Sherry Stringfield has a rather simple explanation for why, five years after quitting her starring role on "ER" and despite numerous vows that she would never return, she's doing just that.
"I changed my mind," she said in a telephone interview with TV critics.
And a few other things have changed for Stringfield, who exited the then top-rated "ER" (tonight at 9 on Ch. 5) and her role as Dr. Susan Weaver five years ago. She married journalist/writer Larry Joseph three years ago and she's the mother of 6 1/2-month-old Phoebe.
"My life is so different. . . . I'm married and I have a baby. I've taught a little bit (at SUNY-Purchase) and I've explored some other things," Stringfield said. "I really do feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world. I'm just grateful for everything that's happened to me. And now, to be able to go back to the show — I don't know, I'm kind of humbled or something.
"Series television is either a nightmare or the best thing in the whole world and it really depends on, I think, where you are in your life. And it's a lot easier for me this time, having a family."
When Stringfield exited "ER," the explanation was that her character was moving to Arizona to be near the infant niece she had been raising — a niece her flighty sister reclaimed after marrying the baby's father. After he is transferred to San Francisco, Susan decides to go home to Chicago.
She's visiting her old workplace when yet another doctor quits, so her old pal, Dr. Mark Green (Anthony Edwards), hires her back. Which leaves her in the somewhat odd position of working with Mark — whom she sort of seemed to be developing a relationship with — who has a new wife (Dr. Elizabeth Corday) and baby.
"They were always friends until the last episode and then it was like — oh my gosh, what's happened?" Stringfield said.
Stringfield said that a lot of people — including her own mother — are surprised to see her return to "ER" — but not nearly as many as were surprised to see her leave in the first place.
"It's amazing how everyone has an opinion on how you should live your life," she said. "It was a lot. And it kind of tapered off toward the end, which is really funny, because then I was like, 'You know, I should go back.' "
She's still amazed that her decision caused any uproar.
"They said I was crazy. (It was) really annoying," said Stringfield, pointing out that other people change jobs, too. "I didn't exactly see, being an actress, what the big deal was. . . . I came to understand that they didn't have a full understanding, perhaps, of an actor's life. You have a million different jobs and we're actually really used to it. It's very rare to have a job that lasts more than a year or two."
(She has, by the way, signed a three-year contract.)
And returning to "ER" was easier than leaving. When she left, the show's producers insisted that she get their approval for any acting work that she did for the remainder of her unexpired contract — some 2 1/2 years. She did ask for their approval for a small role in a TV movie shortly after she left the show and the producers said no. "It was no big deal," said Stringfield, who said that she believes producers didn't believe that she really left to "get a life."
"They thought, in a very business sense, that I was leaving to further my career or to start the 'Sherry Show' or to, perhaps, capitalize in some way on the 'ER' fame. So they put some serious restrictions on me," she said. "My attitude then was, 'Fine. I'm leaving to not work. That's the whole point. What am I, an idiot? If I wanted to work, I'd stay on the No. 1 show.' "
And when she decided she wanted to go back, it couldn't have been easier.
"I met with (executive producer) John Wells and I was, like, 'OK, I want to come back.' And he said, 'OK, we'd love to have you back' and that was it. . . . It was really that easy," Stringfield said.
As was returning to the "ER" set.
"It was very funny. . . . When I walked on, their first (assistant director) was there and he was still kind of literally saying the same thing," she said. "And then I found myself standing in a doorway that I'd stood in maybe a thousand times before and I went, 'Did I leave?' It was kind of a little time warp.
"I did it for almost three years. It's like riding a bicycle. It felt like I had left in mid-conversation, almost. I kind of just walked back on and started up again."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com