This is part 1 of the transcript of the interview with Gabrielle Anwar and Bruce Campbell of Burn Notice. Part 2 will be featured tomorrow. Typically I have a full podcast split into two parts but due to some nasty tech errors, we had to cut and splice this together to give you just one podcast and many of the journalists featured in the transcript are not part of the podcast. We have figured out the issue and now that’s fixed. Sorry for the screw-up on the muting issues and some other technical stuff that I don’t quite understand.Podcast interview with Gabrielle Anwar and Bruce Campbell, Burn Notice Season 4.5 USA Network
Our first question from the line of Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com.
Stevie Wilson: Thank you. Good morning Bruce and good morning, Gabrielle. How are you all doing?
Bruce Campbell: Good morning, good morning.
Gabrielle Anwar: Morning.
Stevie Wilson So we’re going into Season 4, what’s new? What’s – where are we picking up from in terms of this whole, you’ve got a new character in there and I’m dying to see it, quite frankly,…
Bruce Campbell: Come on, Gabrielle; give them the whole lowdown of the entire season.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, no. You know how much better you are at that than I am.
Bruce Campbell: Oh, no, oh, no, well, let me just say, I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to get more bad guys and we’re going to get worse bad guys because this is getting worse. Michael Westen’s situation is compounding and he’s in a world of hurt and that drags us into it also. So everybody’s in trouble. His mother’s in trouble, we’re all, you know, it just – every episode it seems to escalate. I mean wouldn’t you say that’s the general feeling, Gabrielle?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I think you’re right, it builds to quite a crescendo in the last episode, but you’re right, it’s a continual snowballing effect. We can’t seem to get out of trouble.
Bruce Campbell: No, and we have other side jobs and, you know, we all – the cases come in every week from different ways, but there’s still the through line of Michael Westen’s situation is getting more and more perilous and dangerous and he’s getting more powerful people pissed off at him and he’s, you know.
And I think by the end, I have to say, when I read the end scene of the end of this season, it actually was a jaw dropper for me. So most TV shows don’t give you that. The nice thing about this season, the last half of this season is there’s going to be a big boom at the end of this. There’s going to be a big, “What the f?” moment.
Stevie Wilson: Wow.
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Stevie Wilson: Gee, well how do you follow that up? Okay, so in terms of your characters, you guys are getting more ramped up, more involved and seeing more danger for your characters as people as well as with Michael?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, Gabrielle, wouldn’t you say we get dragged into it because of him? We’re part of this team now.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I think that loyalty surpasses the peril that we’re all in and he’s getting himself deeper and deeper into trouble and we’re sort of caught in the crossfire.
Bruce Campbell: And also, you know, we can’t – we can’t say no to him. It’s not possible. We give him a lot of crap, particularly, you know, Fiona’s, you know, that character, and rightfully so, because he’s doing things that are risky. But he’s one of these classic, it’s all for the greater good kind of guys, so we each have our own codes and ethics, the stuff that really gets the Fiona character pissed off, the stuff that really get’s Sam’s goat, and the stuff that fuels Michael Westen.
So we’re actually all fighting for the right thing, but we just have way different approaches in how to do it and so, you know, my theory about this show is that we break laws every episode, but we don’t do anything wrong. You know what I mean?
Stevie Wilson: I love it.
Bruce Campbell: We’re just trying to deal with it ourselves.
Stevie Wilson: That’s amazing.
Bruce Campbell: But I like the vigilante nature of it…
Bruce Campbell: …we’re actually, technically, vigilantes, which I kind of like.
Stevie Wilson: Wow. Vigilantes?
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Stevie Wilson: How?
Bruce Campbell: I mean I think if the world has – I think the world needs a few vigilantes, someone out there who’s willing to step up and go, “You know what? This ain’t happening. I got to take care of business here.”
Stevie Wilson: Gabrielle, how you feel about that? Fiona’s obviously – that’s the perfect thing for her to do. But…
Bruce Campbell: Absolutely. She’s a vigilante.
Gabrielle Anwar: I feel very happy about that definition, in fact. Bruce, you just made my day.
Bruce Campbell: She’s a freaking vigilante.
Stevie Wilson: I think you can totally pull it off. You do.
Bruce Campbell: She does pull it off, she’s a bad ass. It’s a great character for her. You know, when people meet her, they’ll go, “Oh, my God, she’s like a nice, really sweet person.” You know very…
Gabrielle Anwar: They do?
Bruce Campbell: Oh, I think so, when you’re not working, you know. I’m kidding, of course, but, you know, the Fiona character’s a great – I think for you, Gabrielle, I don’t know how you feel, but I think it’s a great character because you’re so tough. Sam won’t even mess with you. No one messes with you.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I, you know, I’m truly blessed to be able to step into her shoes every day.
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Gabrielle Anwar: And I love the fact that she really is not apologetic for her…
Bruce Campbell: No.
Gabrielle Anwar: …inner vigilante. I think it’s an ingeniously written role. I’m very proud to be playing her.
Bruce Campbell: And it’s good for the, you know, it’s good for womanhood in that it’s just another ass kicking woman who just steps up and she’s just like the guys, I mean, no difference. There’s no difference in abilities, no nothing, you know? She can take you out as many ways as Michael Westen or Sam Axe, probably more.
Gabrielle Anwar: In heels.
Stevie Wilson: And in stilettos.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, in – and backwards, exactly.
Stevie Wilson: That’s my hero, that’s my role model right there.
Gabrielle Anwar: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question is from the line of Patti Grippol from psaz.com
Patti Grippo Hi guys, thanks for talking with us today.
Gabrielle Anwar: Pleasure.
Bruce Campbell: It’s our pleasure, of course.
Patti Grippo: So you’ve been doing this, well, we’re in the fourth season; you’ve been doing it awhile. What about your characters continues to challenge you?
Gabrielle Anwar: The high heels.
Bruce Campbell: The high heels and memorizing dialogue.
Gabrielle Anwar: Oh, yes, you and me both, my God.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, I mean, we, this is what people don’t – it’s not a complaint from us as actors, that’s what we have to do, we have to memorize lines.
The only thing about television, it’s like a series of waves crashing over your head before you get a full breath in that while you’re sort of figuring out the current script, the next one comes in, it’s like, “Hey, hey, look at that speech on page four,” you know? And you haven’t even gotten there yet, and so you relish it as an actor because if they didn’t give you a lot of dialogue, right Gabrielle? You’d complain. If you –
Gabrielle Anwar: Well, in my heels…
Bruce Campbell: Or crappy dialogue or, you know what I mean? But if they gave you a lot, it’s challenging and if they don’t give you anything, it’s challenging in a way. So it’s sort of the basics of our job that a lot of our challenge from day to day is really just pulling this show off in seven days, which is kind of absurd.
And Gabrielle would agree that the filming methods we have to do to get this show done are absurd.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, it’s a tremendous amount of work from every department on the crew and…
Bruce Campbell: Every department, everybody’s maxed out for seven months, basically.
Gabrielle Anwar: Right and it’s hard, but in television, which I wasn’t privy to, because I hadn’t much television experience, but you have the luxury on a feature film of, you have the script months, oftentimes before you begin, so you have the entire thing mapped out in your mind, you have a beginning, a middle and an end.
On, with a television show, you’re doing a mini feature film every week, so it’s very, very hard to catch up with yourself, it’s just, you’re so…
Bruce Campbell: And, you’re meeting – sometimes meeting a new director for the first time.
Gabrielle Anwar: Right, yes.
Bruce Campbell: On the first day of shooting, “Oh, hi, what’s your name? (Joe)? Oh, yes, okay. What do you got in mind here?” You know?
Gabrielle Anwar: Right. Yes, you really do have to stay on your toes, it’s – and it’s a lot of staying on your toes.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, and it’s a marathon, you know, because the weather starts to heat up and everybody slows down and, you know, it can get brutal, but I think at the end of the day, it still is – we all feel, as actors, that the show is still worth it because it – when it all gets put together, I have to say, I watch it sometimes and I go, “Wow, that was kind of a slick ass show.”
And you don’t think of it – I don’t think of it when we shoot it, we shoot it, we’re cracking jokes, there’s things happening behind the scenes. To me, it’s all disjointed, but it’s kind of nice to see them all put together and it’s – we feel very much supported by the people on the back end, too, the people who do all the editing.
They’re busy people, the editors, you know? And they keep us in line, they hopefully use all of our best stuff, because, you know, you can get raggedy over seven months, sometimes you don’t nail that take every single time and you have to rely on somebody to nurture you.
So we feel supported by the writers, we feel supported by, you know, the post production and Gabrielle loves to boss the directors around, so that works out fine.
Patti Grippo: Well, by the time we see it, it looks great. So we don’t know all that part of it.
Bruce Campbell: Right.
Patti Grippo. As a follow up, let me ask you this. How much time do you guys have to spend like, training, preparing for the physical side of your characters?
Gabrielle Anwar: That’s a funny question.
Bruce Campbell: Well, Gabrielle, go ahead about, you know, just surviving the seven months in general.
Gabrielle Anwar: You know, there really isn’t time to do any kind of formal training. There truly isn’t time. I mean there’s barely time to wolf down breakfast in the morning, let alone, you know, burn those calories off.
It’s – I mean I haven’t done any training. I actually during the first season went to shoot at a military place where they have a lot of guns. I don’t even know the name of it, but…
Bruce Campbell: So like a gun range?
Gabrielle Anwar: Gun range, there you go.
Bruce Campbell: We went to a range, yes.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes. But that was it and really I only did that because I have a sort of innate aversion to militia and I wanted to not play Fiona with that fear. Of course, once the weapon was in my hand, I felt like, you know, King Kong.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, yes.
Gabrielle Anwar: But – so there, I haven’t had any training. Jeffrey, I think is the only one amongst our cast that actually has had any martial arts training. Am I right, Bruce?
Bruce Campbell: Yes, correct, because, you know, I’ve done some action stuff, but it’s always been, you figure out the choreography as you shoot it on that given day. You don’t – and in, especially in Gabrielle’s case, every week, they’re shoving a new weapon into her hand, something that’s even bigger and bigger.
She carries the most ridiculously heavy weapons I’ve ever felt, I’ve ever (saw). And, you know, you got to hold it up there and look like the tough guy and that thing’s as heavy as you are sometimes.
Gabrielle Anwar: I know.
Bruce Campbell: You know? So…
Gabrielle Anwar: I know, yes, I’m – by the end of the season, I start whining. In the beginning, I’m like, “I can handle this.” And, “Look at me.” And, “Hear me roar.” And then by the end of the season I’m like a little kitten like, whining and meowing.
Bruce Campbell: Well, we have real guns and fake guns and the fake guns are sometimes rubber, so in many cases, I’ll tell the prop guy, I’m just running around with it, “Just give me the rubber, just give me the fake one.” You know, so we don’t even have to carry the real guns around. But I just gave away a trade secret, so I’m sorry Matt Nix, sorry.
Patti Grippo: No, we all knew, we all knew, it wasn’t a secret. Don’t worry.
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Patti Grippo: Anyway, thank you guys both for your time.
Bruce Campbell: All righty.
Gabrielle Anwar: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question from the line of Jenny Rarden from tvismypacifier.com.
Jenny Rarden: Hi, thank you guys for taking our calls.
Bruce Campbell: Indeed!
Jenny Rarden: I have to say first that my husband is a huge Bruce Campbell fan.
Bruce Campbell: Oh, woo.
Jenny Rarden: A season or two – a season or two into Burn Notice, we were flipping through channels on the TV and came across Army of Darkness. He had – he about had a conniption fit and wouldn’t let me change the channel.
Bruce Campbell: He was wondering who that old guy was. He was like, “Oh, that’s the guy, that guy.”
Jenny Rarden: No, he absolutely loved it.
Bruce Campbell: Good.
Jenny Rarden: Anyway, he’s…
Bruce Campbell: He’s a fine man.
Jenny Rarden: …a big fan of that and then we watched Man with the Screaming Brain at some point and I don’t know.
Bruce Campbell: I’m glad to see that you’ve watched the classics.
Jenny Rarden: Yes, exactly. Well, on my site, we have a Burn Notice giveaway going on right now and we’re asking viewers to tell us which shows they would like to see crossed over with Burn Notice. We didn’t limit it to USA shows, but we got some great answers. On USA of course, there’s you know, White Collar and Covert Affairs and In Plain Sight.
Bruce Campbell: Sure. And then on Fox, people – a lot of people said Human Target, they said Sam and Winston could team up and then Fi and Guerrero could – wouldn’t actually, you know, get along, but being in the same room would make the Battle of the Bulge look like a tea party.
And then of course you have the good guys, because both are created by Matt Nix. Dan and Fi would get along because both are slightly insane. No offense, and Sam…
Gabrielle Anwar: None taken.
Jenny Rarden: And Sam wouldn’t be able to resist flirting with Liz, you know, you’ve got all that type of stuff. But my favorite, I think, was Leverage on TNT. Sam and Elliot were both in the service, and so maybe Sam helped train or mentor him. He – Elliot hates guns, so maybe he and Fiona have duked it out in the past. Anyway, just a lot of things like that. It was pretty neat.
Bruce Campbell: Well, most of all, Gabrielle and I would say that we’re glad that you’ve given it this much thought.
Gabrielle Anwar: I know, yes.
Jenny Rarden: It’s hard to imagine. Well, playing off of that, not taking into account networks or anything like that, what shows would you like to see a crossover done with?
Bruce Campbell: The evening news, which is the only TV that I watch.
Gabrielle Anwar: Do they have to be current shows?
Jenny Rarden: No, not at all.
Gabrielle Anwar: I would say The Avengers.
Bruce Campbell: Oh, there you go, that’s a good one. That’s a very good one. Let’s see, wow, that’s bizarre. Let’s see, a spy – well, I would mix this one with I Spy, the one that had Bill Cosby.
Gabrielle Anwar: Right.
Bruce Campbell: And Robert Culp.
Jenny Rarden: Oh, yes.
Bruce Campbell: Because now you’d have like, old school spies, new school spies.
Jenny Rarden: Right.
Gabrielle Anwar: What about In Like Flint?
Bruce Campbell: Oh, that’s a good one, too. That’s a good one, too.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, I was going to say the (unintelligible) with James Coburn.
Jenny Rarden: It’s fun to imagine.
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes, you’re right, this is a good game.
Bruce Campbell: Yes.
Jenny Rarden: Well, I have one other question. Now that Jesse knows about – knows that Michael is the one that burned him, how do things progress from there with his character?
Bruce Campbell: We’re not allowed to tell you that.
Jenny Rarden: Nothing at all?
Bruce Campbell: We can only tell you so much about that stuff because it’s all relevant to what’s happening. The point is this…
Gabrielle Anwar: Right.
Bruce Campbell: If you have to work together for the greater good, you will. And so, but it’s going to be a long road.
Jenny Rarden: Right, well, that makes sense. All right, well thank you guys…
Bruce Campbell: Yes, nobody likes to be burned.
Jenny Rarden: …and I’m – well, that’s true. Michael certainly didn’t. So…
Bruce Campbell: No, and so now there’s a just…
Jenny Rarden: Well, we are certainly looking forward to finishing the season. So…
Bruce Campbell: Oh, absolutely, and, you know, we, you’ll see how that character fits in as it progresses. You know, it’s a tough ting to weave in a new character. It’s something you have to really pay attention to. And, you know, we’ve been very happy to have Coby Bell come along and play.
Gabrielle Anwar: Right.
Bruce Campbell: You know, let him jump over that wall, I’m sit – I’ll sit over here.
Jenny Rarden: All right, well thank you guys.
Bruce Campbell: All right.
Gabrielle Anwar: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question, from the line of Troy Rogers, thedeadbolt.com.
Troy Rogers: Hi Bruce, hi Gabrielle.
Bruce Campbell: What’s going on?
Gabrielle Anwar: Hello.
Troy Rogers: Well, can you guys talk about Simon’s bible and what fans can expect from eyes open?
Gabrielle Anwar: Can we?
Bruce Campbell: I’m sure you can give them juicy tidbits, Gabrielle.
Gabrielle Anwar: You think? What can we expect from the bible?
Bruce Campbell: Well, it’s a puzzle, isn’t it? And…
Gabrielle Anwar: It is a puzzle.
Bruce Campbell: …with a jigsaw puzzle, you have to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Troy Rogers: Okay.
Bruce Campbell: And when you put the puzzle together, you step back and you see an amazing picture. So what Simon’s bible does is present the opportunity to see and know everything.
Gabrielle Anwar: Amen.
Bruce Campbell: So, you know what I mean? And that’s vague, but it’s pretty accurate, I think. And look, these scripts are very – they’re very dense. Sometimes Gabrielle and I will look at each other in a scene and go, “Is that guy – how bad do we – do we really hate that guy?” You know what I mean? Because we’re trying to figure out…
Gabrielle Anwar: Why did we just kill him?
Bruce Campbell: Totally. Did we have to kill that guy? Okay. All right. What’s the next scene? You know? But we try and stay up with it, frankly.
Troy Rogers: Okay.
Bruce Campbell: That’s all you’re going to get.
Troy Rogers: Fair enough. But the next episode isn’t really Sam-heavy, I was wondering, is there any Sam-specific episodes coming up or interesting (unintelligible)?
Bruce Campbell: I’m being written out of the show.
Troy Rogers: What?
Gabrielle Anwar: No.
Bruce Campbell: I’m being written out of the show.
Troy Rogers: No way.
Bruce Campbell: Yes, Gabrielle wouldn’t like that because then she’d have to work more days.
Gabrielle Anwar: No.
Bruce Campbell: No, well here’s the scoop, this is kind of how it goes. Obviously it’s the main story of Michael Westen, but what will happen is that during the course of this season I think you’re going to see – coming up, I think you’re going to see episodes that are Sam-tastic and, you know, Fiona-riffic. And that’s what they do, they emphasize certain characters to help kind of grow the show, so there would be some Sam-centric episodes coming up and some Fiona-centric episode because they want to do that.
They want people to know that we’re kind of in it to win it, that we’re part of the show and I think that’s cool. And therefore, there’s going to be some episodes that you’re not in as much as a character, so it fluctuates.
Troy Rogers: All right. Any interesting guest stars coming up?
Bruce Campbell: What have we got? We got Robert Patrick, he – has he already been in? Robert Patrick? I think he was…
Gabrielle Anwar: I think he was – he’s been popped off already.
Bruce Campbell: Oh, he just bit it, didn’t he?
Gabrielle Anwar: Yes.
Bruce Campbell: Yes. Jeez, we’re trying to figure out which amount of episodes are left, you know? I would say that they are all good, to be effusive and dodging the question.
Only because it’s hard for us to tick them off, seriously. We’ve had some cool guest stars and I hope that if the show stays popular, we can keep getting good guest stars. That’s the beauty of having a popular show, that actors will actually show up on your show.
Troy Rogers: True. Okay, thanks, guys.
Bruce Campbell: Okay.
Gabrielle Anwar: Thanks.
Part 2 of the transcript runs Tuesday, 11/16
This is the end of part 1 of this interview
Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com
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