HOLLYWOOD -- William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy about the obsessive nature of love.
The lovesick Helena in Dream (opening Friday) is played by Calista Flockhart, the star of Ally McBeal.
"I had my bouts when I was smitten with someone who didn't know I existed, but I didn't go as far as Helena. I never asked a guy to treat me like his pet dog,'' said Flockhart in a recent interview.
Playing Helena caused Flockhart to think about just how far she'd go in pursuit of love.
"Being romantically fixated on a person is not a fun place to be. You lose so much pride. The times it happened to me were torturous.''
Flockhart, 34, was born in a suburb of Chicago, but the family relocated often. She and her brother were always the new kids on the block.
"It taught me to be adaptable and gregarious. It seemed I was always having to prove myself.''
That meant playing flute in school bands, and joining cheerleading teams and drama clubs.
Flockhart's father worked for Kraft Foods and her mother was an English teacher.
"It was my mother who instilled and nurtured my love for literature and drama,'' recalls Flockhart, who moved to New York in 1989 to pursue a professional acting career.
Many of her first roles were for struggling theatre companies, so she taught aerobics to help pay her rent.
By the time she auditioned for the title role in Ally McBeal, Flockhart was a successful and respected member of New York's theatre community.
"I had no idea what to expect when I agreed to move to Los Angeles, but I could never have predicted what happened or I probably wouldn't have left New York.''
With the profile Ally McBeal has given Flockhart, she had her choice of film projects to fill her hiatus months last year. She surprised everyone by choosing A Midsummer Night's Dream, where she was paid $15,000 US a week like every other member of the cast, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Kline.
"Calista came to me. I knew who she was because she'd auditioned for me when I directed Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney in One Fine Day and I'd seen her several times on Broadway,'' recalls director Michael Hoffman. "Calista is perfect for Helena because she looks like a victim of obsession. She is the archetypical waif. There is such strength in her small body.
"She is the new Audrey Hepburn.''
Flockhart admits there are similarities between her Ally McBeal character and Helena.
"They're both determined women who'll do almost anything to get what they want. It's a tribute to Shakespeare's genius that it appears as if he is dealing with contemporary themes.
"For me, the real similarity is the playfulness at the heart of both Dream and Ally McBeal. No matter how serious and convoluted the problems seem in both cases, they always work out and triumph with a happy ending.''
That kind of happy ending is what Flockhart is looking for in her life and career.
"I'll stick with Ally McBeal as long as the network and audiences will.
"It's one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.''
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