Julie Bowen (right, with Parker Posey) played Denise Bauer in “Boston Legal.’’ Her sitcom “Modern Family’’ airs tomorrow.
(Danny Feld/Abc)
‘Modern Family’ mom can relate
Julie Bowen (right, with Parker Posey) played Denise Bauer in “Boston Legal.’’ Her sitcom “Modern Family’’ airs tomorrow.
(Danny Feld/Abc)
We like Julie Bowen because she slow-danced to “Endless Love’’ with Adam Sandler on an ice rink in “Happy Gilmore.’’ We like her sass on the macho lawyer series “Boston Legal.’’ She reminds us of the popular girl in high school who was nice to everyone without losing her edge. We talked to her the other day at 5:30 a.m. her time, as she was on her way to the Los Angeles set of ABC’s promising sitcom “Modern Family,’’ which debuts tomorrow.
Q. It’s so early.
A. I know, but this is life. This is what we have to do.
Q. On “Modern Family’’ you have three kids, and in real life you have three kids. Do you worry about getting burned out on family on both ends?
A. Yeah. My husband - my real-life husband - asks me, “What do you think single Julie would be doing now?’’ Probably going to parties, getting a pedicure, going for a long run. I had many decades of me time, and now I just don’t have that anymore. There are days when I rail against it.
Q. How’d you get this job?
A. I read the script and desperately wanted to do it, but I was really pregnant with twins and the character wasn’t. I auditioned, begged, and pleaded, and they agreed to shoot around my gigantic belly.
Q. Tell me about growing up in Baltimore.
A. Baltimore is a great place. I had an idealized childhood there and we had a good suburban lifestyle. No one locked their doors, and everyone ran around. I imagine it’s very different now.
Q. And you went into acting after studying the Renaissance in the Ivy League.
A. My parents had an old-fashioned ideal of college, that four years at a liberal arts college should be a liberal arts education. If you want to specialize, go to grad school. . . . I graduated from Brown and said, “Remember how you said you’d send me to grad school?’’ And they said, “Not for acting. That’s not what we meant when we said grad school.’’ So I waited tables to put myself through acting classes.
Q. How much of a diva was William Shatner on the set of “Boston Legal’’?
A. Not at all. He is so lovely. He commands a certain amount of attention and respect, and everybody is glad to give it to him because he’s still Shatner.
Q. Let’s talk about “Runaway Daughters,’’ the campy 1994 Showtime movie in which you snogged a young Paul Rudd.
A. It was my first job when I got to LA. . . . It was incredibly fun. And that Showtime series [of B-movie remakes] gave so many people chances that were just starting out - Renee Zellweger, Salma Hayek, Matt LeBlanc - and we all got to work together.
Q. You ever get recognized for “Happy Gilmore’’?
A. Most people go, “Wait a minute, that was you? They can’t put those two together. And oh, my hair in that movie. I just said to the hair department, OK, do you what you want. And I was in my trailer and thought no one will see this movie, so it’s OK. It’s lived in perpetuity, that big frozen orb of dyed hair.
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