  Jill Hennessy, star of Law & Order and Crossing Jordan, has an album coming out June 16 and is featured in the family drama, Lymelife, with Alec Baldwin. (Stan behal/Sun Media)
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Jill Hennessy is the quintessential Canadian celebrity: multi-talented, and modest to boot.
The actress is known for her TV work on Crossing Jordan and Law & Order, and for her roles in a couple of dozen movies -- but she's also a writer, director and producer. And a songwriter, with an album coming out in June.
If that weren't enough, she and her husband, Paolo Mastropietro, are raising two sons, aged five and 18 months. Hennessy also speaks five languages.
In person, the former model, 41, is smart, funny and actually even more beautiful than she looks on screen.
Hennessy visited Toronto last week to talk about Lymelife, a film about suburban Long Island in the '70s. The film has an impressive ensemble cast and it won a critics' award here last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Lymelife is told from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy (Rory Culkin) who is going through the fits and starts of first love (with Emma Roberts). His older brother (Kieran Culkin) is shipping out to war in the Falklands, and his parents -- played by Hennessy and Alec Baldwin -- have problems of their own.
As the mom, Hennessy is over-protective about her children's health, as her neighbourhood is in the grips of a Lyme disease panic. She is, however, the moral centre of the story, which is about growing up in the midst of domestic strife. The cast includes Tim Hutton as a friend suffering the effects of Lyme disease and Cynthia Nixon as his wife.
Hennessy says that Lymelife was a dream to be part of because of the excellent script from brothers Derick and Steven Martini; Derick Martini directed the movie, and Hennessy says he gave his actors the freedom to improvise if they saw fit.
STUDYING AT SECOND CITY
"And improv is how I started acting, doing comedy theatre here in Toronto and studying at Second City," she says. "It's so nice to work with a director who's secure enough with the material to let you really play. Alec Baldwin is incredibly gifted with improv."
She calls Lymelife, "Giddy and unpredictable at the same time. I love that it's such an uncomfortable film to watch, and yet you laugh at it, too. I know so many people like those characters. The film is utterly believable. It's bullet-proof."
Hennessy's other big project at the moment is music. Her album will be released digitally June 16, and she says she's glad it's finally coming out. "It's the culmination of so much work over about two and a half years."
And yes, she's a little nervous about it all. She says, "It's the same with any acting project or a piece of writing. You're creating something that's very personal that you care deeply about, and you're putting your baby out there in the public and saying, 'Okay, everybody here she is! Or he is! Go ahead and judge them! Give me your feelings! Please don't hurt them! Please don't abuse my baby!' "
She adds, laughing, "But people are going to have their feelings. That's the nature of art."
Whether acting or recording, Hennessy says she feels fortunate that thus far her children have been able to accompany her to work. They became friendly with everyone working on Lymelife, for example.
"And they've been such a huge part of my music," says Hennessy. "I had my three-year-old with me, and I was pregnant with my second when I was recording."
What does she listen to at home?
"A little too much of my stuff," she says, laughing again, "because we were still mixing it. It calmed down the baby, too. He starts clapping and dancing when he hears it. Again, he was in utero when I was recording this stuff, so hearing these songs has an immediate calming power over him. And my older son sings along. He actually knows the lyrics. It's so gratifying. Just to be able to have kids, and then to one day see them dancing and singing to my songs is one of the biggest joys of my life. It's one of the achievements I'm most proud of."
