ShareThisBy TERRY MORROW
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Like the frustrated talk show host she plays on "Brothers & Sisters," Calista Flockhart is getting her house in order.
"I've really missed acting," the 42-year-old actress says. "I had other offers to come back, but it wasn't the right time for me. My family had to come first."
As the title character on Fox's quirky drama "Ally McBeal," Flockhart was the poster girl for the single life in the late 1990s. When the show ended in 2002, Flockhart all but gave up acting and focused on her personal life.
She's back with "Brothers & Sisters" (10 p.m., EDT, Sundays, ABC), playing Kitty Walker, a career woman who moved back to her hometown to reconnect with family.
It's not easy. Her mother (Sally Field) is holding a years-old grudge against her. Kitty's brother is in denial about his personal demons while her sister (Rachel Griffiths) dives into work to avoid marital problems.
Even Kitty has a crisis. She has decided to move across the country to accept a new job and leave her steady beau (Matthew Settle) behind.
Off screen these days, Flockhart is settled, content and in mother mode.
She adopted a baby boy, Liam, as "McBeal" came to an end. Around the same time, she became engaged to Harrison Ford. Today, they are a family.
During the four years between "McBeal" and "Sisters," Flockhart assumed a rather unassuming lifestyle. She changed diapers, got up for late-night feedings, went to the grocery store and took her son to the park.
"The only period that has been an adjustment is going from being a full-time mom to a working mom," she says. "I can't quite overstate the dilemma of that. I really want to work, and I really want to be home."
Flockhart dotes over the subject of her son during an interview, but she is careful not to give away too many details. For all her openness, Flockhart is only willing to share so much about her own life.
Since "McBeal" ended, she has occasionally done a play or a guest appearance. Now that her son is going to kindergarten, she saw an opportunity to go back to her career.
Returning to television wasn't what she planned. Her rise to stardom on "McBeal" was a heady time, and one she says she does not want to repeat.
"It was a wonderful experience in some ways and trying in others," she says. "It was what it was ... but I never thought I'd do it again.
"I just about gave up acting. There were chances to do other things, but life got in the way. It wasn't the right time."
She says she enjoyed having anonymity after "McBeal" finished. "I liked not being in the fish bowl," she says. "It's nice because I could take Liam to the park or go to the grocery store. I could go back to being normal."
Flockhart insists she is not the star of "Brothers & Sisters." In fact she says she took the role because the series isn't built around her character. ABC has touted the show as an ensemble, though Flockhart's face is frequently used to market the show.
She insists she isn't the star here. "Brothers & Sisters" gives her work and a schedule allowing her to be with her son more.
"I am sharing this small screen with some amazing people. It makes it more fun," she says. "I like being able to hide behind a character and letting her speak. In real life, I am really boring. I'm a mom.
"Having a son changed my life. It changed my career. He has changed my life in all those cliched. He changed where I go. He changed what I do.
"He has made me who I am right now."
