Exclusive Interview: Michael Ealy, Sean Patrick Thomas, and McKinley Freeman Talk Reasonable Doubt

Michael Ealy, Sean Patrick Thomas, and McKinley Freeman are three of the stars of Reasonable Doubt.

The must-see drama, loosely based on celebrity attorney Shawn Holley who has advised an impressive roster of clients including the Kardashian and Jenner families, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Bieber, Tupac Shakur, and Katt Williams, follows Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart, a high-powered criminal defense attorney from Los Angeles, as she fiercely bucks the justice system through wild interpretations of the law and sometimes questionable ethics, all while trying to deal with a failing marriage and the pitfalls of motherhood.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to chat with Michael, Sean, and McKinley about Season 1 of Reasonable Doubt.

PC: Michael, your character’s arc in this series is about getting a second chance at life. You handled that with so much nuance. As an actor, how did you create this space for yourself to dive into that emotional arc?
Michael: That’s a good question. It always starts with finding some sort of connection in relation to the character. For me, the second chance is all rooted in a fundamental loss of time. He lost sixteen years of his life. I started thinking about how much I would’ve missed if I had been in prison for the last sixteen years and how much my life would have changed. There’s no way to get that time back. That instantly fires up a certain amount of motivation in you to seize the day. You have to do everything in your power to make this new life the best it possibly can be. Finding those fun foundational pieces for the character was pretty key.

PC: Sean, this project finds you reuniting with Kerry Washington who directed the first episode and is also an executive producer. What was it like getting to collaborate with her again from a different perspective? Is the experience different when you’re working with a director who also has experience in front of the camera?
Sean: It’s a huge, huge advantage. On top of Kerry being a skilled actor and artist in her own right, I’ve known her for such a long time. That took it to another level in terms of ease. There were times where she would give me a note, direction, or an idea and we didn’t have to talk about it for five minutes. We talked for five seconds and I knew exactly what she was talking about. I knew exactly what she meant, and I went and did it. That’s a rare treat in working with somebody as smart as Kerry. It was a total pleasure.

PC: McKinley, you’ve said in the past how the team behind and in front of the camera created an environment that gave creative people the opportunity to be creative. How did that trust and safety allow you to take agency over your character and his journey throughout the series, which is very much about finding out how to love and figuring it out despite how complicated it can be?
McKinley: It’s so important. It’s a great question. I think what it does is it gives you permission to be a human being first, one who happens to be in a certain set of circumstances which I have to make real in that world. Everything in it has to function, even how I interact with the kids on the show. The nuance comes in the specificity of the importance of every individual thing. It’s not, “This is going to be important. This isn’t.” Everything is important in life. It’s just a matter of measurement. One may be weighted more in family and one might be more weighted in work. But at any given moment, all of that could change because the world can change. It’s about being available and doing it in a way that is representative of people that look like us.

Sean, Michael, they elevate and inspire me with their work and what they brought to this job. It made me want to make sure that I did my job well because it really does come down to giving space for creative people to be creative. As ironic as it sounds, that’s not necessarily a given when you show up to work. When it does happen, it’s like, “Wow, let me make the most of it. Let me be inspired by these guys.” The writing on this show is so good. The directors were amazing. Emayatzy is phenomenal, and so is our supporting cast. You couldn’t ask for a better group of people. I became a fan of the people on this show. It’s going to be cool to see how it all comes together.

Make sure to follow Michael (Twitter/Instagram), Sean (Twitter/Instagram), and McKinley (Twitter/Instagram). Watch Reasonable Doubt on Hulu today.