 |
I decided to leave Knots Landing for reasons that
seem right to an actress: I had been playing Abby for nine seasons
on CBS, and I had reached a point where I needed new roles and
new challenges. I could have played her forever but it was just
time to let her go and say good bye.
It may surprise viewers who see Abby as an immoral schemer,
but I like her. Her main purpose on the show, of course, was
to stir up trouble. This season alone, she defrauded her partners
of their land holdings, framed her future son-in-law by planting
cocaine in his locker, and had someone doctor Paiges expense
account so that it appeared she was stealing from the company.
Still, she was always three-dimensional. She wasnt just mean.
She never hurt anybody just for the sake of hurting them. When
the writers wanted me to steal Vals babies, I went in and protested
violently. Abby would not have done that
She also had a lot of real strength, which women in particular
like to see. Recently, a woman came up to me and said, I want
you to know Abby is my inspiration. I get up in the morning,
and I look in the mirror and say, Okay, youre going to be tough
like Abby today. That was very gratifying for me because I tried
to play her as a character with some admirable qualities. Of
course, she could be devious when she wanted something and I
didnt see her as a saint, but she wasnt evil.
She had some slow times, too. In the early years of the show,
our stories werent serialized, so Abby didnt have a long enough
range to make much trouble. And in the first six shows this
year, the writers, in a change of pace, had her pretend to be
a good person. I was just a ruse she was testing niceness as
a tool. I didnt say anything for a while, But finally I went
in and said, I cant take this anymore, Shes boring and in a
slump!
But most of the time, she has been a lot of fun to play. For
instance, art and Abby getting together was a very rich juicy
story. Here was this couple-Gary (Ted Shackelford) and Val (Joan
Van Ark)- whom the audience adored, and Abby moved into the
cul-de-sac and stole him away. Then, right after marrying Gary,
she started an affair with Greg Sumner (William Devane), which
I thought was really delicious and outrageous stuff. So, as
we went along, I tried to imbue her with a sense of humor.
In the shows early days, Abby wore budget-store clothes and
worked in that dreary garage. As she made money and became a
successful businesswoman, I argued that her clothes and surroundings
should be more glamorous. Its always been very important to
me that the costumes and the colors were right. Its a part of
the way I created the mood. So I always went with the shows
designer to shop for Abbys wardrobe. But sometimes there were
unforeseeable problems.
For instance, what do you wear to bury a body in cement for
that 1987 episode when Abby buried a body under the playground;
I chose and Escada outfit with a pleated skirt. The fabric must
have been stain resistant-it wouldnt get dirty! I was dragging
this body around and shoveling dirt, and Id get up looking clean
and fresh, with the pleats still intact!
I always felt I understood Abby, which was partly because the
actors on Knots Landing had a lot to do with shaping their characters.
Until a few years ago, we did a read-through of every script
before we started and if something wasnt quite right, we would
talk about it with the writers. Because we were involved, the
characters became very important to us.
I will miss those characters. Even more. I will miss the actors
who play them: I just saw Ted Shackelford the other day and
realized I hadnt seen him in months because we werent involved
in a storyline together. Ted an I are very close friends; we
had a terrific time working together. In fact, my funniest memory
of Knots Landing came from Ted. We were doing a scene together
in which he was taking a shower and I was talking to him over
the wall. He had a towel wrapped around him and, I assumed,
shorts or something underneath. Then the camera was in me for
a reaction shot, and I couldnt see him for a minute or so. When
I looked back, he was mooning me. I guess he had worked it out
with the cameraman and just slipped off the towel. It was so
funny, couldnt continue. Now, its kind of sad no knowing if
Ill ever work with Ted or the others again.
But, being entirely honest Im looking forward to the new projects
I have lined up and to having a personal life again. Knots Landing
was never one of those shows that was cranked out with assembly-line
efficiency. I look back on it and think, Did I really get up
all the time at 5 oclock in the morning Did I really work 16
hour days I love ballet, and I remember having tickets five
nights in a row and not being able to make the first four performances.
On the last night, we were shooting late again, and I was close
to tears, This time, one of our producers, Larry Kasha, felt
sorry for me, and he hired a limo with a kamikaze driver. He
picked me up in the set-which was out on a a ranch in the north
end of the San Fernando Valley-and somehow got me to downtown
L.A. in 20 terrifying minutes.
But, for all its problems, Knots Landing is safe and familiar,
while the future promises to be exciting and scary. For so long,
I have known exactly what I would be doing. But part of the
excitement lies in the unknown. I need some uncertainty in my
life. It causes creativity.
Tales of Donna: As Her Colleagues See Her
Donna Mills isnt the kind of actress her colleagues joke about.
Were serious people, says co-star Tonya Crowe, who has played
Mills daughter, Olivia, for nine seasons. We dont fool around.
But Crowe has recently developed a mentor relationship with
her on screen mother I just turned 18, and Im more involved
in my own career now. My mother doesnt handle it for me. She
turns to Mills, who is known as an excellent businesswoman.
for advice on things like contracts, publicity, clothes and
makeup She knows how to deal with any situation in a professional
and ladylike manner.
Still through the layers of respect, come occasional glimpses
of a complex personality underneath. Joan Van Ark who plays
Valene, remembers the moment- in the early years of the show-when
Mills fixed on playing Abby as a vixen. We had just had one
of those luncheon read-throughs of the script There was a very
heated and emotional discussion. Sparks were flying. Then we
all flounced back to resume filming. She ad I headed for the
makeup mirror, and while she was adjusting that famous eye makeup
and hair she announced, The last thing this show needs is another
sympathetic woman Since I played on of those noble wives, I
thought, How dare she! But it came to pass that she was 150
percent right.
Van Ark continues. Ive known Donna through three different
cars When she joined the show, she was driving a cherry red
Mistang. We all had our 450SL Mercedes and thought it was kind
of small town, a high-school cheerleader car, but she liked
it. Since then she has had the stars classic dark green Jaguar
and what we call the diva car-the beige Jaguar. But, you know,
all of them express a part of her personality.
And writer-Producer Bernard Lechowick has a memory of Mills
that shows her red-Mustang side. She had a party this year,
and, of course, all the bigwigs were there-people like Dynastys
Joan Collins and CBS entertainment chief Kim LeMasters and Knots
co-stars Bill Devane, and Joan Van Ark. But she also invited
crew members and her dialogue coach. and her landscape hardener
and people who once had small parts on the show. She did it
quite ingenuously
Copyright KnotsLanding.Net 2003
|
|
