From the Malaysia Star:

A big slice of nice pie
By MUMTAJ BEGUM

A SUPPOSEDLY formal press interview with actor Lee Pace turns into an instantly friendly 20-minute chat – Pace is just that kind of guy.

The American star of Pushing Daisies is in Sydney, Australia, in February when we meet. Dressed head to toe in black, the tall actor exudes warmth and a laidback personality that, at times, seems a little bewildered and uncomfortable at being the centre of attention.

Actually, if you want to know what Pace is like in person, all you have to is watch Pushing Daisies. Pace is just like the character he plays, Ned: a tad shy, very nice, and an all-round good guy.

“I can’t bring dead things back to life with a touch,” Pace points out one major difference. “(But) I would say he’s a lot like me actually.”

Well, it makes sense: Daisies creator Bryan Fuller wrote Ned with Pace in mind, after all.

Pace was well on his way to making his mark in showbiz even before Daisies, if his resume is any indication: he started in an off-Broadway production a month before graduating from the prestigious performing arts school, Julliard, in New York, and followed that feat up by giving amazing performances in productions like 2003’s TV movie Soldier’s Girl (in which he plays a woman!) and in 2006’s Robert De Niro-directed movie, The Good Shepherd.

He didn’t, he admits, see himself committing to a television series, though.

Fuller had asked Pace to read the Pushing Daisies script for the pilot; Pace’s interest was caught by the excellent writing and he thought that Ned was a character that he could play.

“I called Bryan to say congratulations, and he was like ‘I wrote it with you in mind. Would you please do it?’ It felt really good.

“Although, I don’t know how I should feel about a character who brings dead things back to life and makes pies being written for me,” he says, eyes twinkling – and at that point his eyebrows go up a little, uncreasing the deep line between his eyebrows.

That line might be stress, we realise. The 29-year-old, it seems, is at his busiest right now. Besides the long hours filming Daisies, he took a role in the film Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (learning to play the piano for his role) opposite Amy Adams and Frances McDormand, and co-stars with Sarah Michelle Geller in yet-to-be-released horror movie Possession.

But TV is different from all that….

“I have been working for a while, but there’s something about being on a television show that does change your life.

“You get recognised in airports. You will be sitting at dinner, and there’ll be people across from you who are watching you eat and very obviously thinking about how they are going to tell their friends about spotting Ned.

“That’s really weird. It’s really weird.

“I can get really reclusive and just want to stay at home with my dog.”

But Pace is no whiner; he’s also quick to appreciate the good things that come with fame – with recognition comes more acting opportunities, which is something he’s looking forward to, he says.

Then there are the other benefits: “Every time I talk to my mother, I hear about how her life has changed, how she gets special treatment because I’m on a television show, which is really fun. It’s nice. She loves it!

“I brought my dad out here to Australia, and he loves it. He thinks it’s really, really fun. He’s excited to meet Kathryn Morris from Cold Case.”

His father used to be in the oil business, so Pace spent his early years in Saudi Arabia, moving 10 times before the family settled down in Houston, Texas, in the United States.

It was while attending secondary school there that Pace began acting seriously, even taking a break from school to be in a couple of productions with Houston’s Alley Theater before returning to school to graduate.

In 1997, Pace entered New York’s Julliard School and began taking part in the school’s productions. His appearances in plays since then have won him two Lucille Lortel Award nominations.

His first feature role in 2003, as a transgendered nightclub performer dating a soldier in Soldier’s Girl, earned him more nominations, including a Golden Globe, as well as the Gotham Award in the Breakthrough category.

“Many of the movies I’ve done over the years have been really dark – characters going through a crisis – and it is hard on your life to play that. It’s really, really hard….

“Soldier’s Girl was really hard. The Good Shepherd, it was hard to live in that world for six months. It takes a real toll on your life.

“Playing Ned is really nice. It’s really fun to be in love all day, and kind of have this whole world open up. It makes my life better, so I’ll take it.”

We’re glad he did.