Major Changes

Kearran Giovanni is better when she's busy. She says, "The busier I am, the more I do, the more I fulfill myself and I'm just more productive."

Having just finished six seasons of TNT's Major Crimes playing detective Amy Sykes, Giovanni is a little less busy right now - but only a little. She has two kids, a recurring role on Dynasty, several charities in which she is involved, and has been out auditioning for L.A.'s pilot season.

She's just started that process, but is hopeful. "I have one pilot that's in the works, but nothing I can speak about yet, but some really exciting stuff that will hopefully allow me to do some singing and dancing and meld it with TV, so, I can say that. "

It's her first go at pilot season. "For me, I came straight from theater to this. So, I've never done pilot season. I've never pounded the pavement in L.A., so to speak. When we had our times off, it would only be maybe seven, eight weeks. Our longest one was about two and a half months, when I was able to do Designated Survivor, so for the most part, I didn't really have to do that legwork when you're doing a show.

"So, I haven't really gotten out in L.A. I think for me, now that I'm finished, a lot of what I'll be doing is getting out there. I've taken meetings with ABC and NBC and CBS, and you kind of just have to go and meet everyone for a little bit and let them see your face and learn what you do."

That can be a difficult task when you've played one character for so long. Giovanni understands that, but is looking for something new. "In the very beginning, basically anyone who's looking for any military or cop, they instantly call you. They say, 'Well, yes, she can do that. We need that girl. She's free now, get her.'

"So, it's a fine line. You want to work, obviously, and also, you don't want to be pigeonholed into doing the same thing, unless you're really into doing that, and that's fine, too. There are very wonderful actors who have made their career playing variations on a theme. For me, I think it's figuring out what I want to say no to, and how far I want to swing Amy Sykes.

"So far, I'd say 90 percent of the things I've gone in for or have gotten have been some form of a detective or a police chief or a military professional, something like that. So, then, when I got an audition for something that''s totally different, or that's comedy or that's light, something like that, I've really been excited about it. It's just so different to play.

"They're all different characters, every show, but, you find a groove in that procedural feel, but I would love to head a little bit toward comedy and just try it out. I've never done the single cam, never worked on a 30-minute show, that kind of stuff. So, I'd really love to try that."

She's hopeful, even if the prospect is frightening. "Right now, I'm going to try out this pilot season thing. which I'm terrified of, because I've heard horror stories from everyone I've talked to. No one's like 'Oh, it's gonna be so great!' No one's ever said that.

"It's like, 'Oh my God, you're gonna be auditioning five times a day and you're gonna have all these lines and and it's gonna be this and this and this, everyone has their own people and it's very cutthroat.'

I'm a little bit terrified, but, but it's nice, you know? I'm excited. It's all good problems to have. People would kill to be auditioning three times a day for amazing roles on TV. So, I'm just going to take one step at a time. We'll see what happens.

I think I'm in a great season right now for women, for women of color, for my age. I feel like I've come into my type a little bit more. So I think there couldn't be a better time for me to be out there looking for a job. I think there's so much material out there and there's so much diversity now, hopefully, so something good will come up."

But television isn't the only thing Giovanni spends her time doing. Along with raising her two daughters, she is involved in two charities that are close to her heart.

One that has taken a lot of her time is Sunshine Kids, run by her cast mate in Major Crimes, G.W. Bailey. "G.W. Bailey, who is Provenza on the show, started, well, he didn't start it, someone else started it, but he basically took the reins two years after it was started. It's been around for about 34 years, and it's a charity for children with cancer.

"But what it is, we don't help with medical bills and that kind of stuff. I would call it cancer camp, because it takes all these kids that couldn't normally experience going to New York for two weeks and seeing Broadway shows and dinners. Everything is paid for, the trip, chaperones, we bring nurses with us, all qualified to administer medicine, or treat them if they need it. We do Hawaii and we go all over the place.

"So, it pays for their trip, but what it also does is give them a group to talk about their sickness with. Because what we heard so often from them when they come back is that they say, 'When I go back to school with the kids who have never had this, everything that they talk about just seems so trivial to me.' It's hard for them to have conversations anymore because they don't care about what Bobby said about you.

"Their life has been changed. They've grown up so much, having to grow up so fast, having this disease and what it takes for them to manage their day. So for them, just to have a group of kids where they can go, 'Oh, you have that?' and 'Did your mom have to give you this medicine?' They just have this relatability that they don't have anywhere else.

"And so, we have a lot of repeat kids that come year after year. We do a lot with LAPD, which is great when you're on the show, We are sponsored by Berkshire-Hathaway, so we take the kids wherever they're doing their annual report. It's just good. We don't want anything from people, we just want you to give some money so we can take some kids to Disneyland as a group.

"We usually take about 40 kids per trip, depending on where we're going and how much we can do. And that's it. It's simple, but it's the best thing. Just seeing them just being and forgetting about it for a while."

She also has nothing but admiration for Bailey and others in the group. "G.W., He does everything. He runs everything and he's also at everything. He throws a party for them for every single holiday and it's out of his own pocket most of the time, and he's there. He's there and they all know him and he knows every single one of them.

"And Natalie, who works at Sunshine Kids now, who was kind of part of Major Crimes - their offices are across the street - was a Sunshine Kid herself and now runs the L.A. office and just had a baby, which she never thought she could do. It shows how much love is there. Nobody wants to leave. They stay forever."

Another cause close to her heart is the Lupus Foundation. Her mother suffered with the disease and eventually passed away from it. "I've done a lot of the fundraisers in L.A., and I did a walk in New York. You make a team and get as much awareness as you can. It's a hard, expensive disease, and it takes a lot out of you, but it just doesn't have the same awareness as cancer, whether it's kids or breast cancer.

"It's a terrible disease and I don't think people know enough about it. So, most of what Ido for that is just the awareness of how difficult it can be and you can die from it, unfortunately. And there are so many different types. I just don't think there is enough knowledge of it.

"My mom had it. She was diagnosed finally when I was a year old. She had it for about 35 years when she passed away. But it was 10 years before then when she was diagnosed with it. [The doctors say] 'maybe it's arthritis, maybe kidney disease, maybe it's this and maybe it's that,' and finally, 10 years later, they diagnosed it.

"And then, for 10 more years, they hadn't figured out how to put medicines together, because there wasn't any real way of saying "it's this." So, she took something like 27 medicines a day. She was like a walking CVS.

"And also, you can't see it. Like with cancer, if you lose you hair, people know it's cancer. With this, a lot of people hide with it, because you might gain some weight, and you're uncomfortable and you're tired, it ebbs and flows. So it's awareness that I try to do mostly.

"Also, I want to say that it's typically an African-American, Spanish, Asian minority, those are a lot of the groups it happens with. And just the awareness of getting out to those communities needs to be better. If you've never even heard of Lupus, if you've never been introduced to it, how are you going to know to look for it? You could be in pain and uncomfortable forever."

Although Giovanni has a lot on her plate, she wouldn't have it any other way. "Happily. I'm better when I'm busy. My little wheels just spin when I have a lot to do. If I just sit around, I wither. "

She also realizes how fortunate she has been,, "I've been very lucky to have played a non-stereotyped African-American character TV for six years. And I hope that there are shows like this, like Major Crimes, written for all types forever. "