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BerichtGeplaatst: 20-05-2006 14:37:00  Reageer met quote


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Geregistreerd op: 22-2-2005
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Aiming to be more than just one of the boys.

On the set of the A team there are days when Melinda Culea thanks heaven for little boys. She grew up with three of them, boisterous brothers who rowed and wrestled with her, bullied her until she bashed them back, and introduced her to the niceties of naughty jokes.

Sometimes, being at work is just like being back home in Chicago. Melinda is the only woman in ITV’s the A Team. The series is fast turning into a macho men’s club where females even Melinda’s intrepid reporter Amy Amanda Allen ("Triple A is her honorary macho nickname) are purely for decoration.

That’s the way men like it. Melinda doesn’t. She’s trying to change that to expand her role, get Amy a fair share of the action and create stronger scripts for women guest stars.

‘But I’m having to do it really slowly’, she says with an exasperated sigh. ‘I can’t get it fast. I’ve tried and it doesn’t work. If I get really excited and demand things, the men don’t listen. It takes a while for women to get respect from men about twice as long as it takes men. I just have to be patient.

Melinda has now filmed 12 episodes with co-stars George Peppard (who playes Col John Hannibal Smith), Mr T (the fearesome BA for Bad Attitude), Dwight Schultz (Howling Mad Murdock) and Dirk Benedict (Templeton "Faceman" Peck). Each episode has been an experience. Especially the first.

‘I didn’t know anyone the day I walked on to the set,’ says Melinda, making the most of the holiday weekend at home before starting another solid nine months work on the show. Mr. T. was sitting in a corner with a streaming cold, feeling really miserable and sorry for himself. He looked like a little bear, drinking gallons of orange juice and sneezing through boxes of tissues.

‘I thought, "Ah, poor baby." He had this wonderful giggle and I thought, Gee, he must be the joker in the show. Then he started rehearsing and I went into shock he was so evil.

‘I adore him. We’ve become good friends. He’s from Chicago, like me. He’s met my parents, and we all get on great.

‘I wasn’t to sure about George Peppard at first. Much as you get to know George, he always holds a bit of himself back. He can be very distant. I thought it was my fault at first. Then I realised it wasn’t me he’s that way with everyone.

‘Dwight and I have become really close. He’s not macho at all, and Dirk and I are terrific friends. He’s so funny. You just don’t expect it. He’s hysterical. There’s a bit of Cary Grant in him.

‘They tend to treat me like one the guys on the set. We sit around telling jokes with the crew they’re all men, too. Sometimes they pull this macho act on me and have their own little clique. But that’s the nature of the show. There are times when men need to be with men and women need to be with women.

‘There are times I feel a little bit left out I don’t want to sit around talking about guns all day but I have a wonderful make-up woman and hairdresser, so we have our own little female clique.

‘Most of the time I’m really comfortable around men. I learned that from an early age. I learned to look after myself. When you’ve had brothers pounding you into the ground. You learn fast.’

Melinda, formely a top model who once worked in her father’s sewing-machine business, is seen here in America as an actress with TV appeal. She had a television series created for her, in which she played a teacher at an infants’ school, but the show didn’t develop in to a success.

When she first read the A team script she thought playing Amy would be her breakthrough. Now she isn’t so sure. In most stories Amy tags along after te team, like a little sister left out of a game of cowboys and Indians.

At the end of the first few shows Melinda marched in to the writers.

‘Look,’ she said to them, ‘if you can’t write the role better you don’t need me. You can get any number of young, pretty girls as guest stars for a lot less money than you’re paying me. I’m absolutely convinced that Amy should have a stronger part.

‘The writers agreed but said they couldn't quite work out what Amy should do. I know it’s difficult when you’ve got four strong male guys but I want to be a bit more than the guys’ straight man or girl.

I was particularly excited about the second episode. George played a gangster and I was his girlfriend. It was a chance for all of us to show what we could do.

‘But that was as far as we got. The network realized that Mr. T. was really getting a lot of attention. So they started writing scripts around him. Then they started pushing George and the macho bit and then they discovered the kids were really loving the Mad Murdock character so they started writing around him, too.

‘That left Dirk and me out in the cold. They went for the money. The ratings went through the roof. It was a smart commercial move. I guess I would have done the same, but I hope it doesn’t mean I’m getting stuck in a rut. I’ve suggested we build a story around Amy, let her establish an emotional link with the guys we really need to go through something together.’

Date:- ?
Writen By:- ?
Article Source:- "Radio Times" TV Guide (England)

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