Q&A with Sela Ward

Once and Again's leading lady on ditching the ice-princess rep and finally fitting in.

by Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith

Sela Ward says she sometimes sees her life as a novel--and in fact, the Emmy-winning actress' journey would make quite the Harlequin romance.

From her southern-belle upbringing in Meridien, Mississippi, the polished cheerleader and homecoming queen trekked north to New York for a modeling gig with Maybelline and scored a big-name agency and her first commercial. Feeling her career was on a roll, Ward headed for the City of Angels, but her luck soon ran out.

She landed a string of movie projects that went nowhere--Rustler's Rhapsody, Nothing in Common and Hello Again. At 35, her movie career seemed dead in the water, and her personal life felt just as doomed, with one failed relationship after another.

Finally in 1991, Ward's life flipped a 180: She landed the part of alcoholic, oversexed sibling Teddy Reed on Sisters and slam-dunked the role, doing things like toppling her father's coffin and writing the word slut in huge letters across her sister's Porsche. About the same time, she met Howard Sherman, an L.A. businessman and Harvard grad, whom she married in 1992.

Now, the glamorous Ward, 43, has learned enough to teach others a thing or two. She's taken on producing, including this year's Lifetime documentary The Changing Face of Beauty--which, as Ward puts it, extols the "need to embrace whatever age we are and own it."

And each week on ABC's Once and Again, she and Billy Campbell demonstrate anew that relationships can be hot and heavy--and even worthy of an Emmy--past the age of 40.

After the Emmys, you said you were shocked you won. Were you really that surprised?

I really was. The show had been overlooked in the nominations, so I didn't have the heat behind me I thought I would need. And the competition was so tough. [Lorraine Bracco, Amy Brenneman, Edie Falco, Julianna Margulies.] Yes, I was shocked.

You also won for Sisters. That was your breakthrough role, wasn't it?

Yes, it was. I'd been at this since 1983. All of the films I'd done that were supposed to do well, didn't. Sisters was the first time I was able to show I was more than an ice princess.

Were those early years very hard?

There were times that were devastating. Sometimes, after I first moved to L.A. from New York, I'd ask myself, What am I doing here? Why don't I leave? For instance, one of my first auditions here was for the series Emerald Point. I arrived for the reading, and they handed me 10 pages--cold! I was too green to say, "I'll be back after I've prepared." Instead, I thought, with the hubris of youth, I can do this! I tried, but it was going badly, and after a few minutes, I asked if I could start over. The casting director--I'll never forget this--rolled her eyes and looked at me with such disdain. She let me start over, but she made me feel like an idiot. It was humilating. I remember leaving the building in tears--it was pouring down rain--and going to a phone booth, where I phoned a friend and said, "I'm coming home!"

And is that what happened? No. What happened was that when they cast the pilot, they brought in a new casting director--and I got the part. It was so wonderfully ironic.

And now you're married with children. Has it been hard combining a personal life with a career? It's been a little tricky. I'm no different than any other working mother, except some of my workdays have been as long as 16 hours.

When I first sat down with Ed and Marshall [Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the creators of Once and Again and thirtysomething], I said I simply couldn't do another hour drama, but then I just couldn't walk away from it. The writing was so incredible--the best writing I'd seen in years. People come up to me at airports, at the doctor's and say, "That's my life you're doing on TV. I watch it, and I'm looking at my life."

What are your beauty secrets?

Drink a lot of water, stay out of the sun and try to get a lot of sleep.

You certainly look beautiful in those Sprint commercials. Do you enjoy doing them?

A lot. I hope the strike business is settled soon, so I can do more. As an actor who survived for years doing commercials, I'm very much on the side of the strikers.

You were the executive producer of the CBS movie Catch a Falling Star last season. Any producing projects ahead? Nothing I've been actively working on. I've desperately needed time with my kids. They're still young. They don't understand why Mommy has to work.

Do you ever bring them to work? My two-year-old daughter is fine there, though I find the day more like, "Okay, honey, I'll be right back"--and I'm off for another scene. Sometimes it's just better for her to be playing at the park. As for my six-year-old son, he's bored when I bring him to work. It's hard for him. He came up to me and said, "Mommy, I want you to dribble on that piece of paper"--he was referring to the contract--"and tear it up and stay home and play with me."

Did you at least get to spend time with them this summer? Well, it started off terribly. My mother has been ill for a long time and was having surgery in Miami the morning after Once and Again wrapped for the season. I took the red-eye from Los Angeles to be there in time for the operation--she has ovarian cancer that's now in remission. She was in the hospital for 44 days, and I was there with her all during the month of April.

Then, Howard and I went to London, where I hosted a fundraiser for cancer research. It gave us a chance for a little adult vacation, and that was nice. Then we went to our farm in Mississippi with the kids, and that was wonderful.

It sounds like the farm and your family are very important to you. Very. I have one sister and two brothers--I'm the oldest. We spend time with them at the farm as often as possible. That's where we spend Christmas. We go on a sleigh to a Christmas-tree farm and cut down a tree. All those rituals are very important to me.

Would you allow your children to take up acting as youngsters? Perhaps a commercial or two, if they came along. But regular acting? The younger kids on the show [Julia Whelan and Meredith Deane] are so well adjusted. It's a testament to their parents. But I wouldn't wish that for my children. It takes a kid obsessed with wanting to do it.

Is it true you're not working as many hours this season as you did last season? So far. It's wonderful that they've expanded the roles of the side characters--like Billy's ex [Susanna Thompson] and mine [Jeffrey Nordling]--and the children. The stories couldn't just continue to focus on Billy and me.

Speaking of you and Billy, is there marriage in the future for Lily and Rick? When I've asked Ed and Marshall that, they've said they think maybe so. They may have a plan, but they never give definite answers. I think the barometer is to see what the show needs as we go along and adjust accordingly. Personally, I'm hoping for a wedding--eventually.__E!Online.com (October 3, 2000)