For Kyra Sedgwick playing LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson has been a role of a lifetime and the actress’s award-winning performance has made TNT’s “The Closer” the highest-rated drama on basic cable the last two years.

“I hope for everyone that they work something out that feels right and fair and good for everybody,” Kyra said when we spoke yesterday. “There’s plenty, there’s enough to go around. Knowing that, this should be solved.”

The episode has Brenda going home to Atlanta for part of it but for her own holidays, Kyra, husband Kevin Bacon and their two kids will not be making a really big deal out of things.
“Thanksgiving is the big holiday for us,” she said. “We always go away for Christmas because we’re not big fans of the holiday. We stay away and give each other one present and that’s the end of it. This year we will go work and be of service as a family somewhere.”

Winner of the Golden Globe Award and twice nominated for the Emmy for her performance as professionally tough but personally vulnerable Brenda, Kyra doesn’t try and tell writers which direction to take the cop with a major sweet tooth.

“I’m so in the part, so in her life that I can’t project myself out of it enough to know what I want for Brenda,” she said. “I really feel like it’s just too hard for me to be that objective. I don’t think she’s the kind of person who has any real insight into where her life is going anyway. I really trust the writers. I think last year was beyond my wildest dreams about where the character got to go and I’m hopeful this year will be the same.”

Kyra has steadily worked in movies for more than two decades, mostly in independent features like “Singles” and “The Woodsman” with Bacon, but occasionally she's been in big hits like “Phenomenon” and this year’s “The Game Plan.” She earned a Golden Globe nomination playing Julia Roberts sister in “Something to Talk About.”

The major success on television has led to more offers, she said, including the upcoming film “Game” in which she co-stars with Michael C. Hall.

“I’m still waiting for that real great, amazing ‘Oh my God’ role \[in movies\] I get more offers now, I don’t have to audition as much although I don’t mind auditioning. It’s hard to find something in the hiatus \[from ‘The Closer’\] The perfect thing doesn’t always come along in that six months period. ‘Game Plan’ was great because it was a big hit and it’s important to be in that kind of movie.”

But a movie role would have to be pretty spectacular if it is to match the richness of playing Det. Johnson each week. Last season, Brenda had a health situation with early onset of menopause which Kyra says "was fantastic to play, not knowing much about menapause. It really is such a huge deal. I can imagine if men went through it, we;d hear about nothing else. It was exciting for me to do the research about it and talk to women.I think eveyeine had sort of a deeper connection to Brenda after seeing her go through that stuff. She kept doing her job, never old a member of her staff and didn't even want to talk about it with her boyfriend. A lot of women have come up to me and say how amazing it was, How wonderful it was to see that on TV. No one ever talks about that on TV."

The special two-hour episode of "The Closer" airs Monday, Dec. 3 on TNT.