Roma Downey believes Utah has been good to her -- and she, in turn, is being good to Utah.
The "Touched by an Angel" star is currently filming a made-for-TV movie in Salt Lake City -- a CBS telefilm that's being produced here only because she wouldn't have it any other way."It was one of the things I insisted on," Downey said in an interview with the Deseret News. "It's a blessing of being a star of the network, because I asked them to bring the movie here. Normally, they would have shot a movie like this in Canada because of costs, but I said I would only do it if it could be here. I didn't want to leave.
"It's easier with my daughter. Less disruptive for us as a family."
(Actually, Downey and her daughter, Reilly -- who turns 3 this month -- live just blocks from the Salt Lake home where the movie is shooting this week.)
Moving the movie to Utah pumps several hundred thousand dollars into the local economy and provides jobs for dozens of local residents. "We get to use a lot of our crew members. I have a lot of people from our show and a lot from 'Promised Land' who are now out of a job."
(While "Touched by an Angel" is still going strong, CBS recently canceled its spinoff series, "Promised Land," which was also filmed here.)
Downey's new telefilm, tentatively titled "A Secret Life," casts her as a woman whose husband (William Russ of "Boy Meets World") is gravely injured in a plane crash. The accident kills the mother of a child he fathered some years earlier -- a child Downey's character didn't even know existed but soon finds herself caring for.
"The opportunity that arises each summer gives me the opportunity to hang up me wings, so to speak, and to take on a kind of range of emotions that I don't normally get to play every week," Downey said.
Not only was the site of the movie changed, but so was the setting.
"It was originally written to take place in Baltimore, but we just changed it to Salt Lake City. We don't have to disguise lovely vistas and our license plates on cars. It ought to be a nice boost for our city."
And, indeed, Downey often speaks of Utah and Salt Lake City in proprietary tones. After five years here, it has become her second home.
"I do love it here," she said. "It feels like home as much as anywhere in America. But my heart and my soul are, I think, very much a part of the country of Ireland. My family is all still there, and I really think of that as going back to the well -- going back to water my roots, you know?"
But she wasn't interested in flying the coop too quickly this summer. As a matter of fact, Downey had no break at all between filming the last episode of "Touched by Angel's" fifth season and beginning work on the movie.
"I ended on a Friday and started on a Monday," she said. "But there was method to my madness. I'm going home to Ireland, and in order to really utilize my time there, we scheduled it like this. If I'd taken a break now, then we would have only had a few weeks (off). And I wanted to have a good chunk of time there."
But she'll be happy to return to Salt Lake City and "Touched by an Angel" by late July.
"It's a wonderful job in a wonderful city," she said. "And it's a great place for me and my baby. I find, for the most part, the people of Salt Lake very respectful and tend to give me room. I'm aware of people nudging and looking and pointing, but they really give me a certain space -- particularly when I'm with my baby. And I so appreciate that because I'm trying as hard as I can, under the circumstances, to create as normal an environment for her to grow up in as I can.
"There are times when I'm at the mall and I've got the baby in the stroller and now I'm being mommy and not the TV star at that point. And I really appreciate it when people sense that and give you that kind of invisible space around you."
Not that she's in any way standoffish toward her fans.
"I certainly don't mind it. I mean, I'm happy to sign an autograph," Downey said. "I never understand when I read about other actors or stars who are insulted when they're asked. Without the fans, none of us would have a job."