Katey Sagalbroke through in comedy and then she broke out in drama.
She has played a sentient, sinister smart-home system.
She always has a side gig as a singer-songwriter.
Illustration by Anne Latini for EW
And even though their voices sound alike, Katey Sagal is positively, most definitely notAllison Janney.
“Istilldon’t think I’m funny.
Everybody would always want me to be in these comedic roles.
But, for me, you just want to keep doing different things.”
“The biggest comment I get is, ‘Wow, you’re still working!'”
Sagal says with a laugh.
“I’ve started to say it to myself sometimes.
I feel very grateful about that.”
“The Erin Brockovich of it all was really intriguing to me,” Sagal says.
I like playing a character that’s aligned with my philosophy of doing the right thing.
It was particularly intriguing to me at this point in life that she’s somebody who gives back."
“It opened up opportunity, but it opened up creativity as well,” she sums up.
I mean, it’s pretty gnarly."
Still, others opt to keep their distance.
“They’re scared of me,” she says.
“I don’t know that Gemma is as approachable as Peg.
People feel afraid of Gemma.
They think I’m going to really be a biker!”
Actually, this fan base has subverted Sagal’s own expectations, extending far beyond bearded bikers.
“Sonsfans don’t look like what I thinkSonsfans are going to look like,” she notes.
‘…Sonswas basically a family drama, so it touched people in different ways.
It had a bunch of different things that appealed to different people.
But the women really seemed to [respond].
I always say my husband [Kurt Sutter, who created the series] writes women really well.
Women really responded to that showand not just because ofCharlie Hunnam, even though that didn’t hurt."
Gemma’s legacy also lives on in Sagal’s side gig as a musician.
“I thought it was hysterically funny and completely irreverent.
I didn’t realize how many people would relate to it.
I still think the overall reason people related to it is because it was funny.
People liked to laugh.
“I learned so much, I really soaked up what was around me,” she says.
It made me want to be an actor, it made me want to continue doing this.
So, it gave me more than just a career, it gave me a desire.”
(Huluordered a revival 20-episode season in 2022, set to premiere in 2023.)
“The whole writers’ room forFuturamawere, like, scientists,” Sagal quips.
“They were way over my head, you know?
So, people that responded to thatit was a really an adult sense of humor.”
She’s often asked to doLeela’s “Hi-yah!”
She speaks of her colorful character with even more affection.
“She’s vulnerable and just has that tough exterior.
She can handle being the captain of [a] spaceship and all that.
But she really was this lonely little person inside.”
“I think there was the John Ritter of it and what a tragic situation that became.
That’s what people will talk to me about.
“I love to talk about John,” she says.
“What I loved about that job was John Ritter.
John was an amazing person.
You’re the one I want.’
Which was so, so sweet.
But they were scared they were going to have Jack Tripper and Peg Bundy.
They had to double-check that it wasn’t going to be that.
I was having to beat back that perception.”
She didn’t just slip into the role, though; it was a hard-fought feat.
“That kind of weightI knew I could do it.
It was just an industry outlook.
They just saw me a certain way.”
Some genre fans, though, would see her for the first timeor at least in a different light.
“AtComic-Con, somebody asked me to sign their Helen baseball card,” she says proudly.
with Frank (William H. Macy).
“I’ve gotten quite a bit of recognition forShamelessbecause people love that show,” she declares.
“That fan base is surprising.
It’s across the board [demographically] the same waySonsfans always surprised me.”
She surprisedShamelessfans with Ingrid’s antics.
“I mean, she was really nuts, so that was super great,” Sagal says.
And she wanted him to be the dad.
The two of them together was interesting.”
And it was a guest gig that she relished.
“It was so much fun to be with Bill Macy,” she gushes.
They’re just like, ‘Go, just do it!’
That was pretty liberatingbeing on television and not having people all over you about what you look like."
“I do have a lot of people really liking that,” she notes.
(ABC canceled theRoseannerevival in 2018 after a racist tweet from Barr.)
“I’m just glad that they were accepting of Louise,” Sagal says.
“I think that was a big step for the writersand a logical step.
I liked that they dealt with that realistically.
I like that the fans like her, that they’re not mad.
Because I know there were a lot of people that were pissed off that Roseanne wasn’t there.
Plenty of grade-school kids were introduced to Sagal through this role, chilled and thrilled by her performance.
Now, those fans are starstruck millennials.
“I remember my daughter was in the second grade and every kid was watchingSmart House.
Which was probably equal parts joy and fear.
“She was vicious,” Sagal marvels of PAT.
“She turned on everybody.
and went storming out of the thing.
It was traumatic for her.
I probably traumatized a lot of second graders.”
“I was a Harlette with Bette Midler, and people remember seeing me withBette,” she says.
“Or theythinkthat they saw me with Bette, because I looked like one.
There were many Harlettes.
I also sang with Etta James and people will remember that.
Can Sagal identify the music fans from the TV fans when they walk up to her?
“It’s the ones that have my solo albums,” she quips.
(She recorded three solo albums: 1994’sWell…, 2004’sRoom, and 2013’sCovered).
“I’m always confused with Allison Janney on the voice-over commercials she does,” she notes.
“She’s the spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente, and everybody thinks it’s me.
People will be like, ‘Oh, I heard your Kaiser Permanente commercial!’
And I’m always like, ‘No, that’s not me.
I wish that was me.'”
