Marla Sokoloff's Six-Week Audition

By Rick Porter, Zap2It.com | March 16, 2006

Marla Sokoloff

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'Modern Men' gets a shot before The WB folds

LOS ANGELES -- It's one thing to star in a TV series and have that show be cancelled; hundreds of actors have had to face that reality. It's quite another, though, to have your show's entire network cancelled.

That's the situation facing Marla Sokoloff, one of the stars of The WB's new comedy "Modern Men," which premieres Friday (March 17). The show's six-week run will, in essence, be one long audition for inclusion on The CW, the new network that will combine The WB and UPN come fall.

"When the CW thing happened, we didn't have an airdate at the time, and I kind of had it in my head that it was going to be one of those shows that was never going to see the light of day," she says. "So the fact that it's even going to get an opportunity at all is exciting. But yeah -- it's been weird and it's been frustrating."

Yet, Sokoloff -- who's also a singer and recently released an album called "Grateful" -- is happy that people will finally have chance to see her in a full-time role on a comedy. She's best known for playing Lucy Hatcher on ABC's deadly-serious drama "The Practice," and she says it was nice for a change "to be on a show where I didn't have to cry."

"I definitely felt like I wanted to do more comedy. It wasn't something that, as far as TV goes, I'd really touched on," aside from a handful of guest appearances, she says. "Because I was on a show that was so serious, people really kind of pigeonholed me into that a little bit. I wanted to break out of that mold."

In "Modern Men," Sokoloff plays Molly Clark, the sister of Josh Braaten's Tim -- a guy reeling from a breakup and convinced he needs to make a change. At her suggestion, he and two friends (played by Eric Lively and Max Greenfield) hire a life coach (Jane Seymour) who tries to help them evolve a little.

"With Josh's character, he could be thinking something that seems rational and reasonable but won't really go with it," Sokoloff says. "But if Molly confirms it for him, then it's his truth. Even though she's younger, he looks up to her."

Molly's situation is one Sokoloff is familiar with -- she has an older brother, and she's "always giving him girl advice and work advice."

"I think that's just how girls are," she says. "We have that maternal nature where we just want to fix everything and be there for everyone."

Her show's rock-and-a-hard-place position, however, isn't something she can fix. "Modern Men" hasn't been mentioned much as a contender for The CW, and earlier this week Sokoloff was cast in an ABC pilot called "A Day in the Life."

"You just have to be patient and hope for the best," she says. "I've been in so many situations like this where you really believe in something and other people don't. It's just how the business works. It's so completely unpredictable -- we could be the most ginormous hit The WB has ever seen, or it could be, like, one person watches it."

She laughs at that. "I just don't know."