'Hightown': James Badge Dale & Riley Voelkel Exclusive Interview

Hollywood Life

Watch 'Hightown': James Badge Dale & Riley Voelkel Exclusive Interview - Hollywood Life on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00 At the end of last season, you know, Ray gives Renee the

00:03 opportunity to tell him about Jorge's death, but she doesn't

00:06 do it. In his eyes. What does that tell him about their

00:10 relationship?

00:11 Well, you know, it's the when you're dealing when you're kind

00:19 of a shady person, I noticed you don't trust other people, you

00:22 know what I mean? So it's kind of like the baggage of all these

00:26 lies. The way that I look at Ray is like, you know, Ray has

00:29 gotten himself into such an entanglement. He can't get it

00:32 out of his he can't get out of his own way. You know, and, and,

00:37 you know, Riley and I's relationship has always been

00:40 complicated as our characters have like kind of like done this

00:44 dance. But what I think is kind of cool is that there's a

00:48 reckoning coming. And that Ray and Renee have to really get

00:54 honest with each other.

00:57 Riley, I was gonna ask you, why doesn't she tell him? You know,

01:01 does she ultimately not trust him?

01:03 You know, I think at the end of the day, there's a part of both

01:09 Renee and Ray that will maybe never trust each other until

01:13 possibly a reckoning. You know, if you look at how their

01:17 relationship started, it was based on lies and using each

01:20 other and back and forth. And there's like, they're playing

01:23 house now. But I think the old Renee and the old Ray still

01:29 live within them. And there is just this level of like, can I

01:34 actually trust this person? And so I think why she doesn't one,

01:38 it's a very big secret. And it's a very scary secret to tell

01:42 anyone. I think she's hoping it will just all go away. And two,

01:47 I think she's concerned in his reaction. He is a cop. He's very

01:53 engulfed in his work. Like does he? Would he help her? Would he

01:57 understand? Can she trust him? I think all those questions are

02:01 kind of weighing on her. So yeah,

02:05 yeah, it was an accident. I will say that like it. She didn't do

02:08 it. Like, it was an accident. Intentionally. Yes. So the

02:14 cleanup was messy, but it was accidental. Yes, James. When it

02:20 comes to Ray, he's not exactly someone who lets things go very

02:24 easily. Is he going to continue to dig about Jorge's death?

02:28 Yeah, Ray, you know, Ray's gonna dig a lot of things and maybe

02:35 it's his own hole. Right? You know, the thing about Ray is

02:40 Ray's also so narcissistic and self involved. He kind of just

02:44 glazes over a lot of other things. But, you know, where

02:49 where we're coming from, it's not I think it's only the

02:54 difference between season two and season three time wise. It's

02:57 not that much. So yeah, the death of war is still a big

03:01 part of our driving storyline.

03:03 You know, Renee was pregnant at the end of last season. You

03:07 know, Riley, how is she sort of navigating being a mom again in

03:14 the midst of just, you know, just a vault of secrets so much

03:17 stuff going on. There's the Frankie element. That's a lot

03:20 for her to have to deal with.

03:21 It's a lot. It's it's a lot for her to navigate. She has a bunch

03:26 of deep, dark secrets that she's having to navigate while living

03:28 with her cop boyfriend, who is now the father of her new baby.

03:34 And so she's, you know, at the beginning of the season, we find

03:38 her at home with the kids, you know, Ray's kind of engulfed in

03:42 his work, her usual. And on the surface, I think it almost

03:48 represents the life that she really was fighting for, which

03:51 is possibly a stable life, a lot more safe. But I think we also

03:57 see a part of her that maybe misses the rush of her old life

04:03 maybe misses the power. You know, she's been made to be kind

04:08 of powerless by men and like throughout her life. And I think

04:13 there's a part of her that feels like she needs to fill this void

04:18 that she's missing. Maybe this housewife life isn't exactly

04:22 what she's really, really did want. She's kind of convinced

04:26 herself she did, but is it what she really wants or really needs

04:29 or really is?

04:30 I was gonna like, to follow up on that, you know, do you think

04:34 Renee feels more in control of her life with Ray? Or is it a

04:38 different kind of unpredictability than what she

04:41 had with Frankie, there was a certain power with with Frankie,

04:44 even though he was he terrified her on so many levels. Yes. A

04:49 rut, like you said, a rush of power there.

04:51 There was and I think, you know, she spent especially all of

04:56 season two trying her best to get away from that away from

05:00 that danger. She was constantly, you know, saying I just want a

05:03 normal life. I want what's best for me and my kids. But I think

05:08 with all these characters in Hightown, we see they're all

05:11 flawed. And I think that kind of comes to the surface with Renee

05:15 this season where we see, you know, maybe she does have a

05:19 little bit of an addiction to the power that that feeling of

05:23 being someone and being a boss and when she's at home, you

05:29 know, in her pajamas with her kids, it's kind of takes away

05:34 the glamour, it takes away all of that that she was used to.

05:37 And even though it's stable, and she's now with someone that she

05:41 can, you know, be a lot more safe with, I think there's

05:45 there's something that she's still missing.

05:47 Yeah, there's a yearning there. Yes. James, we see from the

05:53 trailer that Frankie is still alive. I thought for sure that

05:56 man was a goner. He's somehow still kicking. How will he

06:01 continue to cause problems for these two because he always

06:04 managed to do so even if he's behind bars.

06:08 One of my favorite things on the show is that, you know, the bad

06:14 guys are good guys. The good guys are bad guys. And and what

06:18 a Maori is done and Frankie Frankie such an amazing,

06:21 complicated, beautiful character that is also empathetic, you

06:25 know, so get ready for Frankie this year because he ain't going

06:30 down without a fight, you know,

06:32 I feel like we've been read like every man can't

06:37 do anything else. Add another twist in there. He manages. He

06:42 manages to have more control behind bars than anyone else I

06:45 know. So you know, this is true. This is true. He's unstoppable.

06:50 And with Ray getting his job back, obviously, that caused a

06:54 lot of tension with Alan and there's the Jackie element. You

06:58 know, how is he? Does he have that power rush? How's how's he

07:02 doing back at work?

07:04 You know, I it's, you know, the show deals in a lot of with a

07:10 lot of addictions to a lot of different things. And I think

07:12 Ray is someone who's obsessed with his work and he's addicted

07:15 to his job and he's addicted to that rush. You know, I think

07:20 it's a it gives him a sense of purpose. And, you know, I think

07:24 that's to a fault because you you really especially when the

07:28 season starts, you're gonna you're gonna see a lot of a lot

07:32 of the holes on the other side of his life that he historically

07:36 has not been good at.

07:37 Well, with Jackie, I one of the things I there's so many

07:41 relationships that I love on this show. And I love the

07:43 dynamic between Jackie and Ray, you know, she calls him at the

07:46 end of last season, and he's like, I'll come get you like,

07:50 I'll come be with you like, you know, if you need me and he

07:53 keeps telling her just go inside, just go inside the

07:55 house and not understanding that it was a drug dealers house,

07:59 you know, is he going to pick up on that maybe she's sort of

08:04 fallen off the wagon? You know, is it something that he's sort

08:07 of always cognizant of?

08:09 I think I think Ray, the Ray and Jackie relationship is kind of

08:13 one of the pure relationships in this in the show where they've

08:18 found this kind of common ground that that they don't cross each

08:24 other that much, you know, so, you know, Ray cares, I care. And

08:28 I'm, you know, Jackie is, as we begin the third and final

08:36 season, she's in the throes of it. She's gone off the rails

08:40 hard, you know.

08:41 I cannot wait to see what twists and turns this season throws at

08:47 us. You guys always managed to shock me in many, many ways. And

08:53 it's been such a ride so far. And thank you guys so much for

08:55 taking the time to speak with me about these two crazy kids.

08:58 Thank you. Thank you.

09:02 Bye.

Category

Transcript

Recommended