From ‘Angels’ to a ‘Miracle’ for Mary-Louise Parker
“I’ve never been that proud to be in anything, and probably never will be again. I’ll never be able to match that on any level. Everyone was perfect. I loved the wardrobe lady. I loved my driver.”
Mary-Louise Parker is on the phone from Canada, recalling her experience in making “Angels in America,” the HBO miniseries in which she starred with Al Pacino, Meryl Streep and Emma Thompson.
Like many in the cast, Parker has been nominated for an Emmy, her second after an earlier nod for a recurring role on “The West Wing.”
But if nothing will ever live up to her “Angels in America” experience, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to work again, or that anything else she does is only to pay the cable bill.
For instance, Parker is proud of her work in “Miracle Run,” a new Lifetime film premiering tonight at 9.
Parker plays Corrine, a single mother of autistic twins in a drama based on a true story. When the boys are diagnosed with autism at age 7, Corrine is nearly overwhelmed by the challenge of raising her sons alone with little help from the community.
But in the succeeding seven years covered by the film, she overcomes her fears and feelings of helplessness and watches as her sons blossom.
“This is a woman who no one would ever know about except for this movie,” Parker says.
“She was especially heroic. … She had no resources, really, no money. She had to fight for every single thing. It’s one of those stories that you find astonishing, that someone was able to get through it.”
Along the way, Parker got an education about autism.
“There were so many things I didn’t know about autism,” she says. “These oftentimes are really beautiful children from the outside and it’s not immediately apparent that they are autistic at all.
“The people around you might have no idea that it’s an autistic child. They might wonder why you can’t control your child. It’s having people look at you like you’re a terrible parent. Making this film will forever color the way I look at people in public with children who are out of control.”
One parent who helped educate her was actor Aidan Quinn, who plays Parker’s love interest in the film and who has an autistic daughter.
“He was always there to offer suggestions,” Parker says. “He’s so knowledgeable about the subject, about how functional an autistic child is. He’s also a great actor, and he was part of what made me want to do the film.”
Parker, 40, considers herself primarily a stage actress, and she has a Tony (“Proof”), an Obie (“How I Learned to Drive”) and other theater credits, including “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Bus Stop,” to show for it.
But she has never distanced herself from TV and film. Her motion picture credits include “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Bullets Over Broadway,” “Red Dragon” and the recent “Saved!”
“Honestly, as long as I like the writing, I’ll do anything,” she says. “I have no snob appeal.
“Ultimately, I’m a stage actress and that’s how I see myself. I don’t feel that TV and film are my strength necessarily, but I’ve really grown to appreciate people who do it all well.”
The birthday bunch
Singer Billy Henderson (The Spinners) is 65. Comedian-director David Steinberg is 62. Actor Sam Elliott is 60. Actress Melanie Griffith is 47. Rapper Kurtis Blow is 45. Singer Aimee Mann is 44. Singer Whitney Houston is 41. Actress Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”) is 36. Actor Eric Bana is 36. Rapper Mack 10 is 33.