“It’s daring! You know, it took a well established genre and flipped it on its head and did it in such a brilliant way,” declares Oscar-nominated composer Terence Blanchard (“25th House,” “Da 5 Bloods”) on why he most loves about composing the score for HBO detective noir drama “Perry Mason.” For our recent webchat he adds, “It was challenging to approach it musically, because when you say ‘Perry Mason’ to somebody my age, we keep thinking of the black and white show from the sixties. When I got the script and saw the first episode, I was like, ‘whoa, this is not the same thing. And all of those choices was the thing that freed me up to try something different for this show.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE Exclusive Video Interview: Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell (‘Perry Mason’ executive producers)
“Perry Mason” was originally created by Rolin Jones (“Friday Night Lights,” “Interview with the Vampire”) and Ron Fitzgerald (“Friday Night Lights”) under the Team Downey banner, shepherded by co-executive producers Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell. The period drama just concluded its second season, with Michael Begler and Jack Amiel coming on-board as new showrunners. Based on the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner, which were most famously adapted in the classic CBS television series (1957–1966) starring Emmy winner Raymond Burr, the series stars Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (“The Americans”) as the titular criminal defense lawyer, with Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Shea Whigham and Justin Kirk co-starring. Its neo-noir first season traced the origins of the famed defense lawyer over its freshman season, as a down-and-out and divorced private investigator struggles with his trauma from The Great War. Season 2 opens in the wake of the high profile trial involving a kidnapped child, as Mason begins to establish himself professionally, while a dark cloud of crime and conspiracy begins to loom over a bustling Los Angeles.
“It’s the most unique TV series I’ve worked on in my career,” the acclaimed trumpeter, pianist and composer reveals. For Blanchard, finding the right tone or emotion came naturally because, as he says, “everything’s on the screen for a composer. There’s not anything that I had to enhance or play up. For me it was just really about being with the performances. And Matthew is an amazing actor and everybody, the entire cast. It’s just been phenomenal. So, for me it’s really just been about following those performances and trying to be with them. Not trying to overtake it, but just to be right with them wherever their emotions go in the scene.”
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