Don Wood Speaks...

I found this in an article available at Yahoo!...an interview with Don Wood. One of my closest female friends (I actually only have a handful, but she is one of my closest friends in general) read the article and gave me orders to go marry this man. *laugh*


Obvious questions first. What was your role in the colony? I was the Foreman, and a freeman. "Bearded Man #2."

Eligible bachelor? Yeah, sure.

How did you come to be involved in the show? It was an accident. I was on the PBS web site for something else, and I saw the casting call for Colonial House. It was the last day to apply. The video I sent in with my application was literally a video of me and my dog walking to the mailbox to mail this videotape that had to be postmarked that day.

What was the casting process like? There was the initial video and picture, and then a phone interview. I made another video, then they sent someone to interview me on camera, and then the psych evaluation -

How’d you do? Um, it was basically pass/fail. As long as they didn’t think you were going to kill somebody, you were in.

What do you do in real life? I’m a carpenter living in Sunnyside Queens.
Are you the outdoorsy type? Not really. I mean, maybe, but I think what really prepared me for this experience was having done some crazy jobs, like I worked in Alaska for a summer and I’ve done 100-hour weeks on end in theaters. Things that put you out of touch with the outside world, which for me was more of the struggle of doing the show. I'm bad with, like, normal, everyday things, anyway. [laughs] I’d so much rather swing an axe or lift 100 logs than have to open a bank account.

Watching the show, you seem pretty comfortable. Yeah... I had come to the realization pretty early on that I was damn lucky to get to do this, and I was going to make the most of it. The real heroes were the kids. I mean, it was different for everybody, but for those parents, seeing your kids cold and hungry, that's hard. But the kids were great. It took them like five minutes to adjust, to say, okay, this is my new life. And that's the only attitude you can have, really - because you never leave the colony, and you don’t have any outside influences, and so you lose that perspective, of wishing to be somewhere else or doing something else.

There must have been things you missed. Food. It’s tough not to think about all the meals you’re gonna eat when you get back.

So, okay, it’s 1628, but there are cameras filming-did that affect your behavior? The cameras were there maybe four days per week, more at the end. It’s not like those reality shows where they film literally everything. But, sure, being on camera influences the way you act - I got into a few knockdown, drag-out fights that probably wouldn’t have happened if the camera were on.

Do tell. There was one time when Dominic and I practically came to blows.

Boys... Yeah, we just had two different mindsets about what we were doing-I was there to live the 1628 lifestyle, and to work, and as the colony Foreman, it was my job to make sure he was working, which he didn’t want to do a lot of the time. To his credit, he was sort of picked off the street in London, and he basically thought he was coming to America for this camping trip/vacation, which this definitely was not.

How did you manage to hide that from the cameras? We had these “visits from the future” where the producers would basically check in with Jeff, the Colony Governor, to get a feel for what they should be covering that day, and Jeff had a family to take care of, that was his priority, so he didn’t know everything that was going on all the time, so this slipped under his radar.

Dominic is the badboy who leaves the colony and goes to town in Episode 4? Yeah, that’s him.

What kept you from going to town and getting beer? Why go to town with my funny clothes on? I felt like I would’ve let myself down if I’d done that.

So, you followed the rules? Hell no. Not at all the time. I stopped going to church about week 7. It just felt bad, to be next to someone who really believes in the spiritual experience, and I’m sitting there, faking it. And the no-profanity rule was tough to follow. I wore the scarlet “P” so much that I just started carrying it around with me because eventually I’d swear and have to put it on.

Part of the 1628 rules say that women and indentured servants were not allowed to be involved in the business of the colony and in decision-making meetings. What was it like to treat women as your inferiors? Anyone who believes that the women on this show were treated anything less than equal is just wrong.

But weren’t they required to obey you, as a freeman? We had these rules of governance that we were supposed to follow, but that particular one lasted about a week. The ladies weren’t having it. And it’s not like you have to be at the meeting to have the real power, you know? These were a bunch of women who run their households, and that comes through.

Did you do anything you regretted while there? Anything, or anyone? [laughs] No, there was no fooling around on the show. I don’t know… maybe, words said in anger, stuff like that.

Are you keeping in touch with the rest of the colonists? Yeah, I started this Yahoo group that everyone makes fun of, but it’s for colonists only - just for the 26 of us to talk and share our experiences, deal with how alienating it is to be back, stuff like that. It’s also started some press scandals, you know. Who’s interviewing whom. No one wants to talk to “Bearded Man #2”.

Hey, I am! Well, yeah, thank you.

Oprah aired her Colonial House segment last Monday. What was it like to have Oprah in the house? A zoo. A complete zoo. Nothing like the rest of the experience. It was good that it came at the end because it was a circus. We had one camera crew the whole time, and she shows up with four. There were, like, twice as many people in the colony when Oprah showed up.

Wait, I have a stupid question, what was that stuff you guys put in your hair before church? Fuller’s Earth? You can still buy that stuff. It’s this extremely fine powder. You comb it through, and, yeah-your hair is clean. And standing up in all directions.

Did you wear underwear? I did not. The governor and the preacher had them, but I don’t think they wore them much.

Back to less shallow matters, what surprised you most about the experience? The variety of ways that the project could be approached and the reasons that people came. How much I came to respect some of the deeply religious people who were there, and how much I was able to respect and befriend people with such different backgrounds and beliefs.

Would you do it again? Absolutely.


OK, I'm in too good of a mood today to blog properly since, well, this was intended as a place to spew when I was feeling low, so I may be quiet for a while.