Characters and Character Actors on The Closer

[Meredith Quill]

Discuss Here!

[treeofdreams]

I was just watching the BBC series Monarch of the Glen and there was Firebug Bill!  Smarmy as ever, he played a ranger the laird hired, and ran off with the woman the laird had his eye on.  Beautifully played!

[shapeshifter]

Just noticed a barely 20 year old Kyra Sedgewick in the 2.11 episode of Miami Vice, aired December 1985, "Phil the Shill."

[MaryMitch]

What did you all think of Sosie Bacon ("Charlene/Charlie")? I thought she did a great job on the show, but I did not care for her character. Do you think Charlie was added just to give Sosie a job?

[shapeshifter]

49 minutes ago, MaryMitch said:

What did you all think of Sosie Bacon ("Charlene/Charlie")? I thought she did a great job on the show, but I did not care for her character. Do you think Charlie was added just to give Sosie a job?

That's kind of a chicken or egg question. If anyone knows the answer (to which came first: the role or Sosie, not the chicken or egg), please do post. Actually please post if you know the chicken/egg answer too. Heh.

Anyway, I did catch the episode recently, and the scene in particular, in which Sosie was sitting in a room at the station, listening to the schizophrenic young man talking about his "friends" leading him astray and meds, which had different but equally as significant meanings for what Charlie was going through. Even though Sosie didn't have lines at that point, she had the camera focusing on her facial expressions, which I thought did show what Charlie was feeling. 

[andromeda331]

I remember reading at the time the Closer director kept asking asking Kyra to let her daughter play a role on the show. Sosie would visit her mom time from time on the set but Kyra kept turning them down. She was very against the idea but finally gave in as long as it didn't interfer with school.

[shapeshifter]

Actor Riley Smith, who played the "smoker broker" in 6.15, "An Ugly Game," is starring in Frequency on the CW on Wednesdays at 8 CDT. The show is essentially about altering events via communication across time, but the leads are cops (the main lead is a woman) who deal with CoWs as well as a bigger case arc. It's my favorite pilot of the new season, and the New York Times liked it, but ratings were low.

Edited October 7, 2016 by shapeshifter

[Bastet]

I just learned (via an old interview) that Jon Tenney originally auditioned for the role of David Gabriel.  But he basically talked himself out of the job; he told Duff and the network execs at the reading that he thought the character should be younger and not - as was originally intended - be a love interest for Brenda.  He liked the small part of the FBI guy she'd known in the past, and thought that would work better as the love interest.  So he read for Fritz, of course everyone loved him, and the network agreed to increase the budget so Fritz could be a regular character.

I also learned Corey Reynolds was the only actor of color, among the many guys sitting around waiting to read for Gabriel, at his audition.

[shapeshifter]

This afternoon while cleaning and doing laundry, I was switching back and forth at commericals between The Closer 4.2 "Speed Bump" airing on Start TV and Nash Bridges 2.11 "Promised Land" airing on H&I and had a somewhat troubling mental disconnect upon seeing a 12-year younger Michael Paul Chan playing a human trafficker named Tommy Luck, who soon met an untimely but well deserved end.

[Bastet]

15 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

This afternoon while cleaning and doing laundry, I was switching back and forth at commericals between The Closer 4.2 "Speed Bump" airing on Start TV and Nash Bridges 2.11 "Promised Land" airing on H&I and had a somewhat troubling mental disconnect upon seeing a 12-year younger Michael Paul Chan playing a human trafficker named Tommy Luck, who soon met an untimely but well deserved end.

Michael Paul Chan said he - like so many actors of color - largely got bad guy roles prior to this, so he was very happy to have the role in general, and to have his character often addressed as "Mike," not always as "Tao."

[shapeshifter]

When Provenza "flirts" with Willie Ray, is he trying to make Clay jealous?

[MaryMitch]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

When Provenza "flirts" with Willie Ray, is he trying to make Clay jealous?

Willie Ray is flirting all the time herself; part of being the "Southern belle", maybe. I think Provenza just enjoys flirting back.  The fact that it bugs Clay is gravy. (I love watching them.)

[shapeshifter]

This past week the episodes with Sosie Bacon aired. Her character fit so well into the show that I wondered if that contributed to Duff deciding to introduce the teenage character of Rusty (in addition to Rusty being the personification of Duff's younger self).