     |
|
|
|
A CONVERSATION WITH 'JAG' STAR DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT
By David Martindale
So much for gut instincts. When David James Elliott signed on to play as Lt. Cmdr. Harmon Rabb Jr. of "JAG," he was convinced he had an instant hit on his hands. Then, when the military/courtroom drama tanked in the ratings, was canceled by NBC after one season, and ultimately rescued by CBS, Elliott was wishing he could just be done with the whole thing.
"I'll be honest," he says. "I was sort of disappointed when CBS picked us up. Part of me was saying, 'Let's just let it die and move on. Why torture ourselves?' But it wouldn't die."
No kidding. After flying below the Nielsen ratings radar for years, "JAG" built slowly until, in its fourth season, it emerged as a bona fide hit. Now in its 10th season, the show is still going strong, with no signs of decay. So Elliott had the right idea about "JAG's" potential. He just didn't have the time frame right.
"It's not an easy show to make," he says, "so it's been nice to see all your hard work pay off. I believe word of mouth was a big thing with this show and it took a long time. That and the fact that CBS was really behind it and did push it in a big way."
Elliott's role as Harm, a Navy pilot-turned-lawyer with the Judge Advocate General Corps, is demanding in more ways than one. Given that the stories vary from taut courtroom drama to "Hunt for Red October"-style action to romantic-comedy fantasy episodes, Elliott has to be able to call upon a wide range of acting skills. "I love that about the show," Elliott says. "It keeps it interesting for me and I think it's interesting for the viewers. Although I think it hindered the show a little in the beginning because it was tough for people to put a finger on what it was. That and getting over the prejudice to it being a military show. Some people were going, 'Aaah, I don't like military shows.' When, in fact, it's more than just that."
Even after all these years, Elliott still loves doing the show, especially when he gets meaty courtroom scenes, which are his favorites.
"If if were up to me, we'd do even more courtroom stuff," he says. "It's the most fun for me as an actor. It's more fun to do something in a courtroom or to do two actors sitting around a table, head to head, than to be running through a smoke-filled building, chasing bad guys. That's exhausting work. Or the jet stuff. That's hard, too. It's just a nightmare to shoot. Oh, God, it takes forever and you're locked into the capsule for hours and hours. It's grueling and you're back is hurting because you have to contort your body in there."
Of course, those are the scenes - the ones with state-of-the-art military hardware - that many fans imagine as being the "cool part" of the job.
"Yeah, right, but it's really the nightmare part," Elliott says. "It looks great when it's done. You're glad you went through the agony, but at that moment you're like cursing your fortune, going, 'Write another courtroom scene, please!' On the other hand, for the courtroom stuff, you have to go home and memorize yards of legalese, which can be a daunting task, especially if you've been working 16-hour days for awhile. But nothing worthwhile is ever easy."
That was Elliott's mantra, in fact, when auditioning for the role of Harm back in 1995: Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. "I had auditioned seven times over like two and a half months," he recalls. "It was exhausting. I kept going, 'What is so hard about making this decision?' I kept coming into smaller rooms with more people in them. And weeks later, I would be going, 'What did I do last time to make them like me?' It was exhausting." Now he's a TV icon and a living, breathing hero to his real-life JAG counterparts. "We threw a party once in Washington, D.C., at JAG headquarters for the retiring head of JAG," Elliott recalls, "and it was like the Beatles had arrived. We were having a screening and there was like a two-hour party beforehand. I never stopped smiling for a picture or signing autographs. I literally couldn't even take a drink. It was unbelievable. But it's nice to be liked."
This isn't quite the life that Elliott imagined for himself as a kid growing up in Canada. Back then, he wanted to become a rock star. "I was looking for some direction," he says. "I was into the rock-'n'-roll thing. I had bands and stuff and I was getting frustrated with that whole thing. But I felt that expressing myself in that way was definitely what I was supposed to be doing."
Then came a pivotal moment that changed his life. "I was in grade 13 - in Canada, we go to grade 13 - and that's when I took the history of theater and we performed "King Lear." And my theater teacher said, 'You should be an actor.' The thing about music was it wasn't quite deep enough for me. So I auditioned for theater school and I got in. And it was then that I knew what I was supposed to do with my life."
Back to Various Articles