Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 1, 1994 TAG: 9401010212
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: JACKIE HYMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
"Each character is unto themself and you know them," said Light, who stars in Monday's "Betrayal of Trust" on NBC (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10). "It's like putting on another person's skin. You just know them.
"Yes, it's difficult, but that's something I enjoy," she said. "It's a real challenge to do something that's different and risky."
The drama, based on the story of singer-songwriter Barbara Noel, also stars Judd Hirsch as the psychiatrist, Betty Buckley and Holland Taylor.
In an interview at her publicist's office, Light spoke with feeling about the woman she portrays.
"This is a woman who is in one of the most sacred and sacrosanct relationships you can have - with her therapist - and is betrayed and finds herself up against a `good old boys' system that is closed to her," she said.
"It is only by her standing up and saying, `I am not dreaming,' did she discover she had resiliency and power inside herself."
Noel was treated for 18 years by renowned psychiatrist Jules Masserman. In her book, "You Must Be Dreaming," she tells of being repeatedly injected with a drug, sodium amytal, to help explore her subconscious.
She wrote of awakening during a session to find herself being sexually molested. Although he settled out of court with Noel and other women, Masserman has denied the allegations.
The movie is the story of how Noel set out to end his career.
Light said she hopes to alert other women who may feel something is amiss with a doctor or therapist.
"There is a level at which you have to trust your instincts and I think you pay for this if you don't," she said.
Still, she added, "I'm a big supporter of therapy and people getting help."
The actress, who starred for eight years in the ABC sitcom "Who's the Boss?" with Tony Danza, is delighted by the success of her new show, "Phenom," which airs Tuesday nights (at 8:30 on WSET-Channel 13) between "Full House" and Roseanne."
"ABC has been very supportive of the show and I think they gave it the stamp of approval by giving us that time slot," Light said.
She plays the mother of a teen-age tennis prodigy (Angela Goethals), who has an opinionated coach, played by William Devane.
"I like doing it because I think what's great is that I get to do the work I enjoy doing," she said. "I love making people laugh. I like being in their living room and being part of their lives."
Something that appeals to her about sitcoms, she said, is that "you get a sense of family and community. There are these people who know each other and relate to each other every week. There's a sense of community and I think that's something we're all striving for underneath and hopefully coming back to."
Before starring on the small screen, Light worked in repertory theaters and on Broadway. When she landed a role on the soap opera "One Life to Live," she met her husband, actor Robert Desiderio.
The road to success wasn't like anything she had expected, Light said.
"It was harder than I thought and it was more work than I thought and it wasn't as glamorous as I thought," she said. "There were auditions to go to and jobs that I didn't get. . . . Having to learn to let go of control has been a big issue for me throughout my life."
She said she used to imagine success as a photograph, fixed and unchanging.
"I was living in a two-dimensional reality," she said. "It's like, you look at those magazines and you see the dinner party set up for the guests and it's all perfect and all the glasses are in the right place, the silverware is absolutely perfect, the flowers are incredible and the napkins are gorgeous. . . .
"Then the people come in and they eat it and they wrinkle the napkins. The picture never stays the picture. It can't. In the three-dimensional reality, everything changes."
Gradually, she learned to enjoy the process of acting.
"I love it, because it's real and it's human and it's alive and it's so wonderful not to relate to a picture," she said. "If you're going to play characters, you've got to be willing to get your hands dirty. You have to be able to understand your own emotions, which is why I think therapy is so important."
by CNB