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| LOS ANGELES - Except for the theatrical vanity mirror, the dressing room of ``Sports Night'' star Sabrina Lloyd looks exactly like a dorm room: framed posters on the walls, a comfy bed in the corner, and an assortment of candles. On the window sill above her bed is a picture of a little girl with bright brown eyes. Lloyd touches the photograph affectionately and reveals that it's a picture of her at age four. ``I keep it there to remind me to stay young,'' she says. ``Whenever I go down on the set and things get crazy, or I find myself getting too worked up with anxiety, I just look at this picture of myself as a little girl and say, `you know what? The world is full of wonder, and there's nothing to worry about.''' |
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| Lloyd, 28, has a lot of wonder in her world at the moment. In its first season, the critically acclaimed ``Sports Night'' has already picked up two primetime Emmy Awards. ``All I have to do is sit down and watch television any night of the week, and I just think, oh, I'm so lucky,'' gushes Lloyd. |
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| Set to return Tuesday at 9:30 on ABC, ``Sports Night'' goes behind the scenes at a fictional nightly sports broadcast. Robert Guillaume, now fully recovered from his stroke, will return this season as the sports show's head honcho, Isaac. |
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| Lloyd says the cast was shocked last season at the news of Guillaume's stroke. ``It brought us all together for Robert,'' she says. ``He's such an integral part, I really feel like he's the anchor of `Sports Night.''' |
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| ``Sports Night'' creator Aaron Sorkin has written Guillaume's medical condition into the story line. ``(Aaron and Robert) decided that the only way he really could come back is to write it in,'' says Lloyd. ``That way, he wouldn't have to worry about coming to work and having to pretend he hadn't had a stroke.'' |
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| The sitcom will explore of perils of interoffice romance as news anchor Casey (Peter Krause) and executive producer Dana (Felicity Huffman) continue their attracted yet ambivalent dance. Producer Natalie (Lloyd) and research analyst Jeremy (Joshua Malina) will also have some romantic ups and downs. |
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| ``I think we're both predicting that there's definitely a break-up in the future,'' reveals Lloyd. ``I think people want to see people get together, they want to hope for them to get together, but they don't necessarily want to see them together.'' |
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| Natalie's relationship with Jeremy was certainly conflict-ridden last season. Lloyd laughs, ``I say on the set so many times, `Wow, if we were in a real relationship, we would have broken up by now because we fight all the time!''' |
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| And how is the bubbly and smart Natalie going to evolve this season? ``I think she's just getting stronger and stronger,'' says Lloyd. ``I think that the fanciful, youthful side of her is still there, but I think she's becoming more of a woman. She's getting more grounded, more sure of herself, more confident.'' |
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| When asked about any similarities between herself and Natalie, Lloyd ponders the question and says with a laugh, ``I can keep secrets much better than Natalie can! I'm very into my privacy and I think I'm much more subdued and calm.'' |
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| But the actress also admits that last season she adopted some of her character's personality traits. ``Natalie was so much fun, and she just had this love of life and this zest, that I would find myself starting to be affected by it,'' Lloyd confesses. ``I found myself laughing a lot, and I had so much energy, and I was so in love with life, which Natalie was. I think, no matter if you're different or alike, you definitely take on qualities |
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| Raised in the small town of Mount Dora, Fla., Lloyd wanted an acting career since she was 12 years old. ``I did a play, and my mother came backstage, and I looked a her, and I was sobbing,'' Lloyd says. ``And I just said, `I know what I want to do for the rest of my life.' I never wavered, I was on a mission.'' |
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| The day after she graduated from high school, Lloyd got on a plane and moved to New York City. ``I was a very sassy young woman,'' admits the actress. ``No one was going to stand in my way.'' Living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan ranks high on Lloyd's list of life-changing experiences. ``I was mugged, I was attacked trying to get into a taxi cab once. I lived in a very dangerous neighborhood - hearing gunshots out my window.'' |
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| To make ends meet Lloyd did everything from working as a coat checker to bartending. What kept her going through the rough times was the support of her mother. ``She just kept telling me, `You do what you need to do, and if this is what you believe in, then I believe in you,''' Lloyd recalls. ``That is the best gift I could have ever had.'' |
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| Lloyd's big break came with a guest appearance on ``Law & Order'' in 1990, which led to a starring role opposite Patrick Swayze in ``Fatherhood,'' the title role in the HBO film ``The Coming Out of Heidi Leiter,'' and a three year run on the sci-fi series ``Sliders.'' |
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| Lloyd won the part of Natalie on ``Sports Night'' the old-fashioned way - she auditioned for it with dozens of other hopefuls. ``I remember reading the script, and I thought, wow, I could really do something with this character,'' she says. ``And I just prayed that they felt the same way.'' |
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| Lloyd glances over at the picture of herself as a young girl. What does she see in her future? ``I want a life of joy,'' she answers. ``I want to find and continue to have the wonder of a child and to experience life with that excitement and play.'' |
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