Rosalind Chao on learning to drive during AfterMASH

[TMC]

https://www.avclub.com/rosalind-chao...oles-interview

M*A*S*H (1983) / AfterMASH (1983-1985)—“Soon-Lee Klinger”

RC: Well, M*A*S*H, that’s kind of one of my first real things, and I think that’s one of the reasons people on the internet think I’m, like, 80 years old. [Laughs.] Because I got hired, and then I got fired—unbeknownst to me—when my paperwork came in. They basically said that I needed to be 10 years older than I actually was to be able to keep the part. And I obviously wanted a job, so I said whatever they needed me to say to be able to regain that role, so that’s why I’m 80 or however old people think I am! My lawyer just asked if I wanted to have it changed, and I was, like, “You know, I think I wouldn’t have gotten up for 3 Body Problem. Would they have considered me for 3 Body Problem if they had known that I’m not really an old lady?” So there’s a part of my that doesn’t want to jinx it, y’know?

AVC: With AfterMASH, I’ve heard that it was pitched as being a series with a tone resembling the film The Best Years Of Our Lives.

RC: Oh, yes! I didn’t know what that meant then, but yes, it was. Look, I had fun on it. I learned how to drive while we were doing that. And my biggest memory was that nobody wanted the parking spot next to me on the 20th Century Fox lot. [Laughs.] So they kept moving me. First I was parked next to Harry Morgan, and when I first drove there… I remember his face when I said, “Oh, I’m parked next to you…and, look, I did a really good parking job!” His face was just, like, horror. And later that day, I got a note saying, “You’re parking next to Jamie [Farr] tomorrow.” And Jamie lasted, like, a week. And then the next thing I knew, I was parked next to someone I didn’t know at all!