Chicago Tribune - Interview Billy

Billy Campbell stars as Darren Richmond on the AMC series "The Killing." Born in Charlottesville, Va., the actor resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, and says he loves exploring Canada. "I go out to Vancouver Island, rent a cabin in Ucluelet, surf all day, then have dinner and a glass of wine by the fireplace in the big room at the Long Beach Lodge," he says. "Vancouver is the city of my dreams. And at 52, I'm young enough to enjoy the outdoors, but old enough to enjoy me." Campbell also has roles in the upcoming films "Fat Kid Rules the World" and "The Disappeared."

Q. What's your favorite destination?

A. The Barque Picton Castle, a square-rigged sailing-training ship working out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. And she's my favorite destination because she uses sweet trade winds to carry me and my shipmates to some of the most amazing places in the world, like the Pitcairn Islands, Vanuatu, Capetown and Dominica!

Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, do you have any travel tips?

A. If you were going the way we go, on a beautiful barque, you'd take very little money ashore and count on the kindness of strangers.

Q. Did you love your first childhood trip?

A. Yes. The first trip I remember taking was on the train from Virginia up to New York City, watching the summertime countryside rolling past the window. They used white linen tablecloths in the dining car in those days, and real silver. I love trains to this day. Maybe that was the beginning of my fixation with leisurely modes of travel.

Q. How does your career impact your travels?

A. Depends on my role. If it's a big one, not a lot. A small role means they may have to come looking for me when they need me, as I am liable to be out causing trouble somewhere. I have been known for years to my representatives as a bit of a location trollop. Meaning that my first question of them regarding a potential gig is very likely to be, "Where's it filming?" Last year I did a job for a first-time director who had no script -- there was a vague outline, nothing more -- and very little money. It was an unlikely prospect, except it was shooting in Antarctica. I'd have paid him to go! And he did a great job, by the way.

Q. What are your five favorite cities?

A. Vancouver, B.C.; Copenhagen, Denmark; Kyoto, Japan; Kandy, Sri Lanka and Charlottesville, Va.

Q. Where have you traveled to that most reminded you of home?

A. The South Downs of England reminded me a bit of my Old Virginia homeland.

Q. Where would you like to go that you have never been to before?

A. India, the Scottish Highlands, Greece, Egypt, China, Turkey. I want to visit Istanbul! H--l, I want to live there!

Q. When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?

A. Books, books, books. Paper and pen.

Q. What would be your dream/fantasy trip?

A. A hiking tour of Northern Norway, with a warm and happy Norwegian girlfriend, a tent and six weeks to spare.

Q. What is your guilty pleasure when you're on the road?

A. Junk food. Hostess Snowballs in particular. They are disgusting. I love them.

Q. What kind of research do you do before you go away on a trip?

A. Very little. I like to be surprised. But I will read a very good book about the place, fiction or nonfiction, while I'm there.

Q. What is your best and/or worst vacation memory?

A. Worst? Commercial air travel in general. Best? Dropping the anchor of a three-masted, square-rigged sailing ship, at Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, home to the descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty and their Polynesian companions. They are as salty and rough and generous and jocular a people as you'd imagine necessary, having successfully clung 220 years to a windswept mountaintop, poking nearly 900 feet up out of the center of the planet's greatest ocean.

The Island is tiny, two miles by one, but the warmth and hospitality of its folk are boundless and instant. I guess it's the only way for a people for whom the few yearly ships stopping by provide such fleeting contact with the outside world. The only thing better than going to Pitcairn in the first place, is going again. I did last year. It was like seeing family.

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