Amanda
Bearse made big
headlines in 1993 when she became the first primetime actress to
come out as a lesbian, while playing the Bundy's neighbor Marcy
D'Arcy on the long-running Fox hit show Married With Children.
Although
Bearse had always been out to her coworkers and friends, the tabloids
began running articles publicly outing Bearse in 1991. Bearse finally
acknowledged that she was a lesbian in a 1993 interview with the
Advocate magazine, and described the experience as follows:
The
outing really was quite a freeing experience. I know that sounds
sort of clichéd, but it really was very liberating. That
one thing, that one big secret is out. For a lot of people, it
was just a confirmation of what they thought about me. I mean,
I look like the girl next door, but I was always kind of off-center.
Bearse
has primarily played straight characters on screen,
although she did play Marcy's lesbian cousin Mandy
in a 1997 episode of Married With Children entitled "Lez
be Friends." She played Marcy D'Arcy for ten years, from 1987
to 1997 when the series was finally cancelled.
She
began acting with a role on All My Children from 1982 to
1984, and had roles in movies like Fright Night and Fraternity
Vacation before landing the role of Marcy.
You
don't hear much about Bearse in the press anymore,
but not because she's dropped out of Hollywood--because
she has taken a role behind the camera, as the director of a number
of sitcoms. Besides several episodes of Married With Children,
Bears has also directed multiple episodes of shows like Dharma
and Gregg, Veronica's Closet, and Mad TV.
Some
of these series didn't even last a season (like the Pauly Shore
vehicle Pauly), but several have lasted at least two seasons,
a few were hits that ran for several years (Dharma and Greg,
Veronica's Closet), and one is still on the air and in
its eighth season (Mad TV). Not a bad directing record
considering very few series last beyond one season.
In
a 2001 interview with Romeo San Vincente of "Deep
Inside Hollywood," Bearse explained her switch to directing,
saying "I chose to stop acting because I wanted to direct and
I had to show people that I was serious." She commented "I'd
like to get back in front of the camera eventually, but only if
I can play something a little bit different."
This
must describe her role in the upcoming short film called Give
or Take an Inch (in which she co-stars with Michele
Greene from L.A.
Law) since it is one of the few acting roles she's taken
in several years besides the occasional guest-star spot on television.
Page
1 / 2 - Next
|
