Kyra Sedgwick Reveals Why She Almost Didn’t Join ‘The Closer’ Cast
Kyra Sedgwick almost passed on the role of Assistant Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in the award winning series, The Closer. The final episode airs tonight, immediately followed by the spinoff series, Major Crimes. During an interview with The Hollywood Report, Kyra Sedgwick reveals why she almost chose not to join the cast of The Closer and reflects on her seven years playing Brenda Johnson.
Sedgwick was not looking to join the cast of a television show and was not thrilled with the idea of either commuting or relocating her husband, Kevin Bacon, and their two children from New York to Los Angeles. Kyra Sedgwick’s longtime manager pushed The Closer project on the actress for three months before she read the script and fell in love with the character and the concept of the show. Once Sedgwick’s manager told her the Brenda Leigh Johnson character was similar to the lead character in the movie Prime Suspect, she was hooked. Moving from New York to Los Angeles was not an easy decision for the actress and her family.
“If there’s one jerk, I’m outta there,” Sedgwick told The Hollywood Reporter when sharing the story of her visit to Los Angeles while considering taking the lead role in The Closer and moving her family to the West Coast. “I love to work. I think I will miss that consistent work and intensity. You get a certain addiction to the adrenaline. It’ll be n adjustment. I’ll deeply miss my cast members and my crew, who have become a close family.”
After Kyra Sedgwick and her family decided a move to California would be acceptable, the actress began getting attached to The Closer character and musing over ideas for her new alter-ego. Sedgwick also noted during the interview that she did not have any idea at the time that she was paving the way for other 40-something (and older) women to gain a foothold in television and enhance the possibilities for more shows with strong female leads. Sedgwick hopes to eventually make a return to feature films and to join live stage productions if the right parts come along.
