{"id":8259,"date":"2017-09-19T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T14:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/kyra-sedgwick\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T09:04:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T13:04:41","slug":"kyra-sedgwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/kyra-sedgwick\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Days in the Valley’s Kyra Sedgwick"},"content":{"rendered":"

PREMIUM: Kyra Sedgwick (<\/em>The Closer) talks to <\/em>TV Drama about her work as an actress, producer and director, and her latest role in the drama series <\/em>Ten Days in the Valley.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kyra Sedgwick starred as the flawed but extremely effective Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson, who often resorted to somewhat unorthodox methods in extracting confessions from suspects, on The Closer<\/em>. Her performance won her a Golden Globe and an Emmy. The series was a ratings winner for TNT in the U.S. and successful internationally as well. It was one of the few dramas headlined by a female actor and paved the way for several other female-led series. Sedgwick returns to the small screen in the drama Ten Days in the Valley<\/em>. She plays Jane Sadler, an overworked producer on a controversial TV show whose daughter goes missing.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What appealed to you about Jane Sadler?
\nSEDGWICK:<\/strong> I\u2019m interested in women who inhabit many different characteristics, complexities and contradictions. Jane is a bundle of contradictions. I was fascinated by the idea of playing a documentary filmmaker who is trying to get to the truth and yet is a perpetual liar in her real life. [As we see] more flashbacks to when she was a kid, we come to know why she is the way she is. But it\u2019s fascinating to see how people behave in the world, how they tick and why, and why that all makes up this one person. I loved her sexuality and her sense of humor about herself and her intensity. I love that she is in a very powerful position as a showrunner. I like to see women in leadership positions and how they manage that. And the genre itself is a mystery thriller with a film-noir element to it, a life-imitating-art element. I was also interested in all the other characters that surround her. Although Jane is at the center, it\u2019s very much an ensemble of fascinating characters inhabited by extraordinary actors and you get to know their stories.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> You also have an executive producer credit. Were there lessons you learned from your relationship with The Closer<\/em> creator and showrunner, James Duff, that you are bringing to this show?
\nSEDGWICK:<\/strong> Totally. Mike Robin, Greer Shephard and James Duff are some of the most noble people I know, period, and especially in this business. They taught me to expect people to not only be good actors and good people and good citizens of the world, but also to understand that everyone\u2019s behavior impacts a set. That\u2019s why you have to pick good people from the top down and build a certain kind of crew and cast and have a certain understanding of priorities and deep respect for everyone\u2019s thoughts and opinions. Obviously, decisions need to be made, but being willing to be collaborative and respectful is such a huge part of what I learned from them, and to be ethically sound in a very unethical culture and Hollywood.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Over the course of your career, have you seen more opportunities for women both in front of and behind the camera, even for women 40-plus?
\nSEDGWICK:<\/strong> It is opening up and frankly I think The Closer<\/em> was a hugely instrumental part of that. That show was so successful, monetarily as well as critically, that suddenly people were thinking leading roles in television shows can be played by women and they can be extremely successful. That has changed. Women directors? Those numbers are pretty dismal. But I don\u2019t like to live my life in scarcity feeling that there isn\u2019t enough and I\u2019m not going to get my [chance] because the truth, is I had my biggest and most successful role when I was 40. And I\u2019ve decided on a second career at 50, and that\u2019s directing. But I\u2019m certainly realistic and aware of what the situation is, and I hope it changes. Because the truth is, it\u2019s often women who pick the movies and the television shows a family watches. I also think women are incredibly fascinating and multifaceted and deep and complex, and we need to know more about them. There aren\u2019t enough stories, and there aren\u2019t enough female directors, and there isn\u2019t enough \u201cfemale gaze\u201d [a female point of view in filmmaking], to quote Jill Soloway. That\u2019s an important part of continuing to grow as a country and as a world when we embrace all these different genders.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Ten Days in the Valley<\/em> seems like the type of show that a broadcast network would not have aired ten years ago. Are broadcast networks embracing different types of storytelling and subjects?
\nSEDGWICK:<\/strong> I certainly think some are. There is unusual breakout stuff on FOX. I think ABC is doing emotionally relevant and outside-the-box kind of stories, most specifically American Crime<\/em>. They have to in order to keep up with cable. A lot of what is on cable is brilliant. Many cable channels are willing to take risks and reflect the world as it is in many different ways\u2014the violence and sex, embracing different genders and having stories that are mostly about African Americans and Native Americans and different races. Broadcast needs to start representing that if they want to stay in the game.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> You recently directed a TV movie. Was directing something you have wanted to do for a while?
\nSEDGWICK:<\/strong> I had always said I would never direct. I had a lot of fear about directing, but I\u2019ve been a film producer since I was 27, mostly films that I\u2019ve been in, but not all. I produced Proof<\/em>, the television series with Jennifer Beals on TNT a couple of years ago. I was afraid and intimidated to direct, but I bought this young-adult novel called Story of a Girl<\/em> in 2007 and tried to get it made as an indie film for ten years. When I got the opportunity to make it I was ready to direct, and it was an incredible experience, I loved it beyond my wildest dreams. I had no idea I would love directing so much. It reminded me of the way I felt at first about acting, which was total joy and no pressure, then that changed when I became a professional. What I realized as a director is that I had been preparing to be a director my whole life as an actor. What surprised me the most about it was that I thought I would be good with the actors, but I didn\u2019t know that I would have such a sense of storytelling and visual style. Mike Robin [a producer and director on The Closer<\/em>] is a mentor of mine, as are many other people, and I spent many hours talking with him about directing. One of the things he said to me is, I know you\u2019re going to be good at directing because you are such a good storyteller. What I think he meant by that is that as an actor, that is what I do, I am a storyteller. I\u2019m telling the writer\u2019s story, but I too am a storyteller clueing people in along the way as to who this person is and why she is the way she is and where she came from. So I loved directing, more so than I ever thought I would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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