“In Bugsy, Phillips Hits the Big Time”
USA Today, Jan. 14, 1992
Wendy Phillips says it was not easy to slap Warren Beatty in the face.
It was just show biz – called for in Bugsy, in which Phillips plays Beatty’s wife. But, she says, “hitting him hurt me emotionally.”
Phillips, 40, “understood that it had to be done and Warren kept saying give me your hardest…take after take after take!”
But, she continues, “I was wondering if he would be able to work the next day. My arm would get tired. An hour later, I was like Black Beauty – beating this horse – or something.”
Beatty is, she says sighing, “as charming as they say.”
When she was growing weary of whacking him, she says, “He laughed and he came over, and very lightly, but just enough, gave me a little slap and that immediately got me ready to fight again. So I could do it for another hour. He kept telling me, it’s fine, it’s fine.”
Bugsy hasn’t caught on like wildfire at the box office, but has earned much critical praise. It’s much like Phillips’ other current acting job: ABC’s Homefront.
Like Bugsy, she says, “We’ve had the problem of how to publicize it initially. It’s a continuing story but it’s not just a soap opera.”
Phillips plays Anne Metcalf, the single Catholic mother of grown children. In tonight’s episode, her romance with Al, the union leader, will heat up.
“They’ll cross a milestone, so to speak,” she says.
“Anne has always been a conflicted character but she feels her job as a single parent is to present the strong moral side, even though she can’t live that out herself.”
What else will happen?
She’s not sure. “It’s a fallacy if the public thinks the writers and characters know where they’re going - especially around this time of year. It really is a creative process.”
She just hopes viewers tune in to the seventh series she’s appeared on; her credits include A Year In The Life and a guest spot on Taxi.
The slick ’40s look of the show, she thinks, may be daunting to some people. But Phillips has “fallen in love” with it. “Now I feel totally naked without red lipstick.”