‘My whole identity was wrapped up in Ally McBeal’ – Calista Flockhart on her smash hit 90s comedy rollercoaster

‘In the street or at restaurants, people still come up to me and say, “I became a lawyer because of you. ” But I just went to work and said my lines! ’ I was doing a play in New York, Three Sisters by Chekhov.

We regularly got scripts sent to us. One going around was written by David E Kelley. I flew out to Los Angeles to screen test, and I got the part right in the moment. It was a difficult transition as I felt very much settled and…