Military Entertainment, Air Force Television, TV, Must See TV - Air Force Times

‘Damages’ on FX brings Glenn Close back to N.Y.

Glenn Close’s career detour began with a mild suggestion from her agent.

He told her that some people from the FX network wanted to meet with her.

“He thought they were really smart, passionate guys,” Close recalls.

That started the path toward “Damages.” The show propels the trend of cable-or-satellite networks to depict complicated, intriguing women:

• At 10 p.m. EDT July 9, TNT debuts “Saving Grace” with Oscar-winner Holly Hunter as a cop with a tough facade. “She has a real generosity about her, but I don’t think she wants to show it,” Hunter says.

• One night later, FX has Close — an Emmy-winner and a triple Tony-winner — in “Damages.” She plays Patty Hewes, a steel-souled lawyer so intense that she’s easy to love or hate.

“She’s really complex,” Close says. “With every episode I’m learning more about her.”

Other shows with complex female characters have preceded them. TNT has Kyra Sedgwick in “The Closer,” FX has Courteney Cox in “Dirt” and Minnie Driver in “The Riches,” and Lifetime has Lili Taylor in “State of Mind” and a full range of “Army Wives.”

For Close, 60, this started when those FX executives visited her in New York, asking her to guest star in a season of “The Shield.”

There was one problem: “I’d never seen ‘The Shield,’ ” she says.

So she watched some tapes, liked the show and made the jump. For the next five months, Close stayed in a Los Angeles hotel while playing a smart captain in a gritty, grimy police precinct.

She was ready to try her own series but wasn’t ready to keep living in hotels.

“You are separated from the people you love,” she says. “For me at this time of my life, that’s no good.”

No problem there. Three writers, former “Sopranos” producer Todd Kessler, his brother Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, created a show with a Manhattan feel in Close’s hometown — New York.

The story starts with Ellen Parsons, a young lawyer played by Rose Byrne (“28 Weeks Later”). There are brief glimpses of her at a brutal crime scene and then in police interrogation. Mostly, however, “Damages” flashes back to when she was aiming for a big-time job with Hewes & Associates.

Hewes aims her lawsuits at companies that have a lot to lose. Tate Donovan plays her top aide, with Ted Danson as the mogul who is her current target and Zeljko Ivanek as Danson’s lawyer.

For Parsons, this is a perplexing new world. She gets some encouragement from her fiance (Noah Bean) and his sister (Anastasia Griffith).

People know Hewes is a great lawyer; none are sure she’s a good person.

“You really don’t know,” Close says. “This changes from one week to the next.” That’s one thing Close liked about “Damages.” Another is the New York setting.

“I started my career in New York,” she says via phone. “I’ve always liked it here.”

By the time the world really noticed her (in the 1982 “World According to Garp”), she was already 35, with rich experience in theater and in life.

“It’s all about human behavior. The more you’ve seen, the more you can work with,” Close says.

She grew up in Connecticut, but her father, a doctor, eventually ran a clinic in Zaire. He became a key player when the Ebola epidemic ripped through the region.

Teen years were spent in boarding schools and sometimes in Africa. Then she went on to college (William and Mary) and a career filled with honors.

FX lists Close as being nominated for five Academy Awards, eight Golden Globes and 10 Emmys. Her wins include an Emmy for “Serving in Silence” and three Tonys — for the plays “The Real Thing” and “Death and the Maiden” and the musical “Sunset Boulevard.”

Close has already filmed one musical (ABC’s “South Pacific” remake) and dreams of another.

“I would love to do ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ but I don’t know if it will happen” she says. For now, she’ll savor her geographic links. In New York, Close can be near her daughter (19 and a student at Hamilton College), her husband and Broadway.

“I’m supposed to be a Tony voter, so I should be seeing all the shows,” she says.

In general, she’s optimistic about the theater scene and New York show business in general.

“It seems very rich,” Close says. “And with seven TV series being shot here, there are a lot of roles.”

That includes this one as Patti Hewes, dominating the people and the cases in her path.

On the tube:

• What: “Damages”

• When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays, starting July 24

• Where: FX

• Did you know? Yes, viewers will see Patti Hewes’ husband (played by Michael Nouri) and son. Don’t expect her to be very domestic though.