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"We were both Jewish girls from the Midwest," says Gertz, who wrapped up her role as Gilda this weekend in the made-in-Toronto TV movie It's Always Something. "She was from Detroit and I'm from Chicago.
"And I found out from talking to her best friend Judy Levy that we went to the same summer camp in Michigan, Camp Maplehurst. We might have even made the same lanyard."
But another similarity occurs at a break between scenes at the Eastern Ave. studio where we are talking.
She's dressed "very '80s" in a maroon velour jumpsuit and slippers for a scene where the bulimic Gilda gorges on comfort food in her apartment as her first marriage breaks up. The similarity is that the actress and her character are both homebodies at heart.
Gertz was all over the '80s in angst-filled youth films like Less Than Zero and The Lost Boys and the TV series Square Pegs. She's happy to answer those whatever-happened-to questions with the truth. She got married and had kids.
In other words, she got the happy ending Gilda would have wanted before ovarian cancer shortened her life. "People are saying what is this story about? And it's a tragic love story. It's someone looking for love, and it finally finds her (in her marriage to the adoring Gene Wilder).
"And the tragedy is she was misdiagnosed for 10 months of her life. She thought she was going crazy. She knew she didn't feel well. And everybody was, 'Oh it's in your mind Gilda, you're fine.'"
Gertz had read Radner's book on which the TV movie is based and thought it was amazing. "I remember watching her on Saturday Night Live when I'd be babysitting, and feeling she was a great person. I auditioned for this three times, y'know, between car pools and karate classes." (Gertz and her husband, financier Tony Ressler, have three boys, ages 3 to 9.)
The movie, directed by Duane Clark (son of Dick), includes a key cast of talented non-household names (including Second City alumnus Jen Irwin who plays Jane Curtin). It follows Gilda's life through her days in Toronto where she'd followed a sculptor boyfriend, to her break here in the stage production of Godspell to Saturday Night Live (where she married bandleader G.E. Smith) and her post-SNL life with Wilder.
The last scene, filmed Sunday, was a re-creation of an appearance on a Garry Shandling show, where Radner wrung humour out of being a cancer survivor. "That was huge for her," Gertz says. "She thought it was in remission. She wanted people to know that she still had life, that she had been through this horrible ordeal and could still be funny."
Gertz has shot in T.O. before. In 1989 she did Renegades with Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips. "I don't think I left my hotel," she says. "This time I've done things." Her sons were up a few weeks ago, and they all played tourist. "Everybody's been very gracious. It's been terrific."
At home, however, "I'd rather be by myself or with my friends at home, with my tub of popcorn and Diet Coke and enjoy a movie. I don't want to worry about getting dressed and getting pretty and going down a carpet."
She last went "public," she says, in 1998 when she was nominated for an Emmy for the repeat role of Kimmy Bishop in Ally McBeal. "I didn't win, so that sucked. You lose, you just wanna go home, kick off your heels and see what they gave you in the presenters' gift basket.
"That was definitely worth it, absolutely 110%, I got a diamond watch, a digital camera, a CD player, a telephone. What a deal. If I could sing, I'd present at the Grammys too."