Keating On His Long Road To 'Enterprise'

Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) has landed the acting job of a lifetime on Enterprise, but the actor says it wasn't easy getting from here to there.

Initially, Keating wasn't too sure exactly what he wanted to do with his life. "It was quite a while after I left university that I pinned my flag to the acting mast," he told Cyndee Rowe at About.com. "I was a bit nervous, given the education that I'd been afforded. [...] I was meant to be a lawyer or an accountant or you know, go into advertising or something. So I battled that for quite a while before I found myself at the age of about 24, sort of washed up and unemployable in my mind. And I just thought, you know what? I really want to act. And that's how it started."

After starring in the half-hour British sitcom Desmond's, Keating decided to move to the United States. His reasons? "Fame and fortune and uhm, I suppose I'd met a girl too."

"I came out here on a holiday, actually to Northern California," the actor continued. "I had been hanging out at Dantana's on Santa Monica Blvd meeting quite famous people and they all thought that I was terribly funny and I thought I should give it a shot. So, I went home and I started opening my big mouth about moving to America, and I rented out my apartment and I sold a car that I had and God knows, eight years ago that was now in January."

The question of whether an actor should choose to do film or theatre is a pertinent one, but in the end it often comes down to numbers. "A lot of the time, you ask any actor quite honestly and you know, they want to be doing film because you get paid and you get recognition," Keating said. "I've done some of my best ever work and three hundred people have seen it over a five week run. Now I'm doing Star Trek, I did an incredible episode two weeks ago and you know what? Millions and millions of people are going to see it. You know that's a buzz! So that's why I came here to L.A. [...] I got impatient, I didn't want to wait around. I thought, you know what? I'm going to go to L.A. where they make movies and try my luck. I was 32. I was single. I had some money in the bank and I thought if I don't do it now, I'll never do it. And thank God I did."

Now that Enterprise has come along, Keating has a secure job, but also the possibility of being typecast in future years. "You know it's got two edges to the sword. One is, it's the only job in town that's virtually guaranteed you a seven year gig. That is incredible as an actor. [...] It's incredible that I chose to be an actor in the first place! The other edge of the sword is that it stamps you completely with the insignia of only that and no one can really see past or beyond it. So, you have completely null and voided any opportunity to do anything else. You know I am at an age now and a place in my life where I don't care quite honestly. I've been through the rigors and outrageous fortunes of this game. I am very, very happy that this has come along right now."

The full interview with Keating, in which he also talked about Malcolm Reed's love life and meeting the TNG cast, can be found here at About.com.

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