Leoni’s love of acting, family

IF YOU WATCH

What: “Madam Secretary”

When: Sunday, 8p.m.

Where: CBS

By Frazier Moore

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

Since its premiere last fall, the CBS political drama “Madam Secretary” (airing Sunday at 8 p.m.) has spurred one question over and over for its star, Tea Leoni: Who inspired her portrayal of her character, Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord — real-life counterparts Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice or Madeleine Albright?

“For a while,” Leoni said, “I joked around that it was (Henry) Kissinger, because I was getting so tired of the question.”

But the truth is, she’s inspired by her dad.

Anthony Pantaleoni, she said, “is the most even-keeled, most diplomatic human being!”

A prominent New York corporate attorney, “he has the grand empathy to see both sides of a question. I can discuss things with him, and he doesn’t get adamant that there’s a single right way.”

He even inspired Leoni into acting.

“I was going to be an anthropologist, and I was really good at it. But I wasn’t passionate about it. He said, ‘Don’t do something because you’re good at it. Do it because you’re passionate about it, and you’ll GET good at it.”’

The advice paid off for his daughter, whose many films include “Fun With Dick and Jane,” “Flirting With Disaster,” “Deep Impact,” “Spanglish” and “Jurassic Park III.” Her previous series include the sitcoms “Flying Blind” and “The Naked Truth.”

On “Madam Secretary,” Leoni plays a woman of strength, charm and forbearance juggling obligations as a world figure, a wife and a mother of three. The show, renewed for a second season, is not so much about overcoming opposition as finding common ground — whether at work or at home.

Co-stars include Bebe Neuwirth and Zeljko Ivanek as well as Tim Daly (“Private Practice”), who plays her loving husband, Henry.

“To me, Henry was the real breakout character,” said Leoni. “A theology professor, with a twist. I love that she can come home with her ethical dilemmas and he can be like my dad, the guy who can see both sides and is willing to talk about it.”

Reports suggest that Daly has become Leoni’s leading man off-camera as well as on, although she chooses not to discuss such matters beyond saying, “Tim Daly sure is a swell fella.”

Her 17-year marriage to David Duchovny ended last year.

Family is important to Leoni, who grew up in Manhattan and counts 25 cousins living nearby. Also important are friends, many of whom she has kept since school days. She makes time for hobbies (she loves fly-fishing) and serves as a national board member of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which her grandmother founded in 1947.

Bottom line: The entertainment world isn’t the be-all and end-all for Leoni, nor is her acting career, which she largely put on hold in recent years in favor of the role of full-time mom.

“Sometimes people say, ‘Do you wish your career had amounted to more?’ And I think, ‘Ouch!’ But the answer is: no.