Kevin Bacon & Aldis Hodge On 'City On A Hill': 'It's An Interesting Time To Be Making A Show That Has A Lot To Do With Race'
(CBS Local)-- Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge are two of the best actors in Hollywood and they return to TV together on Sunday night for season two of the Showtime drama "City on a Hill." Bacon plays FBI veteran Jackie Rohr and Hodge plays Assistant DA Decourcy Ward. The two form an interesting bond as they work together to take down a family of armed robbers in the Boston area.
CBS Local caught up with Bacon and Hodge for an interview about season two, how conversations in the country of racial injustice have impacted the show and why Boston in the 1990s is endlessly fascinating.
"I remember when I got the pilot script and the first thing was a solid page and a half of monologue. I realized that this was just a guy [Jackie Rohr] that loves to hear himself talk," said Bacon, in an interview with CBS Local's DJ Sixsmith. "Sometimes you get these parts that are incredibly challenging because it's a man of few words. I've done a bunch of those where you really have to think a lot. This guy just can't shut up. I find that really fascinating. It makes me think about what is the hole he is trying to fill by all this BS that's constantly spilling out of him. Also, he is someone that really spends a lot of time not telling the truth. I love playing this character."
"For me, it is the exploration of understanding what Boston is and the city and his [Decourcy's] place in it," said Hodge. "He came with a mission and he is still trying to figure out how to accomplish that mission. What makes the city work, the people work, his job environment work. It's a tasking challenge, working as an Assistant District Attorney in a system where you see the solutions that need to be accomplished, but also see the problems. He's really trying to establish who he is as a man."
Season two premieres Sunday at 10pm EST/PST on Showtime. While the series takes place in Boston during the 1990s, a lot of the same issues with regards to race are still be dealing dealt with in 2021.
"It's an interesting time to be making the show that has a lot to do with race and corruption," said Bacon. "It couldn't help but inform the writers room in terms of the ways they approach this. You can't look at this show as a period and say isn't it funny that they had all of that racism and corruption back then. That's just not the deal. It's become so painfully obvious in the last year. Let's put it this way, painfully obvious to some people and some people have been living with it for hundreds of years."
"What it means for me to be in a show like this is that it's an opportunity," said Hodge. "I'm fortunate and really lucky to have been attached to projects and sort of carved out a pathway that speaks to my voice personally. I can step into the shoes on screen that speak to the shoes that I walk every day on the sidewalk. This is not a far-fetched reality for me."
Watch "City on a Hill" on Showtime and the Showtime app.