Faith Ford on Escapee, Beauty, Health, Cooking, and Field of Vision

Faith Ford said it plainly: "If I can make someone laugh, if I can make them feel good, touch their heart in some way, then I've done my job. We're n…" — and Premier Guide Miami was in the room when it happened.

Premier Guide Miami had an opportunity to talk with star Faith Ford, who plays Jody McFarland — a mother and high school guidance counselor who helps a young man find answers to the missing pieces of his life — in Field of Vision, the sixth movie in the P&G and Walmart Family Movie Night initiative. Field of Vision aired Saturday, June 11 at 8:00 PM Eastern on NBC.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What is your beauty and health secret?

FAITH FORD: I don't want to make anyone sick, but I have had so many health issues in the younger years of my life. I had Graves' Disease when I was younger, I was severely anemic when I was young because I was a skinny little thing — not my fault, it's just the way I was made. But once I made a commitment to get myself healthy and strong, I started doing weights when I was about — the first season of Murphy Brown is when I started working out with weights, and I had a trainer. My husband actually used to be a trainer so we work out together every day that we can. Exercise is very important for my brain as well as my long-term body structure. And I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and healthy grains and proteins. I love healthy food — and I love tasty food too. It can be healthy and tasty. Because I'm from Louisiana, we like to throw down on the food situation.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: How does it feel to be over 40 in Hollywood?

FAITH FORD: It doesn't affect me at all, actually. I guess by Hollywood's standards they keep trying to say, "What's the new 40, what's the new 50?" I don't know — I just live my life and I try to look good for my age as much as I can. I try to take care of myself, not that I'm obsessed with the way I look or anything. I just know that if I do this, that, and the other, A and B lead to C, and that's what I do. And it's all one day at a time anyway.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Do you believe there should be more movies with positive messages addressing issues such as bullying, which is a serious problem today?

FAITH FORD: Yes. Issue movies that give you a current problem, help give you a solution, and end with you having hope — that's mandatory in our society right now. We need as much positive hope as we can get. We get so much negative stuff from the media — I hate to say it, but we get it because it sells. And I can see why they do it. But to have something to escape to that gives you hope is crucial. It's absolutely crucial.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Bullying comes from an insecure place in the aggressor — they use it to mask their insecurity. Do you believe that?

FAITH FORD: Absolutely, absolutely. That's why when you go ahead and deal with it, you're actually helping the bully. Because the fact of the matter is they probably got bullied at some point by somebody. They're very insecure — they're so afraid it's not even funny. You can tell by this movie with the guy who was the bully: he was just dying to have friends. And for fear that he wouldn't have friends, he just decided to make enemies — he felt safer having some enemies. Think about all the friends he would have gained by just putting himself out there and being real and vulnerable and honest.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Have you experienced bullying in any form throughout your life?

FAITH FORD: I was bullied when I was a little girl and I came right home and told my Mom — she was a teacher. She went right into it and fixed the problem. But a lot of parents don't know what to do. Parents do have to be courageous in their own right and stand up for their kids if their kids come home and tell them. But if the kid says "don't tell anybody" — and that happened to me later — she came to the rescue once, and then I said I want to deal with it myself. And she said, "Well, this is what you do." She helped give me the tools. I was a bit of a runt, to be honest. A knobby-kneed runt. I was very shy, a wallflower. I loved to listen rather than talk. But when I got into Junior High I watched the cheerleaders and I thought that looked like fun. So I forced myself to run for cheerleader — and I don't know what happened. It's the same thing I go to when I act. My nature is much more introverted and shy, but I found my sweet spot and that's where I go every time I put myself out there. I think it's in my blood. I come from a long line of very strong women on my mother's side.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: You have a long and solid career. Is there a role you haven't played yet that you would love to play?

FAITH FORD: Oh, hey — I don't dream for roles, I dream for the right thing that comes my way. So I just continue to hope for good characters, good roles that I can be proud of, that once I'm gone, they'll outlive me in a positive way. My life is very important to me — living in Louisiana, being with my Mom, getting to spend time with my Dad before he passed away. Those are my priorities. Whatever falls into my lap that goes along with my life and keeping my quality of life — that's what I like to go for.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Tell me more about your role in Field of Vision and what attracted you to it.

FAITH FORD: Well, I actually was bullied when I was a young girl a bit, so I found the subject matter very enticing. Also being involved with Walmart and P&G and the fact that they want to do family films is in my wheelhouse — most of my work has been stuff the whole family could watch. So I was really proud to be involved with them. Kids get bullied in many different ways; it's not always just physical. It can sometimes be emotional bullying. I believe that kids should feel like they should speak out. So playing a guidance counselor who could protect kids in school was an interesting way of portraying a giver and a rescuer, as it were.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What would you say was the most challenging thing about this role for you?

FAITH FORD: I felt guilty. I felt like I was taking money to have fun. I mean, really — I loved the kids in this movie, I loved my husband in it, I loved all the producers behind the scenes, I loved being in Atlanta, all the people from Walmart. It really was so fun it didn't even feel like work. I've worked a lot harder, a lot longer hours. The fact that I wasn't being chased by something and crying all the time made it more pleasurable too. I don't really like doing heavy-duty dramas because those are draining for me. I like comedies, I like things with a message like this, and things with heart. And this fit the bill on the message and the heart.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: With this current role, do you share any similarities with your character?

FAITH FORD: The fact that she cares sometimes too much — yeah, I share that with her. I sometimes don't believe you can care too much, as long as you don't put yourself aside entirely. I think you should never stop caring about other people. It keeps you selfless. It's better to be selfless than selfish, as long as you don't cross the line. What I have in common with her is that she knows it's not about her every day — it's about helping these kids. The day I wake up and think it's all about me is the day I need to get up on the other side of the bed and get my head on straight.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What was the most memorable moment for you from this film?

FAITH FORD: Obviously when they won the championship. And I loved when the young kid gets back to his father — Cory, when he gets back to his father and his little brother — I just wanted to squeeze him through the television. But obviously when they won the championship at the end, the final game was such a great moment for the Cory character, my son Tony Oller in the movie as well. It had a happy ending. So to me, that was my favorite moment.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Do you think the film can appeal to adults as well as teens?

FAITH FORD: Adults probably deal with bullying too — it doesn't go away. Adults who have teens, adults who have kids that are being bullied, it would appeal to them because it may give them some tools they can use to help their kids. But look, adults deal with this sometimes in the workplace on an emotional and psychological level. It is really geared toward teens, though, to be honest. I think they deal with it more.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: You talked about your health — tell us about your cookbook and Mind Body Balance.

FAITH FORD: I started cooking when I moved to New York at 17 or 18 — on a hot plate in my hotel room because I missed my home food so much. I'm sharing that little secret with you. I started cooking when I was 11, in home economics and Future Homemakers of America, and I just loved it. My Mom had me on her hip from the time I was a baby — she said that's the only way she got me to stop crying was to hold me, so she held me while she cooked. I think that's probably the reason I love food so much. When I got Graves' Disease at the start of Murphy Brown, I found out a whole other thing about health and said, "I just don't want to be unhealthy ever again in my life." I started working out, doing weights, eating more protein, vegetables, fruits — and I will absolutely never change that. The reason Mind Body Balance came along was Kraft approached me about it, and I'm just really proud of it because I learn things every episode. The cookbook I did during the first season of Hope & Faith — I did it to get my Mom to put down and preserve her mother's recipes, some of my aunt's recipes, and my own.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: As a Southern girl, what is your rule about fried foods?

FAITH FORD: Here's my rule. I try not to, because my Mom has to watch her cholesterol too — bless her, she's 73. What we do is we count when we have our fried foods. So for example, this week we went by Piccadilly and she had some fried chicken. Now she won't have fried chicken again until probably we come back from New York — or anything fried. You pace yourself. You should be able to count on one hand how many times you have fried food a month. That's the way I do it. And then always throw in those dark leafy greens that we love in the South — dark collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, all that kind of stuff. My little tip is you don't have to cook them as much as your mama did.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: What's your favorite cooking show?

FAITH FORD: I love Giada — I think she's really great with the way she mixes fresh and healthy with decadence. I like to adapt some of Paula's food. I like Bobby Flay, he does some good stuff on the grill. The 5 Ingredient Fix — she's pretty awesome. I love Nigella, I think Nigella's fun. Chopped is the only competition show I like. All the timed ones make me nervous — I literally get a tightening in my chest for the chefs. I could never do that show. They asked me if I wanted to do a celebrity one. I said, "Are you kidding me?" The minute the time clock would start, I would be paralyzed. I wouldn't know what to do. When we get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we prep like five days ahead. We start prepping. That's just the way it goes. To think about doing that kind of food in that amount of time — no. Wouldn't want to do it.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Can you talk a bit about Escapee?

FAITH FORD: It was a movie that I'm just proud of because I produced it in my hometown, in Alexandria, Louisiana. We did our own financing — it was a great group of people. It's a thriller with no gratuitous violence, nudity, or profanity. It's more like a classic Hitchcock-type thriller. I just kind of want to prove that you can do all these different kinds of genres and it doesn't have to gross you out and make you freak. It can still be very, very scary. So it's a new way of doing it but it still caters to young people, sort of the same age group as Field of Vision. We're going to do other kinds of movies as well — more in the lines of this type, and comedies and things. We look forward to doing more in the future.

PREMIER GUIDE MIAMI: Do you still keep in contact with Kelly Ripa from Hope & Faith?

FAITH FORD: Oh yeah. Kelly and I could go a couple of months — at least — because we are both very busy with very full lives, but our intentions are good. And then I can pick up the phone and text her or call her and we can get started talking, and it is like time stood still. It's very rare that you have those kind of relationships with people, but that's the kind I have with Kelly. We're like sisters that way. I love her — she's a good heart. She really is.

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