NEW YORK (AP) – Like many kids in the late 70s and 80s, Michael Landon’s Little House on the Prairie and Road to Heaven were scheduled to watch for Barry Watson.
That’s why, when Watson was given the opportunity to play alongside Jill Scott in the remake of The Road to Heaven for Life, he was totally in favor.
“Michael Landon was such a huge, huge part of my childhood,” Watson said during a recent Zoom chat from his Los Angeles home. “I’m just honored to be a part of this, and I was nervous too.”
In this Way to HeavenDebuting Saturday, Scott is an angel sent from heaven. She takes the form of a junior senior advisor and finds a young boy mourning the loss of his mother. Watson plays the headmaster and assistant Scott – similar to Victor French in the series. He says it’s perfectly understandable why Scott was chosen as an angel.
“There is a kind of angelic presence in her. I can’t imagine anyone else playing this role other than Jill Scott, ”Watson said.
Watson is currently filming a new series, created by Ava DuVernet, called Naomi. »For The CW, a DC superhero show starring Casey Walfall. Watson plays her father.
Being a parent of a teenager is interesting for 47-year-old Watson, who first became known as Matt Camden, the eldest child in Aaron Spelling’s helpful drama “Seventh Heaven” about the reverend and his extended family. Jessica Biel and Beverly Mitchell played his younger sisters.
“It seems weird because I was still fooling around and I’m pretty much still a clown on set, but everyone comes to me with questions about things and I’m like, ‘Oh right, because I’m an old guy who I’ve been doing this for a while now. “
Watson, who starred in two projects with the word “paradise” in the title and jokes: “What am I going to do in the next paradise?” was raised a Catholic. He identifies himself as spiritual, not religious.
“I think everyone has some kind of spirituality,” he says. “We are all angels, we are all here to help each other, and I think there is something very spiritual about humanity in this.”
Doing good and giving is very important for Watson and his family. His wife is Natasha Gregson Wagner, daughter of producer Richard Gregson and movie star Natalie Wood. Her stepfather is Robert Wagner.
Watson and Wagner have a daughter, 9-year-old Clover, while Watson has two sons from a previous relationship, 13-year-old Felix and 16-year-old Oliver.
In the midst of the pandemic, Watson and Wagner developed the habit of sending gift cards and food to their hometown hospital, Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, Michigan. Clover sent letters to doctors and nurses.
“They’ll write her an answer at the beginning,” Watson said. When the answers stopped coming, he said that he had to explain: “They are very busy people, but they appreciate everything you do.”
Watson is especially grateful to healthcare professionals for having his own serious battle for health nearly 20 years ago. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 28. He underwent chemotherapy and has been in remission since 2003.
“It’s still such a big part of my life because I still think about it, but also the time has passed when I almost thought, ‘Did this really happen? “Have I survived all this? And now that I have a completely different life with my wife and my children, in which they were not even a part of that time, it seems that it was a whole life ago, ”he said.
“My oncologist was amazing and made me feel so confident. I thought, “Okay, I get it. I have another soldier who will help me fight this. “
He recalls how he rationalized the symptoms of the day.
Extreme fatigue was due to his work schedule, and the itchy skin, he suspected, was due to the fact that it was dry and winter. The warning calls came from night sweats. “The whole bed will be wet through and through, as if someone just poured water on me.”
Watson encourages people to be on top.
“Over the past year and a half with COVID-19, people have at times almost avoided their doctor. Now, more than ever, it is important to undergo an examination and take a blood test. Looking back, I realize that my body was trying to tell me something long before I was diagnosed. Listen to your body. ”
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