Global
"Have you got some water? Do you want some coffee?"
Normally in interview situations it's the publicist who attends to the needs of journalists. But actress Meg Tilly doesn't abide such formalities. During a recent press day at Toronto's Hazelton Hotel for her upcoming TV mini-series "Bomb Girls," Tilly checks on the state of my hydration as we sit down to talk. She later suggests that I adjust the pillow behind my back when she notices me fidgeting.
"I'm taking care of you," she says, laughing.
Tilly's obviously strong maternal instincts make it easier to understand why she gave up acting for more than a dozen years starting in the '90s. The Canadian-American actress, now 52, shot to fame in the '80s with acclaimed roles in movies like "The Big Chill" (1983) and "Agnes of God" (1985), for which she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. But she gave it up in the '90s to raise her three children who now range in age from 27 to 21. (Tilly maintained her creativity by writing several unproduced movie scripts and authoring four books.)
Her return to acting last year was instigated by fellow actor Eric Stoltz ("Mask," "Pulp Fiction") with whom she worked on the 1994 romantic comedy "Sleep with Me." Stoltz was starring in the Vancouver-shot TV show "Caprica," a prequel to the successful "Battlestar Galactica" reboot, and needed an actress to play a pivotal role in an episode he was directing. He called Tilly.
Her interest in acting rekindled, Tilly continued her comeback via the stage, playing the vitriolic Martha in a production of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" put on last July by the Victoria, BC-based Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre company. Her agent Rich Caplan then passed along the script of "Bomb Girls," a six-part dramatic mini-series set during World War II which examined the lives of women working in a Toronto munitions factory. Tilly met with executive producer Adrienne Mitchell, best known for co-creating the acclaimed TV series "Durham County," and was duly impressed. (Mitchell also directs "Bomb Girls'" first two episodes.)
"Her directions were so good that I just thought, 'Oh. Oh, you're good,'" Tilly enthuses. "And as I worked with her, I fell in love with Lorna."
Lorna is Tilly's character Lorna Corbett, the middle-aged shift matron at Victory Munitions. Married to a crippled WWI vet and with two sons fighting in Europe, Lorna watches over the women of Blue Shift, but her blind patriotism and harsh ways make her an object not only of respect but of fear amongst her young female charges, including the wealthy but naïve Gladys Witham (Jodi Balfour). I ask Tilly how important it was for her that Lorna does not come off as villainous.
"Everybody has light and dark, right?" she asks rhetorically. "We all behave well and we all behave badly, and I think that's one of the things I love about the show is that that's all there and present. Sometimes I'll read a script and be like 'Really? She does what? Oh no.' And then I'm like 'Oh, Lorna. This is not going to turn out well.'
"Sometimes I wake up at night, like this wave of sadness for Lorna, of her situation and her isolation and her loneliness and her trying so hard to be good and do right, and the humanness of her breaks my heart. I love Lorna, but my heart breaks for her too, and I don't know how things are going to go for her, and I worry about her. It's like she's my friend."
Like Lorna with her charges, Tilly at times felt like the age difference between herself and her younger co-stars kept her at a distance from them, or perhaps should have.
"It was funny, because it was Jodi's birthday, and I get this email that she sent to a bunch of people, like 'It's my birthday and I'd like to have brunch.' And I was like 'What do I do?' Because my character is outside but also I'm older than all the girls - like quite a bit older; their mothers' age. And I'm thinking about my kids, whom I love and who love me, but sometimes they want to go and have a barbeque with their friends and not have their mom along.
"So it's like 'Oh no! I don't want her to feel like she has to invite me to her birthday when she's going out with the girls,' but I don't want her to feel like I'm offended.
"So I didn't know what to do and for a couple of days I didn't answer because I was like 'What do I do? I'll talk to her privately and say, 'It's really okay. Don't worry about it. It's really sweet of you to invite me, but I don't want you to feel [obligated]. I know you like me,' but I'm their mom's age. And she's like, 'No, no. I really want you to.' And I was like, 'Oh! Really?' And it was really nice."
While Tilly confirms that she would love to play Lorna again in a second series of "Bomb Girls," she admits that she is of two minds about the possibility.
"If it doesn't go [to a second season] then I get to watch it," she says, "and then I don't have to worry about Lorna anymore because I won't have to worry about what's going to happen next. But if it does go then I'll be happy because I'll get to see everybody again and that means people loved the work we did."
"Bomb Girls" debuts Wednesday, January 4, at 8 p.m. (ET) on Global.
