In choosing jobs, actor appreciates a fresh challenge

PASADENA, Calif. — Actor Jason Priestley used to be an adrenaline junkie.

These days, though, his big risks involve trying things for the first time.

“If I’m scared of a project, I take it,” he said during a recent interview.

“I find that’s how you grow and that’s how you learn and get better at anything. You have to put yourself in situations that frighten you.”

The tenet holds true, he said, in all areas of life.

“You have to push yourself,” Priestley said. “If all you do is play it safe all your life, you never learn what you’re capable of — but you also never force yourself to get better or to learn.”

Decades ago, Priestley jettisoned to fame as the good-guy Brandon Walsh on “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

The role hoisted him to teen-idol status, but he didn’t relish the attention for long.

Since then, he has been a race-car driver, a downhill skier, a director of considerable standing, an on-thejob producer, an author and, of course, star of shows such as “Call Me Fitz,” “Haven” and “Private Eyes,” his new detective thriller on Ion Television.

At 48, Priestley is a seasoned show-biz veteran. He doesn’t choose an acting part casually. And his role as an ex-hockey player-turned-private investigator in “Private Eyes” boasts a piquant amount of humor and grit for him to say yes to three seasons.

Although Priestley loves overcoming obstacles, one of them — negotiating a fleeting race car down the speedway — landed him in the hospital for three months.

“I broke my back, broke both my feet, ripped my nose off my face, had to have this part of my skull rebuilt,” he said, patting his temple.

“That whole experience changed me in that it just made me appreciate every day a little bit more, and that experience made me come to grips with my own mortality. I was 33 when I had that accident.”

He quit racing 18 months later.

“I just had to get back in the car a couple of times,” he said. “It was time (to quit). There’s an old saying in racing: ‘It’s time to walk away when you still walk away.’”

The father of a girl, 10, and a boy, 8, Priestley said he works to spend time with his family.

Professionally, the Canadian-born actor has become passionate about directing.

“I do spend so much of my life behind the camera these days, and I seem to enjoy that more — to be perfectly honest, oddly enough,” he said.

“It’s a strange thing because the jobs are so incredibly different. And I still do find my work as an actor to be enjoyable and rewarding. But I find that the challenges that I’m constantly faced with as a director are bigger, and they require more complex solutions.”

He acknowledged that there have been times when he has grown disillusioned with his chosen field.

“But I also feel like it’s important to not let yourself become jaded by the industry,” Priestley said.

“It’s important to remember your artistic roots and what it was that made you want to become and artist in the first place.”