Rogue star Michael Vartan answers back

ROGUE star Michael Vartan is no Robert de Niro, just ask him. But he's getting better at his job, and he loves Australia.
It seems it's not a Spring Racing Carnival unless Michael Vartan is here.
Obviously the races are great and so much fun, but I'm here this time solely to promote Rogue and it just happens to coincide with the races. I love Australia and I would come here for the opening of an envelope. As you can see (showing his tattoo), the little Southern Cross action. I got it the week I got back from shooting Rogue.

I've truly fallen in love with this country. I want to move here one day if they'll have me. I love everything about it: the people, the atmosphere, the mentality, the difference of culture in the north and south, the landscape. Everything about this country is fascinating to me. I feel at home here, I feel free, I feel happy. No one cares what you drive, what you do. It's a very, very honest way to live and it suits me. It's pretty much the antithesis of Los Angeles.

I got off the plane two years ago to shoot Rogue and it was a weird feeling. I felt tingly and thought, wow, I love it here. I hadn't even been through Customs. And it took me about two months to realise you really weren't full of s---, that you really are that nice. I thought, come on, this can't be real, no one's this nice. It's a wonderful place and I love it dearly.

Rogue marks the second time you've worked with an Australian director, after Robert Luketic on Monster-in-Law. You've said you didn't have the greatest time on that movie.
I had a great time on a personal level. It was an incredibly easy shoot for me, very short days. Mr Luketic -- who I think is one of Melbourne's own -- is not one of those guys who shoots 14, 15 hours a day. What I meant was my part I felt was rather boring. It was one of those parts I couldn't turn down. You get to work with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, you kind of have to do it no matter what the part calls for. But as for having a character, I didn't feel I had one. Most of the time I stood in the corner and smiled.

You're now on the TV show Big Shots. Is it a risk to sign on for a TV series that might require you to turn down your dream movie role?
The funniest question I'm ever asked is, ``So, why did you decide to come back to TV? What would you like to do next?'' Well, you idiot, I'd like to have Matt Damon's career. What do you think? I'd like to work with Leonardo DiCaprio in the next Scorsese film. What a stupid question.

You think I do movies where I don't have any lines because I want to? You think I sign my life off on a six-year deal for television because I want to? No. I want to be off shooting Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp for seven months in the Bahamas. Are you kidding me?

Funnily enough, one of my strengths is I understand my place in the business very well. I know what is realistic for me to achieve and what things are a bit of a stretch, and I've been around long enough to know I should stay away from certain things that I don't think are that good.

When you say you're realistic, do you mean you're realistic about your own abilities, or about how people perceive you?
I'm not Sean Penn, I'm not Robert De Niro. My agents tell me not to say that, but it's the truth and f--- 'em. I'm a good actor, I've been doing it for 20 years, I've become better as I've gone along and hopefully continue to improve. There are a lot of things I feel I can do that would shock people, but I mean more in terms of how the industry perceives me.

I believe I could land the fifth starring role in the next Pirates. I could be in a movie with Sean Penn, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Joaquin Phoenix and then me. For me to get the lead over Sean Penn in a movie? Pretty unlikely at this point. It could happen, stranger things have happened, but that's what I mean in terms of being realistic. I don't call my agent saying, "Hey, how come I'm not starring across Jessica Biel in the next . . .?'' Well, because no one knows who you are, buddy. Well, not exactly, I've been around, but I don't put butts on seats in theatres.

That's very honest.
It's the truth, isn't it? I'd rather see an Orlando Bloom movie than a Michael Vartan movie any day.
One reason I can be honest about it is I really don't care about the business enough. When I get a job I feel unbelievably fortunate because I know how hard it is to work in this business. But we're not curing cancer, we're not feeding children. It's just a f---ing movie, it's just a TV show.

It's great and entertainment is hugely necessary in this day and age when you turn on the news and everyone's getting killed and blown up. But at the end of the day I can't take myself seriously when an EMS (emergency medical services) worker who's scraping two dead bodies off the sidewalk after a car accident is getting paid less than me.

You have to take it with a grain of salt. I feel incredibly fortunate. I get to travel, to come to Australia and talk to you and see incredible things that very few people see in the Northern Territory. Who gets to do that? I wouldn't get to do that if I worked in a hospital, but I'd be saving lives.

It's just my chosen profession. It is what it is. I take it for what it is. I don't give it too much credence, but I don't disrespect it either because it's a very lucky position to be in. And I didn't say I suck as an actor.

So you were never one of those guys who started in school plays and dreamed only of acting?
I never wanted to act. To this day -- I've been doing it for 20 years -- it's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's very hard to be on screen with 30 people staring at you, a camera in your face, a boom up your rear end and another actor who half the time is fast asleep off camera and to pretend none of that's happening and cry and act like your mother's dying. That's a very hard thing to do. It's a strange thing to do as well. "What do you do for a living?'' I pretend to be other people.