Actress Bio

So, what do you call it? Fate? Kismet? I’m in the kitchen and the phone rings. It’s the director, John Landis. I kind of knew John Landis and I kind of didn’t. He was really friends with my ex-husband. “Aren’t you shooting a picture?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says and he takes a beat. “So, what are you doing tomorrow?”

“What?” I say. I’m probably wiping the kitchen counter with a sponge or something.

“Tomorrow,” he says again. You can hear a lot of hubbub around him. He was probably standing on a set. “Gladys Knight was supposed to play this part for me and somebody sent her to Las Vegas,” he says. “So, could you do it?”

I stop moving. “What?” I didn’t know that John Landis even knew I could act but it turned out he had seen a little part I did in my ex- husband, Jeremy Kagan’s film about the CHICAGO SEVEN.

“One scene,” he said. “Okay? Can you do it?”

I guess my heart was slamming – I just remember the whole thing was out of nowhere, like an earthquake or finding a coyote in the kitchen. A big fat present tied with a sparkling bow. Holy moly.

“Okay?” he said, his voice up.

“Okay,” I said.

“Great,” he said. I’ll have the script sent over. And we’ll pick you up in a car tomorrow. Great. Thanks.”

Great. Thanks. Of course there was more of the conversation but it really doesn’t matter. They sent the script, they picked me up. The picture was COMING TO AMERICA. The scene was with Arsenio Hall in a picture with Eddie Murphy and an exceptional cast that turned out to be hilarious. It was a huge box office hit – great for John Landis and great for Paramount – and totally changed my life. And although I never met her, I have secretly been indebted to Gladys Knight (and her Pips) for all these years.

I got an agent. I went on auditions. I landed several guest star roles in terrific television – from Grey’s Anatomy to NYPD Blue, from E.R. all the way to High Potential this year. I played Clint Eastwood’s forger in his movie, ABSOLUTE POWER. Talk about a trip. And up at the top is GOOD FELLAS. Jay Cocks, the Academy Award nominated incredible writer, who is dear friends with Marty Scorsese, had this idea that I could play Ray Liotta’s mother so he calls and says I should put the scene on tape and send it to him and he would show it to Marty. “What?” “Okay.” An actor pal from my improv class came over and my ex-husband shot it in our breakfast room and we sent it to Jay and he showed it to Marty and the next thing you know I was saying “You look like a gangster,” on the big screens all over the world.

So, we’re back to Fate and Kismet. And Moxie. One needs moxie to deal with the rejection. You get the part, you don’t get the part. I walked across a lot of lots to read for a lot of parts. I read for NYPD Blue at Fox ten times before I got the job. And the job turned out to be three episodes with the marvelous Dennis Franz. The deal is you never know. If you love it, you keep going. You get in your car and you walk across the lot. You put yourself on tape. You zoom. You take a breath and you do it.

My friend, Robert Forster, the Academy Award nominated extraordinary actor, had sage advice about auditioning. “You can only be the best that you can be, kid.”

There you have it. That’s acting. Break a leg.