OnlineHost:  AOL's Entertainment Asylum welcomes Alex Kingston to AOL Live.  Alex, who won acclaim in the title role of the PBS miniseries "Moll Flanders," joined television's top-rated series "ER" during its fourth season as the spirited British surgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Corday.

Question:  I think you are a wonderful actress!  Everyone on “ER” seems to have been influenced by George Clooney.  Has George influenced you in anyway?

Alex Kingston:  Unfortunately, I hadn't had too many scenes to work with George.  In fact, in my two years, I think I've only had two scenes with him.  So, I would say, if I felt any influence at all, it's more to do with his personality on set.  He was incredibly jovial, had a wonderful wit and sense of humor.  And people would always be laughing on the set when George was there.

Question:  How does the working and creative environment on “ER” compare to your past working environments?

Alex Kingston:  Well, I've spent many years of my life working in the theater and that's a very different process.  One works very closely with not only the cast, but with a director for six weeks before an audience or before anybody gets to actually see the performance.  Whereas, working in front of a TV camera in America, of course, that's obviously much faster.  There are some directors who like to give a little bit of direction and then there are others who come in and basically leave it up to the actors.  And I actually found that a little bit disconcerting when I first joined the show.

Question:  Is that you're real English accent, or dialect?

Alex Kingston:  No, it's my real English accent.  LOL

Question:  On “ER,” Corday hasn't befriended any of the girls.  Will she be more than an acquaintance with anyone this season?

Alex Kingston:  Well, last season there was one episode in which Corday, Hathaway and Maria Bello's character all went over to Corday's and were having something to eat and drink.  We were very pleased because we're also aware that there are not many relationships between the female characters.  I'm not sure why the writers aren't encouraged to explore those relationships.  I have a feeling that I might be doing more with Carol Hathaway in the future perhaps.  But the writers keep everything so close to their chests that it's difficult to predict what's going to happen.

Question:  How does it feel to be the most talented and the most beautiful women on “ER”?

Alex Kingston:  LOL Well, it's very flattering that somebody has those feelings.  But I think they must be watching the wrong show.  LOL!  Oh God, I don't feel that way at all.  What I like, actually, about the women in “ER” is that I feel that we all seem very normal, as it were.  Just very normal women, as opposed to some of the drama series where you might see women who are supposedly in a low-paying job, but they all wear Armani suits.  There are shows where the women are over-styled, and I just feel that “ER” keeps us looking normal and messy.

Question:  Did you watch “ER” before you got your part on the show?

Alex Kingston:  Yes, I did.  I wasn't able to be a regular viewer because I was working, but when I had time off and would put the TV on, I would sit and watch it as opposed to any other shows.

Question:  Do you understand what you say in medical terms?

Alex Kingston:  I don't when I first get the script.  But, when we actually tech the scenes with medical advisors I always make sure that I ask exactly what any of the medical terms mean, where a particular organ is in relation to the rest of the body.  I really like to know exactly what's going on because it also helps me to absorb and remember the lines.

Question:  Who do you think is your cutest co-star, Noah Wyle, Anthony Edwards, Eriq La Salle or George Clooney?

Alex Kingston:  The cutest co-star?  Oh I'd say its Rocket Romano, Paul McCrane.   LOL Well, I can't say anyone else because then they'll all get jealous.

Question:  What would you like done with your character on the show?  Is there any special "hook-up" you would like to see?

Alex Kingston:  Well, actually, one of the things that a previous question asked about, is that I'd like to see a stronger relationship with one of the women.  I feel that the female characters on the show don't necessarily exist with the men on the show, so I think it would be good.  I'm very interested in Corday's story line as an intern where she got so tired that she started to make mistakes.  I think that was interesting because it's very pertinent to what happens in hospitals all over the world.  I like it when I have really interesting medical stories.  I prefer that more than the relationship side of Corday's life.  Because I feel, ultimately, that's what “ER” is about.  Not what's going on in the character's lives, but what's going on in the hospital and what's going on with the lives that they're saving or losing.

Question:  What are your predictions for best picture Oscar this year?

Alex Kingston:  I know my prediction probably won't, or what I want to, win.  For example, I'd like Cate Blanchett to win Best Actress and I really hope she does.  And I want Billy Bob Thornton to win for Best Supporting Actor.  Best Supporting Actress is really hard because I think they were all superb.  Best Picture, damn, that's hard.  I really like “Life Is Beautiful” but I also think, just as a piece of film history, “Saving Private Ryan” was extraordinary.

Question  Did you like working with Oliver Platt in “The Infiltrator”?

Alex Kingston:  Oh, I LOVED it!  I LOVED it!  And I'd so like to bump into him again.  Because when that happened I was just an actress who nobody really knew in America, and he was just so nice on the set and not a diva in anyway.  I'd like to bump into him to just say, "Hey, do you remember me?"  He was an extremely nice man.  Maybe he could fill in for George! LOL

Question:  What is it like working with Noah Wyle?

Alex Kingston:  Actually, again, Noah is one of the people that I have less to do with.  I mean really for my first season I was almost exclusively working alongside Keith Benson and Rocket Romano and this season I've been put with Mark Green so we're establishing a working relationship together.  I haven't had too much contact with Carter.  But I like Noah and he's a phenomenal actor.  I love the acting choices he makes.  With any piece of dialogue, he'll always make a choice that's slightly off-center.  And he's just brilliant!

Question:  What's up with Peter and Elizabeth?

Alex Kingston:  Oh, dear!  Well, as everybody knows, because Elizabeth was working so hard as an intern and because Peter was so involved with discovering his son was hearing impaired, that they both have come to a point where they realize that the relationship was nonexistent really.  Well, their sexual relationship was.  And they've agreed to part ways.  When they did that, it was more of a let's put this on hold, but I would say in the interim, the relationship has become the larger gap between the two of them. So, who knows?  I think the characters are both in a tricky point in their relationship because I think they like each other and are drawn to each other, but certainly at the moment, I don't think the relationship will go any further.  But who knows what will happen along the line?  But I'm more involved with Mark Green, so who knows what will happen with that?

Question:  Do you read any of the “ER” newsgroups or web sites on the Internet?

Alex Kingston:  I don't.  I'm a little bit nervous, actually, I think is the reason.  We have one on the set.  You'll see that we have computers at the admin desk and places like that and sometimes they'll call up various web sites and it's the alternative “ER” where people contribute to the story lines.  But they're really wacky and they go off on these extraordinary fantasy tangents.  And I think if that's what it's like, I don't think I want to go on very often.

Question:  What episode do you think had the biggest emotional impact on your viewers?

Alex Kingston:  I have no idea really.  It's up to them to decide that.  I, for myself, enjoyed the episode where Corday makes the mistake because she was so exhausted, and the follow-up episode where she was actually trying to change the ruling so that interns wouldn't have to work such long hours.  I certainly enjoyed playing that.  But I don't think I've had a sort of huge emotional curve in this particular season.  I know that everybody was hugely taken by the rock that Hathaway story.  And for my money I thought the story line with the mother whose son was dying, I find that a really moving story line.

Question:  How did you get started in your acting career?

Alex Kingston:  Well, when I was at school I had a very enthusiastic English teacher and she would always put on productions of whatever play we were studying or whatever book we were reading.  She knew that I was so interested in drama that she would always cast me in the lead.  And that gave me, I guess, a sense of theater, and also confirmed in my mind that that was absolutely what I wanted to do.  This was at a very academic girls' school where most students went to Oxford or Cambridge, and all teachers tried to stop me from going to drama school and get me to go to university.  I was determined to do what I wanted to do.  So I auditioned and applied at all the drama schools and was accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where I had a three-year training and then basically, once I graduated, I then spent 12 years just working in theater.

Question:  Is Benton a good kisser?

Alex Kingston:  Oh yes!  LOL!  He really is! LOL  It's rather scary because before we had our first screen kiss, Eriq La Salle showed me his tongue and it's huge and it actually frightened me.  I was a bit scared.  But, no, he's a good kisser!  I think Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton has very soft lips, but I bet they're not as soft as Eriq La Salle's are.  Angela, his fiancee, if you're watching any of this, don't worry, I'm not about to steal your man!

Question:  Do you get camera shy?

Alex Kingston:  Yeah, I think I do, actually.  I get camera shy when it's people taking photos and they don't ask.  For example, now that one is, in a sense, a public figure, a lot of fans will just take pictures or just come up to you and just take a picture without asking or being sensitive to the fact that we might be filming or having a private moment.  And that's when I can get camera shy.  But in terms of filming itself, I'm getting more used to working in front of the camera.  The more that I'm working with that instrument, the more relaxed I become.

Question:  We're going to England for 12 days in May.  Aside from the Garden Railroads we are going to see, what would you recommend in London that is not the usual tourist haunts?

Alex Kingston:  Let me just see, if they are in London on the weekend, on Sunday morning I think it starts 6 in the morning and goes through until noon, there is a really wonderful old flower market called Columbia Road.  It's in the East End of London and the houses are really old and very sweet.  There are wonderful shops there and you get a sense of that it's old London.  And it's a nice thing to do on a Sunday morning.  Let me think what else.  I would say Greenwich is a nice place to take a boat from Westminster down to Greenwich.  Or, actually, if you take a boat from Westminster to Hampton Court, where Henry VIII resided for a while, and that's a nice estate to visit.  There's a part of London called Clerkenwell, there's a wonderful old prison there.  And this is a prison that was there in the 17th century, and you can actually go in and you literally see the tiny cells where the poor people who maybe stole a loaf of bread would be shackled up for the rest of their lives.  It gives a real sense of what London might be like in those days.

Question:  Can you give us any information on what we can expect from either yourself or in future episodes of “ER”?

Alex Kingston:  Well, I'm about to go to London to start shooting a movie there.  It's called “Essex Boys,” and that's a contemporary London thriller.  And I, actually, don't know what the future would bring for Corday.  I'm sure you have every cast member say the same thing and that's that the writers don't tell you what they have in store.  All I can say is that the last episode is bound to be some sort of a cliffhanger.