TelevisionAcademy.com 73uslikethatinourneighborhood—meandSallyGreen.SheandI wouldfight
overcontroloftheclubwestarted.Wewereveryentrepreneurial.Remember
thosetrolldollsweallusedtoplaywith?Ourclubwouldcollectdues,and
thenwe’dgobuyfeltsquarestomakeclothingforthem.Then,we’dput
themina redwagonandgoaroundtheneighborhoodtoselltheclothes.We
wouldputoncarnivals.Wesoldbakedgoods.Ifwewerekidstoday,we’dbe
millionaireYouTubestars,becausewewerereallyinventive.”
Shewaslovinglife...rightupuntila lifewastakenfromher.WhenHeaton
wastwelve,hermotherdiedfromananeurysm.Asdeterminedasshehad
beenaboutperformingbeforethat,shebecameevenmoresoafterward.The
tragedyforcedhertorealize,shesays,“We’renotpromisedanyday.I saw
thateachonecouldbeyourlast,somyattitudewas‘carpediem.’I thinkthat’s
whysincethenI’vebeenonthistreadmill.I liketokeepbusy.”AFTER SHE GRADUATED from Ohio State University,
that determination impelled her to move to New York, ready to do whatever it
took to become an actress. Her brother recalls their father “not being happy
about it and making some noise about her staying in Cleveland. But Patty
was, like, ‘Look, Dad — I want your blessing, but I’m not asking permission.
I’m going there.’ And she did.”
She spent most of the 1980s working temp jobs by day and performing
with an acting troupe by night. Despite the struggle, she never regretted
ignoring her dad’s advice about “being back home, married with kids in the
suburb that I grew up in. I’d rather have been unsuccessful but still trying,
rather than just grabbing onto some kind of security — because in the end, I
knew there was no security.”Then,inthelate’80s,thetroupeshewaswithheadedwesttoperform
in Los Angeles. Heaton decided to make Hollywood her home, but without an
agent or even a car, she was struggling to get by. To escape the stress for
a few days, the lifelong Roman Catholic decided to do some volunteer work
at an orphanage in Mexico. It seemed like a simple choice at the time, but it
changed her life.
“In those three days, I realized, ‘Oh, there’s something I can do in this
world that’s not acting, that’s fulfilling,’ because up to that point, I’d thought,
‘It’s acting or it’s death for me,’” Heaton recalls. “My whole focus changed
when I came back from that trip. I said to God, ‘Here’s the deal. I’m getting
some auditions, but if you want me to go and work in this orphanage
instead, shut those auditions down and make it really clear that’s what I’m
supposed to be doing. If not, keep the auditions coming. It’s up to you now.
I’m not going to try to control this anymore.’”
God voted for auditions. Thanks to a recommendation from a fellow actor,
she landed a recurring role as an oncologist on thirtysomething. By the mid-
1990s, she’d starred in three short-lived network comedies — Room for Two,
Someone Like Me and Women of the House. Then came the audition for the roleof a wife and mom in a new CBS series based on the real life of a rising comedian
named Ray Romano. Many had read for the part, and just as many had been sent
home, so Romano had no idea what to expect when Heaton came in.
“I think she had two kids at the time, and she showed up all rattled and
tired because she couldn’t get a sitter,” he recalls. “Then she did one thing in
the reading that made her stand out from everyone else. The wife character
is mad at me for something and starts lecturing me. When we got to that part,
Patty did the simplest physical thing. She took her jacket off while delivering
her lines, like she was getting ready for a boxing match. Her physicality in that
moment was so real, and after seeing a hundred other women, we all laughed
in the room and just knew she was it.”
She’d go on to win two Emmys playing Debra Barone. After another
one-and-done sitcom (Fox’s Back to You with Kelsey Grammer in 2007),
she started on The Middle as another blue-collar mother, Frankie Heck.
The success of both series, Romano says, had a lot to do with the fact that
“people see themselves” in Heaton. “People identified with everything she
was going through, and not many people can play angry and still have the
audience on their side.”
Heaton is more modest. “I think people see me as their neighbor,
particularly women,” she says. “I’m from the Midwest and didn’t really
get started in this industry till I was thirty, and I think I retain some of that
realness. And I am fortunate to have been a part of two iconic shows that are
about family, marriage and being parents.”
Those subjects will undoubtedly be woven into Carol’s Second Act as
well, but this time, there will be the element of ageism, which Heaton believes
will resonate with viewers. While that may be an issue onscreen, she’s trying
to make sure there’s no generation gap behind the scenes.
“I’ve valued my relationships with older actresses I’ve worked with — like
Doris Roberts and Katherine Helmond and Linda Lavin — because, for me in
particular, mother figures are very important,” she explains. “So I want to be
that for the younger actors in my cast. I want to be super available to them,
finding ways to overcome any fear I might have about being aged out of
society.”
For Heaton, being a role model extends beyond this series. Discouraged
by the 2016 presidential election — “the combination of this president and
social media has brought out the worst in everybody” — she devotes her
time away from television to working with World Vision. She travels around
the world to work on clean water programs and other charitable projects.
“Patty is a great advocate for children in poverty,” attests Edgar Sandoval
Sr., president of World Vision U.S. “She and I traveled to Zambia together in
2015, and more recently she went to Rwanda. She is engaging and connects
with people. She doesn’t act like a celebrity, even though everyone knows
who she is! I’ll never forget: when she went to Uganda in 2018, she met Victor,
a fourteen-year-old South Sudanese refugee who’d been separated from
his parents. Patty shared prayers from all over the world with Victor, and in
that moment, you could just see the ‘mom’ side of Patty come out.”
Refugee camps in Africa are a long way from the CBS set Heaton now
calls home, but she says her charity work and the new series share a purpose:
to put the wisdom of her years to work.
“Let’s say you retire, or you’re a mom whose kids are all out of the
house,” Heaton says. “God willing, you might have thirty years left, and maybe
twenty-five of those will be functional. Some people would like to just play
golf for those years, but I think this time in life offers people an opportunity
to find their next thing.
“The world needs people to contribute in a different way than they have
been for the first section of their adult lives,” she adds. “For me, there’s
nothing like the perspective I have now. And it’s important for those of us at
this point in our lives to use that perspective and help younger people really
live a fulfilling life — not just a busy life.”Go behind the scenes of emmy’s cover shoot with Patricia Heaton at
TelevisionAcademy.com/cover.In Carol’s Second Act, Heaton as Dr. Carol Kenney
tries out her bedside manner with a patient
(Steven Allerick) and his wife (Camille Chen);
Jean-Luc Bilodeau appears as Dr. Daniel Kutcher.SONJA FLEMMING/CBS