From: tlg4@po.CWRU.Edu (TJ Goldstein)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek,rec.arts.tv
Subject: An interview with Gates McFadden
Date: 8 Nov 1992 00:43:13 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: tlg4@po.CWRU.Edu (TJ Goldstein)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc5.ins.cwru.edu



 
                              
                   GATES MCFADDEN:  SMALL TOWN
                              
                       KID MAKES GOOD
     
                       by TJ Goldstein
     
     
     
     
     
     At first glance, Doctor Beverly Crusher seems
 like a pretty straightforward person.  But if you
 look deeply enough, you find "the Dancing Doctor,"
 a hint that there's more to that redhead than
 meets the eye.  It would seem that the same goes
 for the actor who portrays the Enterprise's Chief
 Medical Officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation,
 Gates McFadden -- no, it's her mother's maiden
 name -- who took some time out from filming the
 show to talk to us by phone.
     
     Anybody who says that there's nothing to do in
 Ohio should talk to Ms McFadden, who grew up in
 Cuyahoga Falls.  According to her bio, while she
 spent the weekdays excelling at a private school,
 she livened up her weekends by lying about her
 age, stuffing her bras for her costumes, and
 dancing in a kickline.  And that was just high
 school.
     
     In college, she decided to broaden her
 horizons by temporarily emigrating to France to
 study acting under Jaques LeCoq.  "Just learning
 to think in another language allows you to see
 your own culture in a better viewpoint."  While
 she credits a great deal of inspiration to her
 teacher, "the whole experience of going away, not
 having much money, having to make my way in this
 new world that was so beautiful and had so much
 history was quite profound.  Any time you spend
 time in another culture, it's not just a matter of
 visiting the museums, taking a quick week
 vacations or something.  I mean, that can be
 wonderful too but to actually communicate, spend
 the time and all of that, that can be quite
 wonderful."
     
     The company she kept also contributed to the
 experience.  "The people who were in my classes
 were from all over the world.  There were many,
 many languages and all of us spoke French in order
 to communicate.  I had learned French in school,
 but I was dumbfounded when I first got there.  I
 got off the plane and they all spoke so fast, and
 it was so different!  But after two months, I was
 doing great.  You just need to calm down and not
 panic.  I kept doing things like asking for an
 undertaker, but other than that, I made it along."
     
     Since then the world has become considerably
 smaller, and even her hometown is different.
 "Even the physical layout of the town is
 different.  The school I went to is no longer a
 high school, it's an elementary school, the
 elementary school I went to was a private school
 and it's now a city school.  Although, Silverlake
 Village, where I spent a lot of time, that's every
 much the same.  The lake's still there, and I'm
 sure they still have a strawberry festival in
 August, or whenever it was.  There's all sorts of
 budding prepubescent love going on, holding hands.
 I remember all that sort of things.   But the
 town's different.  Shopping malls have changes a
 lot of this country.  Everything's so generic.
 You can buy the Disney stuff all over the country
 instead of having to go to a place where it's
 indigenous. "
     
     She feels the same way about France.  "It was
 really a big deal when I came back.  People in my
 hometown didn't know what a croissant was.  You
 just didn't hear about them.  But now as people
 have traveled more, the world has become smaller
 that way.  I don't know, it's good and it's bad.
 There's a loss, in that you can get everything
 everywhere, but I suppose there's a good side to
 that too."  And just as a side note, next to her
 parents, when she comes home for a visit she most
 looks forward to Swenson's and Stoddard's frozen
 custard.  "The area's just a great place to grow
 up."
     
     As the world changes, so does the way Ms
 McFadden sees her role in it.  Her bio says that
 her time in France "taught her about an artist's
 responsibility to herself."  These days, though,
 that's not so clear cut.  "When I was young, it
 was very exciting to have a thought that we can
 change the world if we all collaborated, but I
 think it's not just an artist's responsibility as
 I think we all have responsibilities to different
 things, whatever we choose in our lives.  I feel
 responsible to my family and also many other
 things and people in my life.  And then how much
 responsibility do I have for people in Yugoslavia,
 and people like that?  You start to think, how
 much do I want to do as an individual?  How are
 you going to live your life?  I don't have a short
 philosophical answer.  I just know that that
 thought informs the way I live my life.  I don't
 know exactly how, but it's something that I
 consider often.  What is my responsibility as a
 citizen, as an actress, as a mother, and on and
 on?  I will say for one that I don't do nearly as
 much as I could."
     
     But, she agrees that perhaps most people are
 like that.  "It's very hard.  Life is so fast
 these days, and we're exposed to so much
 information.  Television makes us a witness to
 such misery.  Also you're a witness if you're
 driving in certain areas, walking in certain
 areas.  It can be next door, wherever.  I think
 it's hard to actually take action.  It's much
 easier to talk about it.  And I have done a lot of
 talking about it and not much action, so I feel
 remiss in that.  My responsibilities to my job and
 to my family take just about all of the time
 available."
     
     And if she didn't have those responsibilities?
 "I really don't know, but I doubt I'd be at a loss
 as to having other interests and doing other
 things.  I love a lot of things, and I'm pretty
 much obsessive about most things I do, whether it
 be gardening, or architecture, or music.  I'd be
 an obsessive hairdresser.  With my experience with
 my wig, I certainly would be."
     
     A former faculty member at both Brandies and
 New York University, she is a trained and
 experienced director, and would like to get back
 to writing someday.  While she sees acting as a
 way of defining herself, she sees writing as a way
 of further defining the way she sees the world.
 While reluctant to broadcast her ideas -- "There
 are things I am working on, but they're not things
 I would discuss in an interview." -- she did joke
 about wanting to write War and Peace (and several
 other extremely long Russian novels).  Ms McFadden
 is also an accomplished director.  Is there any
 truth to the rumor that she will direct this
 season?  "It certainly is news to me.  I've asked
 to direct for six years.  I certainly have no
 knowledge of that.  You know, you guys with the
 computers get the rumors way before we do.  I get
 asked things at conventions and I'll say, 'You're
 kidding, is that true?  That's ridiculous.'  And
 I'll go back, and sure enough, it's true, and I
 had no idea."  And for those of you who were
 wondering if the actors who get to direct get to
 choose their scripts, the answer is no.
 "Certainly I would not be able to pick what
 script.  Not at all.  I'd probably get it two days
 before I had to shoot it."
     
     Another thing she might get to do this season
 is take off her wig.  She says that her real hair
 is long and about the same color, but that the
 hair itself is different.  "I have met few people
 who like me better in the wig, let's just put it
 that way.  It would also be a lot cooler."
     
     So it remains to be seen how much of the real
 Gates McFadden we will see.  One thing is for
 certain, though.  There's more under that wig than
 she's letting on.

-- 
Assistant Sysop, SF&F Sig       (GO SCIFI)|TJ Goldstein
Primary Sysop, CWRU Safety Sig (GO SAFETY)|tlg4@Cleveland.Freenet.Edu
Chat Coord., Academy One Sim's   (GO ACAD)|
                   It's not my fault, I had pneumonia.