Gregory Harrison is probably best known for his role as Dr. George Alonzo ‘Gonzo’ Gates on the show Trapper John, M.D.  Harrison also was cast in numerous reoccurring roles on other television series, such as Logan’s Run, Falcon Crest, and Judging Amy, to name a few.  However, Harrison is not a stranger to the movie world either and has appeared in various films, including North Shore and Razorback, as well as many made for TV movies, including of course the Au Pair trilogy.  Not only do his acting credits span four decades, but he has also directed and produced different projects.

Harrison recently reunited with the Au Pair cast to film the ABC Family original, Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise.  Harrison reprises the role of Oliver Caldwell, the billionaire father of three.  The third installment has the family on a vacation in Puerto Rico, but of course there’s trouble in paradise.

Gregory Harrison recently took time to answer some questions about his role in the upcoming Au Pair 3.

Harrison first got started in acting as a teenager, growing up on Catalina Island.  “I grew up on Catalina Island and it was used as a kind of poor man’s Hawaii in show business.  People would go there to shoot scenes that were supposedly in Hawaii or Tahiti or the Mediterranean.  And I watched movies being shot there as I was a child.  And my father, who ran the Glass Bottom Boat, was often hired to take casts and crews out to the various bays and coves of the island and drop them off in the morning and pick them up in the evening.  So I met a lot of actors and I watched a lot of movies being filmed and I just went, ‘this is not magic, this is a craft.  This is a job.  I can do this job.’  And I loved movies.  I loved going to movies and I loved the magic that was being created on a screen.  But when I saw that it was just like a complicated puzzle, I thought, okay, I can do that.  And I was lucky; at fifteen years old I knew what I wanted to be and never wavered from it.  I didn’t work until I was about twenty-six, but I studied for many years and prepared myself.  I always knew that that’s what I would be, so that’s what happened.  That’s how I became an actor.”

The script is what first drew Harrison to be a part of the Au Pair movie franchise.  “I thought it was a really charming, wonderful script.  You know at the time, that was the year 2000, believe it or not, and it just seemed like it was a humanized character who came from big business, and it just felt like there was a sense of humor and a kind of bonding within the family that I thought was universal and would resonate with people.  It was a character unlike any that I had really played before.  I’ve played a lot of big shots, so to speak, in my life, but this guy had a kind of sweetness that I had seldom seen in characters that I’ve been offered and I wanted to go there with this character. 

And as we were making the movie I also realized that there was a kind of sweetness in the family as a whole.  And I think that is why the first one did so incredibly well in the ratings and deserved to become part of a franchise, you know, that it led to the next two.”

Harrison enjoys playing Oliver Caldwell and draws some of the inspiration for his portrayal from his own life.  “The nice thing about this character is that he doesn’t act like your typical CEO rich guy.  He wasn’t written that way.  He doesn’t deal with his family typically as one would think the CEO does.  This character, what I liked about him in the original, and has continued to be a through line for the character, is that he struggles with the balance between business and his family, that it never actually is in good balance…and it’s a constant dilemma for him.  Well that’s true in my own life.  I’ve always been fighting.  I have four kids who are all in their late teens or early twenties now, and I’ve never found a happy balance between my work and my family.  But I’ve always tried.  I always strive for it.  So I related to Oliver on that level tremendously and that really is I think the strongest part of his character through line.  You know and it’s easy – I mean you play a scene in a plane or you play it in a tent, the scene is the same.  You know if it’s his private jet or if it’s in a banged up old car the emotions of the scene are the same.  So it’s really not about anything else regarding this character.  It’s about what’s in his heart and what his priorities are.”

Getting to surf on screen was Harrison’s favorite part of the job.  “I finally was able to actually surf on film, something I’ve been doing since I was nine.  It really is probably the passion of my life, and I was actually able to spend a couple of days just filming beach and surf and being probably closer to who I am than anything else I’ve done…It really is where I’m most comfortable.  You know I was born on an island and any time you put me on an island I’m feeling at home.  Anytime you put me in the ocean, I’m feeling even more comfortable than when I’m on land.  So I was in my element.”

Harrison had a lot of fun filming the third installment specifically.  “We had so much fun in Puerto Rico.  We were up in the rain forest and we were shooting a lot of scenes – sort of struggling to act nonchalant and relaxed in a situation that was filled with mosquitoes and lots of hot sun.  And you know it’s one of those – typical of acting in most movies there’s a lot of external, bothersome elements that you have to pretend don’t exist.  So we had a lot of fun with that and we bonded even more with that.

When I was surfing, there’s a scene, I think you’ve seen it probably in the promos where I’m actually surfing because I am a surfer, but my son, Jake Dinwiddie – in the movie his name is not Jake, that’s who he really is – had to go out and surf – try to surf.  And he has never surfed in his life.  And what little you see of him failing in the movie was just a small taste of just how badly he ate it in real life.  And I tell you, all of us showed up at the dailies the next day to watch that footage because we had tears running down our faces with what a, in surf lingo, what a kook he was.  And I’m not sure he’s lived that down yet.”

Harrison also enjoys working with the cast, and it shows with the great chemistry they all share on and off screen.  “I don't know that we do anything on purpose to make that happen.  It existed in the first one.  We became very close friends.  I do look at those two kids then as family members of mine and now they’ve grown up and become these young adults that I continue to think of paternally.  And they kind of welcome it.  I think we just have a really nice chemistry together that continues to translate well to the screen.”

Harrison also really enjoyed the filming location for Au Pair 3.  “A lot of what we shoot is on the locations that if you were a tourist you would go to anyway.  And Puerto Rico is just filled with beautiful landscapes – some really interesting history in San Juan.  And then it has the rain forest, which we shot a lot in, and that’s world class rain forest with lots of environmental and ecological tours and information.  And we took advantage of all of it.  We shot in all four sides of that island and of course I got to surf.  And I did surf - every time I was off I found myself surfing one side or the other of that island.  So yes, we had five weeks there and I felt like I really knew it by the end of it.”

Each movie had its own unique challenges.  “You know all of the movies had their specific challenges because they were all shot on locations that were not necessarily film-friendly.  They were all very cinematic and beautiful, but we had to struggle.  You know a television movie is shot on a very tight schedule and weather and language and all these other things can interfere with that schedule.  And we had the same problems in Puerto Rico, you know, not everyone spoke English.  Despite the fact that it’s a territory of the U.S., it’s mostly Spanish down there.  And we were shooting, as I said, earlier in the rain forest much of it.  And there’s only like one road that goes around the entire outside of the island, and we shot in all four corners of that island, so we often had to make moves in the middle of the day, and we’d run into traffic jams and not be able to get to our location in time to really do justice to how many shots we had to get. 

It was just – it was a constant struggle against the sun, the mosquitoes, the elements of tropical weather.  It was a rough go as film making goes, but on the other hand, I don’t want to sound like it wasn’t fun.  I mean we are shooting in a tropical place that’s beautiful and being stuck in traffic in Puerto Rico is a heck of a lot better than being stuck in traffic in LA, let me tell you.”

Harrison was delighted to come back and do a third film; however, he was somewhat surprised.  “I was more wondering why it hadn't been made earlier because the first two were so successful, but I learned long ago as an actor not to question the higher authorities.  They have their own agenda and their own rationale.  But I’ll tell you two or three years after Au Pair 2, I thought okay, that’s it, Au Pair 2 will not be happening.   So I was very surprised when six years after Au Pair 2 we got the call.  But I was pleased and I know the whole cast, that’s why we’re all back because everybody was thrilled and looked forward to the chance to have a reunion and make another one.”  It is unknown at this time whether there will be a fourth installment.

Harrison also enjoys other aspects of filmmaking besides acting.  “I’ve actually done a lot of writing, but I’ve never finished a screenplay off.  What I do is either come up with treatments and then hire writers, you know I’ve developed and produced a lot of movies over the years.  So I sort of oversee the writing of things and then when I get the finished product sometime on the set, I will end up doing some rephrasing and editing. 

I haven't actually sat down and just said, ‘I’m going to be the writer on this and start from scratch and hand in a finished product.’  I guess really what I’m trying to do is create good roles for myself and to do that I need to be the producer and the executive producer, where I hire people to develop projects or buy books, and hire a writer to translate it into a screenplay for me.”

 Harrison however prefers acting.  “In front of [the camera] – I really love it.  I really love acting.  I love the craft, whether it’s in front of a camera or in front of an audience.  I love performing for people and making people feel things.  But I really don’t enjoy the process of producing and directing as much.  I like to create good roles for myself as an actor.”

Besides Au Pair 3, Harrison also has some other projects in the works.  “I’m filming a movie right now – a TV movie – actually it’s a miniseries, called Maneater, for Lifetime.  And it’s a four-hour miniseries and it stars Sarah Chalke, who’s the beautiful young blonde actress in Scrubs, and it’s a comedy and she’s wonderful in it.  Maria Conchita Alonso and I play her parents, and there’s a terrific big cast and it’s going to be terrific.  It comes out May 30^th and 31^st on Lifetime. 

And I have a couple of feature films I’ve done that are in the can that I think – Love ‘N Dancing is coming out with Billy Zane and Amy Smart – coming out next month in May.  And then I just shot another feature, called Give ‘em Hell, Malone, with Ving Rhames and Thomas Jane.  And the release date is yet to be announced on that.

While you are waiting for Harrison’s other projects, you can catch him on Au Pair 3: Adventure in Paradise on Sunday, March 15^th on ABC Family.