Covert Affairs
Season 2 e.tv (*194) 09:30 Action
Viewers know it and Anne Dudek also knows it: she’s great at playing villains like Danielle Brooks in spy action show Covert Affairs (2010-2014). But she has a soft spot for nice characters too, saying that “I don’t want to be known as that actor who only plays wierdos. It’s fun being bad, but sometimes you want to sit down with a cup of tea in a suburban house and smell the daisies”.
She didn’t have to audition for her 1 Covert role. The producers called her and said, “Would you be willing to replay Francine but in a modern setting and a little sneakier?” Francine was Anne’s character in period drama Mad Men (2007-2015). The 43-year-old didn’t have to 2 audition for her lead role in Brit comedy series The Book Group (20022003) after one of the producers saw her in a Broadway stage play in 2001 and offered her the role on the spot. She fainted twice on the set of 3 medical drama House MD (20042012) as Dr Amber, both times while she was pregnant: first with son Akiva in 2008 and then daughter Saskia in 2012. Anne got her most hate mail on 4 Mad Med because her character was smoking and drinking while pregnant, which she explains “goes against everything you’re taught growing up and as a mother. But I wasn’t pregnant [in real life] and it added to Francine’s love-to-hate nature, so we did it”. The actress has a pragmatic view 5 on marriage, saying: “Not everyone is made for it, like my ex-husband [artist Matthew Heller]. When you’re not feeling it, say something. Don’t just leave it to fester”. They were married from 2008 until divorcing in 2016 after a two-year separation.