I Teach Girls to Soar
The upbeat star talks motherhood, motivating others and staying inspired
If you still think of Camryn Manheim as attorney Ellenor Frutt from The Practice, well, so does she! “By the end, we became soul mates — one in the same person,” Camryn, 56, tells Closer. “I can honestly say she’s in my heart forever.” But Ellenor was only an early step in this Emmy- and Golden Globewinning star’s triumphant journey. After a tough childhood of being ignored because of her weight, she “started to have an ‘I’ll show you’ attitude” and created her breakthrough one-woman show, Wake Up,
I’m Fat! Today, Camryn’s a proud mom to her son Milo, 16, and busy as ever: She’s filming the television miniseries Waco, prepping for a return to series TV on the CBS comedy By the Book in January and proudly promoting her new Amazon Prime Video special An American Girl Story: Summer Camp — Friends for Life. “Anytime I can be part of a project that inspires girls to embrace their powerful selves, I jump at it,” she says. “Girls can become anything they dream of!” — Gregg Goldstein
Why is your American Girl special so important to you?
I go all over the country and teach young girls that they should not live their life full of apology — they should fly and soar! We need to have role models for them on TV that don’t have limitations. I want girls to feel the power that they have.
When did you first empower yourself?
I was the underdog for a long time. I was a chubby girl, so people dismissed me more quickly. I never felt I was seen or heard as much as other girls, or boys for that matter. I developed this idea: “No, that is not true.” I really wanted to make a difference. If you want to feel good about yourself, do something for someone else who is less fortunate.
You support a lot of causes.
I was raised to believe we should volunteer and fight for the underdog. My brother is a lawyer with the ACLU, my nephew is a doctor, we have kids in our family who work to help the environment — everyone plays some sort of role in giving back. I still carry that baton with pride.
You began as a sign-language interpreter…
This is a crazy story! In California, you have to know two languages in order to get into a state university. I failed Spanish and French twice in high school, so I took two sign-language classes to get in. I didn’t learn too much, but years later I saw a man get hit by a car.
Everyone was asking him for his name, with no response. Finally I said, “Maybe he’s deaf,” and sure enough he was. I have never been asked so nicely to get in the back of a police car before!
That is crazy!
I stayed at the hospital for hours. The doctor would come out and I’d draw pictures to explain what he was saying. Fast-forward to: I’m at NYU grad school and saw a sign that said, “Society for the Deaf.” I took classes for years and when I got out of NYU I was fluent in sign language. I ended up working at some of the downtown hospitals. I got to sign things like, “Congratulations! You have a baby girl.”
Was it tough to break into acting?
When I started on TV, just one or two girls looked like me. I never saw myself represented in a positive way. My first day on The Practice, as we were introducing Ellenor and Dylan McDermott’s character, someone handed me a doughnut. I was mortified. I thought, “I can’t introduce my character with a doughnut in my hand…and who’d eat one next to Dylan McDermott?” [Laughs]
What did you do?
I thought quickly and told him, “My character is like a right-hand woman who’ll carry your files, your doughnut…” They called action, I handed it to him and had the biggest look of victory on my face! I figured out a way to not do the cliché thing — the big girl with the doughnut. It was an amazing forum to educate the public that women such as myself are educated, smart, clever, funny and sexy.
You conceived your son Milo with a friend, model Jeffrey Brezovar. Why?
I always wanted to be a mother. I used to talk to my imaginary children! I was getting up there in age, and decided that if I didn’t do it soon, I wasn’t going to, so I vowed to have a baby before 40. When my son was
9.2 pounds, I decided to induce him and get him out two days before I turned 40. [Laughs] I’m joking — he was fully cooked. Now he’s 6’2” at 16!
“I want to win Wimbledon, the Nobel
Peace Prize or a Pulitzer! It’s important to reach as high as you want to go.”
And he’s starring in a Disney Channel movie due next year called Zombies!
I’m on set with him right now in Canada, and he’s loving every minute of it. It’s an amazing perfect storm of events that happened from bringing him to so many sets, plus he was born with all of these magical talents.
You must be so proud.
He’ll be going off to college in a year and a half, and I’ll have to reinvent myself because empty-nest syndrome will hit me hard,
I’m sure. I’m thinking about what my next project or journey will be. There is a lot to do to make this world better, and that’s what I am going to be focusing on.
Any principles that you use to guide you?
I have a lot of mottos, such as, “Don’t live your life with apology” and “The person with the most confidence wins.” And there’s a poem by Marianne Williamson about how it does not pay to be less than you are. You were put here to shine as brightly as you can. — Reporting by Ilyssa Panitz — Camryn (seen winning her 1998 Emmy for The Practice and declaring: “This is for
all the fat girls!”)