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Mark-Paul Gosselaar Is No Longer a ‘Saved by the Bell’ Nice Guy

Actor plays a kidnapping mastermind in NBC series ‘Found’


spinner image Mark-Paul Gosselaar against green ombre background
AARP (JSquared Photography/NBCUniversal)

Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 50, has been working steadily since he rose to fame 30-some years ago playing Zack Morris on Saved by the Bell, and he doesn’t take his career longevity for granted. “I feel very fortunate that I’ve been in the business for close to 40 years,” he says. “I appreciate it every day. It isn’t lost on me. I’ve seen a lot of my peers come and go.” His latest role is as a sinister kidnapping mastermind known only as “Sir” on NBC’s missing person thriller, Found, which returns for a second season on Oct. 3. Gosselaar tells AARP how he celebrated his 50th, how he feels about aging and why, years ago while starring on NYPD Blue, writer-producer Steven Bochco sent him to therapy.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You recently turned 50. Did you have a big celebration?

No, not my style. Everyone in my universe wanted to do something, but I had a nice, lovely dinner with my very, very close family and kids, and that was perfect for me. I’m not a big-celebration kind of guy.

spinner image Mark-Paul Gosselaar hugging A'Zaria Carter in hallway of school; sign that says Welcome to Beckson High School is in background in a still from Found
Gosselaar plays a sinister kidnapping mastermind on the NBC crime drama "Found," which returns for a second season on Oct. 3. He's seen here with actress A'Zaria Carter.
Steve Swisher/NBC

How are you feeling about aging?

Oh, gosh, I do think about it. I was talking to somebody today who turned 50 as well, and he said something that I absolutely agree with: “Well, life’s long.” I said, “You’re absolutely right.” Because I think there’s a point where — maybe in your younger years you use the phrase “Life is short.” And it wasn’t until I went through a divorce in my 30s [and NYPD Blue cocreator] Steven Bochco said, “You need to get your head straight. Go see my therapist.” Bochco’s therapist said, “You’re 36. Listen son, life’s long. You have so many more years to make mistakes and rebuild and live the life you want, and do it all over again if you need to. Trust me, life’s long.” That was a very profound thing for me. I realize that, even being 50, I still have a long way to go. I’m just looking to be able to live my life out in a capacity where I’m healthy and I can be there for the people that I love.

How are you going about that goal?

I prioritize my health. The last thing I want to do is walk around with ailments and illnesses when I can prevent it and not be in pain, or worse. I wish I had adopted this earlier. [Former NFL player] Tom Brady opened my eyes to basically “the prehab instead of the rehab” — prioritizing recovery and doing less equals more sometimes. I was under the impression at a young age that [you should be] doing two workouts a day and crushing yourself and making sure you were sore and really hammering on my body. Prioritizing recovery and sleep and nutrition has always been very important to me. Understanding that I don’t need to crush myself every time I do something physically was something that was a mental block in a way. I’ve been programmed for so long to train in a certain way. And just training again for mobility and longevity and making sure that I don’t break myself down.

Last year, your Saved by the Bell castmate Mario Lopez told AARP that the two of you do jujitsu once in a while. Is that still a part of your workout routine?

spinner image Young Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Mario Lopez in front of lockers in a still from Saved by the Bell
Gosselaar, left, and Mario Lopez costarred on the popular NBC teen comedy "Saved by the Bell," which ran from 1989 to 1993.
Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank

I’ve been doing that since 2008, 2009. Right now, jujitsu is my main form of exercise. I would like to get my black belt at some point.

Are you still playing golf?

I took some time off. I’m back into it a little bit. I play a lot of different things. I think that that’s one of the components that’s helped me stay fit, both mentally and physically, is that I try different things. I don’t stick to one particular program or exercise. My son [Dekker, 11] is a baseball player and we play baseball. My daughter [Lachlyn, 9] plays softball, [so] we play softball. She also plays volleyball. [So] we play volleyball. [Dekker] likes to surf, [so] we go surfing. [Gosselaar has two older children, Michael, 20, and Ava, 18, with ex-wife Lisa Ann Russell.] We’re just a very active family. My wife [advertising executive Catriona McGinn] is very athletic and has natural athletic ability and so do our kids. We live in a very active community in California, and we have great weather, and we just like to be outside.

Besides Mario, do you keep in touch with any of your other Saved by the Bell castmates?

We keep in touch. I’ve seen Elizabeth [Berkley]. I’ve talked to Tiffani [Thiessen] — her husband and I are like-minded and we enjoy each other. They’re into cold plunging and I cold plunge, and [they] sauna and I sauna, and we talk about things like that.

What advice would you give your younger self?

I wish I had taken a little better care of my body, because it did catch up to me in my mid-40s. I had some health problems, surgeries. I would tell my younger self that your health is not unlimited. That there is a limit to certain things, and to make sure you take care of yourself when you are down, giving your body the time to heal itself. I just never did that.

What’s on your acting bucket list?

Acting-wise, if I did theater again, I would wait until the kids were older and out of the house, because theater for me would be a very selfish act because [of] the schedule.

Any regrets?

Oh, lots of them. That’s what gets me up in the morning, because I feel that I’ll have regrets, and until that day comes for me, it’s a driving factor. The regrets change daily, and it’s fluid and that’s life. I love it.

 

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