WENDIE MALICK’s THREE HOT SPOTS: Cleveland, Causes and Career
by David Lefkowitz
(This article was first published Sept. 2011, in Long Island Woman magazine.)
Much in the way you can’t go three blocks without passing a Starbucks, try flipping cable channels without seeing a sitcom featuring Wendie Malick, the tall, striking actress who, along with Christine Baranski, has become television’s go-to girl for regal and sarcastic working women with just a hint of craziness. Her ubiquity on the dial actually belies the fact that she hasn’t been in a hit sitcom since “Just Shoot Me” stopped shooting in 2003.
The relative dry spell (she’s done dozens of television episodes and guest shots in the intervening time) ended last year, however, with the arrival of the TV Land series, “Hot in Cleveland.” The sitcom, featuring “Frasier” alum Jane Leeves, “One Day at a Time’s” Valerie Bertinelli and living goddess Betty White is now entering its third season with no cooldown in sight. For Malick, “Cleveland” might as well be paradise.
“I’m very, very lucky,” she says in our early spring phone chat as she drives to rehearsal. “Just to be able to work at the thing you love is a gift in itself, and to actually get to work with great writers who do wonderful things for you. Remember that my career took off late; I’m sort of a late bloomer. I had done theater in New York and then took five years off to model. Then my career very slowly started to build, but it was incremental. I was almost 40 years old when I did `Dream On,’ the HBO series. I was not a great ingénue; I didn’t quite know what to do with that. So I didn’t really hit my mark until I became a character actress, and that was my strength. Once I had a chance to have a strong point of view, it changed everything.”
Still, the revelation was as much about doing comedy as it was about moving into more mature roles. “I think [comedy] was in my bones,” notes Malick, “but I never really worked as a comedienne until I did `Dream On.’ Before that, I had been kind of typecast because I was tall and brunette and, I guess, somewhat imposing, so I was often the lawyer/doctor/ex-wife/murderess – things like that. I did a lot of drama, and on `Dream On,’ I started as the straight woman for Brian Benben, but during the first season, they found out I was funny, so they allowed my character to become a lot more neurotic.
“I love doing comedy,” continues Malick, “and it’s something you can never take for granted because comedy is not easy! I think right now, more than ever, everyone needs to laugh every day because the world is getting increasingly bizarre.”
Speaking of bizarre, our phone chat is briefly interrupted as Malick runs her vehicle through a car wash. “I have an event to go to tonight,” the actress apologizes. “And after so much rain the past few weeks, the car is covered in mud. You probably never interviewed anybody going through a car wash before, have you?”
After replying that I hadn’t and overhearing her thank the attendants, I asked Malick whether being famous is a burden when you’re simply trying to get your daily chores done. Malick laughed, “I still consider myself a mid-level celebrity. And I can move through my world pretty easily without being recognized – unless I open my mouth, and then people recognize my voice. But I would have to say that 95 percent of the people who come up to me are lovely and just want to thank me for making them laugh before they go to sleep at night. Or they’ve been touched by something. Or for the work I do for the Humane Society.”
Thanks to Malick’s husband, Richard Erickson, that animal advocacy organization is only one of the many charities to which the actress lends her time and money. Perhaps the most personal involves assisting villages in Africa. “My husband’s parents were missionaries in Congo,” Malick explains, “so he spent about seven years there as a child. And he loved the people and has stayed in touch with a lot of them. We have one good friend whom we still see every year; [Richard’s] father helped him get an education, and he’s now an eye surgeon.
“So my husband is a great influence on me in that area,” continues Malick. “He has built a medical center in Congo and has gone back every two years to see what else they needed. My first summer with him, we took motorcycles over to the infirmies (the nurses in this small Eastern Congo village). So I’ve been involved with him there as well as starting some micro-lending to the women in that village. Very small loans. The idea is that they can start a small business that might be going into a bigger town and bringing back things they can trade or sell. And then they pay back what you loaned them, and it goes on to the next woman. It’s the idea of `paying it forward.’”
Malick had been married previously to screenwriter Mitch Glazer, a union that lasted seven years. “We were young and just grew in different ways, but he was a great guy, very talented,” says the actress, who divorced Glazer in 1989 and married Erickson in 1995. “I met Richard when we were building houses in Tijuana,” Malick recalls. “I met a number of my dearest friends to this day on that trip. I think oftentimes you meet the most interesting people when you’re out there giving of yourself.”
Asked for reasons her second marriage has run 15 years and counting, Malick laughs, “Oh man, I don’t know the answer to that, but I think kindness is at the core. Kindness and humor. You can’t take stuff back, so be mindful of that when you’re pissed off. Take a deep breath before you say anything because you could really wound those closest to you. Also, don’t sweat the small stuff, and, as my grandmother said, `Never go to bed angry.’”
Regarding the delicate question of children, Malick replies, “It just didn’t work out for me. I wasn’t able to, and maybe that’s why the animals in my life are so important. As a child, my older `sister’ was a collie. Plus, I used to rescue seagulls from the beach in front of our summer house and take them to the neighboring doctor. Now, Richard and I have three horses, donkeys, and two dogs that we rescued. But we also helped to raise my niece. She’s my brother’s daughter who lives with us part time and goes to school in our little town. So there are always children in our lives, and we have wonderful godchildren. I think that whether you’re an actual parent or not, the option for helping to raise children is always there. Of course, my hat is off to every mother out there who ever raised a child. I am absolutely stunned by the amount of patience, and love and generosity it requires. It’s really extraordinary, and it’s been a great, great lesson to me in trying to be a more patient human being.”
That patience is coming handy now that Malick has taken on a new role in Hollywood: producer. “I’m involved in producing my first movie,” she explains, “and it’s a very interesting new hat for me to wear. A friend brought me an amazing book, `Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.’ As a big animal advocate, I’m very concerned about our last remaining wild horses being rounded up. We’re soon going to lose them. This story is about a woman who started the fight to save them.” Malick hopes to shoot the film during her summer hiatus from “Cleveland.” “I’ll produce, executive produce and star as Wild Horse Annie,” adds the actress/producer. “We have a budget, but we’re probably gonna need some more money, so that’s part of [my job], too. But we hired a screenwriter who’s supposed to be handing [the script] in this week. Then we have to cast it and find the director, so we have our work cut out for us!”
When I ask how Malick made the jump from performer to producer without the usual actors’ siren call of “wanting to direct,” she notes, “I have directed some plays and staged readings. And it was really fun; I didn’t know I would like it so much. So that still is a possibility. But I can’t imagine wearing two hats, at least not initially.”
Certainly acting has been a constant in Malick’s life since her high school years in Buffalo, New York. In fact, her first professional summer gig was at Bellport’s 70-year-old Gateway Playhouse where she played Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes. “I think it was 1973 maybe?” mulls Malick. “I’m 60 now, so it was when I was 22. It was after college and after doing my internship in Washington, D.C.”
Continues Malick, “I had always wanted to act. I minored in theater in college [Ohio Wesleyan University], so I knew that was where I was going. It was either that or being a veterinarian. But I sucked at science, so that decision was made for me. I also took a year off to work for Jack Kemp; he had been our congressman and asked me if I wanted to come try it after college, which I did.” To this day, Malick remains politically active and lobbies often for federal funding of arts and education. “It’s how I got my start in high school, through a great music program,” she notes. “And I lobby on behalf of animals and animal welfare, as well as being very pro-choice, so I have been a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, as well.”
Still, for all the causes and contributions, Malick could never stay away from the spotlight for long. After her D.C. days, she returned to New York “and worked in theater – where you make $75 a week,” she recalls. “Someone approached me and said, `Would you be interested in modeling? Would you come and meet Wilhelmina?’ I did, and I ended up for the next five years working between New York and Paris and Milan, seeing the world and having a great ol’ time. But I knew it was only a finite departure and that I would come back to acting.”
And waiting tables. “I was trying to be a working actor,” notes Malick, “but I had to supplement my income with waitressing. Then I got my first full-time job, on the soap opera, `Love of Life.’” Fans of “Hot in Cleveland” can appreciate the connection, since on that show, Malick plays an Emmy-winning former soap star. “I actually went back and did a day on `All My Children,” recalls the actress. “Susan Lucci was a guest on our show, so I went back and did a day as Victoria Chase, my character, on hers. It’s mindboggling to think about it. I think they shot over 100 takes in one day. It’s like a factory where they go, `boom boom boom’ – so much work. They cover so much ground in so much exposition every day.
“On our show,” continues Malick. “we have five days to put on a little play in front of an audience. So we really get to hone our craft. It’s great fun, and I love it.”
SIDEBAR: WENDIE
ON HEALTH
I’m very blessed. My dad is 92 years old and going strong. And my mom is in good shape. She walks her dog twice a day, every single day. And she lives in Buffalo, NY. (laughing) It keeps you honest.
ON DIET
I’m a pescatarian, so I eat fish, but otherwise I just eat vegetables, fruits and raw nuts. I gave up the whites: white flour, white sugar. I do drink wine and an occasional martini, so instead of dessert, that’s my vice.
ON EXERCISE
I exercise almost every day and feel so much better when I do. I do Pilates, I ski. I love to feel in touch with my body because the older we get, the more you really have to not let it slip. It’s much harder to get it back. We’ve got dogs and horses, so I have critters I have to get out anyway. Having animals is a great enforcer of exercise!
*
BYLINE:
David Lefkowitz co-publishes Performing Arts Insider (TotalTheater.com) and hosts Dave’s Gone By (davesgoneby.com) on UNC Radio, where he serves as programming director. Read him at: https://davelefkowitzwriting.wordpress.com/about/
The Collected Writings of... David Lefkowitz 