Of his character in BREAKING THE SILENCE Gregory Harrison says, "He carries torment with him like a heavy cloak." The TV movie concerns a big-bucks attorney (Harrison) whose law school flame (Stephanie Zimbalist) cons him into defending a poor youth (Chris Young) accused of murder. Harrison's character has a secret from his past, as well as a romantic life that is pointedly odd. His defense of the young boy brings his own problems to a head.

"He has to fuction," the actor says of his role, "and he has to have an extra effort to hide what's really going on inside him. I think a lot of people like that are walking around. It's really disconcerting to think about. The character is familiar with shame." The handsome lawyer is shown in sordid encounters with aging, unattractive prostitutes. "It sickens and disgusts him," Harrison continues, "but he recreates that shame. He needs to go through it, feel the shame over and over. Most people who commit sexual crimes had sexual crimes commited to them. That's the cycle that has to be broken. It's very insidious. I am attracted to parts where the character has lots of subtext going on. For lots of years, the American TV public did not want to see these people. These problems can be so horrendous to think about, that we just don't." The actor noted from real life, "I'm a recovering addict," adding, "It was a difficult time. But you learn to understand attractions - some women, for instance, who are beaten but never leave. In their heart of hearts, they feel they deserve to be beaten. As an actor," he says, "you walk a line - to have the audience care about me and see the dark side of me, and root for a character with a problem they've ignored. If we're lucky, it gives viewers a broadened perspective of their lieves."

One small piece of set decoration helps explain things. It's a fish - one large tropical fish in an enormous tank that takes up most of a wall in the lawyer's office. The fish is completely isolated. "The director (Robert Iscove) and I collaborated on that, this huge aquarium and only one fish. It seemed significant as this character's choice." The lawyer finds himself entangled in a cordial date with Zimbalist that shifts to passion. Harrison's character stops quickly and runs. "I don't think it's impotence," the actor says. "His problems are in his head. He isn't with any 'regular' women. He goes to nameless prostitutes who will refelect his script."

As things turn out, Zimbalist also has to perform against her will, in a closing statement to the jury. "She comes to me because she can't handle the case. But she learns she may very well be able to do the work on her own. I think an audience wants to see characters grow, be bigger when they leave. My character can face his problems because he is no longer dealing with his own fate - the young man's whole life is at stake here. He's been willing all of his life to hide from revealing the truth, and the truth of his problem. For the young man, my charcter wants not so much to save him from prison as to save him from himself. He recalls what happened to himself when he was a boy, and he feels more terrified than the boy does. Both of them didn't want to be there. And it was worse for him than the boy, that terrible secret of his is exposed by the boy."

This is the fifth time Harrison and Zimbalist have been paired in performance -- CENTENNIAL, THE BEST PLACE TO BE, THE GATHERING and on stage in the musical FESTIVAL. "Stephanie and I are very good friends," he says. "Over all those years we've stayed in touch and talked about working together again on this idea or that. From the script, I knew she'd have a good part. An agent and I showed it to her."
- by Benjamin Morrison (TV Focus, January 1992)

Stephanie Zimbalist always appreciates a good role, but this TV project gave her an enjoyable reunion as well. The former Remington Steele star was reteamed with Gregory Harrison (Trapper John, M.D., The Family Man) - whom she has worked with in several previous projects, including the TV movie The Gathering and the miniseries Centennial.

The CBS drama "Breaking the Silence" is about a courtroom matter with deep pesonal meaning for two of the attorneys involved. Zimbalist and Harrison appear as earlier lawschool sweethearts drawn back together when she seeks his help for her current client, a teenager (Chris Young) accused of murdering his abusive fahter.
In the course of the trial, the lawyer played by Harrison is unsettled by the similarities he finds between the case and his own troubled past, which he has tried to kepp a secret beneath his controlled veneer. Co-produced by theatrical-film maker David Permut (The Marrying Man), the film also features Kevin Conway.

"Everybody thinks I always play lawyers," Zimbalist muses, "but I never have before. Obviously, the personal side of this story was more interesting than just getting to be a lawyer, but it was kind of fun to get to do the scenes in court. I think it's a really good story, and it was one of the best times I've had in a long time. This was my fifth time working with Greg, so it was like old-home week. I'd remember something from the things we'd done before, and he'd say, 'How did you remember that?' Then, he'd remember something and I'd say. 'I'd forgotten all about that.'
He's sort of like a big brother to me, and he's always been a great guy, but he's really great now. It was a wonderful cast and a very happy experience, the kind of thing where you finish up and go to leave, and the prop master and the prop mistress give you flowers."
Zimbalist says she is pleased with the on-screen result this time. "Sometimes you have such a good time making something that when you finally see it, you think, 'Oops.'"

She and Harrison are "very, very fond of each other, and he's got one of those great senses of humor," the actress says. "We've never had rough times, because he's too good-natured for that. I adore his wife and I don't know his children well, but something very good obviously is working there, because he's turned into a stellar human being."
- by Jay Bobbin (TV Week, January 1992)