The real juice of the USA network summer series that stars Jeffrey Donovan (Michael Westen) and Gabrielle Anwar (Fiona) is served by the outstanding secondary roles of Sam and Madeline, played by fan favorites Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless, respectively.
Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless took time out of their production schedules totalk to Monsters and Critics and other online journalists about their work.
These two steal the show and every frame they are shot in.
Yesterday at the TCA’s in Pasadena, NBCU chieftain Bonnie Hammer talked about the importance of this series to the booming network, and how is was part of a group of original series that made USA number one in a cross-section of categories.
The network motto of “Characters Welcome” plays out well with the cast of a down-and-out spy, his ex-IRA siren girlfriend, a needy, slightly conniving mom and a hedonistic retired FBI operative who would rather sip a beer on South Beach than work. Series creator Matt Nix has delivered a uniquely American spy thriller that is laced with sly humor, and dressed up by one of our most visually arresting cities: Miami.
Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless took time out of their production schedules to talk to Monsters and Critics and other online journalists about their work.
For both of you, what roles in your pasts have prepared you for Sam and Madeline?
S. Gless Well, the only bad guys I have to find my way around are Jeffrey and Bruce. I mean, my job on the show is the mother from hell. I don’t get involved in the heavy stuff like they do.
B. Campbell: Sharon, your character is scarier than some of the bad guys.
I’ve always enjoyed playing a little left of center characters. Otherwise I’d be on a soap opera, you know. What’s attractive to me was that these are real characters. These are characters who drink and smoke and make mistakes and have foibles in love and try to fix their mother's garbage disposal. That’s what’s attractive to me. That’s what got me into this show and knowing that I’m with four, three other kind of seasoned adult actors. That’s always attractive when you know you’re going to be working with people that it’s going to be worth showing up for.
S. Gless It’s true.
B. Campbell It’s made a big difference. And this show, I can’t speak for Sharon, but this show came out of nowhere.
S. Gless Yes.
B. Campbell The things that I plan never happen. Things that I don’t plan do.
S. Gless Exactly. That’s how I thought. I think that when Bruce and I first – we were interviewed together. Do you remember that, in Pasadena or somewhere?
B. Campbell Yes.
S. Gless I was actually sitting in the fat farm and this script arrived and I was sitting all alone in my room and it made me laugh out loud and I was all by myself. And I thought, this is funny. This is fun, I like this. It had substance to it, too.
B. Campbell It probably didn’t hurt that you live in Miami, too.
S. Gless I forgot about that, but I didn’t tell them that during the interview.
B. Campbell Exactly.
S. Gless I wanted to live in a hotel like you guys. And then when it sold, I had to ‘fess up.
B. Campbell Right.
S. Gless Yes, I do, though, I do live here in Miami.
What do you draw upon to, in your characterization of Sam and of Madeline?
S. Gless Well, my husband said, when he read the script, chain smoking half the time. And he said, how lucky are you, they’re paying you to smoke. So he said, wow, you do all the things with the cigarette. I said, “Well, yeah, I already knew how to do that.”
What do I draw on? I’ve never actually had children, myself, but I just connected with Jeffrey’s character and every week it’s different and as the show goes along, Madeline, my character, first she’s totally in the dark and very needy and very sort of just all sort of emotional things that are unattractive.
And as time went on, Matt Nix said, “Sharon, she’s smarter than what I was writing.” And he gave me one clue, he said, “Remember, he gets his smarts from her.” I said, “Oh, okay.” So I just took that information and it gave me and my character a little more confidence. But I don’t know, how do you prepare for playing someone who’s manipulative? Is it built in? I don’t know.
B. Campbell When you’re in show business, you know lots of manipulating people.
S. Gless Yes, that’s true. But I try to do the manipulation with humor. Hopefully, that’s how it’s coming across.
Sam Axe’s personality seems to run counter to that of normal ex-military stereotypes, can you comment?
B. Campbell I think my character is actually more accurate. I think I run into some of these guys. My first wife remarried a police officer, and I’ll tell you these guys like having a good time when they’re not working. They don’t sit around mopey dope, they sit around and crack gallows humor, lots of gallows humor, dark humor.
Frankly, I think they’re happy that they’re alive most of these guys after going through all of this and they have a good joie de vivre that the average executive might not have. So I should think Sam is very indicative of the real guys, you know guys who are my age who have mustered out in their 50’s. Believe me, most of them are drinking beer and sitting around a pool cracking jokes about the old days.
S. Gless In my experience in having done Cagney & Lacey many years ago, we had technical advisors on the set and we had detectives and police. Not exactly in the role that Bruce is playing, but these guys who see so much really do have a very macabre sense of humor. And I do think that’s how they stay sane.
Bruce, is there a favorite beer that Sam has, and Sharon, Madeline, will she eventually come around to just trusting Michael blindly or will curiosity about his past whereabouts consume her?
S. Gless I think Madeline is slowly figuring it out. I don’t think, to this day, she really understands the full impact of what it is he really does. But she knows he helps people. That’s how she phrases it. That’s how she lives with it. And yes, she is getting more informed. I think there are moments where she does trust him. She has to, she is, despite what you see, she loves him. It’s her boy. But I think there’s always a bit of doubt because he’s never completely forthcoming. So what she finds out she sort of finds out on her own. He’s a little vague when he explains things, enough to calm her down or to get her to help in an indirect way.
B. Campbell: I don’t think there is a cocktail that he (Sam) has not found yet. I think Sam has been making them up, he knows so many of them. But you know, the one thing I want to point out is you never see him drunk. You know, a lot of people go, oh Sam’s an alcoholic. Hey, he’s a guy who likes to drink like a lot of Americans. So that truly is – you find sometimes we pick our battles. If I’ve got a morning meeting with the feds, Sam will have a cup of coffee. He’s not a complete party boy.
S. Gless Bruce and I are still trying to get Matt Nix to write us a . . .
B. Campbell He promised us season two, he promised that we would get drunk together.
S. Gless I know, he lied. When Sam babysits with Maddie, wouldn’t it be a fun thing to sit there and get loaded and not talk about anything that has to do with the work.
B. Campbell Exactly.
Bruce, did Sam’s role of making the blood in “Shot on the Dark” was given specifically because Bruce Campbell has experienced making blood in a past film, and Sharon – did your character teach Michael the ways of espionage?
S. Gless I don’t know. I can’t say he gets his skills, I mean his technical skills he certainly doesn’t get from her. I think what Matt wanted to establish is that he gets his smarts from her. The father was a loser, and I don’t think there’s a lot he got from him. And Maddie is, she is smart, she can be very keen and if she’s, sometimes she plays a little manipulative. No, she doesn’t play dumb, but I think that’s the hope and I’m very pleased that you see that she is very smart. She’s not totally informed as to what he’s doing, but she knows him. It’s her boy, it’s her son.
She knows when to use it and when to not, but I don’t think at this point -- I think the story would start to end soon if she was totally understanding of what has happened to him and what it is he’s attempting. Do you know what I’m saying? Attempting to find his way back. So I don’t think she knows all of that yet. She just knows that he’s doing stuff that’s not ordinary and I think she fears for his life, I’m sure.
B. Campbell With regards to the making blood question, I don’t know if that was assigned to me. It just sort of fell in. Every week we make stuff, so we have different things where you hold this and someone does this. It made sense that I made the blood, certainly.
It wasn’t the exact Evil Dead recipe since I wouldn’t want to give it all away. It’s far too secret, just like military secrets, ... this shows you how in this show you really can make an incredible amount of different things in your kitchen and fake blood is certainly one of them. It’s one of the cheapest, for anyone making a horror film, it’s probably the cheapest prop you can get. It’s mostly Karo syrup, red food coloring, a little bit of Cremora, and a drop of blue to make it not get too pink, you know, too bright.
How would you like to see Sam and Madeline’s relationship evolve in season four?
S. Gless Well, I think Sam and Maddie have kind of a really cool relationship. We were given a chance to live together. That helps. I didn’t tell you this, Bruce, that I really miss the fact that you moved out.
B. Campbell I know.
S. Gless Yes. But that gives you a chance to come back. How do I see the relationship evolving? I see it as all good. I see that it can get rougher, it can get more tender, and I think there’s a myriad of things that can come out of a relationship with two people who do respect each other and who both love this one man, this boy, my boy and his friend.
B. Campbell And you know the one thing I should say, too. I can’t speak for other actors, but I don’t really probe the writers, I honestly don’t. I haven’t bugged them in three years about what’s coming up with Sam. Whether he’s going to have a home or a girlfriend. I like to sit back, just like the audience, and let it happen. I get excited reading the next script, because I don’t really know what they have planned. The season finale, I couldn’t tell you sitting here right now what’s going to happen. Not because I’m lying or that I’m not supposed to, I don’t know because I haven’t asked, I don’t want to know. So you know . . .
S. Gless I’m the same way. I never ask about what’s going to happen with my character.
B. Campbell No, because . . . as we’ve seen, they’re good writers so you know, get out of their face. We don’t like them in our face, I don’t get in their face.
*BURN NOTICE SUMMER FINALE
Synopsis:
A dangerous man from Fiona's past resurfaces in Miami after years of hiding, with deadly intentions. Teaming up with Fiona's ruthless brother, Michael will do whatever it takes to save her... even if that means crossing a few lines.
The USA Network "Burn Notice" summer finale — "Long Way Back" — airs Thursday, August 6 at 9/8C.
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