Entrevistas y reportajes

Una quickie entrevista en Afterellen

Entrevista Jennifer Beals Afterellen

Le preguntan a Jenni si le gustaría q estuviera alguna de las actrices de Lword en 'The Chicago Code' y dice q le encantaría. Q aunq Laurel Holloman estará en Dinah Shore ella no puede ir xq trabaja. (q pity)

Y q sigue en contacto con Leisha, Pam, Rachel, Tonya.

Tb echa de menos la camaradería y la forma de hacer las cosas de Lword. Q a veces hablan y piensa q afortunadas fueron x estar ahí. (Lo q no entindo es q dice de olores masculinos )

Sigue estando muy agradecida a Ilene x darle esa oportunidad y q ya ha asumido el final de la serie. (Poquito pelota) Tiene amistad con Ilene y fue una buena relacion de trabajo.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/television/3318625-421/beals-chicago-film-really-alfred.html

Jenny from the block
by MIKE THOMAS mthomas@suntimes.com Jan 20, 2011 06:26PM





Jennifer Beals stars as the city’s first female chief of police in “The Chicago Code,” debuting in February on Fox. Says writer and executive producer Shawn Ryan, “You wanted someone who felt like they came from the city, and in that regard we got very lu

Jennifer Beals strolled into a Gold Coast bistro wearing large eyeglasses with light-colored frames that subtly obscured her famous face. It was late morning and the place had just opened; only one patron, drinking a Bombay Sapphire martini, sat by the windows up front.

Though a public personality who recently served as celebrity grand marshal of Chicago’s annual State Street Thanksgiving Day Parade, Beals is an intensely private person who’d rather rap in semi-seclusion than amid a swirl of strangers.

And so she breezed past the host stand, heading straight for a tucked-away table in a far corner. Doffing her specs and stylish winter apparel, she settled in for an hourlong chat shortly after her 47th birthday in mid-December. She’d spend the upcoming Christmas holiday with family in Chicago before heading home to Vancouver, where she lives with her second husband, Canadian entrepreneur/film technician Ken Dixon, and their 5-year-old daughter. Beals has two older stepchildren, as well, from Dixon’s previous marriage.

The Chicago-born-and-bred actress — whose profile has risen considerably in recent years thanks to six seasons as well-dressed lesbian art curator Bette Porter on Showtime’s hit show “The L Word” — chose the meeting spot because she’d been there once before with an associate of hers on “The Chicago Code.” Scripted and executive produced by Rockford native Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”), the political/cop drama premieres Feb. 7 on Fox and features Beals as Chicago’s first female chief of police. It shot here for more than 100 days this past spring and summer.

A ‘different’ kind of girl

About an hour before our scheduled rendezvous, Beals’ publicist helpfully texted some interview topics and guidelines. Among them: “Stay away from anything real personal, just not her thing.”

For instance, she prefers not to dwell on her spouses: ex-husband and film director Alexandre Rockwell, whom she wed in her early 20s, and Dixon, with whom she exchanged vows roughly 12 years ago in Chicago. She speaks glowingly of motherhood but never names her daughter. Even her pets’ names are kept confidential. Queries about Beals’ Chicago childhood, however, elicited some colorful memories — albeit several recycled ones.

Before rocketing to international renown as sexy welder/stripper Alex Owens in the 1983 film “Flashdance,” Jenny Beals (as she is known more familiarly) was a smart girl from the South Side who liked to read and make daily to-do lists; who was fascinated by horses and dreamed of being a jockey; who was, she has said, “acutely aware that I was different.”

As the light-skinned daughter of a black father, grocery store owner/businessman Alfred, and a Caucasian mother, public school teacher Jeanne, Beals endured taunts of “whitey” in her predominantly African-American neighborhood at the corner of 82nd and Indiana in working-class Chatham.

“It was very odd to have somebody who was white coming into the South Side neighborhood,” Beals said of growing up there in the ’60s and early ’70s, when so-called “white flight” was escalating.

She expounded on the evolution of her racial identity during a 2004 award acceptance speech in Los Angeles.

“As I got a little older, and I was more aware of television and magazines, I searched for images of girls that looked like me. As a biracial girl growing up in Chicago, there wasn’t a lot there, positive or otherwise. I mean, I had Spock. And that was kind of it. And I think my theme song was Cher’s ‘Half-Breed.’”

Worldly upbringing

Those bumps aside, she had a rich upbringing. Dad, who had migrated to Chicago from Orange, Texas, and kept a gun in the house for protection, loved athletics and traveling. Mom adored literature and language. Both were strong proponents of hard work and education.

“My family traveled when I was really young,” Beals said of an immediate clan that includes brothers Greg (older) and Bobby (younger). As noted in a 1990 issue of Ebony magazine, she also has a number of Chicago-born half-siblings fathered by Alfred.

“We went to Turkey, we went to Greece,” she went on. “We went back to Europe. My father took us all over the world. I don’t think it was like, ‘Let’s broaden the kids’ horizons.’ It was like, ‘Boy, Istanbul would be interesting. Let’s go there.’ And we had a big globe in the house. Sometimes we’d spin the globe and put our finger on it to see where we would go for vacation.”

The owner of several businesses, including a large grocery store near the sprawling Altgeld Gardens projects, Alfred reportedly earned a solid living. Nonetheless, Beals has “no idea if we had any money. I don’t know how we did it. He talked people into things, quite often, like getting us a bigger room. He was very charming.”

A man for whom dining room tables held little allure, Alfred took his supper in bed where, as erstwhile Newsweek journalist Greg Beals recounted in a 2009 essay on theroot.com, “he called his three children to gather around for a night of blackjack or baccarat. We used food stamps collected from customers as chips and ate black-eyed peas, steak or pork chops on paper plates. He dealt the cards and told us of how he grew up with two pairs of pants — one for today and one for tomorrow; how the family traveled from Texas to Chicago to escape a lynching; the first time he lived in a house with electric lights; his first knife fight; Nat King Cole.”

On Dec. 6, 1974, a couple of weeks before Beals’ 11th birthday, 61-year-old Alfred suffered what Greg described as “a stroke induced by overwork.” He died before reaching Roseland Community Hospital. According to his death certificate, the official cause was coronary thrombosis. He was buried at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip.

A model student

Thereafter Jeanne and her progeny moved from their four-story apartment building at 203 E. 82nd St. to Evanston (“for a split second”), and then to Sandburg Village on the Near North Side. Just up the street, in Lincoln Park, Beals continued her scholarship-facilitated education at the elite and progressive Francis W. Parker School, to which she’d been commuting since pre-kindergarten. As before, her learning continued at home. But Jeanne Beals, whom Jennifer has characterized as “very strong and very, very smart,” was less didactic educator than passionate enthusiast when it came to sparking her daughter’s interest in various subjects.

“She was taking an adult education course at the University of Chicago,” Beals recalled. “And she came home and she had been reading [Virgil’s] ‘The Aeneid.’ And she said, ‘You’re never gonna believe what that bastard, Aeneas, did to Dido!’ and she’d start telling the story. And I thought, ‘Wow, that sounds really good.’”

In the late 1970s, encouraged by her friends and Francis Parker schoolmates Page and Daryl Hannah (the latter of future big-screen fame), Beals began cashing in on her exotic looks and megawatt smile by entering the world of modeling. If nothing else, posing for pictures paid more than her gig at an Oak Street ice cream shop.

“She didn’t know what to do, so she did anything we wanted, which was wonderful,” says celebrated Chicago photographer Victor Skrebneski, who first snapped Beals. Before long, his subject was gracing the cover of Chicago magazine, appearing in the Sun-Times and jetting to New York and Paris during summers off.

“It’s not as if I wanted to be an actor or I wanted to be a model,” Beals said. “I never really imagined, literally, that someone would pay me to do it. But I knew that I had to find a way to make enough money to go to school.”

Despite early success with modeling and the much-needed funds it brought in, Beals continued to make education a top priority. During her senior year of high school she applied to Yale without her mother’s knowledge — and was accepted. She’d soon have more than enough scratch to pay her way.

From Yale to ‘Flashdance’

Following several auditions for the film that would launch her career, “Flashdance,” she was chosen as one of three finalists. Her competition included Demi Moore and a model named Leslie Wing.

There are two vastly different versions of how Beals ultimately snared the role. In one, then-Paramount president Michael Eisner gathered some female secretaries on his floor and asked them to pick their favorite actress after viewing screen tests.

“Flashdance” screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, the outspoken author of “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls,” was far cruder in his 2004 memoir, Hollywood Animal. Eisner, he blustered, “gathered together two hundred of the most macho men on the [Paramount] lot, Teamsters and gaffers and grips, and sat them down in a screening room.” ‘I want to know,’ Eisner allegedly said, ‘which of these three young women you’d most want to f---.’” Beals got the part — and the $500,000 salary that went with it.

Still, she was hesitant. She’d just begun at Yale. Accepting the job meant suspending her studies for a semester while cameras rolled in Pittsburgh and L.A. Initially, Beals said no, at least according to one former associate.

“I was absolutely shocked when she didn’t want to do the movie,” says Beals’ former modeling agent Susanne Johnson, of whose “Flashdance” involvement Beals is highly dubious since by then their partnership had ended. “I thought, ‘Hello.’ We did not know that it was going to be so off the chart, but I thought it was a chance for her to get into Los Angeles, into the movie industry.”

After some deep soul searching over a weekend, Beals accepted.

Only after she was chosen, insiders have said, did Beals reveal her mixed heritage. Paramount honchos, as one of those insiders put it at the time, were “in a tizzy” over how to promote an interracial love story and whether to make the news public. New York magazine did that for them in November 1982.

After “Flashdance” hit theaters in the spring of 1983, and despite the slamming of critics, its popularity crescendoed toward a worldwide gross of more than $100 million (approximately double that in today’s dollars). Nearly overnight, Beals was thrust into a searing spotlight. Post-premiere, she told the New York Times in 2004, “I remember going into the bathroom and crying because I knew people thought the character was really me.”

The flesh-and-music-filled flick remains by far her best-known — the one by which she is frequently identified and the mention of which can make her bristle. Although she dropped the F-bomb first during our conversation and all was rosy, other inquirers have annoyed her by dwelling on ancient history at length or doing so at inopportune moments. For example, when she has limited time to promote another project.

A ‘very exacting’ actress

She brooks no guff at work, either — for better and worse. Almost from the start, rumors have circulated and colleagues have intimated that Beals can sometimes be difficult to deal with professionally.

“She considers herself very intelligent,” “The Bride” director Franc Roddam told People magazine in 1985. “I instructed my department heads that she doesn’t want a lot of noise or to be hassled on the set. That could be considered prima donna or just modus operandi. She takes herself seriously. Warren Beatty told me, ‘If she hadn’t chosen to be an actress, she could be president.’”

Late last year, during the first of my two visits to the “Chicago Code” set, Beals blew off a couple of Fox staffers who approached her to see if she could do a brief on-site interview — as the show’s three other principals already had done. (We talked that evening by phone.)

“The L Word” creator and executive producer Ilene Chaiken has commented on the subject, too. “Jennifer can be very exacting,” Chaiken recently told More magazine. “She’s constantly attuned to whether the words and the ideas are worthy of the character, worthy of her. It’s a lovely thing and a very challenging thing.”

Ryan and “Chicago Code” technical advisor John Folino, a local homicide detective who has squired cast members on sporadically bloody research expeditions (“ride-alongs”) to the West and Northwest sides, say Beals is a pleasure: highly prepared, thoughtful, flexible. She’s a stickler for accuracy, too. Even if that means delaying production.

“She’s just so open, receptive,” Folino says. “She wants to do it right. They’ll hold everything. ‘I’m not doing it till I talk to John. That’s it.’ Many, many times.” He laughs. “It’s very interesting that everything’s stalled. You’ve got 200 people waiting around for John to get there to make sure things are right. It’s a little crazy, but I respect it.”

Reacquainted with Chicago

Prior to landing “The Chicago Code,” Beals had been mostly absent from Chicago. By her own recollection, she returned a decade or so ago for the Chicago International Film Festival, and once (very briefly) for a charity event in late 2007. Aside from her wedding in 1998, that’s about it. She didn’t say why, and a follow-up query to that effect garnered no reply.

“I was very close to her through those couple of years I had with her,” Johnson says, “and then when the movie came out and she was going to college, she — how do I say this — she just dropped all of the people who were in Chicago. I felt that maybe we were not important enough.”

That isn’t the case anymore, if it ever was. According to Ryan, Beals was “very, very excited about the possibility of moving back.”

Of course, the chance to star in a big-budget network program penned by one of television’s most celebrated talents is enticement aplenty.

And while Beals’ Chicago roots were incidental to the casting process, Ryan says, they certainly enhance her suitability for the show.

“I would say intelligence was huge on the list,” he says. “You wanted someone who felt like they came from the city, and in that regard we got very lucky, because Jennifer was born and raised in Chicago and knew the city really well.”

Parts of it, anyway.

“I get lost going down to the South Side to go to location all the time,” Beals said. “Because I left there when I was 10, so I’m not familiar at all, really. So being able to explore different aspects of the city and kind of get to know this place that I grew up in a more intimate way …”

She stopped talking and answered her ringing cell phone. It was Beals’ publicist, reminding her to wrap things up so she could be off to “my thing.” So we confabbed a bit more — about the pleasure and pain of running, the joy of occasionally being alone, her Turkey Day carriage ride down a spectator-thronged street.

“It was fun, but I don’t take it personally,” she said of an honor that has previously gone to such homegrown luminaries as Dennis Franz, Jeremy Piven, Bonnie Hunt and Suze Orman. “Do you know what I mean? It’s not like, ‘Aren’t I so wonderful? Look, here I am, the homecoming queen.’ I don’t feel that way at all.”

A corner table will do just fine.



Beals’ career highlights

1983: “Flashdance” (with Michael Nouri, directed by Adrian Lyne)

1992: “In the Soup” (with Stanley Tucci, Steve Buscemi)

1995: “Four Rooms” (directed by Robert Rodriquez, Quentin Tarantino)

1995: “Devil in a Blue Dress” (with Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Don Cheadle)

2002: “Roger Dodger” (with Elizabeth Berkley, Jesse Eisenberg)

2003: “Runaway Jury” (with John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman)

2004-09: “The L Word” (as Bette Porter, on Showtime)

2010: “The Book of Eli” (with Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis)


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Entrevista a Jennifer Beals sobre su nueva serie.
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Jennifer Beals cracks the 'Code'
Nunn on One TELEVISION
by Jerry Nunn
2011-02-02


Jennifer Beals has appeared in more than 50 films over the years. She is beginning a new television-related endeavor on Fox, where she returns to her roots in The Chicago Code.

Windy City Times: Hello, Jennifer. I didn't realize you grew up on the South Side of Chicago.

Jennifer Beals: I did. I also lived on the North Side—everywhere but the West Side.

WCT: You don't currently live in Illinois now, do you?

Jennifer Beals: No I split my time between L.A. and Vancouver. My new show is a mid-season replacement so we will see if it is picked up for another 22 episodes and I will be in Chicago more.

WCT: It was great watching the new show The Chicago Code and seeing all the sights.

Jennifer Beals: Well, Chicago is really a character in the show, hence the title change.

WCT: What was it originally called?

Jennifer Beals: Ride-Along, the ride with the cops on their beat kind of thing.

WCT: I like the name Chicago Code much better.

Jennifer Beals: I do, too. I think it is more evocative of what the show is about. You are dealing with the power within the city and the code for the different levels and areas of the city.

WCT: You play the first female police chief named Teresa.

Jennifer Beals: She is a superintendent, as its called in Chicago.

WCT: Are you similar in ways to this character?

Jennifer Beals: Oh gosh, no. I am not nearly as driven or organized. I have to talk out loud a lot in order to get myself out the door, to remember where things are and get them together. I would aspire in many ways to be more like her but no I am very different. For example, I don't know how to use a gun. [Both laugh.] Nor can I be seen backhanding people in the street for various reasons.

WCT: Did you have a little training for this show then?

Jennifer Beals: There was some because it was so foreign to me. There were ride-alongs with Detective Folino, who was our technical advisor. He was terrific. We had meetings with various administrators. We realized there was a physicality that I needed so I started boxing a bit and doing more aggressive sports such as swimming and running.

WCT: That must be how you stay looking so young!

Jennifer Beals: I don't understand that. I don't feel like I look young. That is not how I experience myself; if someone experiences me like that then God bless them!

WCT: You have the hottest sidekick, Antonio, on the first episode.

Jennifer Beals: Isn't he so cute? He is a lovely actor. His name is Manny Montana and he was really wonderful to work with. There was no end to the amount of teasing that went on around the set. We just had a really great time with each other. I have the old-lady taste and he tried to help me be a little more hip with my music taste.

WCT: I just watched you in the [Denzel Washington movie] Book of Eli the other day.

Jennifer Beals: Oh, that was a really great experience.

WCT: Was that filmed out in the desert somewhere?

Jennifer Beals: New Mexico. I love the Hughes brothers. I would do anything for them. They are so smart and very creative, incredibly supportive of the people around them. I loved the character.

WCT: It was an interesting part to play.

Jennifer Beals: Working with Gary Oldman was so much fun. He made me laugh every day. He is dedicated to what he does. He gets in there and doesn't give up until he gets it. Frankly, Jason Clarke, from the Code, is very similar in that way. He's like a dog with a bone, you know?

WCT: I can imagine.

Jennifer Beals: He doesn't drop it until he's got it.

WCT: I interviewed and met your L Word sister, Pam Grier, last year.

Jennifer Beals: Oh you did? It was so exciting that she did that book. I am really proud of her.

WCT: It was hard for her to bring some of that up.

Jennifer Beals: It must have been. She has had such an amazing life. We had dinner one night years ago with my brother. He is a writer and told her that she had to do a book. We encouraged her to get on it.

WCT: Speaking of books, Judy Shepard told me you donated proceeds from your book to her foundation.

Jennifer Beals: Yes, I did. I really love the Mathew Shepard Foundation and the work that they do. I think she is such an extraordinary woman, leader and mother. I had their banner put on my float for the Thanksgiving Day parade in Chicago.

WCT: I saw you speak at the Human Rights event years ago. Your dedication to LGBT rights has been amazing over the years. Why do you feel so connected to us?

Jennifer Beals: I think after playing Bette Porter on The L Word for six years I felt like an honorary member of the community. They are not just gay issues. They affect everybody because they affect the fabric of our community. I am in a position to be helpful.

WCT: Well, it means a lot to us on our side.

Jennifer Beals: It just seems like a no-brainer. I don't understand ["Don't Ask, Don't Tell"]. I do understand that people are indoctrinated and they have their point of view but hopefully slowly but surely we can help change the paradigm. That's what I hope for and it's happening little by little. It's not easy.

WCT: What is the difference between The L Word set and the Chicago Code set?

Jennifer Beals: On The L Word set we were very aware of what was going on in the news and various issues. There was a time when I was on the Chicago Code set and in the van with teamsters and other cast members. There was an amazing milestone that happened for gay marriage over the summer and I was cheering in the car. I announced to everyone and they looked at me like I was crazy, like what do I care kind of thing? I was trying to explain how it affects everyone and then thought, "I am in another world now." I have a whole other battle here. We are not in Kansas anymore!

WCT: Definitely not in Dorothy's world anymore. [Both laugh.]

Jennifer Beals: No we are not. That was funny.

WCT: Did you ever think the movie Flashdance would have such a fan base so many years later?

Jennifer Beals: I don't think of my career in that way. I try to do one project at a time. I try to focus on the thing before me and not make it into a grand plan.

WCT: My friend wanted me to mention that he loved the short-lived television series 2000 Malibu Road [with Drew Barrymore].

Jennifer Beals: That's hilarious, thank you. You know what is fascinating? The guy that filmed the credits for 2000 Malibu Road was the director for the third episode of Chicago Code: Guy Ferland. It is a fantastic episode and actually my favorite. It is the payoff so see it.

WCT: I will. So you have different directors throughout the season?

Jennifer Beals: Yes and they each bring their own style. Guy has a very strong visual sense and a great script. It's a really interesting show because you are dealing with power and corruption, not just in the street, but in the halls of politics. You are making the connection between the two. That is something that's compelling. It's not just for the people Chicago, but I think Chicago does it best.

The Chicago Code rides into your televisions on Fox Monday, Feb. 7.
Check local listings at http:// www.fox.com/chicagocode .

http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/tv/91445/jennifer-beals-interview



Area Code
Jennifer Beals returns to 312 in Fox’s new series.
By Novid Parsi

Photo: Kharen Hill/FOX; Photo Illustration: Jamie DiVecchio Ramsay

Like her character on Fox’s new series, The Chicago Code, Jennifer Beals is a native Chicagoan. Also like Teresa Colvin, Beals is the daughter of a white mom and a black dad. And as with Teresa, the actor’s father owned a store (“I didn’t tell the writers that,” she says). Perhaps most like her policewoman role, Beals, speaking by phone, exudes an aura that suggests she calls (and fires) the shots. The alum of Yale, Flashdance and The L Word plays Chicago’s first female police chief, out to right the city’s wrongs, in the drama from The Shield’s Shawn Ryan, premiering Monday 7.

As research for this role, you went on ride-alongs with Chicago police. What did you learn?
I was in a car with a detective, and we were the first ones on a scene where a man had been shot and was bleeding towards unconsciousness on someone’s front porch. I was able to see how they set up a crime scene, and we were able to follow the trail of blood for almost two blocks.

I imagine that was the first time you saw someone shot and bleeding?
No, it was not the first time I’ve seen someone shot [Laughs], unfortunately.

When was the first time?
In my neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, and then I spent some time in Haiti in 1989 photographing the elections where you would see all kinds of heinous things. But it was the first time that I became aware of how people are so uncooperative with the police, that there’s a group of 30 people there and at least five of them know who shot this man. It’s a gang-related incident, and none of them will come forward, and so the cycle just keeps happening.

Could you tell me more about that time when you were a kid?
Um, not really, because it involves people who may not want to [Laughs] have me tell that story. It was a pretty decent neighborhood [at 82nd Street and Indiana Avenue], but there were things that happened.

Being the only daughter in a family of three kids—does that influence your approach to Teresa as a woman in a male-heavy landscape?
Oh, I’m very comfortable among men, and in college most of my friends were men. Working on The L Word was a transition, and it was exciting to be surrounded by women, it was exciting to learn a different way of processing. [The Chicago Code] is a very testosterone set.

You suggested to The L Word’s creator that she make your character biracial. Did you also suggest that Teresa be biracial?
We talked about it, I didn’t suggest. I said it would be interesting in terms of racial politics, an interesting way to approach it in the 21st century, but I said please just let me know either way what you’re gonna do so I know what I am, who I am.

What difference does that make for you when playing this character?
You’re aware of different points of view. It affords you a certain empathy that you may not have if you don’t inhabit both sides.

What was that like for you growing up, to have both black and white families in Chicago?
Going to the Francis W. Parker School, it was kind of irrelevant. Class was more of an issue than race. There’s a code, even among kids who are all entitled, of who has the most recent pair of Nikes or who has the pink Lacoste shirt.

Where were you in relation to that economic divide?
We didn’t have any money, but I did have quite a few friends who did, and I ended up getting their hand-me-downs which weren’t hand-me-downs at all because they had tags still on them. I wasn’t raised with the idea that having money was important. It was much more important what was inside your brain; that will take you a lot farther than a really nice pair of Top-Siders.

I was struck by how overt The Chicago Code is about its premise of corruption in Chicago. What do you make of that?
What did you make of it? You live in Chicago.

It’s something people say about the city all the time, but it’s noteworthy that this new TV series is saying it so directly, so unapologetically.
I just think it makes for good drama, and everyday you can look in a Chicago newspaper and find a story. It’s not stretching the truth.

Any story come to mind?
Oh, at a certain point the story becomes the same story over and over again. That’s part of the code, but for every corrupter, you also have a reformer.

The show’s premiering the night after the Super Bowl. Were you raised a Bears fan?
Oh my God, you have no idea. In the cold dark years when nothing was going on, we went to Green Bay for the games, freezing to death, only surviving by virtue of my mother’s most excellent chili we would clutch like hot potatoes amongst the young Irish.

The Chicago Code premieres on Fox Monday 7 at 8pm.

Read more: http://chicago.timeout.com/articles/tv/91445/jennifer-beals-interview#ixzz1CqHeEg3R

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Jennifer Beals Tackles Recycling and a New Show on Fox

On Fox's new show The Chicago Code, premiering February 7, Jennifer Beals plays the no-nonsense Police Superintendent of Chicago, fighting corruption and City Hall.

In real life Beals, known for iconic performances in Flashdance and The L Word, is also fighting City Hall in Chicago. "Chicago doesn't recycle," she says emphatically. "At the Art Institute of Chicago -- one of my favorite museums -- they won't let you bring in plastic bottles and they don't have any recycling containers. You just have to throw them away. How can that be?" Beals, a native of Chicago, is talking to the Illinois Governor's office to see what can be done. "The notion of throwing out a plastic bottle is so awful to me," she confesses. "There is a real correlation between art and architecture and recycling. But my friends are cynical, saying, 'Good luck with that recycling thing.'" She has thought it through, though, and talks about ways to make recycling financially feasible for all.

Jennifer Beal's character on The Chicago Code is similarly strategic. Superintendent Teresa Colvin is smart, focused and dedicated to rooting out the mob bosses who run the city. "Hopefulness based in reality is something that Teresa nourishes," says Beals thoughtfully. Both the actress and the character reflect the city in which they grew up and which they both appear to love. Beal reflects, "Chicago is two opposites -- a brazen earthbound confident persona of a city, not dependent on either coast. But it's also very sophisticated and connected to the rest of the world. And people have a great deal of access to their political system." The show is shot in Chicago, a place Beals knows well having grown up on both the South Side and North Side, or "Cubs and Socks" as she puts it.

Portraying a woman leading the Chicago police force required a great deal of research on Jennifer's part: "I tried to imagine what it would be like to be superintendent here. I asked male officers what it would take for them to accept a woman superintendent. They said it was important for me to have come up in the system and to truly understand it." And, she adds, "It was a balancing act every day. Teresa leads with a more masculine leadership approach. She's not as inclusive as she could be, not as nurturing. She goes in with guns drawn. I had to figure out how she could stay close to her team without seeming weak or sexually inappropriate."

The show is complex, character-driven and smart. And Beals' character has some fascinating interactions with her former beat partner played by actor Jason Clarke. "It's interesting to see how she negotiates power," comments Beals. "She and her ex-partner clearly respect each other and will tell each other the truth even if it hurts. They also clearly love each other but you're not sure how."

Because Chicago's backroom politics are part of the action, the city doesn't come off in the best light. But Jennifer Beals says that's fine with her, "Any Chicago native who thinks Chicago is cast in a golden light has lived under a rock." And yet she clearly loves the city and was excited to spend time in her hometown while filming the first 13 episodes, spending time with her mother and childhood friends. The show is written and executive-produced by The Shield's Shawn Ryan, who grew up in Rockford, IL.

Beals laughs when asked if her fiercely loyal fans from Showtime's The L Word will flock to see her on a cop show. "I don't know, but I think they'll like the uniform," she says. Now that the first episodes of the show are completed, Beals in busy reading scripts, swimming, caring for her daughter and learning to play the piano. She is also, she says, researching recycling.

http://www.examiner.com/primetime-tv-in-newark/jennifer-beals-is-ready-to-make-a-splash-as-tough-teresa-colvin-on-fox#ixzz1CtAsEvG5

Jennifer Beals is Ready to Make a Splash as Tough Teresa Colvin on FOX - Newark Primetime TV |

Jennifer Beals was born on the Southside of Chicago in December of 1963. She almost certainly never imagined as a child that her professional career would lead her to one day portray the superintendent of her hometown’s 10,000 plus member police force. But that is exactly what she’ll be doing starting Monday February 7th in FOX’s new highly anticipated drama The Chicago Code.



Beals’ first professional job was in a non-credited role in the 1980 film “My Bodyguard”. She really hit the big time however playing 18 year old Alexandra “Alex” Owens in the 1983 film Flashdance. As the welder by day and exotic dancer by night, whose dream is to be accepted someday at an illustrious school of dance, her beauty and vulnerability made her the heartthrob of millions of young men in the 1980’s. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in the film.



Despite her success in the film, Jennifer did not abandon her education. She was an undergraduate at Yale University at the time she was cast in “Flashdance” and continued her studies, earning a B.A. in American Literature from Yale in 1987.

After graduation Jennifer began a very active and successful career acting on film and television. Some of the highlights include “Vampire’s Kiss” with Nicholas Cage in 1989; “Devil in A Blue Dress” with Denzel Washington in 1995; “Runaway Jury” in 2003 (based on the John Grisham novel) and on television, the highly successful Showtime cable series The L Word. On “The L Word” Jennifer portrayed Bette Porter, an Ivy League educated lesbian born to an African-American father and an Irish mother. A role very close to her heart as she too is Ivy League educated and is the daughter of an African-American father and an Irish mother.

Now her career journey has taken her full circle back to her hometown. As the tough, ambitious Teresa Colvin in “The Chicago Code”, Beals tackles a new challenge. As a beautiful woman in a high ranking job…in what is usually a man’s world…she must be credible in order for this show to work. Clearly she seems up to the challenge. When asked about casting her in the role while at a meeting with the nation’s TV critics in Pasadena, Calif. in January, executive producer Shawn Ryan said, “If anyone knows anything about Jennifer’s life story, they would learn what an accomplished, educated person she is. In real life, the idea that somebody like her, who grew up in Chicago and took herself to great heights academically … I see no problem [that someone like her could get the job]. If Jennifer had taken a right turn instead of left, she could have been the superintendent of police. So hotness aside, when you talk to this woman about where she came from and what she did, you know she’s more than qualified to do this job”.

Jennifer Beals knows the weight on her shoulders in this role and is anxious to take on the task. “I thought it was an incredible character, a woman in this position, which has not been done before,” Beals said. “She is creating the template. What will that journey be like? You can’t be self-confident all the time. She certainly has been in the force long enough to have quite a bit of respect. But there is nobody who has gone before her, so she has to be on her game. She’s aware that if she makes mistakes, she ruins it for women after her.”

“The Chicago Code” premieres this Monday night February 7th at 9PM Eastern Time, 8 PM Central on FOX. Jennifer’s journey as Teresa Colvin begins. We’re anxious to see her make another big splash on Primetime.

http://www.examiner.com/primetime-tv-in-newark/jennifer-beals-photos-picture#main

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/jennifer-beals-wants-chicago-to-recycle

Jennifer Beals wants Chicago to recycle
The star of new show 'The Chicago Code,' Jennifer Beals is very eco-active.

by Gerry Miller , Wed, Feb 02 2011 at 4:03 PM EST


Her new Fox drama "The Chicago Code" brought Jennifer Beals back to her hometown, where she was stunned to discover that the city had no recycling program in place. "In every city that I've lived in, people recycle and this city doesn't. I've already talked to the governor about it. I recycle my own stuff," says Beals, a hybrid driver who sometimes bikes to work, "but I think it has to be legislated. We've got to wait till the mayor is elected."



Beals, who's been based in Vancouver since "The L Word," welcomed the chance to work in her native city on the gritty cop drama, in which she plays the new police superintendant dealing with local crime, corruption and a playing boss to a mostly male force that includes her former partner (Jason Clarke). "I grew up with brothers so I feel very comfortable around men," says the actress of being in the boys' club after the estrogen-centric "L Word." She was drawn to the character's dedication, sense of purpose and righteousness, and gained a new appreciation for police after going on research ride-alongs with Chicago cops. Admits the "Flashdance" alumna, "I wouldn't last on the street for 30 seconds."

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/interview-the-chicago-code-star-jennifer-beals

Interview: 'The Chicago Code' star Jennifer Beals
By Alan Sepinwall - A Chicago native gets to play Chicago's top cop

Thursday, Feb 3, 2011 2:32 PM



"The Chicago Code" star Jennifer Beals.

On FOX's excellent new cop drama "The Chicago Code" (which premieres Monday at 9 p.m.), Jennifer Beals plays the newly-installed superintendent of the Chicago PD, Teresa Colvin. Colvin is relatively young for the job, and a woman - a woman who looks like Jennifer Beals, no less - and so she gets very little respect from certain corners of the rank-and-file, and from some of the crooked politicians she's trying to get rid of. But they underestimate this tough, smart, reform-minded woman at their own peril.

Similarly, if you're still thinking of Beals as the 19-year-old in the off-the-shoulder sweatshirt from "Flashdance" (still by far her highest-profile role), you may be surprised by just how good she is at the center of this ambitious drama, which comes from "The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan.

At press tour, I talked with Beals about her research for the role, and about her own view of the Chicago PD as a girl growing up in that city.

The first thing I’m curious about is the accent. Did you ever have one?

I didn’t. I worked really hard not to have one. So trying to acquire one was a very interesting task. And the good thing was that I had certain sounds in my head already, though the accent that I chose was not one that I was that familiar with. It’s more an area of town that I certainly didn’t grow up in. But it was interesting. It was a really interesting challenge. And then certainly a great entrée into the character and the rhythm and the way of thinking and behaving.

Why choose that area as opposed to where you were raised?

Because I don’t think the Superintendent would have come from Lincoln Park. There are certain areas of the city really that produce more police officers. It’s a fascinating thing. And when you ride with different cops, there is a similar sound that arises. Not everywhere of course but every single area where we did our ride-alongs, you heard this kind of voice.

What were those like? How many ride-alongs did you go on?

I went on several. I had to balance my research between what I would have done as a cop on the street with what I needed to do as an administrator. So, you know, not only did I spend time on the street but then I spent time trying to interview different deputy superintendents and trying to work out exactly logistically, what do I do during the day? You know, I’m in charge of 4 different bureaus. What does my day look like? How is my day organized? Who are the people around me who help me accomplish this task and what is the order of reporting?

And when you were out on the street, were there any particular memorable incidents, or did you happen to wind up on some fairly quiet tours?

My first one was very quiet but my last one wasn't. I was concerned about the first one because the night before there had been several murders, and my husband was very worried about me, and I’m sure in the back of my mind I was worried about me. But then by the time I got to the last one it just felt very normal. Like all of it had been normalized. And John (the Chicago cop who took her on the ride-alongs) and I were the first to respond to a guy who had been shot, and he was basically starting to bleed to the state of being unconscious on someone’s stoop. So I got to watch them set up the crime scene from the very beginning and trace the trail of blood to try to figure out exactly where he had been shot and where the shooter would have been and trying to locate the shell casings. And I said to them, "Look, I can do this, because on New Year’s Eve, my dad and other people in our neighborhood would shoot their guns off at midnight. So in the morning the big game was for the kids to go out in the neighborhood and find shell casings." So this was like a very familiar thing. We didn’t have Easter egg hunts, we had, "Go look for the shell casings. Isn’t that fun?" And so I said, "I can do this. Just give me a flashlight." So I helped them on the crime scene.

But it was interesting how my feelings had changed and how I wasn’t afraid at all, for better or for worse, and just being able to take in the people around me and take in what was happening and take in how the police officers were dealing with people and dealing with each other. And there’s a lot of gallows humor that goes on, you know, to keep them sane. And it was really, really interesting and crucial. And I miss the ride-alongs, quite frankly. Like, I would text John and say "I think I need another ride-along," just because I was jonesing to go be on the street, even though my job wouldn’t necessarily take me on the street as often as say, you know, Jarek Wysocki.

Do you think Teresa misses that?

I think so to a certain degree. I think she probably misses the simplicity of it. She misses the very clear camaraderie. "If I have your back, then you’re in, you’re okay." And the clear simplicity of how you deal with the street as opposed to how you deal with politics.

There’s that scene in the re-shot version of the pilot where you’re at Grant Park walking up to Jarek and you’ve got this big smile on your face like, "Gosh, I just love being at a crime scene," as opposed to dealing with the other things.

Yeah. And trying to connect the two and trying to help him see that things are connected. These things are all connected.

Now, you’ve played a lot of strong women and you had access to some police administrators but there has not been a female superintendent on the Chicago Police Department before.

No.

Where, if anywhere, have you drawn inspiration from?

Well, a lot of things you just have to make up, you know? So mostly from my imagination, and doing interviews with female police officers and as high up as I could get where there are women but then making up things. And the name just jumped out of my head because I’m very tired but there is a woman who was the President of Chile who first started out as the Secretary of Defense. (After the interview, Beals remembered it was Michelle Bachelet.) And then she became President and was a fantastic President. And I had the opportunity to meet her in Washington when the U.N. Foundation invited me to a seminar. And it was really interesting to watch her because she was very clear minded, very determined and yet still very feminine. And the thought that she would be supported as first the Secretary of Defense and then as President was really interesting to me.

Well, how much of the push back against Teresa do you think is related to her gender, as opposed to her youth or just her trying to change things?

I think it’s a combination. Being a woman certainly informs a lot of how she’s treated and especially how’s she’s treated when she makes a mistake. But there’s also the newness of the job and I think primarily what she’s trying to accomplish. Like, "How dare you with that combination of things you have going on? You try not only to clean up corruption in politics and clean up corruption in the street, but how dare you take on the Chicago Police Department? Corruption within the department itself. Was this the way that things are done? And how dare you try to change that?"

In the press conference, you talked about your own take of growing up in Chicago and the (political) machine and the corruption. Was that something that you or your family was exposed to directly at any point?

No, not at all. Not that I’m aware of certainly, no. But you just sort of take it for granted that’s how the city runs, you know? You take it for granted and in a perverse way, there’s a certain amount of pride that goes on in the city. That that means there’s a certain amount of cunning that’s involved. And Chicago is a very complicated place. Cunning is revered and integrity is revered. And beauty is revered and a certain brazenness is revered. So there’s all these sort of dualities that are going on within the same city in ways that I’m not familiar with in other cities.

Have you ever played a cop before? I’m trying to think from your filmography.

No I don’t think so, gosh.

So obviously you did the ride-alongs, and you had these Chicago cops around on the set...

Yeah, and you’re also having to filter the information they give you. The riding on the street is very clear. I know that the cops I rode with toned down their language around me and were very respectful around me, because I know the stories Jason came back with were hilariously different than some of my stories. But you get to the truth by watching their behavior in moments that are adrenalized. And when you’re talking to a bureaucrat, you’re having to filter through that information. When you ask point blank, if there’s any sexual abuse within their ranks - particularly when there’s only 25% of women - and how do you handle that when somebody looks you in the eye and says there is none? You just know that that’s not possible. You know whenever there are 10,000 people, no matter what the job is, there’s going to be some kind of crime especially involving women. When the women only comprise 25%, of course something is going to happen. So you’re just having to go, "Okay, I’m not going to get that answer. We’re just going to have to know it and move on." So it’s interesting trying to get to the truth.

And you come with a higher degree of recognizability than Jason or Matt do at this point. I’m wondering if that at any point in these ride-alongs that came up, like, "What is she doing here?"

It hasn’t. You dress as a cop when you’re there. You pull your hair back. It’s regulation. You have your hat on and your vest on and people are focused on other things. They’re not there looking at who you are. I mean, maybe if Oprah rode up, it might be a different situation. But people are worried that their son is going to bleed to death on the porch because he’s been shot. Other people are worried if they're going to identify the shooter. Other people have their own real visceral worries and concerns at that moment that don’t really have to do with your identity.

And given that you are from Chicago, do you feel either any sense of pride or any sense of pressure that the show has Chicago in the title?

I don’t feel any pressure because, you know, my Chicago will be different from Shawn’s Chicago. It’ll be different from Tim (Minear)’s Chicago, and it’s their story. I’m just there to help serve their story and I do feel a tremendous amount of pride being from Chicago and I always have. And I think in some ways that informs my character - that she really loves the city and she wants to do a good job and help the city, because the city is like the only child she ever has or ever will have. That is her family. Those are her people.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

Jennifer on this week's TVGuide Magazine

http://www.citysbest.com/chicago/news/2011/02/04/jennifer-beals-talks-chicago-code-windy-city-pride/
Jennifer Beals Talks 'Chicago Code,' Windy City Pride

Feb 4th 2011 12:23PM / by Erin Chan Ding
She made a ripped gray sweatshirt iconic in "Flashdance." She gave emotional complexity to Bette Porter on "The L Word." The latest role in the three-decade acting career of Jennifer Beals brings her back to Chicago, where she was born on the South Side in 1963. In "The Chicago Code," which premieres at 8 pm Monday on Fox, Beals stars as Teresa Colvin, the Chicago Police Department's first female superintendent. As the blizzard pounded the city this week, Beals, who noted that she was actually born during a Chicago snowstorm, chatted with Erin Chan Ding about her gutsy new character, what's intrinsic to Chicagoans, and why "there's no way in hell" she would ever go on "Dancing with the Stars."



How does being a native Chicagoan inform your role on the show?
For me, I've always had a real feeling of pride in my city that I think all Chicagoans do. It's very fierce, and you don't want to mess with it, for sure. Playing the police superintendent, it's part of my job to have that.

How would you describe your your character, Teresa Colvin?
She's dedicated to keeping her job and the city safe, to cleaning up the city. She's a bit of a badass, and she's sacrificing her life for the job.

A lot of the characters you play have a sense of strength about them. What draws you to certain roles?
I'm interested when people will stand up for themselves. I'm always interested in that moment when someone decides it's not good enough, and even though it's painful, they're willing to make a change.

So, I'm curious, how often do people ask you about "Flashdance," and what's your reaction? When Illinois Governor Pat Quinn visited the set, he brought it up, too.
You know what's funny? Other than Governor Quinn, the other people that bring up "Flashdance" are journalists. Other people have seen me on "The L Word" or younger audiences have in "Catch that Kid"....But it was a catalyst and a tremendous change in my life. It was a fascinating experience.

Another '80s dance icon, Jennifer Grey, just killed it on "Dancing with the Stars." Would you ever consider it?
They actually asked me to do it when I came to cheer on Marlee Matlin. But there's not a chance in hell, there's not enough money in the world that would make me do it. It's too scary, too terrifying. I walked into the audience -- it's so loud -- and nearly started crying.

You probably get this a lot, but you don't look like you've aged in the last three decades. Do you have some sort of beauty secret?
You know, I never really smoked. I don't drink...I have maybe five glasses of wine a year. I go to the acupunturist. I meditate when I can. In "The Chicago Code," I did some boxing. It makes you stand differently when you know you can punch someone out.

Jennifer's Chicago Favorites:

Casual Eatery: Market
1113 W. Randolph; 312-929-4787

Family outing (her daughter is five): Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum
Shedd: 1200 South Lake Shore Drive; 312-939-2438
Field: 1400 Sout Lake Shore Drive; 312-922-9410

Charity: Chicago Police Memorial Foundation
1407 Washington Blvd.; 312-499-8899

audioentrevista escuchar aquí --> http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-02-04/jennifer-beals-top-cop-new-tv-show-chicago-code-81776


http://www.wbez.org/sites/default/files/segment/audio/2011-February/2011-02-04/84820110204d.mp3

Jennifer Beals is top cop on new TV show 'The Chicago Code'
Jennifer Beals has had the good fortune of playing not one but two iconic roles: an eighties-era welder slash exotic dancer, and a very 21st century career-oriented but commitment-challenged lesbian. Now the Golden Globe nominee has another potential break-out role - Chicago's top cop Teresa Colvin. Beals stars in The Chicago Code, which premieres next Monday on Fox. The show is set in Chicago and the production has plenty of other local ties.

The Chicago Code’s creator is Shawn Ryan, who hails from Rockford, Illinois, and a Chicago detective is on staff to check the show’s accuracy and atmosphere. Of course Jennifer Beals has her own Chicago connection – she’s a native of the South Side.


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http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/good_day_atl/Actress-Jennifer-Beals-of-The-Chicago-Code-20110204-gda-sd

Actress Jennifer Beals of The Chicago Code

Updated: Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 8:48 AM EST
Published : Friday, 04 Feb 2011, 8:48 AM EST

The Chicago Code is a tough, new gritty crime drama set in Chicago and Jennifer Beals is fighting the corruption and underworld with an iron fist. She spoke about her role on the show.


ENTREVISTA: Jennifer Beals en Good Day Atlanta



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http://www.fox5sandiego.com/videobeta/8554c6b0-5250-4542-8c75-d796faa69579/Entertainment/Jennifer-Beals

Jennifer Beals was also on Fox 5 (San Diego) this morning, take a look at her interview

ENTREVISTA: