PCM’s Allison Ebner spoke to Breckin Meyer, co-star of TNT’s legal drama series Franklin & Bash, about the upcoming second season of the show.
In its first season, Franklin & Bash introduced viewers to Jared Franklin (Meyer) and Peter Bash (Gosselaar), two young, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants street lawyers who caused a seismic culture clash when they joined a legendary, button-down law firm. Jared loves sticking it to authority every chance he gets. Peter, meanwhile, has a knack for connecting with judge and jury any way he can. Malcolm McDowell plays Renaissance man Stanton Infeld, the brilliant and eccentrically spontaneous patriarch of the law firm. Also starring are Reed Diamond, Dana Davis, Garcelle Beauvais, and Kumail Nanjiani.
As the second season of Franklin & Bash opens, Peter and Jared are forced to tackle a little more responsibility. After being accused of misconduct, they begin to question the loyalty of colleagues, as well as question if they are staying true to who they really are. They now face a number of truly daunting tasks to ensure partner status at Infeld-Daniels and we find out the real reason Infeld hired them.
Q: With this being the second season of the show and with everyone being more familiar with the characters and the set and the atmosphere of the show, how was filming this season?
“It wasn’t noticably different; the first season went so smoothly and was so much fun, this was like going back to the same year of school in the sense that we weren’t worried about anything and just excited to see our friends again. It was a different kind of fun because we were more comfortable and we knew what worked and it was a pleasure to go to work. There’s not a bad apple in the bunch, the long hours pass by quickly with all the fun we have. ”
Q: We’ve seen both Jared and Peter grow throughout season 1, how do they change throughout the second season?
“This season the guys become equity partners in the firm, which is great because they make more money, but they also have much more responsibility and more responsibility to Stanton, Malcolm McDowell’s character, because now every mistake they make reflects on the firm which is an extension of them. They also have to bring in big corporate clients now, the people they used to fight against, so they have to struggle with staying true to themselves and what they believe in while juggling this new responsibility.”
Q: How was it for you when you would first read the scripts and see which direction the show and your character take?
“It was great; a lot of fun. This year is the first year I wrote on the show, I wrote the fourth episode. It was fun to get a preview of where our guys were going. If you enjoy your job, especially being on a show, you get a little
Christmas every Monday when you get the new script. It’s always fun to see where they’re going to take the characters.”
Q: This second season has just as many great guest stars as the first, can you talk about the process of shooting the episodes with guest stars and what is was like to work with them?
“We definitely loaded it up. Seth Green is in the episode I wrote, and when you have a buddy come on your show you get a little nervous because you want them to have a good time. Being one of the writers on that episode I knew flat out that Seth would have a great time, so we had him and Eric Mabius come on. They come on as an alternate Franklin and Bash; it was pretty fun to go toe-to-toe with each other.”
Q: We get so much of Franklin and Bash’s personal lives in the show, how does that continue in this season? We know that Jared gets a love interest, can you tell us about that?
“Yes, Sherry comes on towards the end of the season and kind of treats us like enemies of the state and is actually ready to get rid of us when coincidentally she and I strike up a will-they-won’t-they relationship. It’s fun, its always fun to add that dimension to a character where they’re kind of playing with fire.”
Q: Now having spent a season with Jared, and now that you’re also writing, I imagine that you’ve grown to know him pretty well, was there anything surprising that you found out about him this season?
“No I don’t think so, Kevin and Bill have done such a great job of creating a fully dimensional character in the first season that by the time we step to set we know theses guys backwards and forwards. The good thing is that we know the characters so well we don’t necessarily know the story, that’s where you find surprising things about your character and how they’re going to handle situations.”
Q: Is there a case that you have in mind that you would like to Jared thrown into?
“I always have the most fun when Peter and Jared are messing with authority; up against the big bad corporation. The most fun is when they’re up against someone who has authority over them, like a police officer.”
Q: You guys always have interesting tactics that you employ in court, the aqua tank scene in the premiere episode comes to mind, are there any really creative tactics that you use in the second season?
“Shooting the aqua tank scene was probably by far one of my favorite days that I’ve had. I was in the water the whole time, it was awesome.”
Q: Are there any pranksters on the shows set?
“Mark-Paul and I prank each other. We really don’t have too much time on set so there aren’t too many pranks, more bloopers and messing up our lines, but not too many pranks. One time Mark-Paul put left a bunch of fish on my trailer doorstep and it was all fun and games until I almost slipped and killed myself. Things like that happen, we steal each others cars.”
Q: You and Mark-Paul spend so much time together, how do you guys help each other get through the day?
“Mark-Paul and I got real comfortable with each other really quick and the good thing about that is we can call each other out; if one of us is slacking the other will let you know and smack you in the back of the head and go ‘Hey! Stay focused!’ But we really do have such a good time working together. Its that comfort level you get from working with someone where suddenly you have a safety net, you have a buddy in it. We really enjoy working together and we can improvise off each other, and we have that level of commitment where we don’t feel afraid to fail.”
Thanks again to Breckin Meyer for taking the time to talk to PCM, you can catch the second season premiere of Franklin & Bash on TNT June 5, Tuesday at 10p.m.
