E-mail a friendLuke Perry
airdate June 14, 2006
After finding fame with TV's long-running Beverly Hills 90210, Luke Perry appeared in both independent films and major studio productions, including Fifth Element, The Enemy and Fogbound. He also did a stint on HBO's critically acclaimed Oz, Showtime's Jeremiah and on Broadway in The Rocky Horror Show. Ohio-born Perry came to Los Angeles after high school and did odd jobs while auditioning. He did the soaps Loving and Another World. Perry returns to the small screen in the new NBC series, Windfall.
Luke Perry
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Luke Perry to this program. He, of course, starred as Dylan on the long-running series 'Beverly Hills 90210.' He's back on primetime TV this summer in a new series for NBC called 'Windfall.' The show airs Thursday nights at 10:00. Here now, a scene from NBC's 'Windfall.'
Tavis: All right, Luke, so if your wildest dream came true, assuming that it hasn't, it would be?
Luke Perry: My wildest dream?
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs)
Perry: I don't know; my dreams get pretty wild sometimes.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs) Well, never mind, this is a, time out.
Perry: No, and keeping it in the realm....
Tavis: (unintelligible) is a family show.
Perry: Keeping it in the realm of possibility...
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs)
Perry: ...yeah, I'm all for world peace.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs) I like that answer. Nice to see you.
Perry: Thank you. You too.
Tavis: I was laughing on my way to the studio thinking about the fact that, I don't know why I remember this, but when '90210' came out, the critics were not kind to it before it hit. And it went on to be a huge success. And the critics were not kind to 'Windfall,' and first outing out the gate, you guys did extremely well. So what is it about you and projects that critics don't like that people seem to connect to?
Perry: I don't know. You talk about '90210' and you say that they didn't like it at first.
Tavis: Exactly.
Perry: And to be quite honest, they didn't warm to it much after (laughs). It was on for years, and they didn't have too much nice to say about it. But the truth is, we don't make it for critics. There are maybe a hundred television critics in the world, and millions of people will tune in to watch the show. And that's the thing that I'm concerned about. That's the thing I've always been concerned about. That's why I have always said that television is the most powerful medium in the world, 'cause it's truly the people's medium. They will decide what they wanna watch.
Tavis: Yeah. You think after all these years, you have a good sense of what people want to see on television? And I ask that because I was being interviewed by somebody the other day. They were specifically interviewing me about a project I'm connected to that has its roots inside of Black America. And I think, I don't wanna be arrogant about this, but I think I have a pretty good sense of where Black America is on many of the issues of the day.
And I was saying to this reporter, I don't speak for Black folk, but I think I can give you a pretty good idea where they stand on this. After all these years in the TV business, do you think you have some sense now of what people wanna see when they watch television?
Perry: You know what? I think on, like, some broad stroke levels, yeah, people want good writing, compelling characters, nice looking women. It's the same thing they've always wanted on television.
Tavis: Yeah. Handsome guys.
Perry: But no, the quick answer to that is no. There was a time when I absolutely thought that I had a real good sensibility about what would play and when. And that's when I was making television every day, and my life was immersed in television. And it hasn't been that way for a while, so I sort of need to get back up to speed with it, and see what it's about.
But with all the things that are going on in the world, and all the diverse technologies people have to choose from for entertainment, television's a tough business. And getting tougher all the time. And the people who have to prognosticate that kind of stuff, I'm glad I'm not them.
Tavis: Your life has not been consumed by television, to your point, in a few years. By choice?
Perry: Yeah. You got to. I've been very fortunate to have a lot of things come my way in this life, in terms of success, personally and professionally. And I think sometimes, you gotta step back and take a look at what it is to truly value and to know the true value of the things that you've been blessed with. And if you just keep your head down all the time and keep taking, taking more and more, you become a little numb to it. And I don't ever want that to happen for me.
Tavis: Yeah. Tell me about 'Windfall.'
Perry: 'Windfall' is what would happen with you and 10 of your friends if you all went in on a lottery ticket and you came back with, the ticket won for $386 million. And all of a sudden, people find themselves pretty fabulously wealthy, by their estimation. And it's what happens to people when they are, they feel like they're empowered, some of them.
Some of them feel encumbered by the money. It can either set you free or it can be something that really is an albatross around your neck. And I think it depends on who you are. And your viewpoints on things, and how you deal with it. And that's what the stories on this show are about.
Tavis: This isn't a deep point, but I get the sense that people connect to stories like this, and they connect even to playing the lottery or Powerball, whatever it might be, because so many of us feel that we could be that person one day holding that ticket.
Perry: Absolutely. Well, and the great thing is we could be. And we've seen it time and again. And that is obviously the base draw to the lottery. You can put down two dollars and walk away with hundreds of millions of dollars. And we live in a society that is consumed by wealth. And everyone knows about money. Like, 10 years ago, if you walked down the street, before the dot com revolution, everybody sort of had an idea of who was rich and how rich they might be.
And you knew athletes made some money. Now if you walked down the street, and you talk to the average Joe, he'll be able to tell you how much athletes make, to the point six million. How they would structure their deal if they got signed. (Laughs) They'd want a signing bonus and some guaranteed money, and endorsement money. They know about private jets. And wealth has just been exposed. And people know there's a lot of it out there, and all it has served to do is make everybody want it more. It's a self-perpetuating kind of thing.
Tavis: Good thing or bad thing?
Perry: A little of both, I think. Because if you take wealth and you do the right thing with it, like Bill Gates is doing this foundation, going straight to the heart of the problem, Africa. Going right there where they need help the most. Taking the money and doing the great thing with it. A lot of times, people use money and it gets tied up in red tape, or they don't have altruistic motives, and they don't wanna help people with it, and then it becomes problematic, I think.
It's a two-edged sword. It's what you choose to do with it. And that's what we deal with on the show week in and week out. The characters have big decisions to make. And when the money comes to you, in the case of my character, there are some things getting ready to happen in his life that he doesn't know about at all. And then his wife feels empowered with all this money to go ahead and just start making drastic changes in their life. And that would be a problem, I think, by anybody's estimation.
Tavis: Yeah. I'm listening to you talk about money and how it can be used for good, and I'm thinking about my conversation earlier with my producer, Carol, whose assessment was that Luke is a very grounded individual. She said, 'I enjoy talking to him, he seems very grounded.' And she surmised that that, in part, is true, never mind the heartthrob status, she surmised that that, in part, is true because you grew up in a little small town in Ohio where she got the sense that everybody knew everybody's business, and you couldn't really pretend to be something other than who you were.
Perry: Well, that's true. (Laughs) I grew up in a pretty small town, and you do absolutely know everybody. When they talk about me being grounded, I think what they mean is I'm cheap. (Laughs) This suit right here, I bought this suit for my first talk show I think 15 years ago. I keep rolling it out.
Tavis: It looks good.
Perry: Yeah, well, I'm grounded. I don't see spending, (laughs) I'm not a spender of money. I'm a big saver.
Tavis: Yeah.
Perry: Yeah.
Tavis: So Carol got the wrong word. It's not grounded, it's cheap.
Perry: Yeah, a little of both.
Tavis: Okay, all right.
Perry: But the point you make is well taken. When you grow up in a small town, and everybody knows everybody, and you know...
Tavis: Everybody knows your name.
Perry: And they're gonna know you next year, and they're gonna know you the year after, you gotta have ownership of who you are and what you're about. And if you sort of have a good handle on that before any of the things that show biz brings your way starts happening, then I think you got a good chance at keeping your head on straight. And I just know a lot of people who are normal, grounded people.
Tavis: So how did you handle, then, you might have just answered this question. How did you handle, then, the heartthrob status that was thrust upon you because of '90210?' Carol and I were talking about a mall appearance you did during that show which I'm sure you recall in Florida, where there were like 10,000 screaming young ladies who showed up at a shopping mall.
Perry: There's no way to prepare for any of that. As an actor, that's just not something you think about. That's weird. That's rock and roll. That's the only thing to equate that to; it's just like rock and roll. When you learn how to play characters and do plays and stuff like that, it's not a dynamic that you come across.
Tavis: So you don't think Shakespeare had, like, 10,000 screaming girls.
Perry: (Laughs) No.
Tavis: Chasing him down the street?
Perry: Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't there. (Laughs) Who's to say? The Bard could have been just running up and down the streets of England with women (unintelligible). I don't know. But it's a big wave, man. You either get in front of it and try to stay on top of your board, or you're gonna get swamped by it.
Tavis: Yeah. So what would you do if you were part of a winning lottery team with 300 plus million dollars? You can find out what they are doing, at least, on 'Windfall' on NBC, starring one Luke Perry. Luke, nice to have you here.
Perry: Pleasure.
Tavis: Good to see you, man. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International, check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.
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