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The Oval Office -- and All that Cool Stuff
RD: What's the most fun about playing Mackenzie Allen?Davis: I am ashamed to admit I love all the trappings -- saluting the generals, stepping off Air Force One, all that cool stuff. People announcing you whenever you enter the room.
RD: How is it to walk into the Oval Office, or are you used to it now?
Davis: Of course we're talking about a model of the Oval Office, with no ceiling, but I do get a sense of history when I'm there. When we shot the scene in the first episode where she enters the Oval as the President for the first time, I actually had goose bumps -- as myself and the character. I couldn't help thinking that one day, this exact thing will happen to a woman, and she will feel the sense of history that I am feeling now.
RD: Do you think the show is paving the way for a woman President?
Davis: We all know how much media images affect us. Now, to be clear, that's not the intention of the show and not why ABC bought the pilot! So many people ask me that, and you've got to figure that the folks at ABC have other things on their minds than sending covert political messages. How about ratings? Making money?
RD: At the beginning of the women's movement, we thought that if women had power they would lead differently. They would be more compassionate, inclusive and sensitive. And yet Mackenzie is tough.
Davis: First, about the idea from the women's movement that we need women because they will be different, I've come to feel differently about that over the years. If the argument is that we should put women in these important positions because of some special "woman-ness" they will bring, we are putting aside the more relevant notion that women should be in half of these positions because they make up half the human race! Equal rights shouldn't be based on deservedness or specialness.
RD: Are you a feminist?
Davis: Yes. And I am always happy to be asked that question because I like to show I won't suddenly immolate if I use the word. Women have been taught to be afraid of the term, that it means all kinds of things it really doesn't, like "against men" or "unattractive, strident." Feminism simply means a belief in women having social and political rights equal to men. I know. I looked it up. [Laughs silently.]
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