Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/835998
T alk to Téa Leoni for ten seconds, and you instantly comprehend that she is: 1. Smart 2. Hilarious 3. Your best friend. At least you want her to be. Leoni, née Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni, was born in New York City, and educated in some of the East Coast's finest prep schools (Brearley and Putney) and Sarah Lawrence College. The daughter of a nutritionist and corporate lawyer, Leoni was greatly influenced by the work of her grandmother, Helenka Pantaleoni, a Broadway and silent film star and cofounder/president of UNICEF. Leoni's signature fashion accessory is her grand- mother's pearl necklace, and her career has honored many of Helenka's choices. She's starred in a hit TV series (The Naked Truth), many blockbuster films (Deep Impact, Jurassic Park III, Fun with Dick and Jane), and served as the Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. But when she became a mother (to Madelaine West and Kyd Miller with her ex-husband David Duchovny), she shifted her priority list to focus on her family. In 2014, after a sixteen-year hiatus from broadcast TV, Leoni reclaimed her star status in the leading role of US Secretary of State, Elizabeth McCord, in the CBS drama, Madam Secretary, which was just picked up for a fourth season. Through it all, Leoni says she has found solace in the summers spent in a private family sanctuary near Westport ("I call it Wonk Wonk," she laughs, "So it can remain private."), and a devotion to all things East Coast. You were discovered here in Boston. Totally! I was in the line for a national casting call for a remake of Charlie's Angels at the old Lafayette Place mall in Downtown Crossing. There was a guy from FOX walking through taking names, and I said look, you're spending one or two minutes with each girl. There's about twelve hundred people in front of me. I'm not going get in there 'til Tuesday. And I turned to leave, and he says, 'Wait a second. What's your name?'. And he took a Polaroid of me and said, 'Don't go anywhere. Get back in line.' So I guess that's how I ended up in the tent where I got a call back, because I ended up not walking out. Were you nervous at all? Well, you know what it was? I didn't know enough to have fear. I think everybody else there were scared of it. I was in the middle—as much as a twenty year-old can be—in the thick of life. I was taking a year off from college, I was traveling. I was working as a crew hand down in the Caribbean. I'd just gotten back from Japan and Milan. I just was loving life. And I didn't care. I just didn't have anything invested in it. It just seemed like a kicky thing to do. And at that point, I practically had foot rot for being on the boat so much. So I probably welcomed not going back to that gig right away. By the end of it, it had actually been sort of a beautiful process. What were those early years in Hollywood like? I had an amazing time getting to know Aaron Spelling. As it turns out—here's my claim to fame— my great-uncle (my mother's uncle) was Hank Patterson, who was Mr. Ziffel on Green Acres. He was the dude with the pig, right? So Hank Patterson and Aaron Spelling did films together. They were in these crazy old westerns together, and they'd even done theatre together. Aaron kind of took me under his wing. He was wonderful to me. I'll never forget that guy because he was the real deal. He loved film, he loved television. He really wanted to do something different. Besides being discovered here, you have serious history… Yeah, I mean, it's true! My grandmother was born in Boston. Through my grandmother, we ended up summering year after year in the Westport area… which I started to call Wonk Wonk. Because as time went on and there was more kind of an interest—I was getting more recognized and David [Duchovny] and I got married. I really didn't want anyone to know about this special place—I never want to name it. The last thing I wanted was anyone from Hollywood ever ending up out there. And Hollywood tends to sort of—they follow each other. And this is a deeply private, quiet area. Nobody's impressed. Nobody cares who you are. People are still wearing Tretorns down there, for God's sake. So anyway, I always refer to it as Wonk Wonk. Is it hard not to fall into the Hollywood trap? It's not that hard. I think from the outside people think that Hollywood is all pomp and circumstance and glamour. But the reality of it is that it's a very competitive, kind of a hard place to call home. It's all very transient. Hollywood is sort of like a Banana In Madam Secretary on CBS, Téa Leoni stars as Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, an ex-CIA analyst who re-enters public life after the mysterious death of her predecessor. "I'VE HAD A SPICY CAREER. I'VE HAD IT EXACTLY THE WAY THAT I WANTED IT."