They are the hottest former spies on TV. Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar are the stars of the USA Network’s mega-popular series Burn Notice playing an agent left out in the cold in sunny Miami and his just slightly-crazed mercenary ex-lover.
The cool cocktail of action, comedy and romantic tension has made Burn Notice one of the hottest shows on basic cable, recently being picked up for a fourth season.
Donovan, an actor and martial artist, has become a star from the series, after over a decade of fine work on TV series like Touching Evil, Crossing Jordan, Spin City and films like Hitch and Changeling. Meanwhile, Anwar has finally found the role to return her to the early career buzz she had built up in the 90s with the movies Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, The Three Musketeers and Scent of a Woman.
A few days before Burn Notice was about to air the last few-episode arc of the third season, Donovan and Anwar agreed to sit down in a conference call with us and several other websites asking questions about the finale of the third season.
Are you surprised at the success of this show? I know at times, for a cable series on the USA Network, the show is either competitive with NBC ratings-wise or sometimes even passing them. Are you surprised with the following that it's gotten over the years?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, I think that all you can hope for is that you make something that people want to watch and then somehow keep integrity while doing that. So we're very happy with the ratings definitely. We work really hard, so surprised…? Yes, we're always surprised when anything succeeds in this day and age.
Can you talk about your characters and the evolution that we've seen in your characters? Are you happy with where you guys have ended up with your characters? Also, if you're in charge of everything, where would you like to see them go this season or in the future?
Gabrielle Anwar: Do you think we've evolved?
I'm sure you could always do it better, I mean everybody's got to have that feel for their character.
Gabrielle Anwar: I don't know where we're going. Where are we going, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, I'll speak for Gabrielle. I know from talking with all the other cast mates, we're very happy with where it's going. But sometimes Matt Nix and all the other writers keep us slightly in the character dark, not because they don't trust us with the knowledge, but they're just trying to figure it out as well along the way. When you're dealing with espionage and covert affairs, sometimes the secret is more exciting than the knowledge. If we were both in charge, I would love a deeper insight into Michael's past, that's for me. I don't know about Gabrielle. What would you like?
Gabrielle Anwar: I'm quite happy with Fiona's enigmatic state of being. I don't think I need to know more about [it]. I'd love to know more about where you're from, absolutely, but I quite like not knowing. I don't like to know who I am.
Jeffrey, I read online that in an upcoming episode, Michael will be going somewhere other than Miami and that he won't be alone. Can you tell us where your characters going and why, as well as who's going with him?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, obviously I can't. It's the season finale, and it's really literally in the last five minutes of the show. It's a bit of a cliffhanger. Michael's been stuck in Miami for quite some time, and there's a couple of psychopaths on his tail, and things come to a hilt. By the end of the show, Michael is actually transported out of Miami, but I can't tell you where. It's a bit of a cliffhanger.
Well that's good enough, yes, we wouldn't want to give everything away. Okay, and then my next question is for both of you, when my husband and I saw the previews for Burn Notice before its first season, the thing that first caught our eye was you, Jeffrey. We've been huge fans of yours since we saw you in Touching Evil, which we loved.
Jeffrey Donovan: Thank you.
The other things that caught our attention were the plot and that it was on USA, which we feel is a terrific network for bringing out new and extraordinarily interesting shows and characters. So for both of you, what first drew you to the show and to your characters?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: I was drawn to the character, Fiona. I just thought it was so brilliantly written. It was sparingly written, but so insightful. I couldn't believe that a man had actually written the script, I mean at least her character. When I first met Matt Nix, who created and wrote the script, I actually said to him, you must have a remarkable relationship with your wife, because you have such incredible insight. So that was what intrigued me about playing a character. When you sign up for a TV show, you don't know if it's going to be for a pilot or for the rest of your life, so I wanted to play a character that I enjoyed thoroughly, and there weren't that many of them out there. So that's why I clasped onto this script with great hope.
Jeffrey Donovan: I got hooked on the voiceover. The first page is a voiceover, it says, "You know what it's like to be a spy?" I love the idea that not only do I get to play a spy, I get to play a burn spy. And on top of that, I can talk to the audience about what it's like being a spy. I thought I had never seen anything like that on television, so that's what hooked me.
Could you tell us anything about the rest of the upcoming episodes this season, especially “Good Intentions”?
Jeffrey Donovan: It's difficult, because the penultimate episode and then the finale have a lot of cliffhangers and a lot of reveals. So without giving too much away, Gilroy, who's basically a psychopath controlling Michael's actions, has to deliver a plane that has a secret piece of cargo in it and needs Michael's help to do it. When that happens, you find out it actually is someone quite dangerous, and Michael unfortunately allows him to escape. Then the finale is about trying to capture this psychopath that's loose.
Alright, and what was it like working with Carlos Bernard in the episode?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Fantastic. He's such a wonderful man and a fantastic actor. It was an absolute pleasure.
Jeffrey Donovan: I didn't really work with him much, so it was all Gabrielle and Carlos. I only met him in brief, I think at the lunch table.
You both obviously had success in film. A lot of times when that happens, people are less likely to want to do television. What do you like about this particular medium and why do you keep coming back to television? What do you like about this?
Jeffrey Donovan: I think that, especially with cable, it's an avenue to be creative. I think why people are drawn more now to cable shows than ever is that they take more risks, they're creatively pushing the envelope. The networks have to answer to a bigger advertising calling, whereas the smaller cables have lower ceilings that they can bump their heads on. So that's why I keep being drawn back to television, because I think it's one of the most creative outlets. If you think about it, we make sixteen one-hour movies a season. You don't get any opportunity like that in movies. I mean, I can't say I'll be able to do sixteen movies in the next year, and so that's how I see it. How about you, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: I like the stability, the continuity of having a lifestyle where I know I can pay my rent at the end of each month. Also I have these children that I am raising and it's nice for all of us to sort of know that we're going to be in a specific place for a certain amount of time. I've never known that in my career. So I'm really quite grateful at this point that I get to have the sort of double existence and I can rely on both.
Gabrielle, take us a little bit inside Fiona's mind with regard to Michael's pursuit of the truth of trying to erase the burn notice. What is her threshold? How long can she wait for him to sort of fulfill this quest that he's on?
Gabrielle Anwar: I don't know. It's really not up to me is it? I have my own personal threshold and it was at the end of season one.
Jeffrey Donovan: Wow, wow.
Gabrielle Anwar: I think it's going to be a real testament to have patience and adoration of Michael, which I don't think she would admit either.
One of the strengths of the show is that each of the three major characters is capable of assessing the strength and weaknesses of an opponent or an ally. What I'd like is if you would put yourselves in the mindsets of your characters and then assess your own characters and each others.
Gabrielle Anwar: Whoa.
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, Dr. Freud, I would say that Michael is probably some sort of borderline personality disorder who grew up in incredible fear in a dysfunctional hostile family. He ran away and escaped it, so he joined the U.S. Army to find a noble pursuit. Now, he uses all the things that damaged him as his abilities now to help others. I wouldn't even go in to trying to figure out Fiona.
Gabrielle Anwar: Well, I don't even understand your question, so let's just leave it at that.
Okay, what would Fiona's assessment of Michael be from an objective potential opponent or ally position?
Gabrielle Anwar: His ability to decipher the characteristics of the problem at hand you mean, that assessment of him?
That kind of thing, yes.
Gabrielle Anwar: I think she finds it extraordinarily erotic.
Jeffrey Donovan: Really.
Gabrielle Anwar: I do. I think it is foreplay, all of it. I think she finds him the most fascinating creature.
Jeffrey Donovan: Wait a minute, you said I do, and then you said she, is this Gabrielle talking?
Gabrielle Anwar: Well, Dr. Freud, who's the bloody doctor here, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Donovan: He is.
Gabrielle Anwar: Look what you've caused.
The more I watch your series, Jeffrey, it reminds me of this old series from the 60s called The Avengers. It has that feel. There's a very, the combination of real drama and camp and humor and lightness. And Gabrielle, you're Diana Rigg for lack of—
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, thank you.
And of course, Jeffrey, you're Patrick Macnee for me, I feel the more I watch it, the more I'm reminded of that series as far as the pacing, the energy, the breaks of comedy into the drama. And I was wondering if you could tell me, I really enjoyed seeing Tim Matheson and you play off each other, and I'm wondering will we see Larry again?
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, you will. Larry's such a pivotal thorn in Michael's ... and that gives my character great ammunition to kind of fight with. He's a terrific character and Tim's such a wonderful man and an extraordinary actor. One, we were lucky to get him, and two, he's actually happy to be on the show and wants to continually come back. He'll be directing season four's premiere. Also, he'll return as Larry at some point in the season.
Love that. And Gabrielle, I love the unspoken communication, you guys say more in glances and looks than what's delivered on the script, and that's another wonderful thing about this series. I was wondering about you and Madeline, your relationship with each other, and obviously she and Michael are a tribe of two, but I think it's growing bigger. Can you talk about that?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes. I think that these two women have a tremendous amount of respect for one another. And you're right, there's so little spoken about what's really being felt and really being witnessed with that connection to Michael, which I think is pretty accurate to real life, especially with the in-law figures. There's so much that's not spoken out loud, and yet there are so many physical undertones and it's very apparent, and that's thanks to Sharon. I mean, her performance is so beautifully nuanced and I find it terribly inspiring. She's a wonderful woman and actress.
Who would be your dream guest stars you'd like to see appear on the show?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle, who's your dream guest star?
Gabrielle Anwar: Steve McQueen.
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, he's dead.
Gabrielle Anwar: He is?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gosh, you don't read the papers.
Gabrielle Anwar: I didn't realize it had to be somebody who could actually appear on the show, but I would say Steve McQueen.
Jeffrey Donovan: I would love Angelina Jolie.
How interesting. And do you think there might be perhaps any other USA network show crossovers in the future or would you like to see that happen?
Jeffrey Donovan: I actually would like to do a crossover somehow with White Collar, I think that the show tonally is similar to ours. I don't know how that would work, but I would like to see that. I don't think we would work with any other show. I think Psych and Royal Pains doesn't figure into our tone.
One of the things that I really love about the show is the different kind of characters and personas that you both take on to figure out to help your clients and everything. And so I was wondering if you had a favorite kind of accent or persona that you've done or how you get the inspiration for that or if you just go with what's in the script?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Well, you're the final king. I don't know how Jeffrey can come up with these creations that he does. It's pretty remarkable, especially he's got such a heavy workload and yet he still can create these fabulous side characters. It's really, really fun to watch. I don't have that in my repertoire, so I'm glad it's all on his shoulders.
Jeffrey Donovan: Oh, sure you do. You played the French character, you played a hillbilly kind of girl, white trash girl, Gabrielle—
Gabrielle Anwar: That's it, we've seen all I've got.
Jeffrey Donovan: I think a lot of the characters that we play really do come out of a script. The writers are incredibly talented and they really help us with specific dialogue and note and kind of character descriptions. My favorite—
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, you do still come up with these fabulous little quirky things, like the chewing tobacco and the tooth picks and it's really fun. Those little tiny quirks make it so much more interesting than if it were just what was on the page I think.
Jeffrey Donovan: Some people call those crutches. Those are crutches. But my favorite character of all has to be Michael McBride, the Irish character that I played. It's because it's the character that Fiona had fallen in love with, so it's very dear to my heart.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh.
I'd like to know what goes into learning all the side tricks. Is it just like here's your script and have at it or is there more training and research involved in your roles?
Jeffrey Donovan: We have an ex-operative that actually is a consultant on our show that Matt Nix and the other writers have access to, so everything that is put into the show gets vetted through him before we air it. Ninety-five percent of it you can find on the Internet anyway, but everything that is put into a script has been researched and vetted, so that when we speak it or we do it, we know it's actual.
Got it. And to both of you, what has been your most memorable experience with meeting the fans of the show?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: I think actually to be honest, it's the fact that so many couples are enjoying it together. It's become sort of a date night theme, which is really fabulous. I'm happy for bringing the love, it's all about the love.
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, that's actually true, Gabrielle. A lot of husband/wives and boyfriend/girlfriends come up to me, the husband will say, "Oh my gosh, my wife loves the show. I got her onto it," or she'll say, or a woman will come and say, "My husband didn't watch the show until I told him about it." It's pretty neat that it is kind of a date night for couples.
I love Fiona. Fiona is fabulous, because sometimes a girl just wants to see things blow up and she's the answer that we've all been praying for. I'm a long time viewer of the show, and one of the things that I wanted to know more about was season one, wanted to know who burned Michael Westen; in season two, we wanted to see him get away from Carla; in season three he was exposed, kind of naked to the world, in fact, of espionage. So I was kind of wondering now is there going to be a return of management anytime soon? Maybe management checks in saying, "Michael, do you want to come back," or are we going to see that at all, maybe in season four?
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, season four is actually pretty remarkable. I met with the writers last week and we kind of broke down the next eight or nine episode arc. A new character is going to be introduced. I don't know the name yet, but he is going to be a young operative, but he's going to play a significant new role on the show. Then there is actually going to be a change of management. There's going to be a new management that controls Michael's life, and you'll see Michael have to go on even more dangerous missions under this new management with the new operative.
Fabulous. And Fiona gets to blow more stuff up, correct?
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, more of Fiona explosions.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, yes.
We know Fiona wants Michael to settle down, Fiona wants the life, and at this point, we're not sure Fiona's going to get the life. So for both of you guys I guess, what do you think the life that Fiona seeks would look like or could look like, obviously it's not going to be Suburbia and the 2.5 children and the dog and the cat, so what could it look like?
Gabrielle Anwar: I don't know to be perfectly honest whether she does want to settle down. I don't think that that is interesting to her at all. I think she wants to feel secure, but again I don't know what that definition of security might be to her. It's certainly not your typical conventional idea of marriage for example, but I think she wants to feel secure because she's a woman and it seems innate in all of us.
One thing that always cracks me up when watching Burn Notice is the tags that they put on the freeze screens of like the newer temporary characters such as Gilroy – Freelance Psychopath. What would each of your tags be under your names, not for Michael and Fiona, but for Jeffrey and Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Okay, you first.
Jeffrey Donovan: If I got introduced, a smiling shark.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, gosh, still figuring it out.
Jeffrey Donovan: That's true actually.
Jeffrey, I'm always interested in the fight scenes on the show. I'm a martial arts instructor. I know much of what we see you do is most likely complements of the stunt coordinator, but I've also heard that you have martial arts training yourself. Can you fill me in on that?
Jeffrey Donovan: Actually what you see is 90% me actually. I have a black belt in Shotokan karate, about fifteen years experience. I have eight years in Jujitsu and Akito, and about three years of boxing. So what I try to do in every episode is the stunt coordinator makes it safe, but most of the time I choreograph it. It's a great relationship, because I will say what would really happen here is this, and then he comes in and makes it safe for the guest stars. And if something gets too physical, then the stunt men come in and take over.
Jeffrey, because you're the main character, you are very physical in this role, and you obviously spend so much time on set, what do you do for fun in what little off time you have?
Jeffrey Donovan: I golf. Luckily down in Florida, there are a lot of golf courses, and I just put a golf hat on and take my sticks out and I usually walk a course. Sometimes I'm by myself and sometimes I just kind of walk onto a twosome or a threesome and join them, and most people just kind of leave me alone, and that's my quiet time. I love walking about four or five hours on a golf course.
How's your handicap?
Jeffrey Donovan: I'm good. I'm a single digit. I'm down to a seven.
Gabrielle, you have a complicated life too, you've got kids and you live out in LA, how do you juggle all this and then find time for yourself?
Gabrielle Anwar: I don't. I don't have any time for myself. In fact, sitting here in this hotel room in New York is as exciting as it gets for me, my alone time. There really is no time, I'm a mom, and mom's don't have days off.
Now having three seasons under your belt, is it getting easier or harder to keep playing these characters and stay invested in them? Are there any challenges you're facing now that maybe you didn't have in the beginning of the show?
Jeffrey Donovan: I'm getting older.
Gabrielle Anwar: Here, here.
Jeffrey Donovan: As you get older it's harder to run and jump over cars and beat up bad guys, but it becomes easier in some ways because you know the characters so well, so it's a little bit of both. What would you say, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I always get a little anxious like the first day of school when we've had our hiatus and we're coming back, because I think I'm not as insane as I was when we started shooting, which really lent itself to Fiona. Now I'm afraid I might be getting a little boring in my old age, so I think that I don't know if I can step into her shoes and deliver. I have that anxiety before we start shooting.
Jeffrey Donovan: Oh, you underestimate your insanity.
Gabrielle Anwar: Really? Oh, thank you, I really appreciate that support.
Have you ever tried any of the spy tips you give on the show?
Jeffrey Donovan: No. No, absolutely not. Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Not the spy tips, no, but I do think that I can do super human things like drive my car at 150 miles an hour on the PCH and then get into trouble for it.
You have such fantastic chemistry on screen, so what is it like off screen with each other and with other cast members?
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, it's a problem.
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, we don't find each other at all funny, that's a hard thing. We're very blessed, we really are. I know cast mates usually probably hide the fact that there's tension and turmoil, but Bruce, Sharon, Gabrielle, and I, we get along, not only on screen, but off screen. They're extraordinary actors, but even better people, and the chemistry is just terrific. We have dinner, we hang out whenever we have time off, which is very little.
On a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, they did a parody game show called, “What is Burn Notice?” where people who had not seen the show tried to figure out what it was about based on vague promos and sort of an obscure title. Did you know that aside from your massage number of viewers, that there were people out there who didn't really know what the show was about? And do you think it's a hard show to wrap your head around either based on the title or on the concept?
Jeffrey Donovan: I don't know. It seems like everybody knows the show, because I walk down the street and everyone yells, "Burn Notice, I love your show." So I thought it was kind of a funny parity, quite funny actually, to make a show, it's like what is Seinfeld on cable? So I just thought it was hysterical. What did you think, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: I thought it was funny. I think Ashton Kutcher's awfully cute. He can make fun of me anytime.
The addition of Chris Vance as a psychopath Mason Gilroy is really given you guys a violent insane villain this season. And when Michael and Gilroy meet it seems like they're kind of coiled vipers waiting to strike at each other. He seems to really enjoy being a psycho. How is working with him added to the show during the season?
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, he's definitely added a great tension to every scene that I'm in with him, and I think kind of a great super villain that kind of governs over the show. I think the best part of Burn Notice is always when the villain or guest star is either more talented, smarter, or crazier than the rest of the cast, because it ups all our game. What do you think, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I agree. I don't actually get to work with Gilroy, but I agree with you. There's nothing more inspiring than to have to pull everything you have out of your back pocket on the stage. And we have so little time to rehearse and to find everything imaginable in one scene, that when you do have this fantastic talent to work with, it really is, it's fun, it makes it so much more enjoyable.
It’s really obvious that Miami is as much a character in the show as the setting. What's your favorite part about filming in such a diverse and vibrant city?
Jeffrey Donovan: I actually love the weather, to be honest with you. I love that the climate is constantly being washed and rinsed. You're living in the Caribbean in the United States and sometimes it is incredible blue skies and sometimes it's an incredible thunderstorm that kind of screams through, but I love that part of Florida.
How was it working with Tyne Daly from Cagney and Lacey? I mean those scenes at the start of this mid-season premiere, they were heart wrenching. It was some of the best drama I've seen on the show, so I was just curious how it was for you? I don't know if Gabrielle had much of an opportunity to spend time with her on set.
Jeffrey Donovan: To be honest with—
Gabrielle Anwar: No, I didn't unfortunately.
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, and neither did I. It was almost all with Sharon. So we all, to be honest with you, sat back and watched two pros go toe-to-toe twelve rounds. It was quite remarkable. We were all just blown away by it. So I was more of a spectator like you than I was an actor in it.
What would you say is most dangerous stunt you've had to do? Were you ever actually afraid doing it?
Gabrielle Anwar: I don't like fighting with Jeffrey, because I always hurt him. Because I don't know what I'm doing, and he's such an expert, and I always manage to accidentally cause some damage.
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, the most dangerous is either a bomb or something going off or a fight with Gabrielle. They're about the same.
Well, you sort of touched on what I'm going to ask already, but over the years Michael and Fiona sort of brought this romantic feeling and this background story of their past, and it seems like there are little hints that they're giving in a little bit more. Both as a character and also as the straight actor, do you think that that could ever work? Do you think that maybe it's a good idea not to give into those things, getting into sort of the Ross and Rachel, Dave and Maddie type of thing, where you lose too much of the tension in the show?
Jeffrey Donovan: What do you think, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: No, what do you think?
Jeffrey Donovan: No, you go first, I've done it all.
Gabrielle Anwar: No, no, no, no answer.
Jeffrey Donovan: Fiona and Michael are our real relationship in as much as TV relationships are built off of tension, and let's say it is Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepherd in Moonlighting. Once the banter ended after a couple of seasons and they slept together, there was no tension. That is a typical TV relationship. Ours actually is atypical, we have had sexual relations, we have fought, we have gotten back together, we've hated each other, we've become friends to each other, that is the tumultuous relationship of their dynamic, and that will never change. So the tension is not about them hooking up, the tension I think is their love for each other and how that's displayed every episode.
And speaking of tension, it seems to me that this season Michael's relationship with his mother is sort of softened this season. They were constantly fighting, and now you see more of the strong bond and the love together. Did that sort of come naturally with just dealing with Sharon over the years or is that something that was sort of planned out?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, you can't help but love Sharon, but at the end of the day, we're actors and we can create any hatred or tension that we need for a scene to work. So I don't think the writers were ever thinking like, "Oh, how nice, Jeff and Sharon get along, let's make them love each other on the show." I think what you're seeing is just a natural evolvement of what does a viewer want to watch. Do you want to see a mother and son antagonistically attack each other every single episode for five years? I don't think so. So it's just a natural progression, just like Fiona and Michael's natural progression.
Jeff, you mentioned about Michael's past, it seems that his father seems to be a significant part of who he is and we always get little bits and pieces about him. There's been some fan speculation that maybe the show isn't always what it seems, that maybe his father could be alive or could not be alive. How would you feel if that were to change, if he found out some new information about his father?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, that device is always in play every season. I don't think we ever sit around and plot that Michael's father is going to come back. It's not something that we think about, we just know that the device is in play and we like it that way. I think the only shocking thing would be if Sam turns out to be my dad – that would be awkward.
Obviously you guys get along really well, are there any favorite or challenging scenes that you've done so far that kind of stick out in your mind?
Jeffrey Donovan: What do you mean, challenging, in what way?
Challenging, like dangerous, any challenges there, or dynamic scenes, like anything that's a favorite that you two have done and worked together that kind of stand out as memorable?
Jeffrey Donovan: Yes, I really love a scene that kind of came out of working with Gabrielle this past season where we created a scene that wasn't necessarily on the page where I slap her across the face. And Gabrielle did such an incredible performance of having to deal with her feelings for Michael hitting her and then acting as an undercover character. That I think was probably some of the best work I've ever seen her do and that was one of the most memorable moments for me.
Gabrielle Anwar: Thank you.
Jeffrey, I know that you've recently donated some money to your high school in Angsbury, Massachusetts. Also, you're also very involved in Life Rolls On, could you tell us a little bit about that cause and what drew you to it specifically?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, many years ago, an actor friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a charity golf event out in Malibu for Life Rolls On, and I hadn't heard about it. He explained it's a charitable foundation to raise money for spinal cord injuries in young athletes. And Jesse Billauer suffered a life changing surfing accident at the age of nineteen, and this foundation was created out of his name. It's a wonderful foundation that raises funds that aren't necessarily being put into by the government or a lot of private foundations, to research how we can get these kids either wheelchair assisted living or new types of devices that will help them either walk or stand or even ride a surf board again or any sport that they got injured in. And so that's how I got involved and it's an incredible organization.
A complete redirection here, but we see a lot of TV shows getting the action figure treatment now, Lost, Dexter, would you guys be interested if the opportunity came up to be immortalized little plastic—
Jeffrey Donovan: Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, Dexter, a serial killer is an action figure?
There is an action figure of Dexter, so I mean Michael Westen would be an obvious choice I would think, and you have to have knife—
Jeffrey Donovan: Does he have a knife in his hand, I mean, are you kidding me?
He does, he does.
Jeffrey Donovan: Are kids playing with this stuff?
I mean it's not on the shelves at Toys ‘R’ Us, but it's for the older collectors.
Jeffrey Donovan: Okay, alright, now I'm feeling a little bit better. I just was a little worried about that.
Gabrielle Anwar: I sense a little jealousy.
Jeffrey Donovan: You sense a little fear. I would love a Michael Westen action figure and a Fiona Glenanne action figure, and then I could blow them up at home.
Most of my questions have been asked, but I was wondering if we're ever going to see any flashback episodes to see how your two characters met or maybe how Bruce and one of your characters meet or anything like that, if that's ever been talked about?
Jeffrey Donovan: Flashback has been talked about, but not in a nice way. We've never done a flashback ever of anything and it's just not a device that we employ, so I doubt it, but I can't rule it out. One of my favorite episodes of Magnum PI, which I was a fan of, was when Tom Selleck got knocked off a boat and he had to wade in the water until he was picked up. So they just basically shot him for about a half an hour wading in the water and then did the entire show of flashbacks. I liked that idea.
Jeffrey, any plans to return to Chicago and do some more theatre here?
Jeffrey Donovan: Not in the winter, I will guarantee you that my friend, never again. I give Chicagoans all the credit in the world. No wonder Barack Obama became President, the man survived winters in Chicago, that man can handle anything.
Okay. Well then I guess it's not going to happen right, your shooting schedule doesn't allow it then.
Jeffrey Donovan: I know, I know unfortunately.
I follow both of you on the small screen, and on the big screen, Gabrielle, you're awesome on The Tudors, and Jeffrey, you were so awesome in Changeling. I wonder if there's any other projects you guys are working on?
Jeffrey Donovan: None for me.
Gabrielle Anwar: Me neither.
Gabrielle, don't you have two movies that are due to come out?
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, that's right, yes, I do. In fact, I don't even know what one of them is called, because they keep changing the title on me, so I'm not going to be able to do much of shout out for that. I have nothing coming up, only Burn Notice for now.
I thought Warrior and The Family Tree?
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, gosh, those. I shot those more than three years ago.
Oh, they have them listed for 2010, that's so strange.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, that's not a good sign when they've been sitting on the shelf that long, just FYI.
Jeffrey Donovan: I'll be the first in line.
And Jeffrey, I hear you have an acting school here in Miami, is that true?
Jeffrey Donovan: Well, it's not a formalized school, but it is, I teach seminars. I've partnered with a casting director who's been working in South Florida for about 20 years, Ellen Jacoby, and we created a acting seminar, basically a small little institute for beginners, advanced, and intermediate actors in the area. It's really a selfish journey for me, because we're running out of actors on our show to hire locally. So instead of going to Louisiana or South Carolina or any of these places around us, I thought why don't we just increase the talent level of the locals, so that's why I'm doing it.
What has been your most memorable episode to shoot?
Jeffrey Donovan: Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Wow. I think the episode that's airing tonight was memorable for me, because I actually had to work every day.
Jeffrey Donovan: For once.
Gabrielle Anwar: For once. It's true, I actually had a much greater significance in the storyline for this particular episode, so I got a taste of what Jeffrey has to contend with on a daily basis, and I was absolutely bloody exhausted. So it was memorable, because I just had to work really hard "for once."
Jeffrey Donovan: I guess my most memorable is the pilot. No one had ever heard of Burn Notice, not even the term. They put this rag-tag team together of Bruce, me, Sharon, and Gabrielle, and Matt Nix who had never been given a show before, and we just kind of went down to South Florida and we made our show. We made the Burn Notice and what every episode has been based on since, so that's the most memorable. Because I'm so proud that we took a risk, we did the show we wanted to do, and that it caught on is just gravy.
Since the majority of the questions have been addressed, what is one question that you wish someone would ask that they haven't asked you before?
Jeffrey Donovan: There isn't a question out there that hasn't been asked to be honest with you, all the way down to a why I don't sweat, and I do. I just hide it well.
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