Excerpts from the book

by Chris Burke & Jo Beth McDaniel

page 150

...Kellie Martin remembers that when she auditioned for the part of Becca, she asked Michael Braverman if he was indeed planning on using an actor with Down syndrome. When he told her yes, that Chris had been chosen and he did have Down syndrome, she was shocked. "I couldn't imagine how they could have someone with Down syndrome carrying a TV show," she says. Kellie knew very little about Down syndrome, she had only seen a television documentary about it, which focused on some severely handicapped children in institutions.

Just before the shooting for the pilot began, Kellie did a reading with Chris, covering the entire script. "I was a little afraid of him. He came up to me and gave me this big hug. I didn't know what to think." Then Chris sat down to read, and he knew all of his lines from the script. "I didn't even know all of mine," she says. "The thing that really blew me away was that he already knew all the words from Poe's "The Raven"."

Each day Kellie worked with Chris, she became more com- fortable with him. "In the beginning, I never thought I'd warm up to him. But it naturally happens to everyone who knows Chris. He is so gentle and loving, and he always wants you to feel comfortable."....

page 152

...Kellie Martin also had apprehensions. "I didn't know if I wanted it to go to a series because it was a really hard show to film. I worked nine and a half hours on the set every day [ The maximum allowed for an actor under sixteen years of age]. But after I saw the finished product, I wanted it to go so much."...

page 156

...Kellie Martin is my sister on the show and she is like my sister in real life, too. I feel close to Kellie and I feel like I'm a part of her family. We give each other support and love. She helps me with my scenes. I think she's a great actress. I like watching her movies....

page 173

...Kellie Martin has had a hard time comparing Chris to her teenaged peers because, she says, in some ways he is more mature, but in other ways he is innocent and naive. "People at my age think a lot of negative thoughts. It's a confusing time. But I think Chris has it all figured out. He takes it one day at a time and doesn't worry. He's pretty focused."...

page 175

...Kellie prepares more for her scenes with Chris because "When he does get it right, I have to get mine right. They can't spend a lot of time with me forgetting a line because they need time for Chris." She has also learned a new act- ing skill: to remember and repeat the line she just said just before the line Chris missed, so that the scene can start over and the take is not ruined. She takes care not to dis- tract Chris too much between takes, when the pressure and tension often break with giggles and jokes, and during scenes, when Chris needs to hone his concentration.

"But it it not a big difference at all," Kellie adds. "I love having scenes with Chris. He shows a different side of my character, Becca. Corky brings out the kid in Becca; he shows her vulnerability in little ways. A lot of times she is trying to be older than she really is, a little more soph- isticated than she is. On her own, she would never watch a cartoon on television, but she would watch one with Corky."

"Becca loves her brother, but he embarrasses her and annoys her just like any other sibling would. Sometimes she gets frustrated with him. She doen't necessarily fight with him; she gets emotional but holds back." The relationship between Becca and Corky is very true to life, as Kellie later learned from fan letters sent be teen- aged girls who have brothers with Down syndrome. "They say that the writing and the way I play Becca are so realistic. Getting that feedback from someone who knows means a lot to me."

Kellie says that Chris has a calming influence on the set. "Sometimes when it really gets tense, I look over at Chris and he's smiling. He's a very calm person, and takes things in stride."...

page 186

...Kellie Martin also fielded some unusual questions. "The first thing people ask me is if Chris really has Down syndrome. They think he's an actor wearing makeup. I guess they can't fathom it because he's so normal. And people ask me if I have to be gentle with him. I guess they think he's going to break."

Just as her character Becca steps in to defend Corky on the show, Kellie has reacted to comments from guest stars and extras about Chris. One day she heard some extras laughing at him, saying: "He's impossible to work with." Kellie walked over to them and said, "You don't know what you are talking about. You don't even know Chris. How can you say this?"....

page 194

...At the close of the season, Chris and Kellie Martin were invited to appear on "The Arsenio Hall Show." This was the ultimate for Kellie, who laughs when she recalls how much she talked. She answered a few questions for Chris, who later teased her about it. Chris was a crowd pleaser, waving his arm and whooping the way Arsenio does to stir up a crowd, but he was strangely silent for most of the interview...

page 200

....Kellie Martin says that Chris has learned to observe and listen closely to direction. "He has relaxed and developed the freedom to improvise. That's very hard. It took me five years to pick that up." In one scene, Chris was packing a trophy in his suitcase, which Kellie kept pulling out. "He kept putting it back in, more times than was in the script. He slapped my hand --that wasn't in the script. But it was great; we ended up using everything in that scene. I said, 'Chris you stole that scene!' and he said, 'Good!' " ...

page 201:

...Kellie says the Burkes are now on the set even less than Frank was in the first season. "Chris knows everybody know. He's pretty comfortable. If something goes wrong, if he's hav- ing a bad day and people are getting tense, Frank and Marian would be there immediately. He slipped and fell once, and they were there within minutes...

page 216:

...The tables are turned when Chris goes out in public. One weekend when Chris, Kaley, and Kellie were leaving a Janet Jackson concert, someone recognized Chris and called out "Hey Corky!" Suddenly, the whole crowd started rushing toward him. "He got mobbed," says Kaley. "People went nuts. It was scary."

When the crowd got out of hand, Chris and the others turned to run from them. Kellie says she freaked out. "I gave Chris my hat and pulled it over his eyes so people wouldn't recognize him. He took it off and was waving it at everyone. I said, ' Chris, oh my God, lets run to the car! ' He handled it so well. He was really enjoying it. It is amazing how people recognize him everywhere. I think it's also because people are staring at him any- way, because he looks different, then they realize who he is."...

page 221:

...His coworkers have also felt profound changes in them- selves from the time they've spent with Chris. "Chris is a constant reminder to me that life is precious," says Kellie. "He doesn't take anything for granted."....