At the Desk of ... Bradley Whitford
How the actor who manages presidential affairs onscreen runs his own off-screen.
By David Whitford
Business 2.0
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SNAPSHOT
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DAY JOB:
Plays Josh Lyman, deputy
White House chief of staff, on NBC's The West Wing |
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CLAIM TO FAME:
Won an Emmy last fall for
best supporting actor in a drama series |
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WORKPLACES:
Stage 23, Warner Bros.
Studio, Burbank, Calif.; home office, Los Angeles |
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STARTING TIME:
As early as 6:30 a.m. every
day during production season |
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E-MAILS PER DAY:
20 |
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BOOKMARKS:
Salon.com, CNN.com,
Algore2004.com |
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FAMILY:
Married to Jane Kaczmarek,
star of Malcolm in the Middle; has two children (Frances, 4, and
George, 2) |
A few years ago, my wife, Jane, and I got a triple whammy. We had been trying
for a long time to have kids, and suddenly they came. Simultaneously, not one
but two of us became extraordinarily lucky in show business. And all of this
happened in the midst of renovating a house. So it was this great roundhouse
from logistical left field that still has us reeling.
Mobile technology keeps me connected ...I have a Nextel i90c with a two-way radio. My old phone had the same feature,
and it took me one full year to figure it out. But the great thing about cell
phones is I don't have to be at the set all the time. Now the producers can tell
me, "You can go see your kids if you promise to check in."
... perhaps too much so.
I feel both liberated and suffocated by always being connected. My day starts
the night before, when I get confirmation on my phone and BlackBerry of my call
times and scenes. When I'm at work, I'll walk outside and my hip will start to
buzz. You get messages three ways on this: an 800 number, e-mail, and instant
messaging. My life is a game of defense against incoming messages. If you fall
two days behind, you never come out of it. Every time I check my messages, I'm
reminded of my failures as a friend, as a brother, as a son.
My laptop helps me battle the bedlam.There's a level of chaos in my life that I may be subconsciously keeping there.
I am trying to get rid of it. The one piece of technology that has made me feel
optimistic about that is my Apple PowerBook G4 laptop. I have an AirPort card
and base station, so I can check my e-mail wirelessly. I think there's paradise
and peace in this machine.
I make time for the things that are important to
me.
I get requests every day from people who want to visit the set or want me to
support a cause. I try not to overcommit, but I really want to do some of these
things. So I have a part-time assistant who updates my to-do list, prints it
out, and leaves it on my desk. I used to make fun of Rob [Lowe, a fellow cast
member] for having a full-time assistant. But now I think that, even with as
much help as I have, I need more. We want to protect the time we have with our
kids.
I read at night before I go to bed. No
matter how tired I am, it feels weird not to. I'm on a wonderful, tremendously
partisan political e-mail list with people who worked in the Clinton
administration. I buy Harper's on the newsstand. I subscribe to the New Yorker,
the L.A. Times, and the New York Times. One thing I don't do, ironically, is
watch television. I can't imagine a life where I'd have time to do that. Jane
and I tell our kids that television isn't for watching -- it's just a place for
Mommy and Daddy to make money.
David Whitford is Bradley's brother and a Boston-based writer for FSB.
Posted by MorganG at July 1, 2002 01:31 PM
