JANE DOE

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LEA THOMPSON SEAMLESSLY JUGGLES CAREER AND FAMILY LIFE

Like the character she portrays in the Hallmark Channel mystery movie franchise, “Jane Doe,” Lea Thompson is a master of multitasking.

“Everybody on the set keeps telling me that,” Thompson says.  “They all say that my character is exactly like the real me.”

Well, mighty close anyway.  Thompson’s character, Cathy Davis, seamlessly balances marriage and motherhood with a secret life as a puzzle-solving analyst for the National Security Agency.

Similarly, the actress (who has two daughters, Madeline and Zoey) performs a nifty balancing act of her own.  “I’ll be on the set, on the phone, making carpool plans,” she says.  “Then, as soon as they’re ready to shoot, I run across the street and a car explodes.  Then I come back to my phone and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll be home in a few hours.  What should we do for dinner?’”

Simply put, when it came to figuring out what makes Cathy Davis (code name: Jane Doe) tick, no research was required.  “If you take away the spy stuff,” she notes, “it’s the life I live every day.”

“Jane Doe” is one of three rotating Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie franchises. The others are “McBride” (starring John Larroquette) and “Mystery Woman” (starring Kellie Martin).

It’s a format popularized in the ’70s by NBC’s “mystery wheel” of “Columbo,” “McCloud” and “McMillan & Wife” – although the “impossible crimes” nature of “Jane Doe’s” puzzles (a passenger vanishes from an airplane mid-flight; the Declaration of Independence disappears while on display) is more reminiscent of a shorter-lived mystery movie series, “Banacek.”

“I don’t remember that one,” Thompson says of the George Peppard series, “but I always liked ‘Columbo.’  I like to think of myself now as a wife and mother version of ‘Columbo.’  I know those series of films were hugely popular in their time and I think it’s time to bring that format back.  There’s nothing like this on TV right now.  I know there are a lot of mystery lovers out there and these movies are going to fill a void.”

But Thompson is quick to admit that, before “Jane Doe,” she was never much of a mystery buff.  “I kind of wish I was now,” she says.  “When I first read the scripts, I wasn’t able to solve the mysteries.  I’m not much of an armchair detective, I’m sorry to say.  Fortunately, I’m only the actor. Cathy is the one who has to be smart enough to figure everything else.”

Thompson has experienced success in feature films (such as “Some Kind of Wonderful” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy), in television (as the title character in “Caroline in the City”) and on stage (as Sally Bowles for eight months of “Cabaret”).  But it’s a life, she admits, that she never dreamed was possible when just starting out.

“I always knew I’d be a performer,” she says.  “I definitely have a genetic performing gene.  I started out as a ballet dancer.  But I didn’t know I would end up being an actress.  I never thought I would be in the movies or on TV, never in a hundred years.  I always thought I would be a starving artist and I was totally prepared for that.  I never thought I’d have any kind of wealth or fame.”

That’s why, on the set, she doesn’t give off “star” vibes.

“I have such a good time with the crew,” Thompson says.  “I love joking around with the cameramen and keeping their spirits up.  That is really my favorite part.  It’s the entertainer-slash-mommy in me.”

Besides, being good to the crewmembers means she’ll be filmed in a favorable way.  “Well, theoretically,” she says.  “But that’s not even why I do it.  It’s just a lovely exchange of human kindness is what helps me get through the day.”

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