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Garett Maggart

Born on the 24 of May 1969 to actor Brandon Maggart and a mother who is a teacher, Garett has 3 Sisters (Julienne, Justine, Jennifer) and one brother (Spencer). He also has two half sisters (Amber and the more famous one - singer Fiona Apple).

Garett admits that his father played an important roll in his decision to become an actor. Admitting that as a kid he thought that everybody had night jobs, waiting for their big break, Garett claims that by the time he was old enough to realize that there were other things in life and that he could choose for himself, it was too late - he had already subconsciously made his decision. And one can understand his one way thinking when he tells that he used to visit his father every summer and watch his plays and the audience's reaction to them - from backstage.

But not like most actors who dedicate their studies to learn how to act better, when the time to choose his studies came, Garett chose to major in Liberal Arts and General Education, knowing already that he wanted to act as a career and not wanting to just learn about theater, but to learn about life. That decision interfered when Garett came in searching for a job since no one thought he was serious about acting, because he didn't major it in.

Garett's first job came to him when he was only about twelve years old, while visiting his father on the set of the film "The World According to Garp" starting Robin Williams. One of the boys that played in the locker scene broke his arm, so they took Garett and placed him as an extra. But something that most people don't notice while watching the film is that Garett actually waves to the camera in the scene - " What's actually so funny about it is that when everybody is walking into the locker room and walking past Garp, I'm the last before they cut. Now they weren't supposed to be filming on that take. 'Couse my father was behind the camera and I waved to him so you can actually see me wave to the camera which is like a cardinal, it's like a big nono, it's something you don't do in the movie business. They actually kept it in there. I still don't know why they did that." But never the less, an actor was born and Garett's "older" rolls proved to be more significant as he played in "Days of our lives", guest starred on his father's series "Brothers", hosted for cable's musical-variety series "House Of Blues" (which echoed his love for playing the drums and guitar), and made an unforgettable appearance in "Fraiser" as the cute and adorable Weird Bruce.

And then the big day came and after too many to count audition, Garett got the script for "The Sentinel" audition, "I was actually in New York City, which is where I'm from, at the time the show was casting. There was a big hoo-ha. The script was faxed to my mom's office in Connecticut. I was a big hit for five minutes when it was rolling in. My mom picked it up, read the description and said, 'Oh, you'll get this job, honey.' Actually, it was the first time I'd ever looked at a thing and said, 'I'm going to get this.' It wasn't so much the description of the long hair-retro look (though it was really one of the first roles that described me) -- It's that it fit me personally. Blair is outgoing, kind, nosy."

And so Blair Sandburg was born...

Garett got the Job, with only about a week between his first reading and actually getting it. But there was still something missing - an actor to play Jim Ellison. And so, Garett was actually the one responsible for the casting of Richard Burgi as Jim, as it was "love at first sight" - "I read with like twelve different Sentinels - they kind of cast him around me. I read with a lot of great guys they brought in, and then Richard walked in, and he and I threw the script away and just kind of vamped. He picked me up and threw me around! It was perfect."

Garett took the job seriously, going out and buying a couple of anthropological books to read, something that he found a little difficult, being dyslexic and facing so many reading about the subject. But then came the moment of truth, and when the gang got to work on the pilot it was obvious that it was a winning team. The pilot itself stays Garett's favorite episode since he was all excited about finally working and actually having one of the lead characters.

Although Garett claims that his character is "mostly just yelling 'LOOK OUT! Get out of the way! Do you smell that?' and stuff like that", he did invest a lot of thinking into his roll of Sandburg, as he drew Blair's desire to study book knowledge from the people that he saw around him in school, the characteristics they showed when they were in class. But then, as time gave him more comfort with Blair's character, he realized that "The easiest way for me is just to try to be there and let whatever the dialogue is dictate how I should feel. If I'm talking about [Jim] and I going our separate ways, that's kind of a traumatic thing, and that may come out sad or it may come out aggressive - it really depends on how he's taking it in. I never have a set way of how I'm going to act when I get to work. There's not much rehearsal time, and that can be good or bad - doing theater rehearsal is wonderful because you get only one shot at it, but when you're doing it on film, it's give and take, and sometimes it's good to just wing it, to catch the magic." Being the athletic that he is, Garett asked to do all the stunts work that they can allow him to do, which is in his own words - "I just get hit in the head with a gun every time I turn around, I get knocked out! So I'm rolling my face in the frame."

And what does the actor think about Blair and Jim's relationship?

"Sometimes I think that's a little lacking, but by the same token, it makes it more impactful when we do use it."

resources -

Garett Maggart - this sentinel is one to watch

Sentinel's sidekick - Requiem For The Sentinel and Sidekick

About the sentinel" from the SOS site

A phone interview with GM that Sandra Hurlburt made on the 7-8-97.