From: ET
Online
ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: Is this Kerry's
wild-ride year? Is this the year she comes undone?
LAURA INNES: What I've always loved
about the character is that she is so extreme -- both in her control and
her expertise, or her bitchiness and her rage. She's passionate about
matters. She's extreme in [her] advocacy for the underdog. Last year and
this year, they have made available to me storylines that allow me to
keep showing different sides of Kerry.
Obviously, the arc last year with the [issue of] sexual orientation was
great for me to play -- to try and make this woman who is so controlling
and so private show different sides of her that you almost couldn't show
in any other way. It's great to have a character that is so controlled
and unhinge her.
Now they are throwing me for a loop and having me make mistakes. For me
as a viewer, I like to see characters in some sort of transformation,
where you see them in a situation that you have never seen them before.
ET: Out of all the characters on the show, it seems that Kerry is
the least developed. How much we will find out about her?
LAURA: One of the things you do as
an actor is you fill in those blanks for yourself. I remember very
distinctly when I first got the part, I imagined what would make this
woman who she is today.
I had this whole back story in my mind -- which was not in the writer's
mind at all -- that her parents had been missionaries, she lived in
Africa and had this repressive religious father. That is what made her
vehemently get into science and medicine: It's something that you can
control.
That was in my mind but I had never talked about it, and then [back in
season two] I read my script, and I was like, "Oh my God!,"
because [it revealed] that she had spent some time in Africa!
So I think there will be things that talk about her history. There's a
storyline that talks about [her] searching for her birth mother, and
that will come up again as the years will go on.
ET: Kerry seems as if she is doing so much to push people away
from her this season. Is she going to be able to come back and make
allies?
LAURA: She has always been somebody
who is not easy with other people and certainly not easy with intimacy.
One of the things that has fueled "ER" over the years is the
politics of the hospital. For Kerry that is a big thing. She is a very
ambitious person. She is very focused on the goal of being successful
and a leader in the hospital and she is also a real expert at what she
does.
She went through the love affair that ended badly last year. I think in
response to that she is full-bore focused on work again. It is slightly
different in that she is making some mistakes. So there are certain
things that are happening to her and will happen in the future where she
starts to become unraveled.
I think people change incrementally. You have an experience that feels
like it changes you completely, and then you fall back into old patterns
or habits or ambitions before you become a more balanced person. So in
terms of her driving other people away, emotionally it feels like a
response to what happened at the end of last year.
In terms of where she is headed, hopefully, that will all balance out in
a way that feels right, but I never want to lose the energy of that
character.
ET: How do you pick which episodes you will direct?
LAURA: In terms of which episode a
director gets, we have no idea. We are assigned a slot and an episode
number. I always have directed during sweeps. That usually means you are
going to get a beefed-up script. In terms of being an actor and a
director, I've only done both once in an episode called,
"Power," which is the first time I directed.
It's a very strange experience because you are essentially using a
different side of your brain. When you are directing it's all about
being the observer and being aware everything that's going on with sound
and background and acting and lighting. It's a very multi-faceted way of
thinking. When you are acting and it's going well, hopefully, you are
just inside the character and the moment and responding to the other
actors authentically.
I would like to [direct] more, because then I would become more
accustomed to it and learn to switch back and forth more easily.
ET: Will we see the return of MING-NA's character or Dr.
Dave?
LAURA: I believe that we are going
to see more Ming-Na, which I am happy about. Dr. Dave I am not so sure
about.
ET: When you signed on with "ER" years ago, did you
know that your contributions would go beyond playing a character on the
show?
LAURA: I had no idea. Originally, I
signed on for the part and it was supposed to be a six-episode arc, and
then the character grew beyond that. I became a regular in the third
season, and after that, I started getting more and more interested in
how the other side of it worked.
Initially, it was survival curiosity. How could I do my job better, and
understand more about what was going on, so I could sink my teeth into
the acting as much as possible? As I started to do that, I got more
curious about the directing, and, luckily, was encouraged by other cast
members and by the writer-producers to pursue the directing, so that is
how that happened.
ET: Can you talk about being a working mom?
LAURA: I work a lot of hours because
I am on a TV show, but I know a lot of families struggle with this.
Luckily for me, I am on an ensemble show, so although I have weeks when
I am super busy, this week I am kind of light in the episode. When I
have a few days, I can be more available.
What I have found is that when you have a challenging job. -- I have one
son who is 11 years old -- take every moment you can and put it into the
family. After I direct, I take my son and we go away for the weekend. We
might go to a hotel and watch movies and hang out -- just the two of us
alone and reconnecting.>
You need to schedule yourself and not get stressed out. If I have to
leave the house early, I leave him a note. Or I call during the day and
leave him a message, so he knows I am thinking about him.
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