Jonja.net

On Sunday April 23rd at the 2006 Denver Starfest, we managed to get Dirk Benedict to agree to an interview. Its agreed that we will do the interview up on the 9th floor of the hotel in the “Greenroom”. He follows us to the elevator and we talk to him a bit on the way up. He is very candid and I can tell that this interview is going to be very interesting.

Up in the Greenroom, there is a small interview room set up just for such occasions. After Dirk gets himself some coffee, we all sit down and get to business:


Jonja.net: Dirk, I wanted to know what your boys thought of you being Starbuck. Do they ever think or you as a movie star or are you just Dad?

Dirk: No, I am just Dad, I do think they think of me that way sometimes but they don’t ever talk about it. Sometimes I hear them talking to other people, “Oh, yeah my dad is an actor” Roland, when he was about 4 years old and we were still living in California and we were at a park with him, I had a dog and the boys were playing. All of a sudden he comes over to me and says “Daddy, daddy” I said “Roland what?” He said “That boy said you were on that T.V. show The A-team and I told him he was wrong, right?” And I said “Awww, Roland, actually”……and he gave me a look like……how could this strange kid know more about my own father. I never watched television really, when they were little they didn’t watch it, cause I didn’t have it on. So I went into the storage bin and got episodes and that was it, he saw 104 episodes. If you go to my house you don’t see, you wouldn’t know what I ever did for a living there are no photos, no memorabilia. I have a lot of what I have done on DVD and or tape. I didn’t look at things when I did them. I never watched Battlestar Galactica when I was making it! It used to drive Richard (Hatch) crazy! We would get together on Monday, the other actors too and they would talk about the show and say “What did you think”? “Uhhhh, I didn’t see it” Personally, I don’t like looking at myself and I didn’t own a T.V. I never owned a T.V. until 1984. When I met my future wife and she had a T,V. and we moved in together, she brought the T.V. so we had a T.V. Actually, I did watch the A-team when we were doing it.


Dirk then gets a call on his cell phone from his son George to say he won a championship and talks to him about that and wishes he could have been there with him. We talk about kids being a priority and he tells me he has been a single parent for 12 years. “It is all encompassing, it is just all encompassing, that was my 18 year old and he is in Idaho his team is playing for the championship, he is on a really good team and plays really well.”


Jonja.net: What sport?

Dirk: Soccer, both my kids play soccer. My 16 year old is one of the greatest soccer players in the United States. Every team has an Olympic team in soccer. The Olympic development program in America ODP and there are 4 regions, north, south, east and west. Western region is the strongest one, its got region 4, and fourteen western states which includes Colorado. They send their Olympic team, it starts at age 14 and they go to a tournament, and play each other and at the end of that (it takes a week) they pick the 40 players to stay for another week. No kid from Montana has ever made it, my son Roland made that team last year. Then they stay another week. The coach called me and said “Roland made the team”. Then at the end of that week they pick 22 players out of those 40 for the travel team. When he flew back on the plane to Spokane, I picked him up. He had the biggest grin. He looks like David Beckham almost exactly except he is real thin 5’11” and wears his hair really short, blue eyes, smiles, and is faster than Hell. He is a striker, clever, smart, team player. He has a great attitude. My other son George is good too and he is smart. He is about 5”9, he plays a different position. Anyway, Roland is actually a better basketball player than he is soccer, we get him going and he is on an AAU basketball all star team a lot because he is so good. Roland, I have to keep him challenged.

Jonja.net: Dirk were you athletic growing up?

Dirk: Oh yeah I was, their mother was athletic, my father was. I was an all state football player. I was a good basketball player but was all state football, I played in college.

Jonja.net: So what got you into acting?

Dirk: You should read my book, it’s a long story. I never wanted to be an actor, I stumbled into it really, I was in college and I a was music major.

Jonja.net: Why do actors always say they fell into it?

Dirk: It is a profession for losers where they can’t do anything else, no, I went to professional acting school for two years and then I was in Repertory Theater and then did Broadway twice, two shows New York. Did a film in Europe and then I did a play in Hawaii. The Hawaii 5-0 people saw me and put me an episode, I just did the one. It was 1972. So I did this play and I was a guest star on the basis of that. Richard Zanick saw that episode and hired me to star in the Snake movie which they are showing here (at the convention that morning) So, I was going back to L.A. and I got a call from my agent, Richard Zanick wants to see you about making this Snake movie and then I ended up doing series Chopper One and then I ended up doing a movie with Twiggy. Then I got Cancer and it all ended, everything.

Jonja.net: That’s when you started doing the Macrobiotic Diet?

Dirk: Yeah, and I ended up writing a book about it up to 1984, the book goes up to 1984.

Jonja.net: What is your favorite medium, plays, Broadway, film, or theater?

Dirk: Theater, I am best on stage.

Jonja.net: When you met Dwight Schultz on The A-team you guys became very good friends?

Dirk: Yeah

Jonja.net: Yesterday we interviewed him and he said you were his best friend in the business.

Dirk: Yeah, It is mutual. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have Dwight in my life. He is the only friend I have really. I am a weird guy; I am not what I appear to be. People think of me as this, well, girls think of me as this playboy and now I have been a Mom for 12 years. I have more in common with mothers and yet I am in show business and yet I think women should be doing what I am doing.

Jonja.net: I read Starbuck lost in Castration

Dirk: You did? That got me in huge, huge, huge problems. Did you see all the women’s reactions? Oh my god, they were mad. They called me a bitter angry old actor who can’t get a job and he is mad cause he is not on the new show. The article explained I hadn’t even seen the new show, so how could I saw it was bad, I never did say it was bad, a terrible show or awful, I never did say it. I just pointed out how different they are and why they are different. How they both reflect the times they were made in, a sign of the times. The destruction of the family is reflected in the new Battlestar Galactica, the dysfunction and the lack of spirituality and the dysfunctional man, the weak man, the drunk man. Nobody commented on that, it was just I was a bitter, angry; they assume everyone’s dream is to be an actor, to be famous. I don’t know, it’s so shallow and Katee Sackoff got it all wrong, she doesn’t have a clue, she is either brain dead or she must have never read the article. If she read that article and all she could say is “My feelings are hurt, He is just bitter man” Its like a child and I think oh my god this is what it has come to.

Jonja.net: I saw you in the Starbucks(Coffee Shop) with Katee Sackoff (The Lowdown)and she couldn’t keep up with you, she didn’t know what to do with you.

Dirk:She just sat there and giggled. She was cute, she was nice. I thought oh my gosh. No, now, all those fans say “Oh, she is better than he ever was” but there is no comparison, I was a 29 year old man that played that part and I was male, and I was really male!

Jonja.net: Your character was very male

Dirk: but there was a certain part that was part of me and so I was that guy, that guy is very close to me. I can be very charming and sociable, but I don’t hang out, I don’t join groups. It was a great part and I loved doing it. I don’t care about that, Richard (Hatch) is the one who wanted to have the show revived. Nada, nothing zilch from me I didn’t care. And then when Tom Desanto contacted me, I got very excited, I had meetings with him. I was about 4 weeks away from starting production. Sets were built, I was playing Starbuck at age 50 and I couldn’t wait. The opening scene was you just see this smoke and then you see the cigar and then he turns and there is Starbuck. Same guy but now he is about 50. When I met with Tom, I said I would love to do it but, he is not married he is not the same guy. I want to show the pathos, I want to show the sadness, I want to show the emptiness of that. No children, well, he did have one based on the back-story, a daughter from 1980 Return of Starbuck. I sent the woman off in the ship and I stayed behind. It was called Return of Starbuck (From Galactica 1980) and I was there and this girl was there and she had a child and I sent them away. So that child, showed up in Tom Desanto’s Battlestar Galactica. He discovers that. So what I was, was a rough old guy who was training all the young pilots and because of it, I come to know that she is my daughter. She is one of the viper pilots and one of the stars of the new show. I was a secondary character, I was like a supporting role, but it was great, he still drinks, he still smokes and gambles. It continues the story, it doesn’t just piss away the whole previous show which is what the new show did. To me it’s stupid. They just threw away it all away. But in my article I said it won’t matter , because in the end they will be convinced this hamburger is the best hamburger that they has ever made and you never did see the other show. Was there ever another Starbuck? I can’t remember, and that is the way it goes.

Jonja.net: Of course we remember you as Starbuck!

Dirk: I kept hearing they may ask me to be on the new show and I said it will never happen, because they couldn’t fit my personality into that show. I would want to do something that was a little bit charming. What are they going to do with that, everybody would watch it and go, cause I still look enough like myself, they would go there is Starbuck!. Oh there’s Starbuck, he showed up and it was like the interview with Katee. So if I played another character, Kazil, Kaze, Kaza, They’ll say “Ah that is Starbuck”. They know that. So I have some bets, all they have to do is offer me that part and I lose the bet, I got some other bets too.

Jonja.net: So Dirk gambles aside from being Starbuck!

Dirk: I only bet when I know I will win.

Jonja.net: You have any new stuff you want to fill us in on

Dirk: I am not working; I should be writing I’m not. I may start soon. I did a film in Germany called Golden Times. My first film I have to say it was the most complete experience I had as an actor in a movie. In 1971 in Sweden, Maya Angelou wrote it’s called Georgia, Georgia. My last movie in 2004 in Germany, I made a foreign movie in German. My second favorite film, I thought what a way to end. If this is the last movie I ever make. It was great. I play two characters, I play an old, angry, bitter, drunk, bald German actor pretending to be a guy like me from America, speaking English and trying to be a T.V. star. It was so good, I play two characters, and it was very funny. It was three and a half months, big film, it was great.

Jonja.net: On an ending note, is there something you wish someone would ask you that no one ever has, or something you want the fans to know about?

Dirk: No, no, no, (laughing) no, I wish fans read my books more. My one is out of print now “And Then We Went Fishing”.

Jonja.net: Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy?

Dirk: Wish more of them read that. One thing I would like to do a show with Dwight(Schultz), I have been talking to him forever to do a show together. It’s hard to organize. We are both so busy, I get home and I get busy.

Jonja.net: Well you get caught up with your boys.

Dirk: Who knows maybe in a couple of years, my dream, the things I would like to do, I want to write another movie, I want to write the third book of my autobiography, I want to write one more book about being a single father, and walking away from Hollywood. Well, I didn’t walk away from Hollywood, I thought the phone would still ring. It stopped, so Hollywood left me, but when out of town out of site. I want to write about that experience, I want to do a play in London or Ireland, or back on the stage in a play.

Jonja.net: Now that your boys are getting older you may have more time to do more things.

Dirk: Yeah, I don’t know, if I am still alive in four years, so good, so far.

Jonja.net: Well, with your macrobiotic diet.

Dirk: Yeah, but I abused myself.

Jonja.net: That was a long time ago though.

Dirk: Yeah, Oh yeah. Well, its time I got back, Dwight (Shultz) is probably waiting for me.

Jonja.net: Thank you very much for your time.

We get a picture with him and he leaves to go get with Dwight Shultz as they are scheduled to take pictures together with the fans.

Be sure to check our interview with Denise Crosby of Star Trek: The Next Generation Fame

Also read our interview with the creators of the new Sci-Fi movie, Starfighters: The Praetorian Issue Click Here

Great interview!

He will always be THE Starbuck! He will always be THE Templeton "Faceman" Peck!

Thanks to our friends over at Lowerdecks.com for linking the interview on their website.

Lowerdecks is a pretty darn cool Star Trek site, but they also review other Sci-Fi shows and post news items. Their forums are full of all kinds of talk spanning quite a wide range of subjects.

Give them a visit.

Awesome interview Scorp, I am so jealous, I remember wanting to be Starbuck when I was a kid.

Any Webmasters that want to post this on thier websites, please let me know and I will return the favor by plugging your website on mine.

Email: Scorpiuscat@yahoo.com

Thanks to Trekweb.com for linking the interview.

Trekweb.com is a pretty major Star Trek site, but they also have a great news staff that keeps thier site up to date on a lot of Sci-Fi happenings.

Give them a visit.

I don't agree with Trekweb's description of Dirk!!!! It needs to be fixed!

I emailed the site admin and I really have to say was not impressed at all with the way the site characterized this interview or the way the site admin handled the email from me. I am surprised a website as big as that feels the need to sensationalize this interview. I am quite disappointed. I know of other sites where this kind of thing was commonplace, however I had higher expectations of a trek site

For example, it clearly states at the top of the page that Dirk criticizes Ron Moore's Galactica and if you read the interview you see he had never seen the show....................*sigh*

After reading comments about the interview with Dirk on several other sites I am shocked that people feel they can sit in judgment and make assumptions about someone. But beyond that, because as humans we all do it to a point.........it is the bashing and the name calling that I find to be unbelievable. I know you get all kinds on the Internet and this is a prime example of that! I am done looking at the other sites and reading responses which are clearly a waste of time.

Thanks to scifibrain.ign.com for linking the interview.

I dont know much about their website, but its really cool looking.

Give them a visit

OMG Jojo...give us links ! Dirk is the man ! We cannot let him get run through the dirt !

The thing about it is this............I am sure Dirk and his people could care less about the, how do a put this...........people casting dispersions, because they are both class acts. They know it doesn't matter what they think or say. I personally found it very disappointing but I am sure it does not effect Dirk at all. In the elevator ride up to the green room Dirk made it clear he is a man who concentrates on the here and now and the future. I think that is why he doesn't do a lot of interviews, because people want to talk about stuff he did some 20-30 years ago. Right now he just loves raising his boys and I admire that! As far as the so called people slamming him, well they don't deserve any time or attention.

I think people should stop criticizing Dirk every time he says something they don't like. He is entitled to his own Opinion, just like everyone else. i don't like it when people can't accept other peoples opinions, just because they are not the same as theirs. I'm surprised that he hasn't got really angry with it all. Anyway. I think he is a great actor, in everything that he has done. also i think that he is still attractive and sexy.