
“Yeah, the dancing. I think that’s the most challenging and certainly the most unusual aspect of the movie for me.”
Do you dance, or sing, in real life?
“I don’t sing but I dance. Ballroom dancing. It’s really a fun thing to do with your partner. Everybody seems to be dancing; you see them dancing all over the TV shows these days. I think Amy and I got to know each other very well during our dance rehearsals.”
How different is playing a lawyer from playing a doctor?
“Playing both is fun.”
How much of you is like the roles that you play, specifically as Robert in Enchanted and as Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy?
“Well, I just try to be present in the role that I’m playing. I’m not like the roles that I play.”
Did you visit a hospital to observe before you started playing McDreamy?
“Oh, yes, I did. I sat in the Operating Room while a surgery was going on. And I did talk to the doctors. I should tell you that when Jillian delivered our twins, I watched everything that was going on with the doctors and it felt a bit surreal, as if I was doing a scene from Grey’s Anatomy. I was the one who cut the babies’ umbilical cords.”
As McDreamy, you certainly drive the women crazy.
“I don’t understand it but it’s okay. I think the character is written in a way that supports that kind of adulation. I just try to be honest.”
Other women are falling all over you. How does your wife feel about it?
“Jillian is very strong and she doesn’t mind it at all. She understands my profession and she gives me enough room. She’s very independent and successful in her own field so there’s no reason at all for her to be insecure. I think the best thing that happened to us is the children.”
How do you assure her that she’s the only one?
“I tell her that she’s beautiful...all the time!”
Are you the type of husband who tells his wife “I love you!” all the time?
“I do. I’m very affectionate, physically affectionate. I give my wife and our children a lot of hugs and kisses.”
By the way, how did you meet your wife?
“It was in 1994. She owns a salon in L.A. I went in to get a haircut. She was the one who trimmed my hair.”
Properly?
“Yes, properly.”
What makes you feel romantic?
“Oh, the rain. I love the rain. My wife loves the beach. So when we are on the beach and it’s raining, she’s happy. What is romance? It’s something unexpected that just happens, it’s something magical, something that heightens reality. You can’t live with it constantly. But you know, when you are in that magical moment, you just feel great. I also love the snow. When it snows in New York City, I find it very romantic.”
How do you show your romantic side...with flowers, love notes and chocolates?
“Another tough question. Flowers are always nice but I think it’s romantic when it’s least expected and you do something that’s loving.”
In the movie, the lawyer’s heart was broken. Have you ever been broken-hearted?
“Oh, yeah. Come on. Everybody has been heart-broken. Like when you are a teenager and you have your first love, it’s so glorious and your whole life is on it. And then it bursts like a bubble and you hear a break-up song on the radio and you cry and cry. I think everybody goes through that phase in his life.”
How do you spend quality time with your family?
“You know, it’s a bit hard because of my work. We just spend time hanging out at home. It’s hard for us to go out, we seldom do that. I play with the kids, roll on the carpet with them.”
Do you have time for a hobby?
“Yes, I collect cars. I have seven in my collection which includes vintage cars and a 1973 model my wife recently gave me. I love racing; I join racing competitions.”
Back to women. Do you still look at other women?
“Oh yes, I do. Beautiful women are nice to look at. I grew up in a house full of women. I have sisters. I am the only son.”
How do you handle women who are a bit aggressive?
“Respectfully.”
(Note: For more on Patrick Dempsey, watch The Ricky Lo Exclusives on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Q-11.)
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)