Season 2 of A Man on the Inside allowed Lilah Richcreek Estrada to explore more of her character Julie — including her love life.
When the hit Netflix series returned on November 20, Julie juggled her complicated relationship with estranged mom Vanessa (Constance Marie) while sharing interesting scenes with Didi (Stephanie Beatriz) that turned romantic in the finale.
“It was so much fun. Stephanie is just so fun to work with. When we had the cat and mouse [game] of sniffing each other out in season 1, that was some of my favorite stuff to shoot last season,” Richcreek Estrada, 36, exclusively told Us Weekly. “Didi is the only person who stands up to Julie who can really go toe to toe with her.”
The actress loved learning a lot about Julie through her relationship with Didi.
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“I love that aspect of getting to play with Julie, seeing herself a certain way and meeting her match,” Richcreek Estrada noted. “She is liking it but not knowing what to do with those feelings and flipping out. It just gave her a whole other layer, which I was so excited to do. And Stephanie is just so easy to act with as well that it just made it all really easy.”
Based on Maite Alberdi‘s 2020 documentary, The Mole Agent, A Man on the Inside is a comedy series that follows recently widowed retiree Charles (Ted Danson), who originally infiltrated a senior living facility to help solve a case for private investigator Julie.
His mission in season 1 was to find out who had been stealing from the retirement community, but Charles started to feel at home at Pacific View very quickly. Season 2 shifted gears to a college with new cast members including Mary Steenburgen, Max Greenfield, David Strathairn, Michaela Conlin, Jason Mantzoukas, Constance Marie and Jill Talley.
“I have always wanted to see more of Julie’s personal life. Because I think [creator] Michael [Schur] — by design in season 1 — didn’t want anybody to know anything about her, which was perfect,” she recalled. “That’s so perfect for how Julie wants to be perceived too. But I of course wanted to see more of her. I want to see more of what makes her human. Luckily, we get to see that, which I just think is so special.”
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Richcreek Estrada recalled her past conversations with Schur about Julie.
“I know who that type of person is and honestly — because it’s so well written — that’s just what I got from her. Reading about her in season 1 because the writing is so good, I feel like we were just on the same page,” she continued. “This time last year, he told me his idea for season 2. What a dream. I’m so grateful. That’s going to be so much fun to shoot.”
She added: “I just went to town on making her the most human I could. She presents a certain way but oftentimes people who present so strongly a certain way are not that on the inside. I wanted to make sure both sides were seen and I wanted to make her feel really human. I just get a lot of empathy from people because she’s a lot deeper than you get to see in the previous season.”
Season 2 was also different for Richcreek Estrada when she started filming “five and a half weeks” postpartum, telling Us, “I just had a baby when we started filming. I don’t know how I did it. I feel like I just blacked out and did what I wanted to do. But I had a really, really good village and I still do. I just did what I had to do and I was so grateful to be working. I also just rode the wave of all of the emotions that I felt every minute of the day.”
A Man on the Inside is now streaming on Netflix.
