Assessing “Damages” with Glenn Close and Ted Danson
By Jordan Riefe

In the competitive cutthroat world of television, it’s easy to understand why lawyers have always managed to survive. From Perry Mason and L.A. Law to the long running legal/cop hybrid Law & Order, viewers have always been fascinated by the high stakes drama inside the offices and the courtroom. After a successful first season debut on FX, Damages returns to the airwaves in January 2009, with returning cast members Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, Tate Donovan, and former washed up Red Sox hurler turned bartender from Cheers, Ted Danson.

At the recent TCA press tour a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles, we had a chance to catch up to Damages stars Glenn Close and Ted Danson to find out what’s in store for Season 2, what the dynamics were like in the first season, and how Danson is enjoying his role as a self-made multi-billionaire. And yes, Arthur Frobisher will be returning after last season’s finale.

Does working with you in the past help someone get on the show?

GLENN CLOSE [laughs] No, it actually works against them I think. Are you talking about Bill [William Hurt] in particular? No. No, I wasn’t… They always ask me what I think and in this case it was, “Wow, I should be so lucky.”

Can you tell me about Patty’s motivation, things we learned about her towards the end of the season and how that might carry over? Any insight about that that you wanted her to give to us, the dead child?

CLOSE: Yeah, well I think you saw something incredibly private and incredibly painful, to where she’s very fragile and very few people know about that I think. So that’s still to be worked out. I think in the beginning of the second season Patty is suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome as well. I mean, what she went through is highly traumatic and made her lose control to the extent that she put out a hit on Ellen. So she still has a lot of very unresolved issues going on that take more energy to cover up than before. And I think it takes something very compelling to want her to jump back into the arena again.

This is your third year in an FX series, but the first one where you’re returning to a familiar character. Did you have… apprehensions and are you doing this on a year to year basis, or have you made a standard series commitment?

CLOSE: I’ve made a standard series commitment, but I don’t think about it much. [laughs I don’t think about that with Paddy because I think she’s such an incredibly rich character and I can’t begin to fathom what will come out of minds of these three guys here. So for me it’s a consummate creative experience, and I love the fact I’m with a team of actors that we can basically deliver anything that they ask for, but I wouldn’t presume to know what that’s going to be. So in many ways the peeling away the many layers of this character is a revelation for me as well as for the audience. I really have gotten into that, I think it’s just fun. I think it’s an amazing mind game and I really like the whole process.

Emmy Nominations
Damages had Emmy nominations for stars Glenn Close, Ted Danson and Zeljko Ivanek, but not for Rose Byrne. Source

This is very disappointing indeed, but hopefully she will be recognised for her work next year!! =(

Glenn Close was driving with her dogs, Bill and Jack, when she heard the news of her best actress nomination for her role in FX’s “Damages.” She said she’s proud that a basic cable show like hers was able to garner six noms. Even with her excitement, she said she was sorry co-star Rose Byrne’s work wasn’t recognized. “I think she is absolutely superb, and I want to share my nomination with her,” Close said.

Ted Danson‘s wife, Mary Steenburgen, had been up since 5 a.m. waiting for a call as to whether her husband had been nominated for his supporting role in FX’s “Damages.” Not realizing that the announcements didn’t start until 5:40 a.m., she was disappointed when no call came. “She was thinking, ‘Oh my poor husband,’ and then someone called at 6,” Danson said. “She is indeed excited.” He said it’s a big week for the couple, as her film “Step Brothers” opens this week. Danson, whose last nomination was in 1993 for “Cheers,” said he’s just as in the dark as the viewers as to the fate of his “Damages” character, who was shot in the season finale. “I’m back in some form, but the truth is I have no idea. They’ve not picked me up for a whole season, so I can’t tell. I really don’t know. I do know that the (Season 2) opening scene is very surprising and shocking and fun.”

Zeljko Ivanek also is up for supporting actor for “Damages,” but said there won’t be any rivalry on set — friendly or otherwise — with his co-star Ted Danson. “It’s out of my hands. It was nice getting to this point, but the rest will play out the way it plays out. I have no expectations or sense of being beaten or beating out.” On second thought, “maybe it’ll be uglier by September, but not now,” he quipped. The first-time nominee also declined to divulge details about the show’s second season. “All I can say about it is there are some great surprises in store, and it’s not up to me to spoil them.” Source

William Hurt Article
“I was watching Glenn very closely to see how she was resonating, because we had worked together and have known each other for a long time. And I could see that she had made really strong thematic choices as a character. And I thought, well, okay, maybe – maybe – the TV format has been busted. And here I am.”

“The experience, for me, has been a little bit like intense wind shear,” Hurt said. “The standard operating procedure for filming in TV is very, very quick. Normally, I wouldn’t want that. But in this case, all you can see is these truly original, intelligent, imaginative characters punching through. I couldn’t ask for more. Damages is character-driven drama, and these characters are fascinating to play, and fascinating to watch.” More and Source

I’ve just added 32 new high quality photos of the Fox Party at the Pier from July 14!

The star of FX’s Damages, five-time Oscar-nominated actress Glenn Close, is set to be joined by a fellow multi-awarded actress in the person of Marcia Gay Harden to bolster the already stellar lineup for its coming season. If we backtrack to the second week of June, it was reported that another Oscar-winner William Hurt (King of the Spider Woman) will play a client of Patty Hewes (Close).

Harden, who won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Pollock in 2000, will play a powerful attorney who opposes Hewes on a case. In what appears like a trend of veteran actors transitioning to guest starring roles on television series, Harden also guest-starred on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit last year and actually won an Emmy for the role.

Towards the end of June, Timothy Olyphant, sheriff Seth Bullock on HBO’s Deadwood, has also confirmed a season-long arc on the legal drama. He will be playing a guy who enters Ellen’s (Rose Byrne) life and becomes entangled in both her personal life as she deals with her recent loss and professional struggles Hewes.

Harden, 49, also starred in other notable films like the 1997 sci-fi comedy Flubber with Robin Williams, the 1998 supernatural drama Meet Joe Black, and the 2003 drama Mystic River, where she fished another Oscar nomination.

The critically acclaimed series, which is due to return early in 2009, features a lawyer torn between the demands of her job and her family, as a mother and a wife. Obviously, that is an understatement as it usually gets even more complicated than that. Those who’ve seen a few clips of the second season with Hurt and Olyphant said it looked incredible. Source

Also, 10+ new photos, including 2 HQs in the gallery.

TCA Press Tour
JULY 15
Television Critics Association Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, California.

Party at the Pier
JULY 14
Fox All-Star Party at The Pier in Santa Monica, CA.

“We all wanted to approach Ellen in a very different way to make her more of a warrior in season two,” Rose Byrne said. “This season she’s kind of made of steel a little bit more, which is really interesting to play. The first season, the audience was so much ahead of her . . . This season, it’s sort of the reverse.”Read More + Spoilers