The State Within
Sharon Gless plays Lynne Warner
Sharon Gless plays Lynne Warner, the hard-as-nails US Secretary of Defense, who due to her sheer force of personality and her personal history more or less runs the country.
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She crosses swords with Sir Mark Brydon (Jason Isaacs), the British Ambassador to Washington, in the aftermath of an immense terrorist atrocity on US soil.
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Sharon, who still has a huge following from the highly popular US cop show Cagney & Lacey, some 24 years after it was first screened, outlines what drew her to The State Within. "Above all, it was the script. I had to give it three reads because it's very, very complicated. I just knew I had to be part of it.
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"In addition, Lynne Warner is a wonderful character. She's obviously very tough, but she is also very funny. Lizzie and Dan have written me wonderful stuff. It's the kind of character I've simply never played before."
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The other attraction for Lynne, a card-carrying Anglophile, was three plain letters: ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. "I'm working for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ – that's such a thrill!," she beams. "I've done radio for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ before, but never film. Then I heard about all these wonderful actors they were bringing over from London, and I thought, 'I'd like to be in that'. So I met with the producers and here I am!"
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The actress, who is married to Barney Rosenzweig, the executive producer of Cagney & Lacey, explains that Lynne has a particularly rich back-story.
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"Her son was killed in Afghanistan, and that's how she has 'bought' the presidency for the President – not financially, but emotionally, because of the death that she endured and the way she handled it. It brought America to her side. That has made her the most powerful American in the show, because the President listens to her and does what she recommends.
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"The story about her son is especially interesting. Lynne goes to his grave every month and there's a line she says one day at the grave to her Undersecretary, Christopher Styles (Noam Jenkins): 'I sent my son to war, Christopher. We sometimes in our jobs have to make difficult decisions. I do not shrink from that.' Then she starts plotting something else right at his grave. She absolutely fascinates me, because you don't know who she is until the very end."
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The drama hinges on the feisty central relationship between Lynne and Mark.
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Sharon, who also headlined in the hit American series The Trials Of Rosie O'Neill and the US version of Queer As Folk, confirms that "those two characters respect each other very much, just as I, Sharon, respect Jason very much. They're very complex characters who start off as allies, but become enemies for a while because of a lot of false information.
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"At that point, Lynne does feel betrayed. She and Mark both suspect each other, which makes it very, very interesting and complicated. They've known each other for years, so when this false information is given out, it becomes very ugly between them."
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Sharon underlines the prescience of the writers of The State Within.
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"What's really fascinating is that since the script has been written and since we've been shooting this, we've seen stuff on the news now which is mimicking it. It's a little scary that we are acting out some things which are playing out right now in real life."
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The actress goes on to explain why Lynne always wears big brooches shaped as the American Flag.
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"That's my homage to Madeline Albright, who was our Secretary of State in Clinton's administration. Everything I wear as Lynne is a homage to her. Even with a ball gown, she puts on beautiful jewelled brooches."
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So how does Sharon think Lynne compares to her most celebrated previous character, Chris Cagney?
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"This character is much more sophisticated than Cagney was. Cagney was more petulant, more immature. Cagney was an angry cop with a mouth on her, who had dreams of becoming the first female police commissioner and was driven almost in an unhealthy way.
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"She was an alcoholic, but underneath very fragile. I loved playing her. She was a hero, yet so flawed. She had such feet of clay, and she fell apart at the end. Lynne is much more controlled, much cooler. She may be a hothead inside the room, but never to her detriment. Cagney had no respect for authority at all, but Lynne does respect her President."
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Next year is the 25th anniversary of Cagney & Lacey, but why has it remained so well-loved? "I was stunned when I heard it was the 25th anniversary next year!" Sharon exclaims. "They've never made another show like it. It was one of the most sensational shows of the Eighties and it changed the history of television for women."
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Sharon reveals that she and her co-star from that show, Tyne Daly, are still very close friends. "You don't do six years as we did – it was like 'you and me against the world' – without becoming very close. Her mother had a great expression: 'Sweat is a great cement'. They say women glow but, in fact, we sweat together.
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"Tyne and I also took abuse in the press together. When we first started, we were accused of being lesbians. I was never offended by it because a large part of our audience were lesbians, but the press who did that thought it was name-calling.
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"We had such a hard time convincing the press that we did not fight. They assumed two women are like cats and couldn't possibly work together, but none of that was true. Tyne was the most generous actress I have ever worked with. We're dear, dear friends. We still call each other partner," she laughs.
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The actress concludes: "I have been very blessed my whole career. There was a slump when I got older and I changed physically, but now it's like those bad things never happened. I'm back and I'm having a very good time!"
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