For the past seven years, Burn Notice has delivered an atypical spy series, mixing wide swaths of humor with a serious plot and a breathtaking view of South Florida.
The USA Network series, which airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST, has followed the attempts of spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) to find how why he was fired—or got his “burn notice”—and how to get back into the espionage business after being dumped in his hometown of Miami.
Until he is back in the spy game, Michael works as an off-the-books private investigator, helping those private citizens in need.
He has been aid by on again/off again girlfriend Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar) and retired spy Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell). In the fourth season, former counter-intelligence agent Jesse Porter (Coby Bell) joined the group.
Michael, Fiona, Sam, and Jesse have supplied the action, the adventure and the romance of Burn Notice.
But the heart of Burn Notice has always been driven by Michael’s mother, Madeline Westen, played subtly and forcefully by Sharon Gless (Cagney & Lacey, Queer as Folk).
Gless’ character was originally described as “a Miami mom,” but the actress has done so much more with this character.
While the others have the showy roles with explosions, guns and chases, Madeline has been the one at home. And that home has acted as a refuge for Michael, more than he has wanted to admit. It’s been a safe house for clients, for ex-spies and been invaded by criminals and federal agents.
Madeline knows Michael better than anyone, and especially understands why he became the man he is. In the early seasons, she was not above manipulating him to help a neighbor being blackmailed, an ex-con who wants to start a new life, businesses being terrorized.
During the series, bits about Michael’s childhood have come out. Madeline’s husband didn’t turn out to be the good man she thought he was. He was a terrible father prone to verbal and physical abuse.
Yet Madeline revealed through snippets that she felt it was better for the family to stay with her husband than to leave him.
Now in its last season, Burn Notice has taken a darker tone as Michael’s deal with the devil to protect his friends and family and get his job back has, in the process, left him sinking in the mire.
Although she is back home in Miami, Madeline again relies on the inner strength that has gotten her through life. Madeline is trying to get full custody of her toddler grandson since his father—her other son—was killed and his mother is in rehab. Madeline also has joined forces with Fiona on some of the cases.
Gless has long been a personal favorite, bringing the nuances to Madeline has she has to all her roles.
Take Cagney & Lacey, which ran on CBS from 1982 to 1988 and garnered many Emmys for the series and the two leads.
Gless as Sgt. Christine Cagney and Tyne Daly as Detective Mary Beth Lacey were pioneers in crime drama. This was the first drama to feature two strong women with full careers and private lives. Lacey was married with children while Cagney was single. They were police partners as well as friends who really cared about each other.
Both women brought a sense of realism to their roles. They were good at their jobs, but also made mistakes.
As much as I liked Lacey, it was Cagney who caught my attention each week. Cagney wasn’t perfect, and that made her all the more believable. She was an alcoholic who, through the series, finally came to terms with it. She had father issues and trouble with relationships. She was also intelligent, loyal and witty. And Gless quickly became one of my favorite actresses.
A special 30th anniversary Cagney & Lacey: The Complete Series recently was released. There also is Cagney & Lacey ... and Me: An Inside Hollywood Story OR How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blonde by the Emmy Award-winning producer Barney Rosenzweig, who also is Gless’ husband. Gless has said in many interviews that she has not read it. (I have, though, and I recommend it.)
A couple of years ago, Gless was in Coral Gables doing the play A Round-Heeled Woman at GableStage. The play is Jane Prowse's stage adaptation of Jane Juska's book A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-life Adventures in Sex and Romance. Gless then took the play to London for a successful run.
Following a rehearsal, my husband and I interviewed Gless; he as a theater critic for his website Florida Theater on Stage and I for Mystery Scene. (His interview is here and his review is here.)
In person, Gless is as charming, witty and personable as she presents herself on screen.
I wanted to hold the conversation for the last season of Burn Notice, which has come way too soon.
Q: What first drew you to Burn Notice?
A: They offered it to me. [She laughs] No, actually, I was at a fat farm in California and I did not want to leave. And the script was sent to me by my agent, and I read it, and I was alone, and I was laughing out loud. You know how unusual it is to laugh at something out loud when you’re by yourself? I was especially attracted to the narration. I thought it was so funny because everything he [Michael Westen] was doing was rather dramatic. He was in life-threatening situations but the dialogue was so counter to that, the emotion. I thought that was very clever. I only had two scenes. But I thought what the hell. I’ll go do it; it was in Miami [where she has lived part-time since 1993]. So I showed up and did my two scenes [for the pilot] and I went away. And frankly, I forgot about it. And when it sold, my agent called me and I didn’t remember. He had to remind me that I had done it.
Q: Madeline has changed over time. But she is a force in that show, she’s the grounding.
A: Well, I thank [creator and producer] Matt Nix for that. Because she’s only described in those two scenes as a chain-smoking hypochondriac. I can do half of that. There really wasn’t a lot of substance to her; it wasn’t needed in the pilot. [When production started] Matt said let me give you one note: He [Michael] gets all his smarts from her. I said OK. That’s all I need to know. And he started writing her, very slowly, a little bit here, a little bit there. But I had that information.
I always do a backstory on anyone I play because we’re all a product of what we’ve gone through. If you give them a backstory, then you can string your beads along and bring that underneath. [Matt Nix] said [Madeline] went to college to find a husband, and found this great guy, who was not being so great. It’s written into the text that he was abusive, but not quite. The only thing that was in the pilot was [that Michael] never came to [his father’s] funeral. That was a little hint that there was trouble between the son and the father. I ran with this information and knew that there was abuse in this house. OK, so that’s one of my beads. [Madeline] carries that all the time now and chooses to put a totally different spin on it. She knows it’s there but she also says “but look at the good things, look at these pictures.”
Q: There was the scene in which two youngsters were staying at Madeline’s and they see a photo of the Westens taken at Christmas. They said they never had a home like that and Madeline says neither did we.
A: I am so touched that you remember that particular scene because because I was looking at the picture and seeing the bruise. After I finished that scene, the crew told me they saw the change [in my expression] and the crew applauded the scene. And I was stunned because they don’t do that. It’s all that stuff that Matt gave me that I get to play. I tell you we’re nothing without the writers. Nothing. And he gave me enough information and every week they write me a little gem. They do. And I’m, just the lucky woman who gets to play her.
Q: Madeline is the real moral center, of that show.
A: She’s very practical, very manipulative. She knows exactly how to get to him. But she makes Michael human. Matt wrote in one of Michael's voiceovers, what it takes to be a CIA operative and especially in special ops like Michael. It takes someone with no emotion and that family dynamic of what happened to him as a child made him that way. And she’s totally aware of it. Michael was the oldest one and probably tried to protect his mother. And there were times she couldn’t protect them. Matt gave me a great line – and the staff of writers – the one with FBI. The guy’s grilling me and they bring in these guns and I say they’re mine, from, the garage. And he says, you’re going to pay for your son’s mistakes? And I say, he paid for mine.
Those writers just give me such a gem.
It could be just one line and I know it has impact because it informs about Michael and I think that’s what she does, she grounds him in her own perverse way and she makes him human.
So much of it comes back to that phrase: the smarts he gave to her. Yes, she’s smart. You can’t manipulate and not be smart. She knows exactly how to get to him. She’s smart, so when they do send her undercover, she’s good at it. And I love playing it. Her life is not rich and full in that house, but she manipulates lonely.
Q: Do you get response from viewers, about smoking or the family dynamic?
A: I don’t get that much written fan mail, but my publicist sends me the comments from Facebook. Usually they are very positive. But every once in a while, someone says I wish she didn’t smoke. . . . But it’s so a part of who she is. It’s so much an extension of her body, so much of who she is, that it doesn’t offend them,
Q: Do you read mystery fiction?
A: I don’t get to read a lot because I get to work a lot. But my favorite books and the books I am most attracted to are psychological thrillers. The Red Dragon, nothing ever frightened me like that, then came Silence of the Lambs, but nothing ever frightened me like Red Dragon. As a child I read Nancy Drew. I do love being frightened. I like reading and my heart pounding.
Q: On working on Burn Notice
A: I am so lucky to work with those four actors. Believe me, I am truly blessed. I never take any of this for granted. It is a fun show to be on. I also am so grateful that at my age, they let me do it. You know about the film and television industry is—for women, ageism reigns. It’s one thing to have a job; it’s another thing to have a job with those four actors. I only come two, maybe three days a week, but I really say I get to go to work.
PHOTOS: Top: Sharon Gless, Bruce Campbell, Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar; Next, Gabrielle Anwar and Gless in Burn Notice.
Photos from USA Network
