Catherine Hicks - Artikel - Los Angeles Family Magazine June 2000 - Englisch

7th Heaven's Catherine Hicks and Stephen Collins

on cloud 9

BY AYN NIX

AT A TIME WHEN SHOWS ABOUT ALIENS and vampires are earning high ratings, who knew that a wholesome drama about a functional family would be so popular? In its four seasons, the WB's surprise hit as quitely accumulated a string of awards, most notably by the Viewer's Voice award for favorite drama series as well as the Movie Guide Award for Best New Series. "7th Heaven"'s Nielsen rating on the WB is second only to "Dawson's Creek." Each week, 7.1 million viewers tune in to watch the Camden family, who reside in the fictitious suburb of Glenoak. The clan includes seven kids (Barry Watson, Jessica Biel, Beverley Mitchell, David Gallagher, Mackenzie Rosman, and newborn twins). At the head of this heavenly household are stay-at-home mom Annie Camden (Catherine Hicks) and minister Eric Camden (Stephen Collins).

CATHERINE HICKS
Residing in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter, Catherine Hicks is an accomplished actress of more than 20 years. Her feature film credits include Child's Play, Peggy Sue Got Married, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Razor's Edge. She first earned notoriety on the TV drama Ryan's Hope, and received an Emmy nomination for Best Actress for her role as Marilyn Monroe in the TV movie Marilyn: The Untold Story.
Was it a difficult transition going from Marilyn Monroe to portraying a mom on a popular series? "On paper, at first, I didn't want to play a mom," she admits. "You know, your lines are usually like, 'Get dressed', 'Eat your oatmeal.' But the pilot was just so funny and witty and warm, I just had to do it. All of a sudden the word 'mom' was out the window and 'good show' came in."
Hicks is a real-life mom to 8-year-old daughter, Catie, so she says it wasn't much of a stretch to step into the role. "It's vague to me how I've played Marilyn," she says. "At one point, that's all I did, and I really did it well and enjoyed playing, shall I say, more simple-minded blondes who get hurt by a lot of people. Those kind of tragic blondes." With motherhood, tough, came a greater sense of strength and security. "Once you give birth, your whole life changes. They become the fragile one."
At home, Hicks says she and Annie Camden are very similar. "I'm a homemaker," she says. "My mom was a great homemaker. She taught me how to cook and clean and iron. I spend all my time cooking for my family. I want Catie to have what I had, which is a real sense of coziness and security."
Hicks is careful not to let her celebrity interfere with giving Catie as normal a life as possible. "Fortunately, because I look so bad on the weekends, we don't get bothered a lot," she jokes. "My hair is curly and I look just the opposite of what I look like on TV. It's Catie's time on the planet to hear, 'Oh what a darling little girl!' And she gets people coming up to her mother and totaly ignoring her and talking right over her. In your younger days, you gobble up the attention. Now I'm like, 'Isn't she cute? Look at her!'"

Hicks met her husband, Kevin Yagher, 11 years her junior, when she was 36. She was filming the horror flick Child's Play, featuring the evil Chuckie doll, which Yagher created. "I wigged out," she says of the first time they met. "I knew he was serious and not lazy. I'd been dating people who, you know, I'd have to pick up the tab. He would have to paint the bite marks on my arm, and I'd be like, 'You are so handsome! I can't stand it!' I basically chased him for two years."
How does she feel about the age difference? "Sometimes I'm shocked," she admits. "That's a huge ammount of years. He grew up on the Brady Bunch, I grew up on Donna Reed, we have different musical tastes. Crosby, Stills and Nash, all my '60s stuff...it didn't change his life like it changed my life. But then he teaches me about a lot of stuff I totally missed out on, like Aerosmith (points to photo on a nearby table of Aerosmith lead singer Stephen Tyler posing with her daughter, taken while filming his "Pink" video).
Hicks made a decision to pursue acting as an English major in college at Notre Dame. As fate would have it, her dorm room overlooked the the loading dock of the arts building, where she would often notice the drama majors unloading scenery for various productions. "I didn't make cheerleading by one vote, and I was very depressed sophomore year," she explains. "But fortunately because of the required reading for English majors, I read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce." As a result, Hicks experienced a sort of epiphany and finally got up the nerve to sign up for an acting class. "My acting teacher asked, 'What are you doing after graduation?' I said, 'I guess I'll teach English Lit.' He said, 'You ought to go into acting.'" That push was all she needed. She went on to Cornell University, where she earned her Fine Arts degree.
Now that she's landed the role of Annie on "7th Heaven", she's enthusiastic to be a part of something she can believe in, on a show in which a higher power is an influence in the characters' lives. "I just think people should look up more," she says thoughtfully. "On our show, we do look up a lot, and I think it's near for the audience. We say grace, we thank God for our food, I tucked in Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman) yesterday and just threw in a God bless. And we had a Christmas show, and Ruthie was up there saying peace on earth, good will toward men. So I'm proud of that stuff."
Although she has been offered various roles recently, Hicks is enjoying the routine of being part of a regular series. "That's what happens when you have kids," she sighs. "Twenty years ago I would never turn down anything." Future plans may include taking a stab at writing. "I would love to write poetry," she says. "And I'm hoping that because I have the desire means that it will happen. God doesn't give you the desire if you couln't do it."



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© 2002 Catherine Hicks amazing