With set-photos appearing online on a regular basis over the last few weeks, anticipation is building for the return of True Detective for its second season, which features a brand-new cast and new directors taking over from Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and company.
The cast for season two surprised many, but on many levels on adds to the anticipation and desire to see where creator Nic Pizzolatto takes the series next. Colin Farrell (Phone Booth), Rachel McAdams (A Most Wanted Man), Taylor Kitsch (Savages) and Kelly Reilly (Flight) are the major players for the new go-around, but the most left-field casting choice was that of Vince Vaughn as a California crime-lord in danger of losing his empire. Many were perplexed, others were intrigued, but what is true is that the material on offer here is so strong that the role could change Vaughn’s career from here on out.
Over the last couple of days, Vaughn has spoken to Playboy about the show and his role, and admits that Pizzolatto’s writing is so good that it makes its much easier to go up against McConaughey and Harrelson’s performances, and the show itself, than many think it might be.
“[Creator] Nic Pizzolatto is such a great writer, and so much of this is driven by his stories,” Vaughn says. “I thought Woody and Matthew did an exceptional job with the first season. This one’s very different, though. It’s a totally different story, with its own characters. The thing that’s consistent is the richness of the characters and the quality of the material.”
With new characters brings a new location, with the show moving out of the dark recesses of Louisiana into the more familiar surroundings of Los Angeles. “That was Louisiana. This is a California-based story, and it was kind of birthed from here. A lot of it is set in Los Angeles.”
Vaughn’s character, Frank Semyon, is a criminal who is trying to legitimise his enterprises, but his plans are changed when a business partner is murdered:
“I really like my character. Nic is so great about investigating characters and their complexities in an authentic and engaging way,” he continues. “I want to watch this show not because I’m in it but as a fan of the material.”
What may surprise fans more than his casting is that Vaughn almost worked with Pizzolatto previously, when Vaughn was developing a film version of popular 1970’s TV show The Rockford Files:
“I was developing a movie version of The Rockford Files and met with Nic about writing it. He was really enthusiastic but was already working on a crime drama set in Los Angeles, and he gracefully said it was best for him to focus on True Detective……Then he reached out to me about doing that series, and I was beyond flattered and thrilled to collaborate with him. I was happy to work with Colin Farrell too, whom I’d never worked with before.”
Vaughn is obviously keen to mix up his career choices after many years of starring in big-budget (and hugely successful) comedies such as Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up and Dodgeball, but admits the change of pace is welcome:
“It’s nice now to be mixing it up and doing something different with “True Detective”….I wouldn’t say [TV is] more interesting; it’s just different. A film like The Way Way Back with Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell was as smart as anything you’d see in any format….TV is definitely having its moment. It’s almost as if we’ve discovered how exciting it can be to tell a story over a longer time frame. In the 1990s we went through a run of independent films that captured the attention of critics and a certain type of audience member. Those movies were edgy, offbeat and risky and had fully drawn adult characters. You can’t do that as easily anymore on a big studio movie. If you can’t turn something into a franchise that gets people into seats that first weekend, you’re probably not going to get your movie made… You also have all these new avenues of financing and distribution, which have the studios running a little scared. Netflix, Amazon, other streaming outlets — they appear to have more patience to finance character-based stories. And not just dramas. I think Netflix in particular has been a fantastic place for documentaries to land and be seen. But the basics are still the same: You want a great story; you need good characters, good actors and someone in charge who’s running it well. I think it’s the most exciting time since probably the early 1970s for actors, writers and directors in terms of doing meaningful, intelligent, grown-up work, and that has a lot to do with these episodic shows.”
You can read the full interview with Vaughn over at Playboy. His latest film, Unfinished Business, opens in the US and UK on March 6th. True Detective Season 2 has yet to have an official air-date announced, but rumours point to a Summer premiere on HBO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXOAy1VNGBA&list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F&feature=player_embedded
Originally published February 13, 2015. Updated November 7, 2019.
