‘My life has been a roller-coaster’

‘My life has been a roller-coaster’From actress to author, Kellie Martin talks about her choices in life. By Luaine LeeActress Kellie Martin was celebrating the best role she’d ever had. Even though she’d starred on shows like Christy and Life Goes On, she was costarring on ER, a cosmic hit on television. But Martin’s character was soon to be obliterated.“I took a break from college to do ER, for a year and a half and then my character was going to die a terrible death,” she says over an English muffin in a cafe here in Pasadena, California, “which was actually such an honour to be killed off. After I left ER I decided to go back to college. I had to re-apply, and got in again.”She’d left Yale between her junior and senior year. By the time she returned she was 25 and married, a coed who’d spent most of her life on sound stages. “Of all the things I’ve done in my life, graduating from college is probably up there with giving birth to my child as one of the things I’m most proud of,” she says. “It was so hard for me to do, it was really, really hard.”It was so trying because during that time she lost her beloved younger sister to lupus. And though she was a seasoned professional, she knew little about life. “(Child actors) are very mature and wise in a lot of ways because they have to be little professionals,” she says. “Yet I feel like, at least in my case, there was a certain arrested development.“I didn’t know how to talk to a kid my own age. There’s a lot of things I wasn’t capable of handling. I’m still terrible with money. Thank God I’m married to my husband ... I didn’t know how to do my laundry when I got to college. There were certain things I didn’t know how to do because I was a professional little actor. So I had to learn how to do all that.”She was also learning about her major, art history. And it was a lecture there that prompted her latest endeavour: co-authoring a book of historical fiction, Madam: a Novel of New Orleans.A year later Martin graduated. “I thought, ‘OK, I’ve got this great degree in art history from Yale, what am I going to do with it?’ Of course, I got a job as an actor.”Martin’s most recent role was in the Hallmark Cannel’s quasi-series, Mystery Woman. While she hopes they do more, she’s not worried if they don’t. “Because I started so young it’s very hard for me to think of turning down a job. I do sometimes, but it’s hard for me. When someone offers me a great job with people I’d like to work with I’m going to say yes because it’s ingrained in who I am,” she says.The erratic nature of her work doesn’t bother her. “I’ve never done this for the money or necessarily been a planner ... My life has been a roller-coaster that I’ve been a bit of a passenger on. Going away to school, having a child, maybe writing this book, those are things I’ve chosen to do but with acting — I’ve just had an actors’ mentality in that you hope you get the job. It’s such a funny thing. The thrill is actually getting the job, it’s thrilling every single time.”Martin, 38, has been married to Keith Christian for 15 years. They have a daughter, seven. For a while he worked as an attorney but has returned to his original passion, cattle ranching in his home state of Montana.She credits her family for keeping her on the straight and narrow. “My dad’s from Brooklyn, came to LA, worked at JC Penney’s for 35 years. My mom was a teacher and our lives didn’t change really ever based on what I did ... It was before paparazzi started following people around, and it was before the Internet so I think I was able to avoid a lot of the pitfalls,” she says.“But I also feel that a lot of kids who are child actors and end up quote unquote going wild or whatever don’t have the family support generally ... Even if they weren’t actors and had access to money they might’ve still explored that wild side of their personality.”But that’s not part of her. “I don’t have a wild side, I freely admit. I am boring, and I was a very prudish teenager. I would never take the name of the Lord in vain, I was a very good girl. And I was a real pleaser. I’m not as good as I used to be. I allow myself to make mistakes more and I’m OK with that ... I think that’s attributable to my husband ... Stable doesn’t even cover it. He’s a rock,” she smiles.“The thing that’s so nice is he really embraces all of my crazy ideas. I think I do with his, too. When he wanted to make a job transition that was a spooky thing for us, but I think we both have respect for each other and for each other’s dreams. “We don’t live a lavish life. It’s not like we’re driven by money. We have one kid who’s super awesome. So we’re a funny bunch of gypsies who go where the wind blows us, but we’re smart about it.” — MCTJohnny Depp in talks for Harry Houdini biopicActor Johnny Depp is in talks to take on a real-life role after showing interest in a new biopic on Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero, directed by Dean Parisot, reimagines the master illusionist and escape artist as an occult investigator. The movie is based on an eponymous biography penned by writer William Kalush and Larry Sloman, reports contactmusic.com. Depp is currently portraying Whitey Bulger, boss of Massachusetts, Boston, in Black Mass. — IANSJolie good friends with first husbandActress Angelina Jolie is still good friends with her first husband, actor Jonny Lee Miller. Jolie married Miller in 1996, but their companionship lasted only three years. She had met the British actor on the sets of Hackers (1995). The 38-year-old actress says she still has a lot of affection for Miller and the movie Hackers is close to her heart as well, reports contactmusic.com. “So I think of him, when I think of that (movie). Although, I’m sure the movie looks so ancient now, but we had a lot of fun making that,” said Jolie. The actress married actor Billy Bob Thornton in 2000, and ended her marriage in 2003. She is currently engaged to actor Brad Pitt. — IANSJennifer Aniston uses  diary as form of therapyActress Jennifer Aniston reportedly prefers to write a diary, instead of going for therapies. The 45-year-old has vented all her frustrations and problems on paper since the age of 13, and has filled six notebooks with the most happiest and painful memories, reports contactmusic.com.“Jen has been keeping journals since she was 13 years old. She considers them to be her therapy sessions. She had never mentioned her journals before, but she says there are six of them now. They’re all simple leather diaries, locked away in a safe in her home,” said a source.The notebooks also have details about her divorce from actor Brad Pitt and all her previous relationships. “Every boyfriend, every relationship, her friendships, her work, her family — all of them are dissected on those pages. Jen is not the type to get into huge, verbal altercations with her boyfriends; her way of dealing with relationship issues has always been to write in her diary, then have a discussion. “That way she always has the upper hand in fights, and never loses control,” the source added.  — IANSCHRONICLER: Jennifer Aniston