John Corbett Talks Life in the United States of Tara a Decade After Sex and the City

Did you do any research on dissociative identity disorder after you were cast?

I always hate when I hear actors talking about what they do to get ready for a role so I just never talk about that. Some of them just go on and on and on, "Here's how ready I got!" It's just so behind-the-scenes boring. One thing I hate -- I f*cking hate -- is when cameras come and shoot us making our show. When we used to do Northern Exposure twenty years ago, I remember we had this great little town that no one knew about it. Next thing you know, CBS is bringing buses and buses of people to stand on the side and now we've got 500 fans watching us shoot every day. I said from day one, "Don't tell anybody where we shoot this show. Don't bring Entertainment Tonight here to show them around." I always hated that but I guess that's part of the gig. They're just all little magic tricks to me. When you go see David Copperfield in Las Vegas, you don't really really want him to turn all the lights on to show you how the tricks are done. Then you're stuck saying, "Aw man, I kind of thought that was how they do it but I didn't really want to know that's how they do it."

I respect that. Let's switch gears then and talk a little about you and one of your Sex and the City co-stars. Do you think it's coincidental at all that you and Chris Noth both have been cast in successful series again -- Chris, as the philandering partner who can't help but cheat on his wife even though he still loves her in The Good Wife while you've been cast again as the supportive, loyal partner in Tara? Is this a case of typecasting?

You just said it all. The camera doesn't lie. Everyone knows that Chris is just a dirty bastard and I am a good guy. [Laughs] No, Chris has become one of my best friends in the world. I mean, I can't believe that show was ten years ago. For some reason we just really hit it off and Chris has the wife and kid now -- well, I don't know if they are technically married -- but he is a father now and out in L.A. so I get to see him more. We go out and have a couple whiskeys now and talk on the phone. He really has become one of my best buddies. But it's all about -- Chris really is a suit-wearing, haircut-getting-every-month kind of guy. He lives in a great New York City apartment and I live on a ranch in Central California and I'm kind of that laid back, blue jean shirt-wearing dude. He has that city energy in him. We couldn't switch roles, I don't think. I couldn't have been Mr. Big and he wouldn't have been that good cast as Aidan. We just fall into those roles I think.

After playing the loyal boyfriend for so long though, don't you ever just crave an asshole character?

[Perks up] Well, I get to do that too. I was in a movie last year with Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker called Street Kings where I got to be a bad cop. And I did this movie called The Messenger with Kristen Stewart a few years ago where I played the killer and tried to murder her whole family. So I get to do that every once in awhile. I have this movie coming up now, called Ramona and Beezus where again, I'm the dad, based on those little kids' books. Did you ever read the Ramona books?

Of course.

Yeah, so in this line of work especially, you've got to go where the work is. When the phone rings and they want you to do that, you gotta do it. Chris is a really funny guy too by the way. He is one of the few people on the planet that makes me laugh as much as him and listen, he's got the same issue. I get in these romantic comedies and I do more of those than Chris does and he'd be really good in them too. But because of whatever reason, maybe because he's funny, he just isn't put in them.

How will you feel if thirty years from now, you're still being recognized on the street as Aidan?

[Laughs] People are so nice to me. There are a lot of worse things in the world than being recognized for being on a TV show that people liked.

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