USA Network’s The Rainmaker went through several changes from the book and movie — but why was Lana Parrilla‘s character the best one to gender swap after Mickey Rourke originated the role?
“I think Bruiser is a great character to gender swap for so many reasons. One, she’s much more powerful as a woman. The reason being that Bruiser — in the novel — is super, super shady and questionable,” Parrilla, 48, exclusively told Us Weekly. “In the movie version, Mickey Rourke portrays Bruiser and that character is present in the beginning but then goes on vacation and escapes to the Caribbean.”
Parrilla was thrilled to get the chance to expand the role on the show.
“Bruiser — in our version of The Rainmaker — is much more powerful in the sense that she is living in a man’s world. So she has a leg up,” she told Us about the series, which premieres on Friday, August 15. “She has more to prove vs versus the Bruiser in the novel who is a little more laid back and caught up in some shady business.”
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Based on John Grisham‘s 1995 novel of the same name, The Rainmaker follows young lawyer Rudy (Milo Callaghan) who is fired from his prestigious white-collar firm and signs on with small-time ambulance chaser Bruiser (Parrilla). Rudy subsequently faces off against his former boss (John Slattery) in court. The book was adapted to a movie by Francis Ford Coppola in 1997 starring Rourke and Matt Damon.
“Rudy has multiple maternal figures [on the show] but Bruiser is the one who comes from a place of tough love. She’s like his coach and his mentor, who’s really pushing him to think outside of the box,” Parrilla noted. “She really has this great relationship with Rudy that I don’t think this character would have if Bruiser was male. It just would’ve been a battle of egos.”
She continued: “I feel like she’s much more effective as a woman and her influence with Rudy — but also in a courtroom. She’s a smart, sassy and ballsy woman who has a lot of street smarts and grit to her. She’s a much more interesting version of Bruiser. Everyone’s version is great but I really just love that this character gets to be a woman.”
When signing onto the project, Parrilla recalled using the source material as inspiration, adding, “I did pull a lot from the novel and from the film. But I would say Bruiser was pretty much in my back pocket. I really understood how she walks the streets and how she’s looking for stuff that’s maybe out of place or who to trust and who not to trust. She’s a fighter and lawyers — that’s what they’re great at — is fighting for people that can’t fight for themselves. That’s something I possess in myself.”
Parrilla said she “really” connected to Bruiser.
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“So I just feel like out of all the characters that I portrayed, I felt the closest to her,” she told Us. “When I first read for the role, I did not watch [the movie] because it happened all very, very quickly. Once I got the role, I dove right in and I read the novel and I watched the movie several times. It became a very studious experience for me at the beginning and then I went down the rabbit hole of all the legal dramas that have ever been made. I was educating myself of this world that I’ve never really approached in my acting career before. It was really fun to dive into that world and watch content that I normally wouldn’t tune into.”
Despite seeing a lot of herself in this version of Bruiser, there was one detail that Parrilla couldn’t connect with, saying, “The legal jargon is probably the biggest challenge for me. I’ve never been to law school — I’m more intrigued by the medical world. I would say I might be a better doctor than lawyer. I don’t know if I would ever hire me as a lawyer. I’m way too emotionally sensitive.”
She concluded: “Seeing the world from that perspective opened my eyes quite a bit to how important it is that we as civilians in this world learn our rights and learn how to defend ourselves.”
The Rainmaker premieres on USA Network Friday, August 15, at 10 p.m. ET.
