Heigl makes case for legal drama ‘Doubt’
There’s no doubt that several stars of past series can go on to make a new show together.
A new example of that premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m., the CBS drama “Doubt.” The show casts “Grey’s Anatomy” and “State of Affairs” alum Katherine Heigl as a New York defense attorney who becomes personally involved in her latest case ... and with her client, at risk to her well-being. Played by Steven Pasquale (“The Good Wife,” “Rescue Me”), he’s a plastic surgeon-turned-sudden murder suspect in the death of his girlfriend, who was killed many years earlier.
Elliott Gould (“Ray Donovan,” “E/R”) stars as the chief of the law firm that employs Sadie Ellis (Heigl), with Laverne Cox (“Orange Is the New Black”), Dule Hill (“The West Wing,” “Psych”), Dreama Walker (“Gossip Girl”) and Kobi Libii (“Transparent,” “Madam Secretary”) playing lawyers as well. Executive producers and creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater previously worked with Heigl on “Grey’s Anatomy,” and the actress — who began “Doubt” while pregnant for the first time (she has two adopted daughters with singer husband Josh Kelley) — said the chance to play “a real idealist” drew her back to series work.
“Really, her first instinct is to believe the best in people. She is obviously clouded a bit by her not terribly professional feelings for this man, but she’s so determined to save him and so determined to prove his innocence that she’s trying to separate herself emotionally, but struggling with it. I feel like that struggle can go one of two ways: ‘Oh, come on, this isn’t realistic at all,’ or it can feel very human. And that’s what I think we’re trying to do, keep it feeling very relatable and human.”
Creator-producer Rater added, “There’s a speech in the pilot that we call ‘the Isaiah (Gould’s character) speech,’ where he talks about standing by your fellow man in his darkest hour. That is what these lawyers do, and we think they’re heroes. At the same time, we were interested in the idea of telling a story about an attorney who believes in her client’s innocence and ends up spending all this time with her client and developing feelings for him, and what would happen if that client was as hunky and handsome as Steven Pasquale? We get to explore this really complicated, interesting personal relationship in the pilot, and we’re excited to do that for the show.”
A notable aspect of “Doubt” is the presence of Cox, since it marks the first time a transgender character has been played by a transgender actress in a broadcast-network series.
“That piece is really wonderful that folks can have a character like (Cox’s) Cameron, who is Ivy League-educated,” Cox said. “I think the attorneys at (the show’s) Roth & Associates are freedom fighters. Once you’re dealing with the legal system, it is not a system that is designed to benefit you, and we are there to make sure that justice is done. It’s wonderful to get to play a character like that and to be a black transgender woman in that position on CBS. It feels really, really special. And she wears really cool stuff, too.”
“Doubt” originally was aimed for the 2015-16 television season, but revamping and recasting with Heigl and Pasquale resulted in its debut during the current midseason.
“We’re so grateful,” Rater maintained of getting a second shot at the project, “because we got to see the parts of the story that weren’t working and we got to correct them. You never get this opportunity, and we did, so we got to learn.”