Orange Coast Magazine: December 2005

Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh makes a habit of flouting the rules when she’s investigating a case on NBC’s Crossing Jordan. That’s a big reason why Jill Hennessy, the actress who’s played the unorthodox Boston medical examiner for five seasons now, feels like she has one of the best jobs in television.

“I like that she is so edgy and very proactive, sort of no holds barred,” Hennessy says of her television alter ego. “It’s one of the few TV shows I’ve seen where the lead character is a female but not sitting on the sidelines, not effecting change by being a sexualized, one-dimensional allusion of a person. She’s real, makes mistakes, doubts herself, and sometimes doesn’t censor herself. And she doesn’t take herself too seriously. She’s willing to mess up and move on.”

Hennessy also loves that her character keeps a sense of humor even as she and her colleagues are unraveling the circumstances behind tragic and sometimes gruesome deaths.

“One of the things that drew me to the show was the combination of the dark and comedic,” she says. “That’s one of the things that separates it from these other forensic shows. There’s more comedy, and the relationships are more evolved. A lot of it is hilarious, and a lot of it drives you to tears because it can be emotional. As an actor, it’s more interesting to work with material [like] that rather than something that is dry and technical.”

On this rainy day in late October, Hennessy has been busy shooting some courtroom scenes on location in downtown Los Angeles. A working mother, she is missing her 2-year-old son, Marco, whom she usually brings with her to work but decided to leave home with her husband of four years, actor Paolo Mastropietro.

“It’s kind of hard not having him here today,” she admits. “I was really afraid of having a child, period, much less being a lead in a TV show. I couldn’t even keep a plant alive in the first two seasons of the show. It was surprising how hard it is to do a one-hour drama. I can see why a lot of actors in similar situations go through strained relationships. So I was apprehensive. But it’s actually worked out quite beautifully.

“He is literally the greatest accomplishment I’ve been able to achieve,” she adds.

Just minutes after settling in for a late afternoon interview, there is a sudden interruption: Hennessy is unexpectedly needed back on the set, immediately.

“I’m so sorry, man! I didn’t think they’d need me back so soon,” the actress explains. “I’ll call you back in a half-hour. Is that OK? Cool!”

She calls back in about half that time and further reflects on the show that is managing to hold its own against ABC’s top 10 medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, which burst onto airwaves last spring.

“Our fans are great,” she says. “We never had the hype or the media buzz. It’s word-of-mouth, the writing, the acting. Everyone I meet says a friend recommended it. People who watched it realized it was a great show. I like to think the cream rises to the top.”

The loyalty of the show’s fans was put to the test when Crossing Jordan had its third season premiere held back until March 2003, which resulted in a 10-month span with no new episodes. The break was initially intended to accommodate Hennessy’s pregnancy, then the network made some changes to its prime-time schedule. When the show finally returned to the airwaves, it was moved from its original Monday nighttime slot to become part of a Sunday night lineup that has it airing after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

To everyone’s surprise, Crossing Jordan scored bigger ratings than ever before upon its return and is widely considered one of NBC’s most reliable one-hour dramas.

“[NBC President] Jeff Zucker decided to bring us back midseason,” Hennessy explains. “The fans were always there, and our show was such a consistent performer. That’s the reason Jeff felt he could slide us into a different time slot.”When Hennessy became pregnant, her workload was lessened somewhat for a time, and the show became a bit more of an ensemble than it had been previously. The first few seasons of the show focused more on Jordan’s troubled personal life, which included dealing with the unsolved murder of her mother.

While Hennessy remains the show’s central character, she shares screen time on Crossing Jordan with a talented cast that includes Miguel
Ferrer as her boss, and Ravi Kapoor, Kathryn Hahn, and Steve Valentine as her co-workers at the morgue.“We know each other so well,” she says. “What’s great also is that it’s one of the most low-key group of actors I’ve ever dealt with. Everyone is down-to-earth, fun, and functional. There are no diva attitudes. Not a bad apple in the bunch. And everyone is so good.”

But it is Jordan’s obvious chemistry with Jerry O’Connell’s character, Detective Woody Hoyt, that has drawn much of the attention to the series. The relationship has been a will-they-or-won’t-they one so far, but Hennessy says she’s hoping they eventually connect romantically.

“Totally! I’ve been pushing for it for years,” she says. “We had a flirtatious relationship, then they threw some conflict in there and they have us on this roller coaster. But I don’t want it to be the death of the sexual tension. They’ve added two new love interests to throw in a few red herrings. The chat rooms are abuzz!”

Among the other hunky suitors who have crossed paths with Jordan was Josh Duhamel’s Danny McCoy from NBC’s Las Vegas. The shows have had highly rated crossover episodes each of the last two seasons.“We had quite an entertaining kissing scene,” Hennessy says of she and Duhamel.

This season, Jordan has been locking horns and setting off sparks with rule-bending newspaper reporter J.D. Pollack, played by Charles Mesure. The characters finally shared a passionate kiss after several episodes of sparring.

“The writers have been good to me this year,” Hennessy says, laughing. “As an actor, I have an excuse to kiss all these guys.”

But the guy she likes kissing most is husband Mastropierto, whom she met while he was bartending at a club in New York City.

“It was pretty fast,” she says of their love connection.

The couple eloped in Italy in October 2000, then had a second marriage ceremony conducted at New York City Hall, which was officiated by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Hennessy, a native of Canada, is one of three children, including her identical twin sister, Jacqueline, a journalist. Her maternal grandmother, Eleanor Hennessy, was a major influence on Hennessy growing up and it was her grandmother who drove her to various jobs after she began modeling at the age of 15. She also made money singing in subway stations in Toronto and later in New York City.

“That was one of the best jobs I ever had, and it’s something I actually kind of miss,” she admits of the subway gigs. “I’d love to do it, but I’d be afraid of people saying, ‘Look at Jill Hennessy trying to earn an extra buck!’ ”

But Hennessy did get to display her impressive musical chops on the Crossing Jordan soundtrack, which received strong reviews. Hennessy’s
recordings of Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now Baby Blue and Tom Waits’ You’re Innocent When You Dream were praised by critics on a CD that also included tunes from Sam Phillips, Alison Krauss, and Cassandra Wilson.

“Singing was something I really wanted to do, but I started getting acting gigs,” she says. “I was with a band when I got Law & Order. I couldn’t make it to rehearsal. It was just great to be able to sing on the soundtrack.”

Hennessy was still largely unknown in 1993 when she was plucked for the plum role of Assistant District Attorney Claire Kincaid on NBC’s long-running drama Law & Order. The series made the 25-year-old Hennessy, who had mostly done guest spots on various shows up to that point, into an instant television star.

“I loved it, and I really miss it,” she says of the time she spent on that series. But the actress still opted to leave Law & Order after only three seasons.

“I had a three-year contract, which Dick Wolf was nice enough to give me instead of a five-year contract,” she explains. “I didn’t want to be typecast or stereotyped in a role that was buttoned-up and very formal. I found that after the first season, the casting directors were more unwilling to give me comedic roles. They were thinking I was 10 to 15 years older.”

It’s no wonder Hennessy didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a by-the-book prosecutor. Her early training was in comedy, and she is well known among co-workers for her friendliness, sometimes bawdy sense of humor, and keeping the mood light on the set.

After leaving Law & Order, Hennessy landed parts in a series of feature films, including Love in the Time of Money, I Shot Andy Warhol, Komodo, Chutney Popcorn, A Smile Like Yours, Autumn in New York, Kiss & Tell, Molly, Two Ninas, and Exit Wounds.

In 2000, she starred in, co-directed, executive produced, and was even the production designer and camera operator for the independent feature The Acting Class, a comedy feature about a dysfunctional acting class that was based on actual events experienced by Hennessy. In addition to her twin sister and husband having roles in the film, also appearing were her Law & Order co-stars Chris Noth, Benjamin Bratt, Jerry Orbach, and Angie Harmon, as well as Alec Baldwin and Regina King.

Hennessy has also starred in two television miniseries: 2000’s Nuremberg and 2001’s Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot. In the latter, Hennessy had the pivotal role of Jacqueline Kennedy.

“Everyone knows her, but very few people had heard her speak or heard her point of view,” says the actress. “It was an incredible honor to play her, and there was a lot of pressure, which was terrifying and exciting. I did research, read everything I could get my hands on, and got all of the visual material, which I studied day and night, studied every scene.”

Hennessy also had contact with two of Kennedy’s close friends before filming the project and learned things about the former First Lady that were not common knowledge.

“They made me love her even more, hearing about her as a friend and a mother,” she says. “They told me about what kind of music she liked, how she liked to dance, and how genuinely respectful she was of people.”

The schedule for Crossing Jordan has made it difficult for Hennessy to do much feature film work these days. This year alone, there were three movies that she had to ultimately pass on because their original start dates were pushed back and conflicted with the show.

“The biggest problem has been the schedule, and having a child, and finding a window to even get out and audition and find a film that will shoot in less than a two-month window,” she explains. “I’d just love to do some great, edgy independents, some in-your-face, verging on offensive, comedy.”

But having Crossing Jordan as her main gig is no small consolation because it is a role that has quite a bit of Hennessy peppered throughout.

“With every character you play, you bring a lot of yourself, but you are dealing with circumstances alien to you,” she says.

“With Jordan, there was a lot I could relate to. I play guitar, so we decided to make that more of her character. It informs the background of her character.”

But Hennessy isn’t sure what Jordan is up to or which direction the character is heading until she opens each week’s script.“A lot is shaped by writers’ whim,” she says. “They evolve the character in ways they see fit.”

—Greg Hernandez profiled Susan Sarandon in last month’s issue of Orange Coast.