“I would describe myself as a
beagle under a table, begging
for scraps... And getting kicked
in the head with a loafer.”

WORKING
STIFF

STEVE HEALY

Played by SEAN ALLAN KRILL

SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE LAWYER, HARVARD DAD, TROPHY HUSBAND, WORKAHOLIC, CITY COMMUTER, ABSENTEE PARENT, PORN LOVER

When we first meet Steve Healy, he is at the office. Because Steve Healy is always at the office. As a partner at the high-powered Manhattan law firm, The Pepperwood Group, he puts in over eighty hours a week filing briefs and preparing litigation. This has made it possible for his family to have a bountiful life—a big clapboard house in Connecticut, posh handbags and fresh sneakers, summer vacations abroad—but it also means that he is almost never home to enjoy it. He has missed so much from his children’s lives: school plays, swim meets, debate tournaments. He is proud of Frankie and Nick and what they have accomplished, but he barely knows them as people. Steve was so excited that Nick got into Harvard that he bought his “Harvard Dad” T-shirt before the acceptance letter even arrived—and yet he has no idea that underneath the surface his son feels empty and numb. He does not know that his daughter feels completely isolated at school, or that she is bisexual and in a relationship.

And as for his marriage, well, he has no clue what’s truly going on. He loves Mary Jane, but he’s not in tune with her; he does not see the obvious. He knows his wife is popping pills and acting strangely, but he cannot see that she is crying out for help. Perhaps he is just oblivious due to his crushing work schedule, or perhaps he just sees what he wants to see. If Steve faced the fact that his wife is falling apart at home, he may not be able to devote so much time to his job. He would rather work himself to the bone, spending nights in the city and chugging Pepto-Bismol, than slow down and take a long hard look at what’s really happening inside his gilded fortress.

One thing Steve does recognize is that he and Mary Jane have stopped sleeping together. After her car accident triggered past sexual trauma, she stopped touching and even kissing him. As a result, Steve has turned to hard-core pornography in order to release the tension. He desperately wants to reconnect with his wife on a physical level, and even convinces her to go to couples’ therapy. But in therapy, it becomes clear that Steve keeps MJ on a pedestal; he doesn’t see her as a real person so much as an embodiment of goodness and perfection. Both Steve and Mary Jane have become married to idealized versions of one another, forgetting the passion and spark that united them in the first place.

MJ’s overdose is a huge eye-opener for Steve. He realizes he hasn’t been there—for his wife or his children— and he makes a decision to radically change his life. He cuts way back at work. He encourages Nick to go to the police. He starts listening to his daughter and his wife. He even takes up guitar lessons—and he’s learning Alanis Morissette riffs.