I found this very interesting interview with Stockard that happened
back in August. It mainly deals with "Must Love Dogs", but there's a
lot of personal tidbits in there including comments on OUT OF
PRACTICE and upcoming movies.

It's good to know she'll be back for at least a few eps of TWW this
season.

Michelle



http://www.moviehole.net/news/6034.html

Interview : Stockard Channing
Posted by Clint Morris on August 3, 2005

It's been a few moons since Stockard Channing played Rizzo
in "Grease" (1978), but as she proves with her role in "Must love
Dogs", the acclaimed actress has - still got it.

What did you like about playing your character, Dolly?

I think just being able to kiss Christopher Plummer. (laughs). I
mean it's obvious she's sort of out there, so it was nice. I just
thought she was sort of wild and interesting.


BAre you consciously looking for comedic roles because you have a
sitcom coming up too?

That was another thing. Abigail [from West Wing] has her witty
moments but I think basically the whole show is not exactly a side-
splitter. So when the sitcom came I just looked at that so that's I
guess where it came from.


How did they pitch this character to you?

Well, I mean she's of a certain biological age but she didn't have
to go around with fat patches and stuff. I think that's the
phenomenon of our time is that a lot of women keep themselves in
good shape but that there's not a lot of accommodation or people out
there to connect with and the technology. I thought that was funny
that whole thing. And then that kid, I thought that was just great.


How do you keep in great shape?

I work out a lot like everyone else. But I was not left with an
athletic, lean body so I need to workout a lot.


What do you think about online dating? Have you ever done it before?

No, I've never done it. I can barely even run a computer. God knows
what I'd get on online dating. I'd get something that was subhuman
or something. I have no idea how it really works. I just thought it
was kind of funny that this day in age this kind of thing could
actually happen.


As an actress, you character was playing roles in her own life. Is
that something you could relate to?

I never really thought of that. I just thought she was funny.
Really, I just thought this was funny, sort of sweet, touching and
human.


What advice would you give girls who are dating?

You're talking to someone who has been married to various people for
the last 40 years of her life. Dating is not really something
familiar. I've never really been a dater.


Does it surprise you to learn about how dating is going on now?

It's terrifying. I couldn't do it at all. I was never really good at
it, but I can't imagine what it can be like as a fortunate person
not having to deal with it. I mean, people of all ages, not just my
age, 25, 35, all the way down the line. You guys tell me, I don't
know.


Then, what tips do you have to keep a man?

I don't know. Someone said to me you've got to have a short memory.
When it doubt, forget and keep on going. There's a bit of that
involve, which isn't a really stylish thing to say. But I do think
it's a lot about a give and take.


Grease has become some a staple film from one generation to the
next, did you ever think it was going to become this big?

I actually had a feeling it was going to be a successful movie
because it was, I just had a feeling but I had no idea. No one had
an idea of how successful it would be because the technology wasn't
in play. And it's really the technology. The VCRs and now the DVD
that made it. It just keeps impacting geometrically into the
zeitgeist and then it goes off to generations and generations. These
things have a life of there own and never existed when I was growing
up certainly worrying when one would get made. It's kind of amazing
how that one movie kept living through all these years.
Yeah, I mean it's funny how movies that were made in the late 70s
you can see on DVD or VCRs. But the fact that [Grease] caught on I
can't tell you why. But it certainly has.


What about West Wing… will your character be coming back?

I have a commitment to them for 3 episodes. It's funny, I had dinner
with my dear friend John Spencer last night and I'm not in the first
episode, but he's at the beginning of it and he was telling me about
it and I thought this sounds very hot because I think this is
definitely the last year of West Wing. And I think it's sort of
great that they can say that because I think people will start
watching again. And they can do whatever they want because they
don't have to wait around for the acts to fall or whatever and
having that natural end to it I think will only help the series.


Will you be sad at all when that chapter comes to close?

Oh sure, we all were. I think the end of last year when we were
aware of that transition was for everyone in their own way kind of
bittersweet, but it's also what the show's about, one administration
ends and another begins. That's the nature of the reality of the
office. Now I think they're going to examine the implications of
that in terms of the characters. But I've always been slightly
tangential to the series anyway, I mean not out of my choice, but
just the way my character works, etc… I can't imagine what's it's
like for someone showing up every day for the past 6 years.


Do you want to talk about acting with Diane and Christopher?

I've adored Chris Plummer for ages, and I seen him in New York over
they years but I've never worked with him before. But I've had this
tremendous crush on him since Daisy Clover. You ever see that movie?
He's so hot in it. Don't ever think I'd dare tell him. So that was
easy. There was a tremendous amount of ease. Diane is fantastic. And
Elizabeth and I are friends. And Dermot I've known for years, we
made a movie something like 18 years ago. So it was very very easy,
happy set for everybody, which doesn't have to necessarily do with
the end result but that was the atmosphere on set.


What about Gary's contribution, what he brings to a romantic comedy?

I think that he brings his own comedic background and also the role
of television in that you have to be a realist. He would do
adjustments or rewrites and I think he kept a lot of it in his head
to a certain degree. Also, don't forget there's a huge cast in this
movie and I'm not that familiar with the whole just the bits that I
was in, and I was literally in the Warner Brother's lot doing Dolly
and then go across the thing and get into my zipped up suit, put on
another wig and suddenly I was first lady. So for me that was kind
of my focus on trying to get that right. I wasn't around for the
whole movie, so I'm not really an expert on how Gary rated.


You have a couple of films in the can…

I have a Canadian independent movie called "3 Needles". It's
directed by Thom Fitzgerald and Lucy Lui, Chloe Sevigny and I are in
three stories. We never interact. But since the title is "3
Needles", it is about a bit of international drug calamity should we
say. I'm a French Canadian waitress mother… the stories are so brief
that if I tell you who I am, I tell you about the movie. Lucy Lui is
a Chinese worker and Chloe Sevigny is a Montreal girl who becomes a
nun and works in Africa. It's a lot about the corruption of the drug
trade.


What about "Red Mercury"?

That kind of mirrors what happened in London [a few weeks ago].
Potentially a hostage situation and a bomb threat by three guys who
were raised in England of Pakistani decent and so I was thinking
about that…. That wouldn't be taken lightly. It was extraordinary
that we were making it once and never dreamed that such a thing
would actually happen.


You have three movies in the can, a sitcom about to start, you have
the West Wing… do you enjoy working on two or three things all at
once?

I like it obviously. I mean I do like it. It's sort of what I do.
People always make comments like, "You work all the time". First of
all, I wish they wouldn't have to make that comment because I wish
it wasn't so unusual for people be working all the time. And some of
the stuff is crap and some of it is great. Our beginnings do not
know our end. SO basically you show up, do the best job you can and
you try to work with the people you're working with… I think that's
my life, my little creative endeavor. It's not business, it's not
necessarily calculated… I'm ironically doing what I want to do even
though at the beginning I was launched into you should be this kind
of person and then I had a follow up in my first television series
and I was going to be the next Mary Tyler Moore, but nobody asked me
what I wanted to do. It would be interesting if this sitcom works,
so I could be doing one thing all the time instead of going back and
forth between all this different media which I sort of thrive on,
I'm a bit of a moving target in that way.

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