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 Sharon Gless has achieved the rare feat of becoming an icon for both gay men and lesbians. The award-winning actress spoke with Katrina Fox
Many of you will no doubt recognise Sharon Gless from her role as Michael’s overbearing mother, Debbie Novotny in Queer as Folk. It’s a role that changed her life – in more ways than one.
“It had been five years since I’d done anything really worthy,” Gless tells SX from her home in Miami. “I’d turned 50, put on a lot of weight, and you know how Hollywood is with women, so I wasn’t working a lot. I talked to the producers and I said, ‘I need to ask you one thing: do you know what I look like?’ And they said, ‘Yes we do and it’s your heart we want.’ So then I started caring about what I looked like because they didn’t care. It made me feel so good that I started taking off weight.” 
As well as putting Gless firmly back into the spotlight again, Queer as Folk turned her into an instant icon for gay men.
“We were getting an award in New York and this boy came up to me and asked if he could have a hug,” she says, recalling a particular incident that touched her deeply.
“Of course I said yes and hugged him and he started sobbing, just shaking and sobbing and I didn’t let him go; I held on to him and all I could think of was the damage that’s been done to this boy that a stranger who plays this crazy mother had to hold him ... I feel like this boy hasn’t cried for years; he probably hasn’t been touched by an older woman. I became very aware of the power of love [Debbie] exuded and [how it] touched these kids.”
But long before she was given the nod of approval from gay men, Gless was a ‘dykon’, thanks to her role as the tough-talking detective Christine Cagney in the hit TV show Cagney & Lacey between 1982 and 1988, a role that garnered her two Emmys. While some actresses would have been quick to distance themselves from their lesbian fans, Gless embraced us with open arms and has credited the success of her career to the support of the queer community. Even a nasty incident when a female stalker who was in love with her broke into her house brandishing a gun (Gless wasn’t home) didn’t put her off us.
“That was scary but I knew it was a very specific case,” she says. “When the police talked to me afterwards, they asked if I was afraid and I said, ‘No, all my fans are smart educated women’, and he said, ‘I have something to tell you – she has an identical twin sister, equally anti-social.’ That was when I was the most frightened. So I hired some bodyguards. For about two weeks I had these retired FBI guys, then I got their bill and I said, ‘I’m not that afraid!’” she laughs.
At this point I should declare a teenage crush on Gless, and given that she’s such a delight to interview, I venture to ask about rumours that have dogged her for years that she’s gay (she is in fact married to Cagney & Lacey producer Barney Rozenzweig who has written a book about the show, but that won’t stop me and several thousand other dykes from wishful thinking).
“All through Cagney & Lacey nobody believed I wasn’t gay,” she chuckles. “I didn’t even try and fight it. It didn’t matter to me. I thought, ‘How flattering is this!’ Even the press talking to me didn’t believe I wasn’t, because of the character and the following I had – they must have thought, ‘50,000 women can’t be wrong.’ And I wasn’t married. I didn’t get married till I was 48 years old – there are still people who think Barney’s my beard!”
For Gless, Queer as Folk and Cagney & Lacey made her more aware of the discrimination faced by women and the GLBT community. “By doing Queer as Folk I became much more aware of the trials and heartbreaking things of being part of the gay community,” she says. “Only by doing Cagney & Lacey did I start becoming aware of how people talked about women.”
It was during her time on the detective show – which was taken off the air then put back on after a campaign by Gloria Steinem’s Ms magazine – that she became a feminist, she adds. “I’d not really been exposed to feminism. I was a woman who was successful in my work and not competing against men for roles ... But by showing the stories we did and living the life, I became a feminist and I remain so.”
So, surely it’s about time she played a lesbian? “I’m dying to!” she laughs. But when it’s suggested she should get a part in the final season of The L Word, she has mixed feelings. “If they asked me I’d go do the last episode, but I’m territorial. Queer as Folk was first and put Showtime on the map and allowed The L Word to be made. I think it’s a very fun show. I always look at it like a Victoria Secrets catalogue. The women are beautiful to look at and I love the lingerie.”
While holding the thought of Gless ogling hot chicks in their undies, I ask if she has any final words for SX readers. “Say hi to the girls for me!” she giggles. Will do, Sharon.
Sharon Gless stars in Burn Notice, currently screening on Channel Ten.
Cagney & Lacey & Me by Barney Rozenzweig is available from cagneyandlacey.com .
Cagney & Lacey Season 1 DVD is available from amazon.com .
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