Star-Telegram.com
ENTERTAINMENT - MOVIES-TV- Monday, Apr 6, 2009
Five questions with: Lorna Scott of the new sitcom 'Surviving Suburbia’
ABC
By:Robert Philpot
Even if you don’t recognize Lorna Scott’s name, you’ve probably seen her face. According to the Internet Movie Database, the West Virginia native has appeared in more than 100 movies and TV-series episodes. She may be best-known as James McAvoy’s boss-from-hell in Wanted, or from her recurring roles in the cable series Little Britain USA and Sordid Lives.
Scott’s latest role is in Surviving Suburbia, a new Bob Saget sitcom debuting Monday on ABC. She has a recurring role as Monica, whom she describes as the curmudgeonly next-door neighbor to Saget’s also curmudgeonly character.But she wasn’t curmudgeonly about being asked five questions.
Is it fair to call you one of those 'Hey, it’s that gal!’ people, and is that a good thing to be?
Yeah, I am one of those people. It can be [a good thing]. It depends. It helps to be recognizable, I think, with producers and casting people. It’s kind of good when your name is recognizable, which is more difficult for character people like me. You’ve got probably a dozen character women that really, really work in L.A. That includes, like, Kathy Bates and [Conchata] Ferrell of Two and a Half Men . [who] . and Marianne Muellerleile and Mary Pat Gleason . got to be burned at the stake with Daniel Day-Lewis in The Crucible. It . It was a big . was terrific. . oomph for her career.
Wasn’t the big oomph for your career getting to be James McAvoy’s boss in Wanted?
That was an exceptionally nice little oomph. That was such a big hit worldwide. And I’ve done a lot of commercials in Japan — you know, like that old Tom Waits song, Big in Japan? I’ve done a lot of celebrity commercials with people like Bruce Willis and Spike Lee that have aired in Japan. It’s funny, sometimes tourists from Japan will recognize me faster than somebody who lives down the street.
I’ve lived in a suburban neighborhood for 6 1/2 years, and I gotta say, I’m glad things don’t happen to me like they do to the people on Desperate Housewives or Surviving Suburbia. My life’s a little mundane compared to these shows.
Well, I would hope so. I was afraid you were going to say it’s more like 24 [laughs]. You know, that’s a nice thing, to be able to turn on the TV and watch somebody else suffer, and get a laugh out of it, and still come back the next week and rebound.
You seem to have the tiniest bit of Southern in your voice. That must have come in handy for Sordid Lives.
[West Virginia] is a "Yankee" Southern state, so it’s kind of a good place to be for picking up other accents. You’re kind of in the middle of things, so you can kinda swing either way — not that there’s anything wrong with that [laughs]. And I have a lot of Texas friends.
There’s a Texas-connected story from your childhood, isn’t there?
My dad was an IRS officer, and my mom taught first grade, so our family vacation, for two weeks every summer, we’d drive somewhere, and that year [1962, when Scott was about 6], it was Dallas. Jack Ruby had his place nearby, and it . that talked about his club. It had a picture of Carol . had a little booklet . Burnett in it, who was one of my favorite actresses. And then they had a picture of this showgirl, who was standing there in her headdress and her bikini bottom . My dad was a Presbyterian, my mom was a First Christian, . and her pasties! . and they didn’t say darn. . I . I’d never seen a woman in pasties. . wasn’t sure if it was going to jump out and get me or send me to hell or what.
— Robert Philpot
"Surviving Suburbia" premieres at 8:32 p.m. Monday on WFAA/Channel 8