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 David Chokachi
currently co-stars on ‘Witchblade,’ an original series on TNT which premiered
on Tuesday, June 12th, 2001.
As we all know (thanks to the recent UPBEAT review), ‘Witchblade’ is based on the best-selling Top Cow comic book of the same name; the
highly-rated, two-hour pilot first aired last August on TNT (and was recently shown again on the WB). ‘Witchblade’ is the story of a New York detective, Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler), whose search for justice brings her into contact with an ancient weapon so powerful it can battle Earth’s darkest forces. Chokachi portrays Pezzini’s partner, Jack McCartey, a
surfer turned police officer who transferred from the police department in a small California town to the N.Y.P.D. (Jake doesn’t know about the powers Sara possesses in the Witchblade bracelet that she wears.) Prior to ‘Witchblade,’ Chokachi was best known for his role as lifeguard Cody Madison on ‘Baywatch.’ His other credits include the television films ‘A Crime of Passion’ and ‘Bad to the Bone,’ as well as guest spots on prime-time series including ‘V.I.P.,’ ‘Suddenly Susan’ and ‘Sabrina, The Teen-age Witch.’ On the big screen, Chokachi appeared in ‘12 Bucks’ and ‘Psycho Beach Party.’ Chokachi, who is single, originally hails from Plymouth,
Massachusetts.
UPBEAT Is it fair to say that on ‘Witchblade,’ things are not what they appear to be, including your character, Jake?
David Chokachi “Absolutely. That’s the best way to describe it; that’s even quoted in our show: ‘Things are not as what they appear’ over and over. The neat thing about this series compared to even the pilot is everybody’s character seems to be turned up a notch as far as what they’ve got going on in their lives at that moment. The stakes for everyone in the series seems to be a little higher. There’s not
one moment where someone is sitting back and getting a chance to smell the roses because
there are so many turns and twists.”
UPBEAT How is it having an acting job where, unlike ‘Baywatch,’ you don’t have to run around half naked all day?
David Chokachi “It’s refreshing. Although I have to take my shirt off; I’m doing a shower scene in an upcoming episode. But it’s good ‘cause you can go home and eat a burrito and not not sweat that you’ve got to take your shirt off and suck your gut in the next day and try to say your lines. But [staying in shape] is a way of life for me, anyway, so I probably work out the same amount as I did when I was on ‘Baywatch.’ It’s great for your mind and body, obviously, and it allows you to drink beer and eat Mexican food at night.”
UPBEAT Do you do your own stunts on ‘Witchblade?’
David Chokachi “I get to do a lot. The only thing I didn’t get to do is the driving. But they’re pretty great about it. There’s been a lot of fighting and gun fire, and I get to do all that stuff which is great. That’s where I get my kicks out of this business.”
UPBEAT There’s a lot of downtime on a television set while the lights are being adjusted, etc. What do you do to kill time?
David Chokachi “I bring my guitar to the trailer to play that; I’m kind of an intermediate guitar player. But we’re all pretty tight in the cast, so whoever is hanging out, whoever is working that day, we’ll shoot the
sh%t in one of our trailers and pass the time.”
UPBEAT What kind of research did you
conduct, if any, to prepare yourself for playing a police officer?
David Chokachi “Even before I did the pilot, I work out with this guy who teaches Israeli street fighting. He also teaches hand to hand combat, how to take away guns. They teach SWAT teams how to clear a room if there’s someone in there with a potential weapon. To portray a detective, these guys, in reality, they live a very severe,
very stressful life. I’ve read a lot up on these guys, and it’s a
really tough life. You don’t want to be onscreen portraying a guy who’s out there risking his life everyday, and walk in with a gun in a non-believable way because I think these guys would just be pissed off and shut the TV off— if they ever watch. I have a huge amount of respect for these guys. That’s a
pretty tough gig, putting your life on the line every day. It’s got to work on you, the stress.”
UPBEAT Do you want Jake and Sarah to become lovers, or do you prefer that they just remain friends and colleagues?
David Chokachi “I think it would be fun to have us both make a mistake and hook up one night and then have to deal with it. But I don’t think we could ever be full-blown [lovers]. There’s more fun in the relationship that we have now. I get jealous; she has a boyfriend for a few episodes.”
UPBEAT Does Jake have a steady girlfriend?
David Chokachi “No, they didn’t do it to me; I was very disappointed. I was, like, ‘You guys have got to give me a steady chick on this show.’ So maybe if we come back for some more episodes [they will].”
UPBEAT Maybe they’ll give you a guest star girlfriend every week.
David Chokachi “That’s fine with me. That’s how my character was on the last year of ‘Baywatch.’ Every week I’d have a new girlfriend, and she’d get in her car at the end of the show and drive off.”
UPBEAT Did you keep any mementos from ‘Baywatch?’
David Chokachi “Yeah, I’ve got a can (flotation device) and a couple of ‘Baywatch’ jackets and shirts.
 UPBEAT You can go on E-Bay and sell some of this stuff.
David Chokachi “I know, I could probably make some dough,
huh (laughs)?”
UPBEAT What are your immediate plans, if any?
David Chokachi “I’m actually going to Alaska with my brother and my dad and seven other friends. We’re going fly fishing. My dad’s super passionate about fly fishing, so he got us into it as little boys. I’ve been going there for like five years. It’s so beautiful. Once ‘Witchblade’ wraps up [for the season] I’ll be going back to L.A. and going to the beach a lot, and surfing and playing volleyball and doing my deal.”
UPBEAT When you visit your folks, does your mom hand you a rake and tell you to go out and do the front lawn, i.e, the actor stuff affords you no privileges on the home front?
David Chokachi “Are you kidding? That’s a given. Anytime I go home that’s a full-blown project. We were little slaves as kids. All our buddies would be out screwing around and we’d go for an hour because our dad would be, like, ‘You better get back here; we’ve got lots of work, boys.’ “
UB
For close to 20 years, Irene Keene has been writing about television and
film, as well as beauty and lifestyles, for a variety of publications,
including 'Soap Opera Weekly' (where Keene spent 10 years as the
magazine's senior editor), 'Soap Opera Stars', 'Bride's', 'Spotlight',
'Single Living', and 'Country Almanac'. Keene is also the author of
'Love and Dishes: The Soap Opera Cookbook'.
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