Q: Did you talk to real spies to get ideas? I think the levity we brought to the show hides the fact of how dangerous this profession really is. When I screw up or Sharon screws up, we get another take. I will say this: The people who do in real life what Michael Westen does - put their lives on the line for the sake of the country - are at risk every day. JD: We made it look cool but we were such buffoons when we were doing it. Jeffrey, how many times were you in a big gun fight and the gun did not jam? How do the doors get locked? I don’t know they just locked themselves. In the real world when a get-away car pulls up fast during a firefight, the doors are all accidentally locked - because that’s what happens on the show. MN: I can give you the specific reason that would be. JD: The things I’ve learned have taught me that there is absolutely no way I would survive. Q: Given all tricks of the trade you use on the show, do you think you could actually be a spy now? Matt was like, ‘You found the humor in it, nobody else is doing it.’ No one else did and that’s why I got the role. JD: By the way, Sharon, you and I were the only two people who thought the pilot voice-overs were funny. SG: When I read the pilot I was attracted to it because I thought the voice-overs were so funny. But is he going to allow someone to be executed for something he did? That’s an exciting scene. ![]() The most exciting scenes of the season have that at their core. This is taking place in Michael’s head and the battlefield is Michael’s moral landscape. So the antagonist of the final season - the person that Michael is really fighting - is himself. And at first I was like, ‘Jeffrey stay out of my grill,’ but it was one of the biggest influences over the course of the season. You pressed me and the other writers to embrace that side of the show more, and to be more emotional, which we referred to in the writer’s room as ‘emotionalistic.’ Jeffrey, much to my annoyance, at the beginning of the season was very insistent that the voice-overs have more emotional content. MN: Jeffrey, I think you’re absolutely right about Michael feeling, and someone made the observation that the show was about Michael’s journey to becoming human. But the journey for Michael became for him to feel - that’s what I do - I feel. Michael was such a calculated thinker, he was always five, six, seven steps ahead and that was not like me. Over the seven years I didn’t become the smartest person in the room, but Michael has become the one that felt the most in the room. All I had in the beginning was humor and an ability to distance myself in high-stress situations. ![]() So at the beginning I was unlike Michael in every way. So just for the sheer fact of that note, I should’ve won an Emmy every year. JD: To riff off of what Sharon said, the one note that Matt gave me is that Michael is always the smartest person in the room. So when it was sold, Matt said, ‘The network really loves you Sharon, but what else are you going to do?’ Then he gave me one note: ‘Michael got his moxie from you,’ and it gave me freedom to do everything a little better. When she was first written, the only description was that she was a chain-smoking hypochondriac who was highly manipulative. Jeffrey Donovan is my son for life off the set, but Matt is the one who helped me with my character. SG: I don’t know how it affected me in my real life, except I made wonderful friends. Q: How did your characters develop over the course of seven years, and did their development affect your own personal development? But there is always this opportunity for redemption and moving apart and coming together, and I think that’s people’s real experience of relationships and life. And it’s interesting because by the final episode pretty much everyone has betrayed everyone on this show. ![]() Their real experience of relationships and marriage is that it’s work. MN: People’s real experience of family is that it’s work. JD: Matt I was just gonna say “me.” But there is no “me” in “family.” I think that’s a lot of people’s connection to the show - it feels like a group of friends that cares about each other and has conflicts but that in the end will stand by each other. ![]() Look at the way the actors came together and portrayed this odd, interesting family. And I think the reason for that is because it depicts a family. MN: In talking to people about the show, the most common comment is that people watch it with their families. I said to Matt, ‘There are children watching this show and you’re going in for close ups on bomb-making,’ and he said, ‘I always leave out one ingredient.’ ” And surprises and children learning how to make bombs at home. Sharon Gless: Smart scripts and good actors. The gross nudity that we have on every week.
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