'Paradise': Why Sterling K. Brown said 'this is it' to his next TV role after 'This Is Us'
From "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman, Brown, James Marsden and Julianne Nicholson star in new political thriller
Sterling K. Brown and This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman reunite for the new show Paradise (on Disney+ in Canada, Hulu in the U.S., with new episodes released Tuesdays), but Brown's character Xavier Collins is a far leap from Randall Pearson. In this political thriller, Xavier is head of security for U.S. President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), and when Xavier finds the president dead on the floor of his bedroom, a mysterious politically charged journey begins.
If you're thinking this sounds like it could be a run-of-the-mill political conspiracy story, think again, because Paradise is filled with twists, deception and fascinating characters. Xavier didn't just find the president dead. He was the last person to see him alive. On top of that, Xavier doesn't follow protocol and stalls to report the president's death, with a core question of the first episode being, what is Xavier trying to hide?
"It's completely different than This Is Us, which was also very exciting for me," Brown told Yahoo Canada. "Someone who processes their emotions and deals with them in a very different way."
"I actually think Xavier is much closer to a lot of people that I know, much more so than Randall is, because that level of emotional availability and whatnot takes a long time to get to, and can sometimes be painful and difficult to get there. Sometimes it's easy to just keep it as far away as possible, and I think you see Xavier doing that until he finally just can't anymore."
Watch Paradise on Disney+ with plans starting at $8.99/month
While we won't spoil the first big reveal in Paradise, we'll tease that the show is set in an idyllic community, but sometimes places that seem like "paradise" can be deceiving.
'It wasn't something that we've seen before'
There have been several iterations of U.S. president characters in film and TV, but something that feels refreshing about James Marsden's character is that Cal doesn't come across as a redundant imitation of a real world leader, or even a combination of world leaders. Cal feels like his own unique and new character.
"That's initially why I was excited about playing this role, is that it wasn't something that we've seen before," Marsden said. "If you looked up president in the dictionary, not this guy, and that was really appealing to me."
"To be a man of the people, a man who communicates with the people, a man who's broken, a man who has tremendous regrets about things in his life. And you get to see into him as a human being and where there's sadness that might be lingering, and regret. And then you also see the charm, and he's a perpetual child sometimes."
Julianne Nicholson's shocks and surprises throughout 'Paradise'
But a particularly compelling character is Julianne Nicholson's Sinatra (a code name), working as a special advisor to the president. While we can't reveal much about Nicholson's character without spoiling a significant component of the show, one of the most interesting elements of Paradise is when the series goes back in time, revealing Sinatra's past before her government post, as a successful tech professional.
"We as people are many different people," Nicholson said. "We have many different facets to who we are, what we share with people, how we present to the outside world."
"And to be able to get to play a character where you can sort of live while filming those parts of their life, it's very exciting to get to do that, and then see where she gets to. So it was a huge gift to be able to explore that."
Read between the lies. Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden, and Julianne Nicholson star in
Paradise.
Streaming January 28 on #DisneyPlusCA. pic.twitter.com/SUMFLsbr3Z— Disney+ Canada 🇨🇦 (@DisneyPlusCA) November 14, 2024
How does 'Paradise' stack up against 'This Is Us'
With Brown coming off of such a successful project with Fogelman at the helm in the past, Paradise is bound to entice people to make comparisons to This Is Us. While they are very different in tone and genre, Paradise still taps into Fogelman's unique ability to really get into the emotions of all the characters in his shows, set to make the audience of this new project increasingly more invested in the story as we learn more about each character.
Brown has been quoted in the past saying that the pilot for This Is Us was the best network TV pilot he's ever read, with the caveat that he did also ready the pilot for the HBO hit The Wire, which of course is particularly strong.
So where does Paradise stand in his hierarchy of great TV show pilots? With Paradise being a streaming show, versus a network series, Brown's response to his introduction to Paradise was "this is it," in terms of finding his next big TV project after This Is Us.
"I'll tell you what, it was good enough ... for me to tell my representation, we can stop looking for the next job," Brown said. "This is it and let's figure out how to carve out the space for it."
"It was a no brainer. ... It's definitely in my top five for sure."