J. August Richards

Although there have been breaks to play a stockbroker in the feature film PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS and a security guard in the stage play LOBBY HERO, J. August Richards has spent a lot of time portraying lawyers over the last few years. Although his character Charles Gunn started out as a street fighter in the first season of the vampire series ANGEL, by the time the show (and Richards) were in fifth season, Gunn became a lawyer, albeit one with supernatural powers. When ANGEL was canceled at the end of that year, Richards was cast as a prosecutor on NBC’s LAW & ORDER-like CONVICTION. Now he’s playing New York City d.a. Marcus McGrath on TNT’s new legal drama RAISING THE BAR from executive producers Steven Bochco and David Feige, which airs Monday nights at 10 PM on TNT.

The actor recently spoke with iF about his new show and his flight as a legal eagle.

iF: Gunn was a supernaturally-enhanced defense attorney on ANGEL, but is your prosecutor on RAISING THE BAR similar to your prosecutor on CONVICTION?

J. AUGUST RICHARDS: Playing this part [on BAR] has been a huge journey for me, because whereas the character on CONVICTION was motivated by ambition, this character is motivated by a deep desire to save the black community. I had a huge revelation on Wednesday of last week that is still living with me right now. I had to give this speech, which politically goes against everything I, J., believe in, and I fought the producer, I fought the writer, I fought everybody so that I wouldn’t have to do this speech, and when I finally realized that I was going to lose, I sat down with it and did the work that you have to do as an actor and, for the first time, really understood someone else’s point of view fully and understood some things about myself, which [made me think], "Oh, my God." While I disagree with this character – I find him very conservative – whereas most people might call him a sell-out or a Clarence Thomas kind of guy, he’s actually deeply rooted in the black community. It was this profound moment where I realized what acting truly was, which was adopting another person’s moral code, their view of the world, and it was so big for me that it totally made me understand the power of acting.

[Other characters] weren’t actually that close [to me], but when something was so far away from me, like a vampire hunter, it was like, "Oh, I can get into that skin." But when something comes very close to the place you live, or the place you believe in so deeply, and it’s contrary to that, that’s harder. So for the first time, I realized, "Oh, wait a minute – I literally could play any part." He is a prosecutor, he’s got some very political views and views about race that are so different than mine.

iF: So RAISING THE BAR deals with racial issues to some extent?

RICHARDS: A lot. Much more than I think people are expecting it to comfortably deal with. It’s a lot about race. This show is definitely about how the system affects poor and minorities and how it might be rigged against them.

iF: Does RAISING THE BAR share your personal point of view, even though your character does not?

RICHARDS: Yes. I follow on the other line of David Feige, whose book [INDEFENSIBLE: ONE LAWYER’S JOURNEY INTO THE INFERNO OF AMERICAN JUSTICE] the show is based on. He and I, in real life, are the closest of friends, because we see things so [similarly]. He’s actually more liberal than I am. I thought I was the king liberal, but he is the king liberal. We agree much more in real life, but this person that I’ve been asked to play is a hundred and eighty degrees from what I believe and how I feel about the system and about race. It’s so weird. It’s such an important topic to me, too. I tell him all the time, "You’ve got the right guy," because I am very willing to go there.

iF: Did you read David Feige’s book?

RICHARDS: Once I got the role, I started to read the book and then I put it down, because I realized that the show was written from the point of view of the public defenders and I didn’t play a public defender. While I was totally engrossed by the book, I put it down on page one hundred. Because I was like, ‘Nn-nn. If I’m going to be a prosecutor, that’s not the point of view I need.’

iF: Does your character have an opposite number in the public defender’s office?

RICHARDS: Mark-Paul [Gosselaar]. We’re often described, he and I, as opposites of a similar coin. We’re both very idealistic, but on different sides of the bar.

iF: How does race play into that, if it does?

RICHARDS: In a really beautiful way. They deal with it the way I’ve always thought race should be dealt with, either totally or not at all. The thing about this show is, they use both. They deal with it sometimes completely, like either I was chosen to try this case because I’m black, or it doesn’t matter, it could have been anybody. But race is definitely used to the advantage. That’s what I thought was so great about GREY’S ANATOMY. They used race to the advantage of the storyline. We do that on this show, too.

iF: Were you approached to do RAISING THE BAR based on any previous work of yours the producers had seen?

RICHARDS: I believe so. There were certain advantages to getting the role that were probably because of CONVICTION, so yes, I would say so. I’ve kind of got a small reputation for playing a lawyer these days, all thanks to Joss [Whedon, who co-created and executive-produced ANGEL, which gave Richards his first lawyer role]. He started that process and here we go.

iF: Speaking of Joss Whedon, have you checked out the ANGEL comic books at all?

RICHARDS: No, what’s going on with them?

iF: Your character Gunn got vamped and he’s now the Big Bad of L.A.

RICHARDS: You’re kidding! Oh, my God. I need to see this. That is crazy. I was told that that was what was going to happen if we were to continue or do a TV movie, but I’m so happy to actually see it happening somewhere. I always thought Gunn’s end should be, he should turn into a vampire and kill himself. That’s always how I saw that character ending. I hope I get to act that one day, I really do. I’m still connected to that character.

iF: When Gunn first started getting to dress for court on ANGEL, you said your real-life family got very excited about seeing you in the suits. Are they still happy about that?

RICHARDS: Yeah, they are. The suits just keep getting better, actually. This character has a signature costume design, which is suspenders.

iF: Do suspenders play into the psychology of the character?

RICHARDS: Deeply. I couldn’t even play the character without suspenders any more. It’s about somebody who comes from the bottom of nothing and feels like he doesn’t belong, so he has to overdo it to feel like he belongs. It’s all on the outside, the fact that I’m here and I belong shows up in the clothing. He’s the best-dressed guy on the show, and it’s because he comes from this other side of the tracks. He goes overboard, you know [laughs].

iF: What’s happening with the film you were in, PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS?

RICHARDS: They’re still looking for distribution. I think it’s actually going to DVD pretty soon, which is the way of a lot of movies these days [laughs]. It’s a family drama. I play a stockbroker in that, so when people say, ‘You’ve played three lawyers in a row,’ I say, ‘No, I played a stockbroker in there, too.’ And a security guard in a play, LOBBY HERO [in San Diego].

iF: How was it returning to the stage?

RICHARDS: It was in the round. And literally I had to act with my ass in some scenes, because my ass was to ninety percent of the audience and I had to communicate what I needed to communicate through my entire backside. And I learned how to do it. Television turns out to be all about the close-up, and the first two weeks of rehearsal [for the play], I was totally lost. But as it went on, I remembered how to do stage and it was beautiful. True communication has got nothing to do with the words. You can communicate beautiful things through your back if you’re really feeling like it.

iF: Is working with the RAISING THE BAR ensemble different than CONVICTION and/or ANGEL?

RICHARDS: Really, just the fact that they’re different people. I do my best to learn something from everybody that I work with. The beautiful thing about Mark-Paul [Gosselaar] is that he and I have the same work ethic – which is not to say that other people haven’t had a great work ethic. Jane [Kaczmarek] knows how to bring fun to everything and I try to take that from her. I have the same respect for this ensemble as any ensemble I’ve worked with.

iF: Were you familiar with Steven Bochco’s work before this?

RICHARDS: Yes. I grew up watching his shows, of course, [including] DOOGIE HOWSER and of course Neil [Patrick Harris] is a friend of mine now. It’s so cool how, when I was a little boy, [the Richards family] thought I watched too much TV. What they didn’t realize was that I was studying. I’ve watched all of Steven’s shows and I’m very honored to be in the pantheon of people that he’s had on his shows.

iF: Anything else people should know about your work on RAISING THE BAR?

RICHARDS: I’m having a great time, I’m just loving it and I hope people enjoy the show.