Get Free

Sharon Gless talks about Prop 8, Hannah Free and her role as a lesbian icon.

by Neal Santos

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How can a heterosexual person win a Gay Icon Award? Sharon Gless will find out firsthand when she receives her statuette at this year's QFest. Her role as the tough Det. Sgt. Christine Cagney on the detective series Cagney & Lacey garnered a generous lesbian following, which often left Gless sapphically mislabeled. In 2000, Gless played a lovable-yet-suffocating PFLAG mother in the Showtime series Queer as Folk. She now stars in the USA show Burn Notice. Currently, Gless is promoting her new project, Hannah Free, in which she plays a free-thinking lesbian unafraid to clash with gender expectations.

City Paper: So tell me a little bit more about Hannah Free. I know you're a producer on top of being an actor, is that correct?

Sharon Gless: No, that's not really true. (laughs) I didn't produce one frame of it. When I saw the print, I said, "I'm a producer and have my own card." And then I called the real producer and I said, "I'm not a real producer!" She said, "Well, your agent sent a little money and told me that I better give you a title!" (laughs) But no, I cannot take credit for producing one thing. I only had the great honor of playing Hannah.

Claudia Allen, who wrote the play, called me one day and said that they're adapting one of her plays and asked me, "Will you play it?" ... I did it because I love Claudia and I love her work and she writes women beautifully.

CP: And I know you're no stranger to playing strong women on television. Your role on the show Queer as Folk has given you such a huge gay following. Was there any connection to playing a lesbian based on your experience on Queer as Folk?

SG: No. But I do have a very generous lesbian following, and that started with Cagney & Lacey. Christine Cagney was a great icon for the lesbian community. The character was not gay herself, but she was a strong woman portrayed on television. So it was kind of controversial in its time. Christine Cagney was the single one and the tough one with the mouth. The lesbian community embraced her and I couldn't convince anyone all those years that I was not a lesbian myself. (laughs) That's fine, I wasn't insulted. So that's really where that following started for me. Doing Queer as Folk, the gay guys came and became a part of my life and a part of my audience and part of my support system throughout my career — I always thought that the gay and lesbian community has kept me afloat.

CP: I love the fact that there were steamy sex scenes in the movie, and it didn't hold back on portraying sexually active older women. There was a beautiful physicality between you and Maureen Gallagher.

SG: Thank you. They left most of the steamier sex scenes to the 30-year-olds. (laughs) But Maureen Gallagher is a respected Chicago actress. She did an amazing job. Unfortunately she was in a coma half the time, but when I did get to play with her it was really wonderful for me.

CP: What was production like?

SG: We shot that in 18 days. It was absolutely amazing. If you go back and pour a lot of money into it there's stuff you'd fix with everything, but 18 days — and 30 percent of that crew worked for nothing.

CP: And I hear that you didn't work for very much either?

SG: No I didn't! (laughs) It actually cost me money, but I didn't care. I believed in the story and I was so happy for Claudia and I was honored that she asked me to play Hannah. It was a great part.

CP: What was that like for you? Did you have any attachment playing Hannah?

SG: I'm going to be your most boring interview. (laughs) It wasn't tough at all playing Hannah. I felt very, very comfortable. I read the script I did not have to physicalize my sexuality because I was in a bed or wheelchair most of the time; most of my work was all upper-body and it came from inside, y'know? I was amazingly comfortable playing the part; I knew who she was. Regardless of who she slept with, which was a great part of her history, her heart was that of a human being. That's why I'm so appalled about this marriage nonsense.

CP: What are your thoughts about Prop 8?

SG: The timing of this movie was so great, because this was a woman who in the end wasn't allowed to say goodbye. In the end she wasn't "family." I'm a fifth-generation Californian. That's my home and my family's never left there. I put out a statement that for the first time in my life I'm ashamed of my state. That's why I thought this movie was in its own strange way very timely. That's what it's about. They couldn't be together openly.

CP: Any message you want to tell your Philadelphia fans?

SG: I can't wait to meet you guys. I look forward to the 19th. I'm coming to Philadelphia, with my film under my arm.

CP: Be careful about the cheesesteaks.

SG: (Laughs) Will it give me acid reflux?

(neal.santos@citypaper.net)

Sharon Gless receives the Gay Icon Award on Sun., July 19. Hannah Free screens Sun., July 19, 4:45, $10 for screening, $50 for screening and award ceremony, Prince Music Theater, and Mon., July 20, 4:45 p.m., $10, Ritz East.