Stephen Collins gets his rodeo on in new Hallmark film

Best known as the Rev. Eric Camden on the TV series "7th Heaven" (1996-2007), actor Stephen Collins is also a novelist, director and musician. He has been married to actress Faye Grant for 23 years, and they have a teen-age daughter, Kate. Collins plays a broken-down rodeo champ who pins his hopes and more on his daughter in the Hallmark Channel movie "Every Second Counts," airing 9 p.m. EDT Saturday.Q: Stephen, just how comfortable are you on a horse?A: (Laughing.) I'm pretty comfortable on a horse. It depends on what the horse is doing, of course. I did a movie (God, it was over 20 years ago), a movie that no one saw called "Choke Canyon," and I had to do a ton of riding to get ready for that.Q: Is it like riding a bike, in that you never forget?A: I think it really isn't. I had to find my seat all over again. There is just something about the rhythm of a horse. It took me getting slammed around a bit to have that stuff come back.Q: What kind of father are you in real life?A: (Laughing.) I'm a loving, challenged and perplexed father, as I think any father who is honest with himself probably is. It's very challenging being a dad. It's wonderful. My daughter is 18. She's about to go off to college. It's very, very hard work, and it's also the most wonderful and rewarding job there is, being a parent.Q: Because both her parents are actors, does your daughter want to go into the family business?A: I don't think she feels even the slightest bit of pressure. She was a very, very serious ballet dancer until about three years ago when she had an injury and had to give it up. I have mixed feelings about anybody wanting to become an actor. It's a calling. To be an actor you sort of have to feel there is nothing else for you to do, and then you will stumble through it because there is no way to become an actor really. We all just have to forge our own thing.Q: Do you think your classic good looks have limited your acting career?A: I think if we are really honest about it, it's our choices that limit our careers. Sure you get typed according to how you look to a certain extent, but it's also up to us to say yes or no to a project. I remember running into Chevy Chase after about the first month of "Saturday Night Live," and I had worked with Chevy on the "National Lampoon Radio Hour," and he said to me, "You know, we thought about calling you for 'Saturday Night Live' to do the news. You would have been perfect, but you know you are out here and you were doing serious movies." Back in those days, among that group of people I was in some ways one of them, having worked at the "Lampoon" and done "The Ritz" on Broadway. Once you do something like "7th Heaven" for 11 years, that's just kind of who you are in people's minds, and it's not a bad thing.Q: How has your career lived up to your expectations, if it has?A: The one thing I'm pleased and proud of (there is a phrase you don't hear so much anymore: "a star of stage, screen and television") is that I always wanted to work in all three media, and I have been able to do that.Q: So, were you happy for the break from television when "7th Heaven" ended?A: Yeah. You know, I loved doing it. The last year in retrospect wasn't as much fun as the years before. There was the network change and they changed our time slot, which I think was a terrible mistake. I think they know that now. Soon into the last year I thought, "They should have let this go." It was always fun to make the show. I don't miss it.Q: I read your great-grandfather ran for president of the United States twice. Have you ever had an interest in politics?A: I have a lot of interest in politics. I helped found a group that's based in New York called the Creative Coalition, which was really a political group for people in the arts designed to move performers beyond the photo op when they got involved with issues and candidates. I care a lot about politics. It's definitely a love/hate relationship. People have said to me at various times, "Why don't you run for office?" The process of the way we elect candidates in this country is so -- I can't imagine putting myself through it. I think I would be losing my temper and yelling at people all the time. If someone could appoint me to office I would probably be there. I want that appointment.(Patricia Sheridan can be reached at psheridan(at)post-gazette.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)