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• Bio on Mr. Zahn
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• Sahara

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Tavis: Steve Zahn is a talented actor whose film résumé includes "Happy, Texas," "National Security," "Daddy Daycare" and "That Thing You Do." I love that movie. His latest project is the new film "Sahara," which opened this past weekend. The all-star cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Penelope Cruz, and Delroy Lindo. Here now a scene from "Sahara."

Al Giordino: Really, you can see that ironclad steaming up the river? I mean really. Isn't it more likely that we missed it somewhere off the coast of Virginia? Huh? Right? Hello? Dirk?

Dirk Pitt: I'll meet you at the bow.

Al: Ow. Nope. I've got the check. Don't worry about it. I'm serious. I know, I get it all the time. Sit down. I'll get the check.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha! Steve, nice to meet you.

Steve Zahn: Good to be here.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. I was whispering to you while that clip was running. I was trying to figure out a way to describe--

Zahn: And it was very exciting, you whispering.

Tavis: OK. My whispering to you was very exciting? Well, thank you. I'll do it again sometime. I was trying to describe the movie and my weird mind was like thinking a domestic kind of Indiana Jones, but it's an adventure. How would you describe it?

Zahn: Well, no, I mean, I always go back to those kind of popcorn adventure epic, you know, Hollywood movies. I mean, we've been--I think lately we've had just an onslaught of these highly technical, computerized, you know, C.G.I. things that are great. They have a place but, I mean, it's heightened reality where everybody is talking in iambic pentameter and doing 60 flips and catching the knife. And then throwing it back! And that's great, but this isn't like that. I mean, this is a real deal. You know, if there's 100 horses, we had 100 horses there. 20 tanks, there's 20 tanks. And it has the humor. These guys don't take themselves that seriously. Or they do, and that's the humor, actually. They're raw guys like Indiana Jones. That's why you liked him. You could relate to him.

Tavis: Good. I was hoping that somewhere in there you were going to, like, just a little bit agree with my wild comparison. I was, like, I hope he doesn't get offended by me trying to describe this thing.

Zahn: No, no, no. that's a good comparison.

Tavis: OK. Speaking of comparisons, if I might, so we're both P.K.'s I hear. You're a preacher's kid, too?

Zahn: It's either this business or prison.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha! All right.

Zahn: P.K.'s revolt, don't they, a little bit?

Tavis: They do. I was just saying that to somebody the other day. If you're a preacher's kid, and I have nine brothers and sisters, there's no gray area. If you are a preacher's kid, when you grow up you either go this way or you go that way.

Zahn: Exactly.

Tavis: You go to the mountaintop or straight to hell in your behavior. There's no middle ground.

Zahn: I've had people, like, they go to be a star, blah, blah, blah, or whatever that means, but I'm like, I was kind of always a little star, because when you're the preacher's kid you're always like, That's Steve. He's the preacher's kid. Hi, Steve. And they still do that. I had a screening in Minneapolis, like, two weeks ago and they're like, oh, Stevie.

Tavis: The preacher's kid. It's funny about that. Speaking of going one way or the other, I was at an event last night, and some friends of mine were there and they met my minister, my minister here in L.A. is a guy named Noel Jones. And they were, like, dumbfounded to discover that my minister, Noel Jones, happens to have a sister named Grace Jones. And they could not get this. They'd say wait, wait, wait. Same mama as him? Yeah. Same daddy? Yeah. And one is Bishop Jones and the other is Grace Jones? They couldn't get it. So it's funny how that happens all in the same family. What did you most dislike about--speaking of the way people teased you--what did you most dislike about being...your mom and dad aren't watching. What did you not like about being a preacher's kid?

Zahn: I don't know. I mean, I didn't really--I mean, there was a lot of expectation. I think it's that whole, kind of like, you should comb your hair. That kind of like you're expected to do kind of--

Tavis: I see you took the advice.

Zahn: Yeah. I think it's good. No, but I remember going home and like, Steve, will you say the prayer at the pot luck now? And I'm, like, no, that's not my--I mean, sure, I guess, but that expectation, you know, whatever.

Tavis: So tell me how you found your way from being a preacher's kid in Minnesota into this acting game.

Zahn: When I went to college, I realized that that was maybe something I could potentially do professionally. Before that, I'd done a lot of theater in school. But up until that point, I never thought of it as a career, just an extracurricular activity. And so I dropped out, and I worked in Minneapolis at a machine shop, and I started--

Tavis: Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Preacher's kid dropped out of college?

Zahn: Yeah, and my dad was cool.

Tavis: I was about to ask you what did your dad say?

Zahn: No, I said, hey, dad, you know, I'm coming home. He's like, oh, you dropping out? I was like, yeah. He goes, are you going to come home now? I'm, like, no, they're not going to give me the money, the rest of the money, if I leave now. I think they gave me, like, 5 grand, so I'm going to stay and, like, eat at the caf and work out. So he's like OK. They were really cool. So I got home and then I started working right away doing professional theatre in Minneapolis, and people there were, like, you should go train. I went to train in Boston for two years at a program and then went to New York and did more theater there. It was very gradual for me.

Tavis: Either I heard or I read that Mr. McConaughey, who E.P.'s this project, really wanted you to do this and he sent you, like, a long personal letter asking you. Tell me about this.

Zahn: I mean, that's something that doesn't happen. I usually don't get a big action movie on my lap with an offer and this great letter. It was a two page, passionate letter. It was like, the only way to describe it was he was so pumped up about it, the movie, and pumped up about me being involved. It was like I was on the Cincinnati Bengals and he was on the Patriots, and it was like a week before the Super Bowl, and he was like, dude, why don't you come play in the Super Bowl with us? He was so, like--and he's like that. Every day, it's like, come on. We're going to run. You end up doing it even if you're like, no, I'm not going to run. You end up, you know, with him. And it was an amazing kind of journey that way.

Tavis: Do you consider yourself a comedian? And I ask you that because I see you in these movies, so many of them, and you play these really funny roles, but I've never thought of you--like, for example, "Daddy Daycare." I mean, Eddie Murphy is a comedian extraordinaire. And I've seen these movies where you play these really comedic parts, but do you actually consider yourself to be a comedian because you're funny?

Zahn: No, no.

Tavis: Because you're really funny.

Zahn: I guess. I mean, I'm not like the joke--I'm not the funny guy in the group of friends back at the farm kind of where I live. I don't crack jokes. I'm an actor who has good comic timing. I don't know. I'm not good with coming up with the zinger at the end of the scene, you know. I'm better at, like, staring off into space and not responding. I don't know.

Tavis: You did well at that table by yourself in that clip. Just sitting there talking to yourself.

Zahn: Yeah, but it's all situational. I don't know. I mean, I've always had a very traditional background in theater, so it's like what services the scene? What makes it funny within that? It's not necessarily how can I do it to make myself funny. It's kind of how will it be funny within the context of this.

Tavis: You mentioned a moment ago the farm, and you weren't just being rhetorical there. You really do live on a farm. Where? In Kentucky?

Zahn: Yeah.

Tavis: How is it that you're, like, getting all of these roles and you've got people like Matthew McConaughey writing you two-page letters asking to you take a particular part, and you're nowhere near New York or L.A.? You're, like, totally devoid of this Hollywood experience. Why a farm and why in Kentucky?

Zahn: Well--

Tavis: I guess if you're going to be on a farm, Kentucky is the best place to have a farm.

Zahn: Oh, it's beautiful. I absolutely love it. We're in thoroughbred country. It's just absolutely beautiful. But my wife grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, and we have two little kids.

Tavis: That's why. Your wife made you live in Kentucky.

Zahn: No, actually--

Tavis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why you're in Kentucky.

Zahn: No, my wife is more like, I'm not going to move back home. I'm like, honey, we're not moving back home. You're not going to live in your parents' basement. I mean, that would be embarrassing, but we're going to buy a farm. And finally, with all of the nephews and nieces and all of that, it was the right thing to do because we wanted to have that family thing. But we lived on a farm in New Jersey before this. We moved from one farm to another.

Tavis: You like farms?

Zahn: Yeah. I mean, I don't live there because I can't stand the scene in New York, but I just like to fish and ride a horse. And that's why. And I've never really lived within the scene, and it's worked so far.

Tavis: But how does that impact your work? I'm always fascinated by this when I run into people here and there who really do deliberately stay away from New York or L.A. How does that impact or how does that impact your appreciation for the work?

Zahn: Well, I think when I go to work, I truly go to work with a very clear head. I mean, I don't think living in New York makes you a better actor.

Tavis: Of course, you can't tell New Yorkers that.

Zahn: No, but you know what I mean. For me personally, to be void of a lot of extraneous things that I don't understand is good. I just keep a clear head as to what I'm doing workwise, and I'm really not influenced by other things that don't really matter. How do you--how do you act well? You're truthful and simple and vulnerable and have humility. Those are all things that are important to have.

Tavis: Is it really that simple?

Zahn: I think so. I mean, I try to think of it like that. It's a lot of hard work and just simplifying, you know. And how much more simple can you get living, you know, in the middle of nowhere?

Tavis: So these two kids you're raising on this beautiful farm in Kentucky, would you encourage them to follow daddy into the business?

Zahn: Oh, I don't know. I mean, it's very strange. They're very young. My son is 5 and he just--he thinks everybody is on TV.

Tavis: Well, aren't we?

Zahn: That's everybody's job is to be on TV. So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how that kind of changes.

Tavis: So where do you want to take this career? And I ask that because I'm starting to see you play a variety of characters and try your hand at different things, different types of challenges. Where do you want to take this ultimately?

Zahn: I just think of longevity. My heroes are people like, I don't know, Dustin Hoffman.

Tavis: Speaking of variety, that guy has played--

Zahn: Yeah. I mean, many character actors that just kind of evolved. Their characters change because they changed and they're there for another five years and that's my goal if anything. And I don't mind being typecast because it's only...-I remember when I didn't get sent, "Dude, Where's My Car?" I was like, oh, wow, I'm not the stoned high school kid anymore. Great. I'm off to crazy dad or whatever. And it's interesting how it just kind of evolves on its own without you having to, you know.

Tavis: So the character will change, but you'll still stay on the farm.

Zahn: Yeah. I can't leave there.

Tavis: OK. When I'm in Kentucky, I'll come look you up.

Zahn: Yeah, you sure should.

Tavis: I'm just wandering around Kentucky. Anybody see Steve's farm? Trying to find Steve's farm. Nice to see you, Steve. That's our show for tonight. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and keep the faith.