Scott Bakula makes decency interesting by showing how readily it can leave a man exposed. We value his patient, watchful acting most when a director gives him something to be wary of.
Fi1m perspective
In The Informant (2009), Scott Bakula’s FBI man Brian Shepard listens to a whistleblower and takes him seriously. He has no knowing wink to reassure us that he is ahead of the story. We felt protective of Shepard because Bakula makes his willingness to believe another person seem so unguarded. He is good at making decency interesting without turning the decent man into a fool.
Quantum Leap (1989–1993) made that empathy central to a television lead while asking him to play different characters from week to week. Dr Sam Beckett was his breakthrough; Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005) followed. By NCIS: New Orleans (2014–2021), the dependable leading man was an established part of his work. The supporting film roles give him opportunities to make that reassuring presence less comfortable, without abandoning the patience that makes it convincing.
Steven Soderbergh finds a particularly useful job for him in Behind the Candelabra (2013). As Bob Black, the friend who makes the introduction, Bakula seems familiar enough with the company to be wary. Michael Douglas’s Liberace can be soft and controlling, and Matt Damon’s character can let himself be remade; Bakula supplies a more cautious response to the same company. The part is small, and Soderbergh is right not to insist on more of it. Bakula helps us read the other people in a scene without drawing attention away from them.
The two Soderbergh films do not reward that quietness equally. The Informant is clever and brisk, but Hamlisch’s xylophone persists when Bakula’s performance needs the comedy to ease off. Behind the Candelabra gives his caution enough space, even if its second half takes a familiar route. His supporting appearance as Jim Olmeyer in Sam Mendes’s American Beauty (1999) belongs to another film we recommend for its performances. Its observations about middle-class life are rather less fresh.
We would not ask Bakula to be less reassuring merely for the sake of a surprise. The useful challenge is to give that reassurance something to contend with, rather than leave him confirming that a sensible man has entered the scene. Start with Behind the Candelabra, where a small part is enough to show how much he notices.
Biography
Scott Stewart Bakula is an American actor. Born on 9 October 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri, he studied law at the University of Kansas before leaving to pursue acting. His early professional work included stage roles, beginning with a 1976 production of Shenandoah.
Bakula is known for his lead performance as Sam Beckett in the television series Quantum Leap (1989–1993), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He later played Captain Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–2005).
His film credits include Brian Shepard in The Informant! (2009) and Bob Black in Behind the Candelabra (2013). He has also appeared in guest roles on series such as NCIS and Desperate Housewives.
