Will Trent’s Ramon Rodriguez & Erika Christensen on Will and Angie’s ‘Heavyweight’ Chemistry as They Tease Big Storylines Ahead
ABC’s Will Trent was the surprise hit of the 2022/2023 TV season, finishing as the network’s third-most-watched show with its unique take on procedurals. Following Will, a dyslexic Georgia Bureau of Investigation cop (played by Ramon Rodriguez) grew up in the foster system, refuses to process his trauma, and strikes up a beautiful but fraught friendship with Atlanta cop Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen) — who also grew up in the system with Will — whose sense of humor helps balance out the dark emergencies the team faces on a weekly basis.
That’s something both Ramon and Erika hope to continue in season two, which premieres on ABC on February 20, 2024 at 10/9c.
“Honestly, that’s what the show does really well,” Ramon told HELLO! for our Spotlight cover. “There’s really heavy emotional stuff and sometimes silly, funny stuff. When the band gets together, there’s a lot of bickering – and we have a lot of that in the first few episodes of season two, which is really great.”
Season one ended on a cliffhanger, with Will discovering the truth about his late mother and revealing that he’s had a surrogate mother figure in Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) who’s been looking after him all along, who’s been trying to adopt him.
Meanwhile, Angie has decided to end her on-again, off-again romance with Will for good, but in a devastating twist, she’s beaten by serial killer James Ulster (Greg Germann) and Will is told she could be paralyzed.
Here, Ramon and Erika delve into identity, finding family, and how they keep things light on set. Hint: it involves a dog.
Season one ended with Will discovering the truth about his mother, how will that continue to unfold in season two?
Ramon: Will finally has some understanding of his identity, and some important pieces of his life have been resolved. But when we finished season one, I asked, ‘What does that do for season two?’
I’m fascinated by identity, and for someone like Will, there’s a lot about himself that he doesn’t know. But the process of self-discovery and choosing to learn about your historical life can be a good thing or a bad thing, so how does that affect someone psychologically? At the beginning of season two, he starts to shed a little bit of his heritage when he learns Spanish to bond with his mother – and I like when we see him vulnerable and awkward. But that can also trigger some other things, and I think we’re trying to continue on that path this season and see where that takes us.
For Angie, she’s been so badly injured that her future is uncertain, where do we see her when season two opens?
Erika: We’ll see the results of that attack and those injuries. But Angie is a fighter, someone who really needs to work to stay sane and feel a sense of self-worth and purpose, so even though at the start of season two she’s not working and she’s physically recovering, she definitely has her sights set on getting back on the team.
Angie and Will have a long history that ties them together but is also complicated, so as actors, how did you approach building that relationship from the beginning?
Erika: We’ve been friends for 15 or 16 years so there’s a layer of trust that we automatically start with. There’s a romantic scene in the first episode where they kiss – and we had intimacy coordinators, which was amazing – but I remember thinking, ‘We’re going to be okay,’ because we know each other, we trust each other.
Ramon: There’s no doubt that knowing someone for a long time helps. We all know what this relationship and this history is, so the question was, ‘How do you feel about that being honest?’
One of Angie’s first lines is, ‘I’ve seen your scars.’ It’s beautiful and wonderful. And all that with the added complication of having a dog around us… Belle (the Chihuahua who plays Betty, Will’s pet dog) must have lightened things up on set…
Erika: The way we fawn over Belle!
Ramon: Honestly, that’s something the show does really well. There’s really heavy emotional stuff and then other times it’s just silly, silly fun. When the band gets together, there’s a lot of bickering – but we have a lot of that in the first couple of episodes of season two, which is really cool.
