20 Questions: Susan Dey

At 17, Susan Dey began her acting career as Laurie, the older daughter in "The Partridge Family." Now, half her life later, divorced, the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, the actress has traded in that wholesome-girl-next-door image for something a little more down to earth in the NBC-TV hit "L.A. Law." She plays deputy D.A. Grace Van Owen, prosecuting criminals in the courtroom and cavorting with co-star Harry Hamlin in the bedroom. Free-lance writer Dick Lochte caught up with Dey at a Hollywood restaurant. "There'd been a couple of recent magazine articles depicting her as a depressed, melancholy neurotic," Lochte says. "They didn't jibe with the upbeat, energetic, tanned blonde who strode purposefully across the floor and flopped onto a chair. Introductions over, she lighted an unfiltered cigarette, causing some guy at the next table to complain loudly to the waiter. The waiter explained that this was, after all, the smoking area. And as the guy huffed away in search of rarer air, Susan called after him cheerily, 'Try 'em. You'll like 'em. Really.'"

1.

[Q] Playboy: It's hard to believe you're the Susan Dey we've been reading about. "Why Susan Dey Says ... 'I'm Afraid of Everything.'" "Susan Dey: Hollywood Almost Killed Me." Are we catching you on a particularly good day?

[A] Dey: I ran into the woman who wrote the "Afraid of Everything" article. She said, "Do you hate me?" I said, "No, I don't hate you. I hated the article, though. But I don't hate you." And she said, "I'm so glad you didn't take it personally." I told her I realized she was in business to sell magazines. I didn't hate her, but I blamed her.

Anyway, no, I don't fear everything. We were talking about being afraid and how frightening it is to take risks, and I said that I felt it was better if you do take risks and are afraid.

The other one, "Hollywood Almost Killed Me," was this conversation about my anorexic days, when I was 17. Twenty minutes out of a three-hour interview. At one point, the interviewer said, "I guess you could say Hollywood almost killed you." And I laughed and said, "I don't think so. I never even went to a hospital. But I suppose you could say that." And they did.

2.

[Q] Playboy: Grace Van Owen has been described as driven, uptight and a control freak, yet millions of men seem to be terribly attracted to her. Why?

[A] Dey: It's the suits. That's what a man told me on an airplane. He said, "I want you to know the only reason I watch that show is the suits."

Seriously, I think it's terribly exciting to see a woman who is so independent and so powerful and yet sexual and sensuous at the same time. And vulnerable. You do see Grace's vulnerability. Until recently, television viewers never really had an opportunity to see that kind of woman.

3.

[Q] Playboy: Are there parts of Grace's character you'd like to acquire yourself?

[A] Dey: I would love to be ruder. I would love to feel Ok about being rude.

4.

[Q] Playboy: Before that happens, let's talk a little about your past. Specifically, how does a shy teenager from Mount Kisco, New York, become a successful model?

[A] Dey: I was—shy is not the word. Any time I could perform, I was performing. My parents would have people over. My sister and brother would hide in their rooms. Not me. I was right up front.

If there was any shyness, it was in terms of "Who am I?" I knew there was a world out there—beyond Mount Kisco—but I didn't have any sense of what it could be. I remember, I had just turned 15, and I talked to my stepmother about it. I told her I didn't know what I wanted to do that summer, but I felt this need to see what was going on. And she told me she had sent my photograph to a modeling agency in Manhattan. I was horrified at first. But that's how it all happened. My stepmother took me to the agency. They told me to lose five pounds and come back in the summer. It was that simple.

5.

[Q] Playboy: Was it everything Brooke Shields makes us think it is—dining with Scavullo and flying down to Rio to do a fashion shoot?

[A] Dey: More so then than now. I understand things are really tight now. But I guess it goes both ways. We would change behind rocks in Central Park; now they have to have Winnebagos. But some of it used to be absolutely wonderful. All of a sudden, they would call and say, "You're going to Puerto Rico. You're going to St. Croix."

6.

[Q] Playboy: Did you become one of the more sophisticated 15-year-old models?

[A] Dey: I wouldn't say that. I'd never stayed in hotels before. I wasn't used to maid service, and it was in St. Croix, I think, that I'd get up and make the bed every morning. That's how sophisticated I was.

7.

[Q] Playboy: When you became part of The Partridge Family, did you find Hollywood fun, confusing, weird? What were your impressions?

[A] Dey: Everyone worked very hard. The show was an immediate hit. The timing was absolutely perfect. I loved the work. The publicity was something entirely different. This was the time of the teen fan magazines. They published whatever they wanted to. No matter how often I would say that I didn't do my own singing on the show, they convinced readers that I did. Just the other day, I was talking to an extra on our show and I happened to mention that it was not me singing, and he was furious.

Those fan magazines kept images alive. When I first came out, I remember, there was all this talk about Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman, Bobby Sherman. I finally had to ask someone, "Who's Bobby Sherman?" I'd come from New York. I'd come from a high school where we'd had a sit-in because of Cambodia. I knew about the Beatles. Ed Sullivan. Mia Farrow, even. But, forgive me, I didn't know who Bobby Sherman was.

8.

[Q] Playboy: Not that we're suggesting that Hollywood was the reason, but didn't you become anorexic about then?

[A] Dey: I was a true anorexic-bulimic. But I didn't know it. At the time, the illness was unknown. To me, it was a new diet.

As to why (continued on page 177)Susan Dey(continued from page 149) I became anorexic, I think it was a need to feel control. "I can control this eating thing. I'll just have half." And classically with young women, it's a denial of your sexuality. You starve yourself to the point where you have no breasts and you do not menstruate. I had just arrived in California. I had a great job and I was busy and I just didn't want to have to deal with that.

It went on for about a year and a half, and by then I'd begun to feel comfortable with my life, more secure. And I was around people who were eating normally, and [snaps fingers] like that I started eating again.

9.

[Q] Playboy: Once the final Partridge episode had been put to roost, you started appearing in TV movies as a child beater, a teen jailbird—roles that were very different from Laurie Partridge. Was that a break-the-image move?

[A] Dey: No. I didn't see my image as a problem. I really was happy about ending the series. But then I thought, Now what? It had been my first acting experience, and I didn't know that after every job, actors always wonder if they'll ever work again. I'd led a really protected life. And I was scared about finances. The money on The Partridge Family was absolutely nothing. At the end, I was making $1100 a week. That was in the fourth year.

So I signed with [Partridge co-stars] Shirley [Jones] and David [Cassidy]'s manager, Ruth Aarons. And I did these roles. Young women in peril. "My brother's been busted for drugs." Or "Somebody stuck a needle in my arm and now I'm doing porno films." It was the era of melodrama. Some of them were really good, good pieces. Melodramatic but good. I mean, Terror on the Beach, in which Dennis Weaver played my father and Estelle Parsons my mother and we all got attacked by thugs, was not exactly a gift. But the imprisonment one, Cage Without a Key, was considered hot. Wonderful to get.

10.

[Q] Playboy: All of which led to the motion picture First Love and your much-publicized nude scene. Was it difficult for you to take off your clothes in front of the camera?

[A] Dey: Nope. I mean, every single time I walk onto a set, I feel slightly hysterical. But that was a wonderful shoot and it was my first real film. The nudity was not a problem for me at all. Not at the time. This was before cable. This was before cassettes. My assumption was, Sure, I'm going to do this, but how long will the film stay in the theaters? But I was in a bank about three years after the film was released and this guy came up to me and said, "Weren't you in First Love?" He had just seen it on cable. And I knew he was thinking of the moles on my breast. I just knew it. And I thought, Oh, and he probably taped it, too.

11.

[Q] Playboy: In the movie Looker, you played a model. Did your modeling experience come flooding back?

[A] Dey: A lot of it came back. How do I look and who's at the party and what's my next job and where do you get your nails done? And it was fun being that kind of person. For a while. Because there was an actors' strike, I had the luxury of being able to prep for the role. Went to the gym every day and got that chiseled, untouchable look.

12.

[Q] Playboy: Albert Finney played a plastic surgeon in that film. Have you ever considered having one of them make the look even more chiseled?

[A] Dey: No; in fact, [Columbia producer] Ray Stark said to me when I was 15 or 16, "I like you. We should have your nose done." Apparently he was joking, but I thought he was serious. And I just freaked.

These days, I know I carry things in my face. Emotional pain. Stress. And I have learned recently, through—as corny as it sounds—loving myself more, how much control I have over that. I can release all the bullshit, but it's not easy. If I get really, really tired of working on that, maybe I will try plastic surgery.

13.

[Q] Playboy: Describe your worst date.

[A] Dey: I've never really done a lot of dating. But two come to mind. One was with a musician. All we did was listen to his music. I guess that was his way of communicating, but it wasn't mine.

Then there was a first date—and a last one, as I recall. We were driving by street construction. And, just by way of conversation, I said, "There's something about those sawhorses with the little lights that's great. Something quite artistic." The next thing I know, the guy is out of the car, picking up a sawhorse and putting it on the back seat. When he took me home, he carried it into my living room. I told him I didn't really want it there, particularly because it had property of the city of L.A.. written all over it. But he left it anyway. I had to drag it outside. And, sure enough, a policeman came to my door and asked, "How did that get there?" And I looked at him unblinkingly and told him I didn't have any idea.

14.

[Q] Playboy: Articles about you invariably mention your preference for older men. True?

[A] Dey: That's basically true. My first marriage was to an older man. And I'm engaged to someone who might be considered an older man. But I think my life has been balanced. I have been attracted to young men, some younger than myself. When it comes to commitment, though, I definitely favor the older man.

15.

[Q] Playboy: What's the most romantic thing that has ever happened to you?

[A] Dey: A birthday bed. To celebrate my birthday, a room had been reserved at a hotel; and when I entered, a birthday bed had been prepared for me. Let's see, how to describe it? I don't think I can. You can probably figure it out. There were balloons. And the gifts were not wrapped.

16.

[Q] Playboy: Aside from the obviously serious anorexia problem, there have been reports of other unusual diets in your past. Could you tell us something about the carrots episode and the doggy Milk Bones?

[A] Dey: Right around the same time as my anorexia, I began eating so many carrots that I turned orange. Since then, someone has made an awful lot of money selling carotene to people who want to get fast tans. When the doctor told me I was turning orange because of the carotene in carrots, I should have started marketing it.

As for the other, I did eat Milk Bones when I was a kid. I pretended I was a dog. I used to get on the floor with our dog and use my "paws" to eat them. I loved them. I was very young. It was like sucking on a baby bottle. I have tried them since and found them disgusting. But my daughter asked if she could eat them and I said, "Absolutely; go right ahead."

17.

[Q] Playboy: Would you be happy having your daughter follow in your footsteps in other ways? Acting, for example?

[A] Dey: She's had offers, and recently, I took her to a luncheon for the L.A. Law cast and she said, "I like this life." She is also interested in writing. She has informed me she hopes to get a contract to write a book about me. It's going to be something like Mommie Dearest. Chapter seven, she says, will be titled "Mommie Isn't a Real Blonde."

18.

[Q] Playboy:People magazine called him the sexiest man alive, and you have to spend a lot of time in bed with him, but is Harry Hamlin really your type?

[A] Dey: [Long pause] Nobody's ever asked that before, and let me say this: There is only one man in my life. Only one. Are he and Harry the same type? I don't think I'll answer that. Watch the show. See how Harry and I get along.

19.

[Q] Playboy: Is it possible that Grace Van Owen is too tough, that audiences will stop finding her appealing?

[A] Dey: There is a difference between being tough and being strong. There are tough ladies who are also very dependent on men. Grace is not dependent. I think that's part of her appeal—her independence.

But I don't believe this show is about creating characters that are appealing to keep the audience watching. That's not L.A. Law cocreators Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher. In last season's episodes, just when you thought you were comfortable with the characters, they shifted.

20.

[Q] Playboy: What's the worst advice about men your parents ever gave you?

[A] Dey: When I was still living at home, my stepmother told me not to go out with a man because he was 37 years old. I was 15. So, of course, I snuck out to see him. If she hadn't said anything, I probably would have thought he was too old for me.

La. law's deputy d.a. makes a case for smoking and rudeness and confesses a preference for the older man

"This guy said, 'Weren't you in "First Love"?' I knew he was thinking of the moles on my breast."