By Jenny Halper in New York City

“So this funny thing happens,” says Tea Leoni. “Every time I do a press junket, I get sick…what do you think that is? It’s like, how odd, my sicknesses are so predictable. I’m gonna get sick today, I’ll be better tomorrow, Tuesday I’ll be sick. At the end of a movie I’m out for a week.” Leoni pauses to take a sip of tea. And then:

“OK. Let’s talk about the film.”

It’s this kind of honest, refreshingly random banter that you might expect from Leoni, who, with supporting roles in films like “Bad Boys,” “The Family Man,” and “Flirting With Disaster,” has gained a reputation as one of the funniest actresses on the silver screen. But audiences saw a different side of Leoni in James L. Brooks’ underrated “Spanglish.” As Adam Sandler’s squeamishly controlling wife, Leoni mined dramatic gold from a potentially one-note character, turning in one of the 2004’s criminally overlooked performances.

She gives another gutsy portrayal in “House of D,” co-starring as the drug-addicted mother of the movie’s young protagonist (Anton Yelchin). But it wasn’t pill popping or on-demand sobbing that worried Leoni. She was more nervous about “f-ing up” the writing/directing debut of husband David Duchovny.

Braving oh-so-predictable illness, Leoni told press all about playing “the mother,” co-starring with Jim Carrey in the upcoming “Fun with Dick and Jane,” and why she and her husband will never act together (“legal cheating” is involved).

Q: What was it about this role that made you want to be in your husband’s movie?

TEA: Well, I certainly didn’t want to be in the first movie that he was going to direct. I did not want to be in it, but then I read it, so then we were all screwed. Because I was really taken by this part, but there was this awkward position because I’m sleeping with him, I’m going to get it. And yet, I didn’t really want to put him in that awkward position, but then I really wanted this part. In the end, I waited for him to... I’m in bed with him, I’m in the kitchen, I’m in the living room, I’m nearly lying down as he’s backing the car up…trying to…”over here!”…and it never came. Finally, on the day that he was ready to make another offer to another…quite frankly…quite better actress, I thought I better do it now. And so, I just said “You know, I really want to play this part” and then truthfully, it’s like the lost weekend. I don’t know what happened after that. I can’t remember his reaction. I think I just said it and then sort of blacked out. Because I knew he had to give me the part but I didn’t want ot see his reaction. I didn’t want to see him go “Oh…okay….great, honey…yeah! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Q: Why didn’t he?

TEA: He says..this is his story, you can probably get it straighter than I could. He says that he was looking..very politically correct…for somebody older. The second part of it is that he said that he didn’t want to ask me because he felt it put me in the awkward position of accepting. Great story! But it all worked out.

Q: What was it about the part?

TEA: It was very specific. It was that this was a woman grieving, but in one scene, where she plays Nerf basketball with her son in the apartment, you would see that respite, that life gets you in the middle of your worst grief, where unconsciously it leads and you have joy or some semblance of the life you had before or a smile. And it’s you know…first couple of maybe 15 or 20 minutes long at best and then the grief settles back and when Tommy walks out of the room, you see it find her again. I’ve seen that type of exploration in your lead character, but then it’s sort of expected. It’s presumed that you would see as much from that character, because that’s going to be your story. But in fact, I thought this was in this secondary role but it made it pivotal. It told you everything about what maybe life had been like for this child before this great grief. I think David was making a statement about grief, that it can be that powerful. Some people don’t get over it, and all they ever get are maybe a couple of 15 minutes and maybe it’s on the day they get that it’s all they ever get. They stop fighting. He has had a relationship to that in different times in his life to grief, as we all have. I just thought it was pitch perfect, so I was willing to risk going out there and screwing up my husband’s first film. It’s just a dashing exercise in narcissism.

Q: Did you have to get your agents to talk to each other?

TEA: It’s so funny that you say that. Yes, there was this weird thing. I remember things would come up and David would hold the phone and David would go “You’re in a double banger, babe” But I never said anything! That’s fine. We did have a lot of laughs over some of the negotiations, and then actually, at one point, to make someone else’s deal, David needed some back-end points and so he told me “You don’t have points anymore. I took your points cause I needed them.” And I said, “Jesus, honey, don’t I have to sign anywhere?” And he said “No, no, I put a little TL on it and it’s fine.” It was actually was very funny.

Q: Was being directed by your husband initially awkward?

TEA: Well, I think again, the worst part of it was just leading up to it, before we got on set, at least for me…dreading this idea that I was just going to suck and I really had strong feelings about that. I just didn’t want to be that weak link. I didn’t want to hear about it. The nightmare somewhere in some paper it says “Nice shot by Duchovny. It’s too bad about him hiring his wife.” Whatever. But when we got there, David didn’t have any sort of strange maniacal turn once he got into the director’s seat. He was as calm and rational and articulate and brilliant as always. So I think more I was impressed that we had another relationship that we could explore that was as good. It was really..our working relationship was good. It was sexy and he was charming and I was in trouble in that scene where I take the sedatives. It was hard for me. It’s always hard for me when your character is taking on a substance. There’s a lot to it. You need to know at least an exaggerated idea of what that substance could do, but you still have a story to tell. Otherwise they’d have you passed out in the closet. You’re still working. You still need to get something across and how to do that. Normally, I think I would just approach the director and ask “How drunk”? But I went to David with total panic and I just said “I can’t find it…I don’t know. I’m gone here. I’m out. I don’t get it. Help! Is it two pills? Ten pills?” And David was like “Wow!” He gave me some bit of advice that I can’t remember but it was just perfect and soft and quiet, which I needed, but then he just said “And by the way, you know, I love you anyway”. And I gotta tell you, I’ve never needed that from another director. That worked. That was incredibly soothing for me. You know, again, I do think that if someone has written something that is so…I mean it was..the picture in this was perfect. It was kind of easy.

Q: Did you discuss working together in the future?

TEA: I think I could have him direct me again if I could get over the nerves of that thing “First time it was okay that he hired his wife; second time, what was he thinking?” If I can get past that, I’d like to work with him again because he is an ideal director. He has all the assets of your dream director. I don’t want to act with him because I think that’s funky. I never want to look David in the eyes and sing somebody else’s love song. I don’t get it. There’s other leading men and there’s other ladies for him to fool around. It’s kind of legal cheating and fun anyway.

Q: Speaking of leading men, you’ve been working with some really madcap comedy actors- Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler and Robin. Are they always hamming it up?

TEA: With Jim, that’s what we did. We hammed it up and that’s what that is. I was extremely impressed with Adam, because he’s a classically trained actor and it really showed up. Jim Brooks is a very powerful director and it was a lot of intense work. I’ve looked at my roster and I’m ready to hold it up against Nicole Kidman. I mean, I got everybody she’s got except for Tom and a few others. I don’t know what that says. I got Will Smith. I got Al Pacino, Nicholas Cage, Adam Sandler, David Duchovny.

Q: Did you grow up in New York?

TEA: I did.

Q: Did you recognize the New York you grew up in, in the way that the film recreates that era?

TEA: Yeah…I don’t know how he did it. That’s the only thing cause I don’t know how. So I can’t really speak about it. But I can tell you that the New York that I see now is not the New York that we grew up in. It’s not 1973. The only thing that looks familiar to me is Sheepshead. I was out at Sheep’s Meadow and that’s the coolest thing, to return to New York, the city that has people trampling over it and all this change all the time, and you can take a glance at something like Sheep’s Meadow and be like…I can remember being on a rock at age 13 with a Frisbee and a joint. Oops! Did I say that? I mean really it’s so pungent, and I have really strong memories of it.

Q: What’s one of the things of the NY of 73/74 that you miss the most?

TEA: I think it was the dirt. I miss the dirt. It was creepy in the park at night. That’s how it’s supposed to be. In whatever it was..the Brambles..and you’re doing weird stuff and people are up to shady fun partying…I don’t know...it just kind of had a …there was an edge to it.

Sometimes, I feel that Manhattan in particular has gotten really tame and gentrified or something. On the one hand, I would say that I miss the spit and grittle on the streets of the ‘70s, but at the same time, I suppose, with so many people in one spot, maybe it’s wiser to be how it is now. I don’t know.

Q: Obviously the part you played in this is very different from the part you played in “Spanglish,” but when you took this on, was this ever a part of you was that “Oh, geez..now I’m going to start getting cast as the overbearing Mom”?

TEA: Yes. Yeah, I did have that concern in the fall when there were a couple projects that came up for me to play. These really whacked out mothers. And I thought, you know, I have to say that maybe the whacked out mother is my new favorite role, but I don’t want to just do it and become Nurse Ratchett. I want to be able to do other things and stuff. They’re also not as sexy. It’s kind of fun to be sexy. It was fun to play Jane with Dick because Dick and Jane are a couple of horny teenagers, but it is true now that a lot of people are like “Oh, you would love this role. It’s this a woman. She’s a mother and she’s totally sick!” I would but I have to take a break. I didn’t get this before. I think a lot of actresses in Hollywood dread the mother roles because it means now you’re THE MOTHER. But mothers have so much more going on. I mean, we have our own survival and two or three others survivals we’re concerned about. All this dichotomy and all this conflict, like being the Madonna-whore. Honestly, it’s all part of this huge arena. “Single white chick” is not that interesting…and I’ve done that.

Q: A lot of the reviews in the “Spanglish” that said the extra scenes with you make it a considerably more interesting movie.

TEA: There are extra scenes? Ouch! Wow..I don’t know what they put back in. I’m just surprised because I don’t know what they did with it. But there was a lot on the floor…of everybody. I mean, that script was 140 some odd pages and it’s Jim. Yeah, wow.

Q: This is a strange question...in both films you cry…when you played the parts, was the motivation different?

TEA: Yeah. Well, the thing about...one of the things that is different is that one is a private moment and one isn’t. Deborah is, I think, what keeps that crying to be so snotty and let-go and full-blown is because it’s such an impressive thing to her that she is able...she can literally feel and see her expression of what she’s truly feeling and it exaggerates itself. Deborah is like…if I take my 2 year old after he falls down and hold him up in front of a mirror, he’d cry harder. And this mother again…was sitting on a bed having that quiet sob.

Q: Is that what you were thinking?

TEA: I think I might have been thinking that I was in my husband’s directorial debut and I might fuck it up. I think that might have been what I was thinking. I think I’m kidding. I’m not sure.

Q: With movies like ”Million Dollar Baby” and “The Sea Inside,” euthanasia is a hot topic right now…what are your feelings are on that?

TEA: My feelings are that a.) we were first and we’re releasing later just for the hell of it and then b.) I think that’s what’s devastating about this and what’s different and what was the point of this is that no one ever wants it to be a 12 year old’s decision and that’s what it is. And that’s what the movie is about. The idea of coming of age and suffering the consequences to your actions and learning how that system works and then by 18, you’re ready to vote. For this kid, it’s on his 13th birthday, he makes one action, there’s one consequence, and there are no other consequences without it, until he’s 40 years old and willing to go back and look at what happened. So, relatable...I suppose it’s relatable, but you’ll have to do that work.

Q: What was the first movie you can remember seeing that made a big impression on you?

TEA: It was “Jaws,” frankly. Scared the shit out of me. I used to summer on the Cape. I dunno. People say what movie’s had the most impact on you? Jaws! Cause I never swam again in the ocean without a thought, and up until that day that I saw it in some theatre somewhere in the summer, perfectly in June, before the swim season. Up until that point, I was blissfully fearless about the water. The biggest thing I had to worry about is maybe a jellyfish and that’s no big deal. It changed my life.

Q: Well, you’re in Malibu now…did you ever get over that fear?

TEA: No, I’m not over it. If I swim in the ocean, I have a shark thought. Not a bad one, but just a little one. Like a little..there could be a shark.

Q: What’s after “Dick and Jane”?

TEA: Bed...I’m going to bed for quite a while. Six months.

“House of D” opens in limited release on April 15th.