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Graham Patrick Martin: Navigating His Path with Trust and Intuition
By M. Sharpe
Photo credit: Jason LaVeris/Getty Image
Before joining the cast of Major Crimes, Graham Patrick Martin admits to being a little nervous. “It was really scary at first, because all these actors had been on the show for so long, and they’ve been together and have this already established family. But fortunately everyone was really cool and really inviting, and it made me feel at home. It was great.”
Quite literally the new kid to Major Crimes both on screen and off, Martin also had concerns about how his character, Rusty Beck, would be accepted by audiences, especially in light of how he was introduced. “There was a brief moment where yes, I was concerned, because I knew right off the bat that Rusty butts heads with all of our heroes, all of the Major Crimes division. They’re nice to him, but Rusty is not kind to them, and I knew that people weren’t going to like to see that. But at the end of the day, all I can do is focus on my work, and trust that if I do the best job I can do, I trust that the writers are leading my character in a great direction, that ultimately will be successful.”
Mary McDonnell on Character Likeability and Major Crimes
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In a new interview with Slate.com, Mary McDonnell talks about navigating the transition from The Closer to Major Crimes, and how she approached playing a character who audiences loved-to-hat.
Slate: Your character, Sharon Raydor, was introduced in The Closer as an antagonist for Kyra Sedgwick’s Brenda Leigh Johnson. Pretty much everyone resented Raydor’s presence. How did you turn a character whose main characteristic was that she was annoying into someone who the other characters respect and viewers would want to spend time with?
McDonnell: If people were asked or manipulated into having to like Sharon Raydor, it would have flopped. If the viewer and the other characters are experiencing her doing a job as well as she can, and through that she begins to expose other aspects of herself that may shift the way they feel about her, then we’re succeeding. Sharon Raydor had enough strength to overcome the need to try to make people like her. And it was in that resistance that people started to accept her and then grow fond of her, because she wasn’t asking them to change.
Slate: As an actor, are you aware of the likability, or lack thereof, of your character. Is that something that concerns you?
McDonnell: When Sharon Raydor was first on The Closer, I had a double experience. There was a part of me that found it very difficult to be the character that nobody likes. But then I would have so much fun with it in the world, I remember one time I was getting off the New York State freeway, and the lady in the tollbooth recognized me and went ballistic. She said: “Girl, I hate you! I’m so glad you’re on that show; you are so much fun!” And that was the kind of energy I was getting from people. They were loving being annoyed with her. That was a very fun dynamic. It was almost hard to lose that.
Slate: One of the aspects of Major Crimes that I really enjoy is Raydor’s relationship with Rusty, a kid who has had a hard life. He was a teenage hustler and a witness to a serious crime. Raydor’s interactions with him really bring out a mood that is often present in the parts you play, a hard-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside quality.
McDonnell: Yes.
Slate: Is that the kind of mood that you’re conscious of trying to project?
McDonnell: I think it’s something people see in me and hire me for. I think we all carry something, and sometimes it is for whatever reason needed in the marketplace of entertainment. And then the job is not to try and make it different for the sake of being different but to try and find what is very specifically unique about the character through which these qualities are being manifest. Sharon Raydor has got things going for her that I’ve never played before—and yet she has a core energy that I understand well.
Read the entire interview here
Episode Stills 2.13- “Jailbait”
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Mary McDonnell on Sharon Raydor, Stands With a Fist and other “Random Roles”
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In a new interview with The A.V. Club, Mary McDonnell discusses some of the many iconic roles she’s had through her career.
Mary McDonnell: Captain Sharon Raydor came to me through James Duff, the creator of The Closer, and the task at hand was to do a three-episode arc, bringing in an antagonist to give Brenda Leigh Johnson someone to tangle with. And little did I know the surprising future that was in the making. Little did any of us know. [Laughs.] So it’s a really great, fun job where I got to come in and push people around, and I thought, “Oh, that’ll be fun. I don’t do that very often.” Honestly, before I could really say “boo,” it grew into other things. And never in a million years did I expect it would end up journeying into a complete dance from antagonist to protagonist, to a new show and all of this. I will say that, if there’s a word to describe it, it’s “surprising.” It’s continually surprising playing Captain Sharon Raydor.
The A.V. Club: What was the process of transitioning you from The Closer to Major Crimes? When did they pitch you the idea?
MM: Somewhere in the second season of when I was doing The Closer. The first time I did three episodes, the next season I think I did five or seven, and somewhere toward the end of that, I think the spin-off started to be “in the air,” as they say. And then the way we went about it was, I came on the last season of The Closer as a regular to give us the platform through which to spin it off.
AVC: Was a full-time series role something you’d been interested in taking on? Certainly you’d done it before, but—
MM: I like hour dramas. I like the format, I like the lifestyle, I like creating at the character’s edge episode by episode and discovering. I love the discovery process, and I like working fast. So having finished Battlestar and taken a break, I was kind of interested. I was interested in developing something, actually. That’s what I was working on, developing another piece that would move into that format, when this all happened. And one thing I’ve learned as an actress over 30 years is that when it’s happening, go with it. [Laughs.] It’s really worked for me!
AVC: So how did Captain Raydor evolve after you transitioned onto Major Crimes? Certainly the writers fleshed her out a bit more.
MM: Oh, yeah, she’s continually evolving. I mean, one of the main ways in which we started to see more of her was vis-à-vis the young boy, the character of Rusty, who ended up living with her. That allowed us to see Sharon’s personal life and allowed us to understand that she’s been a mother for many years and has all kinds of energies in the maternal arena that she doesn’t necessarily expose at work or utilize. It started to expand primarily that way; that knowledge or that awareness of her—or her awareness of herself that way—sort of became more integrated into her work as a cop, and then things started feeding each other. And now we’re almost finished with the second season, and I’ve got to say, I think she’s a really good cop. That was always there to be discovered, but I think it has been discovered this season.
Read the full article for Mary’s thoughts on Stands With a Fist, Laura Roslin, and on her role on two shows called ER.
313 – “Acting Out”
“Acting Out” – Monday, Dec. 8, 2014 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)
A Hollywood comeback is interrupted when a former child star is found dead on skid row, leaving the director of the actor’s current movie and his manager as prime suspects. Flynn’s daughter (guest star Torrey DeVitto) comes to visit and the true nature of Sharon and Flynn’s relationship comes to light. Ransford Doherty, Carlos Bernard, Justina Machado and Jason Dolley guest star.
Directed by Sheelin Choksey
Written by Adam Belanoff
Created by James Duff
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Mary McDonnell on Success and Humility- USA Today
Photo Credit: Tibrina HobsonUSA Today chats with Mary McDonnell about success and humility in a new article in this weeks USA Weekend.
USA Today talks to Mary McDonnell about life lessons in this weeks USA Weekend.
“With a sense of humor and a lot of humility, success in both your personal and professional life is yours for the taking”, says Mary McDonnell, now starring on TNT’s Major Crimes, returning Monday (9 p.m. ET/PT).
The Oscar-nominated actress boasts an impressive résumé (Dances with Wolves, Battlestar Galactica), but there have been bumps in the road.
“You’re going to get … doses of being brought to your knees and swung at by a giant bat more than once and there’s going be moments where you just fall off the face of earth,” says McDonnell, 61. “So, learning how to take your licks and making it part of the program is key to being able to bounce back and finding the next beautiful thing.”
As for her 29-year marriage to actor Randle Mell? “The same things that used to make me angry now make me howl with laughter, and I say, ‘If only I could have gotten there sooner, but whatever.’ ”
Read the original article here.