“My kids watch Beverly Hills to make fun of me”

It is elegance itself. His shirt, which shows off his biceps, matches his ice blue eyes and he starts the conversation with a “ Nice To Meet You “, in French please ! Special guest of Monte Carlo Television Festivalof which he was the president of the jury in 2016, Jason Priestley, in her early fifties, knows how to put everyone at ease. When he bursts out laughing it’s like he’s summoning Brandon Walsh, his whole face then takes us back to the good old days of the show beverly hills , the soap opera phenomenon that revealed him to the whole world. He is now an actor, director and producer. Interview.

TV MAGAZINE. – Does it annoy you that people do and will always refer to Brandon Walsh about you?
Jason PRIESTLEY. – Absolutely not, it’s a huge part of my career and the show was an international phenomenon that made TV history. Few people can boast of having had such an experience. It was a ” game changer for me and for the television industry.

Do you happen to look beverly hills?
My children watch episodes from time to time, we watch them together because I feel that they especially want to make fun of me or the series! Anyway, it’s very dated as a series for young people, isn’t it?

With which actors of beverly hillsdid you stay the closest?
Brian Austin Green (David Silver) and Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders). These are my friends.

Why do you think some actors in beverly hillsstruggled to bounce back after the streak ended?
I can only speak for myself, but that’s a very good question. As far as I am concerned, after the end of beverly hills, I immediately said to myself that I shouldn’t rest on my laurels, that I should take pleasure in my notoriety. I always tried to have other roles, especially those that would take me out of my comfort zone to continue to grow as an actor.

“The concept of the reboot of beverly hills was very difficult to bring, it was risky. We knew it would be complicated (…) At least we tried! »

Jason Priestley

You once said that Richard Fitzpatrick, the anti-hero of your series Call me Fitz(2010-2013, available on MyCanal), was the favorite character of your career, why?
Richard was such a fun character to play, he had no limits socially and I could play anything thanks to him. And the whole team of authors challenged themselves to make it go even further in its behavior. The whole experience filming on this series was amazing, the whole team was awesome and we were filming in the middle of nowhere in Nova Scotia Canada in a small town. It felt like I was in a three-month summer theater internship where we were just acting and being creative.

Read alsoBeverly Hills: BH90210 : what did they do after the cancellation of the series?

How did you experience the fact that the reboot of beverly hills(available on myTF1) has not had a second season, it’s a shame…
Oh did you like it? You are one of the few to have appreciated it, thank you! (laughter) Beverly Hills: BH90210 was absolutely “meta” (the actors played a real-fake version of themselves filming a remake of beverly hillsway mise en abyme, Ed) but, in fact, the concept was very difficult to bring about, it was risky. We knew it would be complicated. We had spent a lot of time to write the pilot episode together and I have the feeling that when we went into production, nobody had an exact vision of the rest of the episodes, of what we were going towards. The channel thought ” the series, that’s the idea! “, the studios had another idea, the actors too and the authors too! There were suddenly too many versions of the series on the table. It’s a shame because it was absolutely interesting. At least we tried. It was fun. Some fans understood what we were doing and liked it, and some just wanted a classic old school reboot with the Peach Pit, etc.

Do you think there will be another attempt to reboot beverly hillswith all the original cast?
We, I don’t think so! (laughter)