From not a fan to a leading lady

Erbe's adventure on law and Order
Al Norton, TV Editor, March 19th 2007

Unfortunately the link to this article at Bostonnow.com didn't excisit anymore. I can just show you the beginning of the interview which was posted on the NBC board from PeachyBC.


Excerpt of Erbe Interview:

BN: Did you have any idea when you auditioned for the show that seven years later it would become such a major part of your career?
KE: I had no idea. This is probably embarrassing to divulge but I was not a Law And Order watcher. I had never as a NY actor played a part on Law And Order, which is almost unprecedented. My history with it is almost funny; my friend Nancy Perkins cast the show and I was doing a film in Los Angeles at the time, feeling like I would like to give up on acting because my daughter was 5 and I could not take the emotional strain of never knowing if I was going to have a job and never knowing where that job was going to take me. I was at a dinner party at a friend's house and Nancy and I were out on the porch together and she said, "I'm so relieved, we finally cast the lead actor for our next Law And Order series; Vincent D'Onofrio" and I said, "oh my god, who needs another Law And Order series?" (laughing).

Before I knew it my manager was saying, "there is this female lead and they really are interested in you." **** Wolf is very good friends with Tom Fontana, who was my executive producer on Oz, and he had seen my work on Oz and was very enthusiastic about hiring me. I kind of went, "well, it's a New York steady gig. I would be a fool to not go." And that's probably why I got it; it really is hard when you desperately want a role to be relaxed, and I was so relaxed and felt so appreciated that I just went into the part. I had no idea that it would be 7 years and would be this successful and that people would love these characters so much.

BN: At this point you two (Erbe and co-star Vincent D'Onofrio) have your chemistry down but how long did it take you to figure out the rhythms, both as actors and also for the characters?
KE: We had met before, he had worked with my ex-husband, so he had a regard for me and I had a high regard for him, so luckily we went into it knowing each other, and having respect. That was really good because I imagine that's not always the case, and we had to spend so much time together.

It's been such a journey, finding the way our characters work together. It's not just acting; the acting part is both being and acting in order to make it work. Initially For the first four years we were working every single day, you show up with your whole life; we really have been through an enormous amount and have gotten to the place where we are so lucky to have found a way to do this successfully in that we can live and play these parts. It has been an incredible process.

In the beginning Eames really didn't do much. In each scene Goren would be doing eight feats of detective work and Eames would be back there rolling her eyes, and that really was me rolling my eyes at "gee, I have nothing to do here. This is annoying the heck out of me."

And

BN: How has the transition to USA gone (up to this point the show has aired on NBC)? Going from a network that has dozens of shows to push, or not push, to one that has 7 or 8, can you feel a difference?
KE: It's awesome. It has felt so good. Obviously NBC had a lot of other shows to pay attention...This move to USA has really been a boost to our confidence. They are really promoting the heck out of the show and it feels really good. It's really flattering. I feel like we'll have more of a chance to have a longer life...