Dana Delany stars as Dr. Megan Hunt in "Body of Proof"
Dana Delany is ready for her close-up. After nearly three decades of acting - with forays into stage, film, television and even cartoon voice work - the copper-haired actress is the main attraction on the new series Body of Proof. Born in New York and raised in Stamford, Conn., Delany broke into the business with small parts on the soaps Ryan's Hope and Love of Life. On the New York stage, she received solid reviews for the play Blood Moon and other productions.
Once relocated to Hollywood, she landed the role of Vietnam army nurse Colleen McMurphy in the ABC drama China Beach. Delany earned two Emmys for her portrayal and when China Beach signed off in 1991, she kept busy with support roles in feature films like Housesitter, Tombstone and Fly Away Home, while returning occasionally to TV. Around the same time, she began doing voice work as Lois Lane in Superman: The Last Son of Krypton and other animated films.
She graciously declined the role of Carrie Bradshaw in HBO's Sex and the City and did likewise when offered one of the leads in Desperate Housewives (although she joined the show in its fourth season as a regular).
On Body of Proof, the 55-year-old plays Megan Hunt, a brilliant neurosurgeon who loses dexterity in her hands after a car accident and takes a job in the medical examiner's office, where she searches for clues in the bodies of the dead. Delany spoke to us from Los Angeles last week.
Your breakout TV role was a nurse on China Beach, now you're a doctor on Body of Proof. Are you drawn to medical stories?
I seem to gravitate toward the medical stuff. I think I probably was a doctor in a former life or something because I really like it. There's something about medicine that is more life and death to me. It's a little more visceral. I prefer that to the lawyer roles.
How did you prep to play a neurosurgeon?
I had dinner with a female neurosurgeon in California, and what struck me most about her, besides the fact she was very successful and attractive, was that she really wanted to talk about brainy things. She was an idea person. My character, Megan, has spent most of her life in her head - or literally other people's heads - in order to avoid feeling anything. She didn't have a happy childhood, nor did she have a very happy marriage and she wasn't a great mother. In an ironic way, by dealing with dead people, she's starting to learn how to feel again.
You started out on the New York stage. What made you move to Hollywood?
Actually it was a play that brought me to Hollywood, which is rare, because L.A. is not a really big theatre town. I had done an off-Broadway play in New York that did well and they asked me to do it in L.A. Then I kept getting jobs, so I stayed. Plus the weather was nicer. I'm shallow. I like nice weather.
Has TV changed since your China Beach days?
It has and it hasn't. What will always last is good storytelling and strong characters. Things did change with the arrival of the "mega-show," when shows like ER and Law & Order came in. Suddenly networks started expecting huge numbers and expected shows to last 10 years, which was unheard of at the time. It's become the norm now.
Were you able to transfer any lessons learned from Desperate Housewives over to this show?
One delightful thing Housewives taught me was that it is possible to mix comedy and drama. That show would career in both directions, from comedy to drama, very quickly. Viewers have come to expect that now in an hour-long series.
What distinguishes Body of Proof from other crime procedurals currently on television?
We're definitely a procedural, in that there will be a different body every week, but we focus on characters too. I think procedurals go through different cycles. Law & Order started out with the just-the-facts approach, and then last season, on the original show, they started to let the characters have more background stories and personal lives. People want a little more character in their procedural shows.
Any other facets of show business you'd like to try?
I like doing things that scare me. Singing in public scares me, so I'd like to conquer that. I don't think I'm a great singer, but it would be fun to see if I have the nerve to do it.
Are you amenable to a long run for Body of Proof?
Yeah, why not? My only caveat would be they need to write more for the other actors. It's a lot of work. It's long hours and when you're not shooting, you're learning all these medical terms at night. When you're 30, that's exciting. When you're my age, it's not as exciting. You want to have a life too.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Body of Proof makes its debut on Tuesday on ABC and CITY-TV at 10 p.m.