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For actress Stacy Edwards, the last couple of years have gone like this: She won an eye-catching role in an independent film, "In the Company of Men," another in "Primary Colors" and, on television, a continuing part in "Chicago Hope." And she won the heart of a man who reminded her of screen crush Gene Kelly.
Not bad at all, Edwards concedes. "I feel very fortunate and I'm just trying to enjoy it as it comes," she says. Does she have a theory to explain her career breakthrough? "This is a profession that does not have hard, fast rules. I think it is sometimes just a matter of hanging in there and not finally deciding to go pursue something else. It can be frustrating at times." Her greatest frustration seems to be learning how to recite complex medical terminology -- "huge words I have to get my tongue around" -- while feigning acts of surgery as Dr. Lisa Catera on CBS's "Chicago Hope."
Neurosurgeon Catera joined the staff of Chicago Hope in the season's fifth episode to help Dr. Aaron Shutt (Adam Arkin), who was robbed of his surgical dexterity by a brain aneurysm. "She's a real no-nonsense doctor, doesn't play games and tells it like it is," Edwards says of her character. Like any good hospital drama, "Chicago Hope" lets us see how its doctors manage with their hearts as well as their heads. So what romantic entanglements await Catera?
"They're kind of leaning toward hooking me up with Mark Harmon (Dr. Jack McNeil). We have the same haircut," Edwards offers. "When I first came on the show, we were in the makeup trailer and I said, 'You're not allowed to use my hair products. I just want you to know that.' "
In the newly released "Primary Colors," she plays Jennifer Rogers, a volunteer in the campaign of Clintonian presidential candidate Jack Stanton (John Travolta). "I was petrified during the (script) read-through. I honestly thought I was going to spontaneously combust," she recalls. "It was so thrilling to be in one room with Kathy Bates, Billy Bob Thornton, John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Adrian Lester.... It really was a dream."
The Glasgow, Mont., native, whose father's Air Force career took her around the world, started dreaming young. She was already prone to dancing and putting on shows in her bedroom when a 1974 movie about Hollywood's golden musical years cinched the deal. "When I was in third grade, my mom took me to see 'That's Entertainment' and that's when I discovered you could actually do this for a living. I said, 'That's what I'm going to do.' I knew I wanted to be like Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse."
At 18, Edwards won a scholarship to the school attached to Chicago's Hubbard Street Dance Company. Theater classes introduced her to acting, and she caught her first break in 1986 with the daytime serial "Santa Barbara," in which she played naive Haley. More television and film roles followed, and "In the Company of Men" made her a hot name.
Writer-director Neil LaBute's small-budget 1997 film is about two executives who conspire to humiliate a young deaf woman. She almost missed out on the role: Her planned June 1, 1996, wedding to actor Eddie Bowz conflicted with the start of production. But Edwards' luck was holding.
LaBute rearranged the production schedule and Bowz agreed to delay their honeymoon. The couple married in New Orleans and shortly afterward Edwards was off to Fort Wayne, Ind., to make "Company." In appropriate Hollywood style, Edwards and her husband met at a party where both were moonlighting as caterers. "We were out in the backyard and I told him I was taking tango lessons. And he started to tap dance. He's a really good tap dancer. I said, 'Oh, my God, you look like Gene Kelly. I used to be in love with Gene Kelly.' "I caught myself and said, 'Oh, that's a little bit much.' But I knew this was the guy I couldn't let get away." For Edwards, it seems that very little does.
