Illustration: Rob Kelly

Hope Davis was born and raised in New Jersey, but make no mistake: She’s a New Yorker. She and her husband recently packed up their cramped West Village apartment and relocated to Boerum Hill. (They have two tots, you see.) Like a good Gothamite she gripes about how overpriced the city has become, and she daydreams about moving to Maine, where she summers. “But who am I kidding?” she admits. “I hate driving.”

Although her career got off to a slow start, Davis is now one of the busiest actors working in film. She’s also one of those public figures whose craft and personality ooze “organic down-to-earthiness,” and it comes sans quotation marks. In her latest film, Charlie Bartlett, the actor even put a fresh spin on the clichéd role of a wealthy, pill-popping matron. Calling TONY from her home, however, she evokes a different motherly stereotype: “The kids are parked in front of the television and won’t be running around. So, here I am.”

Looks like you had fun making Charlie Bartlett.
Yeah, it was a nice switch. I haven’t played any really harrowing parts for a while now, actually.

Is this your first “mom” role?
No, I was a mom in The Weather Man. That’s when I graduated to the mom parts.

How’d that feel?
I didn’t have kids then, so I was like, “What?!?” Now I’m totally happy with it, and I’ve braced myself for the district-attorney parts.

Is that what comes between mom and grandma?
Goldie Hawn has that famous quote on how an actress ages in Hollywood: “It’s ingenue, district attorney, Driving Miss Daisy.” Someone told me about a script that was like, “She’s the mayor of a small town.…” And I was like, Oh my God, am I ready for this?

Your page on IMDb says that you auditioned for Baywatch.
God, is that still there?

Is it true?
Yes, I used to do that horrifying thing called “going out for pilot season.” It involved uprooting your life to relocate to L.A. and then go on humiliating auditions—one of which was Baywatch. They put us on a certain side of the room, depending if we were bathing-suit material or not.

How’d you make out?
I made the first cut or so. I know I got to read, something like, “Hey, look over there!” That was the last of it.

Have you ever lived in L.A.?
I’ve spent long amounts of time there, but I’m an East Coast person. The water, the sunset—everything feels backward. It’s just not home. I did live in Chicago before I moved here.

Isn’t that where you played the role Madonna originated in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow?Yes. Wow, we’re going way back here. It was my first real job, and I was pretty excited that I had the same part Madonna had.

Did anyone compare your performances?
David Mamet’s parents did.

And?
What do you think they said? [Laughs] They said I was better.

When did you first come to New York?
In 1991; trying to get started was brutal. This isn’t an easy place to start a career in any field. I got depressed after the second year, but I kept at it.

Nothing feeds passion like contemplating temp work.
Oh God, I’ve done that—it almost killed me! I temped for an insurance actuarial firm, where we’d sit and calculate the cost of what might happen. I felt like, This whole building is fake. What are we doing?

Did you wait tables?
I was the worst waitress in Chicago. That’s a really hard job. I always tip well, no matter how the service is, unless it’s really cruel. Besides, I always think this could be the end of my career, and I’ll be working at Starbucks any day now.

What if a former colleague steps up and orders a Frappuccino?
Well, [Laughs] you make the best of what you can. [Pauses] Okay, maybe I’d move far away, like to Vermont, and work behind the counter there.

Charlie Bartlett opens Fri 22.

See previous The Hot Seat