Photo credit: Justin Stephens. Courtesy TNT, used with permission
It’s all quiet on the set of Major Crimes as Captain Sharon Raydor, played by Mary McDonnell, tries to come to terms with what her foster son, Rusty Beck, has just told her. Long estranged from her husband, Raydor has tolerated his occasional comings and goings for many years. But when his actions threaten to do serious harm to the trust she has so carefully built with Rusty over the past two years, it’s clear that Jackson Raydor may have finally gone too far.
Over several takes, McDonnell gives different glimpses into the complicated relationship with her character’s husband, and Raydor’s varying reactions to it. What doesn’t change is the fierce loyalty and protectiveness Raydor shows towards the boy she already considers her son, and the clear message that Sharon Raydor is a force to be reckoned with when those she loves are threatened.
As she sits down with MajorCrimesTV.net for a chat after the scene is done filming, it quickly becomes clear that like her on-screen persona, for McDonnell, family– in whatever form it comes– is key. Whether it is the family you are born into, the family that you adopt along the way, or the family that is forged out of difficult circumstances, McDonnell recognizes that family can have the largest and most resounding impact on a person.
When Captain Sharon Raydor first marched into the murder room on The Closer, audiences and fellow officers of the Major Crimes division alike bristled at the seemingly tough-as-nails and emotionless new officer, and on both sides of the screen she quickly became known by the moniker “Darth Raydor”. Now as Major Crimes enters its third season, McDonnell credits the relationship between her character and foster son Rusty Beck as the catalyst that helped make the transition between the two shows occur flawlessly, allowing the greater depth of Sharon Raydor to be revealed. “In my mind it’s kind of a genius element to this,” McDonnell says. “Because James [Duff] has this ability to understand, seemingly out of the blue, what is needed. And when he thought up this Rusty character and saw Graham [Patrick Martin], he understood that this could be our connecting object into the new series. It relieved us from having to force Sharon Raydor this way or that way, because he knew that through this personal relationship he could expose her as a human without her having to give up her Darth Raydor.” McDonnell laughs. “I did not want to give up Darth Raydor.”
Photo credit: Justin Stephens. Courtesy TNT, used with permission
McDonnell explains that she also cherishes the relationship between Sharon and Rusty, because it allows her to explore the contrast of a character who is always in control and in charge of every situation at work as an LAPD captain, and at the same time walk a delicate path as she navigates her relationship with Rusty. “The hardest part about being a mother, which is also the most beautiful part about being a mother, is you’re never sure if your children are always going to be okay. And there are some nights that you can go to bed and go to sleep and go, ‘Okay, today was a good day’ and you can get to sleep. And then there is another day where one tiny little emotional component of a family starts to veer in a certain direction, or your teenage son is on the phone or you hear something and your whole system is on fire and you can’t do anything about it most of the time but stand by and listen. And that is where Sharon ends up with Rusty and that’s completely different from how she can control what’s going on in a Murder Room.”
This season also marks a shift in the relationship between Raydor and Rusty. McDonnell explains that for the first time since the series began, Rusty is no longer experiencing the imminent threat on his life that previously defined his relationship with Sharon. “The beautiful thing is that it is organically moving into more connection and it’s less fraught with danger, so it’s moving perhaps into emotional danger in a way. Like, understanding how to be a family emotionally sometimes feels dangerous, particularly for someone like Rusty.”
Another change McDonnell has enjoyed discovering with her character has been the way Raydor has shifted from being the one who always enforced the rules of the LAPD to being able to use her knowledge of the rules as an additional tool to help victims attain justice. “Really, if there is growth, if there is change, that’s what it is. She still has a great knowledge and respect for that which is run by the law and in her other position her whole point was to make sure that people were following the book by the book. That is what Internal Affairs does, it polices the police. But to be able to take that knowledge and that understanding and that respect and then actually use it for a bigger issue which is to get the bad guys, and to use your knowledge of the law against the criminal rather than having to use it against the cops, which is what she did before, is pretty gratifying as a character and as an actress. I like it.”
And, while her fellow officers were openly unwelcoming to her during her stint on The Closer, it’s safe to say that certain relationships have warmed considerably since Raydor has taken over as Major Crimes’ new leader. The burgeoning closeness between Raydor and Lieutenant Andy Flynn (Tony Denison) has been a hot topic amongst fans lately, yet when asked about it, McDonnell is mum. “We’ll see,” she says, sharing a look with co-star Denison as he listens in. “We’re not being coy, we just don’t know. But, what everyone seems to be interested in, we are interested in as well. How do people, unlikely people, become friends and perhaps more inside this world? And what kind of dangers emerge because of it? That’s really interesting, and it happens all the time. And there’s a lot of heart opening that’s been going on, certainly for Sharon having this kid around, and when your heart is open, other things happen that you didn’t expect.”
With Tom Berenger as Jackson Raydor. Photo Credit: Ben Kaller, courtesy TNT. Used with permission.
Of course, for anything to happen there, the issue of Raydor’s estranged husband Jackson must first be settled. And while Jack’s standing in Sharon Raydor’s world may be on even shakier ground than before, McDonnell has no such qualms about his portrayer, Tom Berenger. “I just cherish [working with Tom] because I know Tom really well, we’ve worked together and we have built great trust over many, many years, so there’s no problem going in there. We’re never afraid or unsure how to play it, you just go fully.”
When questioned about the scene we saw filming earlier between Sharon and Rusty at home, McDonnell explains that those scenes are carefully structured to stand out from the rest of the show. “It’s never informational, it’s always about something that’s going on usually with Rusty emotionally and usually the point of the scene is a conversation towards or away from intimacy.” As such, the scenes in the condo are also filmed differently, utilizing longer takes, allowing her the opportunity to find quieter moments and work through the emotional arc of the scene, which McDonnell says is what she relishes being able to do. “That’s what we love as actors. We crave the ability to have a whole arc in a scene where we can go in at any time freshly and see where we can bring it. That’s like having icing on your cake. It’s much harder to shoot things chopped up, and it’s much harder trying to figure out how to bring a full life to one or two lines in a moment and then there’s a cutaway. We’re telling a story and there’s an emotional connection, there’s an arc. That’s what we train for as actors.”
Photo Credit: Ben Kaller, courtesy TNT. Used with permission.
Though the first two seasons have shown just how deeply Sharon Raydor cares for those around her, her ability to keep her emotions under control, especially when faced with tragic or extremely difficult circumstances at work is something McDonnell says is deeply ingrained in her character. “We’ve talked about this a lot, the different characters’ reactions and how they filter through devastation or tragedy, and who’s oriented what way, and one of the things that just happens to be true about Sharon Raydor is that she’s a woman who’s grown up in a professional world and is the age that she is and came into it during the years of feminism, and one of the things she was taught at the very beginning is that because she was a woman she had to keep a lid on it. Because the negative labels and the ideas of women being too emotional to be in positions of power and leadership were still very very negatively powerful when she entered the system. So she’s had training, she has trained herself.”
McDonnell is no stranger to playing complex women on screen. As President Laura Roslin on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica for four seasons, McDonnell was widely praised for her portrayal of a woman who dealt with tragedy and unimaginable hardship by tapping an extraordinary inner strength. While the show ended in 2009, a recent cast reunion event for the LA Times has it back in her thoughts. “We did a panel the other night and it was a really beautiful, very emotional panel. We were emotional, the audience was emotional, and it was very clear to all of us that nobody felt really good about the fact that the show is over. Nobody does, still.”
Mary McDonnell with co-stars Edward James Olmos and Jamie Bamber at the LA Times Hero Complex Film Festival screening of Battlestar Galactica with Hero Complex Editor Gina McIntyre on June 2nd, 2014. Photo credit: MajorCrimesTV.net
Acknowledging recent reports that Battlestar Galactica is being rebooted again based on the original 1978 source material and not the Ronald D. Moore version, McDonnell spoke wistfully about the possibility of more of the re-imagined series in the future. “In terms of our group, I still think there are ways (Ron Moore) could still go back into it if someday he chooses and open it back up. So much happened, we only saw a couple of the days of every week. We really could go back in at any time and reopen a whole area of survival, and learn what happened. And there were so many things that the pilot introduced that were then dropped.”
Along with keeping in close touch with her Battlestar family, McDonnell works closely with an organization that has strong ties to another former role, her Oscar-nominated turn in the 1990 film Dances with Wolves. McDonnell explains that it was her Lakota dialect coach on the film that introduced her to the Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, and recently after a meaningful reminder of her friend, McDonnell has begun working more closely with the school in helping to raise funds and expand its outreach to the community it serves. Her recent fundraising efforts are helping to establish new programs at the school, including a daycare center to teach students as young as two years old the Lakota language and culture. “Just in terms of nation building and self esteem, a child who is on a reservation and is now going to school at that age and is learning her native tongue right away, this child is going to have a higher self esteem in relation to her identity than someone who doesn’t even touch on it until maybe they’re in college and they’re already in the fringe position without their language, without their true history, without financial support and living in poverty.”
McDonnell is adamant about continuing to try and help the school expand its reach. “We have so much to do and there’s so much we haven’t done and it’s a great tragedy. These people are vibrant and brilliant and deserve this support.”
Photo credit: Justin Stephens. Courtesy TNT, used with permission
Just as McDonnell has forged lifelong bonds with those she has come into contact with throughout her career, Sharon Raydor, and indeed much of the very foundation of Major Crimes itself, is firm in the belief that family is built from the connections you make and the people you choose to spend your life around. Fellow officers, foster sons, co-stars and crew members become the family you chose, and what you do; which can sometimes mean severing ties with blood and legal relations who never earn that right or lose it along the way. As she considers the inauspicious return of Sharon’s particularly troublesome husband, McDonnell gives a teasing smile. “So Jack, how do you feel about beanbag guns?”
For more information, and to help support Sinte Gleska University, find them online at SinteGleska.edu