Susan Sullivan

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SUSAN SULLIVAN AT ABC.COM: Q&A

She may be sarcastic, snobbish and stingy, but Kitty Montgomery is the mother-in-law from hell that you just can't help laughing at. We caught up with actress Susan Sullivan recently for her take on Kitty's popularity--and to find out exactly what it takes to carry off a character so unabashedly uptight.

Q: Your role as Kitty must be such a hoot for you!
A: It's such a relief. Out can come my own natural rhythms. Patient I am not. This is really my personality. It seems extraordinary to have waited so long into one's life to have found the part that actually uses your basic rhythm. And I think that's always sort of what actors connect up with--their own sort of world.

Q: Do you think that's why the part works as well as it does?
A: I think so. It sort of surprises me. If you're cast right you can actually just let yourself go because all your gestures will be right, all your intonations will be right because you just somewhere understand who this person is.

Q: Is comedy your first love?
A: I think if I have any kind of unique gift, it's more in the comedy area than it is in the dramatic area. I started out doing theater and a soap in New York and that's . . . sort of what I got stuck in. I was blessed enough to have long runs, and it's sort of hard sometimes then to get out.

Q: Do people recognize you from DHARMA & GREG?
A: Yeah. It's hard to tell because people are very nice, and they say, "Oh, we love the parents and we love your character." I'm sure that's not what Jenna Elfman hears as she walks around. I'm sure they don't ever say, "Gee, you're good, but we love the parents." So I don't know. It seems like people like it and it makes it fun.

Q: Do you enjoy working with Mitchell Ryan?
A: Mitch and I have known each other for such a long time, and we're both so pleased to be given this opportunity at this point in our lives to play characters that we've never really had a chance to play before. It's a great gift. Plus we're wise enough to appreciate it.

Q: If you and Mitch had to switch and you became the hippies...
A: I'd hate it. No. You know, once I auditioned for Mimi [Kennedy's] part [as Abby] and I couldn't even read it. It seemed very strange and totally false. I couldn't do that part. And she-Mimi--auditioned for the part of Kitty. That's the kind of part that she's done. She does a very kind of lock-jaw type of Eastern wealthy person. And I don't do that very well, as you can tell. ; )

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SUSAN SULLIVAN: LIVE CHAT

SUSAN SULLIVAN: MOTHER OF THE BRIDE

SUSAN SULLIVAN (EX-MAGGIE GIOBERTI, Falcon Crest; ex-Lenore Moore, Another World) is juggling roles in a trio of distinctly different projects: a feature film (My Best Friend's Wedding, starring Julia Roberts), a play (the revival of J.B. Priestley's Dangerous Corner, now running at the Matrix Theatre in West Hollywood, Calif.) and a sitcom (Dharma & Greg, which is on ABC's fall schedule).

The diverse characters she plays have one thing in common: "They're all very strong, very wealthy woman - and I've just loved playing them," Sullivan says. "I've always played these sympathetic women who are strong and have a seriousness about them. But the women I'm playing now have another kind of strength, which is delightful. I think I'm starting a whole new career here."

Sullivan has starred in a number of TV-movies, but My Best Friend's Wedding is her motion-picture debut. She plays Isabelle, the mother of the bride (Cameron Diaz). "When I originally read the screenplay, Isabelle had only two little scenes, but the author described her in such fascinating detail - in fact, the description was longer than the part," she explains. "She was described as a woman of money, privilege and power, who walks into a room and just takes it over. She sounded fabulous! I had to play her."

In the end, director P.J. Hogan (Muriel's Wedding) used Sullivan in five or six scenes, she says. "He works very free form - a bit of improv, but he also films the script. Julia Roberts is the friend who tries to break up the wedding. There's a lot of physical comedy, at which she's very adept."

Sullivan hadn't yet seen the finished product at the time of this interview. "We shot it last year during the heat of summer in Chicago. My biggest fear is that my hair is going to look flat, flat, flat. I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst."

The actress is cool as a cucumber in the play Dangerous Corner, in which she plays Freda, the wealthy (what else?) wife of Granville Van Dusen's (Keith, The Young and the Restless) character. Sullivan says, "Freda has a light touch, which I like. I love working with Granville and David Dukes, who alternate in the role."

On Dharma & Greg, Sullivan is Kitty, the mother of Greg (Thomas Gibson, ex-Sam Fowler, AW; ex-Derek Mason, As the World Turns), who marries flower child Dharma (Jenna Elfman) in haste. "I find it fascinating that I'm playing another wealthy woman," she says with a laugh, "but Kitty is a more scattered, a bit of a flibbertigibbet, so that's fun too."

My Best Friend's Wedding, which also stars Philip Bosco (ex-Eliot Markham, ATWT), opens in theaters June 20. Dangerous Corner runs through July 20. Call (213) 852-1445 for tickets. Dbarma & Greg premieres on ABC this fall. Check local listings.

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SUSAN SULLIVAN: POLITICALLY CORRECT

POLITICS CAN BE HELL, AS Susan Sullivan (Maggie Globerti, Falcon Crest; ex-Lenore Delaney, Anotber World) discovers via her role on the new ABC drama series The Monroes.

The Monroes live in a world of power, money and international intrigue, sparking ambition and competition that often test the strength of family ties. Among the freewheeling, power-driven circles of Washington, the Monroe family has thrived where others have faltered, and they plan - no matter what it takes - to keep it that way for generations to come.

Although patriarch John (William Devane, Greg Sumner on Knots Landing) is in the limelight, Sullivan's Kathryn, the strong-willed matriarch, is the driving force behind the family's success. "Her life is totally about her family," explains Sullivan. "That's her career. Women like Kathryn tend to be their husband's conscience and tend to focus the family. She's the heart of the family."

Sullivan is having "an absolutely fabulous time" portraying this character. "It really is a cross between the dark, sinister machinations of a major power group like the Corleone (The Godfatber) family, and then it has the funny, quick-paced and very stylish light side of The Pbiladelpbia Story. Our producer, Rick Kellard, calls it a drama with a very aggressive comic approach."

The humorous aspects, "if anything, make The Monroes different," she says. "It's an interesting element in the soap opera style, and it could be a breakthrough kind of show. It's hard to tell what will happen with these things, but if you have good writing, then you're off and running. It's certainly the best writing of any show I've been part of."

Though Sullivan had a recurring role on The George Carlin Sbow, The Monroes marks the actress's return to a dramatic series; she ended her nine-year run on FC in 1990. "It's been long enough that the thought of doing another drama is interesting again," she says. "When I picked up the script and read it, not only did I feel an immediate kinship with Kathryn Monroe but her rhythms were my rhythms. She's different from me, yet there's a part of me that's just right there. I really appreciate the qualities of this character, and the humor."

The cast, too, "is fabulous," she boasts. "When you put a family together, it's really a crapshoot if they're going to be cohesive and believable. I am delighted to be working with such a wonderful group of people. And I've always had this secret little crush on Bill Devane. I was a little intimidated by him in the beginning because he can be such a curmudgeon, but he is absolutely delightful. He's got a good heart, and he's a fabulous actor. I think we're really good together."

The Monroes, which also features David Andrews, Lynn Clark (Lily Light, Santa Barbara), Cecil Hoffman, Steven Eckholdt, Tracy Griffith, Tristan Tait and Darryl Theirse, airs Thursdays on ABC. Check local listings.

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SMART WOMAN, SMARTER CHOICES

Susan Sullivan ditches FALCON CREST and rotten men for THE MONROES and a perfect man.

JUST THE FACTS: Birthday: November 18; Sibs: Sister Brigid, an executive at WGBH-TV in Boston; brother Brendan, a methadone counselor in N.Y.C.; Thanks to her Tylenol Commercial: She owns a beach house. "And I am proud to be associated with the product."; Pickups 'R' Us: "I said to one Hollywood mogul, 'God, I am perfect for you!' He didn't agree."; On Dating Cary Grant: "He told me I shouldn't be an acttess - he'd never met one who wasn't neurotic. He said I should have a baby."

Susan Sullivan is heaving a sight of relief. After eight years of playing good girl Maggie Gioberti Channing on FALCON CREST and working on a sitcom (THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW), she's landed squarely on her feet. This fall, Sullivan will star in the juicy role of finger flipping, wise-cracking Kathryn Monroe on ABC's new nighttime soap, THE MONROES.

"This is one of the best parts to come along for a woman over 40-something," says Sullivan wryly. "Kathryn Monroe's rhythm and sense of humour are like mine." Judging from Sullivan's interview demeanor, Kathryn Monroe must be a hoot. It's live theater as Sullivan recounts her hilarious attempts to jump-start her love life, and leans into the tape recorder several times to admonish, "YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WRITE THIS!" In short, Susan Sullivan is someone you want to go to a party with - you just may not be able to tell anyone about it.

But back to the Monroes. They are "a delightful, dysfunctional family,"reports Sullivan. A cross between the Kennedys and the Carringtons, the Monroes are a moneyed, political East Coast family with a closetful of noisy skeletons. The good news: Sullivan stars opposite KNOTS LANDING alum William Devane (ex-Greg). The bad news: They play the parents of five children, which seemed like a stretch to Sullivan. Devan disagreed. "He said, 'Susan, how many days do you want to work? You can never have enough children,'" Sullivan relates with a laugh. The actress admits to some intial trepidation about Devane as well, so she immediately researched him. "When I asked Joan Van Ark [ex-Valene, LK], she raved about him. But when I met him, I thought that maybe it wasn't going to be so great. He likes to throw you off."

"When they were casting," responds Devane, "they were talking about Katherine Ross [Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid], and I was very concerned. A show like this is a grind. It's important for the [lead] woman to have her s--- together. Susan's been around [television] and knows what she's doing. I'm real happy with her."

Another lure of THE MONTROES for Sullivan was the difference between Kathryn and her old FALCON CREST incarnation. "Kathryn's a lot more interesting than Maggie," Sullivan remarks. "Maggie was more behind the scenes, whereas Kathryn is a mover and shaker." Sullivan has stayed in touch with David Selby (ex-Richard, FC), but admits the grape life left her a little sour. She wanted her next project to be as different from an ensemble drama as possible. "I wanted to laugh," Sullivan confides. "I did several sitcom pilots, and then I did THE GEORGE CARLIN SHOW - I love George Carlin."

She loves somebody else more: Connell Cowan. He's been her signifcant other for six years. He's also the author of the 1986 blockbuster, Smart Women, Foolish Choices. "He wrote it, I lived it," Sullivan cracks. The couple was introduced by Dana Sparks (ex-Vickie, FC) and their courtship was a surprise. "When you're older," Sullivan explains, "particularly if you're a successful female, it's hard to let somebody in. But we balance each other." Happy together, Sullivan feels no need to bow to tradition. "At this point in my life," says the 51 year-old actress, "I feel married to Connell."

Reviewing Sullivan's interviews form the 1980s, they all focused ont he fact that she wasn't married, that her father was an alcoholic and that she did charity work. "Now, I don't want to talk about those things," Sullivan declares. "I think people like to hear about lives that are working, and how they've done it."

Susan Sullivan could give lessons.

SIDEBAR: SMALL WORLD

From 1971-1976, Susan Sullivan played the put-upon Lenore Curtin on ANOTHER WORLD. Lenore found love after the death of her husband, Walter, with Robert Delaney, then played by Nicolas Coster. (Coster went on to play SANTA BARBARA's Lionel and AS THE WORLD TURNS's Eduardo, among other roles.) Lenore was black-mailed into leaving town with a shifty architect with designs on Robert.

"I could do anything after that," Sullivan recalls of her AW education. "Nic Coster was delightful. He was like William Devane, in that they both create lives on the edge. Nic is always buying a boat, marrying somebody, having a child and needing to work because he's down to his last seven cents."

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Dear Soap Opera Digest Readers,

Thank you for the opportunity to write to you, the fans. Many of you have written and encouraged me over the years and are part of my family and friends - perhaps the greatest pleasure being on a soap affords an actor.

Maggie died a rather bizarre death in the final year of FALCON CREST. I felt, as did the producers, the character was boxed in by a storyline that that had a no- win premise built into it. I felt stifled by playing the same scene over and over and am now trying to do comedy. I appeared in a very different kind of role in DOCTOR DOCTOR earlier this year. I needed a change - that's why I cut my hair!

What I miss most about the show is the structure it provided - it gave my life shape. Now I'm in the fortunate (and unsettling) place of shaping it myself! I just returned from Malaysia, where I found myself warmly embraced by friends of Maggie. FC is playing all over Europe and Asia, so I never feel like a stranger and I am traveling more.

I want to take this time in my life to explore the many areas left neglected by many years of acting. I have a beautiful home that I've enjoyed decorating myself I have a wonderful relationship that I now have time to nurture. I'm playing tennis, riding horses, working with children and trying not to feel guilty about playing instead of working.

Thank you again for letting me tell you how and what I'm doing. I hope you are all doing well - making sense out of what life presents to you. I feel honored to have been a smallpart of so many lives.

Love,
Susan Sullivan

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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

After eight years of mental anguish, Susan Sullivan quits FALCON CREST.

Susan Sullivan is leaving FALCON CREST after playing long-suffering Maggie Channing since its beginning in 1981.

The choice was hers. "Maggie was repeating herself," she says. "I had missed seeing several shows because I was out of the country. When I came home, I watched them back-to-back and I saw myself playing the same scene in every show. I just felt, this is not good for me, this is not good for the show - what are we doing here?"

Frankly, Susan admits that her personal plot suggestion, the marriage of Richard and Maggie, was Maggie's undoing. "I got boxed in by my very own idea," she says. Exploring Maggie as a woman who was addicted to a man who was not really good for her left the character and actress in a rut. "I just felt it was time for me to leave. Also, you know, if I want to do anything else in this business, I'd better try to do it now. I can't wait any longer, but it's been such a good run for me."

Sullivan witnessed the evolution of FC from a "more homey" show that showed Maggie as the eternally supportive wife of Chase Gioberti (Robert Foxworth) an incarnation that she feels viewers most easily identified with - to the "tongue-in-cheek" years when Jeff Freilich was executive producer and Maggie gave birth on Angela's (Jane Wyman) couch.

Maggie's brief bout with alcohol featured Sullivan's most gutsy work in the role and drew on her memories of being the child of an alcoholic herself. "l think if Maggie was going to get involved with someone like Richard, she would have to go into a kind of denial and start drinking," she observes. "It was hard for the audience. They do all these focus groups and a lot of people didn't like to see that in this character, so I always felt badly that maybe it was my own personal pursuit, but I wanted to play it."

Susan would now like a complete change of pace: a sitcom. Sure, she'd like something as good as MURPHY BROWN, but she knows she has been out of circulation. "It's all such a crapshoot out there," she says. "I've had some things offered to me that are not particularly interesting. I'm competing with a big, broad collective group of women from Jill Clayburgh and Marsha Mason to the TV ladies and it is going to be more difficult. I'm doing what everybody is doing, creating some projects of my own."

Maggie is dying a most untimely death - drowning and Susan spoiled the surprise by alluding to it on appearances on late-night talk shows. She regards her eight years on FALCON CREST as the end of a cycle of personal development. "My life has expanded," she says. "I feel that I can take care of myself. I have a beautiful home, I have a wonderful relationship. My life is really terrific and I thank not only FALCON CREST - I thank myself. I thank Susan and Maggie and the people who watched."

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SUSAN SULLIVAN: FROM DAYTIME TO PRIMETIME

We all know the dirt on Susan Sullivan: intelligent, warm, good-looking, sensitive, single, spokesperson for a number of causes. So why does she continue to fascinate?

It could be because she's all of the above, and more. The woman has had an illustrious career, and she isn't shy about talking about it - or anything, it seems.

Originally groomed for the theater, she did some time with the National Repertory Theatre in Washington D.C. before landing a role on Broadway opposite Dustin Hofftnan in Jimmy Shine. But Sullivan knew television might be a more lucrative place to make her mark, and so she switched over to that medium. She played the role of Lenore Curtin on ANOTHER WORLD for four years.

A word or two about Lenore: She was a good-hearted chump, to be blunt. She was married to Walter Curtin, who killed a man and then let Lenore (who waspregnant) stand trial for the crime. She languished in jail while he, a lawyer, defended her. When she was found not guilty she had a brief moment of happiness before he spilled the beans and told her he was the one who had comn-dtted the murder. Suffering from a guilty conscience, Walt decided to turn himself in, but on the way to the police station he was killed.

This put Lenore out of circulation for a while, until she met Robert Delaney (played by Nicolas Coster). The two were wed, but Lenore was the " of person who internalized everything, which really bugged Robert. It bugged him so much he was compelled to have an affair with Carol Lamonte. Bitchy Carol wanted Robert all for herself, so she told suffering Lenom that she knew something about her husband. Lenore, fearing some sort of replay of the horrible incident with Walter, opted to leave town and divorce Robert. End of Susan Suflivan's stint on daytime, and the step toward bigger and better things.

What happened next is like something out of the standard Hollywood Handbook of Being Discovered: Sullivan was acting in a play off-Broadway, and an agent in the audience spotted her and encouraged her to move to Hollywood. In fact, he signed her to a contract which was conditional upon her doing so.

As she told TV Guide, "I was terrified. I had only one contact in California, the ex-husband of another actress in the soap." Apparently the fear wasn't paralysing, because she went on to play a dozen different parts on TV before taking on the role that would win her an Emmy nomination; that of Peter Strauss' lover in the miniseries, RICH MAN, POOR MAN - BOOK II. Believe it or not, she was reluctant about taking that role. She told TV Guide, "The producer took me to lunch, and explained that you can only go so far doing guest roles before you can get used up. He convinced me."

After the miniseries, Sullivan played a gynecologist in two TV movies, HAVING BABIES II and HAVING BABIES III, which led to the lead role in the illfated series JULIA FARR, MD. When JULIA bit the dust, Sullivan became a member of the ensemble on IT'S A LIVING, the series probably best remembered as launching the career of Ann Jillian. She came to FALCON CREST eight years ago, cast as the sweet wife and mother Maggie Gioberti.

In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, Sullivan related that many fans still remembered her as Lenore Curtin from AW, and it prompted her to reflect on the differences in working in daytime as opposed to nighttime. "The essential difference is that when I did a daytime show, every day had a beginning, middle, and an end. We went straight through: we went in in the morning at an ungodly hour, rehearsed, had a dress rehearsal, got into makeup and wardrobe, had our hair done, and shot it.

"On a nighttime show, it's completely broken up. You may shoot the last scene on the first day, do everyone's close-ups - it's all bits and pieces. I always felt the soaps were a nice little oasis for an actor. Some actors disagree and feel you can get into bad habits on them, but you can get into bad habits on nighttime as well."

Sullivan's character, Maggie Gioberti Channing, contrasts wonderfully with that of Jane Wyman, who plays the underhanded elder, Angela Channing. Maggie's marriage to Chase was the model of perfect partnership until Chase threw all his money into Helios Foods and went bust. He ended up in the arms of Connie Giannini, and Maggie, filled with spite and pain, rushed into the arms of Richard Channing. KABOOM! A bomb exploded, Maggie nearly died, but it brought her back to Chase. The two had weathered worse - like a plane crash and Maggie's near brush with death (she had a brain tumor). Chase and Maggie renewed their vows, only to have Chase die shortly after. This left her free to act on her attraction to Richard Channing, to whom she is now wed.

Suflivan remains devoted to the theater - twice while FC has been on hiatus, she's starred in two plays: Fifth of July at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. and Last Summer at Blue Fish Cove in San Francisco.

What can't be underestimated is her devotion to charity work. She is active in the hospice movement, and has been since her father died of cancer. In an interview with Caring, Sullivan stated that her father was in a hospice and that "it united us, it brought us together as a family in a way that we had never felt before." Sullivan is also active in ACOA, Adult Children of Alcoholics. A very interesting wonian, both on and off screen.

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