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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Proof positive
TV work is tough, but veteran Dana Delany knows there's a big bright side
ABC Enlarge Image
Dana Delaney prepares for a shot.
HOLLYWOOD -- On a blistering midsummer day in southern California -- one of those days when the preferred plan might be to put the top down, head for the coastal highway and just keep driving -- the metallic brown Audi A5 convertible with the DELUNY licence plate sits stationary, parked near the gate of Warner Brothers Studio while its owner toils inside on an episode in the second season of ABC's Tuesday-night drama Body of Proof.
Dana Delany, Geoffrey Arend (ABC)
Dana Delany, whose list of TV credits includes more than its share of shows that never made it to a sophomore season (Pasadena, Presidio Med, Kidnapped), is fully grateful for the second-year pickup, but also acutely aware of the grind that lies ahead.
On TV
Body of Proof
- Starring Dana Delany, Jeri Ryan, Nicholas Bishop and John Carroll Lynch
- Tuesdays at 9 p.m.
- ABC and Citytv
"You have that moment of, 'Hey, great, this is wonderful,'" she says of receiving news last spring that Body of Proof had been renewed. "And then you go, 'Wow, that's a long schedule.'
"So you take a deep breath and realize, 'I've really got to take care of myself, because doing a show like this is a marathon.'"
On this day, Delany and her castmates have taken a short break from filming to offer interviews and a tour of the show's set to a cluster of TV critics on the final day of the U.S. networks' semi-annual press tour in Los Angeles.
The soundstage is elaborate in its ultra-modern, glass-and-steel design, outfitted with room after room of state-of-the-art coroners'-office equipment that the actors -- with the help of the show's staff of technical advisers -- employ in their weekly crime-solving efforts.
As Dr. Megan Hunt -- a brilliant neurosurgeon forced, by injuries suffered in a car crash, to shift her career into the world of forensic examination -- Delany appears in nearly every scene of Body of Proof, despite storyline shifts this season that delve deeper into Megan's relationship with daughter Lacey (Mary Mouser) and the unexpected romantic entanglement of Hunt's boss (Jeri Ryan) and ex-husband (Jeffrey Nordling).
It's a decidedly more onerous schedule than the one Delany followed during her three-season run as Wisteria Lane mischief-maker Katherine Mayfair on Desperate Housewives, but the actress says she's more comfortable in the lead role now than she was during her star-making turn as China Beach's Colleen McMurphy in the late '80s and early '90s.
Dana Delany (ABC)
"The thing about being an 'older' actor is that you don't have to 'act' so much," says Delany, 55. "It's just sort of there, and as long as you relax, and you know who your character is, you can kind of go anywhere with it.
"The secret is keeping your energy level up. I've learned that you have to avoid eating big meals, because they'll slow you down and you'll just want to take a nap. And as much as I like a drink, if I have a drink the night before, it'll show on my face the next day, and I'll just be so tired. So I have to wait for the weekends, and I welcome Friday nights and a glass of wine."
One thing Delany -- who earned two best-actress Emmys (1989 and '92) during the aforementioned 62-episode run on China Beach -- requested from Body of Proof's writers this season is more situations in which the supremely (some might say irritatingly) self-confident Dr. Hunt turns out to be wrong.
"I just think it's more interesting if she isn't right all the time," says Delany, who has become an active Twitter user (@DanaDelany) since the show's première. "It's better if the others get to be right sometimes.
"I think we're in a pretty solid place in terms of our stories -- we're just going to keep trying to find that balance of mystery, humour and family drama."
The cast of Body of Proof also includes Nicholas Bishop as investigator Peter Dunlop, who handles the most difficult gumshoe work for the (fictional) City of Philadelphia's Chief Medical Examiner's Office; Windell Middlebrooks and Geoffrey Arend as Megan's square-peg underlings, Dr. Curtis Blumfield and Dr. Ethan Gross; and John Carroll Lynch and Sonja Sohn as Philadelphia PD detectives Bud Morris and Samantha Baker, who often take issue with Hunt's I'm-in-charge approach to crime-scene examination.
The series' first nine-episode set was shot on location in Providence, R.I., but production costs and tax incentives prompted Body of Proof's producers to relocate to L.A. for the current season, a move that allows cast and crew to work closer to home.
Which, of course, prompted the bi-coastal Delany to purchase that stylish and very southern-Californian convertible -- a replacement for her previous car, which was totalled in a traffic accident she suffered during filming of the series pilot -- for the daily drive from her Santa Monica home to Stage 2 on the Warner Brothers lot.
And the DELUNY plate?
"I got that because Maria Shriver encouraged everyone in California to get an arts licence plate, because the money you spend on it goes to support arts education in the public school system," she explains. "If everyone got one, we could finally support the arts -- it's embarrassing (that) California is in last place for funding for the arts in the school system.
"So I decided to get one, and then I was trying to figure out what to put on it, and everything's taken. Eventually, I put that on there because a friend of mine used to call me 'D.D. Delooney' -- I didn't know whether to spell it '-L-O-O-N-Y' or '-O-O-N-E-Y', and finally I just thought, keep it short, and for sure everybody will figure it out."
Windell Middlebrooks (ABC)
Hitting new heights
FOR most TV actors, landing a steady job on a network series means a chance at finally living the good life in Hollywood.
For Windell Middlebrooks, it was the High Life that provided a chance at that good life.
Before signing on as Body of Proof's opinionated Dr. Curtis Blumfield, Middlebrooks was one of TV's most recognizable commercial actors, having appeared in numerous TV ads as the no-nonsense beer delivery guy who takes Miller High Life away from pretentious phoneys and stuck-up poseurs.
"The commercials definitely played a part in me getting this (job)," the Texas-born, classically trained performer says. "I'll tell you what -- the High Life commercials sort of get your face out there, and when (my agents) are trying to get me in for an audition, or if someone calls and they're looking for me, they might not know who Windell Middlebrooks is, but as soon as they say, 'You know, the big black man who's taking back the High Life,' they're like, 'Bring him in!'"
When he auditioned for Body of Proof, Middlebrooks drew on his formal training and delivered a reading he thought would fit the part of a TV doctor in a serious, crime-solving drama.
Not so fast, said the show's producers.
"Going into this audition, for a one-hour drama where I'm playing a doctor, I said to myself, 'OK, let's switch gears here,'" he recalls, "And I went in and played Curtis as very serious, a guy who just left Harvard Medical, and they're like, 'Uh-uh -- we need that sassy attitude.' So it ended up being a blend of both.
"The way I look at is this -- yes, the High Life man is a blue-collar guy who's blunt, to the point, and doesn't take any mess from anybody. I just brought some of that over to Curtis, and his relationship with Dana as Dr. Hunt."
In the series, Middlebrooks is most often paired with co-star Geoffrey Arend, who plays the slightly nerdy Dr. Ethan Gross; together, they provide regular doses of levity while often also serving as the storylines' unofficial conscience.
"We don't want to lose the importance of what we're doing -- solving crimes, and how this affects human beings," he says, "but we do bring a little bit of comic relief to the show."
And as for the High Life that provided an on-ramp to the TV-regular good life, well, Middlebrooks says he's in no hurry to leave that guy behind.
"I'm still doing the High Life," he says. "It's one of my favourite things to do."
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 12, 2011 G1
History
Updated on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at 11:27 AM CST: adds photo, formats text, adds fact box
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