Actress Sharon Gless: Apparently There Were Complaints

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EPISODE SUMMARY:

Sharon Gless, an actress known for her iconic roles such as Cagney in Cagney & Lacey and Debbie Novotny in Queer as Folk, has given women worldwide a voice and representation to look to on television, film, and the stage. In today’s episode, we sat down with Sharon to discuss her time on Cagney & Lacey, audience responses to her character, her memoir, and her hopes for future projects.

First, we asked Sharon about how what inspired her to write her memoir, Apparently There Were Complaints. She explained to us that after being invited to a meeting with CBS, she initially thought she would be negotiating an acting role. However, executives told her that they thought she had an interesting story that readers would like to hear. After being approached by the head of Simon & Schuster and offering a sample chapter, Sharon was signed and spent the next seven years working on the book. For her introduction into the acting world, she told us that at first, when she approached her grandfather, a successful actor himself, about pursuing an acting career, he told her not to do it. However, after working behind the scenes as a secretary, Sharon eventually signed a contract and began auditioning for on-camera roles. One of her most well-known roles, Cagney on Cagney & Lacey, is beloved by audiences to this today. However, Sharon’s first impression of the show was not positive. Having just come from filming a pilot where she played a police officer, Sharon was hesitant to portray one again and turned down the role. When offered the role again, she planned to say no due to filming House Calls, but House Calls was cancelled, prompting her to accept and play Cagney. Cagney & Lacey was also cancelled but was brought back to the network after a fan outcry for the show’s revival. Sharon credited her husband, producer Barney Rosenzweig, with rallying fan support. Barney took all of the fan letters sent to the show and wrote back each person, encouraging them to advocate for the show’s return. The efforts paid off; Cagney & Lacey was revived, and Sharon and Tyne Daly became the two highest paid television actresses of the time. It did not come without its hardships though, which Sharon explained when she talked about the media’s response to Cagney & Lacey’s success. She said that many articles were released attempting to pin Sharon and Tyne against each other, making false claims that the two fought off screen and did not get along. However, Sharon assured that she and Tyne were friendly at the time and are best friends now.

With other actresses having portrayed Cagney before Sharon got the role, we asked if she felt any pressure taking on the character. She told us that she took the part knowing that if the chemistry wasn’t there, or she was not the right fit, that the show wouldn’t work. It added pressure to her performance, but luckily, everything worked out. Sharon attributed the evident chemistry between her and Tyne to communication between the actresses. Sharon would tell Tyne when she wanted to change something, such as Cagney walking in before Lacey when entering a room. By allowing the actresses to play off of one another, their bond strengthened, and the characters began to develop more, making them more appealing to viewers. We also asked Sharon about the importance of not portraying Cagney’s character as a victim. Sharon explained that to her, she never saw Cagney as a victim because Cagney never saw herself as one. Cagney was ambitious, willing to step over anyone to get a job. She struggled with alcoholism, but Sharon saw that as a part of her rather than something that made her a victim. Sharon also recalled a story about how in one scene, a male character made a sexist remark and Cagney did not have any lines in response. When Sharon asked the writers to give her a line, they told Sharon know, stating that Cagney would not want to step on the toes of the people she wants to be like. To Sharon, the story highlighted how Cagney was not a victim that needed sympathy, but a complex woman striving for success.

Sharon then spoke to us about the impact of Cagney & Lacey on audiences, especially female viewers. While some networks refused to even air the show, for they believed two women leading a network series to be “too daring”, Cagney & Lacey reached millions. Sharon has even had women come up to her and tell her how much the show meant to them, some of them having joined the police force as a result of her inspiration. Sharon is proud of the show, for it gave women both representation and permission to follow their dreams without being afraid. We also spoke about one of Cagney’s storylines that Sharon hated, which was the arc of Cagney getting married. Sharon told us that when she first read the scripts, she was furious, for marriage was completely out of character for Cagney. The storyline eventually ended with the marriage breaking up, for Sharon and the writers agreed that Cagney was unlikely to commit to someone else. The breakaway from marriage gave them the freedom to explore Cagney’s alcoholism, and after the episodes aired, Sharon saw how viewers were impacted. People began having conversations and asking questions about alcoholism and how it would impact their personal lives, portraying the influence Cagney & Lacey had on audiences.

When asked about having to deal with intense storylines on screen while battling her own issues off screen, Sharon said that it was not an easy process. However, she’s proud to have made it through, and is now one of only a few actresses to have starred in nine successful television series. One of her other famous roles, Debbie Novotny on Queer as Folk, was a role that Sharon fought for. As an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, she read the scripts and saw the impact the show could have. After her character was introduced, many fans wrote letters to her sharing their own coming out stories. To this day, she even has fans who speculate that her character Cagney was gay.

Finally, we asked Sharon about any future projects, and she told us she’s working on something. While she doesn’t want to share it yet, she hopes to one day be able to show her fans and the world what she’s been creating.

Sharon Gless

Multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner Sharon Gless has distinguished herself as one of the most acclaimed and recognized actresses working today.

Most recently, Gless shot a pivotal, recurring guest star role on the long-running BBC series

Casualty, and holds the honor of being the first American actor invited to guest star during their 34-year run. She also starred in the TNT pilot Constance, alongside Elisabeth Shue. Making an indelible mark on the current landscape of television, other recent credits include: the Fox series The Gifted, from creator Matt Nix, for whom she starred in her Emmy-nominated role of ‘Madeline Westen’ in USA’s Burn Notice; and a key recurring role in FOX’s The Exorcist opposite Geena Davis.

Gless was first exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age by her grandfather Neil S. McCarthy– the most respected lawyer of Hollywood’s Golden Age. McCarthy, whose clients included Howard Hughes, Cecil B. DeMille and Louis B. Mayer, notably drew up the first contract between a studio and a player — an interesting fact since Gless was the last contract player in the history of Hollywood (at Universal).

Her first series role was the 1973 Faraday & Company with Dan Dailey and James Naughton. She guest-starred in many more top tv shows before landing her second series, Switch with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert (1975-1978). In 1982, she landed the career-changing role of New York Police Detective ‘Christine Cagney’ on the smash hit drama Cagney & Lacey. The role garnered her two Emmys, a Golden Globe and six Emmy nominations. After the show ended in 1988, she reteamed with Cagney & Lacey Executive Producer, Barney Rosenzweig, for the drama series The Trials of Rosie O’Neill. That role led to her second Golden Globe win and two additional Emmy nominations. She married Rosenzweig in 1991. In 1994 and 1995, Gless reunited with her television partner Tyne Daly to recreate their title roles in a quartet of critically acclaimed Cagney & Lacey television movies. Gless and Daly fondly refer to these telefilms as their characters’ “Menopause Years.” Also, in 1995 she received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

For five seminal seasons, Gless starred as the outrageous and beloved ‘Debbie Novotny’ in the

groundbreaking Showtime series Queer as Folk; and in 2006, she received glowing reviews for her starring role as ‘US Secretary of Defense Lynne Warner’ in the acclaimed BBC/BBC America miniseries The State Within.

In 2008 Gless also received an Emmy nomination for Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her chilling performance as ‘Colleen Rose’, an ambitious Hollywood agent with a multitude of dark secrets, on FX’s Nip/Tuck.

On the big screen, Gless then appeared in two independent features, Once Fallen, with Ed Harris & Amy Madigan, and Hannah Free, in which Gless starred in the title role. As ‘Hannah’, a lesbian whose hidden relationship spans 60 years, she played a freespirited woman attempting to reunite with the love of her life, one last time. She has also starred opposite Michael Douglas in the feature film The Star Chamber.

In 2010, Gless received her 10th Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of the chain-smoking, no nonsense mother ‘Madeline Westen’, on the USA cable series, Burn Notice, which enjoyed a record-breaking hit seven season run. ION Television now shows the entire series in syndication.

Additional television roles include the series: House Calls and Turnabout; as well as the

telefilms: Separated by Murder; Hard Hat and Legs; Honor Thy Mother; Hobson’s Choice; and Letting Go with John Ritter. She also starred in the miniseries: The Immigrants; The Last Convertible; Centennial and Garson Kanin’s Moviola: The Scarlett O’Hara Wars; in which she played screen goddess ‘Carole Lombard’.

Gless made her stage debut in Lillian Hellman’s Watch on the Rhine at Stage West in Springfield, Massachusetts. Since then, she has starred twice on stage in London’s famed West End: the first time in 1993 when she created the role of ‘Annie Wilkes’ in the stage version of Stephen King’s haunting Misery, opposite Bill Paterson and in 1996 in Neil Simon’s comedy Chapter Two, with Tom Conti. She starred in Claudia Allen’s Cahoots, at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre (2000) and at Madison Square Garden in Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues.

On stage, Gless produced & starred in her passion project, A Round-Heeled Woman. The play was based on the best-selling book by Jane Juska, about a woman’s adventures with sex and romance later in life. She opened A Round Heeled-Woman in San Francisco and Miami, before bringing her show to the UK & then to the West End, where she received rave reviews.

Additionally, Gless has recorded several books-on-tape and starred in many radio plays. Her recording of “Night, Mother” for the BBC earned Gless the International Sony Award.

In 2007 she was the recipient of the Theatre School at DePaul University’s prestigious Award for

Excellence of the Arts. Gless is also an active participant in the ongoing struggle to prevent the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. In 2005 she was honored by Norman Lear’s People for the American Way for her unwavering support of human rights. Gless is also known around the world as a vocal advocate for gay & lesbian (LGBT+) causes.

Gless spends her free time at home in one of her three favorite cities: Los Angeles, Miami, and Toronto. Her autobiography, “Apparently There Were Complaints” hits bookstores, just in time for Christmas this year.