February 24, 2006 |
Pompeo Ponders Grey's Matters
Ellen Pompeo of ABC's red-hot Grey's Anatomy (Sundays at 10 pm/ET) opens up to TV Guide about her gypsy soul, her red-carpet style and how she really feels about Meredith and McDreamy.
TV Guide: You've been in movies with Jake Gyllenhaal, Leonardo DiCaprio and Luke Wilson. Why did you switch to TV? Ellen Pompeo: When there's a very strong female character, it's hard to walk away. In all the great, interesting films, the parts for me were really small, and the only lead parts I could get were in big, giant bad movies — except Old School, which turned out to be really funny. This role lets me balance the art and the commerce.
TV Guide: Are there any perks to your job? Pompeo: Several members of my family have been admitted to the hospital since the show started, and when they feel like the treatment isn't good enough, they say, "Do you know who my niece is?" And suddenly they're in the VIP area, having pedicures in bed.
TV Guide: How much like Meredith Grey are you? Pompeo: She wasn't much of a student, and that certainly was me. The fact that I'm convincing is a huge triumph for me because I'm not that [kind of] book person. I adore books but on my time and not in a classroom. I was very restless. I'm a gypsy at heart. As soon as I turned 18, I started traveling.
TV Guide: Where did you go? Pompeo: I went to Europe, and then I spent three years cocktail-waitressing in Miami in the early '90s when it was fabulous. When I first got there, it looked like a scene out of Scarface: old people sitting on the porches, and all these dilapidated hotels. And then I moved to New York City in the mid-'90s.
TV Guide: And instantly found fame and fortune? Pompeo: Actually, I bartended. My first professional job was a L'Oreal commercial. They dyed my hair fire-engine red. It was supposed to go away after six washes but, you know, bright copper hair doesn't wash out that quickly!
TV Guide: What was your first break on TV? Pompeo: I did Law & Order twice — played a psychotic killer [both times]. The first time, I hired my boyfriend to kill my parents. And in the second one, my boyfriend and I drugged girls to have sex with them and kill them. They rerun them on TNT all the time.
TV Guide: You're becoming an awards-show vet. What have you learned about red-carpet fashion? Pompeo: This is my first time around and I've been having a blast dressing up, but I think the Valentino outfit I wore at the Golden Globes was too fashion-forward for some people. With the 1920s-style wave in my hair, it was a little more New York than L.A.
TV Guide: If you had a very special Valentine's episode, what surprises would it have? Pompeo: A lesbian scene! [Laughs] Speaking of surprises: Did you know that one of the interns is leaving the intern program?
TV Guide: Can you say who? Pompeo: No, but whoever it is knows already. I just know that it's not me.
TV Guide: I'm in shock. Is all this loves-me, loves-me-not with Derek driving you crazy? Pompeo: Personally, I don't approve of Meredith wanting to be more than friends with Derek. I don't condone her kissing a married man, because I don't think that's cool.
TV Guide: What does Meredith need? Pompeo: What she needs is to figure out why everything happened to her. I always thought she met Dr. Shepherd in the bar and got drunk and slept with him on the first night because she used to be a partier. And this was going to be her last hurrah before she really had to get serious. So why did she put her whole career on the line so soon into her internship, and it really wasn't worth it? Now she's starting to figure out it was worth it because he is fantastic.
TV Guide: As is T.R. Knight. Isn't it about time that Meredith notices how badly George is crushing on her? [In the Feb. 19 episode, he appeared to have finally made his move.]Pompeo: I think Meredith is completely oblivious. She's consumed with her mother and Dr. McDreamy. [Laughs] There are certain things that are just going to go unnoticed. |
In Justice Star to Keep Entourage?
Constance Zimmer has played the hippest nun we've ever seen (on Joan of Arcadia) and has held her own when trading caustic barbs with Jeremy Piven on Entourage. So who better to fight the good fight in getting wrongfully incarcerated folk out of the clink on ABC's In Justice (Fridays at 10 pm/ET)? The Queen of Acerbic (our words) postponed her lunch date with a bowl of Peanut Butter Puffins long enough to speak with TVGuide.com about her wide and wild array of roles. TVGuide.com: As I said to your cast mate Jason O'Mara a few weeks ago, I love In Justice and — if I can milk this joke one more time — am glad the Dancing with the Stars results show hasn't been expanded to two hours.Constance Zimmer: [Laughs] Hey, they put that show on [as a strong lead-in] just for us, so I think we're very proud of that.
TVGuide.com: First, the obvious question. Are you related to either soap diva Kim Zimmer, baseball manager Don Zimmer or Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer?Zimmer: No, I am not. I'm going to forge ahead and become the fourth name on that list, when you ask somebody, "Are you related to Constance Zimmer?"
TVGuide.com: Of course, I remember you from Joan of Arcadia....Zimmer: Oh, really? I thought you were going to say Entourage.
TVGuide.com: Well, that's coming up next. So why do you think Joan flew under the radar whereas The Book of Daniel drew so much controversy? Joan had a pierced goth God and all....Zimmer: I think that Joan of Arcadia played a lot more to a simplistic version of religion. Every week there was a different person who represented God — it could have been anybody from an 8-year-old child to a 70-year-old grandmother. I never saw The Book of Daniel so it's hard for me to judge, but that was specifically about a priest, right, who was talking to Jesus?
TVGuide.com: Yep, Jesus with a beard and robe and everything.Zimmer: Yeah, I think that's a little too much for a lot of people to take. Joan of Arcadia was about a girl in high school struggling with everyday life and she just happens to have this notion that there are people we come across every day who could represent God. That's much easier to take and much more like a television show. I always felt that you left the show taking what you wanted to take from it.
TVGuide.com: OK, now we can talk about Entourage. You play Dana Gordon, the Warner Bros. exec in charge of Vince's "Aquaman" film. Will you pop up at all in the third season [starting in June]?Zimmer: Officially, I can say that we're in negotiations. But I can't say anything beyond that.
TVGuide.com: No buzz on whether "Aquaman" will have turned out to be a hit or a bomb?Zimmer: Again, we never know what the outcome's going to be.
TVGuide.com: The sticky wicket, as I see it, is that as Entourage blends fiction and reality, are they at liberty to suggest that a James Cameron film would be a flop? Or are they compelled, since Cameron guest-starred as himself and everything, to have "Aquaman" be a blockbuster hit?Zimmer: But a lot of what's on the show is very over-the-top, and they're not necessarily nice to a lot of people. It's very, very tongue in cheek about some stuff. It's really more about entertainment value.
TVGuide.com: Are you glad to see Jeremy Piven earn critical raves?Zimmer: Yeah... the first sitcom I ever did was Ellen, and that was when I met Jeremy. I have always wondered why he wasn't working more and getting more accolades, because I think he's one of the funniest actors out there. And the fact that all of my stuff [on Entourage] was with him had me so excited. I was like, "Yes! I get to be with Ari!"
TVGuide.com: Even though he's yelling at you half the time.Zimmer: But I get to yell back, which is the best!
TVGuide.com: What drew you to In Justice? Zimmer: The pilot script was really well written. I thought it was different from the other procedurals on the air — getting people out of jail as opposed to putting them in. It's a part of the judicial system that a lot of people aren't aware of, sad to say. I wasn't aware of how many people are in jail who shouldn't be, so that was shocking to me. As an actor, I like to do work that makes people aware in general, whether it's of something as specific as the judicial system or...
TVGuide.com: The fact that nuns don't all wear sensible shoes.Zimmer: Exactly! It's good to mix it up a little bit.
TVGuide.com: Next week's In Justice splits the team into two sides: those that want to exonerate a jailed rapist, and those that stand by the victim's testimony. Where does your character, Brianna, fall?Zimmer: Well, I would not want to give away too much, but it was a wonderful thing to play in that I actually am siding with the victim. I was a little nervous at first because I was like, "Wait a minute. Am I going to come across as being wimpy or as extremely arrogant and bitchy?" There are so many people who want everybody to believe they're innocent. I get that. I've heard that it comes across as a good episode because it questions what we're doing.
TVGuide.com: Of your many guest-starring TV appearances, which one has been your most memorable?Zimmer: Seinfeld is definitely up there because I was such a huge fan and it was the last season of the show — I really got in right under the wire. Mind you, I only had two lines! Elaine was trying to figure out if her boyfriend was black, and I was the waitress in the coffee shop who says, "Do you guys want coffee?" And then I look at the boyfriend and say, "Are you black?" Elaine looks at him just as I say "... or would you like cream?" TVGuide.com: Which role taught you the most about comic timing? You're one of the queens of acerbic.Zimmer: Oh my god, thank you! That's because I'm acerbic, period, and it's not really a stretch, I guess. [Laughs] No, I've just learned something from every job. When I realized that I could get paid to be sarcastic, I was like, "OK, this is fantastic."
TVGuide.com: I feel the same about my job.Zimmer: See, you just take it and run with it.
TVGuide.com: Tell me about Just Pray, the acclaimed short film you did last year.Zimmer: I did that with Cynthia Watros (Lost) and Janel Moloney (The West Wing), and it really was an amazing experience. It was Tiffani [Thiessen]'s debut as a director, and it's an incredible story that a friend of hers, Dean Johnson, wrote. Again, I'm all about stretching myself and this was such a perfect place to do that. The fact that we got into so many festivals — Tribeca, Seattle, Palm Springs — and won awards was just icing on the cake. Doing it could have been enough.
TVGuide.com: Did you first meet Tiffani on Beverly Hills 90210 or Good Morning, Miami?Zimmer: Good Morning, Miami. The second she walked in the door to do a table read, we become best friends forever.
TVGuide.com: Lastly, what TV are you liking these days?Zimmer: I'm definitely on the Grey's Anatomy bandwagon. The writing is really, really amazing, and [series creator] Shonda [Rhimes] really seems to have her finger on the pulse of young people's issues of today. By young, I mean 20 to 40. [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: What did you think of the "Code Black" two-parter?Zimmer: Listen, it was definitely television at its finest as far as the exaggerated version of everything you think could never happen. But I went there and I believed it and the ending... well, I was blown away! [Laughs] |
Monk Star Dishes About Disher
It's tough to get attention — let alone laughs — when you're playing second (or technically third, after Ted Levine's Capt. Stottlemeyer) banana to a lead character who's completely nuts. But as the perpetually goofy brownnoser Lt. Randall Disher on USA Network's Monk, Jason Gray-Stanford manages to do just that... maybe because he's Canadian. (Those Canucks are funny.) Although he's been working consistently in TV and film for over a decade, Disher is the role that got the wide-eyed actor noticed. With Monk in repeats until March 3, Gray-Stanford had time to chat with TVGuide.com about his costars, their deteriorating mental health and that elusive six-fingered man.
TVGuide.com: Were you a big TV-mystery fan before you signed on to do Monk? Jason Gray-Stanford: I used to watch Perry Mason and Columbo when I was home sick from school. Not Murder, She Wrote, though; that was a little soft. It didn't have the edge of Matlock.
TVGuide.com: How did you land the role of Disher?Gray-Stanford: My agent called and said that the producers wanted me to read for a guest spot as a bad deputy mayor in the pilot, and I was like, "Yuck, I'm not doing it. It sounds stupid and it's on [cable]." [Laughs] Then I found out that Tony Shalhoub was attached to [the project] and that Dean Parisot was directing. I'd done my second job ever for Dean, so I came in and read, and Dean said, "You know what? There's this other role that they're writing that I think you'd be better for." That was Disher.
TVGuide.com: Although you've done a lot of other work, is Monk what you're best known for? Gray-Stanford: That's the power of being on a decent television show. But because of Monk, people now place me in everything else I've ever done. They'll walk up and say, "Oh, I love you on Monk. Hey wait... weren't you in A Beautiful Mind, too?"
TVGuide.com: Didn't you do another movie with Russell Crowe? Gray-Stanford: Yep, a hockey film called Mystery, Alaska. It tanked at the box office but it's kind of turned into a cult movie.
TVGuide.com: Did you and Crowe become friendly? Gray-Stanford: We totally hit it off. I even sang backup on his first album, Gaslight, with his band [30 Odd Foot of Grunts]. We went into the studio and I wailed away on a few songs. I think it's since been rerecorded, though. He's got real singers now.
TVGuide.com: Will you ever get a chance to show off your vocal chops on Monk?Gray-Stanford: Funnily enough, in the second episode after the break [airing March 10], "Mr. Monk Goes to the Dentist," Disher questions whether or not he wants to remain on the force. He's feeling a little underappreciated as a police officer so he decides to get his high-school rock band, the Randy Disher Project, back together.
TVGuide.com: Can you do a few bars for us? Gray-Stanford: The song itself is too relevant to the story line for me to blurt it out. You'll just have to wait.
TVGuide.com: Maybe you'd instead like to share some info about that six-fingered guy who supposedly killed Monk's wife?Gray-Stanford: As our creator Andy Breckman says, the day you find out about the six-fingered man is the day the show ends. We're not quite there yet. I know that Andy has a design, but we don't know what it is. When we get a script with a clue about her killer, we're just as excited as the fans are when they see the episode.
TVGuide.com: I may have no idea who killed Trudy, but I am able to solve each week's mystery pretty quickly. Gray-Stanford: Well, there's an old saying in the business that you can always tell the bad guy because it's one of the big guest stars. But on Monk we pride ourselves on making howdunits instead of whodunits. We run the gamut of different types of mystery-solving because Monk's talents spread far and wide.
TVGuide.com: But his "talents" have a dark side. As hilarious as his tics are, Monk's obsessive-compulsive disorder looks pretty paralyzing.Gray-Stanford: It is. I actually think we've all developed OCD since we've been on the show and every year it gets worse. It started with Tony. We'll be about to start a scene and he'll be flicking lint off someone's jacket or straightening someone's tie. Maybe he's getting into character... but maybe he's not. And now I've caught myself doing the exact same thing. The other day, I went to Starbucks and there were these two stacks of cards on a table. One was shorter than the other so while I was waiting for my coffee, I absentmindedly evened them out. My girlfriend looked at me and was like, "What are you doing?" I immediately stopped and ran out of the store, panicked.
TVGuide.com: Even though it's been two years since Bitty Schram left the show, some fans — like me — are still mourning her departure. Gray-Stanford: I think it was sad for everyone because we all had to take a really deep breath and say, "OK, we need to refocus and start again." At the same time we were going into the third season and change sometimes forces you to raise the bar. Traylor Howard's character, Natalie, is now complementing the three boys very well. It just took time. I always say that we had a great Shelley Long; now we have a great Kirstie Alley. |
Hailing The Office's Unsung Heroes!
I've talked a lot about the writers, directors and producers behind The Office [returning with new episodes March 2 at 9:30 pm/ET, on NBC]. But there is another, often overlooked, group of people who are just as essential to creating the environment at Dunder-Mifflin. They are the set-dressing, props and art departments. Led by our production designer, Michael Gallenberg, these departments work together to create our authentic office atmosphere. Michael might be our most underappreciated genius. He has an overall vision for our office environment and oversees even the smallest details. If he does his job right, no one notices. He's not supposed to razzle-dazzle you. He makes sure each department works to create the most real-looking sets possible.
The set-dressing folks, headed by Steve Rostine, choose the desks, the wall hangings, the plants, the lamps. They fill the shelves with random clutter. They are the ones who make sure we have lighted EXIT signs over our fake doors. If you get our Season 1 DVD, you will notice that in the first few episodes my office chair didn't have arms. I really wanted one with arms so I talked to these guys and they ordered a new chair for me. Pretty cool, huh? I'm such a diva.
The props department works closely with the actors, since they are responsible for anything an actor might hold in his/her hand or use specifically in a scene. Pam's teapot, Dwight's bobblehead, Meredith's sippy cup and Phyllis' flowers from Bob Vance are all examples of props. I worked with Philip Shea, the head of our props department, to pick out Pam's engagement ring. We went through two trays of rings before settling on a 14K-gold-and-diamond-cluster ring worth about $80. (Roy's not much of a spender.) Philip also asked me what color teapot I thought would be Pam's favorite. In the Christmas episode, our on-set props assistant, Doug Abrahamson, had to wrap and rewrap the teapot between every take. We did that scene over a dozen times.
The art department is responsible for any type of card, sign, certificate or logo created specifically for our show. For example, they created the Dunder-Mifflin logo. They designed the greeting card that we give to Meredith for her birthday. They also created that horrible poster of the babies playing jazz that Angela gets in the Christmas-party episode. That poster made us all laugh so hard, the writers gave it another plotline in a future episode. Everything is subtle and wonderful.
These guys have a good sense of humor, too. If you look closely at the certificates they made for the walls of the office, they are quite hilarious. Here are some of my favorites:
Rain Forest Harvesters Association presents the One Million Cut Trees Award to Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. Whereas the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company has demonstrated excellence in the total disregard of the environment in its utilization of the vast resources of rain forests across the globe, the association has awarded them this citation.
Or there is this one:
Paper Manufacturers Conglomerate presents the Pulp Tonnage Award in recognition of the company's outstanding use of over 50 megatons of raw pulp in one year.
It is a very popular thing on TV shows to put the names of crew members on the decorations around the set as an inside joke. We have a "Dunder-Mifflin Salesman of the Year" plaque and a "Humanitarian of the Year" certificate that feature the names of several crew members. Our first-assistant director, Kelly Cantley, was upset that her name didn't make it on any of the decorations around the set. I guess she complained, so they made this one up especially for her and hung it on the pole by Stanley's desk:
Whereas it came to our attention that Kelly Cantley was whining that a lowly second assistant director had a plaque with her name on it and whereas Kelly Cantley made a comment on the air regarding that fact... we have decided to give her this certificate because we love her.
So, it's not just the actors and writers who get to have fun. Our crew is pretty darn cool as well. We spend a lot of time sitting around the set, and it's fun to find their little jokes posted here and there. It's like a treasure hunt! Thanks for all your hard work, guys, and for keeping me entertained in the process.Until next week...
Have feedback or a question you'd like to send Jenna Fischer's way? Click here.
For even more Office gossip, check out Jenna's blogs from Jan. 12, Jan. 19, Jan. 26, Feb. 2, Feb. 9 and Feb. 16. Also, click here to see what Dunder-Mifflin's own Dwight Schrute is thinking. |
Survivor Grounds Gal Rocket Scientist
Misty Giles' hesitation to reveal her occupation on Survivor: Panama — Exile Island (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET) just may have contributed to her ouster last week, when the La Mina men surmised that her smarts offered an unfair advantage. TVGuide.com spoke with the self-described "tomboy in high heels" about hanging with the boys, doling out those, ahem, strategic massages, and dining on the tribal delicacy of snail soup. TVGuide.com: What have the reactions been like since your elimination on last week's show?Misty Giles: My friends were like, "I know how competitive you are. You have to have won," and all I could say was, "Watch the show." Everyone's pretty bummed and shocked. TVGuide.com: Last week we saw your tribe feasting on snail soup after entering your seventh day with little food to be had. What exactly does that taste like?Misty: It's terrible! You take some seawater, throw some snails with all the sand and shells in there, and then add some hermit crab. We drank the broth — sand and all — in hopes that it was going to give us some kind of nourishment. I don't know how bad the food choices could have gotten, but I'd rather eat worms!
TVGuide.com: Who had the idea to cook up that concoction?Misty: The whole tribe figured that we could eat this as food, and we were constantly collecting snails.... It was our nightly ritual to eat snails.
TVGuide.com: Was there a lot of talk after Sally lost the spear and thus La Mina's chances at real food?Misty: There was a lot of talk. If only we had that spear, we would have been eating.
TVGuide.com: When the tribes gathered for the reward challenge, Bobby praised Bruce so openly for being the key to the improved morale at the Casaya camp. After learning of the role he played, which La Mina member was most vocal in deciding to send Bruce back to Exile Island?Misty: They made a detrimental move telling us Bruce was the strong one. I didn't want to send him back, mainly because I knew I didn't have the idol and I didn't want to give him a second chance to look for it. I wanted to send one of the younger girls, because I thought by themselves, they'd crack. It was a smart move at the time, but they came back angry and strong.
TVGuide.com: Having been the first one stranded on Exile Island, what was it like? Did you find yourself doing a lot of searching for the hidden immunity idol? Misty: That's one thing you miss on the one-hour show: my searching for three, four or six hours a day, as long as I had daylight. It was a challenge, emotionally and mentally, to stay focused.
TVGuide.com: It was rather strategic on your part to fool the women on your first tribe into thinking you did find the idol.Misty: I thought that was a good backup plan. Danielle walked up to me and said, "If we have to lose, let's get rid of Sally." It really helped me get in with Danielle and Courtney.
TVGuide.com: When I talked to Melinda last week, she said there were times she'd rather have been alone on Exile than be with her tribe. Did you experience any similar feelings?Misty: We were all smart, hardworking and diligent people. There was no drama. We were starving, but we would have great conversations every night at campfire. They don't show this, but we would sing ourselves to sleep. It was a great comfy, cozy environment, as opposed to the dysfunction that was going on at Casaya.
TVGuide.com: That said, who on La Mina did you bond with most? And which person not as much?Misty: I bonded the most with Sally, and I'm cheering for her now. I didn't expect to have that much in common with her. The person I bonded with least was Terry, but sometimes when you have a lot in common with someone, you just seem to repel. I was trying to scheme in my head, constantly thinking about how to get him gone.
TVGuide.com: Prior to tribal council, the La Mina men said they were intimidated by your intelligence. Do you feel that played a role in your oust?Misty: Man, that's why I didn't date in high school. That was the problem! [Chuckles]
TVGuide.com: Terry, for one, said you were "smart as hell and could cause some trouble."Misty: It stinks to be gone because I didn't just walk around going "Oh, please, dear Terry, show me the way." That's not me and that's not ever going to be me. I thought, "Gee, Terry, if you thought I was that smart, why didn't you get an alliance with me?"
TVGuide.com: Can you pinpoint a key factor in your getting voted off?Misty: Maybe they realized I would have been harder to get rid of later. I wasn't physically hurting, but after all the bug bites I got, maybe they thought, "She's getting eaten alive, it's starting to look gross and we should let her go now."
TVGuide.com: Were you strategizing while giving the guys on your tribe massages, or simply having fun?Misty: It was definitely having fun. You want to have a good time out there, but my goal was to stay in the game as long as possible. I knew the young guys were faltering and were on the fence with their alliance, so we started working Austin and Nick. I got absolutely nothing out of it.
TVGuide.com: In your CBS.com biography, you describe yourself as a "tomboy in high heels." What amenity did you miss most on island?Misty: My toothbrush! I have this oral-hygiene fixation and now I walk around with one in my purse all day. I didn't get any luxury items.
TVGuide.com: Other than brushing your teeth for a good long time, what was the first thing you did when you arrived home?Misty: I have two Boston terriers that I absolutely love and missed so much, so I've said I went out for pizza and Italian food, but I really ordered in and watched movies.
TVGuide.com: As far as your occupation, viewers were let in on the fact that you are an engineer but saw you hesitating to tell your tribe at first.Misty: I didn't tell the younger women, but when it came to the other tribe, I figured that because Dan's an engineer and Terry's a pilot, we could bond [over it]. We all got along fine, but it definitely did not aid me in making the right alliances.
TVGuide.com: Did you struggle at all telling La Mina?Misty: I just came right out with it when Dan said he was an astronaut, explaining how working for NASA has been my dream since I was a child. We were talking for a while and I told him I work on a rocket program, but until then no one knew.
TVGuide.com: You've certainly proved your worth, showing that you can hang with the boys!Misty: I do it on a daily basis in my job, but it didn't work on Survivor. Go figure!
Are you addicted to shows like Survivor? Find out the real reason why reality's a hit. |
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