FULL CIRCLE: Benjamin Stockham (left) and David Walton play neighbours in About a Boy.
About a Boy star David Walton credits his wife for his success.
By Luaine Lee
Actor David Walton was never quite sure what he did for a living. After all, he’d starred in several sitcoms and was viewed in Hollywood as a “romantic leading man,” but for a while he couldn’t get arrested if he panhandled on Sunset Boulevard.
“I started my part-timing right after I got ‘Cracking Up’ and that was hard because there’s this ego thing,” says Walton in the lobby lounge of a hotel here in Pasadena, California. “’I’m an actor now. I don’t need another job.’ People go, ‘What do you do for a living?’ ‘I’m an actor, a real actor. I don’t have to wait tables.’
“You say that enough because in that phase everyone says that. But what is the definition of an actor? ... It was really a struggle to make a living as an actor. But I think that struggle oddly is what life’s all about, and the striving and all that stuff is important to experience, I think.”
While living in an 800 sq-ft apartment with a roommate in New York, he sold knives, catered parties and waited tables.
But the striving finally paid off 10 years later as Walton is starring in one of NBC’s brighter comedies, About a Boy, in which he plays the laidback neighbour of an uptight single mother. The comedy rolls when he begins to mentor her precocious son against her wishes — a modern take on the odd couple.
But when he was 25 Walton almost quit. “Right before 100 Questions I was training to make cold calls,” he nods.
“Before I got Heist I was looking up all my friends and I had investment banking avenues open for me. I was like, ‘What’s the point? You gave it a shot.’ I said. ‘I think I’m just going to be a banker.’
“My friend said, ‘You’ve been on two network shows, what are you thinking?’ ‘Yeah, but I’m not making a living.’ I remember saying, ‘I don’t want to be 30 going in for, like, CW guest stars.’”
Walton had already inhaled the sweet smell of success, and it intoxicated him. But following his first show, he didn’t work for a year and a half. “I was so cocky. I started off so cocky because I was in New York, sort of bumbling around. All of a sudden I had this pilot, this holding deal and all this stuff,” he recalls.
“And I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I did it.’ And I just kind of coasted. I didn’t take auditions seriously. I thought, ‘Everyone gets me, I don’t have to know the lines, they’ll just get me.’ It’s not true. I think that experience of crashing back to Earth has helped me not take anything for granted and be a lot more appreciable of where I am now.”
Walton credits his wife of three years, actress Majandra Delfino (“Roswell”), with setting him straight. “I don’t think there’s any coincidence that my career started to go like this (he swings his arm above his head) the minute I started dating her.
“She’s a very good actress, so it’s everything from working on auditions with her and having her give insight. She’s incredibly perceptive, and she knows me better than I almost know myself. And she kind of sat me down and said, ‘Here are your strengths which you don’t realise. You can pretend to be this douchy whatever, but you’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met. And stop hiding that.’ I know how much she loves me so there’s never any doubt of that, which is where I think you start getting into trouble, when you’re not feeling the love from that person and they’re being critical,” he says.
They are the parents of a daughter, 2, and a son, 5 months. Walton says it was the birth of his second child that taught him the true meaning of fatherhood. “In some weird way my first child felt like my wife’s — those first six months constantly breast feeding. When we had the second, I felt I was able to pick up the dad reins and take care of my oldest, the 1-year-old, while my wife tended to the newborn.
“It was like, ‘Whoa!’ That was when my life really changed as far as free time — all these things — but there’s a certain realisation all that difficulty and sacrifice — on the other side of that there’s this really rich and rewarding feeling. I would say it was only when I had two kids that I felt I had a real family. I think it’s made me gentler. I’m learning how to be patient.” — MCT
Emma Stone loves surfing
Actress Emma Stone thinks surfing is one of the “greatest” experiences and says she is “incredible” at riding the waves.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 actress has been working on a yet untitled Cameron Crowe-directed romantic comedy opposite Bradley Cooper in Hawaii, and during their spare time they took to the waves and learnt how to surf, reports contactmusic.com.
Although she joked about her abilities on the water, the 25-year-old beauty admits she found taking to the waves an “amazing” experience. Asked during a TV interview whether she tried surfing, Stone said: “I gave it a shot. I was amazing. I was an incredible surfer. I also think it’s the greatest feeling you can ever have. You’re floating on the water. You really are.”
However, she then giggled and added: “Unless you’re not!” — IANS
Kerry Washington, now a mother?
Actress Kerry Washington has reportedly given birth to her first child. The Scandal star and her husband Nnamdi Asomugha welcomed daughter Isabelle Amarachi Asomugha at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, reports femalefirst.co.uk.
The couple is yet to confirm the baby’s birth. In the past, the private duo were hush-hush about their relationship too.
Washington didn’t even go public with the romance until after it emerged that they had wed in Idaho in June 2013. — IANS
Kate Hudson wants to try ‘sprint triathlon’
Actress Kate Hudson, who loves sports, doesn’t mind setting new goals to stay fit. “I’d like to do a sprint triathlon. I’ve always loved sports. I always felt like I was the athletic type and I always had that thing as a kid,” eonline.com quoted her as saying. “I really loved setting those kinds of goals for myself... Your bodies are these incredible machines and they can be if you want to use them that way,” she added. The 35-year-old mother of two has been doing Pilates since she was 19. “I think that was the foundation for everything that I have done. I like Pilates because it kind of strengthens from the inside out. It’s very specific and I feel the strongest when I’m doing it because it really centres on your core,” said Hudson.
If she is unable to do the formal workout, Hudson sometimes plays music and will “jump around” for 20 minutes. — IANS
Ashton Kutcher stocks up on ice
cream for pregnant fiancee
It looks like pregnant Mila Kunis has a craving for sweets as her fiance and actor Ashton Kutcher was clicked shopping for ice cream. Kutcher was seen stocking up on some Baskin Robbins ice cream, reports dailymail.co.uk.
He wore a fitted white t-shirt which flattered his toned upper body and paired it with pale grey jeans. Kunis was probably craving caffeine too as he stopped at Coffee Bean to grab two iced coffees before heading to a private residence in Studio City here in Hollywood. At around the same time, a large bunch of blue balloons were delivered to the property, but it is still not known whether it was an impromptu baby shower or gender celebration. — IANS