Calista Flockhart has always seemed uncomfortable with fame.
“Who could be prepared for the kind of scrutiny I’ve endured?”
she pondered toThe Morning Callin 1999, a few years after “Ally McBeal” hit the airwaves.
“It seems a lifetime ago,” she toldThe New York Timesin 2024.
“I have a lot of distance and perspective, and I’m still incredulous.”
This is the stunning transformation of Calista Flockhart.
She was introverted and often worried that her unusual first name made her stand out too much at school.
Growing up, Flockhart always enjoyed acting.
I was always so into plays," she said.
“That’s when it all clicked for her,” she said.
Her brother helped out by sending her a case of ravioli to eat.
“I think I’m going to go back to New York and do a play.”
Creator David E. Kelley explained that they’d seen hundreds of auditions before Flockhart’s.
The show was controversial, igniting debates about gender on television, which Flockhart quickly tried to sidestep.
“No, not at all.”
Nevertheless, the role changed Flockhart’s life.
I feel like I’m up to the responsibility."
“I called a friend and said, ‘I don’t know.
What’s wrong with me?'”
I eat whatever I want, whenever I want," she told People.
“I don’t have a messed-up relationship with food.”
The industry-wide speculation lasted for months.
Many years later, Flockhart opened up toThe New York Timesabout the damaging effect of all the speculation.
In 2024, she told the newspaper that today, it would be considered body-shaming.
“I was very sleep deprived and I was depressed about it,” she said.
“I had days where I was really hurt and embarrassed and infuriated.”
Flockhart didn’t think too highly of the play at first, which is one of Shakespeare’s lightest.
Entertainment Weekly reported that she called it an “insipid, ridiculous, frivolous comedy.”
Still, it seems her theater training was an asset to her performance.
Her television-honed comedic timing helped, too.
Director Michael Hoffman praised his star’s performance, predicting big things ahead.
“[S]he’ll be Audrey Hepburn.
… She’s extraordinary,” he said.
“She certainly has an amazing facility with the language.
No one handles the language better than Calista.”
She later toldThe New York Timesthat the conversation about what her character meant to culture was an unexpected one.
“I was surprised,” she said.
I don’t think I saw it as such a statement."
“I feel extremely fortunate and grateful that I work for such a supportive company,” she said.
Years later, they toldThe New York Timeshow that first night went down.
Ford was struck by her beauty and asked to be introduced.
“Harrison came over to say hi.
When he left, I said: ‘Ugh, what a lascivious old man.
What is he doing?'”
Sparks really began to fly when they went out shortly thereafter.
“I lured her up to my house and we danced, and then I took her home.
double-check you put that in the story,” Ford joked.
“And we’ve sort of been together ever since.”
By 2003, the romance was very public.
“It doesn’t factor into our relationship at all,” she said.
“I like the way he looks first thing in the morning.
It’s not handsome, it’s more cute.
He looks like a little boy.”
She played Kitty Walker, a woman who finds herself embroiled in her family’s drama.
This time, media focused on her attitude while promoting the show.
“I don’t know what people expect.
I don’t know what people want me to do,” she mused.
“For me, I was happy and content to be [at the panel].
I did my job, I went home and I felt like it was all fine.”
Nevertheless, over the years, she has used her celebrity to do good.
One of her duties as spokeswoman was hosting the organization’s Humanitarian Awards, which she did several times.
She even brought along her “Brothers & Sisters” co-star Dave Annable as her co-host in 2006.
At the Operation Smile Gala in 2010, she explained toMaximoTVwhy the charity’s work is so important.
“Sometimes they can’t eat, sometimes they can’t speak.
They sometimes aren’t allowed to go to school,” she explained.
“It’s more than looking pretty.
… We all want to be able to smile.
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to help children.”
Their decades-long partnership seems to be going strong.
Ford helped raise Liam, the son Flockhart adopted in 2001.
In 2023, they attended Liam’s college graduation together.
Leaning in to Kelly Ripa, she whispered, “He’s afraid of me.”
Flockhart played Cat Grant, CEO of the media company where Kara works.
“It’s just trying to find the colors in her,” Flockhart said.
And she does not tolerate fools at all."
Unfortunately, after the show’s first season, “Supergirl” production moved to Vancouver.
Nevertheless, the seasoned actress still dealt with a bit of the old stage fright.
The fact that she had to consider microphones almost tripped her up because it limited her movement.
“I was usually the ingenue and one of the youngest people in the cast.
And now I’m definitely the oldest person in the cast.
And I am not the ingenue,” she told theLos Angeles Times.
To be clear, she found that exciting.
“I could never play Martha without all the life experience,” she said.
“So it feels pretty wonderful.”
Deadline reported in 2022 that there is an “Ally McBeal” reboot in the works.
Flockhart has reportedly been asked to reprise her role but hasn’t confirmed whether that will indeed happen.
Instead, she’s merely glowed about how great it was to see her old co-stars at the Emmys.
As she toldThe Associated Press, “It was such a joy to be with them again.
So it was all … it was all just fun.”
In Feud: Capote vs.
The Swans, she plays an iconic socialite
In FX and Hulu’s “Feud: Capote vs.
The Swans,” Calista Flockhart once more returned to television.
This time, she took on the role of Lee Radziwill, the infamoussocialite sister of Jackie Kennedy.
“And then, all these actresses!”
“It was just kind of dreamy!”
“I cannot believe that I was scrutinized and pursued like that,” she reflected.
“It was intense and it was unfair.”
Nowadays, Flockhart isn’t interested in the glitzy and glamorous lifestyle that the show portrays.
“I felt very sorry for them,” she said.
“Underneath all that, they were very sad, very lonely, and really unhappy women.”
