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"If you&amp;#039;re a UK-based fan of US drama Burn Notice, you&amp;#039;ve probably been following the show&amp;#039;s fourth season on FX. Digital Spy caught up with Gabrielle Anwar - who plays the sexy, gun-toting Fiona - while she was filming the show&amp;#039;s fifth run. In our interview below, Gabrielle reveals all about working with cult legend Bruce Campbell, her bizarre encounters with Burn Notice fans and the possibility of a Fiona spin-off film! Some people say there aren&amp;#039;t enough decent roles for women on television, so how does it feel to be playing such a character who is so no-nonsense and kick-ass? &amp;quot;It feels excellent! When I first read the pilot script, I couldn&amp;#039;t believe that a man had written my character. I flicked back to the front page where it said &amp;#039;By Matt Nix&amp;#039; and I thought, &amp;#039;Either that&amp;#039;s just a woman who&amp;#039;s ghost-writing or it&amp;#039;s a married man who really understands his wife!&amp;#039; It was in fact the latter, I was happy to learn! &amp;quot;It feels amazing. Even though I&amp;#039;m playing a character who is so kick-ass, there&amp;#039;s still only one woman writer on our team. So even though we&amp;#039;re taking baby steps forward with great roles for women in television, there&amp;#039;s still a long way to go. &amp;quot;And oftentimes, they will employ Lisa [Joy] - the female writer - to do a specific Fiona episode, which is very interesting to me. I don&amp;#039;t know if that&amp;#039;s something that they would even approve of my talking about, but I think it&amp;#039;s a very important statement to make.&amp;quot; With such an action-packed role, do you pick up any bumps and bruises along the way? &amp;quot;I go through five tubes of Arnica a week! I don&amp;#039;t know if you&amp;#039;re familiar with Arnica, but it&amp;#039;s a homeopathic remedy for bumps and bruises. I have one in the make-up kit, I have one in the trailer, I have one at home, I have one in my handbag!  &amp;quot;[But] I don&amp;#039;t like to make a fuss because the boys make such a fuss! If I find myself in pain, I try to run as fast as I can away from anybody else so that no-one can see me. I would hate to be in that same wimpy category as the guys, who I think get more injures than I do!&amp;quot; Do you enjoy being on a show with such variety - you get to play action, but also comedy and drama? &amp;quot;Yeah, I do. I think it&amp;#039;s becoming a little more common, but there are so few shows that cross over from one genre to the next. I think it&amp;#039;s been to our detriment as far as being acknowledged for any accolades, because I&amp;#039;m not sure if they know which category to even put us in.  &amp;quot;But from a creative standpoint, it&amp;#039;s really fun to be crossing over like that throughout through the day, going from drama to romance to action. And then there&amp;#039;s comedy, which I think we have to give most of the kudos to Bruce Campbell for!&amp;quot; What is it like working with Bruce Campbell? &amp;quot;Very funny! He has a very dry wit and he is the king of improv, so there&amp;#039;s lot of surprises in a scene with Bruce. I&amp;#039;m always thrilled when I get to work, look at the call sheet and it&amp;#039;s Actors No. 2 and 3 on the sheet - which would be Bruce and myself. Those are some of my favourite days.&amp;quot;   Do you think Fiona and Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) belong together? &amp;quot;Of course! They&amp;#039;re perfect!&amp;quot; What do you think is in store for Fiona and Jesse (Coby Bell)? &amp;quot;I think they may have surpassed any kind of romantic connection. Fiona&amp;#039;s commitment to Michael is so enormous that I can&amp;#039;t imagine it could be derailed this easily.  &amp;quot;There was one episode where the two of them had a moment, but I think that is such a sweet indication that there&amp;#039;s always going to be somebody out there that potentially could sabotage a relationship, but it&amp;#039;s very seldom worth it.&amp;quot; You mentioned the show&amp;#039;s lack of awards recognition. Is that something that bothers you? &amp;quot;Well, I think it would be lying if I said it doesn&amp;#039;t. When you&amp;#039;re nominated and you&amp;#039;re being recognised, it does such wonders - not only for your own career, but also for the longevity of a show. So I think it would behoove us to have some sort of a mention, but at the same time, if one gets caught up in that end result, then the disappoint that comes would be excruciating.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s reminiscent of the auditioning process. You have to focus on the actual work - the actual thing that you&amp;#039;re being asked to read - as opposed to the end result, because it so seldom happens. It&amp;#039;s not realistic to think that way.  &amp;quot;And I&amp;#039;m not sure how fair or legitimate these awards shows are. My father [The King&amp;#039;s Speech editor Tariq Anwar] has been nominated for a number of Academy Awards and I get so excited for him, [but] he hasn&amp;#039;t come home with one yet. So of course I have my own feelings [about awards] that are totally personal and biased, because I say my father deserves all of them and yet comes home with none.  &amp;quot;But it&amp;#039;s actually quite good for me, because if he can&amp;#039;t win one then there&amp;#039;s no chance of me winning one! It&amp;#039;s actually not high on my priority list at this point, which I think is quite a healthy attitude.&amp;quot;  Throughout the show, we&amp;#039;ve had hints at Fiona&amp;#039;s past, but is that something you&amp;#039;d like to explore more? &amp;quot;I would, actually, I would love to do that. In fact, when I lost the Irish accent after the first episode, I was so upset. I did everything I could to campaign for the Irish accent. It just wasn&amp;#039;t something that the producers were willing to do because of how it affected their test audiences, which I found rather nauseating! But I would love to explore that Irish background of Fiona&amp;#039;s. I think it deserves some airtime.&amp;quot; Sam got his own spin-off movie - would you like the same for Fiona? &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;d like to shoot it in Colombia! I think Dublin is more my scene. There&amp;#039;s been a couple of mentions of [a Fiona-centric film] but I&amp;#039;m not sure.  &amp;quot;The truth is, I play Fiona for seven months and then have this fabulous five-month break. The idea of playing Fiona again, during that break, when I really should be catching up with my kids&amp;#039; homework and I really should be watching a football game that my son is playing in, it seems like something that would be rather over-indulgent, to continue playing Fiona when I shouldn&amp;#039;t be!  &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll see what happens, but at this point, you&amp;#039;re catching me in the middle of [filing] the 18th episode of this year, so I&amp;#039;m a little bit pooped!&amp;quot; What has your experience been like with Burn Notice fans? &amp;quot;I find that the women who watch the show approach me more readily than the men, which is quite amusing! A lot of women have had some strange and rather disturbing comments about how to inflict pain on men, so I usually try to prescribe a psychiatrist rather than my own pseudo-version, because obviously I&amp;#039;m pretending! But that&amp;#039;s always been amusing to me, that women are very turned on by how tough Fiona is with men!&amp;quot; Why do you think male fans are more wary - are they intimated by Fiona? &amp;quot;I hope so!&amp;quot; With Burn Notice being such a successful show, how long do you think it can continue on for? &amp;quot;Well, there are so many spy stories to be told and there are so many people in distress who need the kind of help that Michael provides. I think it could go on for many, many years.  &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t know how long Fiona can prance around in a bikini with a shotgun! If I continue doing some of my own stunts, I will need a walking frame shortly! So I don&amp;#039;t know what Fiona&amp;#039;s future holds, but I think the show itself can go on for a very long time.&amp;quot; Burn Notice airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on FX. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/interviews/a343994/burn-notice-gabrielle-anwar-qa-i-want-to-explore-fionas-past/>