XPOSE MAGAZINE

Celebrity Sighting
Anwar Brett

Having been exposed to the mystical experience of dating a girl with ESP on screen in last year's British comedy Solitaire for Two, actor Mark Frankel admits that the unexplained phenomena are not entirely new to him.

In his time the 32 year old London born actor - star of Leon the Pig Farmer and the US tv series Sisters, Kindred the Embraced and Fortune Hunter - has enjoyed a varied, some would say wild, youth which included the opportunity to travel the world.

"I was very uncontrollable, wild kid" he agrees, "I got into lots of trouble, until I was into my early teens and basically has a great time doing it. It was anarchic behaviour but not in a vindictive way. I didn't beat people up or anything like that".

"These days it's controlled wildness, I like dangerous sports. I skydive, ride motorcycles and stuff like that, but I used to do more dangerous things as a child. I had a lot of accidents and spent months in hospital, I even had a motorcycle accident before I was legally allowed to ride one. I also had an accident with a javelin that put me in hospital for several months," he adds mysteriously, "but I don't want to go into that".

All of which might suggest that some form of concussion is behind Frankel's bizarre experience, but he remains convinced that he actually saw a ghost.

"When I was much younger I visited South Africa, and stayed at this old YMCA. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw two figures standing on the other side of the room. I was frozen with fear for about 15 minutes. It was probably about five minutes in reality, I had enough time to check that I was awake, but there they were standing and looking at me, not moving, although they swayed a little bit".

"One was very short, about three feet tall, and the other was a big guy holding a long staff. They had a kind of medieval costume on. Finally I plucked up the courage to run around them and switch the light on. At that they were gone".

DETOUR MAGAZINE
November, 1993

TO BE FRANKEL
Brandon Judell

"To market, to market, to buy a fat pig, home again, home again, jiggety-jig." - Anonymous

Well, finally there's a piece of kosher pork that's turned the tables around. Leon the Pig Farmer (directed by Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor, and written by Sinyor and Michael Normand) has been popping up at film markets and festivals around the world, and being bought up like mad. And why not?

Just imagine a tale about a nice kosher chap, Leon Geller, who has nightmares about lobsters, ham sandwiches, and other things trayf. But before we go on, there are certain Yiddish terms you must be familiar with: a) ferblunjit (fer-BLUN-jit) means mixed up, b) fercockta (fer-KAHKT-uh) means fu**ed up, c) fermisht (fer-MISHT) means very mixed up, d) ferpachkit (fer-PAH-kit) means extremely mixed up and e) mit fremde hent iz gut feier tsu sharen, means it's good to poke the fire with someone else's hand. Anyway, Leon, who's played by the gorgeous Mark Frankel, discovers one day that his mother was artificially inseminated because his father has a low sperm count. Then he discovers that the sperm bank made a mistake, and used a pig farmer's spermatozoa instead of his dad's to get his mom pregnant. So in fact, his dad is not really his dad, and the Gentile girl who's dating him only because he's Jewish might drop him if she finds out, and. . . Well, you get the idea, maybe. . .

Brandon Judell: Were you upset when Benny Hill died?

Mark Frankel: That was a shock. We were brought up on Benny Hill. It was like Benny Hill was Saturday Night Live. I'd sit with my dad, holding his hand, watching Benny Hill. That's how I was brought up.

BJ: So Leon the Pig Farmer (Cinevista) is your first major feature film?

MF: Yes, my first feature -- my first picture, period.

All the women I've talked to who've seen Leon were wild over you. You're sort of a sex-symbol-on-the-make. I didn't see that until about two-thirds into Leon, when you're making love to Maryam d'Abo. Now, here in person, you're stunning. But women saw your appeal, your charisma, right away. How does this work?

(In a sexy, Cary Grant delivery) I li-i-i-ke you. I don't know. I think probably what it is, is more Leon than me. There is definitely a vulnerable quality to him, and I think that's something women are tapping into. I don't think they're tapping into Mark Frankel.

Ondine (one of the film's publicists): They're tapping into you.

It's very flattering to hear that. My mother loves the film. It'll be interesting to see how it goes down with the general American public.

BJ: England is known for its anti-Semitism, and there's another new British film out dealing with the same subject, called Century. I can't think of many other Brit flicks dealing with Judaism. How did you feel when you read the script?

I first read it just as a comedy. It really takes a lot for me to laugh. I go to movies, and I think they're funny, but I don't actually, vocally, laugh. Leon made me laugh out loud off the page. That was very exciting. It's definitely the first Jewish comedy in England -- and that definitely makes it quite unique. You said there's anti-Semitism in England. I don't really think there is a great deal. I think we have so many other major problems and issues. . .

You mean the English now hate other people much more than the Jews?

(Laughs) Yes, that's right.

Have any Jewish groups been upset with the film?

I personally have not met anyone who's been upset by it, but I know that there are some people who apparently have been in England. A very few, but to me, the one thing that Jews have always been able to do is to laugh at themselves, and if we can't crack a joke. . .I don't think Gary and Michael wrote the script with any intention apart from making a very funny film. Even the scene on the cross, it was so mild. Anyone who takes that personally, Orthodox or Hasidic Jews, or whatever, I think that's kind of ridiculous.

So no theater owners have been complaining about matzo ball stains on their screens?

No. No. No. No. No. The film went down very well in England. People love the film.

Has your star quality rating risen in England because of the film? Are you getting many more scripts?

Yes, definitely. My career has been very strange. Immediately after I came out of drama school, I went straight into a play. A play in a tiny pub which seated 40 people. Within three weeks of doing this, I was offered the role of Michelangelo in this 20 million dollar film shot in Italy. An American director had come over to England to try and find Michelangelo. He found me in this pub. I then went to Italy for five months to film. That was shown in a few countries, and on TNT in America. Then I came back for a few weeks, and I went off and did Young Catherine, also for TNT. So I was filming almost non-stop for a couple of years, and nothing had ever been seen in England. No one had even heard of me except people within the business. They knew exactly who I was, but they didn't know if I could act, except from drama school, because we do lots of public performances. Then there was Leon. So suddenly, the people became almost instantly aware of who I was. Leon has just been bought by British TV, and it will be shown in a year and a half. And now they're talking about buying Sisters, which is a series I do here. (Jokingly) Yeah, definitely now everyone [in England] knows who I am.

So now maybe some of the groupies of the Bros and U2 will start following you.

Yeah, I'd like to think so.

So far people haven't been hanging around your hotel room?

No. No. It hasn't gotten that bad. My dry cleaner told me the other day that she'd seen Leon and thought it was really funny. She had no idea that I was an actor.

Did you have to autograph your stub?

Yeah, I gave her an old pair of underpants.

How did you get cast in Sisters?

I finished filming Leon, and I thought maybe I should go to the States, and actually go to L.A., because I had never been to L.A. I filmed all these things abroad, and they'd been shown here, and I'd never been to that side. Well, I had just done my first lead in a movie. Maybe I should pitch up, so I did. My agents there. . .they're very good agents, they just sent me around to all the studios. I walked into Warner Brothers, and they had this character that they wanted to develop. And that's how it all came about. I met the producers, then I flew back to England, they made an offer, and I flew back out.

So did you rent a place in Los Angeles, or do you have an estate yet?

No, I rent a place. And estate? No, I got a 40-acre ranch in Bel Air. Maintenance is enourmous. No, I rent an apartment in L.A. when I'm there. I tend to rent the same one. I'm going back now.

So is it barren? What did you bring from England so you wouldn't get homesick? Just a few books?

I brought quite a lot. I brought trunks. I came to L.A. for 10 days. I went back, and they said, "Can you come out in two weeks?" I said, "For how long?" They said, "Nine months." So I said, "Oh boy!" I wasn't sure about it. I was tired. I really wanted to do this role because this character was sort of like Bruce Wayne without the Batman side. So I basically took everything I could carry. I took a lot of books -- everything that I needed.

Now with Sisters, you're getting American wages, so even if you never act again, you'll be getting residuals.

Um, yeah. (Whispers) You want to know how much I'm making, right? (Laughs)

I'd never ask. But this money must be a big change in your life.

Yeah, you definitely cannot compare American wages with British wages -- at least not for television -- although things are changing for me now. With Leon out, I've just done a three-hour murder mystery for British TV. It was sort of comparable, because my profile's raised. So things have changed. It is very different, and obviously there are residuals from Sisters, which is very nice. But I certainly don't do it for the money.

In Sisters, who do you play against most?

Most of the time -- well, certainly for the first half a dozen episodes -- I really had no contact with anybody apart from Sela Ward. She's just done The Fugitive with Harrison Ford. Then I was kind of introduced to the rest of the family. But only really with the other sisters, because the character is this recluse who almost never goes out of his apartment. He works and lives there. He functions completely in isolation, apart from some servants. It's quite intriguing.

Do you hang around with Sela?

Yeah, I socialize a little bit with the girls. We go out to dinner occasionally.

Swoozie Kurtz is known to be crazy and wild.

Swoozie is very funny. She's great fun to be with, and a real professional. She never ceases to amaze me. Every week at the read-through, she can deliver a world-class performance.

Are you lonely in L.A.? Did you have to break up a relationship to come to America?

No, I managed to keep a serious long-distance relationship going. I use New York as a sort of meeting point, and we actually meet in a hotel in New York. We don't speak sometimes for days, and we make arrangements to meet in this hotel. We don't speak until we meet in the bar at this hotel. I do that in London, as well, which makes it real exciting. Sometimes I can't come. . .even if I've got a week off, it's just too impractical to go all the way back to London. I say, "You come half-way, and I'll go half-way." And so we meet here. I was doing that a lot last year, which is exciting.

Have you pursued any of Los Angeles' crazy night life, or are you too tired after a day's shooting?

I'll be honest with you. I'm not big on night life. I tent to go to bed incredibly late. . .but I'm normally doing things by myself. Cooking at home. I really enjoy going out to eat a lot. I really enjoy good food and good restaurants, but I have experienced sort of the dangerous side of L.A. It's not my cup of tea, to be honest with you.

So what will the future of England be? Will Prime Minister Major last much longer?

I don't know. I'm not really a great fan of Major. I'm into people with charisma, dynamic people. He's very gray. I don't know. England's in a bit of a state, but then there are not many countries that aren't.

Well, maybe Britain will emulate your career, and be on an upswing.

Thanks very much.

THE NEWS TIMES

In the following article, Mark Frankel discusses "Kindred: the Embraced."

Television News - 7 May 1996

A bit about the clans then ...

Actually, they have filmed eight episodes, but one is in limbo - it could appear some time this summer or it may disappear entirely. So, for the moment, the last of the original "Kindred" episodes, titled "Cabin in the Woods" will be coming up Wednesday. And Mark Frankel, who plays Julian Luna, the series' head vampire (insiders call them 'Kindred', hence the title) thinks it might be the best show of the current lot. "It's spooky, but very sexually charged," he says.

The same might be said for the other outings in this saga of contemporary vampires who activities range from street gangs to board rooms. And in the process, the whole affair has been establishing Julian as a character to be loved and feared.

The British-born Frankel expresses some amusement about that, also a touch of worry. "The first film I did in England was 'Leon the Pig Farmer'," he recalls. "It was a successful film and suddenly I'm a comic actor." He certainly was in the movie "Solitaire for 2." And he definitely is in "Roseanna's Grave," a feature he has been doing during breaks in the 'Kindred' schedule. But now, he observes, "I'll probably be playing vampires for ever more."

Of course, playing one like Julian wouldn't be the worst job in the world. "The great thing about the character is that he doesn't get out of a coffin at midnight," says Frankel. "If he had, I probably wouldn't be doing this. But this is a fascinating role. Here is someone who has been locked into the prism of his life for 200 years. He had six lifetimes, he's spanned the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, gone through two world wars and broken relationships. Consequently, here's a man with an amazing understanding of human psychology. He's a man of great authority and he has a knowledge and depth a young person would never have because he has seen so much. That gives him so many different perspectives. In fact, I'm sure that if I had been living for 200 years I'd be having a much different conversation with you."

The general idea, Frankel notes, is to hav e Julian and his colleagues create a murky mood that can get downright scary at times. But he says the true fright - for him anyway - is not the series. It's the audition tha t led to it. " I met with Fox and with (exec utive producer) Aaron Spelling. All actors are paranoi d, but it 's terrif ying when yo u go to a network for these things," Frankel says. "Especially with Fox. You go into a room with 35 people sitting there and staring at you. It's a real daunting experience. I kept thinking 'I could end my career right here and now.' But then Aaron said to me, 'Are you nervous? I don't want you to be. We're really excited about meeting you.'"

That calmed him down. Now, however, there is another problem - jet lag as he contemplates a travel schedule that, within four days, is sending him from L.A. to his home in London, to Rome to complete 'Roseanna's Grave.' back to London and then to New York.

THE TORONTO STAR
November 27, 1992

ENTERTAINMENT

Mysterious New Star Thrills TV's Sisters
Eirik Knutzen

LOS ANGELES - Flush with disposable cash earned for the title role in the forthcoming Leon The Pig Farmer, his feature film debut, London-based actor Mark Frankel bought a round-trip air ticket last June to Los Angeles.

Mixing business with pleasure, he stayed with friends while making the rounds of Hollywood casting offices. The producers and casting directors at the dramatic NBC-TV series Sisters liked what they saw - a dangerously dark and rugged young man custom-designed to induce female meltdowns - but seemed to have no idea of how to employ Frankel's unique talents by the time he headed home.

"Suddenly someone got the idea for a character named Simon Bolt," he says, shaking his head," and two days after getting back to London they called with an offer to do 12 episodes."

Three weeks and yet another trans-Atlantic flight later, Frankel found himself on a soundstage at Warner Bros. In Burbank portraying Simon Bolt as a Gatsbyesque, reclusive billionaire with hot ideas for Chicago fashion designer Teddy Reed (Sela Ward). By investing $10 million and retaining 90 per cent ownership in the fiery Teddy's business, the mysterious tycoon also hopes to wind up with close to 100 per cent of the beautiful brunette's heart.

"There is a very dark side to Bolt, but I understand him perfectly," says Frankel, 28, a husky man who packs heavy muscles on his six-foot frame. "His actions stem in part from a very modest background, where his father barely made ends meet as a second-rate magician playing in pubs and church basements. Simon's younger brother died through a combination of poverty and neglect at the age of 10. He was powerless to do anything about his little brother dying; now he is over-compensating in everything he touches."

Frankel comprehends his character's motivations perhaps too well, having lost his one and only brother, Joe, in an airplane accident only two years ago. "We couldn't have been closer. I worshipped him," he says quietly. "Three years old er than me, he was an extraordinary man of integrity and courage. And he was a career officer in the British army and leading Scorpion tank division based in Germany before he resigned to join my father's plastics business. Like my father, a Spitfire flight instructor at the tail end of World War II, Joe was flying-crazy and one of Europe's top acrobatic pilots."

Tragedy struck in crystal clear blue skies on the edge of London when Joe Frankel's open-cockpit Tiger Moth biplane climbed toward the sun and collided with a small Cessna carrying three people. " A pair of wings were sheared off one side of Joe's plane, but he managed to fly it into an open field, then crashed, more than a mile away," Frankel says. "The other plane went straight down into a playing field full of school children. Luckily, no one on the ground was hurt."

In a matter of seconds, Frankel had lost his hero, protector, mentor, best friend and best man.

"I was devastated and felt completely alone for about six months after the accident, unable to function," he recalls. "I came back slowly, painfully. Today, a lot of the things I do are for Joe. Whenever I feel weak or times are tough, I just think of him. And in a strange sort of way, losing him has made me fearless. Nothing frightens me because I view my life as a wait - 10 years, 50 years, whatever - until I see my brother again. I don't know why."

A rebellious South London youth with a penchant for motorcycles and hanging out with unsavory friends all night, Frankel's concerned middle-class parents packed him off to a series of boarding schools in the hope of teaching him some discipline. It didn't work. Disinterested in academics, he dropped out at 16 and spent the next four years all over the world on a low-grade men's pro tennis circuit. Tired of the road, he turned his attention to acting ("my one bright spot in school") and promptly earned a three-year scholarship to London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. A week after graduation in 1989, he made his professional debut in a local stage production of Days of Cavafy. Six months later, he made his screen debut in the title role of Michelangelo: A Season of Giants, a four-hour TNT miniseries.

Between London stage performances, Frankel also starred in eight independent short films, a Maigret episode for Granada Television and Young Catherine, a TNT telemovie shot entirely on location in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Finally somewhat financially secure, he married his long-time girlfriend, French advertising account executive Caroline Besson last year.

"Caroline lives in London and I'm in Beverly Hills, so we meet in New York at every opportunity," he says, smiling. "A couple of weeks ago, I was recognized as Simon Bolt in Sisters for the first time in a coffee house on 5th Ave. A woman leaned over and said, 'Why are you so mean?' Another yelled, 'You're a real bastard!' I knew I had arrived."

SUNDAY TIMES
January 22, 1995

MARK FRANKEL
Richard Johnson

Perfection has one grave defect - it is bound to be dull. For that reason, the actor Mark Frankel, star of the 1993 comedy film Leon The Pig Farmer, always makes it his business to point out his two facial scars and his broken nose. "And have you noticed my eyes? One's black and one's brown. Prettiness counts against you if you want to be taken seriously," he says. Frankel has enjoyed a rapid rise to success after he was discovered by a casting director who saw him performing for friends above a London pub. "One minute I was cycling to the theatre and playing to 40 people; the next I was flying to Italy to film the mini-series Michelangelo," he recalls. "It was all stretch-limos and envelopes filled with money. Drama school equips you to work above the Finborough Arms, not for all that." But he seems to be adjusting well. This month he stars in the ITV trilogy Rik Mayall Presents, and co-stars with Amanda pays in the new Solitaire For Two. He is already famous enough to demand his own make-up artist. "Sometimes I like to be shiny," he explains. "I know everyone wants to powder you down and make you look matte, but I want to look like a real person. I might actually be sweating a bit. I don't want to have to say to someone: 'Get your hands off me.' My make-up artist understands that. It's the plus side to fame."