Once labeled a mix of “sex appeal and banana peel,” leggy actress Tea Leoni turns dead serious as a TV reporter in “Deep Impact,” the doomsday flick about a comet “the size of New York City” heading toward Earth. Also starring Robert Duvall and Morgan Freeman, the film opened Friday.
The 32-year-old Leoni, who is married to “X-Files” star David Duchovny, perfected pratfalls in her recently cancelled NBC sitcom, “The Naked Truth,” and in the 1996 comedy “Flirting with Disaster” (with Ben Stiller).
Q. Did you have any cosmic-debris nightmares while shooting “Deep Impact”?
A. I didn’t feel anxious about a comet, but the movie did get me thinking about what I would do if I had limited time left to live.
Q. Would you change your life?
A. For the most part, no, if I had a couple of years left. But if you were to shorten that time on me and make it a weekend, I think things would get a bit more wild. I know I would play a lot of golf . . . naked. Golf-in-the-buff. I can’t think of a better sport.
Q. Jenny Lerner, the TV reporter you play in “Deep Impact,” is smart and serious, but also disarmingly vulnerable. Is that you coming through?
A. Yes, I do have that vulnerability, and as I get older, ironically, it’s easier to expose. Jenny is ambitious, viciously so, but she has no intimate relations in her life except with her mother. She’s caught between her (divorced) parents, and beyond that there is only her career. So there is a great vulnerability.
Q. She is also very feminine and sexy. Have we finally reached a point where women can be sexy and still be taken seriously?
A. Women in the ’80s demonstrated a tough facade in films and on TV, but we’ve put our skirts back on. To me, a woman is much more interesting if she’s willing to show a little bit of knee, a little bit of heart.
Q. Jenny does have one comic moment. Following a heart-pounding meeting with the president, she drains a martini in one gulp. Was that your idea?
A. I knew she needed a drink and I couldn’t imagine she’d sip the thing. There was a day of research involved where I did try and down a real martini. I’ll never do it again. Your throat rebels and kicks it back at you.
Q. You’re famous for your physical comedy. Are you klutzy at home?
A. I think my body sometimes explores without me. I do have very low blood pressure, so the particular pratfall that goes from standing to flat on the floor is something I experience in my life. If I stand up too quickly after tying my shoelaces, it’s likely I’ll end up on my face. As a kid, I was a tomboy and there was no dare too big for me. I once jumped off the roof of our house holding an umbrella. So inadvertently I was working on my pratfalls then.
Q. You almost always wear pearls onscreen. Why?
A. Some people like crystals to keep them safe. I have a great attachment to my pearls. I didn’t wear them in (the 1995 buddy-cop movie) “Bad Boys” because I was dragged down stairs by my hair. That was a little too active for jewelry.
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Q. Now that production for “The X-Files” is moving from Vancouver to L.A. and you’ll no longer have a commuter marriage, will you try to work with your husband?
A. He’s at the top of my talent list, but I want him to be part of my life at home, not work.
Q. You used to throw up before shooting episodes of “The Naked Truth.” Is that ever still a problem?
A. I got over that. I think my body just said, “I can’t keep this up. I can’t survive if you’re not going to keep dinner down.”