TJ
03-26-2002, 02:33 AM
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Source: Teen Magazine, Jan 1984 v28 p40(2).
Title: Teens on the tube. (Kim Fields, Lauri Hendler, Andrea Elson)
Full Text COPYRIGHT 1984 EMAP-USA
Teens On The Tube
TUNE IN FOR A BEHIND-THE-SCREENS LOOK AT SOME OF TV'S BRIGHTEST YOUNG STARS
Kim Fields, 14
A favorite pastime: Fishing with her uncle
Ambition: To play on Broadway
A role model: Her mother, actress Chip Fields
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Eddie Murphy
At age 14, Kim Fields is a successful TV veteran who has never had to worry about being stereotyped. She's played everything from an innocent, wide-eyed kid in over a dozen national TV commercials, to an alcoholic Olympic gymnast in the TV movie, "Children Of Divorce,' to a 10-year-old genius in the
after-school special, "Righteous Apples.' But her steadiest and best-known job has been playing the wisecracking Tootie on the hit series, "The Facts Of Life.'
While drawing comparisions between her personality and Tootie's, Kim says that, although she doesn't talk quite as much as Tootie, in most respects she and her character are alike. "Tootie mothers the other girls and is always giving them advice,' she says. "I do that to the girls off-camera a lot too.
Plus, we're both growing up and becoming more knowledgeable about a lot of things.'
Born in New York City's Harlem, Kim's success story is almost in the Cinderella category. Following her first television appearance on "Sesame Street' at the age of 5, Kim and her mother, Chip, moved to Los Angeles when Chip landed a key role in a West Coast production of "Hello Dolly.' Shortly after that, young Kim's bubbling personality put her in demand for dozens of TV commercials. Her television career had begun.
But her fame hasn't caused her to forget a different lifestyle. At times, she travels to schools in underprivileged areas to speak to the students about dreams and aspirations. "The principals of the schools tell me I give the kids some real hope,' Kim says. "That gives me a real sense of accomplishment.'
And this bright-eyed teen doesn't feel the hope she spreads to anyone who has dreams of following in her footsteps is false hope. "I think that no matter where you live you should still dream,' she stresses. "Don't let anybody tell you it's crazy and to give it up, because if you believe in yourself, anything
is possible.'
This 14-year-old star attributes her success to this type of determination and solid support from her friends and her mother. But, as Kim will readily testify, making it in Hollywood also takes a lot of energy.
Kim's daily schedule is a hectic one. It usually starts at 8:30 a.m. when she and co-star Nancy McKeon meet with their studio tutor to work on lessons that are assigned in advance by teachers in their regular, public schools. Although their school hours vary depending on when they're needed on stage, California
law requires that they study with their tutor three hours per day, in blocks of no less than 20 minutes each. On top of this are rehearsals and tapings which often last into the evening hours, five days a week.
Sometimes, Kim admits with her easy laugh, she wishes she led a more average life, "like when I want to go someplace without being recognized or if I don't feel like going out and putting on smiles.'
With the popularity of the long-running "Facts Of Life' series, you'd think worrying about the future would be the last thing on this young celebrity's mind. But she always likes to have something to fall back on by having other projects going and doing good in school, just in case something should happen
to her show business career.
Still, she says, her smile revealing a mouthful of braces, "I feel successful. I don't feel real successful, though, just a little. But I'm working on it.'
Lauri Hendler, 18
A favorite pastime: Taking a book to the beach in the winter when it's cool and misty
Ambition: To study at Yale
A role model: Katharine Hepburn
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Laurence Olivier
Lauri Hendler has given teens a new type of TV character to relate to with her role as the brilliant, bespectacled and boy-watching Julie on "Gimme A Break.' But, even though her current character is more gawky than glamorous, Lauri doesn't mind. Because her choracter convinced her that, "you're the most
beautiful person in the world if you feel good about yourself.'
This 18-year-old actress should definitely feel good about her acting success. The popular "Gimme A Break' series is now in its third year. And Lauri's been on the TV screen regularly since the age of 8, when she made her debut on an episode of "The Streets Of San Francisco.' She decided even then that she
wanted to make acting her career, although she admits that it was a rather impulsive decision at the time. "I realized that every time I went on a job I was out of school,' she remembers. "And I was on a set where adults were calling me Miss Hendler. And I thought, "This is so glamorous and so easy, this is what I want to do.''
Since then she's averaged a television job a year, playing in TV movies and guest-starring on a variety of series, including "Chips' and "Three's Company.'
Although she's had a top talent agent since the age of 3, she still attributes some of her success to the fact that she could read scripts at the age of 5 without her mom's help and, most of all, to luck.
In reality, Lauri's success seems to be more the result of a mixture of natural talent and hard work. While working 40 hours per week on the set of "Gimme A Break,' she also took classes at Beverly Hills High School and did well enough with her studies to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist, an honor given to less than 1 percent of the top high school seniors. Now she's
taking classes at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while still working on her series.
In many regards, she's like her character, Julie, especially when it comes to her love of learning and funny one-liners. But in one way, she's very different. "Julie is not real sure of herself in a lot of ways,' Lauri says. "She's caught between wanting to read and study a lot, and wanting to be in the popular crowd. She's in a real transition period. I seem to have gotten through a lot of that; I've just decided I want everything.'
Since Julie and Lauri's personalities are so similar, Lauri makes a conscious effort to keep the two separate, right down to the minutes before a scene. "I make sure a stage manager tells me five minutes before they need me on stage,' she explains. "Then I turn off the lights in my dressing room and I'll sit and relax and just kind of let Lauri leave. Then I turn on the lights and look in
the mirror until I see Julie, not Lauri.'
Lauri can't wait for the day when she won't be able to walk down the street without being mobbed by fans. But, until then, she appreciates every stare, pointing finger and autograph request that is aimed at her. To her, this is the fun of being a TV teen--well, that and getting dressed up to go to "fancy, fancy, fancy' restaurants.
But in case you think an actress' life is all glitter and glamour, Lauri has this food for thought: "Glamour is just somebody else's idea of how easy your job is. Acting is really hard work.'
Andrea Elson, 14
A favorite pastime: Riding horses
Ambition: To play a challenging role that would require a lot of research
A role model: Meryl Streep
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Rick Springfield
Last year at this time, Andrea Elson was attending junior high school in a small town in New York, practicing her piano and hanging out with her friends. But because of an intense desire to be an actress, she was also trekking around New York City with her mother, going to "tons and tons' of auditions. They scoured the city for a year but, except for a couple of regional commercials, nothing big seemed to be coming her way.
Nothing, that is, until casting directors for the new series, "Whiz Kids,' came to New York to audition young actresses, after exhausting their lists of Los Angeles-based hopefuls. Andrea was there, determined as ever, with the hundreds of other teens who were hoping this would be their big break.
Call it chemistry, a winning combination or a major stroke of luck (Andrea's not sure which), but the petite 14-year-old New Yorker landed the role of quick-thinking Alice Tyler on the new adventure series about teens who use a massive computer system to solve the community's crimes.
So now Andrea and her mother are bi-coastal, living in Los Angeles for the two-week filming sessions, then jetting back to New York to be with the rest of the family during hiatus.
As you might expect, Andrea's reaction to her new, cosmopolitan lifestyle is one of stunned disbelief. "I keep asking my mom to pinch me,' she says, pinching herself to double-check. "I'm still not sure whether it's a dream or not.'
Hard work is another reality that's there to remind her, though. Her days are packed with acting responsibilities like memorizing lines, rehearsing those same lines again and again, and finishing the required three hours of school work with her studio tutor (often in the midst of lights, camera and lots of action).
The reality isn't too hard to take though, reports Andrea. "It's not so hard memorizing lines since it's just dialogue going back and forth, and there are always cues. And my teachers, both here and back home, are a great help as far as school goes,' claims the TV newcomer. "My assignments are sent here from my
school in New York, so I have the same textbooks and everything as my friends do. I'm even a little ahead of my friends since I have a teacher practically all to myself here.'
Other parts of television life, however, are out of this bright, young star's hands. A television career is always a shaky one when your job depends on things like ratings and network executives' decisions. "I think about that,' says Andrea, "but it's not exactly like "Whiz Kids' is my whole world. I have my family, my school and my friends. So, while I hope everything works out, at the same time it's not like it's the end if it doesn't.'
Andrea may have developed this rational way of thinking after the year-long series of rejections she had to face before getting the part on the "Whiz Kids.' Learning to keep up your confidence during this difficult process, she says, is one of the keys to success if you have visions of seeing yourself on the tube.
"Of course, you should get pictures taken and find a good agent,' adds Andrea. "But then you just have to go for it!'
Source: Teen Magazine, Jan 1984 v28 p40(2).
Title: Teens on the tube. (Kim Fields, Lauri Hendler, Andrea Elson)
Full Text COPYRIGHT 1984 EMAP-USA
Teens On The Tube
TUNE IN FOR A BEHIND-THE-SCREENS LOOK AT SOME OF TV'S BRIGHTEST YOUNG STARS
Kim Fields, 14
A favorite pastime: Fishing with her uncle
Ambition: To play on Broadway
A role model: Her mother, actress Chip Fields
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Eddie Murphy
At age 14, Kim Fields is a successful TV veteran who has never had to worry about being stereotyped. She's played everything from an innocent, wide-eyed kid in over a dozen national TV commercials, to an alcoholic Olympic gymnast in the TV movie, "Children Of Divorce,' to a 10-year-old genius in the
after-school special, "Righteous Apples.' But her steadiest and best-known job has been playing the wisecracking Tootie on the hit series, "The Facts Of Life.'
While drawing comparisions between her personality and Tootie's, Kim says that, although she doesn't talk quite as much as Tootie, in most respects she and her character are alike. "Tootie mothers the other girls and is always giving them advice,' she says. "I do that to the girls off-camera a lot too.
Plus, we're both growing up and becoming more knowledgeable about a lot of things.'
Born in New York City's Harlem, Kim's success story is almost in the Cinderella category. Following her first television appearance on "Sesame Street' at the age of 5, Kim and her mother, Chip, moved to Los Angeles when Chip landed a key role in a West Coast production of "Hello Dolly.' Shortly after that, young Kim's bubbling personality put her in demand for dozens of TV commercials. Her television career had begun.
But her fame hasn't caused her to forget a different lifestyle. At times, she travels to schools in underprivileged areas to speak to the students about dreams and aspirations. "The principals of the schools tell me I give the kids some real hope,' Kim says. "That gives me a real sense of accomplishment.'
And this bright-eyed teen doesn't feel the hope she spreads to anyone who has dreams of following in her footsteps is false hope. "I think that no matter where you live you should still dream,' she stresses. "Don't let anybody tell you it's crazy and to give it up, because if you believe in yourself, anything
is possible.'
This 14-year-old star attributes her success to this type of determination and solid support from her friends and her mother. But, as Kim will readily testify, making it in Hollywood also takes a lot of energy.
Kim's daily schedule is a hectic one. It usually starts at 8:30 a.m. when she and co-star Nancy McKeon meet with their studio tutor to work on lessons that are assigned in advance by teachers in their regular, public schools. Although their school hours vary depending on when they're needed on stage, California
law requires that they study with their tutor three hours per day, in blocks of no less than 20 minutes each. On top of this are rehearsals and tapings which often last into the evening hours, five days a week.
Sometimes, Kim admits with her easy laugh, she wishes she led a more average life, "like when I want to go someplace without being recognized or if I don't feel like going out and putting on smiles.'
With the popularity of the long-running "Facts Of Life' series, you'd think worrying about the future would be the last thing on this young celebrity's mind. But she always likes to have something to fall back on by having other projects going and doing good in school, just in case something should happen
to her show business career.
Still, she says, her smile revealing a mouthful of braces, "I feel successful. I don't feel real successful, though, just a little. But I'm working on it.'
Lauri Hendler, 18
A favorite pastime: Taking a book to the beach in the winter when it's cool and misty
Ambition: To study at Yale
A role model: Katharine Hepburn
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Laurence Olivier
Lauri Hendler has given teens a new type of TV character to relate to with her role as the brilliant, bespectacled and boy-watching Julie on "Gimme A Break.' But, even though her current character is more gawky than glamorous, Lauri doesn't mind. Because her choracter convinced her that, "you're the most
beautiful person in the world if you feel good about yourself.'
This 18-year-old actress should definitely feel good about her acting success. The popular "Gimme A Break' series is now in its third year. And Lauri's been on the TV screen regularly since the age of 8, when she made her debut on an episode of "The Streets Of San Francisco.' She decided even then that she
wanted to make acting her career, although she admits that it was a rather impulsive decision at the time. "I realized that every time I went on a job I was out of school,' she remembers. "And I was on a set where adults were calling me Miss Hendler. And I thought, "This is so glamorous and so easy, this is what I want to do.''
Since then she's averaged a television job a year, playing in TV movies and guest-starring on a variety of series, including "Chips' and "Three's Company.'
Although she's had a top talent agent since the age of 3, she still attributes some of her success to the fact that she could read scripts at the age of 5 without her mom's help and, most of all, to luck.
In reality, Lauri's success seems to be more the result of a mixture of natural talent and hard work. While working 40 hours per week on the set of "Gimme A Break,' she also took classes at Beverly Hills High School and did well enough with her studies to be a National Merit Scholarship finalist, an honor given to less than 1 percent of the top high school seniors. Now she's
taking classes at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), while still working on her series.
In many regards, she's like her character, Julie, especially when it comes to her love of learning and funny one-liners. But in one way, she's very different. "Julie is not real sure of herself in a lot of ways,' Lauri says. "She's caught between wanting to read and study a lot, and wanting to be in the popular crowd. She's in a real transition period. I seem to have gotten through a lot of that; I've just decided I want everything.'
Since Julie and Lauri's personalities are so similar, Lauri makes a conscious effort to keep the two separate, right down to the minutes before a scene. "I make sure a stage manager tells me five minutes before they need me on stage,' she explains. "Then I turn off the lights in my dressing room and I'll sit and relax and just kind of let Lauri leave. Then I turn on the lights and look in
the mirror until I see Julie, not Lauri.'
Lauri can't wait for the day when she won't be able to walk down the street without being mobbed by fans. But, until then, she appreciates every stare, pointing finger and autograph request that is aimed at her. To her, this is the fun of being a TV teen--well, that and getting dressed up to go to "fancy, fancy, fancy' restaurants.
But in case you think an actress' life is all glitter and glamour, Lauri has this food for thought: "Glamour is just somebody else's idea of how easy your job is. Acting is really hard work.'
Andrea Elson, 14
A favorite pastime: Riding horses
Ambition: To play a challenging role that would require a lot of research
A role model: Meryl Streep
Someone she'd like to co-star with: Rick Springfield
Last year at this time, Andrea Elson was attending junior high school in a small town in New York, practicing her piano and hanging out with her friends. But because of an intense desire to be an actress, she was also trekking around New York City with her mother, going to "tons and tons' of auditions. They scoured the city for a year but, except for a couple of regional commercials, nothing big seemed to be coming her way.
Nothing, that is, until casting directors for the new series, "Whiz Kids,' came to New York to audition young actresses, after exhausting their lists of Los Angeles-based hopefuls. Andrea was there, determined as ever, with the hundreds of other teens who were hoping this would be their big break.
Call it chemistry, a winning combination or a major stroke of luck (Andrea's not sure which), but the petite 14-year-old New Yorker landed the role of quick-thinking Alice Tyler on the new adventure series about teens who use a massive computer system to solve the community's crimes.
So now Andrea and her mother are bi-coastal, living in Los Angeles for the two-week filming sessions, then jetting back to New York to be with the rest of the family during hiatus.
As you might expect, Andrea's reaction to her new, cosmopolitan lifestyle is one of stunned disbelief. "I keep asking my mom to pinch me,' she says, pinching herself to double-check. "I'm still not sure whether it's a dream or not.'
Hard work is another reality that's there to remind her, though. Her days are packed with acting responsibilities like memorizing lines, rehearsing those same lines again and again, and finishing the required three hours of school work with her studio tutor (often in the midst of lights, camera and lots of action).
The reality isn't too hard to take though, reports Andrea. "It's not so hard memorizing lines since it's just dialogue going back and forth, and there are always cues. And my teachers, both here and back home, are a great help as far as school goes,' claims the TV newcomer. "My assignments are sent here from my
school in New York, so I have the same textbooks and everything as my friends do. I'm even a little ahead of my friends since I have a teacher practically all to myself here.'
Other parts of television life, however, are out of this bright, young star's hands. A television career is always a shaky one when your job depends on things like ratings and network executives' decisions. "I think about that,' says Andrea, "but it's not exactly like "Whiz Kids' is my whole world. I have my family, my school and my friends. So, while I hope everything works out, at the same time it's not like it's the end if it doesn't.'
Andrea may have developed this rational way of thinking after the year-long series of rejections she had to face before getting the part on the "Whiz Kids.' Learning to keep up your confidence during this difficult process, she says, is one of the keys to success if you have visions of seeing yourself on the tube.
"Of course, you should get pictures taken and find a good agent,' adds Andrea. "But then you just have to go for it!'