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Sent and translated by Siv
Do you have any low-fat, high-protein food?
Adam Arkin (41) searches carefully through the menu. The waiter
on Stanley's restaurant is already pretty affected by the celebrity
visitor and has trouble concentrating on the question. In the next
minute he tells enthusiastically about his girlfriend's friend's
cousin who had a walk-on part in a movie with Adam in it. Adam smiles
and nods his head. When I ask Adam why he orders low-fat food, he's
mumbling modestly "I'm overweight." Another proof that we are in
Hollywood - the plastic surgeon's hometown where even men like Tom
Cruise get their nose and chin fixed. Adam loves food and wine, plus
the little impression that there's something boyish about him that
you don't see in Dr. Shutt in Chicago Hope.
By the way he's dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a jacket. So he
looks more like Dr. Shutt's little brother as he smiles and asks me
what kind of a white wine I would like to have. - I'll recommend dry
Chablis ! He says yes, and unveiles a particularly unamerican, but
fresh. "I love to cook" and
unfortunately "I love even more to eat it".
"The food must always be enjoyed with the perfect drink", he
says and orders an icetea to his diet meal.
There are two sides of Adam Arkin that open fast.
On one side is the star Adam Arkin, more or less caught in the
health and beauty fanaticism.
On the other side, the private person and the actor Adam who's more
attracted to the european relaxed attitude of life.
På Tv´s (on tv) reporter was on the set, and found a
"sunworshiper Adam" lounging on the
ground.
Christine Lahti and the other stars lock themselves in their trailers
as soon as there's a break, and they have to be called over the
phone. There's something more relaxing about Adam. "When we were in
Las Vegas, Adam was the only one who came along with us guys (who
work on the set) to stripbars", unveils one of his co-workers. When I
tell him this, his dark face starts to get a bit red. "I hope you
don't think we're doing this regularly.We mostly did it because we
were on a trip and wanted to experience the city". His eyebrow is
raised in a thoughtful bow: "Do you have to write that ?"
The stars got fired:
Right now it's just Adam, Hector Elizondo (Dr.Watters), Mark
Harmon (Dr.Jack McNeil) and Rocky Caroll (Dr.Wilkes) left after David
E.Kelleys huge "cleanup" on Chicago Hope. All of the other characters
got thrown out. Kate Austin, Billy Kronk, Lisa Catera, Dennis Hancock
and Diane Grad are all gone for good,Vvctims of the butcherknife and
the low ratings. Kelley takes it now personal to get Chicago Hope
back to the top. Adam was just in Diane Keatons latest movie "Hanging
up" - as Meg Ryans husband. In the corridors at the TV-network Fox
there's lots of whispering about who of the writers is going to write
Adams new sit-com. But Adam doesn't want to talk about this,
everything that's not been decided yet is "hush-hush" in Hollywood.
Instead he wants to talk about Norway. I've always been attracted to
Scandinavia. A friend of mine has tought me a sentence in Norwegian:
"Jag elsker deg" ("I love you") slowly, and makes the journalists
tremble at his knees - not easy to deal with. I beg him to use the
phrase carefully, because it is not used as often as Hollywood's "I
love you".
Getting married this summer: In these days Adam says "I do"
and "I love you" to the three year older actress Phyllis Lyons.
Phyllis has played Dr. Larkin with the unorthodox medical theories in
some episodes of Chicago Hope, but Dr.Shutt was to slow and didn't
get her. But it turned out better in reality. Adam isn't too excited
to talk about the wedding. After his divorce from Linda Arkin, yoga
instructor and actress, he moved to Seattle with their daughter.
Phyllis will fit better into Hollywood, with long experiences from
soap operas and characters in movies like "The Brat Pack" and "The
Bridges of Madison County".
Adam owns a new decorated home in Woodland Hills outside of Los
Angeles, and he also got two dogs. The wedding is going to be nice
and quiet, in the garden, without too many guests. They're awaiting
no kids, but Adam has a daughter Molly from his last marriage. Like
father like son: last fall the Norwegian audience could see the
youngest Arkin in a guest role as a girl with cancer - a performance
that made Adam and his father, the actor Alan Arkin, very proud.
Movies the whole life: Adam grew up with acting most of his life.
Alan Arkin has received lots of prestige prices for the performances
he's done in movies and theatre plays. Adam grew up on filmsets
inside and outside the country. I particularly remember "Catch 22" in
Mexico. I just had my 13th birthday, and had lots of first time
experiences there, he says and blinks with his intensive brown
eyes: "My first cigarette, my first tequila, my
first...." The waiter serves the low-fat meal: tortillas with
high-protein substance and interrupts again, this time with a wish
for an autograph. Adam writes it with a reserved smile. I can't
deepen it more, he finishes with a smile you've never seen on Dr.
Shutt with before. A smile that makes it hard for a reporter to be
northerly calm.
Adam's low profile in the media is going to change when Mrs. Arkin
makes her entrance. Phyllis Lyons presents the opposite of Adams
"european calm-like style". She doesn't have the same background as
Adam, from growing up in Brooklyn, New York and years of experience
in the theatre scene and on Broadway. Theatre dreams: Adam was
supposed to play theatre in London this spring but the play got
delayed. Instead he is going to be in a movie for TNT and makes more
Chicago Hope. Adam is going to act in three movies during 1999,
develop an own situation comedy, and prepare theatre projects for
next spring - plus Chicago Hope. Adam is looking discretely down to
his sportswatch in white gold. The waiter comes bowing with the bill
- which Adam and I tear apart pulling on each end for a few seconds.
The interview is going towards its end. Well outside of the
restaurant, next to his dark Porsche, Adam lightens a cigarette:
"This is my european lust," he says and alludes to Marlboro Lights.
As is generally known "no one" smokes in Hollywood. But this is
hardly the only european tic of Adam Arkin. There's something that
tells me that his charming brown eyes would have glittered boyish on
a road by a Norwegian fjord in the old Volvo (the older type of
Volvo) with some smoked salmon and maybe a chablis in the back
seat.
