Leading women making switch to cable

At first glance, they have little in common: the legal eagle, the hell raiser and the head shrinker.

But look again and youll find a surprising number of ties binding the lead characters of three recently debuted TV dramas: Damages, Saving Grace and State of Mind.

All are as flawed as they are fabulous. And all are women, over 40 and portrayed by three of the acting worlds most highly regarded leading ladies Glenn Close, Holly Hunter and Lili Taylor. Each, for the first time, is fronting her own series. And each is doing it on cable.

I guess one thing Im seeing thats happening is, it feels like some of the obstacles that have presented themselves with film, in terms of financing and so on, are not there with TV, said Taylor, who plays a Connecticut psychotherapist with her own share of personal problems in Lifetimes State of Mind.

Im finding, she added, that filmmaker friends who are having trouble getting their films made are turning to TV.

More and more, too, theyre turning to the cable side.

Cable is different from network, in my mind, noted Close, who previously guest-starred opposite Michael Chiklis in The Shield on FX and now plays a ruthless New York litigator in Damages.

Ive done both, and cable, in my experience, takes more risks.

While Saving Grace marks the first series for Hunter (The Piano), shes not a stranger to cable, winning an Emmy award for her performance in HBOs 1993 movie, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom.

Cable can offer material that is far more adventurous and full full of conflict, full of opposites, Hunter told AP Television.

People dont have to be just contained in kind of a two-dimensional way for safety. You can really kind of bust it out and be an antihero or be an antiheroine.

Men have been afforded that luxury for years (think James Gandolfini, Chiklis, Denis Leary), playing characters both revered and revolting.

The women are surely catching up, though, with the likes of Mary Louise Parkers pot-selling mom on Showtimes Weeds and Kyra Sedgwicks supremely professional but emotionally messy detective on TNTs The Closer.

Sedgwicks Closer is the highest-rated dramatic series on cable, with first-run episodes this summer often clobbering the reruns on broadcast TV.

To have this character in this kind of venue, is something that I never would have expected, said Sedgwick.

Nor would I ever expect that it would be so well received and gaining audience in its third year. Having this kind of success is something that I would never have expected, so Im incredibly happy and lucky. And, yes, it is at a wonderful time in my life, when Im old enough to appreciate it.

Taylor, who for a time was part of the ensemble on HBOs Six Feet Under, is 40, Sedgwick 41, Hunter 49 and Close 60.

All seem sincere when they say these are among the most fascinating characters of their careers.

Hunter said she took on the role of haunted, hard-drinking Oklahoma City cop Grace Hanadarko because she simply couldnt bear the thought of any other actress playing her.

Shes quite an original creature, Hunter explained.

And shes kind of part fantasy, because a lot of what Grace says yes to, people wish they could say yes to, but theyre too afraid of the consequences. And shes just fashioned an unorthodox life for somebody who is in her 40s. Shes not married, she doesnt have children, she doesnt have a huge overhead.

Shes chosen to be kind of liberated. But with liberation comes a certain confinement, as well, and she finds that out along the way. When you say, yes to things, youre saying no to a lot of other things.