Category Archives: Cast Interviews

Tony Denison Previews the New Season of Major Crimes

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2.10-29-flynn raydorIn a new interview, Tony Denison previews the winter season of Major Crimes, talks about the longevity of the series, and what might be ahead for his character.

I feel like that’s how it’s been with the show – when it was THE CLOSER, and now that it’s MAJOR CRIMES and slightly different, I’ve never heard someone say “I watched it and didn’t like it” – it was always “I haven’t watched yet.”
Yes, I think what’s happening, according to James Duff, somehow, we’ve set some kind of new record for television.  We were once called something else, THE CLOSER, and then we lost four of the leading characters, four left, we changed the name of the show.  All the same characters stayed, and not only did we survive, but we went up demographically!  So that alone is supposed to be history making, and the other thing is, god-willing, we are able to make it to another 100 episodes, that would be the first time that a show got 100 episodes, and then another 100 episodes under a different name.

I think you’re well on your way, having gotten picked up for a season 3 already, and knowing that there is more to come! That has to be exciting to play this character that we’ve loved for so long.
A lot of times, you’ve been lucky on a show for 10 years, and I may have the opportunity to play this character for 14 years or 15 years, which would be great and that to mean would be record breaking, as well.

Talking about the show – I love the Rusty storyline, and how we don’t know who is sending the letters.  It’s obviously nothing something we can talk about without spoiling, but were you surprised how it turned out, reading scripts?
Yeah, I mean, I had the feeling it was going in that direction. Since the very beginning, when I would get the scripts, there were times I would read the script and say, well who the heck is going to be the murderer?  [laughs] And then you get tt the end and you go “oh man! I never would have guessed that person” and then it makes sense, and it’s like, okay, awesome.  That’s the way it’s always been to me on the show.  Not only am I on the show, I’m a fan.  Now, especially more than ever, I enjoy watching the show, the Captain Raydor and Rusty, and the guys on the show, because we all have a lot more to do than previously.  All of us doing everything together, with the exception of GW and I who are very fortunate to have worked together and being called Pro-Flynn-za, so not only have we been fortunate to have that happen, but I was fortunate to be a part of that duo.  GW has become a dear friend, and we were when we were doing THE CLOSER, but now even more.  I love working with him, and I love working with everybody.  But I love all the stuff that they allow us to do on the show, and the predicaments that we get into [laughs].

You mention with the show that it’s always a surprise who is the murderer – I think that’s a testament to how guest stars are handled.  Other shows, the big name is the big killer, and that’s rarely the case with MAJOR CRIMES.
I can’t say what’s going to happen in terms of the plot points, but it definitely not disappoint in terms of what’s been going on in terms of storyline.  I’m just as a surprised sometimes as who winds up being.  There’s like one red herring, or first suspect, and sometimes it’s two red herrings.  Even as a reader of the episode, you think I would get used to Duff’s, James Duff’s trickery, and I don’t!  He’s that clever.  You read and you think it’s gotta be so and so, but oh man, it’s surprising, and oh that makes sense now!  It makes it fun to do it.  There’s a reason why law enforcement agencies around the country like our show.

I was looking online and seeing what people are asking you on Twitter, and so much of it these days is “Are Sharon and Andy going to be a thing?”  Is that something we’ll continue to see explored?
Let me put it this way:  people that are enthusiastic in that direction will have an interesting ride!  There will be certain breadcrumbs along the way!

Read the full interview here

 

Graham Patrick Martin: Navigating His Path with Trust and Intuition

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By M. Sharpe

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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.”

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Mary McDonnell on Character Likeability and Major Crimes

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2.10- raydor tao lrIn 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

Mary McDonnell on Sharon Raydor, Stands With a Fist and other “Random Roles”

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1.08 raydor lrIn 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.

 

Mary McDonnell on Success and Humility- USA Today

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Photo Credit: Tibrina Hobson

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.

Tony Denison On Major Crimes Winter Season and Beyond

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2013 TNT/TBS Upfront - Green RoomIn a new interview with Smashing Interviews, Tony Denison discusses the success of Major Crimes, a few things we can expect in the upcoming winter episodes, and reveals that he’s sworn to secrecy on some plot points!

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): Very cool. What can we look forward to in the upcoming winter episodes?

Tony Denison: We’re on track to try to straighten out the situation with Phillip Stroh and protect Rusty. There’s a beginning of more conversations between Flynn and (Sharon) Raydor. But beyond that, I’m apparently sworn to secrecy. I’m not kidding. They sent me a release saying that there are certain things I couldn’t talk about in specificity (laughs).

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): I totally believe you (laughs). Flynn made some subtle overtures to Sharon in earlier episodes, so it appeared that relationship might be explored in the future.

Tony Denison: What I understand is that more relationships between us all will be more of the focus on the show next year while we’re in the middle of solving crimes. Again, I don’t know what it means. I just know that’s the language G.W. was talking to me about. I know one year we had Lt. Tao’s family. Maybe we do an episode where we travel home with him again. Maybe Flynn’s kids will show up … his married daughter may show up or his ex-wife. I really don’t know, but I imagine that’s some of the stuff they’ll consider doing.

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): Graham Patrick Martin (who plays Rusty Beck) is a fine young actor.

Tony Denison: Yes he is a very talented boy.

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): How has Graham blended in with the rest of the cast?

Tony Denison: He’s just great. He fits right in. I think Graham is about 21, and it’s almost like how we treat the character. We all treat him like we’re his uncles and stuff like that. He’s a super good kid, and he’s super talented. When he’s in a scene, he smacks the ball out of the park.

Graham brings as much as he can bring to whatever scene he’s in, and it’s good because he’s interwoven in and out of the story. When the plot sort of turns the attention to him, he’s ready to bang at it real hard.

Read the full interview here