Why Tom Selleck Wasn’t a Fan of MAGNUM, P.I. Fame
Movieguide® Contributor
Tom Selleck shot to stardom on MAGNUM, P.I., but sometimes, he wished he was back on Earth with the regular folk.
This month, the BLUE BLOODS star sat down with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson to talk about his successful career.
MAGNUM, P.I., “in which he played the titular private investigator Thomas Magnum, marked a breakthrough for Selleck after about a decade of appearing in small parts and guest appearances in films and TV shows,” PEOPLE reported. “As Danson noted, during MAGNUM, P.I.’s peak, Selleck was ‘arguably one of the biggest stars in the world.'”
“I didn’t like it,” Selleck said of the attention. “Mainly because of family and a sense of privacy.”
That invasion of privacy came not only from fans but interviewers.
“I started getting asked questions in interviews that I didn’t want to say — give an answer to,” he added. “I was trying to — I said, ‘You better find a way and find a line about what you’re going to talk about.’ I didn’t always succeed, but it just grew, and I still can’t quite describe it but I wasn’t going through it every day.”
Country Living guessed “It” was “the stress of trying to fly under the radar and maintain some sense of normalcy as a 6’4″ megastar.”
Selleck is open about his struggles, which he talks about in his memoir, You Never Know.
“Hollywood is never easy, even for stars who make it look that way,” the description of the memoir says. “In You Never Know, Selleck explains how he’s struggled to balance his personal and professional lives, frequently adjusting his career to protect his family’s privacy and normalcy.”
Movieguide® reported:
The beloved actor does not shy away from talking about his personal life…as he is candid about the difficulties of balancing an acting career and spending time with family. Throughout the book, he reveals the times he had to shift his acting career to protect the privacy and normalcy of his family.
Selleck recalled the early P.I. days when he wasn’t as big of a deal, so to speak.
“I had a lovely house in Hawaii,” he said. “It was a tiny little house — a one-bedroom house. I rented it. I later bought it. It’s the first house I could ever afford. And I belonged to a place called the Outrigger Canoe Club, and that was local people. And, yeah, they kinda knew I was an actor, but that time — while the actors were on strike, and we couldn’t start the show, start shooting — was great.”
“I actually was living Magnum’s life at the beach and stuff,” he added.
After the show became a hit, Selleck got his first People’s Choice Award in 1981 and five Emmy nominations after that.
“It was really, I don’t know, a lot to adjust to, I think,” he said.
He felt glad the show was filmed in an isolated place like Hawaii.
“Say the same show was in L.A., and it got the same kind of heat,” he said. “I don’t know how people do that. I had this huge buffer, and it was a blessing.”
