SPECIAL FEATURE-MARIANN AALDA
What are you up to now?
Well, after being based in Chicago (my hometown) for the last three years, and in New York City for several years prior to that, I’m getting ready to make a big move back to Los Angeles, where I lived and worked for more than 20 years.
Why did you leave LA…and why are you moving back?
I moved away when the television industry moved away from me! I was in my mid-50’s when the phone stopped
ringing. And it wasn’t just that casting
directors stopped calling me…most women over 50 pretty much disappeared
from both the large and small screens.
But the reason I’m moving back, is because there’s been a change in the
culture…and I can once again see a place for me on TV.
Last year, AARP Studios did a profile on me for their #DisruptAging
campaign, as a representative of the Positive Aging movement.
The last of the Baby Boomers – over 76 million of
us in the U.S. – are now over the age of 50. And according to the 2017 U.S.
Census, 90.7 million Americans aged 50 and older account for 41.6% of all
consumer spending…and they watch television 63% more than do Millenniums.
What brought about doing
comedy?
I actually began my career in New York as a
sketch comedy writer and performer with Off-Center Theatre and later toured
with the Boston-based improv troupe, The Proposition. But after I started
getting recognition as one of the few African-American soap opera heroines –
playing DiDi Bannister on Procter & Gamble’s EDGE OF NIGHT on ABC – people
tended to forget that I had ever done comedy.
That changed, though, in 1984, when Edge (which
was produced in New York) was cancelled and I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a
career in prime-time television.
I guest-starred on a ton of sitcoms, playing a
wide variety of characters, most notably – and probably the most diametrically
opposite – recurring as Meshach Taylor’s yuppie-from-hell girlfriend, Lita Ford,
on DESIGNING WOMEN (http://youtu.be/HnSZeyzEwbU )
and as Sherman Hemsley’s ditzy stripper
girlfriend, Lois Keller, on FAMILY MATTERS.
I was also the wife or girlfriend to leading men
Ernie Hudson, Dennis Haysbert, Clifton Davis and O.J. Simpson and played
opposite comedy luminaries Mo’Nique, Kirstie Alley, John Ritter and Robert
Guillaume. I was also a series regular
on the CBS sitcom, THE ROYAL FAMILY as the boomerang daughter of Redd
Foxx and Della Reese.
realize that casting older actors and telling our stories – instead of just keeping us on the sidelines and incidental
to the plot – is good business. It’s an exciting time…and I’m ready to get back
into the game!
You’ve had quite an
illustrious career, so far! Who would you like to work with that you have
not?
Donald Sutherland and Viola Davis…which probably
seems like an odd pairing, but I think they’re both really interesting actors
and I feel I could learn a lot from them.
What was your toughest
role?
Being unemployed! And that is not a glib answer. Actors are creative people. When an actor isn’t working, it’s all too easy to turn all that pent up creativity into negative energy, causing depression. That’s why I went back to my comedy writing and started creating and producing projects for myself, including standup ( www.FunnyColoredWomen.com ); a 25 episode improv comedy web series ( www.TalkToMeGinger.com ), and a 70-minute solo show
What would be your dream
role?
I’d like to be a series regular, again, in an ensemble comedy. I’m actually developing something with Ted Lange (Isaac from LOVE BOAT) that is absolutely hilarious. It would be great if that got picked up! Other than that, I’m an actor-for-hire. I love acting – comedy OR drama – and I’ll go wherever the work takes me, including another soap.
What advice would you give
to up and coming actors or comedians?
A
lot of young people came of age during the era of Reality TV and they just want
to be stars. But for those who are
serious about acting – either drama or comedy – I’d say: “Learn your craft; be
persistent; be patient; learn your lines; be on time; be polite; be a team
player; develop your own projects instead of waiting for somebody to hire you…and
most importantly, NEVER give up!”
Existing without the answers to the difficulties you’ve sorted out through this guide is a critical case, as well as the kind which could have badly affected my entire career if I had not discovered your website
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