Lenox is a leafy town with a Main Street right out of Norman Rockwell, who in fact lived in the next town over. Last summer at the Olde Heritage Tavern, Rebecca Field pumped beer and mixed cocktails while chatting with the townies she grew up with and the tourists who flock to the Berkshires.
One day she noticed a stranger looking at her oddly. "Isn't that Janet from 'October Road?' " the customer asked someone.
In an instance of life imitating art, Field, who grew up in Lenox, is indeed the actress who plays Janet "The Planet" Meadows, the folksy bartender on the ABC prime-time series "October Road." Lenox could well be Knights Ridge, the small Massachusetts town where the series is set. And Field basically plays herself: the pretty but overweight barmaid, just one of the guys, all of whom have skinnier girl- friends or wives.
"So much of Janet is me. And the Olde Heritage Tavern is Sully's," Field says, referring to the fictional bar in "October Road." In real life, Field worked briefly at the Olde Heritage while on a jaunt home to sharpen her on-the-set skills: "I make a mean Bloody Mary."
Now Field has taken on another role, as volunteer spokeswoman for the Multi-service Eating Disorders Association (MEDA), a national nonprofit based in Newton. Its work - the education, prevention, and treatment of eating disorders - is a cause near to her heart.
"Based on my own body image my whole life and with my role on 'October Road,' it's so relatable to so many women in America," she says. "It's all about insecurity. My weight has always fluctuated up and down. I've never officially been diagnosed with an eating disorder, but I certainly have a funky relationship with food. I was a yo-yo dieter in college. And when I'm feeling bummed, I go to my chocolate cookie stash."
Her motto on her MySpace space: "Go Big . . . or Go Home."
Field, 27, won't give her weight or say what size clothes she wears, and her message to women is to find a way to feel good about themselves even if they aren't a size 6. She hopes to work on a campaign that teaches girls how to read advertisements critically, demystifying goddess ideals that are impossible for most women to attain. Ground Zero for such lofty expectations is her adopted hometown of Hollywood.
"Hollywood is the worst," she says. "It's, 'I have to have these clothes and weigh this much.' It's become crazy. I've really worked on loving myself regardless of weight."
An 'unconventional romance'
In "October Road" this season, Field's character is involved in a fledgling, semi-secret romance with drop-dead handsome Eddie (played by Geoff Stults), who 10 years earlier was the high school's star quarterback. In real life, Field says, she's never had a boyfriend.
Janet was supposed to be an occasional character on "October Road," but the show's creators - two of them from Massachusetts - liked Field, made her a regular, and launched the "unconventional romance," as Field puts it. Last season, Eddie stood her up, and she is never quite sure of his feelings.
Many women can identify with Janet, she says, "when you see her heart break with this handsome guy." She quickly adds: "Eddie's gorgeous, but Janet's not too shabby herself. She's certainly no dog, if I do say so myself." Field, wearing jeans and a black sweater with her signature Frye boots, bursts into peals of laughter. In Boston to attend a friend's wedding, she's relaxing with a cup of tea at the Fairmont Copley Plaza before heading to lunch with the MEDA folks.
Field's MySpace page reflects her fan appeal. "You are showing all the people that you don't have to be a size 2 to get to hottie," wrote one viewer. "You are a role model for all women." From another: "I am glad that you represent women like me. I would not date my husband because I thought he would be ashamed of me. But we have been together for three years with an 8-month-old." Another: "As one big girl to another, you rock. . . . You can be a big girl and still get the guy in the end."
Lenox to LA
The road from Lenox to Hollywood was a bumpy one, paved with summer stock, waitressing, assisting a talent manager, and, briefly, standup comedy. Her break came with "The Jamie Kennedy Experience," where she played "an 8-months-pregnant, white-trash, trailer-park girlfriend." She also appeared in "Trapped in the Closet," R Kelly's "hip-hopera" series of music videos.
Meanwhile, she was living in a tiny studio trying to adjust to the West Coast. "I hated it for the first three or four years," she says. Working in talent management, she found Hollywood egos oversized and melodramatic. "Everyone was having meltdowns all the time. I wanted to say, 'We didn't find a cure for AIDS, people. We're just booking jobs on TV.' "
When she landed the "October Road" role, it was like coming home.
"It's so funny," she says. "I leave town to go to Hollywood, and then I get a show about a small town that's a lot like my own small town. I left home to go to a big city, and I end up back in a small town, in a way."
Her role has allowed her to move from the studio into a one-bedroom apartment in LA. "I'm making a living, and I gotta tell you, that is the coolest thing. I don't have to sit behind a desk. There's a smile on my face every day."
Sports and stage
Field, an only child, is close to both of her parents and visits Lenox every chance she gets. She attended Lenox Memorial High School, where she was president of the student council and played three sports: soccer, basketball, and track. She won the Bay State Games for the shot-put, and her record - 36 feet, 6 inches - stood in Berkshire County for three years. Best of all, actors and directors from the prestigious Shakespeare & Company worked with public school students in the Berkshires, putting on plays each fall and spring. Field remembers acting in "A Winter's Tale," "The Tempest" and "The Misanthrope," among others.
She majored in communications and theater arts at Bridgewater State College. But she was too afraid to audition for plays the first two years, until a drama professor noticed her. Henry Shaffer cast her as Fricka in a three-hour dramatic adaptation of Wagner's 16-hour opera series, "The Ring of the Nibelung." She played a regal queen, garbed in beautiful gowns.
"Most professors wouldn't have let me take that role, because I'm not the leading lady generally," says Field. "But Henry gave me a chance."
Shaffer, now chairman of the drama department, remembers the role well. "I cast her as Fricka, queen of the gods, because she's got a lot of real strength. There's a real power underneath her, and when you tap into it, it's really quite impressive."
Field's parents are divorced, both remarried, and all four live in Lenox. Her father, a house painter, says Field has always been a bit of a character, funny and upbeat. As for her new role in the eating disorders organization, Dennis Field adds: "She never had any eating disorder. She always loved to eat. There are big eaters on both sides of the family."
Her mother, Ellen Mendel, says that from age 4, Rebecca was always putting on shows. "She told me someday she was going to be rich and famous and take care of me," says Mendel, an accountant. "I'm glad she's finally gotten this break, but she's always just Becky to me."
What Mendel would love, she adds, is for "her and Eddie to get together."
Clearly, Rebecca/Janet would love that, too. "Janet and Eddie," she says, "are really good together."
