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One
to Watch
Shawnee's Big cover-up
Becker star Shawnee Smith comes clean about a special little secret.
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Becker |
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Wednesday, 8 p.m., Ten/Capital |
If
you get the feeling that you're seeing a lot more of Shawnee Smith on the hit
Network Ten sitcom Becker these days, you'd be spot on! Shawnee
(right, and above, far left, with Becker's cast) spent many of the show's
earlier episodes hiding her normally sassy figure behind her character's staid
white lab coat. And it wasn't that in her role as eccentric Dr John
Becker's (Ted Danson, above centre) loopy assistant Linda she needed the
uniform. It was because Shawnee, who shares a little of her character's
unpredictable loopiness, spent many early months on the show hiding a
"totally unplanned" pregnancy.
"Oh God, she's my best creation ever," the youthful 30-year-old says of her infant daughter named Verve, who now regularly accompanies her to work on the sitcom.
"I was freaking out about telling the guys on the show about the pregnancy, but they were so good about it. They didn't want to incorporate it into the show and we were well into the show by the time I realized I was pregnant."
Rather than pushing her out of the show until after the birth -- or altogether-- the brains behind Becker took their lead from The X-Files, which concealed the unexpected pregnancy of Gillian Anderson until her daughter Piper was born by having her Dana Scully character hidden behind lab coats, shot from the waist up or covering her expanding tummy with all sorts of props.
"I was scared, because I knew it wasn't what they had in mind for the character, but they were so supportive," Shawnee says.
While Shawnee clearly adores her daughter, she's glad that she's now able to be more visible in the sitcom which has resurrected Ted Danson's career and helped Shawnee to finally be elevated above the status of "that girl" from films like Leaving Las Vegas and Armageddon or "the girl" who was in an episode of "X-Files."
"It's great now because I've gone from wearing a lab coat in every scene to having it whipped off at any opportunity," she says with a wicked laugh. "They want to take full advantage of these breastfeeding boobs.=!"
The role of the seriously strange Linda is one Shawnee is happy to make her own, and with the show ratings brilliantly overseas, she may be stuck with the character for a while.
"Linda lives in her own world where everything makes sense to her," Shawnee says. "And there's some of her in me. I spent years trying to work out how to check into the real world, so Linda's like my adolescence all over again."
Responsible mother and wife to a graphic designer and budding film-maker she may be, but Shawnee still has a wild side.
"I play in a rock 'n' roll band called Fidolla Ho. We're about to go into the studio, so we'll see how that goes. This is one busy house."
By Shane Sutton
