Interview de Catherine Bell sur MSN

Q&A: Catherine Bell of 'Army Wives'
The former "JAG" star and current Army wife talks about the success of the show, those campaign messages from McCain and Obama that ran before the premiere, and her first celeb encounter with Tom Selleck

By Dave Lake
MSN TV

The second season of "Army Wives" is quietly racking-up huge ratings for Lifetime, while also putting the network on the map as a cable channel with strong scripted series. Catherine Bell, who plays Denise Sherwood on the show, wife of strict husband Major Frank Strickland and mother to angry son Jeremy, sat down to talk with us about the new season.

MSN TV: Have you been at all surprised by the success of "Army Wives"? I know the second season premiere was the most-watched drama series in Lifetime's history.

Catherine Bell: I'm so excited. I kind of had a feeling just by what I was hearing over the summer and people I was meeting on the street. Family and friends were calling to say their friends were dying to see what was going to happen, as we had quite a doozy of a cliffhanger. And then with the writers' strike we had a delay so people had to wait even longer, but for whatever reason it all worked.

Related: Q&A: Kim Delaney of 'Army Wives'
Did you have the same thought before the first season? Lifetime has always had a loyal audience, but this show was kind of different for them.

Yeah, I think it was different for them and I think they were excited about that fact. They were fantastic in the promotion of our show, both last year and this year. They gave us so much and wanted the show to do so well. And that makes all the difference -- to have full-page ads, subways, billboards -- we were shrink-wrapped around the Sunday papers. It was nice to have a network help you out that much, and people notice.

I t was just wild to hear that McCain said his wife is addicted to the show and makes him watch it. And Obama talking about what a timely and important show this was -- that was definitely a trip.
Many of the series and films based around the Iraq war haven't found commercial success. Why do you think "Army Wives" has?

There's always that "X" factor, that unknown reason why a show is a hit. But I think the fact that it's not really about the war directly is what makes it a hit -- we're all dealing with that in our lives, it's on the front page and there's people dying -- and the fact that we're dealing with the people behind the scenes, the families that we don't really hear that much about. Life on a base is like life anywhere, it's just magnified, I think. So that's probably what resonates. It's not, "Oh, the war again! I don't want to hear about the war."

It seemed like quite a coup for the show that John McCain and Barack Obama taped segments that would appear before the season opener. What was your reaction to seeing the pieces?

It was just wild to hear that McCain said his wife is addicted to the show and makes him watch it. And Obama talking about what a timely and important show this was -- that was definitely a trip.

Well, McCain has also said that he's never missed an episode of "The Hills," so go figure.

When "JAG" first became successful I went to this CBS party, and there's Tom Selleck, who was on "Magnum, P.I." at the time. He was with Don Bellisario, who created both of our shows, and Tom comes up to me and says, "Hi, I'm such a big fan of your work." And I thought, "Oh my god, Tom Selleck actually knows who I am!" It was just one of those weird moments where you realize people know who you are.

Since you mentioned "JAG," were you at all apprehensive about taking a role on another show set around the military coming right off of that?

One hundred percent. It was the last thing I wanted to do. I didn't want to read the script for "Army Wives," and then they offered me the role and I was like, "Nope, I'm not even going to read it." And then my manager said, "You should take a look at this. It's a really good script." And then of course I read it and thought I can't pass this up. My biggest thing was that I wanted to do something different. The last thing I wanted to do was play a strong, totally together woman, and Denise was 180 degrees from that. As is the show. It's a very different show than "JAG" was.

Does it feel any different doing a show for cable vs. a broadcast network?

Yeah, it does feel different. Networks have to put a lot of shows on the air and not all of them are going to last. I always say that if "JAG" had started nowadays, it probably wouldn't have lasted more than a year -- though "JAG" was canceled after a year. It was on NBC first before I was on the show, and then CBS picked it up and decided to recast the female lead. And we did OK that first year, but most shows would have been canceled after that. The second year we climbed up a bit, and eventually became a top 10 show. But shows aren't given that chance anymore because there are so many things on the air, so many instant hits. There are reality shows that can grab 50 million viewers, so I just think it's different. Lifetime only has a handful of shows so they can put more time, more energy and more effort into the maturing of a show to give it more time to really catch on with viewers.

The death of Amanda in the season premiere was pretty shocking. When did you know that's how the cliffhanger would shake out?

We kind of got a sense of it at some point over the hiatus, but it was definitely a shock. We knew that someone was going to die and we were all joking that we'd better be on our best behavior.

It seems like the writers of prime-time series aren't as afraid to kill off major characters like they once were.

I think it's good. It's very bold. People weren't expecting it.

Will that loss be a focus throughout Season 2?

The first few episodes deal with it pretty intensely and then we all make a decision to sort of move on with our lives.

What else can we expect to see Denise grappling with this season? With hubby away it could make for some interesting story lines.

We have a new cast member at the moment, Seamus Dever from "General Hospital," who's a very handsome young man, and he's a doctor that I work with, so there are some temptations there. We become friends, and he really gets me and sees me for who I am and isn't stuck in what Denise used to be. And Denise is changing really fast. I'm interested to see how that plays out. I'm fighting hard for her not having an affair because I think she's stronger than that, but we'll see what the writers have to say (laughs).

Does that hold weight in the writers' room?

Our writing team and producers are actually great about that. They're very open, which isn't always the case, but they always welcome calls from us. Something like that, though, whether somebody has an affair, that can be beyond your reach if the network really wants the character to do something. Sometimes you may not win that battle, but they're certainly open to discussion, which makes it a really collaborative experience.

How does South Carolina, where "Army Wives" is filmed, compare to Southern California?

I gotta tell you, I love it here! I'm sitting here in a little outdoor café and I just never did this in L.A. I get to pick up my daughter from school, take her to a play date. I get to do all these things that I never had time for in L.A.

What's the difference? Why didn't you have time in L.A.?

I've been in L.A. my whole life, and it just moves fast. Maybe not like New York, but pretty darn fast. There's so much traffic and you're in your car for 40 minutes to get anywhere. It's just crazy all the time, whereas here things move a little slower. I like it here. [Charleston] is a very quaint town -- it's a city -- but it's not too small. There's lots of art and culture and amazing restaurants here so I'm certainly not bored.