VAMPIRE EMPIRE
By: Claire Bickley
May 31, 1998
Far from the sinister roles that have become his trademark, Nigel Bennett's real life sounds more like a peaceful page out of Henry David Thoreau.
"I think I'm really, really ordinary," the actor reported recently from near the eastern Ontario lakefront log cabin he shares with his golden retriever, Charlie. A puppy, Dakota, was to join them any day.
"My main concern at the moment is finding a tractor from somewhere and a bush-hog so I can cut the bush."
That's 44 acres of bush surrounding the secluded year-round home at the end of a long dirt road, the fulfillment of a dream Bennett has had since moving to Canada from England a dozen years ago. His schedule suggests that bush-hog may sit unused for the near future.
Production is underway on season three of Psi Factor: Chronicles Of The Paranormal, on which he plays Frank Elsinger, the shadowy agency boss of the Office of Scientific Investigation and Research.
"He's mysterious," Bennett says of the recurring character.
"You never know whose side he's on, whether he's trying to help them or trying to mess them up."
He's at work on the second book of his vampire trilogy - the first, Keeper Of The King, is now in paperback - a series he was commissioned to co-write with Fort Worth author P.N. Elrod to capitalize on the popularity of his now- defunct series Forever Knight.
His FK role as master vampire Lucien Lacroix earned him a 1996 best supporting actor Gemini Award and a still-active cult following on the Internet.
"It's wonderful. I'm amazed by it," says Bennett, of a fan club website which includes photos of him at age 7 and another, clearly before the age of blow dryers, identified as his first publicity shot.
With no particular interest in the occult in general or vampires in particular, the following has sometimes proved unnerving.
"Do I believe in vampires? No. Although I've had people come up to me and say, 'I'm a vampire.' And it's like, 'Oh, dear. Yes, well, I'm going now,'" he says.
Although pleased to find Forever Knight's demographics ran more in the direction of professional adults than the expected "crazy kid fans," he has attracted a handful of odd admirers.
"I receive letters regularly from one poor woman in America somewhere who either isn't taking her medication or is taking the wrong medication. Awful, awful letters. I feel kind of sorry for her. Poor woman. As long as she doesn't come after me, I don't care."
While Forever Knight fuels a niche following, Bennett is more widely recognized for his guest roles on other series, including Lonesome Dove, Earth: Final Conflict and Once A Thief and a TV ad campaign that had moviegoers yelling 'It's no' oatmeal!' whenever Bennett appeared on-screen in last year's feature film Murder At 1600.
Next month, he goes to work on another feature, Top Of The Food Chain, playing a human-eating alien.
And if the hoped-for financing comes through, he'll make his feature directoral debut (he directed several episodes of Forever Knight) with An Englishman In New York, a drama about an English language professor hired at NYU after being fired from Oxford. He says he has letters of intent from potential cast members Julianna Margulies, Anthony Stewart Head, Frank Gorshin, Michael Burgess and Gary Sandy.
"I'm moving more towards the directing. I think I'm getting older, you know, and acting gets harder as you get older. Directing beckons," he says, although he sounds far from discontent.
"I just love the job. I think if you don't love this job, you're in the wrong job. If you go into it just to make money or something, you're on a loser."
Somewhere to the east of here, I hear a bush-hog growing rusty.
Copyright 1998 Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation