SCIFI CHANNEL Baldwin scares up hosting gig

He enjoys the humor of fear in the face of ridiculous situations.
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
CENTURY CITY, Calif. -- He may be the baby Baldwin, but Stephen Baldwin isn't intimidated by the fame of his acting brothers, Alec, William and Daniel.
"I wasn't as hardcore rough and tumble a guy as my big brothers were," says the blondest of the quartet. "They were all playing football. I didn't play football. I was too little in high school at that time. But I was a pretty dang good baseball player and did some gymnastics. And I was a very good wrestler and probably could've pursued that but the arts were calling me much more strongly," he says, dressed in black denims and a black T-shirt.
"There was a combination of realities that headed me in the direction I went," he says.
Baldwin, who has co-starred in films like "The Usual Suspects," "Born on the Fourth of July" and "A Simple Twist of Fate," has a new gig as host of SciFi's "Scare Tactics."
Premiering Wednesday, he gets to test the polar pull between fist-clenching fear and practical jokes.
"The first attraction to me for 'Scare Tactics' is it's just nuts," he says with a grin that lights up that famous Baldwin bone-structure. "I've tried to calm down in my old age, but I still have a very warped sense of humor. If you think about what acting is: acting is taking the unreal or the not-real and convincing someone that it's real. Put that on steroids and that is what 'Scare Tactics' is.
"I enjoy the humor that is the verisimilitude of 'Scare Tactics.' If you watch 'Scare Tactics' some of these scenarios are ridiculous. And to see these people buying it because they're scared, that's what attracted me to 'Scare Tactics.'
It's extremely funny because you're seeing these people's psychological and emotional reactions in situations when they're in fear. And sometimes when you set it up in the right scenario it can be the most hysterical entertainment you've ever seen."