Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
August 8, 2007.
"I did Celebrity Poker, and it was the
first time I ever played," actress Gail O'Grady tells me, and this should
surprise me, shouldn't it. You would think that the beauty and the brains
were enough to get her by in life, that those heavy doors swing wide open
for her and wealthy men throw their coats over puddles for her. You would
think so, but instead of the easy way, she seems to thrive on doing it on
her own, which involves poker-like risk-taking and putting herself on the
line.
So
what's a little poker on national television when you've never played
before?
"It was
a little scary because the game is so popular and those people are serious
about their poker," she says, but then looks at this way. "I like games. I
grew up playing board games and cards."
This
ballsy attitude is what kept her going as she came of age playing the most
dangerous, risky and thrilling game of all: surviving in Hollywood as an
actress, into her forties, and with a young child.
From the
day she left a successful modeling career in Chicago and came to LA, O'Grady
has had more than her share of high-stakes, bluffing and flushes.
Sure,
she has co-starred in one of the most famous and memorable commercials of
all time as well as in one of the most groundbreaking and popular cop dramas
in the history of television. Don't
always bet against the house, though: she also has experienced the
heartbreak of more than one beloved series being cancelled, pilots not being
picked up and career-dreams-of-a-lifetime fizzling before they even saw the
light of day. And that's nothing compared to the crushing grief of losing
her brother, with whom she was extremely close.
"My
brother was the closest person on the planet to me," she says of her only
sibling, who passed suddenly and without warning, just weeks before she gave
birth over three years ago. "It's been hard. It's not something that you
just wake up one day and [the grief is] gone. It doesn't get easier. You
find better ways to cope, but it doesn't get easier."
Some
coping help has arrived in the form of her son, Michael, who she has chosen
to raise on her own while continuing to pursue an acting career, and quite
successfully.
Of that
challenge, she says, "If I couldn't take Michael to work with me, I don't
think I could continue to be an actor. I didn't have a child to be with
nannies – not there is anything wrong with nannies – but I wanted to raise
my son. For as long as I can do it without a nanny, I'm doing it."
Again,
O'Grady makes that wild turn onto the rocky road, leaving the easy, smooth
highway behind. She was dealt a good hand, but she's still swapping cards.
Her poker face is beautiful but it may fool you.
She
says, "Having a child, it's everything. Whatever people tell you about
having children, until you have one, you don't get it. It changes your life
in every way. It made it mean something. I waited a long time to have a
child. The pro's and con's of that is that I probably have more patience
now, but I also don't have the energy that somebody in their twenties may
have. I can't imagine living your life and not having this experience of
having a child."
Had she
become a mom earlier in life, she may never have scored the classic Pepsi
commercial with Michael J. Fox, in which she plays a new neighbor
introducing herself and asking him for a soda; he goes more than out of his
way to get her one (wouldn't you?). The ad has since become part of
Americana, but for O'Grady, that Pepsi challenge wasn't as fizzy as it may
have been.
She
says, "I was excited to work with Michael J. Fox, but I had no idea how big
the commercial was going to be. Did it make an impact on my life? Not
really. It's like 'if you knew then what you know now,' I probably could
have spun it into something, if only I would have known the importance of
publicity or getting myself out there."
She
remembers the sensation the commercial caused: "I would drive in a car
here [in LA] and my parents would drive around in the car in Chicago, and we
would hear disk jockeys talk about 'the girl in the commercial.' It would
have been good to have a publicist at that time, but I was not that savvy."
Still,
the opportunity lead to others, including an endless string of series pilots
that never received the blessing of any network.
She
says, "Knock on wood, I've been an employed actress since I 'got off the
boat' here. Both episodic television and pilots that didn't get picked up --
being a working actor. You go into these projects with your heart full and
you hope that they're successful and you hope that people will enjoy them as
much as you enjoyed making them. I had really good luck with the series that
I've chosen; most of them at least got picked up. They might not always be
the most successful, but getting a show picked up…most pilots are not picked
up."
One that
did was a revolutionary new drama for ABC called NYPD Blue, which was
considered network TV's first R-rated show, with it's salty language,
graphic sex scenes and violent crimes. In it, she played the sweet but
street administrative clerk, who experienced the underbelly of The Big Apple
first hand. She says, "[Producer/Writer] David Milch used to call my
character 'the Greek chorus.' He said that [the viewer] would know
immediately how they were supposed to feel about whoever showed up in the
precinct. My character was a reactor."
That
reactor sent nuclear shockwaves around the country as the ratings climbed
like the temperatures of O'Grady's fans. However, her role was not the
typical cheesecake, not even on a show that bared breasts and buns (for the
record, she never bared any of hers). All she bared was her soul, and for
her efforts she was nominated for an Emmy Award three times.
Shortly
after her stint on Blue, she moved to series lead in the NBC drama
American Dreams, about a family coming to terms with the turmoil of the
sixties. The show was unceremoniously cancelled after three seasons, and
left millions of grieving fans in its wake.
"American
Dreams' cancellation was heartbreaking," she says. "I was so proud of
it. I felt like [its cancellation] was a mistake. It wasn't a Top Ten show,
but it was a really good show. When American Dreams was cancelled,
people went nuts. I never had a reaction to anything like I had when
American Dreams was cancelled. I still have people coming up to me. I
don't go on an interview or go on any industry-related event where somebody
doesn't say something about American Dreams and how upset they are
that it was cancelled. You can't tell me that people weren't watching the
show. It was frustrating. We were broken-hearted. We were all sad. I would
like to think that NBC, in retrospect, is thinking, 'we should have given it
another year.' They put together a family."
Indeed,
O'Grady stays in touch with a good part of her TV family, including her
American Dreams co-star and frequent TV director Tom Verica.
Coincidentally, Verica directs certain episodes of Boston Legal, the
same series in which O'Grady has a recurring role as a judge.
"Tom
Verica is one of my favorite acting partners if not the favorite acting
partner of all time," she says. "When you do series television, you pray
that the person cast across from you is a Tom Verica: somebody who can act,
obviously, but somebody who you can be with for so many hours a day, who
you're compatible with. He has a generosity of spirit, he's fun. I loved
working with him."
Verica shares the same good vibes about
O'Grady. He says, "Gail was an amazing acting partner. She made me a better
actor and director when working with her."
They
have yet to work on the same episodes of Boston Legal, but she is
still loving every moment she spends on that series. She says, "It's one of
my favorite projects that I've ever worked on. I've called on them in
December, on kind of a fluke, and told [writer/producer] David Kelley how
much I loved the show and how much I wanted to come and do it. I started
there in January and I'm still there. I'm a big fan of Kelley's writing. And
it's a very different role for me."
In
addition, she has become one of the queens of the Lifetime TV movie, which
has become a cornerstone of the new world of television, outside of the
regular network-TV fare.
"Those are the most loyal audiences there
are," she says of the mostly female fan base of the mega-successful cable
channel. "Man, they love their Lifetime. And Lifetime has been really good
to me."
Still,
that tingling intuition of when a project may not fly gets more perceptive
with time. O'Grady has had her time to fine-tune that sense, but she says,
"I try to have an attitude when things are not going forward, that something
better is coming along or it's the way it's supposed to be. When I was doing
[the ABC sitcom] Hot Properties, the reviews were very mixed and it
wasn't getting good ratings, but we were having a blast doing it, and we
were really sad when that came to an end. The business is changing, and it's
becoming even more difficult. The television world has still not become what
it's finally going to become. It's a very different industry now."
True,
but it sounds like just the challenge on which O'Grady thrives.
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Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted:
August 8, 2007.
