Mastering Moses

By Bridget Byrne, AP --
Billy Campbell as Moses?

Even Campbell doesn't see himself playing the tough, bearded biblical figure.

"Let's face it, I don't think I'm good casting for Moses," says Campbell. "Frankly, if I didn't have a hit show on TV, nobody would have called me."

Campbell stars as Moses in the four-hour mini-series, In the Beginning, which airs 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday and Monday on CITY-TV and NBC.

Charlton Heston he isn't, and Campbell, who plays the handsome, considerate, romantic Rick Sammler on Once and Again, agrees it's an odd choice.

He is seated in a bowling alley in suburban Woodland Hills, the location for a scene for his TV series, now in its second season. He's keeping his voice low, not necessarily because of what he's saying but because of the filming that's going on behind him.

In the Beginning uses a huge cast and special effects to bring familiar Bible stories to life. The stars include Martin Landau, Jacqueline Bisset, Alan Bates, Diana Rigg and Christopher Lee.

Although he felt ill-suited to play Moses, Campbell says he took the role for (a) the interesting challenge, (b) the paycheque and (c) because it gave him a chance to visit Morocco, where much of the filming took place.

Campbell didn't think about Heston, who portrayed Moses in the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments.

"If I had ever thought about it, I would never have got anything done," he says.

Campbell makes his appearance as Moses in Monday's segment. He's clean-shaven for just a few scenes. His beard grows longer, wilder and more gray as Moses ages.

"They load your face up with all this sticky, horrible, nasty-smelling stuff, and then they plant this enormous bush on your face and it's there for 12 to 14 hours. It's enough to drive you insane," he says.

Eight years ago, Campbell wore a false mustache for a role in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

"I swore to myself I would never do another thing where I had to glue hair to my face. But I had sort of forgotten that by the time this thing came around," he says.

Kevin Connor, the mini-series' British director, describes Campbell as "a peaceful, calm man to deal with, happy to sit under a palm tree and read a book until we needed him."

He says the actor's six-foot-four-inch stature was a plus for the depiction of the commanding Moses.

Campbell didn't approach the role from any religious perspective.

"What's that game they used to play in high school, when they line up the whole class and give the first person a sentence to whisper to the next person? Telephone. That's what the Bible is, a big old game of Telephone," he says.

Campbell, 41, grew up in Charlottesville, Va. Although both his parents married and divorced several times, he doesn't believe he has any special insight for his role on Once and Again, which explores the dilemmas of modern-day divorce.

He is amused, and a little puzzled, by some of the things written about him on Web sites.

Is he a die-hard bachelor? "I don't know about that!"

Heir to the Champion spark plug fortune? "Technically true, but it sounds a lot better than it was. It means that when I was 18, I got a lump of money which was less that I get per episode now. It was gone in two minutes. Yet I suppose, once an heir, always an heir."

Campbell briefly studied commercial art in Chicago before turning to acting. Initially he was credited more formally as William or Bill, but "finally realized I'm too old to be taking myself seriously. So I changed it to what it's always been and what everyone has always called me -- Billy."

His films include The Rocketeer and Gettysburg.

In his spare time, he plays the rough-and-tumble game of rugby.

He's a huge fan of Patrick O'Brian's celebrated seafaring novels and would love a role in a film version. "If they needed a one-armed pirate, I would cut off a limb."

Meanwhile, he's occupied with ABC's Once and Again, written by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, creators of thirtysomething. Campbell stars as a divorced dad in love with a divorced mom, played by Sela Ward.

"It's about small moments, the moments between people, not so much about things going on in the world. It's kind of interior," says Campbell, who describes the writing as "poignant."__The London Free Press Online (November 9, 2000)