The second and final season of ‘Your Honor’, a series starring Bryan Cranston, who also serves as executive producer, premieres. The actor will once again step into the shoes of Judge Michael Desiato, a role that has made him realize how difficult it is to «eliminate institutional slavery from the United States».
«For the first season I spent a lot of time inside the judicial system, observing and talking to judges and reading about law. And, from my perspective as a mature white man, I believe that institutional slavery exists in the United States and I’ve learned that it’s very real,» Cranston says in a virtual meeting with several international media including Europa Press on the occasion of the launch of the second season of ‘Your Honor’, which will consist of ten episodes.
«Eliminating that from our society is very difficult because it’s already systematized, and the work of judging gives you a sense of enormous power,» adds the interpreter, whose character in the first season of the fiction was dedicated – in violation of his principles – to cover up and protect his son after he ran over Jimmy Baxter’s (Michael Stuhlbarg), head of a New Orleans crime family.
Now, the second installment of ‘Your Honor’ has added new themes and layers to her character after the shocking ending of the first. «This season is about depression, bereavement and suicidal thoughts. And hopefully people who suffer from that can watch the series and relate and maybe, just maybe, be helped,» Cranston explains. «Understanding the psychology of it all and playing it is very difficult, our profession is very strange, but at the same time exciting,» comments the actor with a slight smile.
«I’M LOOKING FOR THE STORY TO MOVE ME».
«Most of the characters I’ve played [throughout my career] are very complex, I’m attracted to those kinds of complicated, troubled men. And I think it’s because I see myself in them, but also because I see hope in what they’d really like to be, even if they don’t get it in the end,» Cranston responds when asked about his interest in characters with as many edges as Walter White in ‘Breaking Bad,’ the role with which he achieved planetary fame, or Michael Desiato himself in ‘Your Honor.’
The Los Angeles actor has reached a point in his career that allows him to be very selective with the projects he chooses, and for that he follows a filter when deciding. «The first thing I look for is that the story moves me and I feel emotionally connected to it. If so, I move on to the character, of whom I look for five things: what he is good at, what he is not good at and what his secrets, ambitions and fears are. So the better it’s written and I can recognize that in the script, the better I can start the journey,» Cranston explains.
«The audience recognizes when a character is trying to change and they also see themselves reflected in it, they recognize those feelings because they’ve been through them,» comments the Los Angeles actor. «If I see a character who is indifferent and has no ambitions, fears and secrets, I get bored, and I think the audience does too. Also, lately I look at whether the role scares me enough to have to study and become a specialist in something, which is fascinating,» he adds.
‘Your Honor’ is an adaptation of the Israeli series ‘Kvodo’ (2017), something, however, Cranston has been completely indifferent to when preparing Michael Desiato. «Watching the previous version of something you’re going to do is a very bad habit, so I didn’t watch it [‘Kvodo’] until after the first season was over, because then ‘Your Honor’ wasn’t planning on doing a second one. And for the second one it didn’t influence me because I started from a blank canvas when I found out it had been renewed,» he finishes.
