ShareThisWhere's Chris Kattan been?
"Some people ask me, 'What are you doing now?' I tell them, 'Well, I'm not choosing bad projects,' " says the 38-year-old former "Saturday Night Live" star. "I don't need to be seen all the time. I'm OK with that."
Kattan is coming back to the small screen in a big way in the three-night IFC miniseries "Bollywood Hero."
Debuting at 10 p.m. EDT on Aug. 6, the satirical "Hero" features Kattan, as a fictionalized version of himself, getting fed up with Hollywood and looking to India for solutions. He taps into the huge Bollywood entertainment industry to try and reignite his career.
In the miniseries, his character figures Bollywood would look past "Corky Romano" and give him a chance to redefine his image as an action hero or a romantic leading man. Kattan gets to sing and dance in fantasy sequences.
Kattan says he has less of an ego now, but more confidence these days.
"You're not learning something if you're always busy," Kattan says. "You miss out on friendships and romance and marriage and everything else. I have a sense of humor about life, and that only comes with time."
In real life, Kattan used to take new jobs just to have people forget the last one.
"I did a Pepsi commercial because I didn't want (to be known for) bopping my head (a la 'Night at the Roxbury') all the time," he says, seated at a table at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
He admits he's not always been that way. During his days on "Saturday Night Live," he had a far different attitude toward his career. "I thought I had to be in every sketch or I (stink)," he says. "I used to think if I wasn't one of the best, then I was nothing.
"It's a terrible mentality, but you grow up and get over it."
With age and experience, Kattan says he has developed new skills. "I listen more," he says. "Used to, I was always busy planning, and I wasn't really listening."
Kattan was on "SNL" from 1996 to 2003, when he left and pursued movie opportunities.
Kattan says he was approached about "Hero" because the project required a physical comedian at the helm. The miniseries was shot for 10 weeks in India earlier this year.
"I'm OK with playing this guy who wants to be a huge action star," he says of his "Hero" persona, "because I know that's probably not going happen in my life."
(E-mail Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at morrow2(at)knews.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
