Matthew Rhys on the Shocking Finale of Perry Mason: "It Was All a Surprise!"
It’s been a wild ride for Perry Mason. Over the course of eight episodes, the first season of HBO’s new series—which delivers the origin story of TV’s most famous lawyer—has seen its title character change from a down-and-out private investigator on the seedy side of 1930s Los Angeles to someone beginning to resemble the courtroom dynamo made famous by Erle Stanley Gardner’s bestselling books and the TV adaptations that followed.
The finale of the first season airs tonight and brings to a conclusion the saga of Mason (played by Matthew Rhys) and the case against Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin), a mother whose young son was kidnapped and murdered and who’s being accused of masterminding the crime herself.
The hit series has already been granted a second season, so it’s clear that Mason will return, but what about the cast of characters—like Detective Ennis, a crooked cop played by Andrew Howard, or Sister Alice, the evangelist played by Tatiana Maslany—who’ve surrounded him?
Here, Rhys talks to T&C about the twists and turns of the finale and what’s in store for Mason’s next big case.
By the time we get to the season finale, Perry Mason has become a bit more like the character we thought we knew. But he’s been on a real journey.
That was one of the primary attractions to the part. I had no interest in meeting Perry mid-summation, mid-trial as the established lawyer. What stopped me in my tracks was when [the creators] said to me, “we’re interested in how he became Perry Mason,” and I thought, oh yes, that would be interesting. They laid out this very detailed arc of what his journey would be and how the bases are loaded when and where we find him. By the time he’s going into trial his world is upside down and you don’t know if he’ll succeed or not. He wasn’t this linen-suited perfectionist knocking it out of the park; there were a lot of mistakes.
Did you start filming the series knowing the twists in the final episode or was it a surprise to you when you found out?
No, it was all a surprise! They’d had a very detailed bible dictating what the eight episodes in the season would be. Right up until the end, things were still being fleshed out and adjusted. The real details of the trial were a very last-minute discovery.
In addition to the outcome of Emily’s case, there’s a surprising death and some major character developments. What surprised you?
The death of Detective Ennis was a shock to me. I didn’t think they would kill him! I knew that in a storytelling tradition there has to be some kind of redemption, but I didn’t think they would kill him off—and not in that way. But the biggest of all might have been Sister Alice and what she became, this image of emancipation who’s literally run away from her own mother and reimagined a new life for herself. Those were the two big surprises
Over the course of the season, Perry really does come into his own. Which part of that journey was the most interesting to you?
This is purely from a selfish part of my process, but something that was fun to play was that first outing in court when things go wrong in ways he didn’t anticipate. You don’t expect your throat seizing up on you. I say that in a forgiving way, because for me I didn’t have to start as this incredible legal orator. As an actor, I got to learn on the job with Perry which is an indulgent and reassuring way of doing it. I didn’t have to be a seamless legal eagle as soon as I put on a better suit and stepped into the courtroom. I got to ascend with the character.
The way things are left at the end of the season, there seems to be a lot of opportunity for Perry. Where do you want to see him go?
I’m always intrigued by the trips and the falls. I’m not necessarily in a hurry to see him ascend quickly to be an amazing lawyer. That’s a linear story and I don’t know how much interest there would be. I’m more interested in the bumps in the road and what they’ll be for Perry. I’d rather be shocked by seeing something we’re not expecting. For next season, I’d prefer not to see him seamlessly ease his way into nailing cases and having people confess on the stand.
Perry’s a character famous for courtroom scenes, but most of what we’ve seen in this season takes place in his life outside the courtroom. Which parts of that were most exciting to you?
What I loved in the first reading of the scripts was how there were so many elements stacked against him. Early on the writers said they were going to load their bases and they did. The war redirects the course of his life, and he slightly loses sight of who he is and what he’s destined to do. But it sets him on a grim path, and he can never let and injustice go by if he can do something about it.
While you’re waiting to start filming the second season, is there any part of him that you miss having around?
I’ve kept up the drinking. That’s been pretty solid. I had such an affection for Perry as a person, he was really relatable. There has been criticism saying he’s a deadbeat, but I never saw that. He’s trying. I know I’ll get to see him again underneath that fedora, so I’m not too worried.
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