The Mentalist guest star Augie Duke’s fantasy turns reality

Augie Duke is photographed by Donavan Freberg, donavanfreberg.com

Rising star Augie Duke has lived out a fantasy that most women, and some men, only dream of.

“I got to meet Simon Baker,” she sighs over the phone from her apartment in LA.

The twenty-something actress guest starred on The Mentalist, the CBS hit drama that launched Simon Baker into an international sex symbol.

Since The Mentalist debuted in the fall of 2008, the Australian heartthrob’s been named one of the sexiest men alive by People Magazine and the sexiest man on television by TV Guide.

“And he’s much better looking in person,” Augie says. “What a hottie.”

Augie appears in the series as a juvenile deliquent that Simon Baker’s character, Patrick Jane, charms and manipulates in order to solve a crime.

“I have a role that I’ve been playing a lot lately. It must be my Jack Nicholson eye brows,” Augie laughs.

“I play a queen of the bad kids who has nothing better to do than cause havoc. Simon’s character finds me and thinks he’s going to get info out of me about a teacher who died. And of course he does end up getting some dirt that helps with his investigation.”

As “Something Rotten in Redmund,” the 20th episode of season four, aired back in April, Augie crossed meeting and working with Simon Baker off her bucket list, a fantasy the young starlet didn’t think would materialize.

“I thought I blew it,” Augie says. “I actually thought it was the worst audition I’d ever done. There were so many people reading for the role and other characters, and I was nervous. I mean, it’s a big show.”

Augie left her audition, accepted this fresh failure and was mentally preparing to move on.

“On my way out, I told my agent, ‘I think I fucked this one up,’” she says.

But obviously Augie read these casting big wigs wrong.

“An hour later they called and said they’d love me for the role. It’s funny, it goes to show that you never know what they expect from you.”

As for Simon, he was everything Augie anticipated and more.

“Simon’s such a great guy. During our scene, I remember he put a box down so I wouldn’t pass it and said, ‘Now that’s where you stop.’ He’s really fun and silly. I’d call him a confident jokester,” she says. “We had a great time. This was my little big fancy moment.”

The Mentalist season 4 is available now. See Augie in “Something Rotten in Redmund,” (episode 20). Season 5 premieres on Sunday, September 30 on CBS. Follow Augie Duke on facebook and twitter.

Posted by Marc Andrew on Sep 24 2012. Filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.