5 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT ME
THE GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER OPENS UP ABOUT COMEDY, CATHOLIC SCHOOL & MORE!
I WAS A SHY KID Growing up in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood, “I was painfully shy...so much so I sometimes found it difficult to speak,” says Maura, 56. “As a child, I spent a lot of time in my head, fantasizing and daydreaming. I had to work hard at coming out of my shell.”
A NUN INTRODUCED ME TO PERFORMING
“I attended a Catholic junior high school. One day, a nun who terrified me and who I thought didn’t like me much...said she wanted me to read a poem and represent the school [in a poetry-reading contest],” Maura recalls. “I had to learn Tennyson’s The Lady of
Shalott. I didn’t win, but I felt very different about myself after. I was proud of myself and intrigued.”
I’D LOVE TO DO COMEDY She got her big break — and lots of laughs — on the hit ’90s sitcom NewsRadio. Since then, it’s been all about the drama, including 10 seasons on ER, roles on Rescue Me and The Good Wife, and a Golden Globe– winning turn in the twisty marital drama The Affair. Still, “I would love to do a comedy,” Maura admits. “I [ just] don’t get hired for that stuff anymore.”
I HAVE A FLOURISHING SIDE GIG “I’m a minister in the Universal Life Church,” says the actress, who has officiated several weddings, including the 2009 nuptials of her friend and former ER co-star Parminder Nagra. "It's akmost like a second carrer now"!
I’M A SURVIVOR In 2009, Maura was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was successfully treated. “I had an excellent team of doctors and was able to surround myself with friends and family who were very supportive and helpful.”