More Burn Notice Interviews
Jul 9, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars, Interview
By Ian Spelling for UGO
Burn Notice is one of those super-cool shows with a modest, but loyal fan base. The USA Network series will kick off its second season on July 10, and everyone involved hopes that, based on its critics’ darling status, USA’s amped-up promotional campaign and on good, old-fashioned fan-to-fan word of mouth, Burn Notice will attract a wider audience in year two. For those unfamiliar with the slickly shot show, it stars hottie (or so my wife insists) Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a discredited cover-ops agent who’s forced to cool his heels in Miami, his hometown, trapped there with no money, no job, no link to his handler, and always under surveillance.
So, while trying figure out who screwed him over - or more accurately stated, burned him - and why, the ever-resourceful Westen keeps busy as a spy for hire and a private investigator. Among those in Westen’s circle are his ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), once an IRA operative; longtime pal Sam (Bruce Campbell), a sleazy, fun-loving womanizer and former operative; and Madeline (Sharon Gless), Westen’s chain-smoking, tough-love, hypochondriac momma. The amiable Donovan and the quip-happy Campbell recently took to the phone for a conference call. UGO was on the line and joined in the fun. Here’s some of what went down:
Tricia Helfer Talks Burn Notice
Jul 8, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars
The Battlestar Galactica siren talks about the move over to this USA Network series
Tricia Helfer has certainly made a name for herself during the four-season run of Battlestar Galactica as the lovely Cylon Number Six. With that show coming to a close, Helfer is moving on with a role in the series Burn Notice, which kicks off its second season on Thursday, July 10 at 10 PM ET on the USA Network. I was recently in on a conference call with Helfer and here’s what she had to say about her new series, her old series, Comic-Con and a lot more.
Can you start off telling us what is Carla’s back story and how many of the episodes are you going to be in in season two?
Tricia Helfer: I’m going to be in, I think, seven episodes of the 16 being done. I’m in the first two, and I think the season finale, and then will be in 2009’s episodes as well. To be completely honest, I really don’t know much of Carla’s back story. Just as she’s mysterious to Michael, she’s also mysterious to the audience, and I think we’ll learn more about her as Michael does and the audience does. At this point, I’ve only filmed the first two episodes, so I have yet to discover a lot about Carla myself. I do know that she was a spy, and that she is now the public face of the organization that burns Michael. So she is definitely in a leadership position, and, at this point, pretty much ordering Michael around.
Is it difficult coming into a show that’s already become an established hit? I know with Battlestar, I think you were the face of Battlestar Galactica for several months before the series, but here with Burn Notice it’s already had a season and is very well known.
A few more quips from the ‘Burn Notice’ stars
Jul 7, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars, Interview
From The South Bend Tribune:
Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell recently did a conference call with reporters to promote the second season of “Burn Notice,” which returns 10 p.m., Thursday on the USA Network.
Even though I used the best material for a weekly Remote Control column, which appeared in our June 29 print edition, there were a few more quips from the two stars that I wanted to share.
“Burn Notice” centers around Michael Westen, a spy who has been exiled to his hometown of Miami after getting booted from the espionage community for reasons that he’s still trying to figure out.
So here’s an extra dose of Donovan and Campbell just in time for the Season 2 premiere:
USA’s ‘Burn Notice’ is back and quirky as ever
Jul 5, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars, Interview, Reviews
BY JOSEPH V. AMODIO |Special to Newsday July 6, 2008
When Jeffrey Donovan first auditioned for the role of Michael Westen, a new TV spy, he didn’t go for the intense, Kiefer-Sutherland-on-”24″ sort of thing. Donovan’s take was more laid-back. Sarcastic. Been there, done that.
In an instant “Burn Notice” creator Matt Nix knew he’d found his star.
The last thing Nix wanted was for his hero to be, well … “spy-ish.” He envisioned something un-”Alias,” a non-”24.”
“Those shows [depict] a very dramatic world,” Nix says. “People run around saying” - he adopts a deep, basso acting voice - “‘You don’t understand! We’re up against the hugest organization in the world, and we’re all going to die unless we do this thing in the next 42 minutes!’”
Back to regular Matt: “On ‘Burn Notice,’ we kinda go in the opposite direction.”
Like in the pilot, when Michael is stuck between two thugs in the back of a Mercedes. “You know, Mercedes makes an SUV now,” he says. “Big backseat … surprisingly affordable, too.”
“Battlestar Galactica” Actress to Guest on “Burn Notice
Jul 2, 2008 Burn Notice, Co-Stars
Tricia Helfer, the sexy cylon “Number Six” from Sci Fi’s Battlestar Galactica, will join the cast of Burn Notice as “Carla” when the hit series’ second season debuts in July.
In the show’s first season, “Carla” was only known as the smoky voice on the other end of a vague, threatening phone call to covert-operations agent “Michael Westen,” played by Jeffrey Donovan.
The network said Helfer will appear in multiple episodes where she could prove to “hold the key to Westen’s burn notice.” Burn notices are missives issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents who are considered to have become unreliable.
Burn Notice was created, written and is executive produced by Matt Nix.
The series averaged a 2.5 rating and 3.74 million viewers through the first six episodes in its debut season and will include 13 episodes this season.
