‘American Gigolo’: Jerry Bruckheimer Teases Jon Bernthal’s Take on Julian Kaye
Fall Preview
This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2022 Fall Preview issue. For more first looks at fall’s new shows, pick up the issue, on newsstands Thursday, August 25.
How do you remake the classic 1980s neo-noir American Gigolo — a sexy star turn for Richard Gere as a high-end male escort, Julian Kaye, framed for the murder of a client — and have it feel brand new? For starters, toss out the movie’s happy ending.
In this eight-episode series, Julian (We Own This City’s Jon Bernthal) serves 15 years in prison before Detective Sunday (Rosie O’Donnell), who first put him away, tells him he’s been exonerated by a hitman’s deathbed confession.
(Credit: Hopper Stone/SHOWTIME)
“The idea that sparked everyone’s imagination was the notion of Julian as a kind of Rip Van Winkle who emerges into a world he doesn’t recognize,” says Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the film and is an exec producer of the show. “He wants to forget about the past, and Sunday wants to solve the case [of who hired the killer]. The investigation threatens secrets people have been keeping for years.”
Julian’s previously untold backstory unfolds in flashbacks (Gabriel LaBelle plays the character as a young man). So too does his reimagined love affair with Michelle Stratton (Gretchen Mol). As we catch up with her today, this wife of a tech billionaire (Leland Orser) is busy numbing the pain of an unhappy marriage when her teen son disappears. “She must face very difficult truths,” Bruckheimer teases in an understatement.
Meanwhile, Julian is dogged by his own dilemma: Can he live a blue-collar life with the support of a genuine new friend, neighbor Lizzy (Yolonda Ross)? Or will he need to suit up as an escort again, in the threads his old pal Lorenzo (Wayne Brady) saved for him?
Either way, Bernthal will have you rapt. “Jon can be charming, dangerous, emotionally intense, and tender,” Bruckheimer says. “That air of unpredictability is what we wanted for Julian.”
American Gigolo, Series Premiere, Sunday, September 11, 9/8c, Showtime
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