'Damages' stars didn't know whodunit either

If you haven't deciphered the byzantine mysteries of Damages, don't feel bad. The show's own stars couldn't crack the case either.

"In the beginning before the schedule got kind of more crazy, we would have table reads with every script," says Glenn Close, who plays master manipulator Patty Hewes on the series. "People would laugh out loud or gasp or say, 'Oh no,' because all of us were finding out at the same time what was happening. It was fun."

So did anyone eventually figure out whodunit? "No. Not at all," says Tate Donovan, who plays Patty's right-hand man, Tom Shayes.

"Although," he adds, "when you find out who, you know, say who kills David [which was revealed in last week's episode]it makes total sense. You're like, 'Oh yes, of course.' But they've been very quietly laying down the track for that for a couple of episodes."

More big questions will be answered when Damages wraps up its first season on FX at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday. In separate interviews last week, Close and Donovan discussed what it's like being part of such a twist-filled thriller.

Working without a net

Close: That for me was the trickiest exercise of all, because this is the first time I've played a character that didn't have a beginning, middle and end [laid out at the start]. And when I have a character, I know where they start and where they end. Then you go nuts creating a back story, because it's all potentially there. And even if the audience doesn't have an idea of all your secrets, you're allowed to have secrets. ... So it was very disconcerting for me in the beginning to not know a lot about Patty.

... I knew that I wanted to be a woman who was at the top of her game, who was highly intelligent and highly capable, really formidable, because you have to be if you're the head of a firm. To get where she is in this profession, you have to be a thousand times better than any guy that you're going to be standing next to. So that was important to me.

But as far as her back story, I had to kind of give it up, because I asked [the creators] if I could formulate my own back story and they kind of said not to, because they want to keep their options open. I might know a little bit more than you now, but not much. ... It has become the thrilling aspect of this collaboration, because you actually feel like you're living a novel, you're living something out.

Are you playing a bad person?

Donovan: I have to say I'm shocked by how people see me as evil or awful and terrible and --- I'm kind of personally taken aback. I see Tom as a very, you know, a guy who's really just trying to do the best he can in pretty precarious world. ... He's a good father. He's a good husband. He's a good employee. He's a good partner to Patty, and I think he's treated Ellen for the most part really well.

I mean he's sort of, yeah, he had a moment of weakness. But who doesn't, you know? And he's lied and he sort of fudged the truth and he's sort of gone beyond people's backs. But it's a pretty tough, competitive world out there. And yeah, I see Tom as far more sort of, you know, good or understandable than I think a lot of the audience.

Close: I have the belief that truly evil people, it's a genetic evil. I only have the experience of exploring the landscape of some of the characters I've played that people have labeled as evil; I don't think they're evil. I think Cruella [De Vil in '101 Dalmatians'] is evil, because she's the devil. But all the other characters, I was able to find a common humanity with them somewhere, knowing where they're most fragile, where they're most vulnerable. ...  Because as an actor, I really feel you cannot judge a character. You have to totally commit to that character. And for me to totally commit to the character, I have to find those places where I understand the sequence of behavior.

So I do not think Patty --- I don't think she's even a hero in her own mind. I think she's very vulnerable as far as her son is concerned. I think she realizes that she truly is not a great mother. I think she has regrets. I don't think she's a settled soul, and I don't know if she ever would be a settled soul. I think she's very conflicted, and I really like that about her.

What's the deal with Patty's Uncle Pete?

Donovan: I know, isn't he a mysterious character there? He only gets more mysterious, by the way. The final episode you're just like, "Oh my God! What is ...?" You're really like, "What is the story with Uncle Pete?"

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FX hasn't decided yet whether it will bring Damages back for a second season. The show only wrapped production a couple weeks ahead of its air schedule, so neither Close nor Donovan have talked much with the show's producers about what might lie ahead. "Those guys are still in the trenches, I think," Close say. "... So I have not had the time or they have not had the time to kind of hang out and have those discussions, so I can't answer that."

Donovan, though, says that the events in Tuesday's finale could set up a very interesting direction for future seasons.

"What's pretty cool is that they really answer a lot of the major questions" in the finale, Donovan says. "I mean certain really big mysteries are wrapped up. You know, you find out who kills David. You find out what happens in the Frobisher case.

"The big central sorts of mysteries are solved. But what they've done is they set up a dynamic for next year that is fantastic. I mean, when I finished reading it I was like, 'That is so good.' It totally makes you, you know, satisfied and then it totally makes you go, 'Oh, my God. I've got to check out next season because that's going to be amazing.'"

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