Apparently There Were Complaints by Sharon Gless

Author:Sharon Gless
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2021-12-07T00:00:00+00:00

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I began to assert myself in other ways. I defied my female producers. Cagney was not a woman who was going to risk having her three-inch boot heel get caught in a ruffled hemline while chasing a perp down a stairwell. I talked to the wardrobe department. I wanted jeans or trousers, sneakers or flat-heeled boots, and oversize sweaters and men’s sport coats. I wore a better bra to subdue my breasts. I didn’t want people to tune in to the show to see the blonde cop with the leotard top and a huge rack bouncing down an alley in a Laura Ashley skirt.

I had my long hair cut off. My hairdresser, Carolyn Elias, put it in pin curls, and I sat under a dryer every single morning. It ended up looking like naturally curly hair—soft, but with an attitude.

Cagney came to life. She talked tough and wore pink.

Tyne was also very open to me playing Christine Cagney in a whole new way. I think it gave her some fun new energy to play off of as Mary Beth.

It took a lot of guts on my part, but one day, early on, I asked Tyne for a favor. Would she mind if Cagney could burst through the door first, guns drawn? Cagney wasn’t a careful person. She would jump in, even if doing so was risky.

Tyne was reluctant and confided to me that she didn’t like it for obvious reasons. But she generously agreed, saying, “If you feel that is right for your character, then fine.” I loved her so deeply at that moment. She knew that I wasn’t trying to take attention from Lacey. I was trying to establish Cagney. I appreciated that she could see it that way. It made sense to me. Mary Beth had a husband and two sons at home to think about. She was a wonderful cop but had more to lose because she was a wife and a mother. She wasn’t willing to take risks without consideration. Cagney wouldn’t take the time to assess the risk. Often she was wrong. Okay by me!

We began to work out the details and eccentricities of our characters. Mary Beth drank her coffee from a ceramic mug. Christine always chose a Styrofoam cup. She didn’t want the permanence. She wanted to be able to pick up and go at a moment’s notice. Before we went out, Mary Beth would wash and dry her cup. Cagney would toss hers in the trash.

A ceramic cup made by a fan with “Cagney” inscribed on it was sent to the show for me. Christine would never use it for coffee; however, it sat on her desk, holding pencils. It now sits on my desk at home, holding my pens.

At one point in the first season, Barney told Tyne and me, “You are now the custodians of your characters. You must keep track of their experiences, and if something feels untrue, speak up.”

We did speak up. Often. Barney began to call it the “cuckoo-clock syndrome.

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