Transcribed by Pemberley and PropterSnark on the Carby board
ER character I'd most like to play:
Linda: Dr. Robert Romano
Parminder: Dr. Robert Romano
Maura: Dr. Mark Green ("because Anthony Edwards made so much money")
Character I'd like to have a makeout scene with:
Linda: Luka
Parminder: Carter & Luka
Maura: Kerry Weaver
Favorite chick flick:
Linda: "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"
Parminder: "Bend it Like Beckham"
Maura: "Born Innocent" (infamous TV-movie starring Linda Blair)
I'd kill to be in a movie with...
Linda: Bette Davis
Parminder: George Clooney
Maura: The young Elvis
One item I can't live without:
LC: My toothbrush
PN: Hair straightener
MT: iPod
Favorite TV show other than ER
LC: Clean Sweep
PN: The Office
MT: The Sopranos
Guilty Pleasure:
LC: Dirty jokes
PN: Sleeping
MT: Anton Chekhov
The Women Who Revived ER
Fresh faces and intriguing story lines inject new life into the 10-year-old show
It's one of those trademark choatic moments: A woman who has been exposed to deadly carbon monoxide is in the middle of agonizing childbirth. In the next room, her husband is having seizures. Racing between the two is an overwhelmed med student who's desperately trying to keep both patients alive.
Now you know how Parminder Nagra, the 28-year-old actress playing med student Neela Rasgotra, feels. Sitting in the sun outside Stage 11 on the Warner Bros lot, she breathes a sigh of relief. "I've never worked harder or faster," she says. "I didn't know what I was getting into."
Welcome to the 10th season of ER, one the critics agree has been reinvigorated with an infusion of fresh talent, mostly in the form of young, scene-stealing actresses. There's Nagra, the breakout star of Bend it Like Beckham, in the role once inhibited by Noah Wyle- the wide-eyed newcomer, the prism through which we see life and death in the ER. Also new to the roster is Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks, Scooby Doo) as single mom and strident nurse Sam Taggart. In a scene earlier this season, she rips off Dr. Robert Romano's prosthetic hand after he tries to grope her. "Take this to church and have it exorcised," she cooly tells him.
While the series has always made a commitment to competant female characters- including former cast member Julianna Margulies, Sherry Stringfield, Alex Kingston, Laura Innes, Ming-Na and Maura Tierney- this season pushes that commitment further through sheer numbers and diversity. With the charming Nagra and the scrappy Cardellini, as well as the shift of Tierney's indelible Abby Lockhart from nurse to med student, there is an increased emphasis on the female factor, which firmly places the women of ER front and center stage.
"Not to dis the past, but when they did the pilot 10 years ago, it was based on [creator[ Michael Chrichton's experiences as a med student." says Dee Johnson, an executive producer. "At the time, emergency rooms were mostly male. This year, ER reflects what's going on with women in the trauma centers we visited." Their impact on the culture is undeniable. Consider the increased enrollment of women in medical schools since ER's 1994 debut. "The series has definitely influenced women in terms of recognizing emergency medicine as a career path," says Dr. Fred Einesman, a technical advisor on the show and a senior attending physician at Ceders-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "Once ER went on the air, emergency medicine became the most popular residency and the number of women who applied went up dramatically."
While no one would ever confuse the scrubs-clad women of ER with the fashionably hip cast of Sex and the City, there are similarities: None is very lucky in love- and all can take care of themselves. "You don't need Manolo Blahniks to affect the culture," says Tierney, the 39-year-old actress who plays Abby, arguably the series' most complex character. "The women of ER are role models. They don't need a man- and they can do any man's job as well as he can." Even the atmosphere behind the scenes has been given a makeover. In the past, pranks and basketball games ruled the testosterone-soaked set. There's a softer ambiance now. "THe women have scented candles and frilly pillows," says Mekhi Pfifer. Nagra and Cardellini, with their side-by-side trailers, call their piece of studio property "the girl zone."
Nagra entered the "girl zone" when she came to LA from London last spring to promote Beckham, the cult hit about a teenage soccer player who defies her strict Indian parents. Her agents arranged for her to meet with a few producers, including ER's John Wells; he cast her on the spot. "We had been looking for a long time to cast an Indian or Pakistani actress," Wells says. "In Chicago, on the west coast and particularly on the east coast, many of the medical students and residents are from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. And we had been looking for the right actress."
As for Cardellini, 28, she had never played such an adult role (she was 24 when she played a 16-year-old in Freaks and Geeks). Although mastering the medical jargon has been difficult ("you learn the lines and then they choreograph the scene and your mind becomes a whirlwind"), the budding romance between Sam and Luka Kovac is a cinch. "It is really heating up," says a pleased Cardellini. Earlier today, George Clooney stopped by to visit Wyle and Stringfield. In the old days, of course, ER was often Clooney-centered, Clooney-dominated, altogether very Clooney. While Tierney revels in ER's new femme dominance, she notes that men will always have one distinct advantage. "George is in his forties and he looks great," she observes. "Nobody is saying to him what they are saying to Demi Moore- that she's a miracle. And that's what is really unfair: He doesn't have to worry about his face. And no matter how great the story lines are, we do."