STAGE TO SCREENS: Chats with Maura Tierney, Plus "Hamlet 2" Creator Fleming and Actors Astin & Strole
By Michael Buckley
25 Aug 2008
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Maura Tierney
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| photo by Jack Guy | This month we speak to Maura Tierney (Three Changes, "ER"), Andrew Fleming ("Hamlet 2"), and two actors in Fleming's film: Skylar Astin and Phoebe Strole.
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Previews of Nicky Silver's Three Changes began Aug. 22 at Playwrights Horizons. Prior to Wednesday's tech rehearsal, Maura Tierney takes time to discuss the play, as well as her Emmy-nominated role as Abby Lockhart on TV's "ER." (She's already taped her last two episodes, which will be seen early in the series' upcoming 15th, and final, season.)
Telling her that the show's publicist kindly sent me a copy of the five-character dark comedy, Tierney says with a laugh, "Great. Maybe you could tell me what it's about." She describes her New Yorker character, Laurel, as "a professional woman, who's married and has a lovely apartment on the Upper West Side.
"On the surface, she's an ideal wife, but as the play unfolds, you realize how hard she's working — and how hard all the characters are struggling — to maintain the appearance of normal, happy, successful, all these ideas of what the world is supposed to be, and what we're supposed to achieve."
Directed by Wilson Milam (The Lieutenant of Inishmore), the cast is completed by Dylan McDermott (as Laurel's husband, Nate), Scott Cohen (Nate's brother, Hal), Brian J. Smith (Gordon, a 19-year-old runaway), and Aya Cash (Nate's mistress, Steffi). Laurel works as a catalogue-layout designer for L.L. Bean, a job that she tells Hal could be done by "a chimp on thorazine."
Continues Tierney, "I've wanted to do another play since I did Neil LaBute's Some Girl(s) [Off-Broadway, in 2006]. I finished my TV show this year, and I thought it would be smart, coming off that, to challenge myself. It's such a different way of working."
Does she enjoy the rehearsal process? "I do. It's a little bit difficult sometimes to switch back and forth [between media]. I was on 'ER' so long [since 1999], and TV's almost like instant acting. We cover a lot of material in a day, and we don't rehearse that much. You get sort of facile at working that way. You develop certain muscles. You can just turn it on, which I think is a good thing.
"The downside is the other muscles get kind of flabby. You have to switch over and slow down — mentally and physically. You get to think about [character and dialogue] a lot more, and experiment a lot more. It's fun.
"Doing a play once a night, you go from moment to moment to moment. You're in that moment, then you move on. That's exciting! On TV, there'll be a set-up. You do one moment nine, ten, or more times. I'm looking forward to living in the moment and moving through it, as opposed to stopping and doing it again, and then doing a close-up."
Tierney's appeared in 187 "ER" episodes, and particularly enjoyed the (2000-01 season) arc, in which Sally Field played her alcoholic mother. "I think that was the highlight. She's such a wonderful actress, and a really smart lady." (As Maggie Wyczenski, Field won a 2001 Emmy, and between 2000 and 2006, did a total of 11 episodes.)
Might Tierney be willing to divulge Abby's fate on "ER"? "Everything's alright with Abby," she confides. "My character's had so much tragedy and so many hard times that the writers just wanted to give her some peace. Basically, I go off into the sunset with Goran's character. [Goran Visnjic plays Abby's husband, Dr. Luka Kovac.] I think my last episodes will be the second and third of the season."
Once quoted that there was more interesting work on TV than in movies, she clarifies, "I don't think that in general. What I meant was that the stuff they wrote for me on 'ER' was a lot more challenging than anything anyone was offering me movie-wise at the time."
Among movies she made, does she have a favorite? "I loved 'Primary Colors,' and I really enjoyed 'Semi-Pro.' It's hard to choose one." Prior to "ER," Tierney played Lisa Miller in 97 episodes of "News Radio" (1995-99). "I had so much fun on that show."
Born in Boston, she's the eldest of three (two daughters and a son) of Patricia and Joseph Tierney. Her mother's a real-estate agent; her father served eight terms as a city councilman, and ran for mayor.
Growing up, actors she admired included "Jessica Lange, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Al Pacino. My movie knowledge began in the '70s; I'm not familiar with the classics. Films like 'All the President's Men' and 'Dog Day Afternoon' awakened me to wanting to be an actor.
"It's what I've wanted since I was very young. I acted in high school. In college, I was a dance major, my freshman year, but I realized that wasn't what I wanted to be doing. I had a lot of friends in the drama department, and I switched. I felt much more comfortable."
Which role has given Tierney the most satisfaction? "I'd have to say Abby. 'ER' was a great, great, great job for me. I got to work with so many great guest actors." Continued...
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