Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

Before you went into acting you were a nurse, how did

being a nurse compare to acting?

Oh I loved Nursing. Loved it very much, I miss it. It helps me at
times; my specialty in nursing was psychiatric nursing, so I think that that helped me to portray different types of characters because basically psychiatric nursing is the study of different characters [laughter]. So yeah it’s quite helpful and I still have very fond memories of it.

How is it you made the switch from nursing to acting?

Well it wasn’t quite that fast, I was a nurse and then I married the doctor and then I quit working because I became a housewife and a mother and my marriage lasted 10 years and after that I couldn’t really go back to nursing, I had been away from it for too long, and so after my divorce I developed an interest in community theatre and from community theatre that interest grew into doing professional theatre in Chicago and then I took a job at Disney Land in Florida doing improvisation and that led to my coming out to Hollywood to see if I could do some acting in Hollywood and I was very lucky to see that I had arrived at exactly the right time [laughter]. It’s been a journey not just a switch.

   Your first big break was on the West Wing, how did you get this
  role?

  Well it wasn’t really my first big break, I had had parts in sitcoms but
  it was my first continuous role. I auditioned for it just like any other
  actor in fact I didn’t even realise what it was for, I didn’t realise it
  involved the West Wing of the White House, I thought it involved the
  air force in California [laughter]. It was kind of a surprise when they
  said “you’re playing the president’s secretary”, I said “The president
  of what?” [laughter]. It was kind of fun because the parts that you get
  given to audition with are generally just one or two little scenes. It’s
  probably better that I didn’t know.

  What was it like working on that show and getting to work with
  Martin Sheen?

  It was fabulous. I mean the opportunity to work with Martin and to
  become friends, was just wonderful. I couldn’t say enough about it. It
  was just a dream come true. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there longer but they decided to kill me off and there wasn’t much I could do about that! [laughter].

But really that allowed you to get your part on Desperate Housewives didn’t it?

Well yeah after a while. Actually I did Joan of Arcadia and then Desperate Housewives. I was recurring on Joan of Arcadia first and doing other sitcoms and other dramas and then Housewives came along at a very nice time as Joan of Arcadia was just finishing, I’ve always managed to fall into the next great show, I’ve been very fortunate that way, I think so anyway.

When you first got your role on Desperate Housewives did you know the role was going to be as substantial as it is?

No I didn’t know that but I don’t think they did either; we kind of grew into it together. They enjoyed what I was doing and I injected a certain kind of comedy, I think, into the show and...