Most people know
Glenn Close as a movie star, but fans of FX know her as a great TV actress as well. After a season-long stint on
The Shield, Close graduated to becoming the star of FX's new legal thriller
Damages, which airs its penultimate episode tomorrow night at 10pm on FX. Close plays Patty Hewes, a hard-nosed lawyer whose firm is prosecuting corporate CEO Arthur Frobisher (
Ted Danson). Along the way, there's plenty of betrayal and murder.
Glenn Close held a conference call this morning to discuss her initial decision to star on
Damages and what the inspiration is for her ruthless character Patty Hewes..
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After working on The Shield for one season, the decision to come back to FX for another series came from Glenn Close's respect for the people behind the scenes at FX and the way they take risks and give writers a chance to be creative. The other key point was that her family is in New York, and any TV show she did had to film there, so when
Damages came along, she was intrigued by the idea, loved the pilot script, and the fact that it could be shot in New York sold it for her.
The character of Patty Hewes was a challenge because typically Close knows the beginning and end of a character's journey, but she didn't this time, so it was harder to create her backstory when she doesn't know where she's going. Though some may see Hewes as evil, Close tries to find her center. Despite the moral ambiguity, Close believes Patty doesn't think she's completely perfect, stating that her character knows she's a bad mother. Close loves the challenge of television acting, and even though it's sometimes a grueling process, with a great crew like she has on
Damages, the pace offers a thrilling acting test.
Glenn Close spent time with several high-profile female New York lawyers and based a lot of Patty Hewes on that idea of "playing a man's game in a man's world." She also feels a sense of anger in Patty and said that almost all of what influenced her portrayal of the character came from playing off those gender roles.
Now that the first season of
Damages is finished shooting, Close hopes to spend some of her free time traveling with her husband and visiting her family.
-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of FX)