Loretta Devine up for second Emmy

The 63-year-old actress, who won her first for the role of Adele in Grey’s Anatomy last year, is keeping her fingers crossed this year as well Loretta Devine, 63, would love to win a second Emmy for her guest performance as Adele, the long-suffering wife of surgery chief Richard Webber on Grey’s Anatomy. But the actress, who won last year for the same role, isn’t quite sure how her first statuette would feel about getting about a sister. “Well, my Emmy is sleeping with five NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People Image Award] boys,” Devine joked, breaking into big laughter. “So she’s having a good time. She may be mad if somebody else enters the room.” Devine’s laugh is building-filling huge, which likely came in handy this season on the Grey’s set when, after a long, slow decline, her character realised she had Alzheimer’s disease and needed to be placed into a full-time care facility. “That particular scene, it was just wrenching for me,” Devine said. “Sometimes when I watch it, I get so sad myself. And I know I’m acting it out, you know?” Devine said audiences have connected with Adele and Richard’s plight. “It does have a major impact on people that actually have parents at home, that they’re having to care for,” she explained. “I always feel like I’ve been hit on the head many too many times. I got hit on the head a lot on Dreamgirls. I’m real scared that I’m not remembering as much as I should.” There’s a lot to remember. Devine came to fame in the original Broadway cast of the Supremes-inspired musical Dreamgirls in 1981. Since then, she hasn’t stopped working for long, in films including Waiting to Exhale (1995) and Jumping the Broom (2011). Recent TV series gigs include playing the massage-parlour madam on Lifetime’s The Client List and voicing Hallie the Hippo of Disney Junior’s popular Doc McStuffins. “It teaches not be afraid to go to the doctor. It’s cute and it has songs,” Devine says, then breaks into the series oft-repeated chorus: “Time for your check-up. Time for your check-up. Woo! Woo! Time for your check-up.” Devine’s pipes are still intact. Thirty-two years after Dreamgirls, perhaps a Tony is in her sights? “That would be a dream, because you know my history with Tonys and Dreamgirls, and I was the only one that wasn’t nominated,” she said. “My heart beats every time anybody says, ‘Tony’.” For now, however, it’s all about Emmy No 2. “I can’t even explain to anyone how it even feels to be on the red carpet because you were invited, instead of just crashing,” she said, laughing again. “Just walking in there, like I’m supposed to be there. That’s really nice.” From GN