Mania Magazine '97

"It's three guys who get along together well, not a testosterone-filled environment - we talk, and we work out our problems, we 'share' with each other. I think people look at it and actually see two guys on network television saying, 'Hey, you're my friend and I love you,' instead of, 'Hey, let's go out and have beer' or whatever. I just think it's natural." 

Of the serial women, the actor enjoyed working with UPN's golden girl Jeri Ryan, whom he labels "a lot of fun, very professional - you can tell that she's worked a lot when she comes on set." His favorite episode remains the pilot, because of the emotional intensity of the shoot. "I was so excited to be working and to be second in command, and I was so nervous. Is it going to get picked up, is it going to go? Fifty episodes later, it's more like, 'Eh!'" Still, Maggart says the crew usually had a riotously good time. 

 Another favorite episode was "Vow of Silence," in which Maggart's father appeared as Brother Marcus. "It was great, I wish we could have worked together more - one of the scenes that we did, the full length didn't make it in because it was running a little long," the younger Maggart recalls. "It's kind of weird, because this time it was me getting him work, so it was my turn. He was in my house, so it was kind of fun." 

When he was younger, the actor watched his father work onstage and decided he wanted to be a performer. "I lived in Connecticut going to school, and he lived in New York and did Broadway. In the summertime I would go out whenever he was doing a play and go watch in the wings, and watch the audience reacting - I never watched from the audience, I watched from backstage. I didn't do any theater in high school; I was always of the thought that theater was what I wanted to do for a living, so in school I wanted to learn about other things, so I could bring that to my characters." 

Though he took classes, the Manhattan native is uncertain of the value of classical theater education for actors working in film. "In my school, the programs were very geared towards the history of theater, like Greek tragedies and comedy of manners - and I never really saw those people working! They were great guys and girls, but they never worked! I always wanted to work." For a show like The Sentinel, "Method acting is hopeless, but you welcome really emotional moments, because it's a chance to show your chops. My character is mostly just yelling 'LOOK OUT! Get out of the way! Do you smell that?' and stuff like that." 

How, then, did he gear up for some of the unusual situations Blair Sandburg found himself in? "The easiest way for me is just to try to be there and let whatever the dialogue is dictate how I should feel. If I'm talking about [Jim] and I going our separate ways, that's kind of a traumatic thing, and that may come out sad or it may come out aggressive - it really depends on how he's taking it in. I never have a set way of how I'm going to act when I get to work. There's not much rehearsal time, and that can be good or bad - doing theater rehearsal is wonderful because you get only one shot at it, but when you're doing it on film, it's give and take, and sometimes it's good to just wing it, to catch the magic." 

Unlike some actors who prefer to watch the daily takes and never catch their own shows, Maggart watches all the episodes, albeit on videotape since he's often working when they air. "I don't watch the dailies because that's not what gets into the final product. That tape represents my work, my heart and my soul for two weeks of my life, every one of those tapes. So of course I want to see it. A lot of people say the experience is right when you're doing it, that's the acting - and that's great when you're on stage, that's true - but this tape here is a culmination of all those moments, so hell, yeah, I want to see it." 

"I stopped watching dailies because I was critiquing myself during the process," he continues, noting the edited final product was "always better than I think they'll be. There are editors that should get awards. Should-have could-have would-have will kill me, so it's fine, I did it exactly the way I was supposed to." 

Maggart says the writers took input from him about individuals scenes, but he never had any desire to pitch stories, nor to write scripts. "I'll give a suggestion for my character if I don't agree with what's down on paper, but the decision is theirs, obviously." Because he's always been athletic, he asked to be allowed to do as much stunt work as insurance and union regulations would permit. "I just get hit in the head with a gun every time I turn around, I get knocked out! So I'm rolling my face in the frame." 

Ironically, Maggart isn't particularly a fan of the action genre, nor of television in general. "The Seinfeld ending was the first Seinfeld I had ever seen; I never ever watched the show during its run," he admits. "Feature-wise, no question, when I was growing up, the mobster movies were always the ones I wanted to see. Goodfellas, The Godfather, anything with a New York Italian accent!" He would very much like to work with Pacino or De Niro, though NYPD Blue is also high on his wish list. "I read for that show a thousand times and never got cast - I was always so close! It was always last callbacks and it would always go some other direction." 

So where would he like to go, post-Sentinel? "I've thought about that, and I'd like to do more small supporting roles - I don't want to just jump in, I don't know how comfortable I would feel trying to carry a movie right away. I would rather do supporting roles with bigger-name actors, just to learn more. I've always wanted to work with Meryl Streep. Nicholas Cage, too, he's wonderful. There's a couple of things I would have been able to read for before hiatus, but they've since gone - one was a Northern Ireland accent they wanted me to do, and I said, I'll give it a shot, but they actually cast someone from Northern Ireland, which I thought was better." 

Maggart describes his theater experience as "a lot of coffeehouse shows," including touring with an improvisational group. "I love the immediate gratification or immediate destruction of your performance when you're onstage. I've always been one to be the loudest, at parties or wherever, try to steal the spotlight." Still, his first experience with a convention crowd left him a little bit awed. "Wow! It was kind of intimidating," he exclaims of the Vancouver-area con. "It was fun, but it was my first time with something like that, and this was on a small scale - I can't even imagine what the cast from X-Files goes through. That's got to be overwhelming. Everybody was really nice, nobody was asking weird questions - not too much about my personal life." 

Now it's back to auditions, which doesn't particularly distress the actor, though he misses the cast and crew of the show which kept him working for more than three years. While fans rally in an effort to convince UPN to resolve the cliffhanger ending, the fallen hero is already looking forward to his next role.