‘The Rainmaker’s Lana Parrilla on Bruiser’s Dangerous Encounters & More

Things got scary for Bruiser Lyman (Lana Parrilla) on the latest episode of The Rainmaker. Thanks to her ex-husband, she found herself in fear for her life, with the notorious Gator Jack Guidry (Owen Roe) showing up at her house at the end of the last episode. This time around, she was busy setting up security feeds at her home without telling Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne) or Rudy Baylor (Milo Callaghan) exactly why. So did Bruiser really have cause for such grave concern? Oh yeah… but not for the reasons she might’ve expected. Warning: Spoilers for The Rainmaker Season 2 Episode 3, “Checkpoint,” ahead!

Gator made it clear to Bruiser that he wanted her to continue representing Tom (Austin Nichols), despite her friction with both him and his new wife. So when Tom considered taking a plea deal that would put him into witness protection to give up Gator, Bruiser furiously stepped in and talked him out of it.

While Deck and Rudy were busy trying to figure out how to help their young, incarcerated client — even fishing through the trash bins for shredded documents — Bruiser had to keep all her attention on saving Tom (and his hateful wife) from himself.

By the end of the episode, Bruiser had successfully talked Tom out of the deal (and divorcing his wife to save privilege), and Rudy, who’d gotten himself thrown in jail for contempt over a courtroom outburst, decided to turn the case into a class action.

It’s far from over, though; Bruiser still has to find a way to defend Tom against the prosecution, and now, her client list has just increased by up to 40 kids. To break down Bruiser’s mindset in these trying times, TV Insider caught up with Lana Parrilla!

Episode 2 ended with Bruiser finding Gator in her house, and I just love the detail of how she’s clutching the keys through that forced smile. All women know that feeling. Can you just talk about that?  

Lana Parrilla: Thank you. Yeah, that was the street girl who grew up in Brooklyn coming out in me. Honestly, I found that in a moment, and I had the keys in my hand because I just walked through the front door. So it just felt like we women walk around like that sometimes — and if you don’t, women, you should because you never know who’s behind you; if you step out of your car at night, or you’re in a parking garage or a parking lot, whatever, you just need to have your keys kind of poking through your fingers as in case you need to punch someone.

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I think Bruiser in that moment — and I’ve been there many times — she just felt like, “If this guy gets close to me, even though he’s known me my whole life, I’m not going to be afraid to poke him in the eyes with these keys if I need to.” Yeah, so that was discovered in the moment, and then Michael [Seitzman, series creator] loved it so much that he panned down to it. Yeah, we were able to have that really cool beat there.

It’s a great detail. I also love the detail when he’s talking to her, and he says that she’s just like her father. After everything they’ve gone through in Season 1, do you think she takes that as an insult still, or is that a compliment?

Not necessarily an insult. I think she just doesn’t love being associated to that part of him, but also is very grateful for what he’s taught her. He has given her a backbone, a spine, that she can really weather any storm, and there’s a toughness to her, street smarts that everyone in the firm gets to benefit from, including clients. So I think she loved and hated when he said that. We all have to sort of look at what we inherit from our parents, and often, we focus on the negatives, but those negatives actually help us a lot. They help shape who we are, and they can really become a positive, especially in this sense, dealing with the mob, for example.

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She’s obviously in this situation with Gator because of her ex. Do you think she’s more mad at her ex for lying about it, or the fact that he’s got her roped into dealing with this gangster?

I think it’s a combination of both. I think being wrapped up in gangsters has been something that she’s been privy to her entire upbringing with her father. So this is like, they always say you marry your father. There’s a part of her that did, because he’s a gambler, and her father guaranteed it — he gambled, especially because he was so shady, and the things that he was involved in, he broke the law multiple times, and Tom was no different. So I think she knows how to handle this. Even though she hates that she’s back in this again, she knows how to deal with it. I think when Gator shows up, it’s more like she’s afraid only because you’re dealing with an unpredictable human being, and when you’re involved in the mob or the mafia, you’re never really safe. It doesn’t matter how long Bruiser has known Gator; she’s just not safe.

There are also some moments in this episode when maybe Bruiser’s a little jealous, but the way that she handles it is to kind of make fun of the new wife. My favorite is “Doppler Dumbass.”

Yes, she is not necessarily jealous. She just doesn’t really want to deal with it — doesn’t want to deal with the woman who she caught in bed with her husband. I don’t think anyone would want to deal with that person. But it shows a lot of growth in the character how, even though she was horribly betrayed by this man, she can still show up to help him. It’s hard to say no to him because she loved him so much at one point, so with Lynette coming into the picture, I made the choice that because Bruiser is so familiar with her, she has met her before, yeah, and there’s history between them, so the betrayal is even bigger.

When Tom is offered the plea deal, she fights against it, and she’s like, “You can’t do this.” Do you think that if Gator hadn’t been in her ear and threatening her, that that would have been the right thing for him? Would she have encouraged it, or is she giving him the best advice anyway?

The problem there is, when Gator makes a deal with Bruiser, he basically says, “You’ve got to control this whole thing. My name cannot come out in this. You need to protect, basically, the mob.” If Tom takes that deal, that means he’s going to talk, and he’s going to have to throw names out there. That’s going to give the FBI an opportunity to go after Gator, and that’s what he doesn’t want. I have to prevent that from happening because that can get me killed, and it can get Tom killed as well. Even if they go under witness protection, I’m still here. So it’s going to fall on my shoulders, and so I, as Bruiser, need to make sure that I have all hands on deck dealing with this.

I like the scene when Rudy gets himself in trouble, and Bruiser says to him, “You can either be right, or you can be ineffective.” Do you think that’s always kind of been her mantra deep down?

Oh yeah, it’s like… “You can do what’s right, or you can do the right thing.” And it’s a very similar mantra, right? I think it’s more about doing the right thing, and I think he needs to be effective. She lives by these mantras because it’s a very street way of looking at things, but it also makes more sense. Sometimes, especially in these legal shows, and even just watching a lot, you’re like, “Oh my God, this person’s guilty.” It’s like, “Yeah, but where’s the evidence?” You’re like, “How can you not think that this person’s guilty? I mean, it’s so clear. Look at them; they’re clearly lying.” It’s like, “Yeah, but where’s the evidence?” And that’s when things get tricky. That’s why Bruiser is constantly saying to Rudy, “Hold on, not yet, not yet. Let’s wait. We got it. We don’t have enough yet. We need more evidence. We need more evidence to nail this person. We got to do it right.” And that’s part of what’s frustrating.

And I think here, with Rudy… I feel like it’s the same thing. It’s like, “You can do what’s right, or you can do the right thing.” It’s that same thing, and I feel like with Rudy, she is mentoring him. He’s young. It’s why she doesn’t make him a partner just yet. He’s won one huge case. He has won a huge case, but it’s only one case. And yes, it was $80 million, and that’s a ton of money. But she doesn’t want him to get ahead of himself. So as he’s growing in the shoes of being this lawyer, and a very good one at that, and we’re so lucky to have him, she still wants to guide him properly. So this is just her being the mama boss that she is.

The Rainmaker, Fridays, 10/9c, USA Network