AOL TV Talks To Mary McDonnell about "The Closer" and "Major Crimes"

[JamesG]

Mary McDonnell Talks "The Closer" and "Major Crimes"
by Maureen Ryan
posted Jun 9th 2011


As one of cable's longest-running big hits, "The Closer" helped put TNT's scripted offerings on the map, but the show is entering its seventh and final season in July.

Fifteen episodes will air this year, another six will air in 2012, and the week after "The Closer's" series finale, "Major Crimes" will debut.

"It won't be one show one week, and then a completely different show the next week," McDonnell said. "It will allow that world to continue and allow fans to continue on a new course."






Will the show's current cast stick around (sans Sedgwick, of course)?

"I absolutely hope so," McDonnell said. "About all I can say is that the show is in the formative stages right now. I hope most or all of us continue."

(A TNT spokesperson said that no information is available at this time about what "Closer" cast members will appear on "Major Crimes".)






To ease the transition, McDonnell's character, Sharon Raydar will appear in 16 or 17 episodes of the upcoming season, as part of an ongoing story arc about a gang member from Brenda Leigh Johnson's past who sues the police department.

"The Closer" is about a quarter of the way into shooting its final season, McDonnell said, and production on 10 episodes of "Major Crimes" will begin in 2012.



And though McDonnell hasn't yet seen the pilot script for the new show, she said creator James Duff has asked for her input on where to take her character.

"It's not at all scary," she said of not having seen a script yet. "I love his mind. It's a great collaboration. ... And I've been blown away by the affect that Raydar is already having. She comes on the show with a specific function and people don't know that much about her, so I didn't think they'd attach to her so quickly. But women love her."









So far, there hasn't been a ton of love between Sharon and Brenda Leigh Johnson, and that's been one of the interesting things about their relationship. The two women have a grudging respect for each other, but they're not exactly pals, and they're both mostly OK with that.

"I think their recognition of each other has deepened," McDonnell said. "I always look at scripts with a very close eye to make sure that conflict between women is not gratuitous. But this is not typical 'women fighting.' These two women affect each other despite themselves. They are both at the top of their games, and they are trying to do their jobs the best they possibly can, and sometimes the other person presents obstacles to that."






One of McDonnell's favorite scenes between the women occurred near the end of the previous season, when they simply admitted that they didn't like each other.

"It was so freeing," she said. The feeling was, "'It's OK, we don't have to all love each other.' And it did not turn into a catfight -- it was actually a really lovely ending."









Speaking of endings, she said she knows fans will miss Sedgwick and Brenda Leigh Johnson.

"No one is going to try to repeat 'The Closer' -- that is something that Kyra and this team created together," McDonnell said.

"How will this creative team evolve this world that people love and not try to repeat the old but bring back what's familiar, and examine the justice system perhaps with a slightly different lens? It's still to be worked out, but it's exciting, because it honors the old and allows it to evolve."

http://www.aoltv.com/2011/06/09/mary...tar-galactica/