Premiering on Sunday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Starz is the eight-episode original series Hightown, starring Chicago Fire’s Monica Raymund and James Badge Dale.
Created and executive produced by Rebecca Cutter (Gotham) with Gary Lennon, Jerry Bruckheimer is serving as one of the executive producers and Oscar-nominated cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Fruitvale Station) directed the first two episodes of the series.
The series stars Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire), James Badge Dale (Only the Brave), Riley Voelkel (Roswell, New Mexico), Shane Harper (Code Black), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Atkins Estimond (The Resident), and Dohn Norwood (Mindhunter).
Hightown is set on iconic Cape Cod and follows one woman’s journey to sobriety, intertwined with an unfolding murder investigation. Jackie Quiñones (Monica Raymund), a hard-partying National Marine Fisheries Service agent, has her free-wheeling life thrown into disarray when she discovers a body on the beach – another casualty of Cape Cod’s opioid epidemic. As a result of this trauma, Jackie takes the first steps toward becoming sober— until she becomes convinced that it’s up to her to solve the murder. Now at odds with Sergeant Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale), an abrasive but effective member of the Cape Cod Interagency Narcotics Unit, Jackie starts to spiral. And she’s not alone. Ray, too, spins out of control; losing himself in the investigation. The lives of everyone connected to this murder crash and converge, reminding us just how complicated – and deadly – our addictions can be.
Having played Gabriela Dawson as part of the ensemble on NBC’s Chicago Fire for six season, this is a big role for LatinX actress. She gets to be front and center of a new drama series. Blackfilm.com spoke exclusively with Raymund about her character, being a lead and working with the cast.
What was the attraction to taking on this series?
Monica Raymund: I was really attracted to the character of Jackie Quiñones, as I knew that she was super messy and gritty. I knew that it was going to be a challenge and probably a really personal emotional experience for me. And also I really loved the story. Rebecca Cutter is a creator and her language really spoke to me. I thought it was a brilliant idea to have a crime drama set in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with with the backdrop of the opioid epidemic. Those are all very relevant issues for a lot of people. So I thought it was is a fascinating story.
Jackie is a law enforcement office but she’s not perfect. This is not your ordinary cop investigating a crime. She’s flawed. Why is that so?
Monica Raymund: I think she’s flawed for the reasons that you and I are flawed, right? Like, inherently, these are human beings in extraordinary circumstances. And they’re extraordinary people. That’s what makes storytelling so much fun. So with Jackie specifically, I think that there’s this big void inside of her that she’s not able to fill and she starts messing around with drugs and alcohol and sex until she finds out herself in so much pain and in so much suffering that she has nowhere else to go. She hits rock bottom and realizes that she needs to make some different choices if she wants to find any happiness.
What traits of Jackie do you relate with?
Monica Raymund: I think that I am very stubborn. Like Jackie, I can be very difficult sometimes. When our ambition and obsessive compulsive compulsive behavior is similar. I think our passion is similar even though Jackie is in the middle of this she says tornado was trying to figure out how to walk the line of recovery. But she’s also incredibly passionate about solving this murder case or being a part of solving this particular girl’s death and becomes almost obsessed with it. And it helps her feel like she has a purpose. I think I have that in common with her too. Once I go in on something I’m all in. I’m pretty intense.
How did you work with Rebecca in refining this character? Obviously, there’s what she had in her head and what’s on the page, and then there’s how you portrayed the role. How much involvement was there between the two of you?
Monica Raymund: What’s wonderful about Rebecca is that she’s extremely open and collaborative. She thinks that my ideas and my choices and questions and thoughts are important. Sometimes you work with writers who do not think that your ideas are important. So right off the bat, I’m working with a writer who understands how to work with other people. We both view this story as a marriage of what was in her head and who I am. So we were both just really flexible. Her language informs my character. And if I had questions, I came to her and if I had some thoughts, she always answered from a place of story first, and as long as we both were on the same page, and both understood that the story was first, we had an incredible time working together to make sure that Jackie was really completing both of our visions.
Jackie has definitely a lot of characteristics. Was there any research into playing law enforcement, a lesbian and a drug and alcohol addict? There’s a lot going on with Jackie.
Monica Raymund: Yeah, there is a lot isn’t there? She’s pretty weird when you put it like that. So it relies on having to breathe and live and sleep that character all the time. It was really fun. She’s gay and I’m in the LGBTQ world. I’m queer. So I knew a lot about that community. I’ve been a tough guy, and have used that as my armor until I grew up a little bit now. Now I have a better idea and means to be vulnerable. So those things we have definitely in common and doing some preparation was really about being a fish cop, and being in the National Marine Fishery services. I got to ride on the boat with some guys and learn how to dock this huge boat, learn how to approach another one if I’m going to find someone. For example, these guys will go lobstering but sometimes they’re breaking the law or sometimes they’re over catching and my job as a cop out there in the water is to basically make sure that we’re following the rules. I had to do a bunch of research there.
Have you been to P-Town before?
Monica Raymund: Yeah, we filmed all of our a lot of our exterior shots in P-Town. I had never been there before we shot it and it was a really beautiful town. Really, all inclusive, beautiful community. I had a lot of time there.
From The Good Fight to Chicago Fire and now this is series, where you’re the lead of it. Was it ever challenging for you as an actress knowing that you’re on more pages and you’re the focus of the show?
Monica Raymund: Yeah. There was a lot more homework to be prepared. But to be honest with you. memorizing lines is not super difficult for me. What’s difficult for me is making choices to ground my character in a reality. That’s really what my work is. So learning the lines is the easy stuff, but filling them and creating a rounded character and one that hopefully people relate to or believe, is, that’s really the hard stuff.
How exciting is having a lead role?
Monica Raymund: It’s amazing. I’m very, very grateful. This is such a dream come true for me and especially to play a character that I feel I know so intimately, especially a character that represents such a marginalized community. I’m incredibly, incredibly honored to do it. Sometimes I can’t believe I got the opportunity to play this role.
How’s working with this cast?
Monica Raymund: This cast is amazing. Truly, I’m not even just saying that everybody is so talented, everyone brings it. They just bring the best every day to work. The bar is really high. I think we jive really well together. I was specifically working the most with Shane Harper, who plays Junior and with James Badge Dale. I was working with them very closely. We had such a fun time. Everybody was open and honest and supportive. We became a family very quickly.
So have we seen the last of Dawson on Chicago Fire?
Monica Raymund: Good question, man. I don’t know you got to call Derek Hass and Dick Wolf, they’re the executive producers of the show. I’m not the one who has that answer.
As so many people are homebound because of the coronavirus epidemic and with so many programs to watch on TV or streaming, whether you’re catching up on old series or new one, what’s a good reason for folks to tune into Hightown?
Monica Raymund: Well, exactly what you said. There’s just not a lot of new content being developed right now because of the pandemic, which is hard. Mainly for my business. To be honest, there’s a lot of people out of work and a lot of us are unsure and scared about how we’re going to find out this new normal and transition into it. But in the meantime, there are a few shows like Hightown that are in the rolodex and that have already wrapped and have gone through post and are ready to be distributed. Hightown is one of them. Since so many people have gone through all of the TV that’s on air, this will be a really fun new show for them to connect to and watch every week. There’s only eight episodes too. So it’s like just the right number of episodes to consume in a first season of a show.
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