Tag Archives: Interview

Doris Roberts and Marion Ross Talk Career Longevity and ‘Major Crimes’

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The cast of Major Crimes with guest stars for episode 209 Tim Conway, Marion Ross, Ron Glass, Doris Roberts and Paul Dooley. Photo Credit: James Duff

In a new interview with Starry Constellation Magazine, TV Icons Doris Roberts and Marion Ross talk about their upcoming guest-starring roles on Major Crimes, and open up about what has kept them moving forward throughout their storied careers.

“Q) Could you each start and tell a little bit about how you got invited to be a part of the show?

Doris: Well I think our age did something for that.

Marion: Doris, that’s what I was going to say. We are kind of relics you know and I think we had such a good time on this set because everyone who worked on the crew of Major Crimes had been working on The Closer. They are a very close group, but they have known us all their life. I think so, don’t you Doris?

Doris: Absolutely. In fact, a couple of them I worked with on Remington Steel a long time ago. Over 20 years ago.

Marion: It’s the first time I’ve ever worked with Doris.

Doris: Yes, it is. Isn’t that amazing?

Q) Talk to us about being on Major Crimes.

Marion: I will tell you we are going to solve this mystery Doris and I. As Doris said – she said, “Guess who else is in this, Tim Conway, Paul Dooley, Ron Glass.” And you know it was so funny because Tim Conway is – the camera is on our backs, a big master shot, so Tim is trying to remember the lines. Well of course, he’s got them all screwed up, so now he is making up stuff. Well it’s so much funnier than the other stuff, but we are all shaking. I mean surely the camera can’t see that we are just shaking.

Doris: It looks like we are crying. And G.W. Bailey, another wonderful actor who is in it, and we are all alive, which is wonderful and our brains are functioning very well, so that’s even better.

Marion: And I got to wear beautiful clothes.”

Read the entire interview here. Doris Roberts and Marion Ross will be guest stars on the August 5th episode of Major Crimes.

 

“Major Crimes” Tackles Coming Out And Gender Dysphoria

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1.08 flynn rusty raydorsIn a great new article in The Backlot, Major Crimes creator and executive producer James Duff and Graham Patrick Martin talk about tonight’s all-new episode of Major Crimes, the ongoing theme of “identity” in this season of the show, and how the stories continue to coincide with Rusty’s exploration of his own identity.

*Warning: contains mild spoilers for tonight’s episode”

“Procedural crime dramas aren’t typically the venue for three dimensional gay characters and nuanced coming out stories. The popular TV genre tends to focus more on the case of the week than character, but this season TNT’s Major Crimes is finding a healthy balance between the two.

The spin-off of The Closer is currently in its second season with high ratings and a weekly plethora of whodunit criminal cases dissected (and solved) by Captain Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) and her team, comprised primarily of characters carried over from The Closer like Detectives Provenza (G. W. Bailey) and Flynn (Tony Denison).

And then there’s Rusty.

Initially brought in for one episode at the end of The Closer, the troubled teen (played by Graham Patrick Martin) was carried over to Major Crimes as a regular character. (As he’s a major witness in a murder case, he’s been living with Raydor under protective custody.) Rusty’s orientation has been thus far unclear, but his past as a homeless a teen prostitute has certainly raised questions.

Rusty is heavily impacted by the crime in tonight’s episode, “Boys Will Be Boys” (written by Jim Leonard and out Executive Producer James Duff). The episode revolves around identity in that a 13-year old murder victim named Michelle. It’s quickly revealed that is a physiological male with gender dysphoria. We also learn that her family members are suspects– and they display various levels of acceptance with Michelle’s gender dysphoria. Rusty may not be involved in the solving of the crime, but he’s around enough to realize that the question of identity is something he can very much relate to.” —-> Read the entire article here

 

Video: Kearran Giovanni Talks Major Crimes and Broadway on ‘Marie’

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kearranmarieCheck out Kearran Giovann’s recent appearance on The Marie Osmond Show, where she dishes about season 2 of Major Crimes, and about the transition from Broadway to LA.

Power Play: Greg LaVoi’s Storied Career in Fashion Design

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By M. Sharpe

lavoibwFrom Reba McEntire and Bob Mackie to The Closer‘s Brenda Leigh Johnson and his own clothing line, Greg LaVoi has spent his career telling women’s stories through the clothes they wear. Whether with sequins, spandex, floral prints, or Armani suits, in LaVoi’s hands, clothing isn’t merely a mode of expression; instead, it lets us see how women in power actually look. Now, as Major Crimes enters its second season, LaVoi continues to chart the evolving female leadership of the LAPD, as we watch Captain Sharon Raydor’s life develop both within and outside the squadroom.

Although it might not seem a likely place to develop a passion for costume design, LaVoi was surrounded by fashion while growing up in Colorado; his father owned a clothing store and his mother was a fashionista. This flair for the dramatic first led LaVoi into the theater. But, after being told he wasn’t leading man material, LaVoi gave up on his dreams of acting. As disappointing as that was, it proved to be an auspicious event, because, as LaVoi explains,” I got upset and went to the other side of the stage, and that was costumes, because I had always loved fashion, and I would sketch outfits all the time.” In the mid-seventies, with Sonny and Cher and The Carol Burnett Show at the height of their popularity, LaVoi fell in love with the strong, flamboyant designs of Bob Mackie. Rather than attending fashion school in New York, he headed west, enrolling in Los Angeles’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Continue reading →

Tom Berenger Heads to ‘Major Crimes’

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2.05-jackson raydor rusty2 lrSmashingInterviews spoke to Tom Berenger about his role on Major Crimes as Captain Raydor’s estranged husband, and the possibility of his character returning to the show in the future.

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Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): You play Capt. Sharon Raydor’s (Mary McDonnell) estranged husband who has a drinking and gambling problem, is that correct?

Tom Berenger: He had a drinking problem. He got over that. I would probably call it a degenerate gambler, but how bad that really is isn’t apparent to me yet although my character is teaching Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin) card tricks and Texas Hold ‘Em.

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): He is not a good influence on the boy.

Tom Berenger: Right, and he just came back from Las Vegas where he was living, so that’s a little scary that he’s there with a gambling problem (laughs).

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): I assume with only a three-episode arc, there will be some friction between your character and Capt. Raydor?

Tom Berenger: There already has been as per the third episode, and that was totally on a professional level, not personal. He gets on the list for court appointed attorneys and gets a client that the police and, of course, the prosecutor are trying to corner. I don’t want to give it away, but there’s some nefarious stuff going on there on both sides, my part as an attorney and also on her part as well, so it gets pretty intense there. The first two episodes were more comic relief.

Melissa Parker (Smashing Interviews Magazine): Will your character return?

Tom Berenger: They left it open so whatever the writers and producers want to do with that. I’d come back because I had a good time. I enjoyed it. I like the cast and crew, the producers and writers, the whole bunch. It was nice. It’s not easy doing shows like that day in and day out, but I thought everybody was just fabulous.

Read the entire interview here.

 

Tom Berenger on His ‘Major Crimes’ Role as Raydor’s Estranged Husband- “It’s Complicated”

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2.05-jackson raydor rusty1 lrIn a new interview with TVLine.com, Emmy-winner Tom Berenger talks about his upcoming 3-episode arc as Jackson Raydor, the estranged husband of Captain Sharon Raydor.

TVLINE | So tell me, under what circumstances do we first meet Jackson?
He suddenly appears in the kitchen in the house of his estranged wife, in the middle of the night. He still has a key. She thinks it’s a burglar, intruder or something in there, so she gets her police weapon and heads down the hallway, only to find me in there putting away groceries.

TVLINE | How would you describe their marriage? It would seem like “complicated” doesn’t begin to cover it.
Yeah, it was complicated. They were very much in love and very much attracted to each other when they met. And he was probably a pretty good attorney too, so she was impressed by his professionalism and all that. He did have a drinking problem, which he overcame, but he still gambles. And as this begins he has just returned from Vegas, where he was living – and which is not a good place for gambling.

TVLINE | They just decided to put some distance between each other?
I think they had little bickering sessions, but they’re not too heated. They’re sort of always charmed and amused by each other. And then they, you know, just separated. Their [two] kids are grown up, living on their own…. They don’t get divorced, because I guess they’re both extremely Catholic. And they just never got around to it, I suppose.

TVLINE | What’s his take on the Rusty situation?
Well, it’s funny because he immediately takes to him and starts teaching him card games and tricks and stuff. [Sharon] notices that he is sort of spending more time with Rusty than he did with his own children, who are now grown up and on their own, so she makes him call his son [and] you see one scene at the end of the episode where he’s just a nervous wreck about it.

TVLINE | It sounds like you have some good verbal volleying with Miss Mary McDonnell.
Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think the good thing is it comes off sort of as comic relief. And certainly a break from the homicide.

TVLINE | Is there still a spark between the two of them?
I think we were kind of playing it that way, but only the writers know where this can go. I did a three-episode arc, and beyond that it’s up to them.

Read the whole interview here.

Mary McDonnell Steps Up in ‘Major’ Role

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2013 TNT/TBS Upfront - Green RoomIn a new interview with the Miami Herald, Mary McDonnell discusses season 2 of Major Crimes, her reunion with Tom Berenger on the show, and her “ridiculously funny” cast.

How is it playing Sharon Raydor since 2009? Still fresh?

I am living, breathing her. There isn’t that searching for identity and wondering how it’s going to fall together. We’re done. Hello! It’s now, ‘Where do we want to take her?’ We are truly in some wonderful storytelling mode right now. There are some dangerous moments, for sure. I think fans are going to have a ball.

How is season two going?

I’ve been so happy with it so far; the dilemmas and interesting texture and new characters and all kind of things. A new district attorney [ My Name is Earl’s Nadine Velazquez] has come to visit the squad. On one hand, it’s extraordinary to have young female talent to come and help with a major case. On the other hand, she is presenting problems. It’s very exciting the way she interacts with the whole group and what she stimulates.

Any love interests for Sharon?

Oh, this [plotline] has been very fun: The introduction of Sharon’s estranged, but not divorced, husband in the form of Tom Berenger. He’s an amazing actor, actually. It’s a delight to work with him. Tom just jumped on board and dove right in. There wasn’t one bit of hesitation. We have some history, so we have wonderful chemistry. He and I did a play together with Kevin Spacey in London [2005’s National Anthems] when we were husband and wife. We were trying to do a movie together in the ’90s, Last of the Dogmen, but I had to back out of the idea because I was pregnant and couldn’t risk it as we were going to be shooting in the jungle. Barbara Hershey ended up in the role.

You tackle some serious subject matter on this show. What is the on-set chemistry like?

I’m telling you, it’s not a reach. OK, you gotta do your job, whatever it is. But boy, when a lot of the history is out of the way and you immediately trust each other enough to risk and it really clicks, it’s so much different than when it doesn’t! It’s a ridiculously funny cast. Doing table reads is like being with your siblings at Thanksgiving dinner. If we could, there would be a food fight every week, and people would be laughing. We just don’t have time. That’s the level at which there is the potential at any moment for high hilarity to break out.

You look beyond amazing. What are you doing? Or not doing?

Well, if I could give you my trade secrets, I would. But I don’t have any big ones. Genes, maybe. I feel very fortunate. I swim almost every day. I was an athlete as a child. I also have to honor the fact that the people in the crew honor me in what they do with me. I don’t want that to go unacknowledged. I mean, they help a woman, they help female characters look good.

Read the entire article here