Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 27, 1993 TAG: 9303270309
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sheedy plays a photojournalist in the NBC mystery movie "Lethal Exposure," which airs Sunday (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10). The movie and another that probably won't be shown in the United States were filmed in France.
"They have such a different way of doing things there. They put actors together from many countries and shoot in English. It was craziness because most of them didn't speak English. Afterward, they dubbed in the French.
"The TV movie we shot in both French and English. We'd do a scene in English, then do it again in French," she said.
In the movie Sheedy plays Chris Cassidy, a photojournalist who witnesses an airport killing and photographs it. The victim is a prisoner who is handcuffed to a French police officer, played by Francois Eric Gendron.
She flies to Paris to cover a trial and learns the same officer is involved in that case. She secretly follows him around and takes an apparently incriminating photo that puts her in the middle of the case.
The show also features Howard Hesseman as Cassidy's editor.
"Chris is very strident, loud and difficult to get along with," Sheedy said. "She's a bulldozer."
She did not base her portrayal on a real photojournalist.
"I worked on a movie called `Chantilly Lace' with an actress I liked, Martha Plimpton. This is going to sound strange. She based her character on a photojournalist she knew. I based my character on Martha's portrayal."
Still, she did get to know Plimpton's friend: She "was on the set and I talked to her a lot because I was going to do `Lethal Exposure' next. She was always dressed ready to go to work. She wore neutral colors to make her blend into the background. She dressed like a man."
Of late, Sheedy has been busy. There was "Chantilly Lace," which was directed by Linda Yellen ("It's about seven women who come together in the course of a year. We all wrote parts of it with Linda. We sort of wrote it as we went along"). She also stars with Danny Aiello in "The Pickle," an upcoming movie directed by Paul Mazursky.
"Basically, I play a character who exists in Danny's imagination," she said. "He's a film director having a nervous breakdown. I'm a character from a film he made that he keeps running in his head."
Sheedy, who wrote her first book when she was 12 and is the daughter of well-known literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, said she is working on a novel. She also writes poetry and newspaper and magazine articles.
"I've tried to write a screenplay, but it's a format that doesn't come easily to me," she said. "I've been working on the novel off and on for the past five years. I only have 50 pages I like. I have hundreds of pages I don't like. It's a story about a friendship between two girls. There are bits and pieces of me and other people, but the story isn't about me."
Sheedy started dancing when she was 6 and performed with the American Ballet Theater for eight years. She did "tons of shows" in New York, went on to commercials, a small part in an "Afterschool Special," and then on to Los Angeles, television and a part in the movie "Bad Boys."
"The past few years I've been going through a hard transition. I'm 30. I go from playing ingenue roles to girls in their early 20s to girlfriends to playing women.
"People have you typecast in this industry. I did so much comedy, then I did a few serious roles. Now producers don't know if I can handle comedy."
Sheedy said she would like to do a half-hour television comedy series.
"I was offered a few things but it wasn't the right time for me," she said. "I was restless and wanted to see the world. My whole career has been haphazard. I can't sit down and make a plan of attack. I have to see what comes along."
by CNB