TV Stars Work The Grid
Tonight at 9 pm/ET, The Practice's Dylan McDermott and ER's Julianna Margulies co-star as counterterrorism agents in TNT's six-hour miniseries, The Grid. Actually, TNT is billing this as a "limited series," since it will play out over three Monday nights, instead of three nights in a row. McDermott and Margulies found their FBI badass roles an exciting departure from their all-too-familiar TV personas, Attorney Bobby Donnell and Nurse Carol Hathaway. So we can't help but wonder: What if the ratings are great, and TNT offers to pick up The Grid as a full-on series? Would the actors bite?
"I don't know," McDermott coyly tells TV Guide Online. "I'd have to look at it again. I mean, I had fun — and I like the idea of a limited series because there's a beginning, middle and end. I haven't really thought about would I do it or not. We'd have to see.
"Right now, I really dig going from project to project," he continues. "I like to do a character, then stop and do something else. I like having my freedom. I haven't had it in awhile! Down the road, I don't know..."
Margulies, on the other hand, is much more definitive in her answer. "No," she laughs. "I'd maybe do [more installments], but if they were going to make The Grid into a 22-episode a year thing, no. I'm not averse to doing episodic television. All the television characters I've played have been inspiring lead characters. TV embraces women in a lovely way that big-budget movies don't. It's an amazing medium, but it has to be the right thing. I'm not ready to sign a seven-year contract on a series now. Talk to me in 10 years!"
By the way, since we're all sick of actors pontificating about "our nation's climate post-9/11," we'll spare you what The Grid's stars have to say about that. Instead, TV Guide Online focused on dishing Margulies' choice to straighten her signature curly locks for her role. Now that's news, baby! "I felt this FBI agent character is so buttoned-down and controlled," she chuckles, "and people who have control issues certainly can't have crazy hair like me! This girl has to have straight hair. It can't be a hair show with fabulous hairdos. This is a girl who wears suits and loafers, so she would just wash her hair and go."
