Entertainment, TV, Television - Army Times

‘Burn Notice’: A spy kicked out into the cold

Hollywood loves the notion of an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation. Now, however, meet the opposite. “Burn Notice” is cable’s latest summer drama series.

“It’s an extraordinary man thrust into an ordinary life,” says Jeffrey Donovan, who stars.

He plays Michael Westen, a master spy with all the skills. This is the sort of guy any actor would envy.

“As an actor, you have to be a Jack of all trades,” Donovan says. “I’ve learned scuba-diving, riding a motorcycle, skydiving. ... But I only know about half the things he knows.”

Maybe exactly half. Donovan speaks four languages; the fictional Westen speaks eight.

Anyway, Westen is moving right along as a spy when he gets an unexplained “burn notice.” In other words, he gets fired.

Westen must probe who blacklisted him. Meanwhile, he works on freelance projects and lives a sort of ordinary life.

He’s back home in Miami with his hypochondriac mother (Sharon Gless). He has one friend, a former spy (Bruce Campbell). He also has a former lover (Gabrielle Anwar) who is a spy.

All of this puts Donovan in solid company.

Anwar, 37, is best known for the 1992 “Scent of a Woman.” Campbell, 49 (as of June 22), has a cult following that goes back to the “Evil Dead” films.

And Gless, 64, has a place in TV history. “I was a huge ‘Cagney & Lacey’ fan,” Donovan says. “I grew up watching that show.”

It was pioneering, a cop show with two female leads. Gless won two Emmys for best actress; Tyne Daly won four.

So when Donovan walked into the hair-and-makeup trailer that first day, he knew he was meeting someone important.

“She stood up and hugged me and says, ‘Hello, son,’ ” he says. “I says, ‘Hello, mother.’ ”

They represent generational approaches to acting.

Gless grew up around old Hollywood, where her grandfather was a lawyer to the moguls. She knew the days when actors had long studio contracts. “I was the last contract player in Hollywood,” she says.

And Donovan, who is in his late 30s, represents alternate routes, including theater, grad school and method acting. He chose his fourth language (Russian) because of his interest in Konstantin Stanislavsky, proponent of the method-acting style.

“I was an actor, reading Stanislavsky every day,” Donovan says. “I wanted to read the Russian playwrights.”

By then, he was immersed in academia. He went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, near his hometown, then got his Master of Fine Arts from New York University.

Before that, however, he had a different reason to act. “It was the attention,” Donovan says.

He savored it. “From kindergarten on I was always making jokes,” Donovan says. “My mother encouraged it.”

Back in fourth grade his teacher was called away. “Who leaves a bunch of 10-year-olds alone, anyway?” Donovan asks. “My friends egged me on.”

Soon, he was on a desk, giving a full performance. Much later, he would add subtlety.

Donovan spends large chunks of his time in theater (“Hamlet” in Boston, “A View From the Bridge” on Broadway) and in independent films.

At times, though, he crosses back to the mainstream. He guest-stars in many shows and had recurring roles in “Another World” (as Popper), “The Pretender” (Kyle) and “Crossing Jordan” (William Ivers). He also starred in the USA Network’s version of the intense British show, “Touching Evil.”

Now he’s playing a guy who’s always pretending — sort of like actors do.

“It’s a parallel lifestyle,” Donovan says. “You have to be able to read people.”

On the tube:

• What: “Burn Notice”

• When: 10 p.m. Thursdays, beginning June 28.

• Where: USA Network