Emmy performers: Anne Heche

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'Ally' role seen as her 'greatest challenge'

It’s not every day that someone asks you to play a character with Tourette’s syndrome. So when Anne Heche was offered the role of Melanie Cook on “Ally McBeal,” she embraced the preparation process.

“I was walking around the house twitching, barking, yelping and whooping,” she says. “Then I narrowed down which tics were too exaggerated and would be distracting.”

With about 15 such tics that she incorporated into her body language, Heche brought Melanie to life in what she called “probably the greatest challenge I’ve ever had as an actress.”

Though she was originally scheduled to appear on three shows, David E. Kelley ended up extending her stay to six, and potentially more.

“David and I both teased each other,” Heche laughs. “He promised that I was coming back and I promised that I was coming back.”

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She’s quick to add, however, that she doesn’t know in what capacity that means.

No stranger to television, Heche actually played twin sisters on “Another World” from 1987-1991. For her, returning to the fast pace of a television set was refreshing.

“On a movie set, you kind of get to lollygag around. You come in, have your rehearsal and then it takes a couple of hours to light the set,” she says. “On ‘Ally,’ it takes them about 20 minutes to light the set and you better be on your game.”

Still, Heche’s major concern was accurately portraying a character suffering from something she’d never had. She was thus thrilled and honored when the Tourette Syndrome Assn. praised her performance.

“It’s a scary thing,” she explains. “Of course, you want to respect and honor it but also fit it into a show.”

The association’s approval, she gushes, “was the biggest compliment.”

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