Q&A with Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan and Gabrielle Anwar

REPORTER: Do you have 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?

JD: Gabrielle?

GA: 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.

JD: Oh, sure you do. You played the French character, you played a hillbilly kind of girl, white trash girl, Gabrielle—

GA: That’s it, we’ve seen all I’ve got.

JD: 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—

GA: 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.

JD: Some people call those crutches, those are crutches. I think 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.

GA: Oh.

REPORTER: 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?

JD: 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.

REPORTER: What has been your most memorable experience with meeting the fans of the show?

JD: Gabrielle?

GA: 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.

JD: 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.

REPORTER: Now that we’re seeing how Michael is and how the group is without the big overall mystery of who burned Michael Westen, and who’s doing this, 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?

JD: 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 ark. 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. And 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.

REPORTER: And Fiona gets to blow more stuff up, correct?

JD: Yes, more of Fiona explosions.

GA: Oh, yes.

Reporter: We were curious 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?

JD: I’m getting older.

GA: Here, here.

JD: And 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?

GA: 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 landed itself to Fiona. And 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.

JD: Oh, you underestimate your insanity.

GA: Really, oh, thank you, I really appreciate that support.

BLAST’S CONCEPTION ALLEN: The first one is for 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?

JD: 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.

BLAST: Alright. And my follow-up question is actually for the both of you. 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?

JD: What do you mean, challenging, in what way?

BLAST: 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?

JD: 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.

REPORTER: We know that you’ve recently donated some money to your high school in Amesbury, but I know 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?

JD: 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. And 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 19, 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.

REPORTER: Are we 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?

JD: Flashback has been talked about, but not in a nice way. We’re not, one, 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.

REPORTER: We hear you have an acting school here in Miami, is that true?

JD: 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.

And 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.

REPORTER: What has been your most memorable episode to shoot?

JD: Gabrielle?

GA: Wow. I think the episode that’s airing tonight was memorable for me, because I actually had to work every day.

JD: For once.

GA: 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.”

JD: And 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.