What ‘The Rainmaker’ Stars Did (& Didn’t) Take Away From the Movie Version & Book
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John Grisham‘s bestseller about a poor Southern lawyer taking on a major healthcare conglomerate, The Rainmaker, is getting the screen treatment once again — this time, as a 10-episode television series at USA Network.
The story was first adapted to film in 1997 by Francis Ford Coppola, just two years after the book’s debut and at a time when Grisham’s stories were dominant in Hollywood (the pic followed The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, and A Time to Kill, all instantly legendary legal dramas). The cast of the film included a bevy of major talents, and it was well received by critics.
So when approaching their roles for the new iteration in USA’s Blue Sky 2.0 era, the cast of The Rainmaker couldn’t help but take a peek at the performances that came before. However, they also got the opportunity to differentiate their versions in some key ways.
Milo Callaghan, who leads the series as Rudy Baylor, said his preparation did first include checking out what Matt Damon did in that role for the film, as well as reading Grisham’s writing. “I watched the film. I thought it was good because it’s a Coppola film,” the actor told TV Insider. “I read the book and then kind of threw them away, focused on the script.”
Since it’s a 10-episode series, the runtime for this Rainmaker is more than tripled, and the story is expanded and even changed in some aspects, which gave Callaghan plenty of opportunity to run with his own Rudy Baylor. One new element the series offers right from the start is the character’s complex emotional relationship with his girlfriend and fellow law school graduate Sarah Plankmore, who is wealthy, privileged, and prepared for the profession in ways he simply is not.
“I loved it. I felt like it really gave him a place to go beyond the case,” Callahan said of this new story track. “That meant I could delve into emotions that I don’t think are as prevalent in the book or the film in those characterizations, the way that Matt did it and the way that John Grisham wrote it. I mean, our series was a departure from that for Rudy, which I hope becomes evident as you go along.”
Playing Sarah in the series is Madison Iseman, who opted not to check out the source material for information about her character… and for good reason. “Sarah is in the book … but she’s a very different story. She’s pretty much only in the beginning,” she explained. “So I was like, ‘I don’t want to get in my head over this old version of Sarah, since Michael [Seitzman, creator] created something completely new.”
For Iseman, the role became deeply personal. “She starts so naive and soft and sort of open to the world, and throughout the show, she has to find her voice and step into her womanhood and take up space and vouch for herself, which was something I was strangely very much going through at the time in my own personal life,” she remembered.
One character who featured prominently in both prior versions of The Rainmaker was Bruiser Stone, the morally dubious law firm owner who hires Rudy. Bruiser was previously portrayed by Mickey Rourke in the original film, but the role is genderbent in this version, with Lana Parrilla stepping into it. Though Parilla didn’t initially consult Rourke’s portrayal, she found herself mirroring his performance in surprising ways all the same.
“It was actually such a cool thing that they did with Bruiser. It could have been a very heavy, male-dominated series otherwise,” she said of the role. “When I auditioned for this, I didn’t watch the film, and I had some mannerisms as her that were just kind of like I was vibing. Organically, things were coming to me. And then when I watched the movie, I was like, ‘Oh my God, Mickey Rourke was doing the same thing.’ So I think I was channeling him or something.”
Parrilla particularly relished the opportunity Bruiser gave her to go into boss mode. “One thing I love about Bruiser is that she is one of the boys. So I’ve been able to explore this masculine side of me, which has always been there but doesn’t ever really get to come out because I play these really feminine characters, like the queen [in Once Upon a Time] or Why Women Kill, and they’re in these fancy gowns… It was really cool to be in leather,” she said. “I love Bruiser. I love her nickname. I love how she’s so unapologetic, how she’s ballsy, she’s brassy.”
Also one of the boys, so to speak, is Deck Shifflet, Bruiser’s trusted associate who doesn’t mind being called an “ambulance chaser” (but just can’t seem to pass the bar exam). P.J. Byrne brings a new cadence and many quirks to the role that Danny DeVito once had, but he worked hard to steer clear of emulation.
“I watched it out of the corner of my eye,” he explained with a laugh. “I wanted to have an idea of, what did someone else think of this character from reading their script, from reading the book? So I wanted to have an idea, but… when I was in question or ‘What should I do in a scene?’ I never wanted to go, ‘Oh, what did Danny DeVito do?'” One change he insisted upon was the character constantly eating authentically local cuisine (unlike the book and film, this one takes place in Charleston, South Carolina, a foodie haven). “It was really important to me that I had legit Charleston restaurants that we’re eating in the show.”
Robyn Cara, who portrays Kelly Riker, a battered woman Rudy decides to help, has perhaps the most unique experience with her movie counterpart, Claire Danes. The actress said that she saw the movie — calling Danes’ portrayal of Kelly “brilliant” — but also wanted to distinguish herself: “I’m going to put myself in the role and add what I can add,” she remembered thinking. Then, however, she got to meet Danes by chance. “Two months ago, I was in New York for a wedding, and literally just walking down the street, my boyfriend was like, ‘That’s Claire Danes.’ … So wild. And he was like, ‘You have to go and say something.’ So I was like, ‘What do I say?’ So I just went up to her, and she was so confused, because I’m just this English girl who’s just garbling at her, being like, ‘Hi, I’m Kelly Riker. Hi, how are you?’ But she was really, really sweet… That was a very cool moment in my life.”
The Rainmaker, Series Premiere, August 15, 10/9c, USA Network
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