Tonight on the Virtual Lot's CyberTalk, please welcome ER's Michael Genovese & Ellen Crawford!

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen: Hello everybody!  Happy to be here.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  Ditto : )

 

 WB Online6: Our first question comes from Grnfrog98 ...

 Question:  What is the funniest thing that has happened to you on the set of ER?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  In the episode when the two of us were married, I had that enormous dress and I was standing around and suddenly heard a "clunk" as I turned.  Clooney was giggling in the corner.  He had set about 8 cups on my train.  Later on he kept trying to do it again.  but I kept catching him.  And just when I thought it was safe, I heard a clunk, turned around, and saw he had put 4 cups and a phone on my train.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  In the episode with the dog...I kept bursting through the trauma doors...bursting with a lot of energy.  And after several takes, I knocked the big huge door clear off the hinges. I though it was funny...I'm not sure anybody else did.

 

 WB Online6: From JeffinrGr ...

 Question: What is your opinion on the Doug and Carol romance?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I think it's always fun to watch their romance because there are so many levels, so much history. And there's always suspense whether they're going to stay together or not. They're certainly admirable people and the romance always seems right when they're on.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  It's always pleasant watching them because the two actors seem so comfortable together.  They carry it off nicely. It doesn't seem forced. Like an old pair of gloves together.

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I wonder if Julianna & George would like being thought of as an old pair of gloves. : )

 

WB Online6: From HDredger ...

 Question: What was your favorite episode of "ER"?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  Besides the obvious wedding between Al and Lydia, or the episodes where I actually got paid to kiss my husband over and over again....I like "Loves Labors Lost" and "Blizzard" And although I wasn't able to do it because of a film commitment, the episode with the chemical spill. from this season called "Exodus."

 

 WB Online6: From Dysre ....

 Question: What would you say those who want to make it in the business?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I would say if you're talking about the acting business in particular, you should only do it if you have to.  It's  a very demanding, insecure way to make a living.  But if you love acting, it's the best job in the world. Just don't expect it to be easy.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  Because it is a business, let's say if you were a college student you should probably have a dual major of film, business management or something like that.  Because so much of your time is spent doing the "business" of getting work. And promoting yourself.  If you're in it just for the pure joy, go out and buy a little 8mm camera and shoot films in your back yard. But you better really want to do it.  Act, direct, produce..whatever. Because nobody loves you more than you're going to have to love yourself.  And that's from high atop a mountain.

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  Some professional acting schools do give you some idea of business skills in regard to that.  There's a lot of debate whether you should go to a professional school or get a more traditional education. I went to Carnegie-Mellon a professional school and Michael went the other way.  We're both working.

 

 WB Online6: From Peglet368 ...

 Question: Being married do you find it hard to work together?  What is the toughest part?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I'd rather work with Michael than anyone else.  We have a kind of shorthand and a basic respect and understanding of each other's work.  Which we had even before we got together romantically.  There have been some projects, particularly stage plays where we had to be careful to leave the characters at the theater. But we seem to handle that pretty well also.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  Hard to work together?  Yes and no.  Toughest part... not being able to BS each other.  Have to stay honest. We each know each other's baggage and agendas. End of psychobabble.

 

 WB Online6: From Peglet368 ...

 Question: Have you ever considered what it would be like to be an actual ER nurse? Do you think you could handle the actual trauma you would face?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  Yes.  I've spent a lot of years now with real ER nurses and I am constantly amazed by their ability to balance the sensitivity required as a caregiver and the detachment to carry out their technical abilities in very emotional settings. I can play it but I don't think I could be it.  And I have such tremendous respect for the people who can be "it." In real life, I've trained myself to be very attuned to the emotional and I'm not sure I could have the self-control to push through a trauma and think that quickly on my feet.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike: And for me...No, because I do faint at the sight of blood.

 

 WB Online6: From Disney117 ...

 Question: I heard that you guys pulled a great joke in the OR on one show. What was it?

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I don't work in the OR, but in the trauma room they played a joke in "Loves Labors Lost."  The episode with the childbirth gone awry.  Our special effects make-up man, Werner Keppler, had an alien baby he had made from the old series "V". Somehow, while we were between takes they replaced the normal-looking baby with the alien baby.  When the baby was delivered, Tony Edwards pulled it out and all the nurses screamed.  It was a pretty scary looking baby.

 

 WB Online6:  From Kanaka104 ...

 Question:  Aloha!  What are your future projects?  Will they always be in TV, film?

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  Aloha and mahalo for your question.  No, because you have to add theater to your short list. There's a possibility that I might be doing "Death Of A Salesman" at the beginning of next year in San Diego. You might see me in a Gatorade commercial playing the obviously out-of-shape old guy in a boxing gym.

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I think you look just fine, honey : )

 

 ER Couple: Mike:  Otherwise, my future is looking for work and finishing the deck in the back yard.

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  I had to miss several episodes of "ER" because I was shooting a film with Kurt Russell called "Soldier." Conni Marie Brazleton who plays "Connie Oligario" on "ER" was also in it. We play pioneers shipwrecked on a planet used as a garbage dump. No one knows we're there.  It's a very windy planet, but we're a peaceful, happy people.  Kurt Russell plays a character raised from infancy to be a soldier, a fighting machine. But when they develop a better soldier, the strongest, played by Jason Scott Lee, Kurt's character "Todd" is supposed-dead and shipped off to the garbage planet.  We introduce him to the idea of family and community.  It's a Warner Bros. picture due out in October. A kind of western in space. Lots of humanity and lots of explosions. I may be working on a cabaret act soon since I haven't been singing much lately.  I figured one singing nurse was enough for a while : )  But I'm missing singing and my best friend, Yvette Freeman ("Haleh Adams" on "ER"), has been encouraging me as well.

 

 WB Online6: From Disney117 ...

 Question: Will we be seeing more of Lydia and Mike's relationship on-screen in future episodes?

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  It's up to you.  Write fan letters to Warner Bros., NBC and "ER."

 

 ER Couple:  Ellen:  We're actually both in tomorrow night's episode but we don't appear in the same scene.  I wanted to kiss him good-bye or something, but they didn't think the scene needed it. Shucks! Ditto on the fan mail.

 

 WB Online6: We would like to thank ER's On & Off Screen Couple Michael Genovese & Ellen Crawford for joining us this evening on the Virtual Lot's CyberTalk (tm)! Watch ER Thursdays at 10 PM on NBC! And check out Ellen and Mike on AOL at keyword: ER. Do you have any last words for your cyberpals, Mike and Ellen?

 

 ER Couple:  Both: Sure do appreciate y'all showing up tonight. We had fun.  Hope you did too.

 

 ER Couple:  Mike:  Be respectful of each other. Thank you.  Buono notte!