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

‘When I moved to LA, I was too scared to get on the freeway for a year’ … Calista Flockhart with Jesse L Martin in season one of Ally McBeal. Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Everett/Shutterstock

Calista Flockhart, played Ally McBeal

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 happy in New York and I had only been to LA briefly, to shoot The Birdcage. I was such a bad driver that I didn’t get on the freeway there for a year. I was afraid of it.