Kyra Sedgwick Embracing New Roles, Ambitious Projects In Post ‘Closer’ Career


Kyra Sedgwick is no longer The Closer, and in the wake of the conclusion of her popular TNT show, the actress has branched out her career with new roles and projects.

The Closer ended its 7-year run in 2012, and in the time since then, Sedgwick has taken her career in some different directions, including producing and even taking part in the industry’s burgeoning crowd-funding craze.

In her latest project, Kyra Sedgwick joined friend and filmmaker John Herzfeld on the movie Reach Me, which is based on Herzfeld’s experience with the self-help and “positive thinking” movement. Herzfeld called on a group of his actor friends, including Sedgwick, Sylvester Stallone, and Kevin Connolly.

Herzfeld said he read the 1937 self-help book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and got deeper into the movement when he attended a Harlem appearance by televangelist Reverend Ike.

“I always wanted to do a movie [about] positive thinking and belief in oneself,” said Herzfeld about Reach Me.

“I was 25 when I saw [Reverend Ike] and at the time I was down to my last $20,” said Herzfeld. “I was so cynical walking in, but I sat there and before I knew it, when they passed those buckets around for a donation, I put my last $20 in and walked home. He got me… I felt for many years that I could capture this underlying theme without sentimentality. It’s not about getting rich, but believing in yourself.”

The movie, which is about the intersecting lives of a group of people in Los Angeles, was brought to the big screen thanks to some crowd-funding efforts. A fundraising campaign started in August 2013, and ended up raising more than $250,000 for the project.

While the idea to feature the self-help movement while taking advantage of the internet-help movement is seen as ambitious, critics say the project seems disjointed.

Variety writer Scott Foundas shared his thoughts.

“The characters in “Reach Me” embrace the titular tome the way the characters in Christian propaganda movies (like this year’s surprise hit ‘God’s Not Dead’) find themselves drawn to the Good Book. But true to his typically scattershot style, Herzfeld doesn’t seem to have figured out why Raymond’s book is such a phenomenon in the first place. Mostly, we see people reading the same few pages over and over, marked by the kind of banal power-of-positive-thinking bromides (‘Until you’re off this planet, you have another chance’) one might find stitched on an embroidered plaque in a hospital waiting room.”

Kyra Sedgwick is quite busy beyond bringing self-help to the movie screen. She will be producing and staring in an upcoming HBO show where she plays a nun who goes rogue.

Share this article: Kyra Sedgwick Embracing New Roles, Ambitious Projects In Post ‘Closer’ Career
More from Inquisitr