“I can 100 percent tell you the biggest leap I ever took in my life was graduating high school, deciding not to go to college and moving right out to Los Angeles,” Foley told Parade.com in a new interview. “I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have a headshot. I didn’t have a car, but I knew I wanted to be an actor.” He added, “To this day, everyone tells you you’re not going to be successful if you don’t go to college, and I made the leap to not go to university and to move to Los Angeles and follow a dream… I didn’t know a soul. I didn’t know where I was gonna live. I didn’t know Burbank from Santa Monica from Altadena. I had no idea what I was doing.” In other words, Foley was “terrified”—and in fact, the life of an actor can still spook the 49-year-old to this day, though “less and less so,” he reveals. “It gets easier as the years go by, but [in] this industry, you’re always wondering about your next job,” he explains. “Am I gonna be able to pay the bills? And I’ve been, knock on wood, very fortunate, but it’s always scary.” Now raising daughter Malina and sons Konrad and Keller alongside wife Marika Domińczyk (who you probably know from Grey’s Anatomy), the Felicity star is teaching his children to go after their dreams as well—all while continuing to leap-frog (as it were) around the globe in search of new adventures and new outlooks on life. Keep reading to find out how Scott Foley is teaching his kids to dream big, plus what he realized about himself as a father during the pandemic and the next big leap he’d like to take!
It must be special to be a part of a show like The Big Leap that you can share and watch with your kids.
Oh, it’s the best. Earlier on in my career, I wouldn’t have appreciated it in the same way. I’ve wanted to be on a show where I could sit down with my wife and all my kids, regardless of their age, and watch it and laugh and everybody gets the jokes that they’re supposed to get for their age range. My wife enjoys [The Big Leap] as much as my 6-year-old. I think she might get a little more out of it, but we all laugh along together.
Your character is pretty ruthless about wanting to exploit the lives of these contestants. As someone in the spotlight, how did it feel for you to be on the opposite end of that?
I sort of equate [my character] to Darth Vader in the making… He feels the pull of the dark side. He knows what has to be done to make the show watchable, to make the show compelling, and he understands what he has to do: exploiting these people and exploiting their lives. And I think to a degree, he understands that they know that. Even though you think they’re doing a dance competition, everybody knows what reality television is these days, and the balance for him is to not lose his humanity along the way. Trying to be successful at his job, create a compelling reality show without losing his humanity completely—that’s going to be his struggle going forward.
How are you teaching your kids about chasing their dreams and second chances?
The questions that they have for me—can I do this? how do you do that?—is sort of the joy of being a parent. To imbue some of that optimism into them is really important to me. My daughter started playing tennis not too long ago, and she’s playing in some tournaments and she’s not doing great in some and she’s doing better in others. So you know, [I tell her] you just try again. Give it another shot. There’s always another opportunity. I’ve always been a big believer that when you find yourself in a hole, you can dig your way out and try again.
Will we see any fancy footwork from you this season on The Big Leap?
Oh man, that’s the question, isn’t it: Will Scott Foley dance on television? Well, I spoke with Liz Heldens, our executive producer, and she said in the writers’ room there’s a list of things that they want these characters to do—and at the top of the list is to get Nick to dance. If they can find a way to fit it in organically, it might be a really, really fun thing. But, you know, both onscreen and off, I think there’s a real need for the separation of church and state, right? Nick is not one of the contestants. He’s not one of the dancers, so I appreciate that he’s not doing the dancing, But you know, everybody else on the show, for the most part, they all do the dance rehearsals together whether it be Zoom or in person, and they’ve developed a bond and a rapport that I am not part of. And because of that, there is a bit of a distance between myself and a lot of the cast, and I think that really benefits the show because I am the producer. Nick is in charge. If I had that connection, it might be a harder role to play.
The contestants in The Big Leap are dancing into new chapters of their lives and reinventing themselves. Was there ever a point when you felt you wanted to reinvent yourself?
Oh man, again and again and again. That’s a dangerous question. I’m going to try not to get myself in trouble. I think the most recent act I can think of is about a year ago, my wife and I sort of looked at each other and we thought, “After 30 years in Los Angeles, let’s do something else. Let’s do something different.” We’d just spent a year shooting a show called Whiskey Cavalier in Prague. We moved the whole family over there and we loved the experience and part of what we loved was the newness of not being in Los Angeles. So when we got back to L.A., we started looking around and seeing what we could change up and we sort of reinvented ourselves on the East Coast. So far so good, but talk to me in another year. I’ll let you know how it’s working out.
Shows like The Big Leap are really inspiring, especially after the last year and a half, when people are wondering what to do when life resumes again.
I think we’re seeing that. Every day, there’s a new article about people quitting their jobs, trying something new. There’s this whole van life movement, right? People setting out on the road to travel and do something different. I think we’ve all sort of taking a look at our lives and we were stuck inside and we realized, “Hey maybe I want to change this or I want to change that or I want to give that a shot,” and I love that. I think The Big Leap does that too. It’s a very uplifting, feel-good, second chance kind of show and I hope people like it.
What have you learned about yourself during these difficult, unprecedented times?
I learned that I’m a much better dad than I thought I was. Not that I thought I was a bad one, but this business takes up so much time that you make excuses in your head to justify not being around. To not be able to work for as long as we were not able to work really allowed me to spend time and enjoy my children and my wife and my family. I also learned that I like doing nothing. And I’m okay with that. I think part of that has to do with moving to the East Coast. In Los Angeles, the weather’s so beautiful all the time that doing nothing is filled with guilt because, “Oh god, it’s gorgeous outside, I should be outside.” But on the East Coast, we get some rain, we get some snow and I’m allowed to not feel guilty about, “Ah kind of s***ty outside today, maybe I’ll stay in.” And that’s a good feeling. I like it sometimes, not doing anything.
When COVID-19 is behind us, is there a big leap that you’ve been wanting to take?
I’m really interested in changing the thought process—it’s a big, big leap—surrounding education. And I have plans and desires for a TV show, a reality television show to address that. I feel that we put too much emphasis on college and higher education… if you’ve ever tried to call a plumber and an electrician, you know how hard it is to get one that’s good and one that’s not crazy expensive. I think there’s a lot of opportunity in the trades and I want to sort of say like, “Hey, just because everyone says you have to go to college to be successful, doesn’t mean you have to go to college to be successful.” That’s my big leap. I want to try to change that.
And you’re proof. Look at you!
Look at me. Watch out! This interview has been edited for length and clarity Next, 101 Uplifting Quotes About Change for When You Need a Little Push Before Taking a Big Leap
