Theater, film, TV actress Ann Dowd, 63, has conquered them all.
Dowd told AARP about her later-in-life success, her tales ofLaw & Orderand her summer travels.
By the book.I readThe Handmaid’s Talein college and then again before the series.
It stuck with me, and it scared me slightly.
There was something about it you couldn’t dismiss as sci-fi, and that was alarming to me.
As an actor, your job is to jump into the make-believe and make it real.
But at end of the day, nobody is missing an eye or a finger.
You go home with the freedoms we are living with.
It’s just too grim.
It is very encouraging to be a part of something like that.
That’s huge and powerful.
One of the episodes this season was Lydia’s backstory.
I cannot tell you how gratifying it was to shoot.
It kind of broke my heart to do it, but in the best sense.
Her career backup plan.No backup plan.
I waited on tables a million times, worked at the pet shop, whatever it took.
And it never occurred to me that You better get another plan going on because you’re 35.
I just never allowed myself to dwell there.
I had times where I got drawn into the depression of Oh my God.
It was just that kind of unshakable faith that I was doing what I was meant to do.
Not going Hollywood.I was so unsuited to L.A.
I wasn’t beautiful and slim.
But then I had a series calledNothing Sacred[1997-98], which I loved.
I had my second child there.
After three years I realized we needed to go home, because the Northeast is home.
Law & Order memories.I loved every experience on that show.
They’re a class act: Michael Moriarty andSam Waterston… phenomenal.
LoveMariska Hargitay, also Chris Meloni.
