I flew out to Los Angeles to screen test, and I got the part right in the moment. It was a difficult transition as I felt very much settled and happy in New York and I had only been to LA briefly, to shoot The Birdcage. I was such a bad driver that I didn’t get on the freeway in LA for a year.
Playing Ally McBeal was exciting and I was up for the challenge, but it was daunting. It was also very collaborative. Everybody fed each other and we all worked it out together.
We started shooting in July and were on air in September, so there was this beautiful brief time when it was just ours. I remember that very well. Then, very quickly, it became popular.
What I love about his writing is his imagination – there’s no ceiling on it. At first, I thought the dancing baby was really weird. David was so excited about it but I really did not get it.
Then, of course, I realised it was quite brilliant. Ally’s biological clock is ticking, and she’s being haunted by some weird, spooky dancing baby. By nature, I’m a little on the shy side, so I had to find a place in myself to forget about being embarrassed.
I just danced crazy and wild because it was sort of reflective of Ally’s inner life. In one episode – Seeing Green – I was having hallucinations of Al Green. He guest-starred and I had the good fortune of dancing with him.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
