She may be a beautiful popular TV star on a top-rated show, but on Friday night it was easy to get CSI: Miami actress Emily Procter on the phone.
That’s because Procter was one of the all-star volunteers–including Jack Nicholson, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Smits, Nia Vardalos, Ray Romano and many others. Procter pitched in to man the telephone banks of the “Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast” telethon, which aired on virtually every major network, in a bid to gather relief funds for the victims of the region devastated by the impact of Hurricane Katrina.
After taking in scores of calls and accepting donations from the public, Procter is still chatting on the phone, this time to tell Hollywood.com’s Scott Huver all about the emotional evening.
Tell me what your experience participating in the telethon was like.
Procter: “The movie that I did over the summer [Big Momma’s House 2] was in New Orleans, so I was down there for two months. And New Orleans was a city that I had loved anyway since childhood because I had worked there when I was in high school. And to just to watch everything unfold has been devastating for everyone, and to have it be so fresh in my mind, I’ve just been feeling really overwhelmed because the city was so in my memory, and I thought that I’d send some money and then I sent some things. So I was just actually very relieved because I felt like I had this displaced need to do something. So to be asked to join in was psychologically very warming for me. I felt like I was going to get to be a part of a group of people pitching in to do something. It was wonderful to see all of those people outside of their element, so to speak–and not the people performing, but the people actually working the phones, because there was just a real feeling of people pulling together to try and do something. It happens within people that inspires you and reminds you that when we really need to circle the wagons it happens, and that’s what it felt like. That’s so nice as an adult to feel that there’s something that needs help and there are the people that are pitching in. What’s been amazing for me about the whole experience is that I don’t think that I have crossed paths with anyone who hasn’t helped in some way. I felt like we had sort of gotten to point where we were very distant from one another, and to have the feeling that we were all pulling together with a common goal for someone felt really nice.”
Seeing the celebrities answering phones was like a reassurance almost as if our nationally recognizable neighbors were coming over to tell you everything was going to be OK.
Procter: “What I thought was really nice about it, I think is that because there is so much media exposure and people are so exposed to realize that we’re all the same. We’re all working towards the same thing, which is love. Love is the engine that runs the world and that’s what it felt like at that moment. It felt like we were together and it was nice even for me being in that community there’s are some of those people who I have never met, but that I know a tremendous amount about just from coverage and magazines and to see everyone be so focused towards doing something to help that happened to be celebrity oriented was neat and interesting.”
Did you have any particularly interesting conversations with people who were calling in to donate?
Procter: “I honestly have to say that I think everyone who called in was particularly interesting. There was a guy who called in from Connecticut who donated $10 and he clearly did not have very much money and he was just trying to do something to help. And then there was someone who called from Florida who had family in Louisiana and they had lost a neighbor. Their family had lost a neighbor. I mean, everyone who called in was tremendously concerned with everyone there. For me it just felt so comforting to be able to talk to people because it’s so sad and it’s so devastating. When I was little I used to read those Farmer’s Almanacs. I would read about the great fire or the great earthquake and I’d just think, ‘I can’t imagine anything like that happening and how incredibly overwhelming it must feel to experience that sort of devastation.’ And to have that happen in our lifetime and to see it. I just felt so helpless with all that devastation. It was nice that there was an outlet I think for people, and there were people who were calling and I’d say, ‘Hi. This is Emily Procter. How can I help you?’ And they’d be like, ‘Really?'”
How many people gave you that over and over: ‘No. It’s not really you?’
Procter: “They’d say, ‘Well, I knew that you guys were there, but I didn’t really think that you were answering the phones. I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re all answering the phones.’ Then there was one woman who called and I said, ‘Hi. This is Emily Procter.’ She said, ‘Are you a Dixie Chick?’ I said, ‘No, ma’am. I’m on CSI Miami. ‘ She goes, ‘Oh. Is Kanye West there?’ I said, ‘No, ma’am. He’s not here.’ She goes, ‘Do you see Ellen?’ I said, ‘Yes, ma’am. Ellen is here.’ She said, ‘Oh.’ I said, ‘If you like the Ellen show you might know who I am. I was on the show and I gave her a tiara.’ She goes, ‘Oh, yeah. I know who you are. Who else is there?’ I said, ‘Don Cheadle is here.’ And I should be doing her voice which was really bad, but she asked who else was there and I told her Don Cheadle and she was like, ‘Who’s he?’ I said, ‘He was the man in Hotel Rwanda.’ She said, ‘Oh yeah. I like him. Let me talk to him.’ I said, ‘Ma’am. I’m really sorry. You’re stuck with me. I’m it.'”
“Then there was a family that called from Florida and the little girl got on the phone and she said, ‘I can see the people. Where are you?’ I said, ‘Well, I am in the top left hand corner on your screen.’ She said, ‘I’m on TV! I’m on TV!’ She was screaming that, and then all of her brother and sisters were like, ‘I want to be on TV too.’ A bunch of different people got on the phone after that. It was really sweet. Then there was one woman who called who was just so upset. She clearly was just having a hard time processing everything that had happened and she was my first caller. It’s hard to see people broken-hearted like that, but at the same time I found it so inspiring that people feel so much love for someone that they’ve never met. You know, there were so, so many neat things about it and just to have that common thread over the phone with all of us who were all upset, because we can all talk about it with people that we know, but to talk about it with someone that you don’t know – it inspires me. It inspires me that human beings are what you really think that they are.”
Did any of the other people who were manning the phones with you sharing any personal connections about New Orleans, like you had?
Procter: “Alfre Woodard and I talked about it. She is amazing. She is smart as a whip. She is so, so sharp and such a feeling person. But I was seated with her and Mary Steenburgen and all three of us are Southern. So the three of us before the telethon started were speaking about family that we had in New Orleans–Mary, I guess, is originally from outside of New Orleans. It’s nice to talk to people on a human level that you know something about, if that makes any sense. It makes me feel like there’s less separation between all of us. Everyone was so nice. Everyone was just really, really nice. I enjoyed everyone there.”
Did you get to spend time together after it was all over, or did you stay on the phones even after the show was over?
Procter: “We did. We stayed on the phones for a little bit longer after the telethon was over and then the phone banks were shut down and everyone hung out beforehand. Everyone sort of got trained beforehand and then hung out with each other. It was really neat because I had known Ben Affleck from poker, and then Sean Astin and there were a bunch of people who I’ve known from over the years that I haven’t gotten to see in a while, and that was really nice. Everyone was just very casual and just lovely. Sometimes I think that it’s easy to get swept up in the business side of [Hollywood] and sort of look at projects and people and see things only that way. To see everyone just be so kind was nice. It was people helping in the way that they could and those people just happened to be celebrities, if that makes sense. That’s what it felt like. It just reminded me that there’s not that big of a gap between all of us. It’s hard to describe, as you can imagine, and it just felt so real and it was so nice to see people that I think of as being gigantically famous as just normal human beings.”
One of the things that stood out to me was seeing an icon like Jack Nicholson talking to someone on the phone and it was so human, just two people relating to a common concern.
Procter: “And that’s what it was and that’s what it was for all different kinds of people that were in the business before I got into the business and I’ve watched and looked up to, and then people who I’ve seen sort of grow careers around me, but maybe you don’t have the same depth of feeling because there’s a removal, and that just didn’t exist there. To have it not exist in this small section of a community that I work in makes me feel inspired that there’s hope that it can no longer exist in general. Maybe this will work to bring us towards something positive and caring and hopefully with one another. When you see those pictures you think, ‘People shouldn’t have been living that way before.’ We should be helping and we should be more aware. We really need to be more aware and it’s irresponsible not to be and maybe this is the turn. Wouldn’t that be nice? I would love it.”
And any other hot, exclusive tidbit on yourself you’re dying to share?
Procter: “[Laughs] I will tell you that what I had worn to work that day was a t-shirt that said ‘Don’t call me cowgirl until you see me ride.’ And I was like, ‘I think that I need to find a sweater.’ I was like, ‘Does Caleigh have any sweaters that no one has seen yet?'”
Donation phone lines (1-866-4AIDNOW) for Hurricane Katrina Relief remain open through Saturday, September 10th. In addition, donations
