An Exclusive Interview with James Denton
It’s a guilty pleasure, to be sure, but “Desperate Housewives” has been must-see-TV since its 2004 debut. And as the handsome, handy, just-this-side-of-bad Mike Delfino, James Denton is a big part of that. Though the Nashville-born Denton (Jamie to his friends) is now a Hollywood star, he paid his dues in Chicago at local theaters—and at Harry Caray’s restaurant, where he got his start waiting tables and is now an investor. We recently chatted with the 47-year-old actor about his fondness for Chicago, his status as one of People magazine’s “Sexiest Men Alive,” and why he refuses to choose between the Cubs and White Sox.
On Acting, Chicago, and Baseball
What led you to Chicago? I started doing community theater in Nashville. I was almost 30 and single, and I finally thought, “I don’t want to wake up when I’m 60 and wonder if I could have done this.” It was only my life to screw up, so sort of on a whim, I quit my job (I was selling advertising), and thought, “It’s now or never.”
Why Chicago instead of L.A.? The big decision for me was to go to Chicago over New York or L.A. If you’re willing to work for cheap or free, you’re going to get on the stage in Chicago. There are so many theater companies at every level and experimental stuff for every level of talent, so you can learn how to do it. I did 16 plays in five years. I stayed on stage that whole time and had different directors, so I learned from different people. I’ve never had an acting class, so that was my only education.
Did you have to root for the Cubs because you worked at Harry Caray’s? I came from Nashville, where we had no baseball team, so I was loving having two teams, but then they forced you to choose. Most of the actors were North Side fans … so I became a White Sox fan sort of out of spite, and it was a time when they were really doing great. … So I started out a White Sox fan, and I really pull for them hard, but now that I’m out of Chicago, I pull for both the Sox and the Cubs. … It’s a luxury to have two teams. I can’t really pull against either team; it’s really self-defeating.
Did you ever get a chance to meet Harry? I waited on Harry, and just as advertised, he’s really fun to be around. He was one of those special guys … and everybody got excited when he came in. He’d usually come in for lunch during day games; he always sat at the same table and had the same servers, but once I got to wait on him. And Dutchie [Caray’s wife] is one of my favorite people in the world. She’s fantastic and very supportive of everything we do at the restaurants.
On Fame, Philanthropy, and Life in the Spotlight
How does it feel to be voted one of People magazine’s sexiest men alive? It’s a weird thing. There are so many, so it’s not a select list. But it’s funny watching the progression of it. I was in it four years running [2004-’08], and the first season of “Desperate Housewives,” I got a two-page spread of me coming through saloon doors. In the second season, I had a full page. The third season was “Sexy at any age,” and I was the guy who was 43. In the fourth season, it was “Sexiest Handyman on TV.” It was all just fodder for my family.
How did you get hooked up with your charity group, The Band From TV? Greg Grunberg (“Heroes”) was asked to put together a celebrity band for the Guitar Center Music Foundation. He wanted to put together a gimmicky group of celebrities who were musicians. He had just done an episode of “House,” so he asked Hugh Laurie; he had done a reading for me for a fund-raiser, so he asked me. It was a blast, and he got a ton of phone calls from it. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, and now we can’t field even one-third of the requests that we get, and we play at least once a month.
And it’s all for charity? We’ve raised over $2 million for a variety of charities. … I’ve recently been focused on the Conservation Fund; they basically buy land and protect it from development.
Any other thoughts on Chicago? It’s one of my favorite, if not my very favorite, cities in the world. It’s Chicago that I owe my whole career to. … The people were so great that I fell in love with the city and stayed. … Even though I lived there for seven years and have lived in L.A. for eleven, Chicago still feels like home.
