‘American Rust’ Star Maura Tierney Says Grace Feels Abandoned in ‘Broken Justice’
Preview
It’s been nearly three full years since American Rust last graced screens, but as the latest season titled American Rust: Broken Justice heads to Prime Video, the story is picking up only four months after the events of Season 1.
For Buell resident Grace Poe (Maura Tierney), this means the beginning of a new chapter with her boyfriend, Del Harris (Jeff Daniels), and her son, Billy (Alex Neustaedter), who is still recovering from injuries sustained after being wrongfully convicted for Season 1’s central murder. After spending most of Season 1 fighting for her boy’s innocence and trying to free him from prison, her goals are shifting a bit this time around.
“It’s a very different journey because the two men in her life have sort of… I don’t want to say abandoned her, but I think that’s how the character feels,” Tierney tells TV Insider of Grace’s experience in Season 2. “Del is now working in Pittsburgh and her son Billy has put up some boundaries. So in a way, she’s not in control of these two men and principal relationships in her life.”
(Credit: Prime Video)
“It’s interesting to watch her deal with the challenge of that,” Tierney adds.
In Season 1, Del went to extreme lengths to help protect Grace’s son after evidence linking him to the murder appeared. He took the ultimate step to try and free the boy when he took a fateful trip to West Virginia, where he killed a witness who named Billy as the murderer, despite it really being Billy’s best friend Isaac (David Alvarez).
It was a big gesture from Del to Grace as the pair were on-again off-again throughout Season 1. “Last season, the writers [and] to a certain extent myself played a little bit more with the concept of, ‘Is she using him or does she love him?’ And I always thought two things can be true,” Tierney reveals. “You can use a person that you love and love a person that you use. But I think this season, her feelings for him are really sort of on the up and up.”
In other words, Del and Grace have a fully committed relationship, which was starting at the tail end of Season 1 when she moved into his cabin after burning down her own trailer. “I think she really genuinely wants to have a more intimate, permanent situation with him,” Tierney clarifies.
And as Del and Grace’s relationship changes a bit, her fierceness for protecting Billy remains. “She’s fighting for him to get some just compensation for all of that pain and suffering,” says Tierney, referring to the physical and emotional damage Billy endured while in prison. “I mean, he really can’t walk when he gets out of the rehab. So her mission is to get him what she feels he deserves, but that’s not up to her either.”
How will Grace cope with her lack of control in Season 2 of American Rust? Fans will have to tune in to find out.
American Rust: Broken Justice, Season Premiere, Thursday, March 28, Prime Video
