Category Archives: Cast Interviews

MORE Magazine “Investigates Mary McDonnell from ‘Major Crimes”

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Finally, More Magazine has interviewed Mary McDonnell about Major Crimes, and there is a lot of wonderful new insight!

Hey, Kyra Sedgwick, there’s a new boss in town—or rather, a familiar face that is taking over TNT in a big way. Mary McDonnell is proud and honored to move up the ranks and star in the network’s new series “Major Crimes,” which might look a lot like “The Closer.” We’ll clue you in to why.

 

More: I get the impression Mary and Sharon can really relate to one another?
MMD: I can totally relate to her. The more I got to know her the more she revealed to me. In the beginning I just came to know her as an antagonist. Now I have had the opportunity to see so many aspects of her that I never knew existed. There is the mother in her, and I myself am a mother. We didn’t know she was into the ballet, and is a natural leader.

Read the entire interview here.

Interview: Kearran Giovanni Talks ‘Major Crimes’

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Kearran Giovanni talked to Starry Constellation Magazine about coming to Major Crimes, and what to expect from Amy Sykes this season.

Q:  What do you think it is about the show “Major Crimes” that has really captivated so many viewers? Is it because it is jumping in with some of the already known cast, or is it something new to other people because maybe they didn’t follow along? A little bit of both?

A:  I think it’s a little bit of both. I remember when “Sex in the City” ended I felt I lost all my best friends, I mourned the show. I feel like in that way, the people that were huge “Closer” fans, you’re making this thing from a piece of “The Closer,” but you still get to continue on and in a way you get to learn even more about some of the characters that you didn’t really get to see before, that everyone has a part. You’ll see that there’s pretty much an episode per person. They’ve really spread out our storyline where we all really get to showcase ourselves, and I think for a long time that didn’t really get to happen for a lot of the cast, so now it’s really a nice ensemble show. Then I think, for some new people coming in that maybe weren’t huge “Closer” fans, I think they’re going to get more of a cop drama in a way. There was kind of a quirkiness about “The Closer” that maybe had been a little – what’s the word – I think it’s focused a little more on Kyra obviously and her family, whereas this show I think, it’s a little speedier. I think there’s a little more speed in how things are solved and how quickly we move, and especially in the first episodes you’ll see, it’s almost like watching a feature film. Just the way it’s filmed, the music has changed, and I think that faster pace is going to get a lot of new audience members as well. 

Read the whole interview here.

Graham Patrick Martin On His Role in Major Crimes

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Starry Constellation Magazine Interviewed Graham Patrick Martin on his role on The Closer and how he fits into Major Crimes.

My character (is) Rusty Beck, and I am introduced in the finale of “The Closer.” The Major Crimes Division needs my help with a case that they are working on. I use that leverage to make a deal with the Major Crimes Division saying, “I’ll give you the help that you need if you use your resources to find my mother, who has abandoned me.” Rusty is a homeless teen who has been abandoned by his mother seven months prior and has been living on the streets. So, he takes this opportunity as his one shot to find his mother who has left him. Ultimately, “The Closer” ends and Rusty’s end of the deal is upheld. That’s where I come in on “Major Crimes.” Rusty comes back and says, “You guys have to uphold your end of the deal and find my mom.”

Whole interview here.

Article: We Shine the Spotlight on Mary McDonnell, Who Dishes on THE CLOSER Coming to an End and What Fans Can Expect From Her MAJOR CRIMES Spin-Off

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In a new interview with thetvaddict.com, Mary McDonnell discusses the end of The Closer, and how taking over Major Crimes is going to change Sharon Raydor.

Can you talk about how the character Captain Sharon Raydor is going to be evolving and has changed since she first appeared on THE CLOSER?
MARY: Well I think evolving is the key. You know what I’m saying in that what we’re doing is we’re seeing a woman who was in a very specific professional role; through a very specific lens and as a character she had a very limited functionality within the ensemble of THE CLOSER. And she was clearly brought in to be the antagonist. And as we evolve into MAJOR CRIMES this character is evolved into — she professionally changes, she shifts. And we begin to view her through a different job, a different set of circumstances, and different things are asked of her. And one of the beautiful things about the writing is that it very organically allows her to grow in front of us because we’re watching her in a different situation from a different point of view.

Whole interview here

‘Major Crimes’ Mary McDonnell: ‘Dances With Wolves’ stardom was ‘fascinating’

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Mary discusses Major Crimes, along with Dances With Wolves in this new interview with Zap2It.

 

Mary McDonnell is grateful to continue playing a police captain, since she knows she could have been cast as frontier women for a long time.

The actress’ Oscar-nominated breakthrough part, as Stands With a Fist in Kevin Costner‘s award-winning 1990 movie “Dances With Wolves,” planted a certain image of her in many minds. However, she’s displayed variety in projects from “Independence Day” to Syfy’s reboot of “Battlestar Galactica,” and she’ll carry her current role as Captain Sharon Raydor on TNT’s Monday drama “The Closer” into the network’s “Major Crimes” spinoff starting Monday, Aug. 13.

Whole article here.

 

Graham Patrick Martin to Bridge the Gap Between The Closer and Major Crimes

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In an interview with the New Orleans Time-Picayune, Creator James Duff and actor  Graham Patrick Martin talk about the role Rusty Beck, and how the character will become the bridge between The Closer and its spin-off, Major Crimes.

“And we had an opportunity to work with him for awhile doing the finale, and he held his own with Kyra. I think that’s pretty amazing. As he was doing his thing, (co-executive producer and director) Mike Robin and I became more and more convinced that we needed him in the (new) series, and that that character needed to be in the series.

“It is a character that is unrepresented on television. Most children, most teenagers, are portrayed as people capable of sorting out your computer problems for you, or maybe having challenges in school, but this kid has a challenge of life itself, and has been through some very dark, dark, terrible things. Graham brought all that. You just have to like him.”

Read the article here.

In a follow-up interview, Duff talks more about Rusty, and his role going forward in Major Crimes.

“In a sense, in a very strange sense, this boy becomes Brenda’s alter ego in a way,” Duff said. “In the finale of ‘The Closer,’ a lot of who she is is transferred onto him, and then he goes on into Sharon’s life. It’s almost like you have a different version of Brenda there. That just sort of happened. His tenaciousness, and his inability to let go of what is he wants, and his sort of primal nature, is kind of what her’s was in some ways.

“He ends up with the Ding Dong in his hand and puts it on the table. She puts the Ding Dong in his bag and he ends up with it somehow. It’s like he’s got a little bit of Brenda with him at the end.

“I think that’s how people will unconsciously accept him.”

Duff also said he believes Martin’s character will continue with the show through multiple seasons, should the TNT pickup come. According to the network, “The Closer” finale drew 9.1 million viewers. With 7.2 million viewers, the “Major Crimes” premiere was the most-watched cable series premiere so far this year.  

“I see him going on,” Duff said. “He helps us humanize Sharon quite a bit. The fact that she takes him in is a demonstration of what her conscience is like, and her experience as a mother. We haven’t seen that kind of character leading a homicide division on television, a mother as detective. Of course, when we grew up, our mothers were all detectives, especially (mothers of) boys. So it’s only natural to think of her trying to get to the bottom of things. But he dramatizes that by his presence, and, if you like, in many ways like Fritz was to Brenda. That personal relationship to help define her, Rusty will be for Sharon.

“That’s the plan. If we get picked up, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.”