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Cougar Town's Barb, on the Prowl

Cougar Town's Barb cuts men off at the knees like Sue Ann Nivens and keeps them overnight like Blanche Devereaux ... and actress Carolyn Hennesy says, with any luck, she might even seduce a younger lady or two.


Carolyn Hennesy COURTNEY COX 01 X390 (ABC) | ADVOCATE.COM

- On Cougar Town with Courteney Cox. 

Like Sue Ann Nivens, Blanche Devereaux, and Samantha Jones before her, Carolyn Hennesy’s man-hungry real estate agent Barb flirts with, seduces, and sinks her claws into just about any man under the age of 30 she can find on ABC’s Cougar Town. And just like the aforementioned legendary seductresses, she does it with the passion of a gay man on the prowl.

Though Cougar Town focuses on Courteney Cox’s newly single Jules, it’s Hennesy who has emerged as the show’s scene-stealer, rattling off lines like “Innocence should be lost in the bedroom ... or on a commercial cruise liner” with unapologetic bite. Though her role is recurring for now — she has a full-time gig as lawyer Diane Miller on General Hospital — with any luck, when Cougar Town returns for a second season, Barb will be back in full force ... seducing barely legal men and taking no names.

The Advocate: We should just get this part out of the way ... Barb is basically a gay man.
Carolyn Hennesy: Barb is a gay man and happy to be so ... very, very proud to be.

Do you play her that way intentionally?
No ... I don’t. I really play her as just [letting out Barb’s trademark throaty cackle] this testosterone-filled woman — this cougarish woman who has this overabundance of testosterone and free will. She has no scruples. What she lacks in scruples, morals, and possible character she makes up for in testosterone.

She made a crack in a recent episode, and it’s true, that Barb just pops up to make a witty aside or a nasty crack and then disappears. Are we ever going to get to see her back sory?

I’m hoping. Listen, I am kind of as in the dark as everyone else about that. I’ve created my own backstory for Barb, but I’m loath to say it because the writers may have something different in mind and season 2 we may get to see it. So, you know, they give me fabulous, just razor-blade lines to say, and that’s fun. That’s a gift. But I would love to see a little more of the tragicomedy side of Barb. Where she came from. What made her this fabulous creature.

Do the lines they give you ever shock you?

Yes, oh, absolutely. What I had to say yesterday, which ... I’m not going to spoil it for you, but I literally am reading the script, and I was sitting in the makeup chair at General Hospital, when I should have been studying my General Hospital lines. I burst out laughing, and the makeup girl said, “You’re not reading General Hospital’s script.” I said, “No, dear, I’m not. I’m reading what I have to say on Cougar Town,” where I just pop in and pop out. They do shock me. Sometimes I look around and I say, “You’re gonna film this? God bless!”

Not to liken her too much to another TV character, but she is very reminiscent of Blanche from Golden Girls ...
God bless you. Blanche and another golden girl, Sue Ann Nivens.

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