Nice Guy Eddie - Actor Eddie Cahill

by Tony Quinn

As an actor he has been doing pretty well for himself lately with a run on the hit show Friends and his own new series opening in January. It's not all about cameras and lights though, we just might see him on the ice at Madison Square Garden.

When I call to ask him a few bits and pieces he was taking a long leisurely walk around Vancouver, not by choice mind you, his car had been towed! Trouble for most on any day, but this was Thanksgiving weekend and Eddie had plans to get out of town, off to the islands. He was suitably unimpressed, but still laughing as he went off to find his absent automobile. Not a good time to talk. So as Eddie trudged all over the Northwest, arrangements were made to speak at a later date.

The next telephone conversation took place as he was sitting in his trailer on the set. Here we go, I was thinking, I'll have to call another time, and the way things were with the deadline to his art. "You know I have to have my feet dusted in powder before I can act" he laughed. "I think Robert De Niro has the same thing."

As I start to go over his background he stops me saying, "This is a test of friendship, you are supposed to remember all this from Rocky's," mentioning a pub in midtown Manhattan where he had hung out some years before, and I had tended bar. "You mean to tell me you weren't listening!" More laughter as I admit that if it's a test then I've scored a D, and I try to continue with the questions.

He was chosen for E! Online's "Sizzling Sixteen" list as one of the brightest up and coming stars of 2000, and it doesn't seem to have changed the young man who 18 months ago was unheard of, in fact he hasn't changed at all.

According to E! Online at a breakfast meeting for E! where Eddie was to be interviewed by people from the network, he showed up in exactly $4 worth of clothes: A camouflage hunting cap he found; faded jean jacket, T-shirt and barely broken in Levi's that were gifts; afid dusty cowboy boots that cost him four dollars at a flea market in New York. And before the Christmas party for the cast and crew of Felicity, he borrowed some shoes from David Schwimmer's wardrobe on the Friends set!

Now, things are very diferent, he's putting the finishing touches to 12 episodes of a new series slated to premier on Wednesday January 9th at 9p.m. on WB11. With a working title of 'Glory Days' the show is a comedy/drama produced by Kevin Williamson who has written and produced among others the Scream series of movies and DauronS Creele.

In the show Eddie plays Mike Dolan a burnt out author of a tell-all book about his hometown, Glory. The novel, Glory Days, was a runaway bestseller and a blockbuster movie. Mike settled quickly into a life of notoriety and small fortune in NYC. The unintentionally autobiographical book retold the details of his father's accidental death with a dramatic spin. Now, six years later, without having written a single word of the highly anticipated sequel, the 27-year-old author reluctantly returns to his home for inspiration only to find that the town locals aren't too happy with his last book. The people of Lake Glory--whose personal lives and dirty laundry were the fodder for Mike's book--welcome him back with all the warmth and enthusiasm of a lynch mob. His first instinct is to flee. Instead, Mike makes the difficult choice to stay put and mend fences, and in the process learns that while you can go home again, there's no guarantee it will be easy. "A breeding ground for eerie events, bizarre happenings and peculiar inhabitants. The cast including Frances Fisher (Titanic), Jay Ferguson (The In Crowd) and Theresa Russell (The Believer and Blade Widow) among others, combine to create a mysterious hamlet, where truth is often stranger than fiction, and sometimes even deadly." He tells me, "the cast and crew are a great bunch, we spend a lot of time together and laugh a lot which always helps." Recent reports claim the plot is currently being tweaked, with Eddie's character running the local newspaper instead of becoming a high school teacher, and more teenage characters are to be introduced.

A New York native who has switched between Westchester County, Yonkers and Manhattan over the years, he has been living in car towing Vancouver since early 2001, staying close to the set of Glory Days and travelling to Los Angeles on weekends to carry out promotional work for the series.

In the event the acting doesn't pan out as planned, I suggest maybe he will go back to acting school, but it seems he has a new passion, Ice Hockey, a sport he has taken up in a big way since moving to Vancouver. "I love it" he exclaims. You any good! I ask him. "Yeah not bad." adding, "Tell the Rangers if they need a slightly cute, slightly fit player I'll sign, and we'll probably win the Stanley Cup that year." He is still laughing as we talk, and at this stage I'm not sure if it is me or the fact that he is having those feet powdered. "I'll be playing professional Ice Hockey in six months, even if it means bringing on the water bottles."

The only son of an Italian Mother and Irish Father, Eddie was the second child, the middle child, with a sister older and one younger. Having treaded the boards for the first time in high school productions, Eddie went on to acting school at The Atlantic Theater School, in Manhattan. His break came at the Summer Theater Festival a; Vasser College. He went on to appear in a number of stage shows in New York and was spotted by Sarah Jessica Parker landing a role in Sex in the City as the boyfriend of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker).

In July 2000 he got his hands on $300 and booked a flight to Los Angeles to check out the scene. After spending a little time there he decided it was time to go back to New York. It was the last day of what had seemed a fruitless trip and, more importantly, a waste of money. He was packed and ready to travel when he got the call that he had scored a part on Friends. "After the first day's filming on the set of Friends I had $19.50 in my bank account." He tells me. "No wait! I had two bank accounts with $19.50 in each so I had $39." More laughter from a trailer somewhere near Vancouver.

On Friends he played the part of Tag Jones, the office assistant and boyfriend of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). After play ing the role on Friends he began to pick up other guest appearances fairly quickly. He played the character called Sean in an episode of Charmed. On Felicity he played a recurring role as James, the boyfriend of Molly, a drug dealer and all round Mr. bad guy, and Eddie has also appeared on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

It took Eddie only one meeting with executives from Warner Brothers to land a deal for his own sitcom on the WB11 network. Now, there's talk of a return to Friends, (Rachael is pregnant and Tag is among those who may be the father) the possibility of a reprise for his Felicity drug dealer characterJames, and rumors of movie roles in the near future.

He's in rarified company on that 2000 E! Online 'Sizzling Sixteen' list. Others who join him include; Dublin born Colin Farrell, 24, who shot to fame in Tigerland, and now has the lead in Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth and has also begun shooting the WWII drama Hart's War in Prague, playing the lead character opposite Bruce Willis. Elijah Wood who joined Christina Ricci, Kevin Kline and Joan Alien in Ang Lee's The Ice Storm, and stars in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fellowship of the Ring, the first film in the long-awaited adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, due in theaters in December. Wood plays the lead role as Frodo Baggins in all three installments.

Good company indeed as previous members of this E! list have included Mart Damon, Ben Affleck and Kate Hudson.

As we finish talking he tells me he prefers New York to LA and is looking forward to getting home for Christmas, "I'll stop in for a pint at some stage, to try and see a game." The 'game' on this occasion not being Ice Hockey but rather soccer and his favorite team Glasgow Celtic Football Club. He asks about the final score from the game the day before, the Old Firm derby between Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers, a pairing regarded by many as the bitterest rivalry in the sport, and a game he wouldn't have missed in New York. Pleased to hear Celtic had won he explains. "I tried to get to the game in Vancouver, I asked some supporters walking along the street, where I could watch it, they gave me the name of a place but it was shown at 4 a.m out here, I mean that's way too early." He continues talking and I can't help feeling a small measure of relief. It could have been a couple of years ago. He is talking away as if he's sitting on a high stool with a cold bottle of beer in his hand, chatting of acting, auditions and sport.

Eddie Cahill thankfully remains the same person who left New York to make it on the west coast a year and a half ago. No different. Friendly, good natured and totally down to earth. Come Christmas he'll be home in familiar surroundings, hanging out with the friends he left behind, having the craic and being himself.

He is still laughing as we say goodbye, still in the trailer getting ready to go back to work on the set, and very much still Eddie Cahill.

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