North Springs High School grad John Schneider, best known for his roles in "Dukes of Hazzard" and "Smallville," can dance, too.
And you’ll see him do a mean tango in the Hallmark film “Come Dance At My Wedding” at 9 p.m. this Saturday.
But he has turned down “Dancing With the Stars” numerous times for philosophical reasons.
“I’m not a fan of actors becoming contestants,” he said. “Actors don’t look into cameras. As soon as you start looking into cameras, you’ve lost that air of mystery.”
Schneider has turned down game-show gigs for the same reason. "It would have been easy money," he acknowledged. "But I enjoy movies too much." He thinks Hugh Jackman hosting the Oscars was a "mistake" because now "he becomes the guy next door who dances," not some big-shot actor.
The Hallmark movie features Schneider as a man who finds out he has a daughter he never knew after she discovers his name on a deed for a dance studio she’s trying to sell. He comes back into town under a cloud of suspicion right before his daughter gets married.
“There’s a twist,” said Schneider, who has done two other Hallmark films. “It’s written like a crime drama.” He felt the script was so good, it could have been a feature film “with Brad Pitt rather than a TV movie with me in it.”
In fact, he noted with pride, Pitt one time came up to him and told him that as a teen-ager, he wanted to be Schneider. “He asked me, ‘Did you ever get into trouble jumping in and out of car windows?’ I said, ‘You have no idea!’ ”
He is also planning to attend Dragoncon, the annual sci-fi convention in downtown Atlanta over Labor Day weekend.
“I’m starting to become the king of these things,” he said. “It’s pretty cool for an old guy like me.” And he is astounded by the respect “Smallville” fans give to his character on that show Jonathan Kent, who died in 2006. “There seems to be an attachment to that character, an admiration for him being a good father. I can appreciate that.”
He hasn’t been back to Atlanta since Dukesfest last year, the big “Dukes of Hazzard” reunion at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. That event, he said, drew 20,000 people, which is impressive but far below the 40,000 a year before in Nashville.
“Our break even point,” he said, “was considerably greater than 20,000.” But he rationalized, “The Dukes of Hazzard is more important than the bottom line. People got married at Dukesfest. People proposed there. It’s a very important part of people’s lives.”
Schneider is also working on his own projects. He recently sold a show based on re-creating accidents. He is also developing a drama about a stunt guy who re-creates horrific accidents for hire. (He would play the stunt guy.) He is working on a reality show about horse jockeys and a half-hour sitcom for CMT. And he has a bunch of indie films coming out in future months.
In other words, he remains, at age 49, a very very busy man, never doin’ no harm.
TV TIP
“Come Dance At My Wedding,” Hallmark, 9 p.m. Saturday
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