NEW YORK — Tea Leoni is sprawled across the plush couch of her posh Manhattan hotel suite, contemplating the end of the world.
"I think I'd start smoking. Actually, I have given this some thought. I know I'd want to hang glide if the world is coming to an end," she says, with an appropriate air of gravity, before letting a half-smile take over. "I'd like to play golf naked."
If Leoni seems rather composed in her thoughts on facing Armageddon — literally and figuratively —it is because she has had plenty of time to reflect on the topic. Leoni has spent the lion's share of the past few months filming "Deep Impact," the first of two ultra-expensive disaster movies this summer about a possible close encounter between Mother Earth and humongous comets.
All of which Leoni says led her to consider
her own priorities as
well, and reach some important conclusions
about her new marriage to "X-Files" star David Duchovny, her career, her
privacy, and what aspects of her life come first.
In "Deep Impact," Leoni stars as Jenny
Lerner, an ambitious MSNBC telejournalist who lucks into a career-making
story that, all things considered, she wishes she never had to report.
While tracking down leads in a Washington sex scandal — no, not that Washington
sex scandal — Lerner discovers some very bad news: The president of the
United States (Morgan Freeman) plans to tell the world about the
impending arrival of two devastating
comets.
"To me," Leoni says, " ‘Deep Impact' is so different from other films of its genre." Which is a good thing, because just a few weeks after "Deep Impact" opens, "Armageddon" arrives in theaters with a remarkably similar plot line. Leoni outlines the differences between "Deep Impact" and the competition. "(This film is) looking at a year and half, and not only 48 hours. There's much more time spent on the characters' reactions and emotions. Not just the bombs and the bangs."
Sure enough, during the long countdown to what the movie describes as an "extinction level event," "Deep Impact" is more concerned with intense human drama than splashy special effects. Teen-age lovers are separated, then reunited. Astronauts risk their lives, then consider the ultimate sacrifice while trying to destroy, or at least re-route, the comets.
And when she isn't delivering on-the-air updates in her new job as MSNBC news anchor, Jenny Lerner seeks a reconciliation with her errant father (Maximilian Schell), who divorced her mother (Vanessa Redgrave) to marry a much younger woman.
Playing a newscaster, Leoni says, was the easy part of making "Deep Impact." "That wasn't hard at all," she says. All she did was "start watching more local news, trying to figure out that certain lilt, that cadence, that anchors have. That way of bringing bad news but making it seem like, ‘Hey, look, it's not my news.'"
Of course, there were some changes in portraying an anchorwoman rather than the photojournalist she starred as in her sitcom, "The Naked Truth." She certainly adapted a different look. She gestures to her brownish-hued hair, not at all like the blond coiffure she favored on TV. Which is her real color? "I have to tell the truth," Leoni says, laughing at her own silliness. "I don't remember."
Much harder for Leoni was gathering the confidence to act alongside her well-established co-stars. "You know that thing they used to have on ‘Sesame Street' or ‘The Electric Company,' where someone would sing, ‘One of these things is not like the other?' That how I felt standing there with Morgan Freeman and Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell. So it was very intimidating to be in this film."
Pressed on the subject, Leoni confesses that, despite her veneer of assured self-confidence, she remains painfully insecure about her acting abilities, and often questions whether she really has a future in show business.
"That I've never felt that I was long for this industry has squelched any fantastic ideas I have for future roles. Hell, I'm wondering about next year. Can I even see that? Can I even imagine what the next role will be? I can't. And I don't know if that's due to a lack of faith in myself at the moment."
So far, Leoni agrees, she's had a relatively
easy time of it, beginning with her first break as a lead in an unsold
TV pilot — a "Charlie's Angels" revival — and continuing with her attention-grabbing
role in the short-lived "Flying Blind" sitcom. She received mostly
favorable and occasionally ecstatic notices for "The Naked Truth," a series
that never quite managed to find its audience, or establish a distinctive
style, during its three years on two
networks. And while she prefers not to talk about her first big movie role,
as a decorative slice of cheesecake in "Bad Boys," Leoni remains proud
of her
well-received work as a ditzy adoption-agency
worker in "Flirting
With Disaster."
Still, the self-doubts loom large in
her mind. Even when she gets
great press, Leoni says, she wonders
if she's worthy of it.
"A while back," she says, "there was
this magazine article I read
about me. And going in, I thought it
would be favorable, because
of the enthusiasm I picked up from the
writer. But when I read the piece, I thought, ‘It's funny — he's made me
much more dazzling than I am. I wonder if I'm not enough. I wonder if who
I am is not enough for what people would like. If, because I've gotten
this far, they'd like for me to be a little bit more spectacular. A bit
more glamorous. A bit
more diva. A bit funnier.'
"And I felt very insecure. I mean, I
read this article, this glowing
article, and the irony is, I felt terrible."
Leoni has accepted that as the wife of
an even more famous
showbiz notable, "X-Files" star David
Duchovny, she's bound to
be a fixture in gossip columns for months
and years to come.
But there are far worse things that
come with fame, things that
are bad enough to make her contemplate,
at the age of 33, an
early retirement.
"It's not the press or the publicity,
per se," Leoni says. "It's that publicity can endanger your safety. That
is more real than I think
people are aware of. Having the location
of your home in print.
Pictures of you on your lawn, you in
your car — and, in my
case, potentially someday, me with my
child. It's not the tabloid
stories. It's not the unflattering,
silly pictures. But it is at times
very much linked to the problems that
we can have with — well, I
won't say overzealous fans, because
these aren't necessarily fans. But there are stalkers. There are people
who sometimes cannot make a distinction between the reality of our lives
and the fantasy of what we play on TV or in movies."
Leoni learned about this the hard way
during her co-starring stint
on "Flying Blind." "It was a great awakening
for me," she says, suddenly looking grim and sounding very serious. "Playing
a red-headed nymphomaniac did have a down side. There were
people who believed me to be that person.
And that can be
dangerous." Did she receive threatening
letters? "Yes. And
visits."
Leoni pauses a few seconds, as though
trying to banish the memory through sheer force of will. Then, with a slightly
less pained expression, she continues. "I'm sorry that, usually, when a
celebrity
expresses a concern for this issue,
they're seen as the princess complaining about sleeping on the pea. But
it's not a princess and pea issue. I don't know how to make it sound worthy
of compassion or
thought.
"And I don't like to dwell on it, because
it could cause a paranoia
in me that I don't want to sit with.
But I will tell you that David
and I plan on having a family at some
point. And should I feel
that this is threatening to my children
— you bet I could walk
away. You bet I'm out of it. Without
a thought. It's not that important."