So when Smart — best known for her roles on ”Designing Women,” ”Frasier,” ”24,” the new ”Hawaii 5-0,” and ”Samantha Who?” — was offered the recurring role of district attorney Roseanna Remick on Kelley’s latest series ”Harry’s Law,” which stars Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates as lawyer Harry Korn, she jumped at the chance.

”I always wanted to speak his words. I was ecstatic about (this role),” said Smart. ”I’m the district attorney you love to hate. She’s so outrageously ruthless in a way that’s almost kind of funny. She will obviously say and do just about anything to win, which is fascinating. She’s the Richard III of modern district attorneys.”

According to Smart, she didn’t have to do any research for this role.

”David used to be a lawyer; he’s done all the research for me,” said Smart, who is married to actor Richard Gilliland.

Together, they have two children: Connor, 21, and Bonnie, 3, who was adopted from China in 2009.

Smart pointed out that on television the lawyers people root for and sympathize with are the defense attorneys, whereas in real life people root for the prosecutors and think defense attorneys are ”scumbugs.”

”Roseanna would say, ‘I don’t understand this. I’m trying to put away the bad guys. What’s the deal here?’ Obviously, she does it in very unethical ways occasionally. She does have a rather twisted sense of humor, which I adore. She says to Harry at one point, ‘I find it interesting that you’ve defended all these murderers and drug-dealers, and you save all of your disdain for me.’ I think that’s how she sees it,” explained Smart. ”For whatever those reasons, I think she feels like she’s on some kind of a crusade. She’s enjoying it. She also sees it as a game — it’s a big game. Her attitude is a bit like athletes’ attitudes are in a way — you trash talk, you go out there and try to break each other’s knees, then you go out and have a beer together.”

She continued, ”Harry doesn’t quite see it (Roseanna’s) way; she’s a little bit purer. Kathy’s character is an anti-hero in the sense that she’s such a curmudgeon, she smokes dope, and she isn’t always sympathetic — which I think is fantastic for a lead character on a show like this — but along comes Roseanna Remick (who) makes Harry look nicer. That’s fun to have. I love the scene where they sat down in bar and had a drink together — that was fun.”

In addition to working with Kelley, Smart also enjoys teaming up with Bates.

”Who doesn’t love Kathy Bates? I’ve always admired her so much; we have mutual friends from the New York theater community. I’m crazy about her. I think she’s fabulous and she has been unbelievably kind and supportive of me,” Smart said. ”Every few days, I’d hug her and kiss her and tell her, ‘This is from so-and-so’ or ‘So-and-so says hi.’ We have a one degree of separation kind of relationship. We both starred in theater, so we have similar sensibilities about work.”

The actress earned critical praise and an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of mentally unstable First Lady Martha Logan on the fifth season of ”24.” Her last appearance as Martha was in the sixth season when she stabbed her estranged husband, the evil President Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin). Although Martha’s current whereabouts and activities after that incident were never revealed, subsequent episodes have hinted that things did not end well for her. Smart has her own theory about her character’s fate.

”They made it sound like she jumped out a window or something,” she said, laughing. ”I half-jokingly picture her with a shaved head in a rubber room somewhere, babbling in Russian. Who knows? Poor Martha.”

What wasn’t ambiguous was the fate of Smart’s recurring character, Gov. Pat Jameson, on the first season finale of the new ”Hawaii 5-0.”

”I went down in a mini-hail of bullets. I say that because it was two to three bullets,” said Smart, who really enjoyed the role. ”You get to play the governor of Hawaii, you get to shoot in Hawaii, you get to be part of a remake of a classic TV show. I thought how fun could that be?”

Earlier this year, Smart jumped at the chance to portray Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, and wife of Prince Charles in the tele-film, ”William & Catherine: A Royal Romance,” which chronicled the courtship of Prince William and Kate Middleton – now the Duchess of Cambridge – who were married earlier this year.

”I just couldn’t say no. It was just one of those things that sounded like so much fun,” she said. ”I was nervous because there is almost no video footage of her speaking. I Googled and YouTubed until I was blue in the face. My husband found an audiotape of her addressing a group of journalists. That helped me get down the quality of her voice — she has a very posh accent and a very deep voice.”

She continued, ”I thought it was great fun. When I heard that Jane Alexander and Victor Garber were starring, I knew it would have wonderful acting in it. I read the script and thought it was really enchanted. I totally got sucked in by the love story — it doesn’t matter how much of it was fictionalized — I found myself rooting for this young couple… It made me cry and I just loved it.”

Asked if she heard from the real Camilla, Smart laughed and responded, ”I doubt if she watched it. I’m sure their reaction was: ‘Oh, please, another movie about this family? Really? Okay, fine, thank you.”’

Smart enjoyed filming ”Youth in Revolt” in Michigan in 2009. She and her son drove through downtown Detroit and dined at the restaurant Coach Insignia, which is located on top of the Renaissance Center. The actress sang Motown’s praises.

”Even though parts are depressed, you see those spectacularly beautiful old homes and cathedrals — some of which, unfortunately, are boarded up. When you get downtown, you see parts of the city that have been revitalized. There was a street fair down on the water,” recalled Smart. ”You can see driving through the city — even the parts past their heyday a little bit — you can see why Detroit has been called the Paris of the Midwest. You can see it — the architecture is breathtaking.”

She continued, ”We ate at one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten — bar none — in my entire life. The food, the view, the service was phenomenal. It was amazing… Detroit has always been an incredible city: the history, the things Detroit gave to our culture. I wish Detroit the best.”
(Source)

Interview with 24 stars Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart (President Logan and Martha Logan) – October 18th, 2006

Promoting: 24, season 5
Venue: Covent Garden Hotel
Interview type: One-on-one (well, one-on-two)

ViewLondon: First of all, congratulations on the show. Are you both on board for season six?

Gregory Itzin (GI): We’re not allowed to say! Here’s what we say because we’ve said it before. We’ve been told we are…and there you go.

Jean Smart (JS): Apparently almost two years will have taken place between Day 5 and Day 6, so they’re going to fit us in where they can.

VL: And is the movie going to be after Season 6 or before Season 6?

GI: They’re writing it now and that’s all they’ll tell us. There are no guarantees, or rather there’s only one guarantee and we know who that is. And we don’t know what it’s about or anything else. I even know the people who are writing it and they just don’t even talk about it.

VL: That must be very frustrating. Is it?

JS: I never assumed that I’d have anything to do with the movie, so it’s not frustrating to me at all!

GI: Everyone says ‘Oh, you’re going to be in the movie’, I say no. No assumptions are made on this show.

JS: I don’t think anybody who’s on the show is assuming they’re going to be in the movie.

GI: But the fact that we’re alive, it’s good.

JS: We’re still breathing.

VL: One of the great things about 24 is its propensity for killing off its main characters. Were you scared you weren’t going to make it to the end?

GI: Not scared. I thought it could happen. I’ll tell you honestly – business-wise, I knew if they did, they’d still pay me till the end of the season so it wasn’t that big a deal. And I figured if they did, they’d find a way to do it that was interesting but basically I knew they couldn’t kill two Presidents in one day. I thought that would be a bit much.

JS: Right. And a First Lady.

GI: Well, I didn’t know that you would go. I thought you’d be the one that would kill me.

JS: Yeah, we thought he’d kill me or I’d kill him or we’d kill each other or something but I said, you know, if she goes, I just want it to be in an interesting way. Heroic or taking a lot of people with her or something.

GI: You got to kill somebody!

JS: I did. My son was very impressed with that. Although he thought I was too upset. He said why were you so upset when you shot that day?

GI: Because she’s not Jack Bauer, that’s why.
You can read the rest of the interview at the source: (Here)

While no mention is made of his former First Lady, Gregory was assured by producers that nutso Martha Logan (Jean Smart) is still very much alive. “I asked, ‘Martha’s dead, right?,’ and they all said, ‘No, she’s still in rehab.’ I’m going to assume she and I no longer have a relationship.” (Stabbing your hubby in an artery can be a real deal breaker.) So with two swinging single presidents confabbing behind closed doors, might there be the chance of a presidential summit of a more carnal nature? “I would have loved that, but no,” Gregory says. “I have an old relationship with the Russians, so [her chief of staff] Ethan brings me in against her better judgment. She’s not pleased to have to deal with this character.”
(Source – TVGuide)

Nominated for an Emmy as mentally unstable First Lady Martha Logan in ’24,’ Jean Smart says she wanted to return to the hit Fox show — but it’s now too late.

“Well, it’s done now, I think,” Smart told Moviefone at Wednesday’s premiere of ‘Youth in Revolt’ in Hollywood, of the possibility of returning to ’24.’

“I would have loved to have gone back again,” Smart said. “But I don’t know. I think Martha is in a rubber room somewhere. They kind of inferred that she offed herself. I think she did.”

’24′ starts its eighth season with a two-night premiere Jan. 17 and 18 and continues through May. Its future beyond that is uncertain, though two things are clear: ’24′ is TV’s longest running espionage show in Hollywood history after ‘Mission: Impossible,’ and a ’24′ film feature once the TV show finishes is a possibility.

Kiefer Sutherland said in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that he believes the show could go on indefinitely.

“We’ve had the most unbelievably loyal audience for the past eight seasons, and I’ve always said as long as people wanted to watch us do it and they were still excited about the show, we would do it,” Sutherland said.

Meantime, Smart, who stars in ‘Youth in Revolt’ as Michael Cera’s mother Estelle Twisp, is taking time off work to raise a baby daughter, Bonnie, whom she adopted. She last starred on the sitcom ‘Samantha Who?,’ which was canceled last May.

“That’s taking up our days and nights now,” she said at the premiere “They canceled our show, and that was the good thing about it, was that I had time to spend time with my daughter. But I’m starting to look around more.”

Weinstein Co.’s ‘Youth in Revolt’ hits theaters Jan. 8.
(Source)

In other news Youth In Revolt has the following public screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF):

Tuesday 15 September @ 08:30PM => Winter Garden Theatre
Wednesday 16 September @ 12:00PM => Scotiabank Theatre 1

(Source)