Lincoln Lawyer

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo opens up to The Times about childhood summers in Jalisco, quitting acting and bringing cultural specificity to his character.

Emotionally, I really dug deep for my character in “Sicario 2.” I don’t know if I did a good job or not, but that was emotional for me because it was very close to what we live in Mexico, with the violence. I was in Mexico, and it was over Zoom, which was the worst. Definitely this one, for the amount of work that it was to learn legal terms and huge monologues in the courtroom — long hours of work. I started shooting a short film, and then the pandemic happened. I actually quit in Mexico. In one of the films I made there, I was too young and I was miscast. I had to audition, and it was during the height of the pandemic. I went back to Mexico, and the agent was like, “You have to be here.” I decided to move here. You fall in love with a character in a project that you really like, and you’re there for however many auditions, for however many months, just pouring your soul into the thing, and you get three or four callbacks, and then they might decide it’s not you. I went to the ranch in Mexico and started a lime plantation. The funny thing is that the first film I shot in Mexico, called “La última y nos vamos” (“One for the Road”), was selected for a film festival in Denver, and they invited me to come. It was with [Darren] Aronofsky for “Mother!” It was for the part that Javier Bardem eventually played. We talked after, and he said, “Manuel, if you ever want to come to work in Hollywood, I can introduce you to my agent.” The next time I came to L.A. to visit, I met with this agent, and the next day she sent me to an audition, and I got it, which was “Bless Me, Ultima.” I did that film.

Find out how to watch this new series adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, what it's about, and more.

How to Get Away With Murder: Created by Peter Nowalk and starring Viola Davis in the leading role, this Shonda Rhimes series remains one of the most popular legal drama thrillers on television. Apart from the legal thrill and slick scenes of crime and investigation, the trailer also hints at some personal conflicts with his estranged wife and daughter. When his former law partner is killed, Mickey Haller is left to take over the firm, including a high-profile murder trial. This says a lot about what to expect from the character arc of Mickey Haller. The all-new Netflix legal drama consists of ten, one-hour episodes, all of which will stream together on the day of the show’s release, that is, May 13, 2022. The plot follows Mickey Haller, a morally ambiguous defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln Town Car rather than an office like you would see regular lawyers do.

Netflix is adapting Michael Connelly's novel series 'The Lincoln Lawyer' for the small screen, but for how many seasons? There would plenty of material for ...

As for the ins and outs of Season 1, audiences will follow Haller after the death of his former law partner as he’s thrust into command of a law firm and made to take over the reins of a high-profile murder case. The reason why the title may sound so familiar is because it’s the same name as the 2011 film The Lincoln Lawyer, which starred Matthew McConaughey. Though the two properties follow the same character, the 2022 version is in no way a sequel to the film. The Lincoln Lawyer — which may be a familiar title to some — is headed to the streamer for its first season.

'He's struggling through most of the season to keep a lid on a lot of [his charm],' Gorham says.

And then when Mickey forces him to show him some vulnerability, then he shows him the vulnerability that he needs to show in that moment to get what he wants. He shows the jury what the jury needs to see so that Trevor can get what he wants. This is a guy who, if you haven’t read the book, it looks like he is going to get away with at the end, not just in a court of law, but in life, and so there’s a satisfaction, I think, for the audience in that ending that you want that payoff. Because at the end of the day, Trevor’s right, that he needs this just as much as Trevor does, and so he’s gotta take it. Also, I think I was deluding myself through much of the filming — you forget that your character dies in the end, because you’re just kind of playing each episode and each scene as it comes. So it doesn’t do anybody any good at that point for the truth to come out, as far as Mickey and Trevor is concerned. I think it was the first time that I’ve had squibs, that I’ve used squibs, which are little explosives that they tape onto your body and then they blow up on cue. What that did is it gives me the ability to play the emotional stuff honestly because I think it is honest for him and what makes his story believable is that he’s not faking the emotion behind him. And like you said, the title of the whole thing doesn’t make any sense if he doesn’t get killed in the end. Maybe at some point in the past, but at this point in his life, no, because he is in denial about all that. So yeah, I think maybe when he was younger but at this point in his life, he’s kind of broken in that way, I think. Mickey talks about it: He’s an addict, and at the end of the day, he chose his drug over his love.

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He has charmed Trevor Elliott (Christopher Gorham) into sticking with him rather than changing to a lawyer who – oh, I don’t know – sits at a desk and concentrates for 12 hours a day on saving him from the death penalty, rather than sitting in the back of a car and taking time out to liberate jaywalkers and litterers. He needs to fight the systemic racial and other biases of the American judicial system and navigate relationships with his two ex-wives, one of whom is his office assistant – and is engaged to the private eye hired by Haller’s firm – and the other of whom is the prosecuting attorney on the Elliott case. Micky Haller is the Lincoln Lawyer. Why? Because he likes to work while being driven round in his Lincoln town car rather than at a desk.