The following article contains SPOILERS for Presumed Innocent season 1.
Peter Sarsgaard, one of the several great actors to appear in Apple TV’s thrillerPresumed Innocent, doesn’t have any plans to return to the show for its already confirmed second season. This isn’t related to a bad experience doing the show, apparently;he’s just not interested in doing sequels of any sort. Of course, we dug around his catalog, and no, he hasn’t appeared in any sort of sequels to his films or TV shows. So that tracks.
InPresumed Innocent, Peter Sarsgaard plays Tommy Molto, a prosecutor who’s forced to work for the state in a trial against Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal), one of his peers. Sabich is accused of brutally killing Carolyn Polhemus, another prosecutor who he had an affair with, and all signs point to the attorney whose odds are not exactly in his favor. Molto works alongside Nico Della Guardia in trying to send Sabich to prison, but without a single piece of evidence, their case quickly gets more complex.
The eight-episode first season was well-received by critics and audiences. It has a 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and viewing numbers were good enough totempt Apple into making a second season, which will also be produced by David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies,The Undoing,Goliath,Mr. Mercedes) and J.J. Abrams (through his company Bad Robot). Per Apple’s announcement, the second season “will unfold around a suspenseful, brand new case.”
Greg Yaitanes on His House of the Dragon Awards and Directing Jake Gyllenhaal on Presumed Innocent
The great TV director gets into his close collaboration with Jake Gyllenhaal in the Apple TV+ series Presumed Innocent.
However, in an interview withIndieWire, Sarsgaard revealed that he has no plans to reprise his role as Tommy Molto:
“I’m not really that interested in sequels. I think I’ve only ever done one season of anything. I think I’m a one-season person. I tell my kids this sometimes, maybe I’ve done 90, 100 different things over the years between movies, TV shows, and plays. I say, ‘I’m very good at saying hello and saying goodbye.’ There’s a very valuable thing in saying goodbye because then you have to look for another source of inspiration and then you change. I get asked all the time, did I gain weight, lose weight, grow a beard, all of that. I’m sort of just doing all of that all the time. If I were playing something over and over again, I would have to keep coming back to the same territory.
I’ve actually found that acting has been really valuable in terms of just being a person, and I think part of it is that I’ve had all of these really interesting experiences not just playing different characters but collaborating with different people.”
Sarsgaard also discussed the reception to his character, and rejects the way many viewthe characters he’s played in the past:
“It’s funny because for me, obviously withPresumed Innocentnow, to me I’m not a villain in that. I’m just a guy who lives by himself. I’m playing a decent person in that. And actually during the run ofPresumed Innocent, I did a Q&A at one point and someone was like, ‘How are you so creepy?’ and stuff, and I really object to it. “Most of the characters that I play, I have my arm around them. They’re right there with me.”
Presumed Innocent is All About the Performances
Presumed Innocent
It tells the story of a horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys' office when one of its own is suspected of the crime. The show stars Jake Gyllenhaal and is from legendary TV writer David E. Kelley.
Based on the novel of the same name by Scott Turow,Presumed Innocentwasfirst adapted into a film in 1990, directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Harrison Ford. The film was a blockbuster and one of the best thrillers of the year, and remaking it wasn’t going to be an easy feat. However, Apple had a card up their sleeve: Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard lead a great ensemble cast consisting of Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, O-T Fagbenle, and the always reliable Noma Dumezweni.
The performances in the serial adaptation have beenmet with much applause. Gyllenhaal plays the perfect victim, looking guilty but not quite guilty enough, while Camp continues to shine and Sarsgaard and Fagbenle make a great pair. Ruth Negga is, as usual, a reliable dramatic force, while Dumezweni steals every scene she’s in. It’s no wonder that Apple wants more.
