Entrevistas y reportajes

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/16/2854405/five-questions-with-jennifer-beals.html#ixzz1EAu5QdIf
Five questions with Jennifer Beals, star of Fox's 'The Chicago Code'

Jennifer Beals

Jennifer Beals of The Chicago Code, Fox's new cops-and-corruption drama, doesn't think of herself as a feminist. It's more like she's just one of the guys. "I grew up with brothers," Beals says, "so I've always assumed I should have the same rights and access to things like baseball bats and field time and all that sort of thing." That, plus the fact that the actress grew up in the Windy City, makes her an ideal fit for the role of tough Teresa Colvin, the first female superintendent of the Chicago Police Department. Teresa is the top cop in Chicago and on a mission to dismantle the city's corrupt political machine. The Chicago Code is one of the most compelling new dramas of the season. It airs at 8 p.m. Monday.

1 What kind of research did you put in with your real-life police counterparts?

We were able to do ride-alongs with a homicide detective, so you could go out all night in a car in a Kevlar vest. You're able to see all kinds of things. You see what they deal with day in and day out and how to set up a crime scene. We got to go to the shooting range. I also was able to talk to some people who had more administrative positions to try to understand what that part of my job would be like.

2 What was the most memorable incident during your ride-along?

Well, I saw a lot of things. On the more comic side was a woman who refused to put her shirt on in a fried chicken restaurant. She just kept taking her shirt off. She had not been taking her meds. On the more tragic side was being the first to respond to a man who had been shot. He was about to bleed to unconsciousness on somebody's front stoop. The police were the first to arrive. Had this person been relying on the ambulance, he probably would have died. But the fire department came and helped him medically.

3 Was that the most shocking thing you witnessed?

It's not so shocking. I grew up on the south side of Chicago. It was not the first time that I've seen bullet holes in cars, and, frankly, it's not the first time I've seen anybody shot. What's shocking is to see 6-year-old children jump-roping in the street at 2 a.m. a block away from drug dealers. That's shocking!

4 As a native Chicagoan, what do you think is the city's most dynamic quality?

There's this aspect to the city that really is like a brazen fighter: unafraid.

5 Do you think viewers everywhere, not just those from Chicago, can relate to Teresa's fight against corruption?

I think people sense that something is really wrong in government and in our culture. There is a corruption not only in politics, but there is a corruption of spirit as well. You go into the halls of power and people are making backroom deals. That's happening everywhere, no matter what city you live in.

-- David Martindale,

Special to the Star-Telegram

Me gustó la entrevista en The Marilyn Denis Show , el video es super nítido, y Jennifer se vé perfecta...Gracias por compartirlo..

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20466926,00.html
Jennifer Beals Turns Down Dancing With the Stars
By Monica Rizzo
Thursday February 17, 2011 09:40 AM EST




Jennifer Beals


She was a maniac on the floor in the movie Flashdance, but don't hold your breath for actress Jennifer Beals to waltz in the footsteps of fellow '80s dance film icon Jennifer Grey and compete on Dancing With the Stars.

"I am not a dancer," says Beals, 47, who currently stars in the Fox drama The Chicago Code. "They asked me and I said 'no.' You could back up a truck to my door filled with cash and I wouldn't do it."

Beals says a visit to the DWTS ballroom a few years ago to support actress pal Marlee Matlin confirmed to her that the show wasn't her cup of tea.

"The sound of the audience is so loud and the energy in there is so intense," Beals says. "I wanted to start crying just in feeling for her. I joked with Marlee and said, 'You don't know how lucky you are you can't hear this.' The noise level is so intense and people's excitement level is so intense. I could never. I'm not that kind of a performer."

http://www.610cktb.com/news/entertainment/article.aspx/Article.aspx?id=263282
Entertainment News

at 13:29 on February 17, 2011, EST.

From 'Flashdance' to the force: Beals a top cop in 'The Chicago Code'
Bill Brioux, The Canadian Press

It's been 28 years since "Flashdance." So how come Jennifer Beals looks 28?

The actress, who somehow made legwarmers an acceptable fashion accessory in the ‘80s, was in Toronto this week to talk about her new drama "The Chicago Code." The series airs Monday nights at 9/8c on Fox and Global.

The Canadian network had her on a whirlwind, day-long promotional schedule, up early for morning radio appearances, in front of cameras on "The Marilyn Denis Show," in a hotel room sitting for dozens of print and radio interviews well into the evening.

By mid-afternoon, Beals showed no ill effects from all this promotional hoop-jumping.

Instead, she looked serene, like she just stepped out of a Vogue cover shoot. Her bio states she was born in 1963, a few weeks after the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy, which seems impossible. She can't be 47, but there she is, on the cover of More magazine, a periodical aimed at women 40-plus.

Not every Hollywood actress would be as ready to embrace their true age, but Beals wears it well.

She flashes a warm smile, and the mad dash that is the 10 minute interview begins.

That's when you discover the woman who put Hollywood on hold for a Yale degree, the brains behind the beauty.

Beals plays Chicago police chief Teresa Colvin, a career cop who also has had to push past her looks to rise to the top ranks of the ultimate boys club. Those that don't take Colvin seriously feel her sting. In January in Los Angeles at the semi-annual TV critics press tour, Beals described the character as a "ball-buster," a strong-willed leader.

"How do you get 10,000 men to follow you?" she asks, noting that female officers make up about a quarter of the Chicago police force.

The notion that Beals does not look like your typical big-city police chief came up at the press tour. A female reporter suggested to executive producer Shawn Ryan ("The Shield") that "it's kind of hard to ignore the fact that Jennifer is freakin' hot" and wondered if he was going to try and "de-hot her in the coming year."

Said Ryan, "it's very, very difficult to de-hot Jennifer Beals," and asked reporters to look deeper.

He pointed out that Beals was, in fact, from Chicago and admired how she "took herself to great heights academically and professionally." He could see her as the police superintendent of Chicago "if she had decided that was the route she wanted to take."

Beals moved back to the Windy City to shoot the 13 mid-season episodes of "The Chicago Code." She hears her mid-west accent creeping back whenever she talks about the character.

When she does get home it is to Los Angeles as well as Vancouver, where she shot "The L-Word" for six seasons. The B.C. city is also where she met her Canadian-born husband, Ken Dixon. The couple, who married in 1998, have a five-year-old daughter as well as Dixon's two children from a previous marriage.

Beals loves Vancouver and is a big Canucks fan, singling out former captain Trevor Linden as a hockey leader she really admires.

"For me, watching a hockey game, it's only interesting when I know the stories of the players," she says, drawing a parallel to her new TV show. "Then it's incredibly fascinating to me and it's like theatre, to see those battles go on."

She credits executive producer Ryan with bringing that same energy and authenticity to her series.

"He insists that it is the characters that drive the plot, which is so important on our show," she says.

In addition to Colvin, the main players on "The Chicago Code" include a savvy street-wise cop who has a past history with the boss and has her back (Jason Clarke from "Public Enemies"), his earnest rookie squad car partner (Matt Lauria from "Friday Night Lights") and a powerful and possibly corrupt city alderman (Delroy Lindo from "Gone in Sixty Seconds").

A publicist starts with the hand gestures. The interview must wrap. Time for one more point about appearances.

Beals says she need look no further than her mom for inspiration for Colvin, but also mentions the former president and defence minister of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, whom she has met, as a strong women she admires. Beals was struck by how powerful Bachelet was, "but also how she seems like she could be anyone’s mom."

She also draws on mythology for inspiration, especially the Hindu goddess Kali. Beals eyes light up describing the most famous battle of the warrior princess, when she morphed into several hidden beings to slay demonic Raktabija.

Seems that dude underestimated the lady. "Within every woman there is a Kali," says Beals. "Do not mistake the exterior for the interior."

___

Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.

Content Provided By Canadian Press.

algunas cosas las repito en el tema de Chicago Code por referirse a la serie y aquí, por ser entrevistas y tenerlas todas juntas a la hora de buscar algo..

http://www.680news.com/video/185103--680news-video-jennifer-beals
Jennifer Beals - Interview: 680News (All News Radio)


Jennifer Beals - Interview: 'Fox All Access' (February 7th, 2011)

ETC02211 Jennifer Beals Chicago Code ONLINE

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/television/jennifer-beals-bringing-it-all-back-home/article1915762/page1/
Television: Interview
Jennifer Beals: Bringing it all back home
ANDREW RYAN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 10:27AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011 10:28AM EST

After nearly three decades in film and television, Jennifer Beals has come home.

The striking actress has finally shed all vestiges of her Flashdance days with her new TV role as a tough lady cop on The Chicago Code, which, as the title suggests, films in her hometown of Chicago.

Born in the windy city to working-class parents, Beals was a model in her teens but also expanded her mind at Yale University, where she received her Bachelor's degree in American literature. She took on a small role in the 1980 filmed-in-Chicago feature My Bodyguard, but three years later she was the main attraction in Flashdance.

As the film's lead character, Alex, she played a feisty young woman who was a welder by day and exotic dancer by night. Flashdance was a global hit and thereafter Beals took on a steady succession of intriguing film roles, playing an undead beauty in The Bride (1985), a hot-blooded bloodsucker in Vampire's Kiss (1989) and a temptress in Devil in a Blue Dress (1995).

In 2004, Beals made the transition to TV playing the strong-willed Bette Porter on Showtime's The L Word, which ran six seasons. In recent years, she has done cameo turns in TV series including Frasier and Lie To Me. On Chicago Code, however, she's back home, back in the spotlight and loving every minute of it. She sat down for an interview last week in Toronto.

Who was the role model for playing the female police superintendent on The Chicago Code?

There was no template, really. I mean, you look at women like Hillary Clinton. You look at her presidential campaign. How she was characterized if she was emotional, or if she wasn't emotional. Those criticisms wouldn't have come up had she been a man. It makes you realize that when a woman is powerful and in a position of leadership, the rules are very different.

How important is it for your character to keep up her tough outer veneer?

Well, she is tough, so that isn't so much a veneer.

Are you the type of person who pays attention to weekly Nielsen ratings?

It doesn't affect me. I know some people pay close attention to ratings, but it doesn't affect how I play the character. At the end of the day I have no control over it, so it's silly to give myself something else to worry about.

Is it a personal bonus to shoot in your hometown of Chicago?

Of course, but remember I haven't been back in 20-odd years. The city has changed a great deal. All the neighbourhoods have changed. But I still feel a protectiveness of Chicago. I feel a great love for the city that I don't have to feign, so that makes my job easier.

Is the show partly an homage to the city itself? Without a doubt Chicago is a character on the show. The amazing architecture and the discrepancy between the affluent neighbourhoods and the neighbourhoods that have nothing. And then there's the constant movement--the L train is in the background all the time. There's helicopters, buses and cars. All these characters are trying to stay ahead in this city that is in constant flux, not only physically, but politically.

Can you recall the moment or event that pushed you toward acting?

I remember doing Fiddler on the Roof in high school and I was playing Hodel. During my solo I had one little moment where reality was kind of muted. It was one tiny millisecond of being transcended. And I thought, ‘Wow, that was amazing.' I also remember volunteer-ushering at the Steppenwolf Theatre and seeing Balm in Gilead with Joan Allen. It was so visceral and so present. It actually shifted the paradigm for me of what acting and theatre could be.

Looking back now, was Flashdance a curse or a blessing for you as a young actress?

Flashdance was certainly a baptism by fire. While all that was happening, though, I was still at university, so I was really quite unaware of what was going on. I was more concerned with my midterms and studying and where I was going to do my laundry.

How does your role on Chicago Code compare to your character on The L Word?

In many ways it's a natural progression. Bette Porter on The L Word was very strong and grounded and righteous. She was very passionate about her job and always aware how deeply misogynistic that culture can be. Homophobia is a form of misogyny and I think Porter lived that. The L Word gave me the base of playing someone who is very strong and determined.

Was The L Word a career peak for you?

I always felt so fortunate to be part of the show. In some small way The L Word actually helped shift the culture and make people realize that the ways in which we are similar are much more numerous than the ways that we are different. The show really helped a lot of people, I believe.

Example?

For a lot of people, it gave them courage to come out. One of the more moving moments for me was when a couple came to visit the set. These women had been together 30 years and they had not come out at work or to their families. And after seeing our show they finally had the courage to come out, and people were very accepting of them. So they got to live their lives both authentically and openly.

Given your film résumé range – Vampire's Kiss, Devil in a Blue Dress, Book of Eli – is it fair to assume you try to never play the same character twice?

I just go to whatever moves me at the time. In most cases it's a character that has some unique quality. I always try to keep it interesting.

What was your most recent engaging movie role?

I did a film in Vancouver last year called A Night for Dying Tigers that turned out to be a seminal experience for me as an actor. It was a great cast and the crew was literally eight to 10 people. It was a very intimate film, and very tough to shoot, in terms of the subject matter, but also very freeing. It was at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall but I couldn't go because I was working on Chicago Code.

Like most TV crime dramas, Chicago Code seems built to run several seasons. Are you in for the long haul?

Yes, I'm prepared for that. I trust [creator/executive producer] Shawn Ryan completely and I'd like to see my character go different places and create a private life for herself. I'm ready for the challenge.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

The Chicago Code airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox and Global

JB Global TV Interview

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6g6ZlZ/www.dailyactor.com/2011/02/interview-jennifer-beals-chicago-code/
Q & A: Jennifer Beals on her new show, ‘The Chicago Code’
February 28, 2011 by Lance Carter



AUDIO --> http://www.dailyactor.com/?powerpress_pinw=13046-podcast

The Chicago Code, Shawn Ryan’s (The Shield, Terriers) great new show on FOX, stars Jennifer Beals as Teresa Colvin, Chicago’s first female superintendent. She and her ex-partner, Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke) band together to take down their enemies, including Alderman Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo).

I got a chance to talk with Jennifer on a conference call where she talked about coming back to series television, her ride-alongs with the Chicago P.D., and what she thinks The L Word did for her career.

The Chicago Code airs on Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download from iTunes

What was it about this part that made you want to return to series television?

Jennifer Beals: I found it so interesting to play somebody who was walking into uncharted territory, in a way. She’s really creating the template for this job, being the first female superintendent. I just thought it would be very interesting to take that walk into what kind of a leader does she become in that position, and how do you balance your personal life with the demands of that kind of job.

I thought the relationship to Jarek was also interesting. It’s a very interesting line that we walk between intimacy and respect and being able to tell the truth to one another and goading one another and making each other laugh. I just thought that could potentially be interesting. Of course, for me, working with Shawn Ryan was a real lure because I really admire his writing and I admire the way that he works with his team of writers as well.

We’ve seen so far a really great dichotomy in Teresa’s strengths but also her vulnerability at times, and so far, it’s always been on the job. So I’m wondering, this season, do we ever get to see her out of her uniform so to speak, like in her personal life

Jennifer Beals: There is an episode where it deals with her family, and so you do see her personal life in that episode. You do get little glimpses of it every now and again, but really, this is a person who has dedicated everything to their job for better or for worse. Towards the end of the season, you start to see the toll that that takes on her personally.

Is that something that you enjoy as an actor, like tapping into the challenge of bringing it all into the office so to speak?

Jennifer Beals: Yes. At times, it gets grueling. There are times I just wish they had a scene with me drunk and at a bar—that would be great—or karaoke or something. It gets grueling, and it made me realize that for her it’s got to be grueling

Could you just talk a little bit about what you think The L Word did for your career? Did it change the way that you thought about TV or different roles that became available to you?

Jennifer Beals: It certainly prepared me for this role. Playing Bette Porter, somebody who was so driven and single minded sometimes and very strong and righteous at times, certainly helped prepare me for this role. Definitely, Teresa is much more physically confident than Bette is, and, as far as I can tell so far, is deeply heterosexual.

But being part of The L Word made me realize how much more television can be that what I had experienced in my lifetime in terms of being able to be of service to people. I had so many fans come up to me who were really deeply appreciative of the show and what it had meant for them and their own sense of identity and their own sense of inclusion in our society and in our culture.

I was wondering how important it was for you that this was set in Chicago, and if that sort of helped you in your decision to do it?

Jennifer Beals: I said to my manager when pilot season came up last year, I said, “You basically have two cities; you have Vancouver and Chicago,” because those are the places that I can imagine spending long periods of time with my family. So when this series came up, I was very excited. I was very excited because of Shawn and the part and because I got to go back to my hometown, because I love the city. I think it’s so beautiful, and the people are so great.



What kind of research you were able to do with the police in Chicago and how they work?

Jennifer Beals: We were able to do ride-alongs with a homicide detective. So you could go all out all night in a car in a Kevlar vest. You sign a piece of paper, and you’re able to see all kinds of things. You get to see what they deal with day in and day out, how to set up a crime scene. We got to go to the shooting range. I was able to talk to some people who had more administrative positions to try to understand what that part of my job would be like. There are lots of things on the Internet. The Superintendent of Chicago has a blog that he has for everybody; that’s accessible to everybody. I started boxing … to get more into the physicality of it, the sort of aggressive kind of yang thing that can go on.

What did you see when you did your nights riding along?

Jennifer Beals: Well I saw lots of things. On the more comic side was a woman who refused to put her shirt on in a fried chicken restaurant. She just kept taking her shirt off. She clearly had not been taking her meds, and she thought I was Obama’s sister and that I should somehow save her.

On the more tragic side was … being the first to respond to a man who had been shot, who was about to bleed to unconsciousness on somebody’s front stoop, and watching how— The ambulances weren’t the first to arrive. It was really the fire department. I mean, the police were the first to arrive, but the ambulances didn’t get there for, gosh, I don’t know, like 20 minutes or something. Had this person been relying simply on the ambulances, they probably would’ve died, but the fire department came and helped him medically.

At that time, I was able to see how the police department sets up a crime scene, being able to follow the trail of blood to figure out where he would’ve been shot, where the shooter would’ve been, and looking for the evidence of shell casings, which I helped the detectives find.

Since Teresa’s such a strong character, in what ways does she test your own strength in new ways?

Jennifer Beals: The notion again—I think somebody asked the question earlier of having to devote everything to this job, having to live that within the part. I think testing my own strength of having to suppress what are stereotypically more feminine kinds of values, or female values, like nurturing and inclusion and all these things. Because I think really early on in her leadership, as much as she’d like to be inclusive, as much as she’d like to share information, she doesn’t, because it would be perceived as weak and could perhaps put her in a position of weakness, because that is not the nature of the system that she is now a part of. That was trying sometimes to maintain some kind of balance between more masculine values and feminine values. That was really trying sometimes.

Can you talk about specifically the role of a woman in the role that your character’s playing? Did you talk to other women who were in roles of power in Chicago or just in the police force in general?



Jennifer Beals: I did talk to other women. Obviously, it’s a very interesting position to be a woman who’s in charge of a department or several bureaus who are primarily men and even to ascend to the point where she’s even been nominated for the position because certainly she doesn’t get—I don’t think anybody intended for her to initially have this position. There were two other men, older men, who had the position before her and through their own misfortune, she ended up actually becoming superintendent. I really believe that she was probably the token candidate and then is believed to be potentially a puppet for some of the aldermen. They are surprised by the fact that she’s not a puppet, or not the kind of puppet that they would want certainly.

Having said that, her ascension, I think, comes through expertise. She’s been in I think lots of different of departments within the Chicago Police Department. She’s started out as an officer, as a beat cop, was in tactical, was in homicide. She knows a lot of different departments, which is a feasible idea. So I think that she does have a great deal of respect among her fellow officers, but you would be naïve to think that to be able to ascend to that kind of level isn’t without a cost. She’s got to be a bit of a bad … to run that gamete, and I think it’s cost her her personal life. Everything is about this job, and I think it’s—if we’re fortunate enough to be picked up, you’ll see even more how problematic that is.

Superintendent of the police is a very important position for a woman. Do you feel you were up to the challenges of the role and were there any reservations when you first received the script?

Jennifer Beals: If I didn’t feel I was up to the challenges of the role, I certainly wouldn’t have taken it because I wouldn’t want to disappoint myself or anybody else. I knew that I had a great writing team, and I knew that with John Folino, Detective Folino, as our technical advisor that I would have a lot of help in terms of preparing for the role.

So even though in the beginning of shooting I was really sometimes at a loss of what to do— Because to try to comprehend the role is pretty extraordinary. There is so much that the superintendent does, and to be the first female superintendent is a lot to take on your plate. So there were so many things that I had questions about that nobody could answer for me, because there had never been a female superintendent in Chicago. So I, like Teresa, was kind of making things up as I went along trying to find my way.

I just thought it was a great part, and I think Shawn is an amazing writer and leader. So I had no reservations about it at all.

The show will bring in various directors over the course of the season. What is that like for you as an actress? Does it kind of bring a fresh taste to the series each time a new pair of eyes are on it?

Jennifer Beals: Yes. It’s fun. We had lots of great directors on The L Word as well. It’s fun. You get to experience your character sometimes in a new way. You get a fresh pair of eyes on the city and on the relationships within the show. So it’s a lot of fun.

With all of the outdoor shots that you guys do on the show, do you end up doing a lot of ADR with that? What’s your schedule like as far as that goes?

Jennifer Beals: I haven’t done a lot of ADR, not so far, and we’ve being doing ADR for stuff that’s inside too, frankly. Actually, I’m just thinking back to my last ADR session. There was quite a few scenes that were outside that needed to be looped, and that’s fine. I’m one of those weird actors that really enjoys looping. I get a kick out of it. I think sometimes you can make a scene better if you really pay attention.[b]

entrevista en la revista HELLO (Canadian edition) -03.03.2011
http://www.hellomagazine.ca

people

Preview of Jennifer Beals on the George Stroumboulopoulos show tonight!


+ http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/videos.html?ID=1841490665

LA ENTREVISTA COMPLETA
http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/videos.html?ID=1842204842




backstage
Jennifer Beals y George Stroumboulopoulos, antes de su aparición en el Talk Show (14 de marzo 2011)


http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/photo-albums/guests/jennifer-beals-backstage.html

pequeña parte de la entrevista de Jennifer Beals en el 'Live With Regis and Kelly'

http://www.tvsquad.com/2011/03/16/jennifer-beals-ride-alongs-chicago-code-role/



y la entrevista entera

Jennifer Beals - Interview: Live With Regis & Kelly (March 16, 2011)