By GustavoLeao / 05:13, 12 June 2010 / People

Kevin and Sam Sorbo Explore the Strange

New (Virtual) World of Social Networking

 

By Rich Handley

For TrekWeb.com

June 12, 2010

 

Actor Kevin Sorbo is no stranger to adventure. As the title character on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and later as Dylan Hunt on Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, he has become a household name to genre TV fans over the past 15 years. His wife, Sam Jenkins Sorbo, is an actress in her own right, who appeared alongside Kevin on both series, in addition to having a recurring role on the hospital drama Chicago Hope, as Dr. Caroline Eggert. These days, she's a stay-at-home mom and a writer.

 

Recently, the Sorbos embarked on a bold new adventure through the alien landscape known as the Internet, seeking out new life and new civilizations in the realm of social networking. With an official Web site, as well as official Facebook and Twitter pages (linked at the end of this interview), the couple is reaching out to the online world in an effort not only to better connect with fans, but also to better market their creative efforts.

 

I spoke with Kevin and Sam Sorbo about how they view the Facebook phenomenon, and how they intend to utilize the virtual world to promote their careers. The two also shared a good deal of insight regarding the behind-the-scenes machinations of Hollywood executives, how the online world has changed the face of television and filmmaking, and the challenges actors face as the Internet endangers the concepts of privacy and success.

 

 

Rich Handley: How different is it being a celebrity in the 21^st century, as opposed to the 20^th, in terms of your access to fans, and their access to you?

 

Kevin Sorbo: Well, it's vastly different. Just for example, I was shooting a movie in Malta the past couple of months, and one night I decided to go out with some of my actor friends and some of the crew, and we went out to a nice restaurant, and this local guy said, 'Hey, let's go to a club.' So we walked out, and it was so crowded there. People were dancing wherever they were standing. And Hercules and Andromeda are still on the air in that country, so I was recognized and people were taking pictures, and all of a sudden, I was on Facebook, all over the place! You've got to watch yourself as a celebrity, man [laughs]. With all the recent stuff that's been going on-tabloids, whatever else-man, you've got to watch every step you take. Everything's so instantaneous right now, and it gets zapped right around the world in a heartbeat. I mean, I wasn't doing anything to worry about-Sam saw the pictures, and she knew I was going out. I wasn't, like, groping anyone or anything. [laughs] I was just standing there, with people dancing around me.

 

Handley: And now you're both on Facebook as well. How long ago did you two launch your pages, and what prompted you to do so?

 

Sam Sorbo: That's a good question! Kevin's had his page for a while, and I launched mine like a month ago.

 

Handley: Since you're new to the online world, Sam, how do you plan to utilize it as a marketing tool?

 

Sam Sorbo: I really don't know yet. I'm a writer, and one of my girlfriends said, 'Hey, you've got to get a Facebook page,' so I did. I'm really a novice-I'm brand-new to the whole thing, and it's been really busy lately, so I haven't had a lot of time. I've just sort of been getting my page established. I haven't yet had a chance to explore the Facebook world. I have a friend who showed me her farm-you know, on Farmville. She had like 20,000 sheep and 50,000 pigs, and it was beautiful. But she said, 'I found that I was spending so much time doing the farm that it was keeping me up at night. I was losing sleep, because I had to get the rest of my work done, and then Farmville cut into my downtime, but it started as just a distraction.' She finally gave up the farm... so to speak. [laughs]

 

Handley: People take their Facebook farms very seriously.

 

Sam Sorbo: I know!

 

Handley: You would think there was actual agriculture taking place.

 

Sam Sobo: Yeah! Like, I have tomato plants, and I have zucchini plants, too... but they're real!

 

Handley: In addition to Facebook, you also both have Twitter accounts, linked from your homepage. Do you utilize any other online venues-MySpace or YouTube, for instance?

 

Sam Sorbo: I tried to download my reel to YouTube, just for fun, because I had a director ask me for it, and I thought, 'Oh, well, if I can just download it to YouTube, that makes it easy. He can just go there. But it wouldn't let me download the reel. I think Universal has blocked any reproduction of Hercules, and I have Hercules on my reel, so it just blocked me out. I think it said 'Universal has blocked this post,' or something, and then when I searched, I realized that there was no video footage. There were all these montages of screen-captures, but there was no video.

 

Kevin Sorbo: You know, someone told me to sign up for MySpace, but I just don't have the time to do it. On YouTube, I have posted some things, and I think that, too, has become an amazing tool. Some people have become celebrities on YouTube. It's just incredible.

 

Handley: Oh, yeah. The "Leave Britney Alone" guy, for example.

 

Kevin Sorbo: I know, I know, it's weird! There's this kid out of Yale who does all of this singing that people dig. I went online to look at one of those, and it was pretty good. I was impressed. Through that, he got to go on some talk show. Ellen, I think. It's so strange.

 

Handley: Well, it used to be that in order to become a celebrity, it required a lot of work. You had to go to auditions, and run from place to place, and get yourself out there all the time. It could take years-or never happen at all. Now, with just one click, someone can become a celebrity. Is that a challenge to you, knowing that someone can bypass all of that and, with one well-watched video, end up in the same place?

 

Kevin Sorbo: Yeah! On the one hand, it kind of pisses you off. I'm going, 'Wait a minute, I had to bust my ass for 13 years before I got my break on Hercules! [laughs] Now someone comes up with kind of a cool idea, and... well, so, yeah, I guess on the one hand, there's this envy/jealousy thing, where I'm going, 'Wait, dude, I paid my dues,' you know? I think a lot of singers feel that same way about American Idol, where in only three months, people go from total obscurity to all of a sudden getting a record deal, and they're like, 'Hey, I was playing guitar since I was nine, pounding the pavement!' But what the heck, I'm all for capitalism. Let them find their fame anywhere they want.

 

Handley: Do you think it's essential that celebrities embrace online social networking sites in order to market themselves and their work?

 

Sam Sorbo: No, absolutely not. Well, I guess it's not really fair for me to say that. I don't really consider myself a celebrity. My husband is, but I'm sort of a tagalong, so I can't really say, 'Well, it [not bothering with social networking] works for me,' because it didn't work for me to not have it. I just don't know yet. The jury's still out. There are plenty of celebrities who get along just fine without it, so I don't believe it's essential. Is it smart business? Absolutely. It's the way that it's all going. I don't think it's a fad. I don't think it's a pet rock. I think it's a new form of communication. It's like asking, 'If you never did any magazine interviews, would you still have celebrities? And would celebrities still be as big?' I'm sure there are celebrities who don't do magazine interviews-but they're silly, because magazine interviews are a great venue to get to people. If you're a celebrity, and you're trying to get the word out, you need to take advantage of every possible avenue.

 

Kevin Sorbo: It's weird, but on the positive side, if you do it right... well, I'm kicking myself right now, because I'm such a computer moron. I just didn't get on board with this stuff. I should have started doing this-collecting e-mails-back in the '90s, during Hercules. I mean, I was on the Internet back in '90s. I was doing my stuff, and sending e-mails to friends. But I wish I'd started collecting info on all that fan-base that was going on, because by '96, Hercules became the most-watched TV show in the world. If I would have spent just a little bit of time each day doing this, it would have been huge for me and my career. Certainly, studios look at what is going on with Twitter, Facebook and all these other things as well, to use as an advertising tool. I think it's very effective, and it just gets out there so much faster to advertise and promote whatever kind of work you have going on. It's amazing.

 

Handley: And once word gets out, it spreads very quickly.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Well, you know, somebody else did a Facebook page of me. I didn't even know it was out there, and people were saying, 'Hey, I'm on your Facebook page,' and I'd say, 'What are you talking about?' So finally I thought, I'll jump on it myself, and I started doing it, I don't know, six months ago. And that guy's page got up to, oh, 2,000 friends or something like that, and then my wife's intern said, 'No, you have to have your own,' and I was like, 'What?' And now, mine has only like 600 people on it. I don't know how people can possibly have time to keep up with all this stuff. Like I said, I'm just an idiot with it. If I can have somebody point the way and say, 'This is what you need to do,' I will go online every day and say, 'Hey, I'm at my golf tournament, having a blast,' and I'd post some pictures. I'd be really good with it. I'm usually pretty good with the fans when I go out in public, so I just need someone to treat me like a freakin' first-grader [laughs], and show me what to do to build up a fan-base on Facebook and Twitter. I think on Twitter, I have less than 4,000 or something-I should have a lot more than that! [laughs]

 

Sam Sorbo: There's another Sam Sorbo, and he's in college, and he's got like 900 on his page! And I have only a hundred or something.

 

Handley: Having been televised in the 1990s, Hercules and Chicago Hope aired during a period when online fandom largely consisted of various fan-made Web pages and discussion groups, whereas Andromeda, at least toward the end of its run, was broadcast when Hollywood had already begun to realize the Internet's potential in marketing a TV show. Do you think having wider Web accessibility helps boost shows like Andromeda, and the popularity of the actors who are on them?

 

Sam Sorbo: Absolutely. I can't disagree with the experts, and the experts for that show created an entire Web world for the series which was quite expansive. I'm sure by today's standards, you'd probably say, 'Oh, come on, that's pretty rinky-dink.' But at the time, they put a lot of time and energy into creating an interesting Web site for the show.

 

Kevin Sorbo: I definitely don't think it hurts! When I was with Tribune, they did nothing to promote Andromeda. It's amazing that we stayed number-one for all five years of first-run syndication. You know, Stargate had a big international appeal because they had two huge studios, MGM and Sony, behind them, pushing them. But they never beat us in the ratings in America-never. It was weird to me that I had a daily battle with the Tribune company to promote the show. I said, 'Guys, we're number-one!' And they'd say, 'Well, that's no reason to promote it,' and I'd say, 'Yes, it is!' And, well, look at them now-the whole company is bankrupt, dismantled. Okay, so they own the Cubs... what have the Cubs done since 1903? [laughs] But it was sad. I understand the power of advertising and promotion, and those guys at the studio were never behind us. At least with Hercules, the studios got it, you know? I was doing Leno and Letterman, and I was out there doing talk shows and stuff. It made a lot more sense, and they realized they had a big deal going. You know, they wanted to go three more years after the seven-year run, but I just reached a point where I was just beat with the schedule.

 

Handley: Kevin, do you find yourself more recognized these days as Hercules or as Dylan Hunt, and has the online world played a large role in fostering that recognizability?

 

Kevin Sorbo: I certainly don't think the online world has hurt, but you know, as I said, I haven't used it enough. I don't think I've used it enough to take advantage of two series that ran for 12 consecutive years. As I tell Hollywood folks when I meet them, 'I'm the best-kept secret in Hollywood, and you guys don't even get it.' Hollywood has their set ideas of who I am. 'Oh, he's the action guy.' And when I finally get in to read for some of these roles... look, I've got seven movies coming out this year, and they're all completely different. Hopefully, knock on wood, I can get these things out there on Facebook, and out there around the world, so people are aware of it and see it, because it's going to show me in a different light-certainly to Hollywood, because Hollywood folks always wear blinders. We're actors, and we can act, but once you get one role, one show, they say, 'Well, that's all he can do.' Hollywood's run by people who have no idea what they're doing. They might be smart business types, but they're not smart creative guys. I think a lot of people in Hollywood who aren't actors are pissed off because they want to be actors. You get a lot of casting people who are frustrated actors, and a lot of producers who-well, you know, it gets weird. It's a weird, smarmy game, and it hasn't changed; the casting couch is alive and well.

 

Handley: Then you should send out clips from The Middleman, because I've got to tell you, you were hilarious in that.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Oh, hey, thanks, man! [laughs]

 

Handley: I was disappointed that the show didn't run a second year, because that's a character I would have liked to have seen more of.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Well, they actually talked to me, after I did the show, and they said, 'Look, we'd like to do your show as a prequel-your character, in the '60s.' Oh, I was really ready to do it! I enjoyed it. It was fun. But that's just the thing: There are good shows that don't make it past a year, and there are other shows that go five years, that are forced down our gut, where you go, 'You know, this show just isn't funny.'

 

Handley: Right, how is it that Full House ran for almost a decade, but The Middleman, which never had a non-brilliant moment, ran for only 12 episodes?

 

Kevin Sorbo: It's weird to me! I don't get it! You know, I did a pilot after Andromeda ran. ABC signed me up to do a sitcom. It was an idea my manager and I fostered, and we brought it to them and they loved it. We got Barry Kemp to write it. He was the head writer on Taxi. He created Bob Newhart's second series. He was a creator of Coach with Craig T. Nelson for nine years. I mean, this guy is a great writer. We tested number-one out of 28 pilots that year. This was for the fall of 2005. We tested number-one in all eight markets they brought their 28 shows to, and Steve McPherson, the president of ABC, in his infinite wisdom, said, 'Eh, I'm not going to pick it up.' And the seven shows he did pick up, of the 28? They didn't make it through a year. They all got canned within one to six months. And you see these shows they put on the air that just aren't funny, and you just go, 'You have got to be kidding me.' I like to think that we should be in our sixth year right now. We should be in the top-two sitcoms, right alongside Two and a Half Men. But there's all these deals and promises they make. Like I said about Andromeda, I thought it was a good show, and I think they made a big mistake by not doing promos, and not giving it a bigger boost. They fired the showrunner after the second season, Robert Hewlitt Wolfe, and I loved Robert's writing. But it's a game these guys all play-it's a power trip.

 

Handley: So, getting back to your Facebook pages... Facebook is a somewhat undefined medium, in that it combines an individual's personal and professional lives. On the one hand, it's a great way to keep in touch with old friends, share photos of your kids in Little League with your extended family, and so forth. But on the other hand, as a celebrity, you have fans of your work asking to befriend you even though they've never met you. Being someone's cousin or college buddy, and being a TV icon or writer, are very different roles. How difficult is it to juggle the two in a single space?

 

Sam Sorbo: I have a bunch of followers who are avid Kevin Sorbo fans, so by default, they're fans of me. And yeah, I did a little bit of work, but for someone to pick up on... well, you know what my problem is? I'm not a fan. I don't make a good fan. I don't quite understand how to be a fan. So I don't understand their motivation in becoming fans of me. And they say the most lovely things: 'Sam, you're so wonderful. You're such a wonderful, lovely person.' And I'm like, 'You don't know me. Thank you-but you really don't know me.' I mean, I am a wonderful, lovely person, but still... [laughs] So then I started to post, and I wrote that I went to the American Idol finale, because I thought that might be something they might be interested in, and I realized that Facebook really engenders a shift to self-interest, and that's kind of frightening. I suppose maybe this is normal for other people who are just talking to their friends. But for me, it's just weird to be so self-absorbed and think other people care what the heck I'm doing. When I first started the Facebook page, people told me it's a great way to find old friends, but I said, I know where my old friends are-and for the rest of the people... I'm not that interested.

 

Kevin Sorbo: I guess I don't even worry about it or think about it, because I guess the stuff I do share, I don't feel like... well, the thing is, I do want to use it as a promotional tool. I should have jumped on this years ago. I don't even let my 'real' friends know when I'm going to be on TV, and I've gotten so many e-mails from them, saying, 'Dude, you didn't even let me know you were going to be on that show, or doing this and that,' so after years of ignoring them, I'm like, you know, I'm not doing it on purpose, I just feel weird to sit there and go, 'Hey, guys, watch me on TV!' But then I realize, I've gotten enough e-mails from my old college buddies, and my friends, and my family saying that they want to know when it's coming out, so why not? They can decide if they want to watch it-and at the same time, I can also let fans know.

 

Handley: And that's where the line blurs, because you don't want to, you know, look like a fool in front of your fans, or look pompous in front of your family.

 

Kevin Sorbo: I don't mind confirming people I don't know-I realize they're getting in touch with me to say, 'Hey, look, I'm on Kevin Sorbo's Facebook page!' And I'll take the time to answer a few of them individually, too, so they realize I'm out there. But I don't worry about mixing the two together. Right now, I just want to learn how to use it properly, and how to make the Facebook page grow. I want a million people on my Facebook, too! And then you can bring it to the studio and go, 'Look, you want a million people?' And then they can all say, 'Hey, Kevin Sorbo has a new movie coming out.'

 

Sam Sorbo: It's a weird thing, but those who graduated high school with me do Facebook in a completely different way than the young people who are in high school and college, and that's why the college friend of mine has 900 friends, and I don't-because most of my friends don't really do Facebook. I just need to figure out how to grow my page, because it's definitely a marketing tool, and because I'm writing, I'm trying to reach people... not just to tell them, 'Oh, my kid lost a tooth today,' but rather to tell them something I think it's important that they know. I'm trying to strike a middle ground, because I know that fans love to know that I went to Idol, and they love to see the pictures. I called my girlfriend and asked, 'Do you think it's weird that half my friends, for their profile photo, have either a picture of my husband, or a picture of themselves with my husband?' [laughs]

 

Handley: Sam, since you're a writer, this one's directed at you. Online publishing and blogging have greatly changed the world of journalism, making it much more difficult for writers and editors to find work than ever before. Has there been an analog for you in Hollywood? Has the virtual world challenged or hindered your career as an actor-or, for that matter, as a writer?

 

Sam Sorbo: Well, when people ask Kevin what his handicap in golf is, he says, 'My wife.' The only thing that sort of-I can't say 'hinders'-prevents me from pursuing my acting career is my family, and for great reason. I am not pursuing my acting career, and that was a choice I made when I decided to have kids. As for my writing career, what I do are books. One of them will go the traditional publishing route, and for one of them, I'm been looking at POD [print-on-demand] publishers, but I'm thinking I might self-publish. In other words, I'll engage a printer and publish them myself.

 

Handley: Any idea when you think it'll be out?

 

Sam Sorbo: I'm on the final pass on the self-published book, so I'm hoping to get it out by the end of the summer. The name of the book is The Answer, and it's a metaphysical approach to God.

 

Handley: That's great-good luck with that!

 

Sam Sorbo: Thank you!

 

Handley: Kevin, do you ever see yourself stepping back into costume to bring Hercules back to the small screen-or even possibly the big screen? Or how about Andromeda?

 

Kevin Sorbo: You know, I never got Universal either. Here's another studio, right, they got mad at me that I didn't want to go three more years on Hercules. They screwed me on the back end of the contract. This show still airs in 50 countries overseas, and I see the quarterly statements, it's like eight million dollars a quarter, so the show is still bringing in, what, thirty million a year? You know what? I don't get a penny of that. And people are shocked when they find out. I'm the one who worked my ass off for 14 hours a day, and I had to lift weights for two hours a day afterwards. Anyone who tries doing that for seven years, you know, you get exhausted. And I'm not bitching about it-I loved the show, I loved the crew, I loved living in New Zealand. But after seven years, I needed to do something more, and while I was hemming and hawing about it, I got the call from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, saying, 'We have this show that Gene [Roddenberry] wrote back in 1969, and I think you'd be the perfect captain, Dylan Hunt.' And then Tribune gave me a 44-show guarantee-a two-year guarantee-before they even cast anyone else, that whether the show goes on or not, they're going to pay me for two years. I mean, how could I say no? Anybody, in that kind of business, if they say to you, 'Hey, we're going to give you a two-year contract, and you might not even have to work,' I think anyone would sign the contract. Plus, I'm a Star Trek fan, so it was a no-brainer for me! I wish I had a chance to meet Gene. You know, I got to know Majel well, and it was neat to get to know that family. I just wish I had a chance to meet Mr. Roddenberry.

 

Handley: It's probably inevitable, when working on a TV series based on Roddenberry's work, that you'll be compared to Star Trek. And with 30 seasons of episodes and 11 films under its belt, Trek is quite a monolith to be held up to. How do you feel about such comparisons? Are they fair?

 

Kevin Sorbo: The thing about Star Trek is, when the second one came out, with Picard and all those guys, they had rocky ground to cover for the first year or two. It took a while. Fans reluctantly watched. Certainly, they had a new fan-base, younger kids who maybe never watched the original series, and discovered it later. But when you've got fans of the original series, such as myself, you look at it and go, 'Really? Oh, come on.' And it took a while, but once it caught on, you know, it goes seven seasons and becomes great, whereas the original Star Trek got canceled after three. The studios back then didn't get the whole thing about demographics. You had three networks, and that was it. If you weren't getting a 25 or 35 share for every show, then they said, 'It's a failure.'

 

Handley: I think they still don't get it. I mean, they still rely so heavily on Nielsen ratings, instead of paying more attention to things like DVR, DVD sales and downloads, which really would account, I would think, for a large percentage.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Every show can complain about that, and rightfully so. Nielsen doesn't even have a box on a college campus. What, students don't watch TV?

 

Handley: I'm 42 years old, Kevin, and I can genuinely say that I've never met a single person who's ever told me he or she was in a Nielsen family.

 

Kevin Sorbo: No, I've not met one. Not one. So I don't know. And Hollywood feels, 'Well, maybe it's not the best system, but it's the best we got.' And I say, 'Well, that's just a lazy attitude.' There's a way to program. There's a way to do something. That's like saying about the illegal aliens, 'Well, they're all here, let's go ahead and make them citizens.' What kind of logic is that? I'm sorry, but that's just stupid to me.

 

Sam Sorbo: I have a friend who told me, 'I don't watch TV.' And then, two sentences later, I told her I like House, and she said, 'Oh, I love House! I watch every episode!' But she watches it online. And I said, 'You know, just because you're not watching a television doesn't mean you don't watch television.' [laughs] So if people are getting their entertainment online, then that's where they're going to get their information as well.

 

Handley: What upcoming work will you be involved in, that fans might watch for? Any major announcements that those who befriend you on Facebook can look forward to reading in the near future?

 

Kevin Sorbo: The first film I'm involved with is called What If...? It's a faith-based movie I did with John Ratzenberger and Kristy Swanson. If you go to whatif-movie.com, the trailer should pop up. It's a tear-jerker comedy, a very nice movie with a good message. It's about a guy who was engaged to someone while in his 20s, and he said, 'Look, I'm just going to take this job, it'll be nine months, and then we'll be together,' and of course, we flash forward 20 years later, and now I'm this fast-talking investment-broker guy who has this trophy fiancée, and all of the material goods, and John Ratzenberger shows up as this curmudgeonly angel, and shows me how much I screwed up my life, and I eventually commit to surrendering myself. 'Okay, I'll do this for your god.' And I find out I really missed the boat, and this would have been a better road to go on. It's sort of a reverse of It's a Wonderful Life. It's a nice date movie, so to speak. We open Aug. 18 in Chicago, and they're going to roll it out in theaters. I think it's like a hundred theaters to start with, so it's not a huge opening. But we have thousands of churches across the country that have purchased the movie and are bringing it to their congregation. And hopefully, word of mouth will get that moving-and Facebook, too.

 

Handley: Do you two foresee you and Sam ever working together again, as you did on Hercules, Andromeda and Avenging Angel?

 

Kevin Sorbo: Yeah, I think so. We've talked about that, getting her in there. She's done bit parts in movies, but she's staying at home full-time and being a writer, and handling the miniature Sorbo empire [laughs]. In the meantime, I have another movie coming out called Soul Surfer. I was hoping they were going to open it in November, but I don't know; now I'm hearing it might be an Easter movie, just because Sony wants to make sure everything is perfect. They're very excited about this; it has Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Carrie Underwood and AnnaSophia Robb, and it's based on the life of Bethany Hamilton, the teen sensation who, at 13, lost her arm to a tiger shark. It's a wonderful script, and Sony already has 3,000 screens committed to it. And then, on the flipside, in November, I've got a movie called Julia X, which is a 3-D psychological thriller, in which I play a serial killer. It's quite a bit different. Oh, my gosh, from an actor's standpoint, it was a great exercise for me. It's a movie my wife certainly won't see, since she doesn't like anything gross, with blood and all that.

 

Handley: I would think that as an actor, playing a serial killer couldn't be anything but fun.

 

Kevin Sorbo: It was!

 

Handley: Unless, of course, you're a serial killer, that is.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Unless you're a serial killer, yeah! I was just playing myself. [laughs] That was fun, doing that. And then I've got another one called Paradox, which, since you like the sci-fi world, I think you'd enjoy. I play a cop who lives on an Earth parallel to our Earth here, but my Earth is run, basically, on magic. Everyone is born with magical abilities of varying degrees-you might have the Michael Jordan of magic, and then you might have the trailer trash of magic. Everybody's got something, and then our Earth world is obviously a world of science, and then there's a portal that's opened that brings one Earth to the other Earth, and there's a murder that takes place on my world from a gun, and a gun is something that is very strange to us. So it's an interesting film. Plus, I'm in a movie called Flesh Wounds, which I did last year in Louisiana, and I play a mercenary who's the head of this sort-of covert operation that goes into Asia to take out this super-soldier that the American government has lost control of. It's sort of a cyborg-Robocop-type soldier that has run amuck. From what I've seen of it, it looks like a cool film that has a lot of action... And then I have one called The Coffin, which won't come out until next year. It's pretty cool. I play a guy who's having an affair with a woman, and we wake up inside a coffin, and we have to figure out how to get out.

 

Handley: Was it claustrophobic to film that?

 

Kevin Sorbo: Yeah! The only time you see me out of the coffin is in flashbacks. We just finished filming that on Tuesday. Oh, man. Two full days in a box. It was a lot. But at least there was a pretty girl in there with me. [laughs]

 

Handley: One final question: With Facebook and the online community making the world increasingly smaller, and with reality-based shows dominating the airwaves, which obviously makes life harder for actors-

 

Kevin Sorbo: Yeah, we hate that.

 

Handley: -I'm sure! And with sites like YouTube making it ever easier for performers to get their work out there for the world to enjoy, how do you two see the entertainment world evolving over the next decade? Will the lines continue to blur between celebrity and ordinary citizen? And what can established actors do to make sure to stay in the game?

 

Sam Sorbo: While I do believe that Facebook and online sites do bring the world closer, they also separate us a lot more, because even though you have more interpersonal interactions, you are more removed from people. I'm not convinced. I think it's a 'push-me-pull-you' situation. I think we're getting closer and farther away at the same time. It's an odd phenomenon. But the thrust of the question is absolutely relevant-and it's not just the online world, but also reality TV. It's American Idol, and I love that show, and it's given us some fantastic musical artists that I wouldn't have heard from otherwise-but I also think there are many others who could have taken their places. Daughtry's good, but so's Nickelback. But there's only one Michael Jackson. We've got all these reality-show people who have come out of nowhere, and they were nobody, and they're going to go back to nowhere, but they get their 15 minutes of fame first because of reality TV, and they get maybe an extra 10 minutes because of the Internet. I think it dilutes celebrity, and I think it gets more diluted. It's hard to see it in a snapshot today, but if you compare to the 1950s, the Golden Age or whatever, there were 12 A stars, and then there were 20 B stars that might become something or might not have, but if you take a snapshot of the '50s, you can say, 'Okay, there's these stars, and they were the stars-they were the royalty.' But now, everybody can be royalty. And the proof is in the pudding. You really need to have staying power-you need to have something to offer. Where's Paris Hilton? Where is she now? And how about Lindsay Lohan? I think she could have been really something, but she kind of screwed herself up, and now, because of YouTube and all of the Internet access, she's just a real person now-we've brought her down to this level of 'real person,' and because her celebrity has been diluted, she can't keep that loftiness. Marilyn Monroe will never be challenged. She's Marilyn Monroe. And she died of a drug overdose-but she's still not a real person.

 

Handley: She remained an icon until the end. She didn't have thousands of people posting pictures of her online, throwing up on the sidewalk.

 

Sam Sorbo: Exactly. As for Kevin, I think the people who love Kevin are going to continue to love him, because he's a wonderful person. But by the same token, he's not getting publicity, because he's not throwing up on the sidewalk, or beating the crap out of me, or whatever.

 

Handley: The online world basically rewards those who act like asses in public, instead of rewarding talent.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Well, I think there will always be established actors. People are always going to want to see the Jack Nicholsons, the Brad Pitts, the George Clooneys, and whoever else-hopefully, the Kevin Sorbos, too. And I think there's always going to be a need for that, because when push comes to shove, there's something about going to a movie theater, about wanting to see a studio film. They're never going to go away. You know, when television came out, how many decades ago, the studios were flipped out: 'Now, no one will want to go to the movies!' And, of course, that ended up being wrong. So I'm not worried about that part of it. We actors hate, collectively, reality television. But I don't look at shows like America's Got Talent or American Idol as reality shows. They are, but when you get down to the last month or so, there's real talent there. It sort of harkens back to Sonny and Cher, Flip Wilson, the Smothers Brothers and Carol Burnett, who all had these variety shows back in the '60s and '70s.

 

Handley: There's a place for stuff like that.

 

Kevin Sorbo: Right, there's a place for stuff like that. But shows where people are bungee-jumping off freakin' bridges, eating I don't know what, like on Survivor... man, you want a real Survivor? Throw the people on an island, strap a bunch of cameras to the freakin' coconut trees, and then leave for a month. Because I know what those shows are really like: They're loosely scripted. You can tell by the way they move the cameras around. There's a craft service table 30 feet away, with some guy eating a Snickers bar. But you know, they're successful, and they're low-cost for these guys. It was born out of necessity, in a way, because before Survivor, the studios weren't making the money from ad revenue, and they said, 'What do we have to do to change this?' And they looked at shows like COPS and America's Most Wanted, and they looked at the bottom dollar, and they said, 'These things are easy to shoot, and they cost nothing. But if we get a show like Survivor, we only have to pay one guy. Our cost is just lodging and flying them wherever we're going to fly them to.' They don't have to pay them, you know, two million an episode, like Charlie Sheen is getting, God bless him. But the best thing that has come out of reality shows for actors has been cable-Showtime and HBO and FX and A&E have just stepped up to the plate and created a lot of work for actors and writers, by putting out a lot of originally scripted series that are awesome. I'm a big fan of things like Entourage and Dexter and Mad Men, you know? I'd love to get shows like that. To me, it's the best thing that has happened because of this reality-show thing-it's proven that the American public still wants to see originally scripted series, and not just look at people running through the jungle. I don't watch any of that. I mean, come on... the Kardashians? What the frig is that about, you know? Are they for real? They're famous for being famous, but there's not necessarily any talent there. It's weird to me... but that's America.

 

Sam Sorbo: We're definitely in a new world, and I'm not really sure, first of all, that I'm really qualified to weigh in, and secondly, that I can weigh in, ultimately, on what that means. I just know that this Facebook stuff can be great. It really can be great. One thing I know from Hercules, I saw some of the letters that Kevin would get. He inspired people-he inspired those who had polio to learn how to walk, who had illnesses to learn to fight it and just get up and start their day anyway. There are some amazing stories out there, and they took their inspirations from a TV show. And that's fine-if that's where you get your inspiration, that's awesome. And if he can provide that for people, that's fantastic. So Facebook is another way to provide people with that. Fans write in to me and say, 'You're such a great mom, and I wish I could be a good mom like you are.' And between you and me, they don't really know that I'm a great mom. My pictures look like I'm a great mom, and I know I'm a great mom, but if I can serve as an inspiration for them through Facebook, that's awesome. The sad thing is when you think someone's a great mom and then they go beat up their kid. But I'm clean, so I'm really thrilled to have the opportunity to connect with people on that kind of level. I think that's great.

 

 

To become fans of the Sorbos' official Facebook and Twitter pages, simply visit www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-Sorbo-Official-Facebook-Page/117383481635060 and twitter.com/ksorbs for Kevin Sorbo, or www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-Sorbo-Official-Facebook-Page/119432941424201 and twitter.com/igwet for Sam Sorbo. The couple's official Web site is kevinsorbo.net.

 

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