A mother on and off screen Perhaps the reason that Beth Grant plays the Southern mother so well on screen is because she is one in real life. She and her husband, actor Michael Chieffo, are parents to daughter Mary, a high school freshman who has become a star soccer goalkeeper. [When you see Michael Chieffo’s picture, you immediately recognize him from recurring roles on
CSI, Malcolm in the Middle or the television movieGleason when he played Art Carney.]
approach to the character on a woman she knew in Greenville.
Grant has found that some roles help her in parenting, and some roles she develops into better characters because she is a parent and has observed parents closely.
“She always had a twinkle in her eye, a good sense of humor. I often think of a specific mom and then bring my own experiences in.”
In The Rookie, in which she plays the mother of the high school coach who wants to pitch in the major leagues, Grant based her
Now Grant is facing a bit of a dilemma: daughter Mary wants to follow in her parents’ footsteps and become an actor. “I tried to discourage my daughter from that, but I gave up. At times, she says she’s given up her idea of playing soccer in college and says she wants to be an actress,” Grant says. “She sees it as a pretty good life, even with the pain of long times away from home.” Beth and Michael arrange work schedules so that one or the other is always at home. When she was filming 12 episodes of the television series Sordid Lives recently, he was at home in Los Angeles with Mary. “The longest I’ve been away at any one time is three weeks. I hate it. I miss her so much it’s physical with me,” she says. Luckily, Mary “has never been sick without at least one of us there for her.” The work ethic that Beth acquired backstage at ECU seems to have served her well in her professional life; it’s a trait admired by her peers and directors. “I was told at Governor’s School, ‘you’re not a natural, but if you work hard, you will make it.’”
Beth Grant says it was her brother, William “Bubba” Grant ’86 of Cary, who turned her into a passionate Pirate. She admits that one reason she volunteers is because it helps keep their bicoastal family in touch. Clockwise from top left, she autographs baseballs for a 2002 baseball team fundraiser at the Greenville premier of The Rookie. That’s her receiving a Distinguished Alumnus award in 1999. Can you spot her at the LA tailgate party after the Pirates’ baseball game with UCLA last year? That’s Bubba at far left. She was in town to raise money for Greenville’s Ronald McDonald House in 2001, and later enjoyed arts and crafts with the kids staying there.
Todd Holland, who has directed her in television programs and movies, says Grant is a risk-taker. “She is very comfortable being far out on a limb from the character. I sometimes have to bring her in to play more of herself. She has a certain vibe to give off—a little bit of Southern, a little bit of mothers or Middle American women. She becomes the moral center of the piece.” Grant and Holland might team up for a large-scale project in the future—a screenplay that she has been working on for about 10 years. Titled The New York Way, the story mixes drama and time-travel fantasy, about a disheartened baby boomer who sees someone she thinks might be herself as a younger person. She observes this younger