Author Michael Connelly Recalls Matthew McConaughey's Subtle Help Passing Manuel Garcia-Rulfo the ‘Lincoln Lawyer’ Torch

Transcript

00:00So your showrunner's on record recently saying that there's already plans for the next two season

00:06and he did talk about how long the show could go on for. So what I'm hearing both of you say

00:10is that you agree, yes, you'll play this character for as long as possible and you're fully on board

00:15with them continuing this. Why would I object to that? Yeah, me too. No, let's stop it after

00:21three seasons. No, that would be a fantastic run. He's getting more and more popular. I hope he'll

00:28always have a soft spot in his heart for Mickey Haller and want to play him. Always. Oh, I remember

00:36the first season that you told me a story and I always said and I wish I could have come up with

00:40it because it was Matthew McConaughey when you told me what he said about, you know, he put in

00:47so beautifully. Oh yeah, he said, Haller's a guy you can dance between the raindrops and not get

00:54wet. And I love it and that's what he is, you know, he has, you know, he's like all these

00:59obstacles and troubles and at the same time he's just dancing through it and

01:04for me that was so vivid, you know, an image that it was like so helpful for to build the character.

01:09There's a few season, I mean, a few things that happen in this new season where he doesn't

01:15dance so well in the raindrops. He gets a few marks. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, at the end, you know,

01:22anyway, but what I'm trying to say is that he's so, it's such a beautiful character,

01:26he's so rich that it's so many ways to explore him, you know. Well, I think what's interesting

01:31is like obviously you can see there's so much trust between the two of you and I think,

01:35Mike, we got to, you told me yesterday the story about casting Manuel and like how you

01:40immediately trusted him upon seeing him because you cast him in COVID a little bit. Can you guys

01:44both talk about that casting process and how it was different for you? Yeah, I mean, what's been

01:49weird for you too, I mean, because it was COVID, I think you were in your ranch in Mexico and like

01:55we were doing Zoom conversations and it was all done by video and a lot of people involved and,

02:03you know, a lot of in that early moments you go by instinct. This guy looks and he sounds

02:11like the guy I have in my head. I mean, like I had a, you know, a really good movie made out

02:16of Lincoln Lawyer, but it wasn't the same kind of accuracy to the character. It was, you know,

02:23Matthew McConaughey did a wonderful job and made it his own for that film, but

02:30we, with Netflix, from the start said we want to be very loyal to the book and we want our lead

02:37to be Mexican-American and they provided Manuel, you just done a movie for them, I think,

02:45and so we watched that movie and then we said, yeah, so let's, can we talk to him and it went

02:50from there. Right, yeah, it was so weird because it was COVID and we've been, you know, isolated

02:58for I don't know how many months and then I have this audition and it was like doing callbacks

03:04on Zoom. People were reading the lines on Zoom and it was the weirdest thing. A lot of, you know,

03:08little cameras around. It was so weird and I don't know, we went back and forth, you know, for like

03:14three, four times for the callbacks and I was so excited. I, it was, it was, it was really,

03:21it's been a bless to be part of this.