Wendie Malick has acted in more than 80 television shows and is still red-hot, thanks to TV Land's Hot in Cleveland, in which she co-stars with Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Betty White. Possibly best known for her strong roles in NBC's Just Shoot Me! or HBO's Dream On, this talented actress has worked steadily since 1982.
Windy City Times: Hello, Wendie. I was researching your resume…
Wendie Malick: And it goes on and on, doesn't it?
WCT: Yes, you have biggest career that I know of.
Wendie Malick: [ Laughs ] That's because I am so old and I am still doing this! It is all relative being with Betty, so I feel like I am just getting started on some level.
WCT: Isn't that amazing?
Wendie Malick: It really is. You have to put everything in context.
WCT: You have worked consistently in television or films every year for the past 23 years.
Wendie Malick: I feel truly blessed. I really do. For me, I hit my stride about the time I turned 40. That was when I did the pilot for Dream On. That was a big breakthrough for me when people realized that I was funny. That was huge. Well, people that didn't know me found out I was funny…
WCT: Are you a workaholic?
Wendie Malick: I don't call it workaholism. I call it joy and rapture. I love, love, love to work. I really do. You can see it in people like Betty as well, all of my castmates; Jane and Valerie are the same way. It is the perfect balance to my home life, which I love. I look as forward to going to work as going on vacation. It's all good. One sort of enhances the other.
WCT: Was Nina Van Horn from Just Shoot Me! your dream role?
Wendie Malick: It was such a blast to play her. She was so delightful and fun. I will have to say Victoria is catching up rapidly.
WCT: Yes, talk about this character from Hot in Cleveland for people who don't know.
Wendie Malick: I was just telling the writers that with Victoria Chase I am noticing she is getting ditzier with time. It's interesting how I always wind up playing the dingbat in these things. It is great fun but I think she is missing a few chips. There are a few gaps in the old brain there but she has a great vocabulary. She is bright in some ways and in other ways, not so much.
WCT: Aren't we all?
Wendie Malick: Yes, in some ways. Victoria Chase was a former soap-opera star whose show was cancelled after 27 years. Now she doesn't know what to do. It is very intriguing. We just worked with Susan Lucci recently. The idea of playing one role for 27 years—I can't even imagine! Playing Nina for seven years was kind of mind-blowing. You self-absorb with the character, there are places with an overlap. It is hard to know when one ends and the other begins. So with Victoria it is figuring out what the next chapter holds for me and how do I reinvent myself. What an opportunity where two of her friend's lives have ground to a halt. One is going through a divorce and the other one's business is falling apart. We all decide to start fresh in Cleveland even though we didn't plan on it. Because of bad weather we wind up landing there and decided to stay because we are so appreciated.
WCT: It is not hard to believe with all of the bad weather we are having across the nation.
Wendie Malick: It's not so unreasonable is it? You have had it tough in Chicago. I am from Buffalo, New York so I understand.
WCT: How is it working with the cast on Cleveland?
Wendie Malick: It is great. I had never met Valerie before this. Everyone had sung her praises and said she was a down to earth woman. Jane and I had worked together on Frasier the last season when I played John Mahoney's wife. I was her mother in law basically.
Betty I had met at various animal functions over the years because we are both very active in that area. We all got together and had lunch before we started working and figured we would have a pretty good time together.
WCT: So you knew from the beginning?
Wendie Malick: It wasn't until that first table read when you can really feel the chemistry. You have to be in the same room to read the stuff. Right after I looked over at Betty and she winked at me. She said, "I think we are onto something." We all felt that way. It was so clear that this had legs as they say.
WCT: You are on your second season so you must be doing something right.
Wendie Malick: Yes, we are actually in our third. We are shooting 22 episodes this year so we are doing 10 at a time on the air. We are already shooting the stuff that will happen in the summer. We are coming back again in August to shoot 22 more. I think there was such a hunger out there to see women who are in their 40s, 50s and 80s who are still thriving and a little outrageous, fun, sexy and just fabulous. We are not being represented in popular culture for far too long.
WCT: That is true. I think people really miss the Golden Girls.
Wendie Malick: We could call ourselves the Platinum Girls or maybe the Silver Girls, possibly the Lead Girls. [ Both laugh. ]
WCT: You are all about gay rights. correct?
Wendie Malick: Oh, yeah; we just did a NOH8 campaign [ which combats the anti-marriage-equality initiative Prop 8 ] . Val came to us with it and we were all over it. We shot a really cool picture for that.
WCT: Do you want to do more musicals like you did with Mame?
Wendie Malick: Oh yes! In fact, the three of us are singing at one of those big fundraisers. A Night at Sardi's this month. Jane, of course, has done musical theatre. Val has a pretty good voice but says she doesn't dance. I can fake both. I don't have a terribly wide range vocally but I can sell a song, let's put it that way. If you give me a piano, a martini and men to lift me up I can do very well!
WCT: What other projects are you working on?
Wendie Malick: I am producing a movie for the first time. This is my maiden voyage into that area. I am producing a movie about Wild Horse Annie. She is a fabulous woman that very few people know about who was the first to get federal legislation on the books to protect our wild horses. This is very huge on my radar at the moment because it is happening as we speak.
We are losing our last remaining herds of wild mustangs. They have been on this continent longer than we have. A lot of us feel that they deserve a place here. The horses we rode in on helped to make this nation what it is. They are an iconic symbol and we are fighting hard to keep the herds alive. This woman was the first to bring all of this to the forefront. It is a really good story to tell and she is a fascinating character. I get to play her so a good reason to produce something on many levels.
WCT: What network will it be on?
Wendie Malick: We pitched it and it will be on the Hallmark Channel.
WCT: Did you see Temple Grandin?
Wendie Malick: I did, and it was magnificent. Claire Danes is such a brilliant actress and she keeps on surprising me. That was a tough thing to pull off and she was remarkable. I am glad it got so many kudos. It was a story that needed to be told and another one about humane treatment of animals.
WCT: That's what made me think of it.
Wendie Malick: You can do much more through storytelling than hitting people over the head with things. You can entertain and inform at the same time.
WCT: Well said. It has been a pleasure to talk to you.
Wendie Malick: Come see a taping of the show when you are in L.A. next time. It is 72 degrees here!
WCT: Sounds like it's hot in California compared to Chicago!
All new episodes of Hot in Cleveland air on Wednesdays. For details visit www.tvland.com . The 19th Annual A Night at Sardie's is on March 16 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel; see www.alz.org .
