Moving easily between dramatic and comedic roles, actress Lea Thompson has established a career that encompasses film, television and theatre. She is perhaps best known for her role in Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future, I, II, and III (Kid’s Choice Award winner) and as the title character in the syndicated series, CAROLINE IN THE CITY, for which she won TV Guide and People’s Choice awards.Thompson currently stars in ABC Family's SWITCHED AT BIRTH as Kathryn Kennish, the matriarch of an upper-class family who got the shock of her life - the baby girl she brought home from the hospital isn't the one she gave birth to. SWITCHED returns on Monday, September 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Kevger.com founder Kevin Mulcahy Jr. recently spoke with Thompson about her career and what's ahead this fall.
Kevin Mulcahy Jr.: I love that Kathryn had that romantic moment with the younger lawyer, because I’m 36 so I grew up with you in sexy roles, I think that’s how most people think of you, and I’m curious what do you like better, what’s more fun, playing a mom or playing the sexy roles?
Lea Thompson: Well, moms are sexy, that’s how they got into that predicament in the first place. (laughs)
Kevin Mulcahy Jr.: Good answer. Good answer.
Lea Thompson: And I’ve been playing moms, you know, since I was 21, so it’s just different aspects of moms. But I do like the idea of representing the honest truth about women in that they are mothers but they also still have some spark left in them and they still have a lot of drama and excitement, I mean, everyone knows that. So I just really like playing real people or well-rounded characters, and that usually includes romance and all of that. I like that they let me do that, have that moment, because I always tease, we all tease Constance Marie because she has such gorgeous men all the time. And I’m like, you are definitely a fantasy for all those housewives out there, to imagine that they could have this line-up of hunks all going, please love me, please love me. She’s the luckiest girl on TV, I’ve got to say.
Kevin Mulcahy Jr.: Around the office here we have a consensus, we think Kathryn might be the best mom on TV right now as far as what’s realistic, but also she’s really good at it, she’s got a lot of stuff coming her way. So I imagine for an actress portraying that character it’s kind of a responsibility. Do you have fans who ask you for parenting advice and how do you respond to that?
Lea Thompson: I think she is a nice mom, Kathryn, because I think she really tries to open up her mind and really see the kids’ point of view. Like I was saying earlier in the interview I thought she was the bad guy at first, but then I realized she wasn’t. I think she also has a really soft and deep love for people, and compassion, so I think those are qualities that we’d all like in a mom. And in terms of parenting advice, I personally have two children, so I have nothing but respect and admiration for moms. I know what a difficult job it is. So more than advice I usually just have empathy for other moms and how much you have to grow as your children grow and how you have to keep accepting them as different people. As they get older and older you have to accept them as they change and realize that they have their own path and that they’re not like just an extension of you, that they are actually real, whole people that have their own journey, and you know that can be really hard to do. It means that you have to keep growing as they grow. So I guess that’s my advice, but I don’t know. You make a lot of mistakes you have to forgive yourself for too when you’re a mom, because you’re just a person yourself. But it’s interesting, I’ve been playing a mom since I was 21, and moms are just people, they’re all different and they have different ways of doing it.
Kevin Mulcahy Jr.: I’ve spoken with most of your cast mates, and I’ve heard so much about your pillows, way back in the beginning and how much they meant to everybody, everybody mentioned it, so I’m curious how did you get that idea and how did you decide who got what kind of pillow?
Lea Thompson: Oh, that’s so funny. I forgot about that. I don’t know. I just remember, when you get into your creepy little dressing room you’re like I want a nice, clean, soft pillow to rest on, so I just bought these. And I also thought, I got these little fuzzy pillows with little animals on them, and I just looked at them, and I knew the actors, not that well, but I also thought, what would Kathryn, when they were little kids, especially for the kids, how would she see them, and there’s something goofy about my character in kind of a lovable way, she’s very sincere. And so that’s so sweet that they mentioned the pillows. I just thought that that was a good present, better than flowers, because it would keep lasting for the whole run of the show.
Kevin Mulcahy Jr.: I know from experience that the ABC Family audience is sort of in a league of their own as far as fandom, and I’m curious if you can share with us one or two of your most touching or surprising fan interactions since you started SWITCHED.
Lea Thompson: Recently I was on the beach with my kids and my neighbor, her daughter can’t hear -- she has several other disabilities, but one of them being that she can’t hear -- and now she’s about 11 and she’s been my neighbor and I’ve watched this little girl growing through these really intense disabilities, and as soon as she started being able to sign she could come out, her personality could come out. And she recognized me because she loves SWITCHED AT BIRTH because there’s sign language in it. And it really brought tears to my eyes to see her and all the other little girls on the beach who are now learning sign language and learning it from SWITCHED AT BIRTH so they can communicate with this little girl who was stuck in her own little world, which was very frustrating to her. But now she can communicate that she wanted a picture of me that she can take back to her school so she could show off that she knew the mom from SWITCHED AT BIRTH, and it was really touching to me.
So it’s mostly been about that, about how the sign language and the fact that we’re dealing with these issues that these people have been facing without a show to help them out with it, or to make it okay to be deaf and to make it okay to try to communicate with someone even though you don’t know sign language exactly, you’re trying, and that’s all that matters, I think that’s been a really effective and beautiful experience for a lot of people who felt alone. That’s been the most beautiful thing about this show. It really is speaking to an under-served community of people who are deaf or hard of hearing and making other people understand about sign language and interested in learning it themselves.
