"I think my goals in this business have changed the longer I've been in it," muses actor Nancy Travis. "I did start out wanting to be the superstar, the top of the game -- Meryl Streep and all of that. But what I've come to realize is I love what I do, and the real success story in this business is to be able to just work in it and have longevity."
Travis has been working steadily for more than two decades, acting in film, television, and theatre. And though she may not be famous on the level of Streep, Travis is certainly a recognizable and welcome presence, whether she's conveying the comic demeanor of a possibly homicidal girlfriend (So I Married an Axe Murderer) or imbuing a dramatically hefty performance with stubborn, sympathetic soul (The Vanishing).
Travis is also a natural when it comes to TV comedy. She was a regular on the popular series Becker and starred in the short-lived shows Almost Perfect and Work With Me. Now she's found success playing good-natured mom and wife Susan on The Bill Engvall Show, TBS's surprise hit sitcom. Travis is thrilled that the show is garnering stellar ratings, especially since traditional sitcoms are getting harder to come by. "This is, honestly, the only sitcom that I've read in a long time," she says. "I like the premise of it; I love the idea of doing a family show about a family. And I just think this woman has the potential to be really interesting. Like a lot of women, she gave up a career [and] stayed home and raised the kids, and now the kids are getting older. Who is she in the family? Who is she in the world? I thought those would be interesting things to explore."
Travis, who grew up in Framingham, Mass., and Baltimore, was first inspired to act in second grade, when her mother suggested she join the drama club. She studied drama at New York University and landed her first representation when a manager happened to catch her in a school production. "I came out of school and waited tables for a good two years and slowly but surely went office to office giving [my] picture and résumé," she says. "Nothing just landed in my lap. It was definitely pounding the pavement and hoping for something."
She started booking commercials and landed her first legit job thanks to a friend of hers who was working as an assistant to agent Robert Duva. "[The friend] put me up for this ABC after-school special [High School Narc], unbeknownst to the agent, who didn't even know who I was, and I booked it," she remembers. Travis, who is currently repped by Leanne Coronel at Endeavor, signed on with Duva.
Another break came thanks to an understudy role in the Broadway production of I'm Not Rappaport, which ran in the mid- to late 1980s. "The woman that I was understudying left, and I stepped into the role," she says. "There was a casting director in the audience who then brought me in for a miniseries she was doing called Harem. It was a huge thing; it was so exciting. I went from not having a SAG card or anything to all of a sudden I'm the lead in this miniseries that's going to shoot in Spain with Omar Sharif and Ava Gardner." That casting director, Dianne Crittenden, also cast Travis in her breakthrough film role as beleaguered British mom Sylvia in 3 Men and a Baby.
Though she continues to work extensively in television and films -- including the upcoming The Jane Austen Book Club -- theatre remains Travis' first love. "Unfortunately, it doesn't pay any money," she says, chuckling. "And I live in Los Angeles; I have two young children. So as much as I have the fantasy of going to New York and doing something in New York, logistically it's really hard for me right now. But it's my first love, and I've done some productions here. I did a play at the Geffen, and I've worked at La Jolla Playhouse. Wherever I can find it and do it, I try to do it."
That can-do spirit is what led Travis and a group of friends, including fellow actors Fisher Stevens and Gina Gershon, to form the Off-Broadway theatre company Naked Angels in 1986. "At the time, it was a bunch of disgruntled actors and writers and directors who couldn't get noticed at all," she says. "We felt that we were the most talented people in the land because we'd just got out of college, and why weren't we getting hired? What started out as, 'Let's just get together and do play readings and keep fresh' -- sort of a class type of thing -- became, 'Let's actually put productions up.' " The company, which is based in New York, is still thriving today.
Though some actors claim that luck plays an important factor in success, Travis notes that she believes you have to be driven and ambitious enough to find your own luck. Hopefully, it leads to a long-running, prolific career. "I would love to be able to talk to you when I'm 80 about the repertory that I'm doing in Seattle or something," she says. "That's the winning ticket: to be able to keep working."