the actor Jayne Atkinson lives in Great Barrington with her husband Michel Gill and son Jeremy Gill, both also actors. Jayne has appeared in starring roles on and offBroadway, including Our Town, Blithe Spirit, The Rainmaker and Enchanted April. Her feature film credits include Free Willy, Free Willy 2 and Syriana. On television she is known for her guest appearances on the hit series The X-Files, Law and Order, Gossip Girl and White Collar. As a recurring character, she has played karen Hayes on the award-winning 24, erin strauss on Criminal Minds and, most recently, secretary of state Catherine Durant on the netflix original series House of Cards. she and Michel also frequently star in local productions at the Berkshire theatre festival. in addition to acting, Jayne runs Jadana Productions, which specializes in entertainment development. she also directs, teaches acting students and coaches professionals in public speaking and project presentation. in her spare time, she loves to travel as well as to promote and fundraise for women’s causes. The Artful Mind caught up with Jayne recently to find out more about the woman behind the celebrity glamour. First of all, Jayne, tell us about your childhood. I was born in Bournemouth, England. My parents are English; my father worked for a butcher and my mother was a secretary. My father was in a little rock-n-roll band and my mother’s sister was in the Royal Shakespeare Company, so we had theater and music running through our veins. My parents were pioneers and brought me and my sister to Connecticut when I was one and a half. We moved to Long Island and then to North Miami Beach, Florida, where I spent most of my childhood. My parents did community theater for fun together, so I was a theater rat; I would help my father run his lines and my mother learn her songs. I was the oldest of three daughters, and one year the whole family did “The Sound of Music” together. I loved it! I was the leader of the pack, and when my father promised us a spot on the Merv Griffin show if we could come up with a good routine, we came up with a routine that, believe it or not, we still do sometimes at parties! So it sounds like your parents were supportive of you going into show business as a career? My parents were my champions. They were behind me onehundred-plus percent in pursuing an acting career. They left the UK with barely a penny in their pockets and two children, with another on the way. They didn’t have much support from their own parents, and I guess they understood how important that was for them to give their children. They brought me to the land of opportunity and when they saw that I was good at acting, they believed in me, as they believed in and supported all their kids. There’s nothing quite like that kind of support. You can’t buy it; it has soul currency.
JAyne AtkinsOn Embracing the Sacred Calling of Acting and Motherhood Interview by Jennifer Browdy
10 • JUNE 2015
THE ARTFUL MIND
Photography by Jane Feldman
When did you start performing regularly? In high school I had a wonderful mentor, Ron Krikac, who gave me the basics of acting. He was quite the taskmaster but he really knew how to seed me with important information and grow my talent and encourage me. He stretched me: I played young women and grandmothers, lead roles and side roles, he had me play big and he had me play small. And then when I went to college at Northwestern, he was there too, getting a Master’s degree, and he kept on mentoring me. Northwestern was a much bigger pond than I was used to, and I was scared, but he was there to tell me I could do it. I remember once I was supposed to audition for the role of a pregnant mother, and I was afraid to do it because I didn’t know anything about being a pregnant mother. Ron said, that’s why you’re going to do it—because acting isn’t about what you know, it’s about what you’ll find out. And it’s all just pretend, and you’re just scared. He helped me handle my fear of failure and understand that it wasn’t about getting the part, it was about doing my best. I acted and sang and danced all through college. Megan Mullally was at Northwestern at the same time I was there— she later starred on Will and Grace—and because of her I didn’t pursue musical theater. I just wasn’t as good at singing as she was, and that helped me because I was able to concen-