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Chicago Hope's Chief of Surgery, Christine Lahti, reveals her real-life heart and soul.Working as Dr. Kathryn Austin, the sometimes heartless heart surgeon on CBS-TVs Chicago Hope, provides actress Christine Lahti with her share of drama. However, there was no director to yell "Cut!" when the 48-year-old actress experienced her own real-life health scare last year.
During a routine EKG there was "a questionable blip on my test," recalls Lahti. "I was very frightened." Fortunately, her doctors determined that the EKG results had been misread; the Emmy-nominated TV doc is actually in perfect health. "My heart's in really great shape thanks to spinning classes," she says.
Spinning her wheels is only the beginning of Lahti's fitness routine, however. It also includes regular hikes, Pilates, and active play with her husband, television director Thomas Schlamme, and their three children (Wilson, age nine, and four-year-old twins Emma and Joe).
The daughter of a successful surgeon, the Detroit native was destined for a healthy lifestyle. Acting was part of the plan from her early days, too. Even as a child, Lahti would emote for her parents or anyone else who would listen. Being cast as a tree in a school play and the Virgin Mary in a Christmas pageant gave her ideas--like moving to New York City to be an actress, which she did in 1973 at age 25.
In 1984 Lahti received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as a foulmouthed, but kind-hearted, factory worker who buddies up with Goldie Hawn's character in Swing Shift. New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Awards followed, as did CableACE Awards and six Golden Globe nominations for television and film roles. In 1995 Lahti won an Oscar in the short-film category for directing the short film Lieberman in Love, and earlier this year she scored a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series for Chicago Hope after being nominated two years in a row. Again, she got ideas.
The actress recently directed an episode of Chicago Hope and is planning on more directing gigs when, she says, laughing, "Hollywood no longer wants to look at my sagging face." In this exclusive interview, Lahti talks about her take on fitness, fame and family life, and aging in a town obsessed with youth.
LIVING FIT: Has playing a heart surgeon made you more health conscious?
CHRISTINE LAHTI: I try to eat low-fat, but once a week I'll have a major dessert or an oily pasta. Mostly I eat fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken and fish.
LIVING FIT: You have said that spinning is partially responsible for how terrific you look these days. Why do you enjoy the bike workout so much?
CHRISTINE: Its fantastic not only for cardiovascular improvement but also for toning. It's kind of like therapy for me; it releases a lot of tension. I also do push-ups when I can, but I normally dont work out my upper body except when I'm lifting my kids, which usually is enough!
LIVING FIT: During the time you were smoking cigarettes, did you try to stay healthy in other ways?
CHRISTINE: No, not at all. There is a kind of self-destructiveness that seems to go along with smoking. If I had started working out and eating well, then I also would have had to face up to all my unhealthy behaviors. I'm more proud of quitting smoking than of anything else I've done in my life, including winning an Oscar. I was so hooked on cigarettes that I allowed them to control my life. I had started smoking when I was 14 and after 20 years was up to 2 1/2 packs a day. I stay disciplined about eating right and working out now because once you get rid of something that self-destructive, you don't want unhealthy behavior anywhere in your life.
LIVING FIT: Where do midlife actresses fit in the entertainment business today?
CHRISTINE: There are only a few actresses over 40 who are stil considered sexual in Hollywood's eyes--Susan Sarandon is one of them--but there aren't many parts written for women over 40 that deal with sexuality. They're usually just moms or, if the roles are sexual, they're prostitutes, which is pretty pathetic. Most of Hollywood's leading men, even if they're 50, want 20- and 25-year-olds as their leading ladies. That's the kind of thing that happens, and yes, it's a little pathetic too. One of the reasons I love my Kate Austin character is that she's over 40 and has many facets to her, yet she's not some kind of unrealistic superwoman. Often you see female characters on tv who have it all, but without struggle. Being a successful woman and mother without struggle is impossible.
LIVING FIT: Your mom died a couple of years ago of breast cancer. How did this experience affect you?
CHRISTINE: My mom's illness and death were horrific. About 5 years ago, at age 75, she discovered a lump. She had it removed; it was a simple lumpectomy. Then three years later she began having soreness in her ribs. She had just had her 50th wedding annniversary celebration, and she said to me, "I think I got hugged too much at the party." So she had an X-ray and a bone biopsy, and it turned out that there was metastasized breast cancer throughout her entire skeleton. Clearly there had been a misdiagnosis; they hadn't caught all of it in the beginning. She was diagnosed in May 1995 and died in December--that's how quick it was. That experience made me realize we're so undeducated about how to deal with death that when it comes, we're devastated by it. It's a shame that in a society in which the aging population is growing we don't have a system to help us deal with the loss of people we love.
LIVING FIT: How do you balance work and family life?
CHRISTINE: I used to take my work home with me before I had children. I don't do that now; I do my work and never bring the character home. I can't. My children don't care about show business; they don't want to know about Kate Austin. And when I'm home, I want to really be there with them. Because of my kids, I wouldn't sign up for a long-term project in which I was the central character. When I'm not working, my time is really about my children.
LIVING FIT: What are your favorite activities to do with your kids?
CHRISTINE: I love to put on puppet shows for them. We also dance to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Carousel or other musicals. Emma likes to dance with me as long as I'm holding her or twirling her around, but if it's a free-for-all she's not as enthusiastic. Sometimes my husband, who's a great dancer, joins in. The other night we put on the soundtrack from Saturday Night Fever, and the whole family was gettin' down!
LIVING FIT: How do you feel about aging?
CHRISTINE: I joke with a girlfriend of mine who's also in the business that we'll be the only two actresses in Hollywood who haven't had face-lifts, and that we'll be carrying our faces around in wheelbarrows! I don't want to fight aging; i want to take good care of myself, but plastic surgery and all that? I'm not interested. Right now I feel really good, and I'm open to the possibility that the best may be yet to come.
