For Harrison, ‘family matters’ include planning for future

For Harrison, ‘family matters’ include planning for future

Actor contemplates career, education after hit TV sitcom

By Emily Forster

Sitting in front of Westwood’s The Coffee Bean dressed in a
white shirt, tan pants, wire-framed glasses and a neatly trimmed
goatee, Shawn Harrison looks like any other 20-year-old college
student.

Now enjoying his success as the virtually brain dead character
Waldo Faldo on the television sitcom "Family Matters," Harrison is
aware that important choices about his future are rapidly
approaching.

"Now is kind of stressful for me. I’m at a transition stage in
my career because the show is about to end and I need to decide
what I’m going to do next," Harrison says.

He is faced with deciding between entering UCLA or UC Irvine in
the fall, as well as choosing the direction in which he wants to
push his career.

"I have to choose if I want to do film, TV, plays or maybe
writing or producing," Harrison says.

Although Harrison wants to complete a college education, he
takes his career and his financial status seriously as well.
Harrison would prefer to work during his college career.

"For me school will always be there, but I don’t know if the
career will always be there for me. Also, I’m saving up right now,
but UCLA’s tuition is no joke," says Harrison.

Harrison, who has been financially independent for two and a
half years since his mother’s death, looks away as he discusses the
ethics instilled in him by his mother.

"My mother, before she passed, she taught me how important it
was to be independent. She taught me how to take care of my
business. Most people don’t know until they go to college how to
open a bank account or write a check or how to use a credit card,
but she started laying that foundation for me when I was about 10,"
says Harrison.

Harrison’s mother, a computer engineer who developed software
for the space shuttle, raised Harrison by herself. When Harrison
was 4, he decided to become an actor and his mother encouraged him
by enrolling him in acting classes. A few months later, he was cast
in Steve Martin’s comedy The Jerk. He played the youngest sibling
of Martin’s adopted family.

"I don’t really remember Steve Martin that well. I just remember
him doing gags for us because there were a bunch of kids on the
set. It was a positive experience," says Harrison.

Although the experience was positive, Harrison lost interest in
acting until the age of 10, when his mother told him that she was
wasting her time driving him to auditions. Harrison had to chose to
either get serious about his acting career or quit. He chose to get
serious.

With guest star appearances on several television series,
including "L.A. Law," "Hill Street Blues" and "Fame," Harrison
explains "I was doing whatever I could get, the typical life of a
working actor waiting for his big break."

At the age of 12 he did seven national commercials in
succession. He became so busy that his mother had to quit her job
to manage his career. When Harrison was 16, he auditioned for the
role of Waldo Faldo on "Family Matters" and got the part. Four
years later with only one year left of the show’s syndication,
Harrison reflects on his character.

"The only thing Waldo Faldo and I have in common is that he’s a
great chef and I’m a pretty good cook. I’ll miss playing him
because after you do something for so long you want to continue to
do it. I won’t miss it because I’m tired of people thinking I’m
really that dumb. It gets old," Harrison says.

Harrison would like to play a character opposite of Waldo
Faldo.

"I like characters that are really sarcastic. Kind of like
one-line, mean people with smart mouths. People that have nothing
nice to say. I’d love to do a character like that, hopefully on my
next venture," says Harrison.

Harrison wants to eventually play a lot of different roles. He’d
like to tailor his career after Tom Hanks, whose career also began
with a comedic sitcom. "Tom Hanks went from comedy to complete
drama. That’s something that’s very hard to achieve and do. I have
the utmost respect for him," says Harrison.

As for actors Harrison would like to work with, he is not very
picky.

"I’d just like to work with good actors. I look at TV today and
I wonder how certain people get jobs. Not to say that I’m the
greatest actor but the acting on TV is really bad. TV actors need
to get back into the craft of acting and they need to train," says
Harrison.

Harrison feels the most important aspect of acting is being
believable. "It’s all about whether or not you can play the part.
If you’re a bad actor but you’re believable in a certain part, then
you should get it. I guess it’s a compliment that people really
believe I’m as dumb as the character I play. People wouldn’t say
that unless I was believable."