Much has been made in the press over "Providence" star Melina Kanakaredes and how proud she is of her Greek family and her Greek heritage. What just about everyone has missed is that she isn't the only Greek-American on the series.
Paula Cale, who plays Kanakaredes' sister, was born Paula Korologos.(Cale is her married name.) And it may have been fate that the two of them would end up in the parts. The two both have the same agent and happened to meet each other at his offices one day about a year-and-a-half ago."And our agent walks up and he goes, 'Look at you guys. You're both Greek -- and look at you guys. You need to be on a series and play sisters,' " Cale said. "And out of the hundreds and thousands of actresses that are out there, we got put together! We both got the roles, and now we're playing sisters! It's really funny.
"We have a great time. The Greek community is going berserk."
While Cale and Kanakaredes play very different sisters on "Providence" -- Cale plays Joanie, a rather flighty single mother, and Kanakaredes plays Sydney, the dedicated physician. In real life, the two actresses have more in common.
"Oh, we're very similar," Cale said. "We have that same love of the Greek culture. When you are a part of the culture like that it's a very important part of your life. We feel privileged to be a part of that community and to share that with one another.
"I think that's also why we both were drawn to 'Providence,' because there's such a strength about family in the Greek community."
And "Providence," the surprise hit of the season, revolves around the Hansen family -- a loving if rather dysfunctional group. In addition to Kanakaredes and Cale, the show stars Mike Farrell ("M*A*S*H") as their veterinarian father; Seth Peterson, as their ne'er-do-well brother; and Concetta Tomei, as their mother -- who continues on the series in dream sequences despite the character having died in the pilot episode.
Cale's character is in many ways the comic relief in the series. Joanie is offbeat and often hilarious. And she admits that, initially, she wasn't sure she wanted to do the show because she felt more comfortable doing half-hour comedies.
"I'm honored to be labeled the comedic foil in a family drama because I think comedy is a really important and explorative quality to have when you're dealing with the issues in a family," Cale said. "You get to show the other side, which is something you can't do on a half hour. Hopefully I can do that well -- to show the emotions and the vulnerability."
Joanie can be vulnerable, but she's also extremely outspoken.
"I love that about her. She calls it like it is," Cale said. "Sometimes I think of her as being the fool in a Shakespearean play. You see her, and her wardrobe's crazy, and her hair's crazy, and she's kind of crazy and mouthing off about this and this -- but if you really listen to what she's saying, she calls it how it is."
Cale has ties not only to the Greek community but to Salt Lake City. Her father, Tom C. Korologos, is a Utah native, a prominent consultant/lobbyist in Washington, D.C. A former staffer at the Salt Lake Tribune, he's involved at the highest levels of Republican politics -- he was Bob Dole's liaison at the 1996 Republican national convention; he shepherded Supreme Court nominees through the Senate for both the Reagan and Bush administrations; amd he was on the staff of both the Nixon and Ford administrations. (Cale's mother, Salt Lake native Joy C. Korologos, passed away in 1997.)
Her uncle, Mike Korologos, is a longtime Salt Lake advertising executive who was the spokesman for the Salt Lake Olympic Committee from 1994-98.
She grew up in Virginia, "but we went back to Utah all the time."
And, what with her background, no one in her family ever really thought she'd end up starring in network television shows.
"It's something that I thought I would never do," Cale said. "You come from a nice, conservative, political family, and you go and you do the academics."
So, after graduating from high school, she went to Vanderbilt University for a year where she studied to become a teacher.
"Which is something I still plan to do with my life. I find teaching one of the most . . . important occupations people have today," she said.
But acting was in her blood, so she headed for the Goodman School of Theatre (since renamed the Theatre School) in Chicago.
"I gave myself five years to see if I could make it as an actress. If I could get one paycheck," Cale said. "It's been five years now, and I got a paycheck."
And her family has been more than supportive of her desire to act.
"I am very lucky to be blessed with parents who support me in absolutely anything I do," Cale said. "My father and his success in the political arena is from that same sort of support he got from his parents. He kind of taught me how to go after whatever I wanted no matter what.
"It's easy to say now, because I'm a working actress. If you were interviewing me, which you wouldn't be, after 'Midsummer Night's Dream' at the Canyon Community Center, I don't know what I'd be saying my parents were saying about me," she added with a laugh. "But they are thrilled. And they are a support. I always joke around that my talent came from my father, who is a genius in the political arena, and there are a lot of similarities between the political arena and the Los Angeles/Hollywood arena."
The closeness of her real family is echoed in the closeness of the fictional family on "Providence."
"That's why I just love this show. It is so full of family values, but in a real way as opposed to in a stereotypical, flippant way," Cale said. "It's really strong and filled with reality -- filled with hyper-reality sometimes, I think. And I'm a firm believer that a lot of the problems in this world would be solved if we could figure out the problems within our homes."
And Joanie has her share of problems -- not the least of which is that fact that she's young, unmarried and a mother.
"I don't think those are issues to be taken lightly by anyone," Cale said. "I don't think it's a funny thing to be an unwed mother. And I think that needs to be handled in a really serious, kind way. And I think it is."
She does, however, find it at least a little bit funny that she was cast as a mother when she knows "nothing" about babies.
"Not only doesn't Joannie know what to do with a baby but I, the actress, don't even know what to do with a baby," Cale said. "I'm still learning that."
And it can be somewhat problematic acting with infants. (A set of twins is used to play her on-camera daughter.)
"It's really interesting working with a baby," Cale said. "I mean, sometimes I'll do a take and I was brilliant -- I mean, not really, but you know. Well, I was really good -- and the baby was crying through the whole thing. And I'm like, 'Oh, shoot.' Because then you have to do it all over again."