Jane Krakowski strides like a lithe and classy racehorse into the foyer of a Beverly Hills hotel. She stops, glances about and purses her Kewpie doll lips in a moment of uncertainty. Then she makes a decisive, oh-so-sexy sharp left and enters the dining room. The clinking of crystal stops. Swanky matrons gawk. The maître d' turns obsequious. Businessmen whisper and point like schoolboys. But Krakowski is oblivious to it all—and therein lies the difference between the actress and her Ally McBeal character, the aggravatingly vivacious secretary Elaine Vassal, who lives every waking moment to be noticed. To understand Krakowski, one must understand that she is in Wonderland. The Parsippany, New Jersey, native is so surprised by the nationwide hoo-ha over Ally—and the breakout popularity of the snoopy Elaine—that nearly a year after the Fox series hit the air, she still hasn't adjusted. She orders lunch (a dinky spring roll off the appetizer menu and a diet soda) and admits, "I never thought the show would be a hit. I knew it was different and inventive, and when I read the pilot, I immediately wanted to be part of it. But I didn't think America would get it." Besides, Krakowski, who auditioned for Friends several times (she was up for the Jennifer Aniston role), is a realist. "Landing a really incredible ensemble series was my absolute ideal, and who gets their absolute ideal?" Success befuddles her, even though she has had it most of her life. In her midteens she was a daytime drama sensation, winning two Emmy nominations as T.R. Kendall on Search for Tomorrow. At 21, her Tony-nominated performance in the Tommy Tune musical "Grand Hotel" made her the proverbial toast of Broadway. Now, at 29, she stars on an ultrahip TV series. She has just been signed by the prestige label Varese Sarabande to record her first solo album (look for "jazzy standards," she says). And this week she hits the big screen opposite Vanessa L. Williams and Puerto Rican singing star Chayanne in "Dance With Me," a steamy romance about contestants in a ballroom-dance competition that features a hot Latin and Afro-Cuban soundtrack. Yet Krakowski has this fear that it could all dry up tomorrow. "I have trouble with the c words…career, commitment…and a few more I won't mention," she says. "Six months into the run of Ally, I was still driving a rental car because I didn't trust the show would last. I still rent a month-to-month one-bedroom apartment. I rent my furniture. I rent my television." She won't even reveal who she's dating these days, "because by the time this article hits I could be sooo over this person. I have drive-by relationships. Anyway, unlike Elaine, I don't tell all." Part of this aversion to ownership she chalks up to what she calls the "transience of showbiz." Another part, one suspects, is that Krakowski's primary assets—her offbeat beauty, kicky voice, showgirl walk and theatrical performance style—have lost her a lot more jobs than they've won her. She has learned not to take anything for granted. But those who know what to do with Krakowski don't mess around. "When Jane enters a room, she enters a room, and when she leaves a room, she's still in the room," says Ally creator/executive producer David E. Kelley. "She can be memorable in a flash, and that's exactly what I needed for Elaine." "Dance With Me" director Randa Haines ("Children of a Lesser God") agrees. "Jane is of another time," Haines says. "She has the face of a great silent movie star. I was instantly taken with her." Haines was so eager to work with Krakowski, she rewrote the part of Patricia just for her, turning a bitter 40ish character into a hopeful younger woman. And Krakowski plays the role with a natural, unassuming sweetness that may come as a shock to Ally fans. Near the end of "Dance with Me," Krakowski and Chayanne perform an extended ballet adagio that will also startle her television fans. Says Haines: "It is so physically dangerous and exquisitely danced—and Jane has such a beautiful sense of line—that people assume she has studied ballet all her life." The fact is, Krakowski did hit the ballet barre at age 3 but quit at 15 when her soap career took off. "But I never lost that little-girl dream of being a ballerina," she says. "I was obsessed with being cast in ‘Dance' so that I could capture that dream on film forever." The daughter of Barbara and Ed Krajkowski (she's a college drama instructor, he's a chemical engineer), Krakowski says the movie "is also a way to thank my parents for all the money they blew at the Miss Mary Lou Dance School." She put another film in the can during her recent Ally hiatus: "Go," a low-budget comedy by "Swingers" director Doug Liman, due out in early '99. It features Scott Wolf (Party of Five) and Jay Mohr ("Mafia!") as macho stars of a hit TV cop show who, unbeknownst to their adoring public, are having an affair with each other. Krakowski accepted a small role as a deputy sheriff "because they were the funniest scenes I've ever read," but also because "every other script I was sent over hiatus was for a flirty, annoying secretary." Not that she's dissing Elaine. "She's a blast!" gushes the actress. "I find the reaction to her just fantastic! One minute, Elaine is a wacky, over-the-top busybody, the next she's intelligent and vulnerable. When I walk down the street, I hear such contrasting things: ‘Elaine is such a nympho!' and ‘She is the most irritating woman on television!' and ‘She makes me cry, she breaks my heart!' I could not ask for more in one role." So she has no reason to give plot suggestions to Kelley. "Iwouldn't have the guts," she says. But she has forwarded fan ideas. "Ever since Elaine invented her notorious face bra, people send me their own inventions. The craziest was this contraption that allows a woman to use a urinal, which is perfect for [Ally's] unisex bathroom. I thought, ‘Hmm…now wouldn't that make Elaine's day?' I sent that one to the boss." |