April 16, 2000 issue
Settling Down into Stardom: Martin Donovan of ABC's Wonderland is glad to have steady work without travel.
by Eirik Knutzen

A few years ago, Martin Donovan spent some months on a 100-foot boat moored in the lagoon of a deserted island 600 miles northeast of Papua New Guinea.

Donovan, now featured in the new ABC series Wonderland, was starring opposite Maya Stange in the Australian adventure-drama In A Savage Land, playing a respected anthropologist and his young student-bride chasing Trobrianders and each other all over the South Seas.

"There were no facilities on shore... so the cast and crew stayed on the film equipment-crammed boat for about eight weeks," says Donovan. "On the third day we were there, we suddenly got hit by enormous swells that seemed to come out of nowhere. In  matter of hours, I was deathly seasick, along with a dozen other people.

"It was a strange, strange feeling to be caught in an enormous force of nature - the ship was tossed around like a toy in a bathtub - that we had no explanation for," he conttinues. "The next day, we [learned] that everything was due to a tsunami, created by an undersea earthquake."

Shortly thereafter, Donovan questioned his sanity again while shooting Onegin with Ralph Fiennes in Hungary during the dead of winter. It didn't take long to get tired of hotel cuisine in Budapest, where chefs often operate on the principle that "if you don't like the way this meat is boiled, we'll boil it some more."

It occurred to him that it would be nice to see his actress wife, Vivian Lanko, on a semi-regular basis, and his sons, 4 and 6 years old, before they entered college.

Donovan, 42, stayed fairly close to home last year, portraying philandering Tom Buchanan to Mira Sorvino's long-suffering Daisy in The Great Gatsby, to be shown later this year on the cable channel A&E. He also starred opposite Irene Jacobs in a high-intensity independent film, The Pornographer, A Love Story.

A plan eliminating major travel commitments for 2000 was the only thing missing in his life.

That's when Wonderland, which airs Thursdays at 10pm on ABC, wa pitched into his lap. The one-hour drama series - created by former Chicago Hope star Peter Berg, who also executive-produces along with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer - examines a group of forensic psychiatrists at Rivervue Hospital (a fictional institution loosely patterned after New York's Bellevue).

Fortunately for the Manhattan-dwelling Donovan, Wonderland's interiors are shot at a sound stage in Queens and in an unused wing of a psychiatric hospital on Long Island.

He portrays the passionate Dr. Neil Harrison, who deals almost exclusively with the criminally insane. As the series began March 30, Harrison's wife, Dr. Lyla Garrity (Michelle Forbes), who heads up the hospital's psychiatric emergency program, was about to deliver the couple's first child.

Harrison works with chief forensic shrink Robert Banger (Ted Levine), a man battling to keep his head on straight while his marriage is in tatters and a bruising custody battle for his two young sons looms. Rounding out the cast is Derrick Hatcher (Michael Jai White) and psychiatric intern Heather Miles (Joelle Carter).

"Ted [Levine] and I had a good look at the psychiatric ward at Bellevue and the guys who run it," says Donovan. "No one in that organization is connected to the show, but I learned a lot observing there and met some pretty famous New Yorkers charged with crimes. You're struck by their normalcy. Nobody is sitting in corners drooling or scratching themselves.

"In terms of the psychiatrists, I was fascinated by the rapport carefully built with each patient," he says. "There is no judging, no condescension. They have empathy, compassion and respect" for the criminally insane, who "are victims of mental illness, too, regardless of the crimes they committed."

Donovan is the third of three children born to a Los Angeles-area homemaker and a public school administrator. With a brother who studied psychology and a sister who is a registered nurse, there is plenty to talk about when the family gets together.

Donovan found his calling as an actor while doing a high school production of Bye, Bye Birdie. He spent seven years studying acting at L.A.'s American Theater Arts, financing his studies with odd jobs. "I tried to avoid waiting on tables - I was never good at dealing with the public," he laughs, "but I've mellowed."

His professional acting debut earned him $50 for recording an answering machine message sounding like a pirate for a treasure hunter. In 1981, he obtained his Screen Actors Guild card as one in a cast of thousands on Masada, the massive mini-series starring Peter Strauss.

Two years later, Donovan and Vivian loaded their 1972 VW Squareback and leisurely drove to New York, visiting friends and relatives along the way. With no immediate broadway prospects, he joined the Cucaracha Theater Company in Tribeca. It didn't provide a handsome living, but it led to collaboration with film auteur Hal Hartley on six short subjects, including The Book of Life (as Jesus), Trust and Flirt.

The exposure at film festivals paid off with roles in films closer to the mainstream, such as The Portrait of a Lady, Heaven, Hollow Reed, Nadja, Living Out Loud and The Opposite of Sex.

Life is good now, and Donovan is happy to e home - even after 15-hour work days.

"Wonderland is very intense... but the rewards are great." he says, "especially since the show comes complete with a terrific cast, crew, producers, directors and writers. Most of these elements add up to something far superior to several of the so-called art films I've done.

Now I just want to enjoy the simple life for a while, like discovering good restaurants with my wife and hanging out in the park with the kids."

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