The Northern New Jersey Recond

May 6, 1999

ACTRESS WAS IN THE DARK DIRECTING `ER' EPISODE

When Laura Innes asked to direct an ER, she didn't know that her episode would air during the frenzied May sweeps -- or how challenging it would turn out to be.

"It's quite an action-oriented episode," says Innes, who plays Dr. Kerry Weaver on the drama. "I sort of anticipated getting an episode in which Hathaway and Corday talk about boyfriends or something, but I got this macho episode. But it was great, because I just had to dive in. And it's sort of an old-fashioned ER, in that it's very much about the medicine, and how these people cope. There's very little about the personal lives of the characters."

A good, old-fashioned dose of ER may be just what the script doctors ordered. Although ER remains television's top-ranked series, ratings have dropped 11 percent since last year.

Possible reasons for the slump: the departure of George Clooney in February; story lines that are generally less compelling; and the simple passage of time -- which takes its toll on the best of dramas.

By coincidence, or maybe positive or wishful thinking, tonight's episode is titled "Power." When a power outage hits the hospital, and the backup systems fail, the doctors have to do what they do best -- fight to save vulnerable patients.

"It has a very different look, because obviously, some of the scenes are very dark or almost completely black," says Innes, whose Weaver character has very little to do in tonight's episode.

The actress calls directing a "natural progression" for her.

"When you're on a show, every day you're watching and soaking it up," Innes says during a teleconference with television writers. "I had come from being basically a stage actress to doing this work out here, and I thought, wow, I had this opportunity to learn this new thing. I found myself imagining how to shoot things."

Co-star Anthony Edwards, who plays Dr. Mark Greene and who, in 1996, became the first ER cast member to direct an episode, noticed what she was doing and asked if she was thinking about directing. "I said, 'Oh, no, I couldn't do this,' and he said, 'Why not?'" Innes recalls.

Not that it was simple.

"It's not easy at all, but the saving grace of being on an ongoing show is that, to a certain degree, there's a machine that exists without a director at all," Innes says. "And as an actor-director on an existing show, you know almost more than anybody about the ins and outs of the set."

One aspect of tonight's episode concerns the dynamic between two former lovers, Drs. Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Corday (Alex Kingston), who "deal with their escalating tension and competition over a fellowship opening." The breakup of this intriguing couple has apparently been far more controversial among viewers than their interracial relationship was -- and lately, the rumor mill has been buzzing big time. One supermarket tabloid claims there's a behind-the-scenes ER war, with cast members aligning with either La Salle or Kingston.

"I saw that in the tabloids, too, and I thought it was really hilarious," Innes says. "It was like all kinds of intense things are going on on the set. I guess I missed it all, because none of it happened."

The tabloid, she says, has blown out of proportion something that happens all the time when actors are given story lines.

"Sometimes, they love them. Sometimes, they say, 'Why are they having my character do this?' And sometimes, you go to {the writers}, and say, 'I don't want to do this.' Sometimes, you have a conversation that convinces you it's OK -- or, they may say, 'OK, let's change it.' It's just part of the process.

"What happened between Alex and Eriq is that {their characters} had this great romance. There was some question from the beginning whether it would continue or not. It's true that Eriq had very strong and valid feelings about this being the role model, because it's such a stereotype for a successful African-American man to seek out a white woman. As far as Alex's response to it, it was 'Oh, I love working with Eriq, but that's too bad. What's next?'" Their characters' aftermath -- the mounting tensions and "more complex relationship between two people who had a passionate love affair" and have to continue working together -- "makes for a nice, layered story," says Innes, whose character once had an African doctor boyfriend. ("Yes, the first interracial relationship before the big one" on ER, she says with a laugh).

Innes joined the show as a recurring character in its second season, while she was also doing the Louie Anderson sitcom, Louie.

"I was originally scheduled to do six shows, and then that grew. I was fortunate. They needed to create conflict, and my character fit the bill," says Innes, who became a regular in the third season and whose ER contract runs for three more years.

While she's "very happy" with Weaver's story lines this past season - including her search for the mother who gave her up for adoption - there is one area that Innes would like to see further developed.

"The character is kind of marginalized in terms of her having personal relationships," Innes says of Weaver, whose unspecified disability requires her to use a crutch. "I think she needs to have a boyfriend ... It's a really big disabilities issue. People with disabilities are shown as asexual, and that's wrong. It's important to show this character having a full life."