When Matthew Rhys landed the title role in HBO’s Perry Mason, he made a choice not to revisit the classic TV series that starred Raymond Burr as a brilliant defense attorney.
“I know if I was to watch any of the show, whether it was conscious or not, I know I would start imitating him,” the Welsh actor tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Rhys, who won an Emmy in 2018 for his role on The Americans, discussed with THR the process of giving Perry a backstory and the show’s deviation from previous Perry Mason stories.
Were you familiar with the Raymond Burr series growing up?
Absolutely. I never watched it, because I was a kid, but there were reruns in the U.K., and I remember it was always on. I had that thing where I was mixing them all up: “Is he in a white suit? Is it that guy?” No, that’s Ironside. And then I was like, “Isn’t his name Matlock?” No, that’s Matlock. So I was aware of this gargantuan, long-running courtroom drama where you don’t even know how you knew everyone confessed on the [witness] stand, but it was like it’s in your DNA. He’s the guy who gets everyone on the stand. And then they were like, “What’s your favorite episode?” I don’t think I’ve ever watched one. It was huge here, as it was in the States, but it was more my grandparents’ show, not mine.
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Once you got the role, did you go back to the Erle Stanley Gardner stories or the old show at all to get an idea of the character’s origins?
I didn’t, for several reasons. I know if I was to watch any of the show, whether it was conscious or not, I know I would start imitating him, just through sheer osmosis. I know what I’m like — I’m like part mynah bird, part parrot. I can’t help myself but to imitate. When I see an adaptation of a book, I’ve stopped reading the source material because twice I’ve done an adaptation and I tend to play stuff that isn’t necessarily in the script, but it is in the original book. I remember a director going, “No, that’s in the book, that’s not in the script. The audience won’t know what you’re doing.” So I’m of the opinion that you just deal with the script. It makes life so much simpler.
Gardner’s Perry Mason stories famously have next to no backstory. What did you and the writers talk about in giving him a life outside the courtroom?
That was part of the big pitch for me. When I sat down with them, I was a bit trepidatious, but the first thing they said was that the big thing for us is backstory as to why does Perry Mason become Perry Mason. What is it that drives him to become an attorney? Then I was kind of interested — what is the origin story, that is interesting. Then, by episode five, he’s still not an attorney. I was like, “Guys, when is this going to happen? You’ve only got three episodes left!” They said, “If this goes, you’ll have seasons of being an attorney. Don’t rush getting there.” Give him a very interesting background as to why he becomes that person, and if you can set that up strongly, it pays off. What they did with him being a veteran, what happened to him in the First World War, what he endured, really feeds this sense of justice he has. So they were huge on backstory, and I think every element then fed what you saw.
Can you discuss how the show layered in some issues, like Della’s (Juliet Rylance) lesbian relationship and the racism that Paul (Chris Chalk) faces, that are relevant to the present day?
That was [executive producer] Robert Downey [Jr.]. What he was interested in is, you have these three outsiders. He wanted them bonded by the fact that all three were sort of outsiders — Mason, when we first find him, isn’t really settled anywhere. He’s not one thing or the other. He has this farm he’s trying to protect out of familial duty more than anything. He’s drifted into this job. He’s an outsider, and I think that’s what makes him a good private investigator. Paul Drake is a Black cop, and Della is gay — these are three outsiders, and that kind of bonds them.
What conversations have you had so far with the new showrunners for season two, Jack Amiel and Michael Begler?
From their point of view, they don’t want to reinvent the wheel, but they want to put their own mark on it and have their own ideas as to who Perry could be in the second season. They want to evolve him as a person, which I’m very interested in doing, because we’ve literally just seen the birth of him as an attorney. It’s now his journey as to how he’s going to progress from there, and who he’s going to become being part of this judicial system.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in a June standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
