BEVERLY HILLS, California 鈥� When actress Briga Heelan was growing up she was too shy to express herself. The star of NBC鈥檚 Great News thinks acting helped her overcome that reticence.
鈥淚鈥檝e always had a hard time just being angry or just being really sad 鈥� the bigger emotions,鈥� she says, easing into a wicker-backed chair in a bustling coffee bar here.
鈥淚鈥檝e had a harder time expressing them in real life until my adulthood surely; so I think the thing that attracted me [to acting] as a kid was that not only was I allowed to do that, it was necessary,鈥� says Heelan, whom we鈥檝e seen in sitcoms Ground Floor, Cougar Town and Undateable.
鈥淚 think acting asks you to be present in a way that a lot of times it鈥檚 easy to not be present in real life,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen there鈥檚 not 1,000 things going on in your head except what鈥檚 happening to you and another person, and what you want to get 鈥� there鈥檚 simplicity of that moment between two people that if you鈥檙e not living in it, you鈥檙e not really doing your job. So I just strive to feel that simplicity all the time.鈥�
Heelan grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, where her mother was an actress and her father a writer.
She says she didn鈥檛 consider becoming an actress, she just assumed it.
鈥淚t was never 鈥業 like doing this.鈥� It felt like I needed to do it. Watching my mom in musicals and singing with her in musicals, and reading my dad鈥檚 stuff, and I鈥檇 go watch stuff that my dad directed. It was all kind of in the mix from when I was born,鈥� she says.
鈥淚t was right there in front of me.鈥�
Though she transferred in her junior year to a performing-arts high school, it still wasn鈥檛 easy for her to make the transition to professional acting after college.
鈥淢y path took some twists and turns that I didn鈥檛 anticipate, and I found myself disenchanted with a lot of things,鈥� she sighs.
鈥淎nd I think I was searching for my identity in my real life. And once I got closer to who I really was, it was very clear to me that I should absolutely continue doing what I was doing. I never wanted to quit.鈥�
Finding that simplicity she was talking about is even more difficult now.
Not only does she play the hassled TV producer on Great News, (returning on Sept. 28) but she and her writer-actor husband, Ren茅 Gube, have a six-month-old baby girl.
The couple met on Ground Floor, in which Gube costarred and wrote three of the episodes.
鈥淲e just became friends and co-workers and got to watch one another and see one another鈥檚 different colours, because that comes out when you鈥檙e working,鈥� she nods, resting her left hand on the table.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e frustrated, you鈥檙e elated, all of these things. So we got to see each other as just 鈥檖eople鈥� before we were romantically involved. I just remember I kept watching him and going, 鈥業 need someone who makes me laugh like that.鈥� 鈥橧 need someone who cares for people like that.鈥� I kept looking at this man going, 鈥橧 need somebody like that,鈥� says the 30-year-old Heelan who鈥檚 wearing a black dress and red-and-black high-heeled pumps.
鈥淢y dad came to the pilot shooting of Ground Floor and after my dad spoke to Ren茅, he came to my dressing room and he said, 鈥楾hat guy.鈥� I said, 鈥極h, Dad, I don鈥檛 know ... 鈥� And a couple months later it was 鈥榯hat guy.鈥� 鈥�
