TV CROSSWORD 14 FEATURE 15 On a roll: Emmy Award winner Margo Martindale BRILLIANT DEBUTS BYRNE LEAVES HER as Bella Abzug in Mrs America. WHat I FOUND waS THat THE BY ITALIAN PAIR MICHELE MANELIS 36-across 17-down WOMEN BACK THEN were SO fierCE AND BOLD AND ARGHERITA MARK ON MARGO Mazzucco’s PASSIONate AND ON fire, Minduction into acting was romantically MARGO MARTINDALE MOre SO THAN we are TODAY accidental. Winning one of two WAS THRILLED TO AGAIN lead roles, both given to rookie actors, Mazzucco TEAM UP WITH AUSSIE is quick to confess she had never acted a day in her STAR ROSE BYRNE IN life before stumbling into NEW FEMINIST DRAMA auditions for My Brilliant Friend (the acclaimed MRS AMERICA, WRITES TV adaptation of Elena New talents: My Brilliant Ferrante’s best-selling Friend stars Gaia Girace TIFFANY BAKKER Neapolitan novels). (left) and Margherita “I don’t come from Mazzucco. ARGO Martindale is any acting background, recalling the time she I didn’t go to acting to face, we called each freaked out her neighbours school, I walked in from other from our balconies.” when Aussie superstar Rose the street. I went to the Ironically, several Byrne came to visit. audition because I was decades later, Italians Across Down M“I love Rose, I absolutely adore her, curious and I wanted to are calling to each other 1 Presented by Tracy 2 Courteney Cox starred in this and Rose and I had just done a movie get out of the normalcy once again from their Grimshaw (1,7,6) sitcom after Friends (6,4) together – Instant Family – and we were of my adolescence,” the balconies but, of course, 9 Series about a group of 3 Mother and Son star in the process of doing Mrs America and 16-year-old says. not by choice. And while con artists (–––– Cracknell) she came to see me in my apartment Along with her co-star the pandemic gives rise 10 Bob Denver played 4 Sci-fi series about a girl with in New York with her two boys,” Gaia Girace, 16, who plays to domestic abuse, Girace this castaway special powers Martindale says down the line from ` the troublesome beauty talks about the horrendous 11 Motoring show (Top ––––) 5 Gritty UK crime saga her Connecticut home, where she’s Lila to Mazzucco’s Lenu, physical abuse Lila 12 Where Laura Palmer was killed 6 John Stamos starred in this in coronavirus lockdown with her the more conservative, endures in My Brilliant (–––– Peaks) sitcom (–––– House) 13 Carroll O’Connor played this 7 Played Rachel in Friends husband, musician Bill Boals. bookish friend, both girls Friend at the hand of her TV bigot (–––––– Bunker) (Jennifer –––––––) “And it was so funny, because Rose’s wowed critics with their onscreen husband, Stefano 16 Craig McLachlan played 8 Style of show that stars boys were running around the hallways performances in season (Giovanni Amura). this Neighbours character real people and my next-door neighbor had left her one of the HBO drama. “We rehearsed those (––––– Ramsay) 14 Nick Berry played a cop door slightly open and the boys just ran The series covers four scenes a lot but it was very 18 Saga set in the Scottish in this into her apartment, thinking it was my novels which have to date difficult for me, and it Highlands (––––––– of the Glen) 15 Played President Josiah Bartlet place,” she continues, with a giggle. sold over 10 million copies wasn’t easy for Giovanni 20 Classic British soap in The West Wing (Martin –––––) “And my neighbour comes out and in 40 countries. Girace either. I felt bad about it, I 23 Pamela Stephenson starred in 17 Lisa McCune played a doctor Rose and I are standing there and this says: “I am particularly feel ashamed,” she says. this sketch comedy show (––– the in this (–––– Doctors) woman just about flipped, and she proud as a Neapolitan The story felt very Nine O’Clock News) 19 Wartime drama about a said, ‘I just watched your movie last that our story captivated close to home for Girace: 24 Penelope Keith comedy high-class hotel (The –––––––) night!’ I think she thought she was America and many other “My grandmother would (–– Job for a Lady) 21 Spy saga (Burn ––––––) hallucinating!” countries.” tell me about her time in 26 Renovation show (The –––––) 22 Jim Parsons played Martindale, of course, is currently Set against the this era, her life and how 27 Josh Thomas comedy (Please this Big Bang Theory nerd starring alongside Byrne and Cate backdrop of a post-war people behaved differently Like ––) (––––––– Cooper) Blanchett (“another great Australian”) Naples, fraught with in those years. Yes, love 28 Katherine Parkinson starred in 25 Mark Harmon plays this NCIS in the fantastic limited series Mrs violence and poverty, was different between this comedy (The –– Crowd) character (Leroy Jethro –––––) America, which traces the rise and Girace sees the beauty in men and women. There 29 Camp commandant in Hogan’s 29 South Park resident (–––– fall of the Equal Rights Amendment’s the simplicity of the times. was mutual respect on the Heroes (Colonel –––––) Broflovski) momentum through the 1970s women’s “There was an surface, but not in reality. 31 Justine Bateman played 30 Sunrise presenter (David ––––) movement, with Byrne resplendent as every Australian is. To see her in “I never thought I wasn’t equal,” she of them,” she confesses. “I was only A little bit of that fire, a little bit of that 16 so what happened was, you don’t have authenticity about that era Women were subordinate this Family Ties character 31 Cross-dressing comedy as feminist icon Gloria Steinem and action is extraordinary. I can’t give her says, “and my mother taught me that.” interested in acting, theatre and boys! passion.” to act so much anymore,” she laughs. that we don’t have today. to men, they were (––––––– Keaton) (––– Brown’s Boys) Blanchett simply extraordinary as enough praise.” She remembers being enamoured I asked my best friend recently, ‘Why Indeed, it’s been a stellar few years for “I don’t have to play old, I just am.” Relationships were much considered inferior and 32 Clive Swift and Roger 35 Series about a ‘bowling Steinem’s conservative and powerful Martindale plays lawyer and politician by Steinem and Shirley Chisholm – the weren’t we out marching?’ She said, the 68-year-old who, after a long career, Right now, though, television and more deeply felt, people this is what Lila endured. Lloyd-Pack starred as alley lawyer’ The ––– Guys detractor, Phyllis Schlafly. Bella Abzug, who was an early leader of first black candidate for a major party’s ‘We were too busy trying to get a job!’” is finally getting the recognition she film work is on hold as America emerges were not afraid of their She got married young to 33 Under-achiever and proud Martindale says she was blown the women’s movement in the US. nomination for president – after moving But the biographical series has deserves. from the coronavirus pandemic. feelings like we are today, Stefano, who she thought of it (–––– Simpson) away by the Australian Oscar winner’s “It was a huge responsibility to play to New York in the early 1970s, but given Martindale an even greater In recent years, she has taken home “I’m so ready to see people – I mean, living through our cell was different, avant-garde, 34 Star of The Six Million Dollar performance. her and a great honour,” says Texan Martindale says she wasn’t actively respect for the women on feminism’s Emmy Awards for her performances really, really ready,” laughs Martindale. phones,” Girace says. revolutionary, but in Man (––– Majors) “A class act from beginning to end Martindale, who watched “hours and involved in the women’s movement front lines. as Mags Bennett, the matriarch of a “I dreamed of seeing people last night. “And not only that, but reality, he considered her 36 The Good Place star and watching her is like watching I hours of footage” to get Abzug’s strong (she does remember once speaking to “What I found was that the women hillbilly crime family, on Justified; and I dreamed about playing charades! I we build walls, barriers, an object, inferior, and (––– Danson) don’t know what ... it’s extraordinary New York accent just right. Gloria Steinem at the counter of famous back then were so fierce and bold and for her excellent turn as Claudia, a KGB mean, how pathetic! But I’ll take it.” between us as young that was all she was.” EEK 37 Rowan Atkinson was a cop what she does,” gushes Martindale. Martindale, brought up by a Manhattan department store Saks Fifth passionate and on fire, more so than we spy handler, on The Americans. people, and even between in this (The –––– Blue Line) w “I kind of knew her as this gal who “liberated mother, who happened to be a Avenue). are today. And I find that is something Martindale isn’t sure why people are MRS AMERICA adults, whereas before we MY BRILLIANT FRIEND T s sat close to me at the script read- housewife,” says she always thought she “I am the age that should have been that has been lost and it would be great suddenly jumping on her bandwagon. 8.30PM, TUESDAY, FOX SHOWCASE looked at each other face STREAMING, BINGE 3105 LA throughs and is so much fun and funny, “could do anything.” out there marching, but I wasn’t one if we could get a little bit of that back.