Throughout the first five seasons of Burn Notice, Michael Westen, the burned spy, introduced viewers to his "trigger-happy ex-girlfriend."
But now, in the Season 6 opening-credits narration, she is his "trigger-happy girlfriend." It's a small yet significant tweak, TV's answer to a relationship status change on Facebook.
Gabrielle Anwar, the actress who plays trigger-happy Fiona Glenanne, isn't sure what to make of it.
"I didn't even know that. You just broke the news to me," Anwar says. "My initial reaction is I have a little bit of a temperature rise. My heart is racing. I may be getting hives."
She is reacting this way because she is uncertain how Fiona might take the news. Granted, Fiona and Michael (played by Jeffrey Donovan) are in love.
"But Fiona doesn't like to define things," Anwar says. "I don't think that's what she's about. She thrives on an unconventional definition of life. So hearing that it's official, that the two are dating, I am having a visceral response to that."
She had better get used to it. Intro segments of Burn Notice, which airs at 8 p.m. Thursday on USA, don't change often.
Fiona is currently behind bars, having been framed for murder. What research did you do for your prison scenes? Did you visit any prisons?
What a dreadful actress I am. I did not. I have no excuse. I was thinking I would feel it in the moment.
With the set design and the props and all the extras, it was pretty realistic. I actually had the most phenomenal shooting schedule while I was in jail. They carried on shooting all the other story lines and I would work maybe one day a week, which is unusual on this show.
So when it came time to be talking about Fiona's release, I was begging the writers to keep me in so I could spend more time with my children. I think I may be one of the few people on the planet begging to stay incarcerated.
What character traits do you enjoy most about Fi?
Her impatience, her intolerance, her disdain of men on many levels, that she is so erratic and uncontrollable. All those things that are considered negative about a person are my favorite things about her.
Do you have any of those qualities in real life?
Most of them.
Which do you prefer as an actress: relationship-driven scenes or action sequences?
The drama is what I gravitate towards. But it's a very male-dominated environment. When we're doing action sequences, the boys get really excited. Our stunts and explosions and all the pyrotechnic stuff take over the day and the drama falls by the wayside. I get a little overwhelmed.
I just want to sit with the girls, our script supervisor or the girls in the hair and makeup and wardrobe departments, and talk shoes and have a cup of tea. It's like being around a bunch of 10-year-old boys playing war. No room for a chick.
How much longer can this show can keep going strong?
As long as the writing team comes up with stories. There are so many spy stories. But I don't know how long Fiona can be running around wearing bikinis and high heels and carrying a shotgun. I'm not sure if the audience is going to want to see me doing that into my 50s.
I'm in for a little longer. But maybe without the bikinis.
