Parade Magazine
September 20th, 1998
In Step With Laura Innes
By James Brady
Personal:
Born Aug. 16, 1959, in Pontiac, Mich.
Married to David Brisbin since 1988; one son, Cal.
When TV’s most successful dramatic series, ER, returns to NBC this week, Laura Innes will be back for a fourth season, playing perhaps the show’s most intricately textured character, Dr. Kerry Weaver.
Laura called me on a Saturday afternoon last month. "It’s a lovely day," she said, "and I’m in Venice looking out at canals." The "Venice" where Laura lives with her family is in Southern California, not Italy. She’d already returned to work on the new ER season, and I asked if the cast was fixated on George Clooney’s impending departure and the new big-bucks contract for Anthony Edwards. Or did they just shrug off the hype?
"We do shrug it off," Laura said. "The money and the deals we all have our process in our own way. The collaboration is amazingly free of problems, and George certainly takes all with a grain of salt. Tony, as well."
PR material about Laura’s character frequently uses the word "acerbic." Does Laura have a favorite adjective to describe Dr. Weaver? "I like it when people say that she does not suffer fools," Laura replied, "that she’s kind of ‘salty.’"
Aside from ER, Laura was in this year’s blockbuster film Deep Impact. "That was a great thing to do," she said. "And the director Mimi Leder, actually started out on our show."
One of six children, Ms. Innes was born in Michigan, where her father an English teacher, got the kids hooked on Shakespeare by driving the family to the famed Stratford Festival in Ontario. At Northwestern, Laura earned her degree in theater. One of her first major roles in Chicago theatre was in A Streetcar Named Desire, playing opposite John Malkovich.
Does having a stage background help with the pressures of a big TV series? "It helps you keep balanced," she said. "It’s a bit different work ethic. One time I was knocked down [in the ER script], and they had a double for me. Onstage, you learn how to fall, and you do it every evening." Without a double taking the bruises.
Laura didn’t make the usual movie during this summer’s hiatus from her series. "The only thing my husband and I did was work on a documentary and try to raise money for it," she told me. "It’s about four sisters in Minnesota (where my husband’s from) who are also nuns--all in their 60s and 70s, activist nuns and very radical. They’re just inspiring." Her husband David, is also on ER now, in a recurring role as Dr. Alexander Babcock, a pediatric anesthesiologist. In Laura’s first season on ER she also was a recurring character rather then a regular. "I had another job in a CBS comedy which didn’t make it. Then I became a regular." On the show, Dr. Weaver uses a cane. Has the reason for the cane ever been explained on the air? "Never," she said. "It’s simply that she uses a cane like many people in the workforce. No big deal is made about it. I suppose one day it will have to be explained." Will her character change this season? "She’s going to try and deal with her own inner self and probably fail miserably." Oddly, Laura sounded absolutely delighted at the prospect.