Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 21, 1990 TAG: 9007210327
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"The producers liked me and flew me out from New York for some tests as Ellyn," she says. "They said they loved me but they didn't think I was right."
The tall, svelte Draper could never be called a frump. And with a strong, sometimes almost overwhelming personality, she's hardly mousy.
"In the beginning, they saw Ellyn as sort of on the pathetic side," she says. "My personality is just too strong.
"They changed the concept of the character because they realized there was more opportunity for growth. Then they began writing for me. They knew I loved to do comedy, so they wrote some humor in."
"thirtysomething," sometimes described as a "yuppie soap opera," has a strong following among young adults. But overall, it's not strong in the ratings and wasn't in the top 30 shows for the season.
The series, created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, follows a group of young people coping with careers, marriage, children and contemporary life.
The series also stars Timothy Busfield, Peter Horton, Melanie Mayron, Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig and Mel Harris.
Draper was living in New York, doing mostly theater, when she auditioned for "thirtysomething."
"I'd never auditioned for a series before because if you did a series that meant you couldn't do movies," she says. "I made a living acting. I did some small parts in films. I was almost getting good parts in movies and getting disappointed. Almost getting a role is the worst thing. It's like being runner-up in the Miss America Pageant.
"I played Marilyn Monroe in a play in New York called `Insignificance,' believe it or not. It took me two hours to get into makeup and costume. I was shocked when I saw myself in the mirror."
Draper was born in Gary, Ind., but grew up in Palo Alto, Calif.
"I went to Yale so I really feel like I'm from the East," she says.
Her father is an official with the United Nations and her grandfather was Gen. William H. Draper Jr., one of the architects of the Marshall Plan.
"I sort of got into acting because in the eighth grade there was a boy I wanted to kiss. I'd never really been kissed. So I created this whole Camelot play so he could play Lancelot and I was Guinevere. But it didn't work out. Our noses kept getting in the way. I didn't really know how to kiss. On the way home I kept hoping the school bus would crash."
Draper says that since then she's learned how to kiss - and how to act.
by CNB