<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Grey&amp;#x27;s Anatomy has one of the most talented casts on TV, but it can be said that no one steals a scene better than Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey. The Houston native, 42, has captured audiences with Bailey&amp;#x27;s brash, yet human approach to life, work, and play. In real-life though, the two could not be more different. Chandra is joyful, enthusiastic, and beyond sweet. She and Bailey might share a work-ethic, but that&amp;#x27;s where the comparisons end. In fact--here&amp;#x27;s a fun fact for you--the role of Bailey was originally envisioned to be that of a blonde, Caucasian woman! (Aren&amp;#x27;t we glad they scrapped that plan!) But did you know that Chandra isn&amp;#x27;t just an Emmy-nominated, SAG Award-winning actress? She also starred in Chicago on Broadway and is quite an accomplished stage performer. Which is why it&amp;#x27;s no surprise that she&amp;#x27;s psyched to take a version (along with much of the rest of the cast) of the Grey&amp;#x27;s Anatomy musical episode from last year on the road. The one night only performance is called Grey&amp;#x27;s Anatomy: The Songs Beneath the Show to benefit The Actor&amp;#x27;s Fund. Much of the cast will be performing alongside her (Eric Dane, Justin Chambers, Kim Raver, Sara Ramirez, Sandra Oh--just to name a few) at Royce Hall on the UCLA Campus this Sunday night in LA. The cast will perform select songs from last year&amp;#x27;s musical event as well as additional music from the Grey&amp;#x27;s songbook. Tickets are still available, and included in the VIP package is a sit-down Q&amp;amp;A with the cast after the show. (Click HERE) We caught up with Chandra to talk about their evening as &amp;#x27;rockstars,&amp;#x27; life as Dr. Bailey, and how she&amp;#x27;s managing to balance it all. The Interview: Chandra Wilson Glamour: Before we start, I have to ask you, how often do people mix you and creator Shonda Rhimes up based on your name alone? Chandra: All of the time! It&amp;#x27;s kind of like the running joke. Even journalists will come to me on a press line and they&amp;#x27;ll be like, &amp;#x27;I&amp;#x27;m just so excited about your writing and what you&amp;#x27;re doing,&amp;#x27; and I&amp;#x27;m like, &amp;#x27;oh, no, you&amp;#x27;re talking about Shonda!&amp;#x27; I do it in a very nice way of course, because people really do mix us up. There was once something written, and it said, &amp;#x27;Shonda Rhimes, who is the creator of Grey&amp;#x27;s Anatomy, also plays Dr. Miranda Bailey!&amp;#x27; And this was like a well-known publication! I was like, &amp;#x27;Oh my god! How do they get away with that?&amp;#x27; I think it&amp;#x27;s funny! I hope she thinks it&amp;#x27;s funny too! Glamour: On the musical ep that aired on TV, you have the benefit of TV magic to make it all come together, but on Sunday night, it&amp;#x27;s not really a musical I&amp;#x27;m guessing. So are you excited, nervous? Chandra: We call it Grey&amp;#x27;s Unplugged! It&amp;#x27;s going to be raw in how we do it. It makes you nervous in that it&amp;#x27;s a live audience. You just have to hope that the vocal Gods are with you! We&amp;#x27;re going to talk about the music of Grey&amp;#x27;s, and we&amp;#x27;ll have a segment where you see a piece of footage without the music, and then add it in and so on. The whole evening is going to be entertaining and we&amp;#x27;re raising money for The Actor&amp;#x27;s Fund, which we have a lot of Actor&amp;#x27;s Equity Actors in our show as well. We like to reach out and touch fans as much as we can. I thought it was really interesting how we&amp;#x27;re able to offer VIP access for the fans, where they can sit with us for a half hour afterwards and talk to us. Glamour: You guys get to be rock stars for the night! Chandra: Haha, we do! Glamour: How do you have time to rehearse for this weekend in between shooting and just normal, everyday life? [Oh, and she&amp;#x27;s directing this week too!] Chandra: I feel truly like a Disney kid! You know, I&amp;#x27;ll be at the show, and I&amp;#x27;ll direct it, and I&amp;#x27;ll put on a musical! [laughs] I feel like I&amp;#x27;m living Miley Cyrus&amp;#x27; life or something! Glamour: Do you have a favorite song from the show? Chandra: I&amp;#x27;m not sure if I can say what my favorite is, but what I really loved in the version that we just did is our &amp;quot;Grace&amp;quot; remake that Sara Ramirez did. I thought it was absolutely beautiful. Glamour: What makes you more nervous? Directing, acting or singing? Chandra: Oh my gosh. Directing is its own monster with its own set of muscles and exercises. Before day one is when I&amp;#x27;m most nervous, but then when I get started, I&amp;#x27;m fine. Glamour: What can you tell us about Bailey&amp;#x27;s romantic life? She has been slow to warm up to the hot doctor this season, so what would you like to see for her? Chandra: I appreciate the baby steps she&amp;#x27;s taking because she was married before for 11 years, so when she commits, she&amp;#x27;s serious about that. She doesn&amp;#x27;t break up lightly without feeling like she has done all she can do. I applaud her for taking baby steps and doing one little thing at a time. She also doesn&amp;#x27;t want to confuse her son and is trying to be very mindful of that. But at the same time, I think she should have some fun, so it&amp;#x27;s good! [laughs] She&amp;#x27;s got some hot guys, which is like playing with candy, so let her have some fun! Glamour: How are you most like Bailey? Chandra: I&amp;#x27;m like her I think in work ethic, and being a go-getter and setting goals, but I think my people skills are a little bit better than [hers]! Glamour: When it comes to directing, do you ever find yourself channeling Bailey when you have to take control? Chandra: No. She like doesn&amp;#x27;t play a part in at all! It&amp;#x27;s a different muscle I have to use. . .it&amp;#x27;s an organizational muscle. That&amp;#x27;s the biggest part--being organized and knowing what you want to shoot. So [channeling] Bailey wouldn&amp;#x27;t be helpful! [laughs] Glamour: By the way, in the episode that aired a few weeks ago, you had a couple scenes with Patrick Dempsey about Zola&amp;#x27;s hair, and I was on the floor cracking up. You really deliver a line like no other. Chandra: [No answer because she&amp;#x27;s busy cracking up--seriously, laughing hysterically. Another reason why we love her!] Glamour: Haha, ok, what can you tell us about the episode you&amp;#x27;re directing? Any hints about the storyline? Chandra: Our residents right now are in the process of studying for the boards. My episode is where they have to go up to San Francisco because I believe that&amp;#x27;s where the boards are going to happen. It&amp;#x27;s the anxiety of dealing with that and if they&amp;#x27;re ready for that, and then the grown-up attendings that have been left behind are on a pretty big case. Someone runs into a telephone pole and hurts themselves pretty badly. So we&amp;#x27;re all on that case, and dealing with the Teddy/Owen dynamic also. They&amp;#x27;re still trying to find their way back to a friendship. Then there are some crazy other things happening, but mainly our residents are away, and our attendings are at home trying to be grown ups. I think it airs the last week of April, because I&amp;#x27;m the fourth episode from the finale. Glamour: One last thing, because I&amp;#x27;m truly impressed by your work load. How on earth do you do it all-acting, directing, rehearsing, and being a wife and a mother? Chandra: It&amp;#x27;s called denial! [laughs] If you&amp;#x27;re in the LA area, purchase tickets for Sunday night by clicking here. More TV News: *The Episode of Private Practice You Can&amp;#x27;t Miss *The Community Assignment You Have to Do Now That New Episodes Are Back! *Ashley Judd Goes Missing (And Helps Us Fill Out Our March Madness Bracket!) Photos: Getty Images Photos: Colleen Hayes/ABC, Bob D&amp;#x27;Amico/ABC "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2012/03/chandra-wilson>