Let's kick off the awesome party with an interview.

And a half: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...e-entertainment

Prepare to add having missed seeing Stop Kiss to your list of lifelong regrets.

'Grey's Anatomy's Newest Cast Member

http://www.dailymotion.com/Schokowutz/vide...mber_shortfilms

Actress BROOKE SMITH obviously made quite an impression. After guest starring on just a few episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" as no-nonsense Dr. Erica Hahn, she's been brought back to become the show's newest series regular -- and ET is on the set of the hit ABC medical drama with the show's latest addition.

Brooke tells JANN CARL she had no idea that her brief appearance on "Grey's" would eventually lead to a full time gig. "It's one of those things where I wouldn't allow myself to think that it would happen because I would just be disappointed," says Brooke.

But now that it has, Brooke and her family have packed their bags and relocated from New York to L.A., where the series is filmed.

"Grey's Anatomy" airs on Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.

I was totally unspoiled by not only the character showing up last night, but by Ms Smith becoming a regular to the show. It's fabulous news and can only benefit GA. I'm a big fan and enjoyed her appearances on Crossing Jordan reruns and it's great to see her as another strong female character.

Just got Series 7 The Contender DVD and am looking forward to seeing her in that after hearing great things about it.

I just learned that Brooke Smith was in Silence of the Lambs as Catherine Martin, the girl in the pit being told to put the lotion on her skin or else it gets the hose again. My liking and respect for her just went up tenfold.

Kind of ironic that the writers had George quote that scene back in season 2...

Clips from 'Weeds'.

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Okay, I'm not allowed to post a direct link to it on here, but if anyone wants to watch Series 7:The Contenders in its entirety, it's on Google Video. She's just phenomenal in it.

I'm not sure we need this thread. I am not a huge fan of actor threads in general, and at this point, I think Brooke the actor can be discussed in her character thread. Unless she gets super famous and requires pages and pages of discussion. Thanks.

So now that this thread is back open, I thought I'd rave a bit about Brooke Smith's performance on Weeds. I hadn't seen it since watching S4 of Grey's, but it was on Showtime last night, so I caught 2 of her 3 episodes. And I now recall why, when I first watched, I sat there wishing she and Nancy would make out. The episode where they become friends is so delicious. They're both so bitchy and sarcastic and fun, and their sparring is really seductive. And it showed how Brooke can be incredibly bitchy and alluring at the same time. As Erica she hasn't quite gotten to be alluring yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Also, Season 7: The Contenders is on the Sundance Channel this weekend. Set your DVRs!

Which season of Weeds is she in? I haven't watched that show since mid-season 2, I think.

She was on the most recent season, which I guess was season 3. Four episodes total.

I checked out the Weeds clips; thanks very much. All good stuff. abzug, you're right about the sparring thing. It's probably wrong that I really liked it when Brooke said "fuck" a lot, right? Oh well...

There's a nice little interview here which amounts to nothing really as Brooke is very evasive when it comes to Callie/Erica. But I could listen to that woman read the phone book and not mind at all.

I just watched Season 7: The Contenders, and Brooke Smith is an absolute genius at showing glimpses of vulnerability beneath an abrasive exterior. I mean, we're talking about a woman who's going around gunning people down on television, and yet you totally love her and feel for her when you watch the movie. And the film itself is pretty brilliant, separate from her performance.

I was wondering: in most biographies of Brooke Smith there is some reference to her living with (or rather, sharing an apartment with) Jeff Buckley at some point. Would anyone happen to know if this is true and if so, whether she has ever talked about it in an interview? Thanks!

In case anyone was thinking of renting The Namesake because Brooke is in it, let me save you the two hours of your time. She's only in 4 scenes, and in one of them has no lines. She did what she could with the character, but there just wasn't much there.

A great little Brooke interview...

With Ausiello

Another nice Brooke interview with TV Guide, I think.

Clickety

Does anybody know where I can find clips with Brooke from Crossing Jordan? I can't find anything on youtube. It would be interesting to see her act in CJ, because I've heard that her character there resembles Hahn a bit.

A Quickie With Brooke Smith

Don't you just love this headline? :-)

VayaZ - I found one clip of Brooke in CJ on youtube here. A very short scene but still cool and funny! Plus she looks absolutely gorgeous!

She's also in some clips on the CJ Nbc website.

BS: itv behind the scenes during season 4

Brooke and her oldest daughter at a DVD release party. They look a lot alike!

Wow, they really are alot alike! :O

Brooke Smith really impresses me, she's one of those actors that I hadn't noticed much prior to seeing her on Grey's Anatomy, because she's had alot of small roles here and there, but the more I see, the more I like. And that voice! Seriously, it gives me shivers.

Anyway, Brooke is awesome, and I think it's too bad that she hasn't had more big roles, because from what I have seen she's really talented.

Has anyone here seen Vanya on 42nd Street? I haven't seen it and can't seem to find it anywhere either, but from the clips I've seen Brooke is really good in it.

I saw it many years ago, and thought it was excellent. Although I have to admit that at the time, I found Brooke Smith's performance to be the least interesting. But I think that might have more to do with the character she played. I wish they would release it on dvd--it's an amazing interpretation of the play.

They have released Vanya on 42nd St. on DVD. I purchased my copy via Amazon.

Even more amazing, imho, is Brooke's performance in "Getting Off." Every time she plays strong but hurting, I end up in tears.

This is both good news and bad news. Good because the film is available for people to see. Bad because I'm clearly losing my head. I had recalled looking for it on Netflix and not finding it, which is why I had assumed it wasn't out on dvd at all. But then I read your post, and went to Netflix to add it to my queue, and I discovered it was already IN my queue! Very scary.

I haven't heard of that one. Is it a play or a movie/series?

As others have done before me, I have to recommend The Contenders. It's funny and macabre. And Brooke is great in it. The best performance I have seen from her.

Never seen that one, will have to get a hold of it. Thanks for the tip =D

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Off-Christin...0284&sr=8-1

It's a feature film. Brooke's one in a trio of main characters, but the most compelling I think.

L

Chiming in here--I liked both the Contenders and Uncle Vanya...look forward to finding Getting Off.

BS had a small but significant role in "Kansas City," directed by Robert Altman. I loved that movie and she's wonderful in it. Altman's commentary adds some interesting weight to the character, also.

But I thought one of her most interesting roles was the part she played in "Iron Jawed Angels," an HBO film about the women's suffrage movement in the U.S. Her character, Mabel Vernon, was in reality also a peace activist and a lesbian, though in this film she's just really handy and wears ties. Some of the things Mabel accomplished are attributed to other characters. Anjelica Houston and Hilary Swank are in it too, and PD plays a very sympathetic (if fictitious) character. It's inspiring to watch and I have to say that everyone looks great in the period costumes. Just saying.

I couldn't agree more!
That's what I like with Brooke Smith : she can play a woman killing people and making us love her, feel for her...

In a way, I think the same thing occurred in "Crossing Jordan". I haven't watched this show before the last season and I watch the last season because I knew Brooke Smith had been added to the casting. And again, she plays some harsh person but a harsh person that you have no choice not to love... If you love BS, so try to watch the last season of "Crossing Jordan"...

So, yes, Brooke Smith rocks (and the last episode of Grey's is one supplementary proof...)

(again, sorry if my English is not perfect, but I'm not a native-speaker so I make some mistakes...)

She's particularly good at getting a lot out of very little. For instance, she didn't have that many lines in the past couple of Grey's episodes, but she made the most of them. She's really good at the lump-in-throat, voice-breaking-slightly thing: The way she injects trepidation in the line "What rules?" during the date, or the way she says ""It wasn't good for you" as both a statement and a question during the painful scene in the X-ray room when Callie tells her she's not good at the "sex with a girl" thing. I really hope she gets more material in forthcoming episodes.

Sigh.

She's a terrific actress who has clearly been slumming it by working on this show. She deserves so much better. I'm hoping that she gets it.

I couldn't agree more with her slumming by being on this idiotic night time soap. The only one in the cast that could compete with her acting ability was Chandra Wilson. In the long run, maybe she'll be better off. Maybe she'll be able to ride the publicity of this homophobic firing to something bigger and better. I hope so. I didn't even know who she was until she came on Grey's and now I'm definitely a huge fan. I'll be keeping an eye out for her in the future.

She was so good opposite MLP in Weeds, maybe they'll bring her back there. Or something opposite Grey's on Thursdays. Then I can give ABC the finger every time I change the channel.

I am so confused by this news, for a number of reasons:

1. If the reason was cold feet about the Callie/Erica storyline, why did they not just cut the whole thing altogether..Brooke says in her interview that she found out in mid-September...which would seem to me that this was decided before season 5 began airing.

2. Again, since the network/Shonda had decided this mid September, it can't have been based on viewer reactions to Hahn and the Callie/Erica storyline in Season 5, since episode 1 only aired towards the end of September. If they thought the character wasn't being received well in season 4 they could have changed the writing for the character or written her out in a more dignified manner at the end of the season.

This just isn't adding up to me, there must be something Shonda and co aren't telling us.

I too hope that Brooke will get signed up for some cool new show, but it seems like she hasn't had much luck so far with the industry, so I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't bother anymore, which would be a shame.

When I first heard, I thought it was a joke or something. I WISH that it was, because it just feels so absurd for them to have talked to GLAAD and talked about how they were going to try to make this a realistic and respectful portrayal of a same sex relationship, and then 7 episodes into the season they fire the actress playing half of that "respectful portrayal" and completely destroy the storyline. I am extremely disappointed, I must say.



That would be a real shame. I'm a big fan of Brooke's and I think it's too bad that Hollywood can't recognize true talent when it's right there in front of them. I wish her the very best in her continued career and I really really hope we'll see more of her.

They had already filmed all of the episodes we have watched so far. It would have been extremely expensive to rewrite and reshoot the episodes to eliminate the storyline, since in many episodes the storyline was 25% of the action. And yes, it was decided before S5 began airing--BS was fired in mid Sep, and we saw the first ep of S5 on Sep 24. This explains why BS did no press for the premiere, which I was surprised about at the time, since I figured the gay press would have done interviews with BS and SR.

I was extremely happy that Brooke said in her EW interview that she thought it was icky for Callie to be going to Mark to learn how to please a woman.

While this is very true, there are other options in terms of "degaying" the show. Editing is a MAJOR factor and can make all the difference between believability and connectivity to a character/plot. As with most film, I would assume there is a great deal that was shot and ended up on the cutting room floor that could have been manipulated in such a way to turn away from the gay. Or just ignore it completely and have more screentime devoted to MerDer & Co. Just throw in an occasional 30 seconds about Callie/Erica. Then the result would either be no connection to the plot, or just such a mishmash of crap that no one would care about the hackneyed subplot cos it was so stupid. (I personally don't think they reached that level.) And editing can account for lack of emphasis on a particular element in a script. Scripts are much longer than what we are shown and there was plenty of option through editing alone for maneuverability to deemphasize the Lesbian Storyline that people/Suits found so threatening and "explicit". (That's what really gets me. If it was SO explicit, that is the job of the director and editors to adjust, which I think could have been done if necessary. But it wasn't, IMO.)

But then again, maybe what we saw WAS the result of that purposely omissive editing (at least partly). It would sort of make sense in regards to why the whole storyline seemed so poorly handled and executed.

And there is no reason on Earth that they would have to fire a regular in order to do any of this. There's simply no reason. Too gay? Okay, turn it in a different direction, edit, etc. Too unlikable? Once again, write it differently, direct it differently. Too expensive? I'm not even going there because that claim is moot IMO when you turn around and hire 4 new docs. I would guess that they didn't WANT to write/direct/edit it differently because not only is that a lot of unexpected effort and money, but it would compromise creative control. Blah. Whatever. And showrunners hate being told what to do on "their" shows. Just like parents don't like other people telling them how to raise their own children, producers/creators don't like suits telling them what to write their 'baby'. Until it all blows up in their faces.

Something about this is really weird, and I don't really understand why ABC would go to such an extreme (and risk this backlash that anyone with a brain could see coming a mile away) unless it was a last resort. Or unless they're just plain stupid. Could be either. That said, I would not have appreciated some sort of back-tracking on the lesbian relationship in order to appease the homophobes of America, but I'm sure Brooke Smith would have appreciated still having a job. But who knows, I can't speak for her and maybe she was right along with the defiance (if there was such thing) -- cos really, why pander to morons and bigots? I'm just thinking some way to feel better about why such a massive response came to be. I will say that Shonda's little soundbite didn't make me think it was this scenario though. It made it seem like she was onboard with the Suits.

But that's just complete speculation.

I get the feeling they didn't like Brooke Smith or her acting or something aside from the storyline. Not the other actors, but the ABC suits. She's not a G.A. pretty girlie like the others...she's kind of manly and rough around the edges. Teeth need some work too. But she's a fine actress and if they didn't like the performance all they had to do was give her different material and she'd act it. I don't think this has to do with a gay storyline; I think it's a 'chemistry' thing. And once someone up above decides they don't like someone, for whatever reason, the quality of their work doesn't matter a darn.

Because sometimes the morons and bigots run the show. Grrr!

Can I just drop in and out of lurking to state that I love Brooke Smith. She was my reason after Kate Walsh to watch this show and now that reason is gone. I *seriously* need to break something.

I am really sorry for Brooke Smith, she didn't deserve that, I mean she acted what they wrote, she had no chemistry with Sara, and they screwed up her character, I liked Dr Hahn at first... But it's really better for Smith to leave this show, the way she was put was really ugly.

You know, now that my anger has simmered to a slow boil and I have reluctantly accepted that Brooke Smith isn't going to be on Grey's anymore (and that I won't be watching it again after tomorrow night), something struck me that made my outrage on her behalf ease a little. Her being fired like this might be the best thing that ever happens to her career. She's being written about in just about every entertainment rag, she's being featured on entertainment news programs all over the place. Her name is suddenly out there and attached to a hot button topic. That's Hollywood gold. People kill for this kind of publicity. I'm hoping she can parlay that into another job soon. Hell, ideally I'd love to see her get her own show because she's proven that she can act rings around most people that I see on my TV screen on any given night.

Hectic, I was thinking along those lines, too. This may all reveal that she's actually more popular as an actor than any suits previously thought. Hopefully, her management will be able to do something with it and get her either a lead in something or a large supporting role. I hate to see this all translate into nothing and just find her as the "best friend" in movies again.

Evidently Patrick Dempsey is/was on Ellen:

http://tvwatch.people.com/

Loved this part:

“ABC actually sends me over what I should [say] …,” he tells Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show Wednesday.

So what’s the official spin?

“ABC’s response … is that [I] should say: ‘We’ve had a great time working with her and that the conclusion of her [character] has been orgasmic’ — I’m sorry, I’m dyslexic! — ‘organic’ ending to the story line.’ “

Well, after Grey's she could be stuck with being the gay best friend.. :) I hope it won't stick like the "it puts the lotion..." thing.

Shoot, I can't see this link at work. So, that mis-speak was intentional on PD's part, right?

My take was that he was mocking ABC, kinda of revealing that they were so happy to kick her out. I dunno.

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Re: Brooke's popularity post Grey's.

While I think the publicity is good, and that she is in fact a superbly talented actress, I suspect that one of the reasons she was let go will always be a limiting factor in her career - that is, she is an unconventional beauty that people like the "ape-men" at the helm of ABC or Disney (and other ape-men sitting at home watching TV) could not appreciate. She doesn't fit the Hollywood mold for a main actress on a prominent TV series or film, etc. Unless, perhaps, you make the character extremely likeable, the story exceptional, etc.

She will have a "strike" or two against her, automatically, all the time.

This is not an optimistic post, of course, but I think it's just the truth. And a sad reflection of our society.

I thought it might have been a shot at the one of the rumoured reasons for Brooke's departure, that the network weren't happy about the supposed explicitness of the Callie/Erica relationship (yeah, whatevs). Just a thought.