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One degree of separation
With husband Kevin Bacon about to arrive, The Closer' s Kyra Sedgwick
sits and chats about family challenges and work success.
BY MARY MURPHY
KYRA SEDGWICK keeps
blowing her lines.
At first she laughs. Then
she exhales.
Finally, she leans back and says:
“Oh, damn! I can’t work when some
body is watching me.”
Is Sedgwick, 42, just another Holly
wood prima donna?
That’s what you might think, until
she comes running across the sound
stage during a break from shooting
the TNT crime drama The Closer and
slides her arm around this reporter’s
waist “I wish you could have come
for another scene,” she says sweetly.
“This one is so boring and there
are so many that are so
much fun.”
Sedgwick is star and
co-executive producer of
The Closer returning
for its fourth season July
14 at 9 p.m. ET about
an unorthodox band of
LAPD detectives. She
portrays sugar-addicted
deputy police chief Brenda
Leigh Johnson. A char
acter as quirky as Peter
Falk on Columbo and just
as brilliant at solving mur-
ders, she has given Sedgwick the ca
reer kick-start the actress needed af
ter staying home and raising two kids,
Travis, 19, and Sosie, 16, with husband
Kevin Bacon.
But the recent success (including
two Emmy nominations) has come at
a cost, and tonight Sedgwick is not
only upset about the scene, she is also
16
USA WEEKEND-July 11-13,2008
really missing her husband and two
kids, who live on the East Coast while
she films in Los Angeles.
“They are flying in from New York in
about an hour,” she says. “I can’t wait!”
Before she runs off to meet them,
she sits down for a cup of tea and j
discusses her life, both professional £
and personal.
Q. Does it get any easier to leave
your family?
It’s still really so hard, and it seems
to be getting a little bit harder. I
don’t know' why. ( Tears tvell up in
her eyes.) I’m sorry. You know, |
my daughter is just 16, and we ft
get along so well I just
miss her. She’s going to col-
r
Kyr.i
. Sedgwick
investigates
on TNT,
lege soon. My son is gone, and he’s
happy, so that is OK. But the aching I
feel when I know she’s home and avail
able and I’m not there it feels so
unmanageable sometimes. But, thank
God, my kids are great and intact.
Q. How has being away affected your
relationship with Kevin?
He continues to be unfailingly sup-
portive in every way. There has never
been a moment of “You get to go out
there and work, and I’m here at home.”
Never a moment. We’re married 20
years in September, and I still find
new things about him.
Q. Does absence make the heart
grow fonder?
My heart soars [when I see him], I
get that thing I totally do, still, ab
solutely. My heart skips a bit, and I’m
just filled with love and attraction.
Q. How do you feel being part of the
trend of women over 40 starring in TV
series? In the past, this was when
careers turned cold.
How awesome is that? I hate that the
l roles are somewhat limited when you
I get to a certain age. So I love the
| idea that the success of The Closer
H is part of the reason why these
| amazing women like Holly Hunter,
f Glenn Close and Kim Delaney are
r working in TV.
Q. Do you feel like a powerful
woman at this point in your life?
Sometimes I do, but it really is a day
to-day thing. I feel more powerful be
cause I know more about wiio I am
and what I need.
Q. After you won a Golden
Globe, is it true that Brad Pitt
| called to congratulate you?
[ Oh God, I wish. But he
| did say congratulations
R when I was there. I said,
B “Nice to meet you.” He
I laughed and said, “We
! met when you audi-
I tioned for Meet Joe
Black. You dodged a
H bullet with that one.”
- I Meanwhile, I thought
■ to myself, “I don’t think
■ [not] working with Brad
■ Pitt would have meant I
■ dodged anything.”
Q. Before you go, we know that
Brenda's purse is always filled with
candy; can we look inside your purse?
She laughs and opens a gray leather bag.
Out comes a wallet, a brush, Chap Stick,
a MAC lipstick called Twig-Twig, a bag of
chocolate, another bag of chocolate and
then another.
[Laughing.] Hey, it’s all dark chocolate,
so at least it’s good for my health, ca
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