After five seasons of Major Crimes, Sykes and Provenza have learned to rely on each other throughout all sort of situations. We spoke to their portrayers, Kearran Giovanni and GW Bailey to get the scoop about this odd-couple’s relationship, and found the great relationship between them extends far past their characters on the show.
MCTV: You guys are about halfway through filming this season. How is it all going?
GW Bailey: All the scenes that Kearran and I are in are quite wonderful. The others…
Kearran Giovanni: We’re not real sure about–
GW: Sort of sucky (laughs)
KG: No, we’re having a great time and it’s going well, it’s going swimmingly. By now we’ve got a nice formula going and everyone knows their roles, and–
GW: Yeah, or should! (laughs). We do have… at least it seems to me that Sykes and I are doing more interviews together. We’ve done a few interviews of suspects and witnesses, and it seems to me it’s more than we’ve done before.
MCTV: Sykes and Provenza have always had an interesting dynamic together – do you think that is why?
GW: Well, yeah. It’s always interesting in anything that has partners, it’s always interesting to have opposites…Beauty and the Beast.
(Kearran and GW laugh)
GW: In this case I won’t say which one’s the beauty, but it is Beauty and the Beast, it’s Laurel and Hardy, fat and skinny, I mean, it’s partnerships. It’s interesting, actually…I’m an older white man, she’s a gorgeous young African-American woman. That makes for a visual interest.
KG: Especially from where we started, obviously. Sykes probably wasn’t his favorite person, and now we work really well together.
GW: Exactly. I trust her and like her and it’s good.
MCTV: Speaking to that evolution of their relationship, to your minds, how is it that Amy has earned this, this spot with Provenza and his respect after starting off on such rocky footing?
KG: In the beginning, it wasn’t that she didn’t have the drive or the talent or whatever to do well, it was just the way that she went about it. I think she just had to kind of hold her own for a while and show what she really could do the job, and maybe also calm down with her excitement, and then I think he grew to respect her. She’s done a lot, she’s been given a lot of responsibility, she’s taken a lot of responsibility, and she kind of went rogue a few times. And he was one of the ones who always said “Let her do it. She’ll figure it out.” And I did, and I think that’s what garnered that respect.
GW: Well, also, she broke a few rules here and there–not big things, not against the law, but she stretched it and Provenza likes that. A lot. Continue reading