November 15, 2000
From Raleigh to “The West Wing”
By ADRIENNE M. JOHNSON
The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC
Emily Procter is the latest addition to the Emmy Award-winning White House drama.
As Ainsley Hayes on NBC's "The West Wing," Emily Procter plays a smart, confident Harvard-trained outsider, a right-wing Tar Heel shaking up the left-leaning politicos in the White House.
But as herself, Procter mixes those smarts and that confidence with a near-honeysuckle sweetness. She's unaffected enough to find her adventures in Hollywood "exciting" and "amazing." She's modest enough to wonder whether she was any good on last week's episode. She's thoughtful enough to appreciate the near-decade-long wait for this part and the fact that it could be a turning point.
And Procter, a 32-year-old Raleigh native, is generous enough to laugh at the idea that some think her Southern roots are false.
"A lot of people are writing in and saying my accent sounds fake," Procter says. "It's funny, I've always hated when non-Southerners were in movies doing Southern accents. I guess this is my payback."
Over the phone from Los Angeles, Procter's voice does sound a little more down home. But as she points out, she's a different person on "The West Wing." Plus, her tongue is tackling the near-jazz verse that writer-creator Aaron Sorkin pens. "His language is so rhythmic," Procter says. "It's so much fun."
The trip from North Carolina to a fictional D.C. has been lined with fits, starts and serendipity. As a child, Procter says she dreamed of being an actress, "but in the way when you're little you want to be a fireman or a princess." She graduated from Ravenscroft and headed to East Carolina University in 1991 — three years after Sandra Bullock left — majoring in broadcast.
"I took an introduction to acting class," she says. "I tried to get into the theater department, but it was full so I just gave up."
Instead, she became a weather anchor at WITN in Greenville and ended up spending a lot of time watching television. "One day, I thought, 'You know these people have a really good gig,' " she says, laughing at her naivete. " 'How hard could that possibly be?' "
Within two months of graduation, Procter was bound for New York. But a call from fellow Raleigh-born actress Sharon Lawrence changed her plans.
"I have no idea to this day how she got my number," Procter says. "She said, 'I heard you were moving to New York to start an acting career. I'm going to save you five years — move to L.A.' " Procter took Lawrence's advice.
Although she had never been West, Procter's parents were supportive. "In hindsight, I can't even believe how they were," she says. Her father, comparing her experience to graduate school, offered to pay for two years of acting classes.
After arriving in Los Angeles in 1991, Procter's first jobs were as an extra. Though the hours could be long, the work mind-numbing and the pay low, it eventually earned her a Screen Actors Guild card. With it she won a speaking part on "Great Scott," Fox's short-lived 1992 comedy starring then-unknown Tobey Maguire. Her line: "A carton of eggs."
"I practiced it for so long," she says, going over the different inflections she tried. "I was happy to be at work."
Procter did a lot of pilots that never aired. She had small parts in the films "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Jerry Maguire." She did an episode of "Lois & Clark" and another of "Friends." Then in 1997, she landed the leading female role in "Breast Men," an HBO movie starring "Friends" star David Schwimmer and Chris Cooper ("American Beauty").
Contending with the ups and downs of show business hasn't been easy. Procter says she'd vow to quit on a daily basis.
"I hate the term 'overnight success,' because there's no such thing," she says. "A realistic time frame is eight to 10 years. It's a slow walk. The way I see it is you get in line and wait until it's your turn and you study so when it is your turn, you're ready."
Still, 1999 wasn't a bad year. Procter had roles in four films, including "Guinevere" and "Body Shots." At the end of the last television season, she heard that the producers of "The West Wing" were adding a character. "My big joke with my agent was, 'I'm going to be that new character on "The West Wing," right?' " Getting the part would mean the opportunity to be on a critically acclaimed show with crackerjack actors and literary writing. Not to mention a huge weekly audience.
She had to audition three or four times. ("It's a blur because I never thought I would get to read or get the part.") The first time, she so enjoyed the performance of her reading partner that she told him, "You're really good!" She didn't know it was Sorkin. "Thank God, I didn't know or I wouldn't have been able to do it."
The second time she knew that not only Sorkin was in the room, but also producer John Wells ("ER" and "Third Watch") and producer-director Tommy Schlamme ("Sports Night"). She admitted her nervousness to them, "which is a terrible thing for an actor to say." They were nice about it, but she left thinking she wouldn't get the part anyway.
In the end she went up for the part against three women she either knew personally or knew their work. "I just said a prayer that I would do my best," she says. "I felt really good about it afterward."
Some have wondered whether the Ainsley character is based on political pundit Kelly Anne Fitzpatrick. Procter says she was told Ainsley is an amalgam of several people. Ainsley wasn't from North Carolina at first, either. After Procter got the job, Sorkin asked her whether she would like the character to be a Tar Heel. She replied with an emphatic "yes." "It was like score one for the home team," she says. Her family didn't find out until the show aired.
Procter says she's still adjusting to playing the part. "Because Ainsley is a bit of a different instrument inside the White House, part of me feels like one of these things is not like the others," she says. "I'm trying to get comfortable with that.
"But she is such an amazing character. She's representing the right wing; at the same time, she's really an American. She's not just taking an extreme view — it's what she believes. It inspires me to be more of a patriot."
On the other hand, she has had little trouble adjusting to being the newcomer on a multiple Emmy—winning show. There was no hazing, she says, only graciousness. Cast members even offered to rehearse scenes they weren't in with her.
In fact, on her second day, she was resting on a deck near the actors' trailers when she heard a noise she couldn't identify. She followed the sound to the door of Dule Hill, who plays Charlie Young, the president's personal aide. It turned out that Hill, a master tap dancer who has appeared on Broadway in "The Tap Dance Kid" and "Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk," was practicing on a tap board.
"I got to watch him dance," she says, and on the phone it sounds like she's smiling. "I lay on the floor and watched his feet. That moment I felt I was having a complete creative experience. The show is fulfilling and artful even though it is mass-produced."
Ainsley will be on tonight's "West Wing" episode, and then she'll disappear until the episode after Christmas. After that, Procter says, she'll appear off and on "until it emerges what Ainsley is going to do."
Because Sorkin doesn't write scripts in advance, Procter doesn't have a clue what will happen. While some see sparks between Ainsley and Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe), the actress doesn't know if there will be a fire.
But would she like there to be? "Are you kidding? Yeah!"
Although she's finding her place in Hollywood, Procter says North Carolina is still home. "I come back about six times a year." she says. Her parents still live in Raleigh, but her father doesn't want their names mentioned in the media. "This is her success," he says.
Procter says she dreams of a bi-coastal life — half a year in L.A., the other months at the North Carolina shore. In the meantime, she's trying to protect her home state from interlopers.
"When people ask 'How's North Carolina?' I say, 'You should never go there. It's terrible, you should stay out,' " she says, laughing. "We're nice, uncorrupted, our values are intact. We don't need any people to lead us astray."
Posted by Ryo at November 15, 2000 10:44 AM