Jill Hennessy

Jill Hennessy, star of Crossing, left Kitchener, Ont., after high school in search of an acting career. She currently lives part-time in Los Angeles, where she works, and part-time in New York. Her immediate family, however—including twin sister Jacqueline—lives in Ontario. In fact, writer Diane Sewell discovered in the course of her interview that Hennessy’s father lives near her own city of Stratford, Ont. Hennessy misses Canada so much that it makes her “cry when I think of it sometimes.”

The 36-year-old Hennessy, who plays medical examiner Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, enjoys hearing from young girls who are inspired by the strong, proactive female character she plays. Those unfamiliar with her current series might remember her from Law & Order, where she played assistant district attorney Claire Kincaid—another strong, intelligent female role.

Now that she has some “credibility” behind her, Hennessy would like to “go back and perhaps produce films in Canada. One thing I was actually recently thinking of is to do a Canadian folk cover album”—maybe even her own “crazy” interpretation of the popular folk song Four Strong Winds.

RD: How do you think people see Jill Hennessy, the person?

Hennessy: They can only judge by what has been written about me and by what I do on the show—which is not me obviously. Therefore, they’re getting a very limited story. I could tell you what I hope they think about me...that I play very cerebral characters. I would hope that they think I’m down to earth and love what I do. Also I really hope they like what I do. It really is important to me.

RD: Before moving to Toronto, you had lived in nine different cities.

Hennessy: It’s funny, throughout my life I’ve always moved. When we were children we moved every two years. Then, after I moved out of the house, I did the same thing. I was moving—always looking for work. As an actor, you’re always worried about getting the next job. Will I ever work again? Will people even like me? There was always a sense of maybe I’m not in the right place, I’m missing something. But I don’t really have that feeling anymore.

RD: Is that because you’re in the right place now?

Hennessy: I have this profound sense that I’m where I should be, but only since I had my son [two-year-old Marco].

RD: You speak five languages, even though you didn’t go to university. How did you learn them?

Hennessy: When we moved to Ottawa [at age 7], I was put in French immersion, in a class where all the children spoke perfect French and no English was allowed. Then, when we moved to Kitchener, I met a girl from Quebec who was on an exchange program, and she spoke no English. She and I befriended each other and I started to get a lot of vocabulary.

I always wanted to learn Italian and one year, my sister and I travelled to Italy—it was the year I met Paolo. We brought a Berlitz book and crammed on the plane. It’s so similar to French and Spanish, which we’d learned in high school.

My German is tiny, but the more languages I can learn the happier I’ll be. I’d love to learn Mandarin.

RD: In your series, there are layers in the show. First you’ve got to solve cases, but you also have this underlying issue about your mother’s own unsolved murder. What’s the hardest part of playing this character?

Hennessy: I think one of the things that appealed to me most about [the character] was that she was very unrestrained. She seemed to be permanently on the edge—either running away or [realizing] that she needs some help, that she can accept help from other people.

RD: Brilliant but troubled.

Hennessy: Brilliant but very troubled. I guess the art of playing that is really allowing yourself to just have fun with it, which is basically what I do now. That’s because I’ve been doing it for five years and I’m really comfortable with the cast. It really is one of the nicest groups of people I’ve ever worked with. They feel very Canadian.