'The View' Interview
MEREDITH VIEIRA: Jean Smart is now taking center stage. She plays Chelsea Stevens, a homemaking maven who may seem slightly familiar to some in a new sitcom Style & Substance. Please welcome Jean Smart. JEAN SMART: You look lovely, Darling. We're both in black. MEREDITH: Yes we are. Bookends here, except I have a little white. JEAN: We're sort of ninja actresses in our ninja outfits. MEREDITH: I read that you said "No more sitcoms." And here you are in yet another sitcom. What changed your mind? JEAN: Well I had learned a long time ago to never say never. MEREDITH: But you did. JEAN: I didn't say never, but I did say I really didn't want to do another one -- maybe in ten or fifteen years or something. This one was so good, but I did turn it down a couple of times. It wasn't because I didn't think it was great -- I'm such a fan of the writer, who wrote and produced The Larry Sanders Show, which I think was brilliant. So I'm a big fan of his, and I thought the script was great and I thought the character was totally off the wall enough I could really have a good time with her. But I just didn't want to take on that schedule and that commitment. MEREDITH: So what changed your mind? JEAN: Well, it was a few things. One was I came here to New York and did an off-Broadway plan last year and my son came with me, and he had a great time, but going back to school he had a real hard adjustment, and so first grade was very tough for him. And I realized I can't keep dragging him around the country-side, and that was right around the time they came back and asked me one more time if I wanted to do it. Plus, it's a Disney show, and they sent him this big basket of Disney stuff with a note that said, "Dear Connor, please get your mother to read the script to Style & Substance one more time. And remember, when your parents work for Disney you get lots of cool stuff." MEREDITH: So then Connor probably said to you, "Mom, you're taking that job!" JEAN: So I thought that at least deserves me to take a meeting with them. MEREDITH: Gee, I work for Disney -- I didn't get any baskets! Well, y'know Joy's dear friend Martha Stewart was not thrilled about this new show apparently. JEAN: Oh, is she Joy's friend? MEREDITH: Oh, no, I mean, if she was...... I don't even want to go down that road. But I heard that she was upset originally about this. JEAN: Well I heard at first that she wasn't, and then I heard she was. MEREDITH: Have you talked to her at all? JEAN: No, I've never met her. And I've only seen her show twice, and that was over a year and a half ago when I was sick at home in bed -- not because I don't like shows like that, but because I'm usually not home watching television at that time of day. But I feel bad. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and I'm certainly not trying to do a Martha Stewart impression. In fact, we talk about her as a character on the show as if she's my arch rival. So, if anything, we're making it sound like she's the one who's perfect, and I'm the one who wants to be. MEREDITH: You're a Martha Stewart-wannabe. JEAN: When you're #2 you try harder. MEREDITH: Well, have you changed the show at all because of her concerns about it, do you think? JEAN: Well the writers said they made more of a point of bringing up her name in the script to make it clear that I was not her -- that she was another person. MEREDITH: Well we have a clip. Let's take a look. JEAN: Oh yes, this is when I was going to go on a talk show because a New York magazine trashed me and told me I was a twit and mindless. So she wants to go on this talk show sort of like Politically Incorrect to prove that she's smart. MEREDITH: Now do you go on to be bright and charming on the show I hope? JEAN: Oh god. She goes on the show, and she doesn't know anything about the Middle East except that it's hard to get your luggage through security. So, Nancy McKeon, who plays my producer, sits me down and gives me a crash course on the Middle East, so I think that I'll sort of get by. Of course at the last minute they decide they can't do the Middle East because they just did it on Politically Incorrect, so they're gonna do NAFTA -- four years later. And she sort of goes "Has it been four years? Wow." Of course she doesn't have a clue as to what it is, and the other guests are Christopher Darden, Vanna White, Dr. Joyce Brothers, and Buzz Aldren. We had a ball. It was a ball, it was hysterical. MEREDITH: It sounds great! Really quickly, you play the Martha Stewart character, in real life are you anything like her? Are you somebody who can whip up something in the kitchen, or good with crafts? JEAN: Only in my mind, unfortunately. I have all sorts of great ideas in my head that never quite get done. MEREDITH: We're so similar. JEAN: I have such good intentions. I actually did some wallpapering once. But then I thought, I've done that and I don't have to do that again. MEREDITH: Y'know I baked a pie for a pie sale at my son's school. I bought it because no one else would. We're very similar. Be right back with more of Jean Smart and our question of the day. STAR JONES: Welcome back everyone. We're here with Jean Smart, and Jean and Meredith are still gossipping. You all doing the mom thing? We enjoy your work so much, that's what brings us enjoyment. What do you do for enjoyment since you don't watch daytime television -- other than The View which is one of your favorite shows? JEAN: Uh, yes. MEREDITH: She's not a liar. JEAN: Well I must say I spend as much of my free time with my son as I can because he's eight, and he's very entertaining. It's like living with Billy Crystal -- here's this little person who's very funny. But, if I have any free time for myself, I definitely hit the antique stores. JOY BEHAR: I like everything that's old, except my men. STAR: Well we know one of your favorite jobs is being a mom, so we thought today's question would be the opposite of that. Today's question comes from Amanda Abel, who watches us on WJCL-TV in Savannah, Georgia. Amanda asks, what is the worst job you've ever had? So Jean, we'll start with you. JEAN: If it wasn't in show business -- I can think of the worst job I almost had once, but the worst job I probably ever had was my first job. I was fifteen years old, and I was working at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle delivering meals, and we wore white dresses -- white uniforms like the nurses did. And when I was fifteen, I was tall and looked a lot older than I was, so a lot of the patients would assume I was a nurse, and they would just ask me and show me stuff that at fifteen I was just -- I mean this one poor old gentlemen, I can't even -- it was an eye opening experience for a fifteen year old. It was just staggering some times. Trying to unwind the tube from his leg without looking, and "Oh yes, maam, that looks nasty, and I'll go get the doctor." At fifteen it was kind of shocking. I was a pretty innocent fifteen year old. MEREDITH: That's why they confused you with a nurse. They probably saw a cute thing -- STAR: -- wearing a nurses uniform. JEAN: But it was the women too! MEREDITH: Oh there was women? Ok. STAR: You mean the women were showing it too? JEAN: Well, they thought I was a nurse! STAR: You'll come back and visit, won't you? JEAN: I will. I'd love to. STAR: Cuz we love hanging with you, definitely. Best wishes on the new show. Kick a little butt. |