Actor Noah Wyle has been making the rounds in promotion of his starring role in the TNT series Falling Skies. Now in it’s second season, Wyle had some personal and professional obstacles to overcome when he first started on the set of the Steven Spielberg executive produced alien drama.
The forty-one year old ER alumni, who says he likes to “play smart guys,” had a problem with playing the father of actor Drew Roy who is only fifteen years younger than Wyle. “When I showed up on set and realized I was going to play a father to Drew Roy, who’s 26, my first instinct was, `You gotta be kidding me.’ Then I thought, `Why is nobody else having a problem with this?'” While the actor does have a nine year old and a six year old at home, Wyle shared with The Huffington Post, “I’m a young dad.”
During his interview with The Columbus Dispatch, Wyle also shared the experience that taught him the most about being a performer that came surprisingly when he worked as a bus boy. “The guy I worked for has become a bit of a celebrity, Dmitri Dimitrov. He’s constantly being written up as the power broker of Hollywood because he shifts people around at various tables and all these deals get struck under his watchful eye.” Adding, “I give him a tremendous amount of credit because he instilled in his wait-staff this notion of nobility and humility. “That just because you’re in the service industry didn’t mean you had to act with an air of servitude. You were actually putting on a show, and the show was to give these people the most incredible dining experience that they’d ever had.”
“The way he reached me,” Wyle says, “was by saying, ‘You want to be an actor? Acting’s about attention to detail. (If) you take the same attention to detail that you’re applying here in the restaurant and apply it to your work, it’ll pay off in huge dividends down the line.’ And he was absolutely right.” His attention to detail while portraying his role as Dr. John Carter on ER would pay off for the actor. “It took me from total anonymity and obscurity and put me on the cover of Newsweek magazine in the first season. It was exhilarating and an abject lesson of be careful of what you wish for.”
