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July 2002 Hello! Magazine UK |
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To see the images from this article click HERE |
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"Currently Embarked on the New Star Trek Series "Enterprise," British Actor Dominic Keating Shows Us Around His and His Girlfriend's Hollywood Dream Home." When British actor Dominic Keating made the decision to look to Hollywood for his lucky break, he didn't reckon that it would take him eight years to make it. But since the Leicester-born actor signed up for duty aboard Enterprise -- the fifth spin-off series from TV's Star Trek -- the years of auditioning and struggling for parts have finally paid off. In spades. The hi-tech sci-fi show has been a huge hit around the world -- its first series [season] has just completed in highly rated run on Sky One. The feistier and more humorous tone, plus the sexier characters and all-action storylines have made it the most accessible addition to TV's longest running and most successful franchise. And it's also given Dominic a cracking role to play. As Lt. Malcolm Reed, the a's [that's what it says, what does "a's" mean?] tight-lipped security chief with a penchant for coming out with all phasers blazing, he's becoming something of an action man sex symbol. Success brings rewards and for Dominic that includes a brand new million-dollar home in the Hollywood Hills, a stone's throw from the famous sign.
The house is a symbol of his achievement following a rocky ride to the top. Before landing the role on board the Enterprise, Dominic was seriously thinking about giving up acting altogether. "A couple of times I was on the verge of throwing the towel in and leaving for good," he admits as he relaxes at home. Figuring that he wasn't getting anywhere, "certainly wasn't getting any younger", he thought about becoming a restaurant owner and moving to Austin, Texas. Ironically, it was his failure to land a guest shot on Voyager that fuelled his decision to quit. Having auditioned really well for the part, Dominic waited for the call that never came. Until 18 months ago. "It turned out Rick Berman, the show's producer, had been saving me for a role in his next series, Enterprise," he recalls.
Dominic was asked to audition for the role of Malcolm Reed and was cast ahead of the rest of the ensemble, including the show's top star, Scott Bakula (who plays Capt. Jonathan Archer). "Rick asked me, 'Are you free for the next seven years?' and that was it! My new life started at that precise moment," he says with a laugh. But before that moment came, public school-educated Dominic had to ride of the ups and downs of life as a struggling actor. Having graduated from University College, London, with a degree in history, he decided to pursue his artistic ambitions as an actor. Doing a drag act with a mate brought him his Equity card and then various stage performances won him a recurring role on the long-running Channel 4 comedy series Desmond's. When the show ended in 1994, Dominic decided to head for Hollywood. Eight years of hard work and bit parts followed until Enterprise came along. The graft at least made Dominic thankful for what he as now. As he says: "Success has come while I am young enough to enjoy it and old enough to really appreciate it and be grateful for it."
And success has given him a beautiful home and enough stability to make plans for the future with his girlfriend, Canadian actress Jilana Stewart. Dominic describes her as "not just my girlfriend but my very best friend." The couple met 18 months ago in Puerto Banus, Spain, where they were both on location for a Zalman King movie for US TV channel Showtime. "We got to spend some time together in Spain, had a couple of dinners and got along very well. So when shooting finished we exchanged numbers. Back in LA, I called her and we went on a couple of hikes together and I finally decided that I already had too many *friends*. I told her I liked her and the rest, as they say, is history.
They "model very well together" as he puts it, well enough for Dominic to be pretty sure that, "when we both feel the time is right, we will make the commitment and tie the knot." He hopes this will happen "no later than a year from now." After marriage, the next step is to have a much-long-for family. Dominic's only remaining family is his mother; he is an only child and his father died a few days before his 14th birthday. And that's something he aims to change soon. "Having a family is something that I did not even dare to consider before. I decided long ago to be an actor and was willing to pay the price in terms of living a life of uncertainty. The best aspect of all this is that now I am not only contemplating it, but determined to make it a reality. I now can afford to have a child and provide for that child handsomely! It's a wonderful feeling."
Significantly, Dominic's new home has a feel of permanency about it. "We only moved in on Oscar day," he says. "We've just finished some details but there are still some more to go. But mostly, this is it. We are quite comfortable here and we are sure we'll remain here for at least the next 6 to 7 years." The house is in a prime location, minutes from the heart of Hollywood yet secluded enough to be isolated from the city's noise. With its exuberantly green garden, views of the surrounding canyon and interior of white walls and wooden floors, it's no surprise to discover that Dominic fell in love with the place on sight. "I was going to see eight different houses and this one was the first. From the moment I walked in I felt very comfortable with the spaciousness and the light, but when I went to the bedroom and saw the garden, the pool and the view of the canyon across the yard door, that was it. I decided to buy it then and there."
With his home and professional life secure, Dominic's hopes for the future seem set. "Personally, I am ready to settle down and eager to start a family -- although I am still saying it out loud to get used to it! Professionally, I don't know. In some ways it is more frightening now than it was when I was working towards achieving it. In many others it is so full of wonderful possibilities, for which I am, and will always be, grateful to God. "Enterprise has changed my life in ways I could never have dreamed of. If that's the only thing I do for the rest of my acting career, so be it. I won't have any regrets." But ideally, he'd like to see out his contract on Enterprise and do some interesting movies or theatre during his breaks from the show. "And I think I'd be ready if Mr. Spielberg decided to ring me up with some offer," he jokes. "I don't think I'd turn him down." In the meantime, Dominic's taking lessons at the LA Film School with a view to hitting Berman for some directing assignments. Which would allow this talented Brit to boldly go into other fields.
Impressing both old and new Star Trek fans as the Enterprises' security chief Lt. Malcolm Reed in the current hit series, Dominic is now savoring professional and financial security after years of struggling to make it big in Tinsel town. One of the fruits of his labour is this fabulous house in the Hollywood Hills, whose spaciousness and light won over the Leicester-born actor.
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July 2002 Communicator Magazine Issue #135 |
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Dominic Keating Interview |
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No matter where you go in space, there's always some guy with an itchy trigger finger along for the ride.
Not that Lt. Malcolm Reed is aboard the Enterprise Kist to pick a fight with the next group of knobby-headed or blue-skinned beings to wander within range of the ship's spatial torpedoes. But the person who knows Reed best, Dominic Keating, sometimes has to wonder.
"It strikes me that there's something ominous about someone fixated with blowing s**t up," says Keating and laughs. "Not like that unabomber to be sure, but Reed has to be a complicated man. I can play complicated really well."
Keating laughs again freely, hardly able to contain his enthusiasm at signing onboard ENTERPRISE as the shops armory officer. The British born performer who enjoyed success throughout his homeland as a cast member on a popular sitcom says he has equally high hopes for his newest project.
"It sounds like things are going to be great. It sounds like we're going to have a hit on our hands," says Keating before tempering himself. "But I do not want to rest on the laurels of Star Trek and assume we will be great. The fan base is important but it can be fickle. They may all sit down and watch it and say, "This sucks."
"This is an American show, and I can understand a certain sense of the role of the Brit. on an American show," he says. "I don't think I'll be completely a talking head but I know that the first season will focus greatly on (Captain Jonathan) Archer, T'Pol the Vulcan beauty and Trip (Engineer Charlie Tucker) to build them up. I anticipate having a nice leisurely wind-up into a long running series. I'm happy about it, to be honest."
With more than a decade of experience in television and film, Keating is no stranger to the business, nor to the genre productions. He has played recurring and guest roles in series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Special Unit 2, The Immortals, G vs. E and Poltergeist. His film roles include Jungle to Jungle and Almost Famous.
But nothing to date has fully prepared him for life aboard the Enterprise; the actor says and laughs.
"This is a different kind of acting altogether. It's quite demanding and I didn't realize that before we started," he says "I don't want to say it's technobabble, this dialogue makes sense, but you really have to read it and think it through to get it across.
"There are moments that catch me off guard," Keating says and laughs. "I'll be looking at the panel and think, 'Oh my God! I'll be looking at this same panel for seven years!' But that is not how you should look at it. You need to take things one day at a time, one scene at a time."
Dominic Keating was born in England but is Irish by blood. While he received what he describes as "the full Monty English education," he took no formal theater schooling. The acting bug fist bit him at age 9, when his school's headmistress decided it was high time students put on a play.
"So all of my friends went to the audition... and she gave me the lead role," says Keating. "It was called The Ragged School, about a Victorian era orphan school and I had this gamely leg and would beat people with this wooden crutch. That was the first time for me. I learned later that my mother was an actress in her younger days, before -- as my father would say -- she was snatched from the jaws of the devil."
Keating had no intrinsic interest in acting as a career, however, choosing instead to read history at University College in London while keeping up with some plays. "I secretly harbored the thought of being an actor in my profession," he admits. "I traveled quite a bit, my mother said I was highly a educated waiter. Then one day, I woke up and decided that I really wanted to be an actor. What I did was call up Directory Inquiries, what you call 411; it rang, the voice said 'Ello? And I said, 'I want to be an actor.' And she said 'Can I give you one number at a time?' That was 1988 and that was the start."
He plunged ahead and struck gold within a year when he was cast as a regular on Desmond's, a comedy series set in a West Indies barbershop. The show enjoyed a successful five-year run on British television and was picked up for a year on US cable.
Keating moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and picked a hell of a time to arrive, he says and laughs; two days after the devastating Northridge earthquake. He ended up getting in touch with all things Californian by living in a Malibu commune for two years. Oddly enough, it was there that the actor was introduced to modern era of Star Trek.
"I watched the original Star Trek as a kid religiously," he says. "But I saw more of it in the commune, where we had on TV hooked to a satellite dish, and it was this guy Victor's TV. Well what Victor watched was what you had to watch. He and a friend were dyed-in-the-wool Next Generation Star Trek fans...and resistance is futile." He laughs and adds, "They even had that stenciled on the back of their old car. So I used to watch Star trek back then, and I really got a taste for it."
And he is sure that wherever Victor is now, he will be pleased with the new direction for Star Trek that Enterprise will forge for the longtime fans as well as viewers new to the franchise. |
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