Matt Del Negro On Showtime's 'City On A Hill': 'Aldis Hodge Carries Himself With Such Gravitas'
(CBS Local)-- Season two of "City on a Hill" is off and running on Showtime and actor Matthew Del Negro has been bumped up to a series regular. Del Negro plays Detective Chris Caysen, who is the Sargent of the Youth Strike Force in Boston. The series starring Kevin Bacon & Aldis Hodge follows a corrupt FBI agent named Jackie Rohr (played by Bacon) who looks to exploit Boston's criminal justice system while Assistant District Attorney DeCourcy Ward (played by Hodge) looks to prevent Rohr from doing just that.
CBS Local caught up with Del Negro to discuss season two of the hit series, what he's learned from working with Bacon and Hodge and his favorite memories from playing Brian Cammarata on "The Sopranos."
"It's a great group of people and I came in half way through season one and you never know what to expect," said Del Negro. "It seemed like the introduction of a new character, but I've been doing TV long enough that you never know. It was really awesome as an actor to know my storyline was increasing. I knew that I was going to be around and tell these stories that I feel are relevant and with great storytellers. I'm ecstatic and it's a pretty good feeling."
While the series takes place in the Boston during the 1990s, many of the same issues regarding the relationship between police officers and citizens and corruption in law enforcement are still present today.
"The first season is set up where it's this old school, really white Boston and a lot of characters depicted in the Boston Police Department show that the race tensions are high," said Del Negro. "Then in the fifth episode of the first season, Decourcy Ward comes and meets me. He realizes and sees my crew of guys and it's multi-racial and I take people for who they are, not what they look like. My son says I get cast as bad guys a lot, but I'm a good guy in this one. Caysen has a good heart and he's understated."
Del Negro spends a lot of his time on camera with Hodge and also had an intense elevator scene with Bacon in one of the first episodes of the season. The actor has learned a ton from these two gifted performers.
"Aldis is super focused. I met him in the first season and we had stuff together, but we didn't really get as tight as we did this year," said Del Negro. "One of the things I didn't realize was that he is so much younger than me. He carries himself with such gravitas. He is so dialed in and focused. He has a watch company that he is building from the ground up. Both Aldis and Kevin Bacon are great guys and they treat everybody well. That makes it fun to work there."
Watch "City on a Hill" Sunday nights at 10pm EST on Showtime or stream the whole series on the Showtime app.