Brenneman's verdict: 'Amy' is not sweet

Bergen Record - March 18, 2003

By VIRGINIA ROHAN
Staff Writer


"Judging Amy,"

10 tonight, CBS.

Amy Brenneman wants to correct a common misconception about "Judging Amy": Her CBS drama is not, and never has been, the warm and fuzzy feel-gooder critics often make it out to be.

"I was just doing a little piece for the CBS affiliate, and they said, 'You know, it's such a sweet show. It's so family,' and I was thinking, 'It's actually not that sweet,'" says Brenneman. "Not to be ornery for ornery's sake, but if we're doing our job right, you're not going to feel it's sweet. You're going to feel it's real."

The lead characters in "Judging Amy" - Brenneman's Amy Gray, a family-court judge in Hartford, Conn., and her feisty social-worker mom, Maxine, played by Tyne Daly - deal with troubled families and abused and neglected children.

"I ask the writers sometimes, 'Does the network make sure that we mostly have happy endings?' because the reality is that you could go as dark as you wanted to go with his material," says Brenneman, who favors pushing the envelope a bit. "I always think that the losses are more interesting than the wins."

As she chats in a Manhattan hotel suite, the actress cuddles her 2-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who's happily playing with a digital camera.

Brenneman, who is married to director Brad Silberling, says that motherhood has changed her. The Harvard-educated actress takes Charlotte to the set with her and requested an easing of her shooting schedule so she could be home in time to put the baby to bed.

Her motherhood has also affected her divorced character's relationship with her TV daughter, Lauren (Karle Warren).

"The first year, [in reaction] to my own worries of it being sort of soft drama, Amy was a very confident mother, but she wasn't the cuddliest person," says Brenneman. "Then, when I became a mother, I discovered this pull between a mother and a child, and I felt more confident exploring it."

Since its debut in September 1999, "Judging Amy" has become a solid hit for CBS, now averaging 13.6 million viewers. In its fourth season, it regularly wins its time period in households and viewers.

The show is partly based on the career of Brenneman's mother, Frederica, a longtime Superior Court judge in Connecticut and also a Harvard grad. (Now in her mid 70s, she is essentially "a professional sub" in the juvenile court system.)

Judge Brenneman is an unpaid consultant on the series. While developing the series, the actress asked her mom to be the show's official technical adviser, but the judge said she'd feel uncomfortable about receiving any money. And so, Brenneman hired a Massachusetts judge as the official adviser, but her mom reads and gives notes on all the scripts, and corresponds by e-mail with the other judge.

As for the casting of Brenneman's TV mother, the process was difficult until Daly sailed in.

"These women would come in, and first of all, they had too much plastic surgery and were too skinny," says Brenneman, who was even more concerned that these actors were too deferential to her in readings.

"They gave me the power, and I was like, 'This ain't gonna work,'" Brenneman recalls. "Then, Tyne came in - smoking - and she was really [annoyed], because something had gone wrong with parking. She turned to me and said, 'You know, television is a tough gig. You ever done television?' I said, 'Yes, I have.' It was the best audition you could have for Maxine."

This season, the close-knit cast and crew suffered the loss of Richard Crenna, who died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 17. His Jared Duff character was engaged to Maxine. CBS plans to deal with the character's death, of a heart attack during a trip to China, in the April 15 episode.)

"I used to call him Zorba, because he just loved people," Brenneman says of Crenna. "It all went so fast, which pancreatic does. He was totally fine until Thanksgiving, and then he was feeling sort of puny. ... But then, over Christmas, he actually responded well to some treatments, and there was some happy talk that they had caught it in time."

On a somewhat happier note, Brenneman says that Amy Gray will also get a boyfriend before the season is out.

Of course, the show's fans may wonder why the writers have to look any further than Amy's court-services officer, Bruce Van Exel, played by Richard T. Jones. The two share an unmistakable chemistry.

"Well, there's much to say about that," says Brenneman, who is also one of the show's executive producers. "I think they're in love with each other, but someone, and I do not know honestly, truly, if it is my network, the advertisers, or the affiliates, is terrified of that relationship.

"I was talking to a friend of mine, and she said, 'I think interracial relationships are the last frontier.' If you think about it, even in mainstream movies, it's very rare."

Brenneman even called up CBS executives to discuss the issue. (CBS claimed it was the affiliates, she says.)

Although "Amy" is a showcase for 38-year-old Brenneman, the series that changed her life was "NYPD Blue."

"That's where I met my husband and what started this whole stage of my life," says Brenneman, who played Officer Janice Licalsi during the show's debut season. "I loved doing the show, but then, it also deposited me in this brave new world, which I'm really enjoying."


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