KATHIE LEE:
This guy is the bionic man of the new millennium. In the new prime-time hit "Now and Again," here he is, Eric Close.
[ applause ]
KATHIE LEE:
So nice to meet you.
ERIC:
You too.
KATHIE LEE:
Welcome.
KATHIE LEE:
Eric reminds me of a young man I just worked with up in Canada on a Disney movie. Does anybody say you remind them of Justin Timberlake a little bit from 'N Sync?
ERIC:
No.
KATHIE LEE:
I'm the first?
ERIC:
Who's 'N Sync? Just kidding.
KATHIE LEE:
You really do. He's a doll, too. How's your life changed since this new stardom?
ERIC:
I'm colder.
KATHIE LEE:
Because you're working outdoors in New York.
ERIC:
You have to bring some of that warm weather back from L.A.
HENRY:
I'm going to send it Federal Express.
ERIC:
Please. I've got to say something really quick. First of all, I think you're one of the finest actors of our time.
HENRY:
Oh, my goodness.
KATHIE LEE:
This is a love-fest. It's a love-fest today.
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ERIC:
And I just was really thrilled to know that you were going to be here today.
HENRY:
Thank you.
ERIC:
I'm honored to be here. You inspired me as an actor, so thank you.
KATHIE LEE:
Should I leave you two kids alone for a while?
HENRY:
No, but you asked a really good question. How has your life changed? I mean, we think about wanting to be on a show or wanting to act.
KATHIE LEE:
Dream about it.
HENRY:
You want to be in the public eye, and the reality is different, isn't it?
ERIC:
Absolutely. And, you know, this has been kind of an ongoing process, sort of 10-year overnight success, so to speak. This is, I think, my fifth series that's been on the air that hasn't gone longer than the season. This one, I hope, is going to. But every time you get involved with a project, you put your all into it. You give it 110%. and you hope that's going to be the one that's going to take off. And for whatever reason, as you know, it's just -- you throw it against the wall and you hope it sticks and you hope that people like it.
KATHIE LEE:
There's so much that's out of your control, though.
ERIC:
It is. That's very true. And so this one just happened to hit, and --
KATHIE LEE:
That's great.
ERIC:
The critics have been great to us, which is good.
KATHIE LEE:
It's an unusual premise. You're literally a guy that died, right?
ERIC:
Well, John Goodman, who we all know, a great actor, he's coming back on another episode, which we start shooting next week, he plays a middle aged insurance salesman, and he ends up dying. Gets hit by a subway train. His brain is then transplanted into my body, which was bioengineered by the government at the cost of $3 billion.
KATHIE LEE:
So forget the $6 million man. You've got Lee Majors beat by tons of money.
ERIC:
But if you look at $3 billion is pocket change to Bill Gates, so, you know –
KATHIE LEE:
And Donald Trump said today the same basically for him too, in the newspaper today. What's the difference between $2 billion and $5 billion. $3 billion, Donald, that's the difference.
ERIC:
Easy for him to say.
KATHIE LEE:
Did you have to get into great shape for this or were you already pretty much –
ERIC:
No. I put all the pictures prior to this show, photographs, home photographs, they're in a lock safety deposit box. No. You know, I was working on a western before I did "Now and Again," and, you know –
HENRY:
The guys of Trilogy.
ERIC:
Correct, yeah, great guys. You're in leather. And you're in -- riding on horses. There's not much of taking off your shirt and think about that too much. Then I got this show and they said now you're the $3 billion guy, and there was a lot of pressure. Glenn said, you know, you've got to – Glenn Gordon Caron --
KATHIE LEE:
Who did "Moonlighting."
ERIC:
Glen said you need to get in shape, buff it up. And it was a godsend because –
KATHIE LEE:
You had to do it.
ERIC:
And also it became a lifestyle for me now, staying in shape before, and it's amazing. You really struggle. It is a struggle. A lot of people struggle to try and stay fit. It's hard to fit it into your schedule, and it became now a necessity. It's part of my life, and now I love to go out and run in the park. I love to go to the gym and work out. And I'm glad. I'm in the best shape of my life not just physically, on the exterior, but cardio vascularly, too.
HENRY:
You say it's a 10-year journey to get to this show. What did you do prior to being on this show, and your series? You had other odd jobs?
ERIC:
Yeah, right out of college I was a bank teller. And I did that for a while. And that was tough. The hard part was because I was trying to go on auditions, and so I had about an hour for lunch, and my boss, Patti, who was fantastic. I owe a lot to her. She wanted me to succeed. She'd say, go ahead, but try and be back in an hour. Sometimes two hours would go by. I'd come flying back to the bank.
KATHIE LEE:
Lines around the block.
ERIC:
Yeah, yeah, the other people I was working with are kind of like what's this guy's deal, he gets to take off for two hours. But I would literally fly out of the bank in a suit and I'd be running down downtown Los Angeles pulling my tie off and unbuttoning my shirt. By the time I got to my car, I was in my boxers. Drive out of the parking garage, wave to the person at arm. She's like what's the deal. Driving down the freeway throwing on my –
KATHIE LEE:
Jeans or whatever.
ERIC:
Whatever I have to wear for a commercial. A lot of them were volleyball commercials. Tank top and shorts. I'd race back, change into my suit, be running into the bank fixing my tie.
KATHIE LEE:
You really are the $3 billion man. We'll be right back with more with Eric in just a moment.
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[ applause ]
KATHIE LEE:
We're talking with Eric Close, the star of "Now and Again." He's in real life married and has a little 15-year-old -- 15-month-old baby girl. And you can relate to this gentleman you play, because he basically wants to live for his wife and baby daughter, hmm?
ERIC:
Right. John Goodman's character was married to Lisa Wiseman, played by Margaret Colin. She's great to work with. And Heather Matarazzo plays his daughter. And his threat from the government is that he ever attempts to make contact with them or if they ever find out the secret of him, because he's a secret weapon, that they will have to be terminated, and he will, too. So –
KATHIE LEE:
So it's in his –
ERIC:
He wants to be with them desperately. So there's always this hope that he will some day be able to be with his wife and daughter again. So his whole mission now is just to protect them and to watch over them, so he does wonderful things like he'll send her flowers for her anniversary, secret admirer and things like that. And she has – but she – it throws her off because they're special types of flowers that only her husband would have sent her.
KATHIE LEE:
That's neat.
ERIC:
Things like that.
HENRY:
You have a clip from your show. You want to set that up?
KATHIE LEE:
This is the one where you discovered you have special hearing enhancement.
ERIC:
Dr. Morris is testing – messing with my hearing to see if he can enhance it and it kind of goes a little too far.
KATHIE LEE:
Okay. All right. Here's Eric Close.
ERIC:
I'm hearing more things than I should hear.
>> THEO: Maybe this enhancement was a bad idea.
>> AGENT: Perhaps we need to open him back up, just do some fine-tuning.
>> MICHAEL: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This is great!
>> THEO: What's that?
>> MICHAEL: I don't know. Either two people are on their honeymoon or somebody's watching a porno.
>> THEO: Maybe we should get the operating room ready.
>> AGENT: You have that 10:30.
>> MICHAEL: Must be a porno. There's that cheesy music in the background.
>> THEO: Total and utter waste of my time. See if you can get me out of it.
>> AGENT: Sir, the Department of Justice specifically asked for you.
>> MICHAEL: Oh, I feel bad.
>> THEO: Why?
>> MICHAEL: I think the kid who was watching the porno's mother just walked in the room. Something about no more television for the rest of his life. I know how he feels. I heard that.
[ applause ]
KATHIE LEE:
All right. You can see Eric Close on "Now and Again." It's Fridays at 9:00 p.m. on CBS. Good luck to you and your beautiful family.
ERIC:
Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
KATHIE LEE:
I have some presents for your little girl.
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Regis and Kathie Lee January 20, 2000