TV Q&A: "ER"'s Laura Innes
By Jason Alcorn,Hollywood.com Staff
Actress Laura Innes is instantly recognizable for her portrayal of Dr. Kerry Weaver on ER, but she's also been hard at work behind the camera, directing episodes of both ER and The West Wing.Is acting taking a back seat to the allure of directing? And exactly which show does Innes think will win for Outstanding Drama at the upcoming Emmys? The 42-year-old actress sat down with us to discuss.
Laura, how's it feel to be back on the set? It's been great. We've been back since July, but I spent some time with the family in the south of France over the summer. We rented a house with another couple and took it easy. It's something we like to do each year, taking a long vacation.
Happy to step back into the role of Kerry Weaver? Oh yeah. I mean, I can't really say much about what happens thus far, but I can tell you that Carrie's a bit disappointed as the season begins. Some things that she expected to happen at the end of last season don't end up happening for her.
Gotcha. Well, I'm sure you're excited about the Emmys coming up in September. You guys are up for Outstanding Drama again---and your co-star, Maura Tierney, got the nod this time as well. How do you like her chances?
Oh, I love her. I mean, since I worked on The West Wing also, it's kind of hard to choose, since [The West Wing's] Allison Janney's nominated too. It's like choosing between two sisters to me. Although, since Allison won last year, it would be nice for Maura to win. Sally Field snagged a nomination as well---a guest-star nomination for her work as Maura's sick mother. It appears the Academy's certainly recognizing their storyline from last season, but you also had your share of breakout episodes, dealing with the bisexuality issue. Will that storyline be continued this fall? Yeah, we're keeping that a-going. But Elizabeth Mitchell---the actress who played Kerry's lover, Dr. Legaspi---won't be returning this season. She got involved with a new show, called The Beast. I'm not sure how it's doing. Kerry's gone through hell in the past---maternity issues, handicap issues and now the bisexuality angle. Do you feel the show's staying as fresh as it was when you started in '95? Oh, gosh. I think so. The thing with Kerry is that all of this is a natural progression, her troubles. It's a cycle. But I think it's a good thing.
Well, the progression of your career is certainly impressive, adding the title "director" to your plate after helming episodes of both ER and The West Wing.Is the set of The West Wing as hectic as ER's? They're pretty similar shows, actually. It gets pretty crazy on both sets. You've got the long hours on both---the long scripts. But the people are great on both shows. Did you find the directing experience more rewarding than acting? No, not more rewarding, just more challenging. More demanding. But with directing, you end up learning so much. It teaches you a lot about acting, actually. So you'll be directing again in the near future? Oh sure. I'll be doing an ER later this season. Absolutely. Speaking of the near future, ER's going to be going through a bit of a defection at the end of this season, with Eriq La Salle and Anthony Edwards leaving. Are you planning on staying put for a while?
Yeah, I'll be here for a while. I've got at least two more years left on ER Very good. So, any major plot twists in store for Kerry in the near future? Anything you can divulge without fear of brutal reprimand?
Um, I'm not sure what I'm allowed to share with you. Everything's under wraps for now. Let's see, what I can tell you is that there will be some tension between Malucci [played by Eric Palladino] and Chen [played by Ming-Na, and Kerry will get involved in the middle of that. That's really about it. Interesting. Well, time to put ya on the spot: what's your Emmy prediction for Outstanding Drama---ER or West Wing? Oh no! Gosh. Well, I guess I have to say that this is The West Wing's year. I think now's the time for that show.
Innes-directed TV episode wasn't a 'turkey'
By Bridget Byrne, For The Associated Press BURBANK, Calif. -- "ER" star Laura Innes has an Emmy nomination -- for directing a couple of turkeys. The joke is corny but true, and the actress laughs softly as she discusses her burgeoning directing career over lunch at the Warner Bros. studio commissary. A pair of turkeys vying for the annual presidential Thanksgiving pardon provided one of the plot lines in last season's "Shibboleth" episode of "The West Wing." Innes received an Emmy nomination for directing the episode. The awards ceremony, which was scheduled to air Sunday on CBS, was postponed indefinitely after terrorist attacks Tuesday on New York's World Trade Center and on the Pentagon.
Innes plays no-nonsense supervisor Dr. Kerry Weaver on "ER," which begins its eighth season Sept. 20. She began her directing career on the hit NBC medical series.
Her first assignment was the "Power" episode when Chicago's County General Hospital was plunged into darkness by a blackout. When she saw the schedule for the technically complex show, she asked for a meeting with the show's producers.
"I said, 'You are aware that I've never directed anything, right? You are aware of that?' They had this amazing easy attitude about it all. ... I don't know why they had the confidence they had in me, but they did. So that made me have the courage to do it because I thought, 'Well, they think I can do it, so maybe I can.'"
There's no cockiness about Innes, but there is a surety of spirit. She's attracted to the understated, but her point of view is clear, straightforward, quietly confident.
Her pretty face -- usually presented to viewers in its plainest form, hunched and closed off as the ultra-private Weaver -- has a natural charm, free of guile or vanity.
"I tend to be somebody who is more drawn to restraint, to what is unexpressed than to sort of laying my cards on the table," the 42-year-old actress says.
When confronted by the complexity of the "Power" episode, Innes said she had "no time to second-guess myself and to worry too much about what people thought of what I was doing because it was a such a very large undertaking."
More directing assignments for "ER" -- and NBC's "The West Wing" -- followed.
The Michigan-born actress had worked extensively in Chicago and New York theater before moving to Hollywood.
Television presented new challenges."I just got more curious about why the directors were doing the things they were doing," says Innes, who had a recurring role as Weaver in the second season of "ER" and became a regular the following year.
Noticing how stars like Anthony Edwards benefited from being so "camera savvy," she decided to pay attention to the broader picture "to sort of aid me in my acting."
Encouraged by Edwards and others, she began trailing directors, particularly Jonathan Kaplan, who's also an Emmy nominee for directing "ER's" "Visit" episode.
"Laura's really smart and she's able to articulate what she wants -- she's courageous and really strong and she has a point of view," Kaplan says. "She's a terrific actress. The audience loves to hate her, but they also see the subtleties and nuances she brings which allow for some affection for the character."
Innes recognizes that her "ER" character was conceived as "a sort of counterpoint to the other voices on the show, so rather than being someone who was particularly charming or obviously heroic, she was somebody who was sort of matter-of-fact or straightforward."
She enjoys portraying this "very unembellished and direct and not pretty" woman, but was initially surprised by public reaction to her character.
When the first episodes began airing, she overheard a woman at the linen counter in a department store. "She was saying, 'I just want to slap her, I just want to slap her,' and I realized she was talking about me!"
Innes is more concerned about the reaction -- which she says is often relief -- when fans learn that unlike her "ER" character, she doesn't need a crutch.
"God forbid it would be such a bad thing if I was disabled -- that my stock would go down, there would disappointment or anxiety or sadness," she says.
Innes also has strong feelings about Weaver not being characterized as asexual -- a stereotype she says Hollywood too often inflicts on the disabled. Last season Weaver was outed as a lesbian and now returns this season to face her colleagues' reaction.
"It seemed such a good way to pull the rug out from under this very private, tightly coiled person," says Innes, who doesn't want Weaver's enigma to be totally shattered. "I think there is a lot of value in privacy and a lot of drama in the tension between what's unknown and what's known."
Innes will tackle the challenge of directing herself on this season's seventh episode. She's directed her husband, David Brisbin, who has a recurring role on "ER" as an anesthesiologist. Brisbin also played a homophobic politician on one of the "West Wing" episodes she directed.
"He's an incredibly supportive guy," Innes says. "He said, 'I was just thrilled. It was like you were just born to do this.'"
An interview with "E.R.'s" Laura Innes
By Christine Champagne Gay.com Network When "ER's" Dr. Kerry Weaver embarked on a love affair with a woman last season, you couldn't help but root for the lonely doctor to find some happiness. But, alas, her relationship with Dr. Kim Legaspi (Elizabeth Mitchell) ended, and it ended badly.
Gay and lesbian viewers in particular loved this dramatic storyline, at least according to the mail we get at Gaywatch. For her part, Laura Innes, who has played Dr. Weaver since 1994, found the story exciting and challenging to play. "It's great to have a character who is so controlled and then unhinge her," the actress says. "We've done that -- or tried to do that -- with the storyline last year."
Getting involved in a relationship -- not to mention her first lesbian affair -- proved to be difficult for Dr. Weaver. She wanted to keep it a secret, and that's what ultimately caused its demise. Still, we finally got a chance to see Dr. Weaver's personal side.
As we've learned over the years, Dr. Weaver is a private, controlling woman who finds it difficult to be intimate with other human beings. But it looks like the relationship with Dr. Legaspi has at least made her realize it's time to explore her sexuality. In a recent episode, she got up the courage to ask out a female firefighter (played by Lisa Vidal of "Third Watch").
Hopefully we'll see some sort of romance blossom. Thus far this season, Dr. Weaver has been obsessed with work. "She went through this thing last year with this love affair that ended badly, and I think in response to that she has been fully focused on work in the hospital again, but it's slightly different in that she's making some mistakes," Innes says.
Dr. Weaver made a huge mistake when she recently left the hospital grounds and didn't bring her pager, leaving Dr. Chen (Ming-Na) and Dr. Malucci (Erik Palladino) unable to reach their superior during an emergency. The patient the young doctors were treating died, but Dr. Weaver avoided trouble with the hospital brass by letting Dr. Chen shoulder the blame for the incident. Not long afterward, she fired Malucci.
While she has always been known to protect herself at all costs, this all-out cover-up came as a shock to many viewers. "It's fun for the audience to go, 'Oh my God! I can't believe what she just did," Innes says. "I love the fact that Kerry can be a total ball-buster, and I love the fact that she's unedited, and I love the fact that she can be baldly ambitious."
Innes admits it is hard for her to be objective about her alter-ego's actions. "When you play a character, it's almost like they are your child," she says.
As for the audience, fans seem to either love or loathe Dr. Weaver. "The reactions I get from people are completely across the board," Innes says. "I have people coming up to me who just want to belt me. They're so angry. Then, I can walk across the street and go into another store, and somebody can come up to me with tears in their eyes and say, 'Oh, I love the character so much.' I love this broad spectrum of reaction to her."
Dr. Weaver has become an integral part of "ER," but the character was only slated for a six-episode run when she made her debut back in 1994. The producers saw something special in Innes' portrayal of the physically disabled yet incredibly independent physician, and Dr. Weaver became a regular.
Seven years later, Innes still finds satisfaction in playing the character. Over the years, Dr. Weaver's background has remained a mystery, but we may learn more this season. "There is a storyline about her search for her birth mother, and that will come up again as the year goes on," Innes reveals. She's glad the producers have slowly unraveled her character's story. "Sometimes it's a mistake to tell too much too soon because once the cat's out of the bag, that's it. There is no more story about your mom or your dad or your sister. And I also have always liked the way the character is somewhat enigmatic. You wonder, what is her deal? Where is she from? What is motivating her?"
For those of you wondering about Innes herself, she has much more of a personal life than Dr. Weaver. Innes and her husband David have an 11-year-old son, and much of her time away from the "ER" set is devoted to her family. "I work a lot of hours because I'm on a TV show, but I know a lot of families struggle with this," says the actress, adding, "You have to take every moment that you can and put it into the family when you have a challenging job, and in some ways that's easier for us [actors on "ER"], because although we have times when we are extremely busy, we also have days off during the week, and we never work weekends."
In addition to acting on the show, Innes has also directed several episodes, including the critically acclaimed one in which intern Lucy Knight (Kellie Martin) was brutally murdered.
The actress credits co-star Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark Greene), who also directs, with encouraging her to try her hand at the task, which she initially shied away from. The producers couldn't help noticing her interest, though, and eventually gave her an episode. Now she directs episodes of "ER," as well as "The West Wing" when she has the time.
Directing seems like a natural extension of acting. Doctoring isn't. So although she convincingly plays a doctor on "ER", a medical career isn't as likely an option for Innes. You can't help but wonder what Innes' personal physician thinks of Dr. Weaver. Would he seek medical treatment from her? "He's a little scared of her," Innes says, "But he said, 'If I had to go to a doctor, I would go to her.' I thought that was a very good reaction."
Just when you were starting to like her...
Thursday, November 20, 1997
By VIRGINIA ROHAN Laura Innes likens her chillingly steely, sometimes shockingly softhearted "ER" character to someone she once knew and loathed.
"I remember very clearly having a fourth-grade teacher I just hated -- she seemed very mean to me -- and then seeing her out at a restaurant with her kids, and she was snuggling with them," Innes recalls. "I've always felt that people are very capable of functioning one way in the workplace and being very different in private, and I don't see any limits on Kerry Weaver."
Apparently, "ER" writers don't, either. This season, Weaver -- who first popped up as a recurring character in the show's second season, and was made a regular last season -- has assumed an increasingly important role, within the hospital, as well as the wider dramatic arena.
The things that make Weaver so fascinating are her unpredictability (yes, Weaver did write that anonymous, hospital-based romance novel last season, Innes confesses) -- and her mystery. This woman is one multilayered onion.
"We don't really know a lot about her background," Innes says. "We're sort of slowly unpeeling her."
It has never even been explained why Weaver uses a Loftstrand crutch -- and Innes doesn't explain it. The actress, who is not disabled, says she "works with" a woman who had polio.
"When I auditioned for the part, Kerry was written as a character using a cane. The reason why hasn't been revealed on the show, and there's a very nice byproduct of that -- the disability is kind of a non-issue."
Over last season, Weaver showed a different side -- through her compassionate support of Jeanie Boulet (Gloria Reuben), the HIV-positive physician's assistant.
But then, this year, her relationship with Boulet has turned thorny. Recently, Weaver, acting emergency-room chief, had to fire Boulet, for budgetary reasons. And in an earlier episode, she laced into Boulet for violating the carefully defined parameters of how HIV-positive health-care workers should treat patients.
"Most viewers would say, 'My God, she's such a bitch,' but I sort of have to separate myself from how I am coming off," Innes says. "That was the kind of hard-line attitude she needed to take."
But this tough cookie is also heading for a hot romance -- with Ellis West, an efficiency expert.
"Everybody's so happy that I'm finally getting laid," Innes says, laughing. "They think I'll get into a better frame of mind."
The latest developments for Weaver grew out of a meeting Innes had with the show's writers at the end of last season.
"I said, 'You have to give her a romantic life, because one of the stereotypes is that a disabled person is viewed as an asexual person,'" says Innes -- who, before "ER," was best known as the sweet but promiscuous Bunny on the sitcom "Wings."
"I also said, it's really great that she's so tightly wound, but when you're playing that kind of character, you don't want to wind her up so tight that the springs just start busting," Innes says. "She really wants to be this incredibly successful leader in the hospital, but now she's over her head."
It's a far cry from Weaver's arrival in the ER -- when she mainly provided what Innes calls "a real source of sort of steely conflict."
"It was valuable to the chemistry of the show, and as an actress, it was very liberating to play someone who almost had no vanity. She was focused on her job, sort of to the exclusion of everything else in her life," Innes says.
"Television is so populated with characters that kind of exist to be charming and sympathetic, and say 'Like me, like me.'"
Innes came up with a "back story," in her head to explain Weaver's lack of vanity.
"It had to do with her living a lot of her growing-up years out of the country," Innes says.
"I have this idea that her parents were in Africa, which made her almost oblivious to the [American] culture." (The writers have picked up on some of this. During her debut season, Weaver "had an African boyfriend, for like five minutes," Innes says.)
Born in Pontiac, Mich., the youngest of six children, Innes earned a theater degree from Northwestern University. (Clancy Brown, the actor who plays Weaver's love interest, was, coincidentally, a classmate there.)
After graduation, she did theater work in Chicago, then New York. In 1991, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, actor David Brisbin. (The couple have a 7-year-old son.)
Before "ER," she did television guest-stints and starred in Louis Anderson's short-lived "Louis" sitcom. But she got the most attention as Bunny, Lowell's ex-wife, on "Wings."
"It was great fun," Innes says. "She was just this odd duck, a sweet and normal woman, who was just horny all the time. Sweet sluts are fun to play."
What's ahead for "ER" -- and Weaver?
About those stories that "ER" will essentially become a free agent, going to the highest network bidder, at season's end, Innes says, "All that stuff is amazingly separate from us."
As for her character's future, Innes says, "We're continuing the Jeanie thing, which gets more and more kind of painful and sticky, as well as this Ellis thing, which for Weaver is really great."
'ER' gay feedback 'in-house'
By Joanne Ostrow
Denver Post Media Critic
Thursday, January 17, 2002 - PASADENA, Calif. - When television's top-rated drama "ER" launched a gay plot line for Dr. Kerry Weaver (played by Laura Innes), series creator-producer John Wells knew he would receive some negative feedback.
In fact, some of the most virulently negative voices are within Wells' own family.
Certain of his relatives have been "vehemently opposed" to the lesbian story line, Wells said.
"I don't want to name names. . . . I have several people in my family who are very conservative Christians, and I have someone in my family who's been very much involved in trying to prevent gays from being able to serve in Scouts. So you can imagine that some of our dinner conversations are heated."
Wells, who grew up in Denver, is among the most prolific and successful producer-writers in television. In addition to "ER," he is creator/executive producer of "The West Wing" and "Third Watch" on NBC.
His next projects for TV are "The 7th Floor," created by Lydia Woodward, and "The Court," with Carol Flint, starring Sally Field. Wells also has two feature films in the works: "White Oleander," starring Michelle Pfeiffer, and "Double Down," with Nick Nolte.
In the past season, Dr. Weaver, the ER's physically challenged chief of emergency medicine, came out as a lesbian. Kerry is the daughter of Christian missionaries; she is a difficult personality, a source of friction within the hospital staff. The character's first relationship with a staff psychologist ended unsuccessfully when Kerry's own homophobia got in the way; recently she has begun seeing a woman firefighter.
"I think anytime you introduce story lines that make people think, that's how ultimately you change attitudes," Wells said.
The series is treating the subject more thoughtfully than other prime-time attempts.
"Laura asked us and we made the commitment that, if we were going to go that way, it was not going to be kind of a Calista Flockhart kissing," Wells said, referring to the flip, purely titillating view of the topic on Fox's "Ally McBeal."
"What we wanted to examine were the professional costs and the personal costs of trying to come to grips with your own sexuality, if it's not what's normally, conventionally accepted," he said. "We anticipated the reaction."
Wells reports getting a range of letters from viewers, some "very opposed" and some "very thankful."
He also has received "some angry letters from people who say, "Oh, of course you make the cripple the lesbian.' . . . Jeez, you know, we're just doin' the best we can."
A lesbian writer on the "ER" staff is steering the story line. She and her partner have been "happily married for years with a child," Wells said, "and we talk about trying to get into some of those things in the story. We also didn't want to portray it as if it was an easy thing. There are professional consequences, emotional consequences. So we try to be true to it, (but) we also don't want to beat it over the head like, "Here's our lesbian story line.' "
Will this one work out for Kerry?
"We don't know," Wells said. It's the same answer he has given for the relationship between Dr. John Carter (Noah Wyle) and Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield). "We go into these things just trying to see whether the chemistry works, where the story takes you."
Joanne Ostrow is in California previewing network programming. Her column runs Sundays in Arts & Entertainment and Tuesday through Thursday in The Denver Post's Scene section.