No Scrubs
TV Guide, February 5-11, 1999
By Janet Weeks
"Cut!" Laura Innes jumps from her director's chair, yanks off her headphones, and heads for Erik Palladino, standing across the ER set. Palladino's delivery isn't quite right, and as director of "Be Still My Heart", an episode airing during February sweeps, Innes has the job of pointing that out. But as she nears her castmate, she slows a bit, then fumbles for words the way nice people do when they have to correct a friend.
"In that last part, could you, uh…it was a little…" she stammers. Palladino, who joined the hit drama this season as boisterous resident Dr. Dave Malucci, tries to help: "A little over the top?"
"No. No."
"Was I…"
"Bad?" says Innes. "Not bad…"
"Cheesy?" asks Palladino.
"Cheesy!" Innes says with a smile. "That's good."
Problem solved. "With another director, I'd never joke around like that," Palladino says later. "But I'm very comfortable with her. She has a sense of warmth."
Warmth isn't a quality ER fans might associate with Innes, since her character, Dr. Kerry Weaver, is a black cloud in scrubs who runs the ER with cold efficiency. But behind the camera, it's clear she's more cheerleader than drill sergeant, ending each take with a "Good job!" or "It's working well!"
The 40-year old actress made her directorial debut last spring on ER at the suggestion of Anthony Edwards (Dr. Mark Greene), who had directed a few shows. Edwards says that this time around, "it's fun to see her have more confidence. As well she should: her first effort so impressed executive producer John Wells that he asked her to direct this week's show as well as a spring episode of The West Wing, which he also produces. "I was kind of like, 'Gulp'," Innes recalls. "I said, 'Why would you want me to do this?' and he said, 'I like the way you shoot.' That's very flattering."
But it's her skill fleshing out Weaver -- making her a meanie sympathethic -- that wins her the most accolades, including two Emmy nominations. Innes says the secret to her success is that she loves "playing somebody who's so completely committed to what she does and doesn't care what people think."
She's also very proud of the way the show presents Weaver's physical impairment, the cause of which remains undisclosed. The character may use a crutch, but she's often the most capable doctor in the room. "Hopefully, it's helping people get over [disability] in terms of a label," Innes says. "When I meet people, they say they're so happy I'm not disabled. But what if I was? Would that make them think any less of me?" This attitude comes from experience: older sister Kathy had polio as a child and lost the use of her left arm. "My sister is an incredibly smart, capable person who did everything," says Innes.
The actress was born in Pontiac, Michigan, the youngest of six children. Her father, Robert, was an executive with a tool-and-die company; he passed away in 1995. Mom Laurette, who now lives in Oregon, near Kathy, was a homemaker. Laura says she developed a love of acting in the fourth grade, when she played William Pitt, an 18th century English statesman. (She thought wearing a beard "was so cool".) This love eventually led her to Evanston, Illinois, where she majored in theater at Northwestern University.
After graduating in 1980, Innes spent several years in Chicago's bustling theater scene, acting with the likes of John Malkovich ("A Streetcar Named Desire") and Laurie Metcalf. She eventually made her way to LA; by 1991 she was playing the ditsy Bunny on NBC's Wings.
She joined ER in 1995, during the series' second season. Interestingly, she'd already had several run-ins with doctors: At 1, she swallowed an acorn shell chip that lodged in her throat, requiring three tracheotomies. In 1987, just days after meeting actor David Brisbin in Woodstock, NY, where they were doing summer stock, her appendix burst. He drove her to the hospital and stayed by her side for almost a month. Innes recalls, "I thought, 'This is a guy for the long haul,'". They married the next year.
Then complications during Innes' pregnancy required a three month hospital stay. Son Cal was born in 1990, two months premature, at 3 pounds 4 ounces. Now, says Innes, "he's the kid who never gets sick." That stay helped her form her character: "I have a memory of how doctors behave, that tension between getting involved and staying professional."
While others have left ER -- Sherry Stringfield, George Clooney and Gloria Reuben, with Julianna Marguiles to follow -- Innes has no plans to quit: "I can play this woman I like a lot, be part of an ensemble, and be a mom." And even see her husband, who has a recurring role as anesthesiologist Alexander Babcock. "I'm very grateful for what I have and want to keep it going as long as it feels right."