As The Rainmaker continues its first season, USA viewers are learning more about the women in Rudy Baylor’s life. Rudy’s girlfriend Sarah Plankmore (played by Madison Iseman) has stuck by him despite being employed by the very law firm he’s now fighting against. However, their relationship is showing signs of strain—because her boss Leo Drummond is determined to use Sarah against Rudy.

Meanwhile, Rudy is now working for the determined Jocelyn “Bruiser” Stone (portrayed by Lana Parrilla), who has her own complicated past with Drummond. Bruiser is The Rainmaker‘s fiercest character, yet Episode 3 gave viewers a glimpse at her secrets. How much more is going to be dragged out of her proverbial closet? To find out more about both Sarah and Bruiser, TVBrittanyF.com spoke to Iseman and Parrilla about their experience on The Rainmaker.

Brittany Frederick: Did either of you read the John Grisham novel before filming? Especially since Lana, your character was a man in the book.

Madison Iseman: I’m a huge reader; normally, I would be all into it. But my version of Sarah does not exist in the book. So I wanted to go into it completely fresh. I’ve seen the movie… I did read the first couple chapters, but then after I realized it was very different, I was like, I think it’s better if I pause.

I feel like I should go and read it now that we’re done. I think I’d appreciate it much more.

Lana Parrilla: I totally nerded out. I read it, and I tabbed everything that I needed to know about Bruiser and other things like, legal jargon and situations. I was like, what the heck is this? What does this say? Trial unit? What the hell is a trial unit? [Laughs.]

And it was interesting, because there was a part of me that was like, wow… Just to see this different aspect of Bruiser, because Bruiser was a man and super-shady—I think a bit more shady in the book than Bruiser is on our show, and maybe that’s because she’s a woman.

Lana, you’re not very far removed from appearing in The Lincoln Lawyer, which was another legal thriller adapted from the works of another famous author, Michael Connelly. Did you carry anything from that process to The Rainmaker?

Parrilla: On Lincoln Lawyer, I played a chef—and I was like the big case of the season, and also the love interest in Mickey Haller. So it was different. It was very different. Bruiser is not anything like Lisa Trammell, but even Lisa Trammell in the novel, which I was told not to read… They said, don’t read it. It’s going to confuse you. So I didn’t.

But I wanted to read this one because I felt it was important. Bruiser is a big character in the book and has a huge influence on Rudy Baylor. And so I just wanted to see what I could steal from that character and give to the female Bruiser on our show.

Madison, much of Sarah’s early screen time is about her relationship with Rudy. As the season goes on, how do you work with the creative team to develop her individual character arc?

Iseman: Sarah’s journey in her arc throughout the first season, it’s beautiful. She starts very naive. She’s very open to what’s going on. She hasn’t been necessarily burdened by the world of law and injustice yet. And as time goes on throughout the show, she’s constantly questioning what’s right, what’s wrong. How badly do you want to win? She’s just sort of always stuck in the middle between this push and pull.

Throughout the show, she learns to step into her womanhood and take up space, and she goes through this full journey from beginning to end. By the time you get to the last episode, she is a completely different Sarah than you see in Episode 1. And as an actor, these are the roles we always look for. Especially as women, it’s fun to see women go through these extreme changes from the beginning to the end.

Milo Callaghan, who’s fantastic, plays our Rudy Baylor—we talked about it early on, because our relationship starts out so strong. We wanted to make sure you know that history was there from the very beginning, so that throughout the show, it can just live there, and we don’t necessarily even have to tap into it. It’s built in, so that we can focus on the case, and let all of our history sort of shine through that… She goes through a lot this season. I think people are going to be really excited to see her full transformation.

Parrilla: I will say I’m a fan of Sarah Plankmore. Her arc is really cool, and I love it. I love it because there’s so much room for growth with this character that you’re going to see that Madison gets to portray. It’s really lovely.

As Sarah gets tougher, Bruiser starts tough and fans see more of her vulnerabilities. Lana, audiences are used to you playing tough characters in shows like Once Upon a Time and Boomtown. So was it easy for you to step into Bruiser?

Parrilla: I really felt challenged by this, because I do play these badass, bossy women now, and for me the challenge is, how do I make Bruiser different? How do I make her sound different? How does she walk? How does she become so physical? For me? Because what I’m realizing with my casting is, I am a strong woman. I am a strong woman that can put someone in their place. That’s why I portray these strong female characters so well. However, how do I make them different every time?

Once Upon a Time, there [were] many seasons of portraying that character, and so much of Regina lived in my DNA, where I had to shake it off and do an exorcism to get rid of her. [Laughs.] She was so embedded in me. And then Why Women Kill was kind of like a little extension of that. And then Lisa Trammell from Lincoln Lawyer, she was a breath of fresh air. It was like oh, I don’t have to be that person. I can actually be the damsel in distress, which was so great.

Coming back to this boss lady with Bruiser—for me, it was so physical.I had to open myself up more… Bruiser did grow up in a man’s world. Just her and her father and all of his shady friends, and probably some mafia guys. So it was implementing all of those influences into this woman’s body. I kept asking the producers, do you see any Regina? Do you see any of Rita Castillo? Is she different? They’re like, she’s different. She’s different. Okay, good. So that was my challenge.

Iseman: All I had to do was watch Lana. I was like, Okay, I’m just going to do what she does. But also, and I can speak on behalf of our whole cast, everyone is so talented. Everyone fits in their roles so well, and it’s fun. It’s a very male [dominated] show, so I feel very lucky that I got to do this next to Lana, who has done it forever. And she’s a legend. She’s incredible.

I could just sit there and watch her all day—even though we really didn’t interact much. The two of us were on opposing firms. But every time you got up in court, it was just honestly the best acting lesson. I would just watch you the whole time. You’re so brilliant.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.