Adrian Pasdar's life falls into place with wife, job
in 'Mysterious Ways'
by Kate O'Hare
Tribune Media Services
Partnerships of various kinds seem very important in Adrian Pasdar's life right now.
He recently wed Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines in a quick Las Vegas ceremony during the band's current tour. He's got a new acting partner, Rae Dawn Chong, in his new series "Mysterious Ways." And, through a partnership between NBC-TV and Pax-TV, "Mysterious Ways" makes its NBC debut tonight at 8 p.m., before premiering on Pax Aug. 22.
Pacing in his trailer between shots in Vancouver, B.C., dying for a cigarette (he recently quit, partly because he's now 35, and partly to spare Maines' vocal cords), Pasdar reflects on his new job and his new wife.
"Things are working out. It seems like it's been a long time, actually 35 years, in coming. I've waited 35 years for these two things to happen just the way they have, and it's ironic that they happened at the same time."
Maybe you're a late bloomer. "I suppose, might be it. It all feels good, though. I'm not questioning it too much."
Pasdar - a Philadelphia-area native of Iranian-German heritage - met Maines - a petite, platinum-haired, 25-year-old Texan - about a year ago at the wedding of her bandmate, Emily Erwin, and his friend Charlie Robison.
"I never thought it would happen to me," he says. "I really didn't. The next thing I knew, I had a ring on my finger. It was just one of those quick, yearlong things. When it seems like it's the next logical step, that's the one you take. I thought marriage would be accompanied by some big bang."
Did you have a commitment-phobia attack at any point? "No, not at all. It never struck me, 'I'm getting married, am I doing the right thing?' Never once. I always thought it would. It always had before, when I considered marriage before, and I always thought, 'No way.' This just seemed like a natural step, like breathing. 'I can't breathe anymore with this person if we're not married, so it'd be foolish not to.' That was really the whole thing."
On the work front, in "Mysterious Ways" - produced by Peter O'Fallon ("Party of Five," "Northern Exposure") and Carl Binder ("Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman") - Pasdar plays anthropology professor Declan Dunn, who survived an avalanche and became fascinated with paranormal phenomena.
Joining him in his quest to explore strange happenings is skeptical psychiatrist Peggy Fowler (Chong) and Dunn's assistant, Miranda (Alisen Down).
As a trivia aside, Maines sings "Amazing Grace" in the premiere episode, which deals with the history of the famous song.
"It's always been one of my favorite songs," says Pasdar, "and just for my wife to be singing it, it's just amazing."
But before you start thinking "Mysterious Ways" is either an "X-Files" knock-off - or, considering it's on Pax, a touchy-feely examination of miracles or some such thing - Pasdar begs to differ.
"It's not a quest for anything more than a stronger sense of self. It's not a quest to prove anything to anyone. It's a quest for higher learning within these individuals. For myself, the drive behind Declan is not to be a leader in any organization or to enlighten people, in fact, it's just the reverse."
Copyright � 2000 The Seattle Times Company