My interview with Jimmy Smits...

I gabbed with Jimmy Smits Thursday afternoon and am really happy to be featuring him in my newspaper column on Sunday. It was just one of those really good interviews with good energy. So, I am sharing it with Out In Hollywood readers a few days early.
On "The West Wing," Jimmy Smits' character of Congressman Matthew Santos was elected president of the U.S. but the show ended its run before we got to see Santos move into The White House.

On July 4, Smits returns to the scene of that fictional storyline to host "A Capitol Fourth," a televised party in Washington D.C. televised live on PBS.

"It's very moving to watch those fireworks with all the national monuments as a backdrop," Jimmy said a few days ago. "It fortifies you in a strange kind of way about what it means to be an American - especially for me, being second-generation in this country. It just gives me goosebumps."

Jimmy called to chat after a long day of shooting an episode of the popular Showtime drama "Dexter." He has joined the show in its third season as Miguel Prado, an assistant district attorney in Florida who forms a bond with the title character, a forensic expert-serial killer portrayed by Michael C. Hall.

"(Hall's) work is just really, really special," Jimmy said. "He can do more with an eyebrow than most people do with pages of dialogue."

Without question, Jimmy has had one of the most successful careers of anyone who has ever worked in television. He's also had a movie career that includes roles in the last two "Star Wars" films, "My Family/Mi Familia," "Lackawanna Blues," "Old Gringo" and "Switch."

He won an Emmy for his portrayal of attorney Victor Sufuentes, who he played for five seasons on "L.A. Law." Then he earned an Emmy nomination during each of his five seasons on "NYPD Blue" as Det. Bobby Simone.

Jimmy really re-invigorated "The West Wing" during its final two seasons as Democratic nominee Santos who engaged in a thrilling presidential campaign against Alan Alda's Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick.

"I had a blast," he said of "West Wing." "We did a live debate episode show that we did twice - once for each coast - and that will always stay in my mind as one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career on a lot of levels."

While "The West Wing" was a terrific high, his experience with the short-lived CBS series "Cane" turned out to be a professional low.

The drama about the lives and internal power struggles of a powerful and wealthy Cuban-American family in Florida running a rum and sugar cane business had its chances to succeed doomed by the writer's strike that crippled Hollywood earlier this year.

"The experience on 'Cane' was wonderful for me but it's just very bittersweet because of the way the year went down," he said. "It's basically collateral damage of the strike. I had a great time working on it, learned a whole lot and forged a lot of wonderful friendships."
He's happy to fit in the July 4 hosting duties with work on "Dexter" and said he's looking forward to hearing the musical acts which include Huey Lewis and the News and Taylor Hicks.

But mostly, he looks forward to those fireworks on the Washington mall and the feelings they evoke.

Said Jimmy: "When you start thinking of the framers (of the Declaration of Independence) and the chances they took when they put their name down, it makes you reflect on how deep those words were and how far this country has some. It also helps you acknowledge how far we have to go."