‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Boss Reveals Promise He Made to Jeremy Renner’s Mom With Season 3

(This story contains spoilers from the second episode of the third season of Mayor of Kingstown“Gut.”)

If there is one thing to remember from Mayor of Kingstown over its three seasons, the fictional town of the Paramount+ series with Jeremy Renner seems to drain the hopes and dreams of its inhabitants.

Kingstown, Michigan – a town whose main industry is nine penitentiaries – is a wounded community. Whether it is being locked up in the penal system, committing crimes that will lead to imprisonment, being a prison guard or being a member of the victims’ family, suffering seems to spare no one.

And that’s what Mike McLusky’s (Renner) voiceover tells viewers in the opening scenes of season three’s second episode, “Guts.” The message arrives as McLusky, the town’s unofficial mayor and problem-fixer, discovers new metaphorical fires in and out of the prisons that he must put out in Kingstown. The third season marks Renner’s remarkable comeback after his near-fatal accident with a snowplow a year and a half ago.

So, is Mike up to the task physically and emotionally?

In the season opener, Mike and his family had laid their matriarch (played by Dianne Wiest) to rest. But at his funeral, someone detonated a bomb next to the hearse. That sent Mike to his trusted informant, Deverin “Bunny” Washington (Tobi Bamtefa), an inner-city gang leader who blamed the bomb on the Aryan Brothers. Bunny’s word then caused the Aryan Brothers compound to be attacked by Mike’s police buddies, and more than half a dozen members blown up in a hangar by SWAT team leader Robert Sawyer (Hamish Allan- Headley).

But now, in the second episode, Bunny’s drugs have been contaminated and are killing prisoners and users on the streets. Could the Aryan brothers have infiltrated his hideout as revenge?

Meanwhile, a homeless man finds the corpse of Russian club hostess/prostitute Tatiana (Gratiela Brancusi) after she was shot in the first episode for alleged disloyalty by new Russian mob boss Konstantin Noskov ( Yorick van Wageningen), who also left behind his little boy. in the trash. Another former Russian prostitute, Iris (Emma Laird) – whom Mike saved last season and who lives with the McLuskys, much to the dismay of her little brother Kyle McLusky (Taylor Handley) – has been arrested for a code violation. the road and is taken into custody but refuses to give her fingerprints. The police decide to detain her until they get a court order, leaving Mike and his family unaware of her whereabouts.

The Hollywood Reporter recently caught up Mayor of Kingstown co-creator, executive producer and cast member Hugh Dillon (who plays homicide detective Ian Ferguson) to talk about caring for a recovering Renner so he can film the third season safely (including a promise made to Renner’s mother); how working and living in a city with a prison industry can impact the human condition (the series is loosely based on the town Dillon grew up in in Canada, which had nine prisons as its main industry); some previews of what’s to come with season three and its endgame: “Season seven, that’s when Taylor (Sheridan) and I will end it.”

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In this second episode, “Guts,” there’s a chilling voiceover that gives insight into the prison industry — from inmates to guards and parole officers, and finally, their families — and how bad it is a business with little redemption. Do you feel this? what is your opinion ?

Taylor (Sheridan, co-creator) and I knew we wanted to use voiceover because I would be talking about the town I was from when we created the show. It had nine penitentiaries; one of them was closed due to corruption. And my friends were prison guards because I grew up in that town. What fascinates me most is that the prison system is hidden from society in many ways, but what really interests us is how it affects people and the complexity of human emotion. What kind of impact does this have?

I grew up in a town where there was all kinds of crime. We would read about it in the newspapers and see it on television, and we would often say, “Well, okay, thank God that didn’t happen to me.” » But what happens is that these are also horrible crimes (elsewhere). For example, when I was a kid, there was this serial killer — and Taylor remembers this — named (Clifford) Olson who was captured in Vancouver, and I lived in Kingston, in the city that I was talking about (that Who Mayor of Kingstown is loosely based on). And I was vaguely aware of the crime, whatever it was, and it was horrible! And all of a sudden, he’s now incarcerated in your town. So now you’re sort of absorbing the darkness of humanity, and that interests me. I hope that answers your question.

And this fuels the character of Anna (played by Paula Malcomson) in episode two. Anna is a citizen of Kingstown who goes to Mike to see if he can prevent the parole of her son’s friend who murdered him just a few years ago. He’s about to get parole for good behavior, but that doesn’t bring relief or justice to her or her family, does it?

This is not the case. And he does not ask the question: “what is justice?” » We have always viewed our world as follows: no one is safe and nothing is sacred. And we want to explore these stories that are sort of open ended. As a society, we can’t find real answers to our closure, because it’s just an age-old question: What is justice?

Mike McLusky and his family have just lost their matriarch, Miriam McLusky played by Dianne Wiest. Was there ever any thought to masking some of Renner’s real physical limitations and emotions within the trauma Mike might feel from the loss of his mother?

No not at all. It was a whole different thing. Speaking of matriarch, that goes back to (Renner’s) mother, (Valerie Cearley). He wanted to do the show and he was in a wheelchair. It was a very difficult time, and I went to his house, and Taylor Sheridan said to me, “You know, we protect Renner at all costs, whatever we have to do,” because they’re friends. And that kind of loyalty is what Taylor brings, what I’ve always had – and it’s what Renner has. So he wanted to do the show from his wheelchair. And his mother is looking after him, and I’m like, “We basically need his permission.” »She’s a badass! And she said, “You better take care of him!” » And I say “100 percent.” I mean, he’s still in a wheelchair and he still has a long way to go.

And to get through all of that – and so we could get ready and start filming – I just wanted him to be motivated. We want the story to be great and we wanted shit to rock for him. So, having him here was such a gift! We all went to a place called Kennywood in Pittsburgh (an amusement park) with a big roller coaster. And I told them both (Renner and his mother Cearley), “We’re going to get to May and we’re all going to say, we did it!” And we just had his whole family, his daughter and the entire cast and crew, we just rallied around because it transcended making a TV show. It became something great for our leader who endured this extremely physically traumatic event in his life.

And that brings us back to what we were talking about before with prisons and how they trickle down into communities. With Jeremy, it’s about how it affected his family, his friends. It was a shock. The trip therefore took place with his real mother.

What is Iris (Emma Laird) hiding and why doesn’t she want to be fingerprinted?

Well, it’s just exceptional storytelling and character driven stuff. These characters go back a long way. And she doesn’t want to be fingerprinted because if she did it would reveal a whole bunch of crap. And then there will be a scene where I have to remind him that we are not strangers. But I will say that confidence is an incredible commodity in this series. There is few of it. And when there is, this thing that I speak of with loyalty is a currency.

Do you have a favorite season or episode right now?

Well, I’ve had this show with Taylor for years, so the whole show is a gift to me and my family. There are favorite episodes, there are favorite characters. The whole thing is the world (to me). I’ll tell you, my favorite season will be season seven, that’s when Taylor and I will finish it.

What else are you excited about with what’s coming in season three and after these first two episodes?

Taylor is great at building these great teams. There’s always someone who goes unnoticed, like writer Dave Erickson and director Christoph Schrewe. Making the show is extremely collaborative, and yet everyone is focused. That’s why I think you’ll edit edits on a scene, because there’s such depth and meaning behind it. It was beautifully shot. And this is just one of those great seasons. Taylor always says it’s 10 episodes of film, it’s not really TV. And I believe it. It’s explosive! There’s an incredible emotional velocity that’s unprecedented in television right now.

Mayor of Kingstown releases new episodes for season three Sunday on Paramount+.