Some day Tracy Pollan might co-star in a movie with her husband, Michael J. Fox. But not just yet.
For now, Pollan, 31, who is having a very good year, would just as soon leave the playing field in that regard to the Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman and Melanie Griffith-Don Johnson teams.
”I don`t want to be approached for a movie just because I`m married to Michael,” she said during a conversation in their apartment in Manhattan. Fox and their son, Sam, 3, were across the Atlantic, visiting Euro-Disney in France.
”If someone wants us to do a film together based on work that they`ve seen of mine, and work that they`ve seen of Michael`s, then it would be something to consider-but not just based on the fact that we have a relationship,” she said.
As far as her own career development is concerned, Pollan believes she`s
”really in a pretty good place right now.”
For the last six months, that place has been Broadway`s Neil Simon Theater, where she has been playing Molly, the 21-year-old daughter of Simon`s hero in the play ”Jake`s Women.” She`s preparing to leave the play at the end of this month. But she`s also in a new film-Sidney Lumet`s thriller, ”A Stranger Among Us,” set in the cloistered world of Hasidic Jewry-in which she plays the fiance of a murdered man who once had rescued her from the drug culture.
Pollan`s building now on her television experience-such roles as the heroine of Danielle Steel`s ”Fine Things” and as John F. Kennedy`s sister, Kathleen, in ”The Kennedys of Massachusetts,” as well as her yearlong stint as Fox`s girlfriend on ”Family Ties.”
Her game plan is not about achieving celebrity, she said: ”If that`s what you want, you make different choices. It`s a totally different road.”
What drives her in pursuit of a role, she said, is the type of character she`d play-”how does she interest me, and how am I going to grow as an actress?”
Pollan`s involvement with theater began early. She was named Tracy Jo for two Katharine Hepburn characters, Tracy Lord in ”The Philadelphia Story” and Jo March in ”Little Women.” Her family moved from Long Island to Manhattan when she was 11. And though she was shy outside the house, she said, at home she was ”really loud and dramatic, a troublemaker, very emotional.” As a youngster, she would read classics ”and become the characters, acting them out,” the first step toward an interest in performing that was ignited by the theater department of the private New York high school she attended.
There was never a question regarding her family`s expectations for her achieving her goals. In Pollan`s family, achievement is not unusual. Her father, Stephen, is a financial consultant, an author and an adviser on
”Steals and Deals,” a financial advice program on CNBC cable network. For 13 years, her mother, Corky, has written the Best Bets column in New York magazine. Her brother is a magazine editor; her two sisters own a fitness center in New York.
Her parents were supportive from the outset. Pollan said, ”They always were interested in what we all had to say, in what we had to do, encouraging any kind of artistic or creative expression. There was never any feeling that we couldn`t achieve something. It was sort of like `Oh, is this what you want to do? Great! Do it! Why don`t you see where you want to begin?`
”I never questioned I would have any trouble doing what I wanted to do. I`m not talking about getting to a certain position-or to success. It was just that I knew I wanted to act, and that I would make my living that way. Having the unconditional support of your parents is really freeing. Obviously we all felt that because we`ve all excelled in what we`ve chosen to do.”
After high school Pollan enrolled at New York University-twice-but each time had second thoughts. She planned to study acting at the university, then opted for acting school, four years at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Herbert Berghof Studio and a couple of smaller schools.
While she studied acting, she also worked as a waitress and a shop clerk and she cleaned houses. From the age of 13 on, in fact, Pollan earned money every summer working on Martha`s Vineyard, a island off the coast of Massachusetts. Along the way she learned that food service was not her forte. ”I wasn`t a very good waitress,” she said, ”always spilling things on people and forgetting things. I once spilled ashes all over Mike Wallace`s table.”
But she must have given a sympathetic performance. She said, ”I was such a ditz that I`d always get big tips.”
Her acting break came when a friend, Jennifer Grey, who was an understudy for a role in an off-Broadway play, ”Album,” was cast in the part in the touring company that was to play Chicago. Grey urged the producers to audition Pollan, who won the understudy slot.
Soon afterward, the New York cast member left the company and Pollan took over for five months. Roles here and there in theater and made-for-television movies followed, and in 1985 she got her biggest break-an audition for
”Family Ties.”
”At first I wasn`t interested,” Pollan said. She didn`t want to commit to living in Los Angeles for several years. But her agents told her this was an almost unheard-of situation, a one-year commitment-which in television is more like six months.
”I met with the show`s creator, Gary David Goldberg, and the head writers, and it was unbelievable,” she said. ”The dialogue was so funny. I thought, `I could work with these guys.` ”
She did, and in the process met and fell in love with Fox, who had become a heartthrob of the teen set in ”Family Ties.” But they were not yet an item when she decided to decline a two-year extension of her role and leave the show when her contract expired at season`s end.
”There were other opportunities opening up for me,” she said, ”and when you`re too closely associated with one role, it`s difficult to break away.”
Four years ago this month, Pollan and Fox were married at an inn in Vermont, out of sight of intrepid tabloid reporters. Later in 1988, Pollan and Fox appeared together (the only time since the TV series) in the movie
”Bright Lights, Big City.”
By their first anniversary they were parents.
”I had always thought I would wait a while,” she said. ”But I also knew I wanted a nice-sized family, and I decided that, although my career was very important, it came second to parenthood.”
Balancing parenting and acting has been their challenge since then, Pollan said. Fox went a long time without a break in work during Sam`s infancy.
”He had maybe a couple of weeks off between `The Hard Way` and `Doc Hollywood` and was feeling burned out,” Pollan said, ”so he decided he wanted a long chunk of uninterrupted time with Sam.”
That break of a year-from mid-1991 to the spring of 1992-coincided with the revving up of Pollan`s career, with roles in ”Jake`s Women” and ”A Stranger Among Us.”
When Fox completes his movie, tentatively titled ”The Concierge,” in August, he and Pollan will spend a month or two vacationing before planning their next professional projects.
Pollan avoids discussing their relationship in detail, but she says that the core of their marriage is ”honesty, support and a sense of humor,” and that they plan to have more children. They live quietly, steering clear whenever possible of media attention.
”Big events in your life-getting married, having a baby-bring a lot of press,” Pollan said, ”but going out and seeking it isn`t something we do very often.”
For the time being their careers will move on separate paths, Pollan said. She is earnest about seeking to get ahead by earning success rather than relying on her husband`s popularity.
”There`d be a lot of pressure, different kinds of pressure that would come-on us as actors, on the film-if we were working together,” she said.
”Sometimes it can work and be wonderful, and sometimes-if one of the partners is more successful than the other-it can be uncomfortable.”
And she`s encouraged about her place among her peers.
”I`ve studied and trained and done so much theater that I feel I`ve really built up a very strong technique and confidence.” She`s ready now, she says, for some roles that will stretch her talent. She can be compulsive about her career, she says, particularly when she isn`t working: ”I`ve had dry periods, long periods when I haven`t worked. To want to (work) and not be given the chance, at a specific time, for whatever reason, can make me crazy.”
But, she said, ”you`re catching me at a good time. I`m really comfortable. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful child and a terrific career. ”I couldn`t ask for more.”
