Eikenberry A Heroine For Women In Screen Roles, Real-Life Activism

The packed, mainly female audience gathered to discuss the results of a White Housecommissioned survey titled “Working Women Count!” listened politely to remarks by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Illinois Sen. Paul Simon and U.S. Labor Department Women’s Bureau Director Karen Nussbaum.

But the actress who played Ann Kelsey on NBC’s “L.A. Law,” the character who “epitomizes working women,” was the one the audience was waiting for. When the introduction for Jill Eikenberry began, the audience roared to life: This was their heroine; after all, she was the woman who spent eight seasons toughing it out with the men, saying what she wanted to say, doing what she wanted to do.

Then Eikenberry talked about the issues and the survey results: pay inequity, discrimination, motherhood vs. career and stress. Later, when time allowed, she expanded on some of her remarks.

On discrimination: “It’s absolutely, incredibly, everywhere - movies, theater, television - it’s huge. I’m really in a fortunate position now because not only am I over 40 but I’m also successful; so I don’t have the problems that I had for so many years of feeling so vulnerable with a director, for example, because I wanted the job so badly that I had to be subservient or do the little feminine cute thing or any number of things that I had to do because otherwise I felt he wouldn’t hire me - that kind of thing.”

On pay inequity: “It’s very common in features. Television, in sort of a funny way, is an equalizer. It’s about who’s more popular - I mean Roseanne does very well!”

On balancing career and family: “I’m in a real luxurious situation because I have help now, but it’s still a struggle to try and balance because even if I have someone who can be there for my son, who’s 12, I want to be there. There are a lot of times that I need to be there and I can’t, so there’s an emotional price to pay too. The logistics get easier, but it’s still a pull, and trying to balance it is an exhausting process.”

Eikenberry, 47, is aware of the impact the Ann Kelsey character has had on women and doesn’t find it uncomfortable in the least: “Actually, it’s been wonderful. Women need to start listening to their own voices, and I’m really for that. That’s my big speech that I make. We are really powerful, and we need to listen to our voices and find that out, and if we do find it out, the sky’s the limit. I’m excited about conveying that message, I really am. We are extraordinary.”

She enthusiastically discusses her career plans (which include two films), her involvement and thoughts on women’s issues and her life as a mother and part of an “ongoing romance” with husband and former “L.A. Law” co-star, actor Michael Tucker.

She also discusses breast cancer. Eikenberry, herself a breast-cancer survivor, was silent on the issue at first but still came forward before it was “fashionable” to do so.

“I did it about two years after my diagnosis and treatment because I was pretty much like everybody else: I didn’t want to be known as the woman with breast cancer. When I got my diagnosis I didn’t know anybody else that had breast cancer, and I sure didn’t know anybody that had survived it and I thought it was a death sentence.

“The first time I had any hope was when a woman took me by the hand in a movie theater when she found out (I had it) and showed me her scar from 11 years ago and said, ‘I’m still here.’ That was a powerful moment, and I recognized the importance of doing something like that and I decided that I would use my celebrityhood.”

Having spoken on the subject many times, Eikenberry said the “basic message is this disease is survivable if you catch it in time, so we all need to be alert because it’s so prevalent. Instead of being in denial, we need to be alert, and whether we have family or not, we don’t know why it’s so chronic. We need to pay attention. Financially, it’s really important that we have more funds.”

The actress also sees a connection between stress and the disease: “I think that there’s a real mind/body connection that a lot of the Western medical establishment hasn’t recognized yet, and I’m starting to believe that we have to take some things from ancient cultures and get some things about prevention, and so I started doing things like meditation and acupuncture and things like that. I think we can take more responsibility for healing ourselves and not just take the incredibly rigorous slash-and-burn treatment once we’ve got it. I think there are other ways to do it.”

Speaking about her “L.A. Law” days, Eikenberry says she misses the character she played, but not the inconsistent shooting schedule of a television series.

“I didn’t like not knowing what my schedule was, which I never knew on ‘L.A. Law,”’ she said. “I didn’t work every day, but I could always count on disappointing both of my children several times within the course of a season.” (In addition to Max, she has an adult stepdaughter, Alison.) Otherwise, the fact that the show is over “feels great,” she said. “I was ready. It was a wonderful run and an extraordinary job, and I miss everybody. I have a lot of good friends in the cast, and the writing was great and we’re spoiled by such good writing, but I don’t want to do anything for that long again. It’s a long time. A lot of good things have come since - it’s done so much for me as an actress. I’d like to see what can come for me because of it.”

Eikenberry certainly has become a contender for “Queen of the FemJeps,” or “Feminist jeopardy movies,” she explained with a laugh. ABC ran her in “Without Warning,” and in December the Family Channel will air “Rugged Gold,” a film she shot in New Zealand.

Of that she said: “I think it’s going to be a wonderful movie; I’m really excited about it. It’s based on the journals of a woman named Martha Martin separated from her son and her husband in the earthquake who spent a winter alone in the wild in Alaska. Had a baby by herself. She was really a city girl, and it changed everything. She became one with the universe, in a way. It’s quite a wonderful story.”

Raised in Madison, Wis., Eikenberry studied anthropology at Barnard College before being accepted at the Yale Drama School. She left the school in 1970 to perform at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. There she met Michael Tucker. The couple returned to New York the next year and were married in 1973. Eikenberry began landing critically praised roles, and television and film roles quickly followed.

In 1984, their longtime friend, Steven Bocho, cast them in a twopart episode of “Hill Street Blues,” playing a victimized couple. This onscreen pairing was the germ of the idea for “L.A. Law.”

Working with Tucker “is fantastic,” she said. “We’re really blessed; we have the best relationship that I know of. We love spending time together - we don’t always spend time together - we have separate interests. We’re more in love than ever after 22 years.”

And the secret?

“Sex!” she roared, then added: “If you had to say one thing that was maybe important, it’s having the courage to allow each other to change. I think that’s a big problem. People can’t let go of what they have, and we have to be able to change and you have to have hope that will keep you together instead of taking you apart.”