Interview with Kyra Sedgwick

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 somebody is watching me."

Is Sedgwick, 42, just another Hollywood prima donna?

That's what you might think, until she comes running across the soundstage 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 character as quirky as Peter Falk on "Columbo" and just as brilliant at solving murders, she has given Sedgwick the career kick-start the actress needed after 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 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 discusses her life, both professional and personal.

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 well up in her eyes.) I'm sorry. You know, my daughter is just 16, and we get along so well -- I just miss her. She's going to college 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 available and I'm not there -- it feels so unmanageable sometimes. But, thank God, my kids are great and intact.

How has being away affected your relationship with Kevin?
He continues to be unfailingly supportive 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.

Does absence make the heart grow fonder?
My heart soars [when I see him]. I get that thing -- I totally do, still, absolutely. My heart skips a bit, and I'm just filled with love and attraction.

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 roles are somewhat limited when you get to a certain age. So I love the idea that the success of "The Closer" is part of the reason why these amazing women like Holly Hunter, Glenn Close and Kim Delaney are working in TV.

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 because I know more about who I am and what I need.

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 when I was there. I said, "Nice to meet you." He laughed and said, "We met when you auditioned for "Meet Joe Black." You dodged a bullet with that one." Meanwhile, I thought to myself, "I don't think [not] working with Brad Pitt would have meant I dodged anything."

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, ChapStick,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.