From Ottawa to The O.C.

Bill Brioux/Sun Media

It's a long way from Ottawa to The O.C. and no one knows that better than Kelly Rowan.

"I grew up in Ottawa," says the actress, who plays hottie mom Kirsten Cohen on this season's breakout drama (Mondays at 9 p.m. on CTV; Wednesdays on Fox). "There are 40-foot snow banks in Ottawa and a lot of sun and beach in Newport Beach. It couldn't be more different in terms of where I grew up."

That may be true but Rowan is settling into Orange Country, Calif., nicely, both on- and off-screen. The 36-year-old actress, who squeezed in a promotional trip back to Toronto in March, might as well get used to living in Los Angeles. Besides this year's extended order of 27 episodes, The O.C. has a full order for next season.

Which suits Rowan just fine. Right from the time she first read creator/executive producer Josh Schwartz's clever pilot script, she took to her character, Kirsten Cohen, the sardonic and smart wife of big-hearted public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher).

As fans of the show all know, the Cohens' comfortable, privileged world was given a good shake with the arrival of troubled teen Ryan Atwood (newcomer Benjamin McKenzie), a kid from the wrong side of the tracks whom Sandy defends and then invites to stay at his guest house. Far from being a bad influence on the Cohens' introverted son Seth (Adam Brody), Ryan seems to open doors for the lad.
The babe next door (Mischa Barton) quickly makes Ryan feel at home, too.

Rowan liked the realistic way her character deals with her complicated life. "These characters are flawed, which is great," she says. "At first, it seemed like Ryan was the only fish out of water. But they all are in many ways, I think."

She finds Kirsten to be of two minds. Her character went to Berkley "to escape my Republican background." There she met Sandy and suddenly she was hitch-hiking across Europe and talking of an art career.

Instead, when her mom died, she inherited her father's company and proved herself a savvy businesswoman. Still, at times, she feels estranged from her more laid-back husband and son.

Rowan, who was born in Ottawa but raised in Toronto, worked such Canadian West Coast dramas as Da Vinci's Inquest and The Outer Limits. Besides film work, including Matthew Perry's Three To Tango, she had a recurring role on NBC's short-lived police drama Boomtown when The O.C. came her way.

The fact that Gallagher was attached to the project was a big reason Rowan, who won a Gemini Award in 1994 for the CBC TV-movie Adrift, signed on. She loves that their characters struggle and fight - just like most married couples.

"What's great about our marriage on the show is that it's a real marriage," she says. "We fight and we argue, but we really care about each other."
Occasionally they even get caught kissing, which naturally grosses out the teens. "There are really tender moments," says Rowan. "They're a sexy couple."

When I ask her what it's like to play a "hottie mom" on TV (the actors playing the "teens" in the house are in real life just a decade younger), Rowan just laughs. "It's nice to portray moms in that way. That's an issue with many women nowadays - how do I juggle everything and be sexy at home?"

It's not the first time Rowan has played a mom older than her actual years. In 1991, when she was just 24 and a newcomer to Hollywood, she played Peter Pan's mom in the Steven Spielberg fantasy Hook.

Rowan has heard the comparisons to an earlier Fox hit - Beverly Hills, 90210 - and doesn't dismiss them.
"It makes sense, just because it's a teen-angst drama and is on Fox," she says.

Where the two shows differ, she feels, is the balance in the storylines. Here, the parents actually have lives - interesting lives.

"What's interesting on The O.C. is what happens to the kids affects the parents and what happens to the parents affects the kids. They integrate those stories," she says.

She's quick to credit Schwartz, a California whiz-kid who, at 26, became the youngest-ever executive producer of a prime time network drama, for the mature and compelling storytelling.

It culminates at a big family party in the season finale (airing May 5 at 9 p.m. on both Fox and CTV). "It's going to affect the entire Cohen family - that's all I can tell you," says Rowan, who wrapped production with the rest of the cast in mid-April.

In a year that has seen few scripted shows thrive, The O.C. has been the top-rated new drama in both the U.S. and Canada, where it averages 1.5 million viewers a week. Why? Rowan says to look at the big picture. "There are a lot of things going on in the world right now, wars and other integrity issues," she says. "People are sensing that they'd like to escape. The show has hit a chord on that level and provides a guilty pleasure."

 

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