Mostly Byrne must appear well-spoken, polished, attractive.
In those scenes, "I have to be sharp as a razor and as bright as a button," says Byrne, "and wear those crazy business suits. In the prison scenes, it's like I get to wear pajamas!"
With just two episodes left in its 13-hour season, "Damages" (airing 10 p.m. Tuesdays) is ripe to answer the many questions piling up since Patty hired Ellen on the series' premiere.
Since then, there have been deaths, betrayals, mind games, and an ever-rising threat level swirling around the Frobisher case. Days before her fiance was killed and she was arrested, Ellen even got fired from Hewes & Associates.
Viewers naturally wonder: What gives? And to make sure they keep guessing, "Damages" has whipsawed its storytelling between the present (with Ellen in jail) and a past that initially was labeled "6 Months Earlier," but, by the most recent episode, had narrowed the gap to just a couple of days earlier.
On tonight's episode, the past catches up to the present, with the back-and-forth story lines merging into real time.
Then, on the Oct. 23 finale, maybe Ellen will be saved. Maybe Frobisher will get what he deserves. Maybe Patty will be seen for what she really is: a complicated heroine . . . or maybe a duplicitous wacko.
It will mark the end of a wild ride for the audience.
The actors, too.
"It's the hardest job I've ever done - by far," says Byrne. "Long days! Everyone's exhausted - all the time - and getting more exhausted by the day.
"Tomorrow we start the next episode, and I haven't read it yet."
Wrapping early - 6 p.m. - one day not long ago, she arrives right after work for an interview a block from her Greenwich Village apartment. She comes into the restaurant with several garments she picked up from the dry cleaner next door.
"I'm multitasking," she jokes in a voice that exposes her very un-Ellen-like Aussie accent.
