Andre Braugher was ready to bolt. After three seasons of playing icy loner Detective Frank Pembleton on "Homicide: Life on the Street," the actor was ready to move on — until writers decided his character would suffer a stroke that would force him to learn how to walk, and bark, all over again.
"It was necessary for me to stay a member of the show," Braugher told me on the drama's Baltimore set in 1996. "I need a compelling character. I need a challenge."
Mary McDonnell can relate. In the reboot of "Battleship Galactica," she played President Laura Roslin, who battled breast cancer, not to mention a series of Cylon attacks. She also received rave reviews as a doctor with Asperger's syndrome on "Grey's Anatomy."
But in her starring role in "Major Crimes," which returns to TNT on Monday after a three-month hiatus, she inhabits the part of Capt. Sharon Raydor, one of the sanest, stablest and most sensible characters on TV.
Where's the fun in that?
"I understand exactly what you're asking," McDonnell, 62, said in a phone interview. "Sometimes I watch 'Homeland' and I think, 'Wow, it would be fun to do what Claire Danes is doing.' Then other times I watch and think, 'Um, Claire, are you OK?' "
McDonnell has a long career of playing rich characters. She has two Oscar nominations, one for playing Kevin Costner's stoic love interest in the epic western "Dances With Wolves," the other for "Passion Fish" as a former soap opera actress who drowns herself in booze after an accident leaves her paralyzed. She will soon return to the stage after a 17-year hiatus to perform Anton Chekhov's tragedy "The Cherry Orchard" in Philadelphia with her daughter.
But she seems to enjoy Raydor, perhaps her most grounded role to date — despite the occasional temptation to take a walk on the wild side.
