Get Smart: Jean Smart Profile
By: Kim Atkinson
Last year was a breakout one for Designing Women alum Jean Smart. Though her turn in the critically acclaimed indie film Guinevere failed to snag her a hoped-for Oscar nomination, it jump-started her career, giving her the pick of meatier roles. First up, this July, she appears with Bruce Willis in The Kid (written by Guinevere author Audrey Wells), in which she plays a television reporter who meets a disillusioned businessman trying to recapture the irreverence of his youth. Though she's appeared in numerous films, television shows and Broadway plays, the 43-year old actress is best-known for her five-year stint as Charlene on the successful Southern-fried sitcom Designing Women. "I'm sure that role both hurt me and helped me," says Smart. "It's still on every day in syndication -- there are still some people who think I am still doing that show." Of course, the best part of Designing Women, she adds, was meeting her husband, Richard Gilliland, on the set. Now, there are a few other classics she'd like to take on. "I'd love to do Blanch DuBois, but Jessica Lange already did in on Broadway [in 1992], so they won't do it again for fifty years," says Smart, who knows her way around the business. "Instead," she says, willing to be flexible, "I'd love to play Lady Macbeth." |