Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995 TAG: 9509190004
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
``It was an exhausting, grueling schedule,'' Gilbert said. ``We were doing basically two movies in a very short amount of time. We jumped all over the place. We didn't start in 1917 and end in 1970.
``There were some days when I was 17 to 35 to 38 to 22. The only days when we didn't have that were when my makeup was my close-to-50 look and 70 and up. Those were two different prosthetic makeups that each took close to four hours - two hours to put on and two hours to take off.
``There I was, dressed as a 70-year-old woman - with morning sickness.''
``Zoya,'' another plot-heavy Steel drama, can be seen Sunday and Monday on NBC (at 9 p.m. on WSLS-Channel 10). Gilbert plays a girl of Russian nobility who is orphaned by the 1917 Revolution and raised by her grandmother (Diana Rigg).
The Zoya saga includes two marriages, success as a fashion designer and a return to her homeland late in life. Her first husband is played by ``my favorite leading man,'' Gilbert's husband Bruce Boxleitner.
Aside from the rigors of the many locations, costumes and makeups, Gilbert had to contend with the ``suits'' from the network.
``Believe me, there were battles - big battles,'' she said. ``It's very difficult to get things past a very conservative sort of network.
``They wanted me to play a Russian, but they didn't want me to have a Russian accent. They didn't want me to wear hats, though most of the movie takes place in the '20s and '30s, when women wore hats.
``There were battles, but the battles were won. It was an epic movie and an epic battle, but it was certainly well worth the effort.''
``Zoya'' was on location 10 days in St. Petersburg, two in Paris, 21/2 weeks in New York and five weeks in Montreal.
``Every day, there was a budget problem,'' Gilbert said. ``There's just no money anymore. It's not like it was. I've been around long enough to tell that there really isn't money in these projects.
``The networks have money now to hire major motion picture actors to star in the occasional miniseries or movie-of-the-week. But then the budget itself is so small.''
Gilbert describes herself in ``a state of semiretirement right now; I don't know when I'll go back to work. I've been working so hard for so long, I really need a bit of a rest. I'm also over five months pregnant, so I can't work now anyway.''
Indeed, Melissa Gilbert, now 29, has been working most of her life. The granddaughter of comedy writer Harry Crane (``The Honeymooners'') and daughter of comedian Paul Gilbert, she started making TV commercials at 2. She was 9 when Michael Landon cast her as daughter Laura in ``Little House on the Prairie.''
After 10 years on ``Prairie,'' she became the sweetheart of angst-ridden TV movies and miniseries. She has dealt with abortion (``Choices''), date rape (``Without Her Consent''), incest (``Shattered Trust''), forced sterilization (``Against Her Will'') and a host of other issues. She also appeared in a couple of series, ``Stand By Your Man'' and last season's ``Sweet Justice.''
``This is the first time I've been able to sit back and relax and not worry about money or anything,'' she sighed. ``It's nice to have a husband who's working steadily.''
Boxleitner has started the second season of the syndicated sci-fi series, ``Babylon 5.'' By previous marriages, he has two sons, she has one. Their first child together, due Christmas Eve, already is named Michael Garrett Boxleitner - a tribute to her late mentor, Michael Landon.
by CNB