Emmy Award-winning actor Sterling K. Brown shines in the leading role of “Xavier Collins” in the new high-stakes Hulu series, “Paradise.” The show was created by Dan Fogelman, who was also at the helm of “This Is Us,” the six-season cultural phenomenon that endeared Brown in the hearts of millions.
If you enjoy watching political dramas and murder mysteries then you’ll love “Paradise.” In the show, Brown plays a secret service agent who’s the head of the former president Cal Bradford’s (actor James Marsden) security detail.
Following a shocking incident, the audience learns that the series is taking place in a post-apocalyptic world after a catastrophic event has seemingly wiped billions of people off the face of the earth except for 25,000 people who were intentionally spared and selected to live in a manmade hypogean community spearheaded by a tech billionaire named Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond (actress Julianne Nicholson).
In the eight-episode first season, flashbacks guide audiences through the backstories of Xavier and his colleagues in efforts to uncover who had the means, motives, and opportunity to orchestrate this chaotic situation, which has the potential to upend their new life in paradise (pun intended).
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When asked where he drew the inspiration for his stoic and heroic character, Sterling K. Brown told the Sentinel, “I think that there’s an aspect of ‘Xavier’ within myself. I’m from a military family. My dad and my grandfather were in the army. I have an uncle who was in Army Intelligence and another uncle who was in the Marine Corps. So, there’s some familiarity regarding Xavier that I know from my family.
There’s a certain high-achieving gene that’s definitely present within me that we share in common, Sterling and Xavier. I would say the stoicism is me, but it’s just a different aspect of me. There are times when you have to have a very high degree of concentration in order to achieve whatever it is that you want, as an actor, as an academic, or what have you. And I feel like Xavier exemplifies that sort of acute level of focus almost all the time.”
In addition to leading the series as an actor, Brown is also one of the show’s Executive Producers. In this role, Brown helped to advocate for more diverse representation within the casting which provided opportunities for newer faces to contribute their talents to the series including actress Enuka Okuma who plays Brown’s wife, and actors Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV who play their kids. Brown shared his elation for legendary actor Glenn Turman joining the cast in the role of “Fred Collins” a Tuskegee airman and Xavier’s father.
“Dan [Fogelman] asked, ‘Who should play your dad?’ And I was like, ‘If we can get Glenn Turman let’s make it happen.’ During last year’s Oscars campaign for “American Fiction” I ran into Mr. Turman and said, ‘Listen, you’re going to get an offer to play my dad on a show called “Paradise” and if you said yes, I would be incredibly honored.’ And what a joy it was to have a living legend on set. He was every bit as wonderful to work with as I had hoped. It was so amazing to watch Mr. Turman do his thing and share a part of himself and his journey.
PERCY DAGGS IV, STERLING K. BROWN, ALIYAH MASTIN
His first job was playing Sidney Poitier’s son in “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway. His stories are endless. I ran into him the other day at an event and we had a lovely time. I hope he is as pleased with his episode as I am with it because his work is magnificent.”
While series creator Dan Fogelman conceptualized the show over a decade ago, various aspects of “Paradise” bear a resemblance to our current political climate. When asked what he wants audiences to take away from the series, Brown said, “First and foremost, I want audiences to be entertained. But I think any good piece of storytelling makes you ask questions. Like, ‘Is this the world that I want to live in and if it’s not, how can I be the change that I want to see? What kinds of things can I do to make the world a better place?’
Whether that has to do with observations regarding climate change or the political structure, we’re not deliberately trying to illustrate anything that’s transpiring in real life right now, given that Dan had the germ of this idea over 10 years ago. [The idea] came from the world in which we live in where politics, corporate America and capitalism are all very much intertwined with one another, and whether or not it should be that way. Sometimes you have to question whether or not our elected representatives are representing the people, or are they representing the people that fund their campaigns? I hope “Paradise” makes you ask questions about the world in which you live.”
New episodes of “Paradise” are released every Tuesday on Hulu.