MEAN GIRLS
When a piggish cattle baron won’t stop hitting on Holly Hunter’s character in the new TNT series “Saving Grace,” she punches him in the face.
That’s becoming the ladylike thing to do, at least on cable channels, where strong female lead characters – and the notable film actresses who play them – are growing in number.
In addition to Hunter’s Grace Hanadarko, a police detective with a self-destructive streak, there’s Glenn Close’s steely litigator in FX’s new series “Damages” and, to a less pugilistic degree, Lili Taylor’s smart, take-charge therapist in Lifetime’s new “State of Mind.”
A hunger for such characters is evident in the critical and ratings success of TNT’s “The Closer,” which features Kyra Sedgwick as a master police interrogator who has candy and commitment issues.
Sedgwick won a Golden Globe for her role in the drama, which set a basic-cable audience record with 8.8 million viewers for its third-season opener last month.
“The whole cable industry has been validated by that show’s success,” says Hunter, whose “Grace,” premiering Monday night, will follow “The Closer.”
The simplest reason for film actresses’ move to TV? The roles are better.
“I’ve never played anyone like Grace. She’s an original creature,” says Hunter, 49, who won an Oscar for “The Piano.”
Close, 60, enjoys the different dimensions of her character, powerful attorney Patty Hewes: “She has a marriage with a sexy man, and it’s very unexpected and great. I’m blessed to have this, it’s fun, it’s flexing my creative muscle.”
Complex, mature characters are in shorter supply in mainstream films built on spectacle and sequels and aimed at a younger audience.
“For actresses in their mid- to late 30s to 40s, there are fantastic TV roles they might not be getting in film, roles that reflect where women are today, on either side of 40, which is they’re still aspirational, they may have flaws, they’re complicated,” says Maria Grasso, series development chief for the Lifetime cable network.
Those roles can be richer because of the characters’ greater life experience, Grasso says: “There are many more interesting stories you can tell when somebody has 20 years’ living (as an adult).”
“State of Mind,” which premiered last Sunday on Lifetime, is a good fit for the network aimed at women. Characters such as Grace and “The Closer’s” Brenda Leigh Johnson mesh with TNT’s target audience, ages 25 to 54.
Broadcast TV hasn’t ignored strong women. Ensembles such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Brothers & Sisters” feature capable females.
A female police investigator is the central character on CBS’ “Cold Case,” and the main character in Fox’s upcoming “Canterbury’s Law” shows she is literally hard-nosed when a beleaguered witness decks her.
ABC’s canceled “Commander in Chief” earned plaudits for putting a woman in the White House.
But cable’s greater license lets it enter grittier territory, with women playing tough, flawed cops and lawyers – traditional male turf.
Cable offers a side benefit: Most series have fewer episodes than broadcast-network shows, which leaves time for a movie, a play or other pursuits, Grasso says.
Minnie Driver, who plays a drug-addicted ex-con in FX’s “The Riches,” and Mary-Louise Parker, the pot-dealing mom of pay-cable Showtime’s “Weeds,” are among the actresses taking advantage of cable roles.
Actors including Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (“The Shield”) and Denis Leary (“Rescue Me”) have raised their profiles on cable.
“I think (creator) Shawn Ryan and ‘The Shield’ busted cable out,” says “Saving Grace” creator Nancy Miller.
“We can take more chances and explore the humanity of these characters. And we can show that women are just as complex and compelling as men.”
With lower budgets and pay – and smaller target audiences than those of broadcast networks – “State of Mind’s” Taylor says there’s “more creative freedom on cable,” as is often the case in independent film.
“Saving Grace,” for example, has far greater license in the realm of language, sex and nudity than it would have had on broadcast TV.
The series, which will have a mature-audience label, opens with an enthusiastic bedroom romp involving Grace and her colleague/lover. The show’s hardened cops swear freely.
“One of the things that was really enticing to me was an opportunity to talk about sex with somebody like Grace, who has no inhibitions and is adventurous in the bedroom – or in the kitchen, or in the bathroom,” says Hunter. “She has a real freedom that I wanted to explore.”
In another break from the past treatment of strong-willed women, Grace isn’t condemned for her behavioral problems, including drinking, promiscuity and general recklessness.
“The nature of the show is not punitive,” Hunter says. “She’s living the big full ride of a woman’s life.”