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Post by ella on Jun 27, 2007 5:00:26 GMT 10
I just thought that we should have a board or something dedicated to the nurses because they make up the back-bone of the ER as we know it, and yet nobody seems to remember them. So yeah, this board is for Haleh, Chuny and Malik... any thoughts? EDIT: Title of post and contents changed as recommended by larue... merci
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Post by loopyallie on Jun 27, 2007 8:18:27 GMT 10
Haleh has been one of my favourite nurses... Yeah she's been in ER forever! She is funny with her holds no punches one liners... And she isn't afraid to say what she thinks...
She has also lost a lot of weight too... and Haleh can sing too! (Well the actress is a singer)
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Post by ella on Jun 27, 2007 8:22:17 GMT 10
I didn't know that the actress who plays her is a singer! Oh wow, you learn something new every day! Well, I doooo! I did recognise her voice was strong and trained though in 'I Do' when she was singing with Morris. He can also sing come to think of it.
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Post by loopyallie on Jun 27, 2007 8:32:49 GMT 10
Yvette Freeman is mainly a Jazz Singer... she has done some touring gigs... Actually there was an article I posted about 2 years ago on my site about her singing... You don't see so much of Yvette Freeman lately By GARY MULLINAX / The News Journal 07/16/2005 Delaware family and friends who catch Yvette Freeman's performance in New Jersey today will be happy to see less of her.
She lost 125 pounds -- almost half her weight -- a few years ago.
But producers of the NBC series "ER" weren't thrilled the woman who plays nurse Haleh Adams had become something other than a plus-size.
"They thought my character couldn't be the same," said Freeman, a Wilmington native who now lives in Glendale, Calif.
"They want the 'mama.' But the mama can be any woman who's got that strength. At first I was hardly in the show after I lost the weight. Then it dawned on them they could do the same thing with me."
Freeman has done that thing -- playing a level-headed nurse surrounded by personal and medical chaos -- since Day 1 on "ER," which begins its 12th season this fall. She has seen so many actors come and go that she has "a problem remembering their names."
"I get to work with all of them because of my position," she said. "They need a nurse in there somewhere. They need somebody like my character to bounce off of."
Freeman will be showing off her new self today at the Black Heritage Festival in Burlington, N.J. She will sing at the event, where her husband, jazz pianist and Burlington native Lanny Hartley, will be honored.
Few Delawareans are expected to trek to the river town northeast of Philadelphia, but she will be visited by brothers Stuart, Bruce and Chuck, who still live in Wilmington, and sister Yvonne Harris, a singer who lives in the Washington area.
While producers finally adapted to Freeman's weight loss, there was nothing anybody could do about a fact all actors face: the aging process.
Freeman, who graduated from the University of Delaware in 1968, has become sort of an elder stateswoman as "ER" brings in younger and younger actors to appeal to a youthful demographic.
"Anybody over 40: Watch out," she said with a laugh. "We 40-plus people should protest. But I guess younger people are the ones buying things. The show has a real different feel to it. Those kids are good. But one of them" -- actress Linda Cardellini -- "told me when 'ER' started she had to ask her parents' permission to stay up that late. That didn't make me feel too good."
Freeman, who grew up at 22nd and Church streets, realizes she is not one of the big stars at "ER." "I'm not on the big-bucks list. There's a big difference between a star and a supporting player. Big, big."
But she's delighted to have had the gig, and money is part of the reason. It frees her to pursue other interests that might not be so lucrative. Freeman teaches short-term classes across the country in acting, directing and how to present a song onstage; she has talked with the University of Delaware about teaching such a class. She also writes, directs and produces short films.
But her best known gig after "ER" is the stage show "Dinah Was," a play with music about jazz and pop singer Dinah Washington. She, her husband and a writer developed the show in California; Hartley is also the music director. Freeman has performed around the country in the show and won an Obie Award for it off-Broadway in New York.
Most photos we see of Washington, who died in 1963 at 39, show a relatively thin woman. But Freeman says both her heavy self and her thin self are qualified to play Washington.
"Dinah was up and down. That's what attracted me to her. The weight was probably what killed her. You saw her when she was on her pills. They weakened her heart."
Freeman lost her 125 pounds after entering the UCLA Risk Factor Obesity Program, through a combination of nutritional guidance, exercise, behavioral modification and appetite-suppressant drugs. But the work isn't over. She got down to 130, "which was too skinny," regained 20 pounds, which "looked good," but now has gained another 10 or 15 pounds she would like to lose.
"I still go to a therapist -- I was there about an hour ago," she said. "I got very cocky and stopped keeping my records. When you stuff that cookie in your mouth, at the end of the day you look at your records and see you had too much food."
Freeman makes the herbs and vegetables from her garden behind her house an important part of her diet. She first learned about gardening from helping her grandmother in Chester, Pa. Her name was Hallie Adams; Freeman named her "ER" character after her.
"I had to be pushed because it was hard work," she said. "But she taught me so much I've started to grow the things she grew. Greens, roses."
Freeman said she was heavy even as a child, partly from the fried shrimp her mother, the late Ruth Freeman, cooked at her restaurant on Market Street north of the Brandywine River. Her grandmother cooked chitterlings there, while her piano-playing father, the late Charles Freeman, operated the Rendezvous jazz club next door.
The extra weight benefited her when she headed for New York City after graduating from college. She landed the starring role in Broadway's "Ain't Misbehavin'," taking over for the ample Nell Carter.
"Most musicals want the big, black woman who can sing and shake it," she said. "It's a caricature. I don't quite fit it anymore."
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Post by ella on Jun 27, 2007 8:49:14 GMT 10
Oh wow, thanks Allie, that was very interesting. Yvette Freeman sounds like a strong-minded person which is good. I felt sure that she was AT THE VERY LEAST, a trained or practiced singer, but I love that she is also a jazz singer, it just makes her seem more interesting somehow (I know I've used that word before but I can't think of another one!)... shut up Ella, sorry, I'm rambling again!
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Post by larue on Jun 27, 2007 22:02:22 GMT 10
I find it interesting that so little attention is paid to the fact that the nurses have been on steady since the beginning of ER. I LOVE Chuny...and Haleh...and Lydia, Malik, Lily, Yosh and Dori.
*Interesting note about Dori, who wasn't seen at all in season 13. She is played by Kyle Richards - child actress from the Little House series and several Disney flicks - sister of Kim Richards (last kid actress to be signed to an exclusive contract with Disney) and aunt of the notorious Paris Hilton via her older sister, Kathy.
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Post by Ali (lubylover912) on Jun 28, 2007 5:31:48 GMT 10
really? i didnt know that! and yvette has such a beautiful voice!
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Post by zacefron4life on Jun 28, 2007 6:23:21 GMT 10
I did recognise her voice was strong and trained though in 'I Do' when she was singing with Morris. He can also sing come to think of it. Scott Grimes is a singer I believe. Here is his music video for his song 'Sunset Blvd.' youtube.com/watch?v=ARddozr7u70I actually like it.
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Post by Ali (lubylover912) on Jun 28, 2007 8:50:13 GMT 10
wow scott's really good thanks for posting!
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Post by ella on Jun 28, 2007 9:29:29 GMT 10
Like I think I said before... oh wow, this is so exciting! (I don't know if I did say that before, I have such a bad memory!) haha I love it when actors/actresses are multi-talented in the respect that they can sing or something, as well as act. I had heard that Scott was in a band actually, but I haven't heard any of the songs. Thank you Taylor, I'll go and check that out! Larue, I completely agree; I find it a little strange that so little attention is paid to the nurses, though I suppose it is only to be expected with the main focus being on central characters such as Luka and Abby... not that I'm complaining in the slightest!!
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Post by Ali (lubylover912) on Jun 28, 2007 10:54:14 GMT 10
how come sam gets the most attention of all the nurses? i never understood that..
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Post by ella on Jun 28, 2007 19:00:54 GMT 10
Hiya Ali, Personally I think Sam gets the most attention because she was with Luka ... Not a good time in my mind, but I can't deny the possibility that her connection with Luka drew our attention to her, maybe...
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Post by Ali (lubylover912) on Jun 28, 2007 21:27:31 GMT 10
ok i will admit it made me want to clock her in the face! but i mean its just weird how this one nurse is a star and the rest are guest stars...
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Post by larue on Jun 29, 2007 21:01:08 GMT 10
Well, I think it has to do with the kind of contract/history they have. The other nurses are considered bit players while Linda was signed as an ensemble actor. Maura had the same sort of deal. She didn't start in the 'pool' and just break out. She was hired to play a nurse with a bigger role. I just enjoy that the production company kept the same nurses around.
Anyone ever notice the male nurse with no speaking lines?? Definitely an acting 'extra' but it's been a riot to follow his hair styles. He went from a longer hair muscley guy to one with a Billy Ray hair style to a heavier dude with a slicked back pony tail to a much heavier with a nicer hair cut. You just see him in the background changing tubes or bustlying around a patient on a gurney. Kind of funny.
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Post by ella on Jun 30, 2007 5:53:04 GMT 10
ok i will admit it made me want to clock her in the face! but i mean its just weird how this one nurse is a star and the rest are guest stars... haha!! Yeah, this is true, but I think Sam's character just developed more than the others and I don't mind her much now so I'm okay with it personally, but I do see your point. Ooh Larue, that's clever thinking! That makes a lot of sense, thanks for sharing!! I KNOW WHO YOU MEAN! Yeahhh, awh bless him! There's a woman who has a smiliar role I think, only I have a feeling that her name was said once, though for the life of me, I can't remember what it was!
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