More than eight months has passed since Kristin Chenoweth's close-call, near-fatal accident on The Good Wife, and (almost) fully recovered, the multi-tasking actress says she's feeling "much better" and would even consider returning to the CBS drama.
"So much better," Chenoweth told The Hollywood Reporter of her heath status. "I still have issues. My nose and my neck. But my head? I had a five-inch skull fracture and that’s all healed. My ribs have healed. I have three cracked teeth to get filled, still, but yeah: it sucked. It sucked and you know what sucked most? That I didn’t get to do the character. The arc that I was supposed to do on the show."
Last July, the Broadway vet and Emmy winner had been filming a role as a plucky political reporter for the series' fourth season when she was struck by a piece of lighting equipment following a gust of wind on the Brooklyn set. A month later, she announced her departure in order to recover from the incident, which left her in a neck brace.
"You know, we talked about it a little," she said of a Good Wife potential return. "I think certainly I’d be lucky to get to work with any of them. And of course Alan [Cumming] and I are good friends. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I’ve now been booked trying to make up concerts that I missed because I was out of the loop for three months. It took me a while to get my words back and everything back. … I feel good! I really do."
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Bubbly and unpretentious, the 44-year-old actress -- sporting a sleek ponytail and multi-colored printed pants from Bebe during a recent interview -- certainly looks the way she feels. After hosting ABC's Oscars pre-show last month, and performing onstage with host Seth MacFarlane, Chenoweth is making the media rounds to promote her new film, the dark comedy Family Weekend, which hits theaters March 29.
Released via video-on-demand in February, the movie stars Chenoweth and Matthew Modine as warring parents -- she's cold and career-driven, he's an aimless artist -- who are taken hostage by their three neglected kids, led by overachieving (and possibly diabolical) daughter (Olesya Rulin).
Chenoweth, recently tapped to voice a part on the animated sequel Rio 2, said she relates to her character Samantha's perfectionism and type-A personality, but "would hope that if I had children, I’d never let them become second. I don’t think that they’re second. I think Samantha is the breadwinner and I think she’s trying to have it all. Having her family and be a big success. And sometimes you become obsessed. And you become obsessed with [success] instead of what’s going on with the kids."
Although she's branched out on both the big and small screens, Chenoweth's heart seems to be on the Great White Way: she won a Tony in 1999 as Sally Brown in Broadway's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and later originated the role of Glinda in the mega-hit Wicked. Now she is juggling the possibility of starring in several juicy musicals: a stage version of the cult 1991 comedy Soapdish; a revival of On the Twentieth Century; and, her passion, a new Tammy Faye Bakker project.
"We’ve only done one reading of it, and we’ll do another reading soon with a new script. But the music is fantastic," she teased, adding of the late televangelist: "She is a gift to me as an actress. The one thing I like about her was very faithful. She was strong person of faith. But she was faced with lots of evil in her life and [the musical chronicles] how she dealt with it. And I want to show that."
When asked about her love life -- including recent reports of a relationship with Bachelor alum/reality show villain Jake Pavelka -- Chenoweth demurred, not naming names: "It’s crazy for me because I’m so busy but I’m trying to make it a priority. So I’m dating."
Switching the subject to the most recent star of the ABC romance competition (that would be fellow Texan Sean Lowe), she joked of his much-hyped commitment to abstaining from sex before marrying winner Catherine Giudici: "Good luck with that."
Twitter: @ErinLCarlson
Email: erin.carlson@thr.com
