Rust Never Sleeps: Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney Play Good People Facing Bad Choices in SHOWTIME’s AMERICAN RUST

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Stuck. Trapped. Coasting. Frustrated. Resigned. Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney were asked if any of those words ring a bell in describing their characters in the new small-town Pennsylvania-set SHOWTIME drama AMERICAN RUST, the first episode of which is available on Crave now. “Yes, some are stuck, some were left behind, some don’t want to leave,” Daniels explained. “Some came there to escape, like Del Harris (Daniels’ character) did, to come to a place that no one will come to. He’s done – he has basically done everything he’s going to do. He’s got some regrets. He’s got some issues back in Pittsburgh. So he has moved on to escape, and he finds this woman named Grace (Tierney’s character) and falls for her. But many of them are trying to get out. Some of them are trying to get out and they can’t, they’re stuck. Yeah, it applies.” Tierney added, “I also think when you’ve been living so close to the edge, one mistake can make you super stuck. One mistake – like with Billy, the son of my character, played by Alex (Neustaedter) – he’s a bright kid who’s a talented athlete, and he gets into a bar fight, and that’s it. You know, when you’re this close to the edge, you can’t make one mistake, or the whole thing can fall apart. So I think some of them are stuck in that respect, too.” Based on a novel by Philipp Meyer, AMERICAN RUST is a story of peril and survival in an economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town. When news of a murder rattles the community, police chief Del Harris (Daniels) is faced with difficult choices – some gut-wrenching, some split-second – about how far he’s willing to go to protect the son of his would-be-girlfriend-with-complications, Grace Poe (Tierney). “The love stories where they meet in the meadow, and the flowers, and the sun shines, and a bluebird goes by – this ain’t that,” said Daniels, referring to the relationship between Del and Grace. “These people have complications. They have histories. They have a history with each other. And they’re trying one more time. It’s not a Hollywood love story. It’s a real love story that has obstacles in it.” Acknowledging those myriad obstacles, Tierney efficiently grouped them into two categories. “My character has a son, Billy, who is kind of the love of her life in a way that maybe is unhealthy, and it’s about her sort of balancing that her son is primary, with this man (Del) in her life,” Tierney said. “I think she has a hard time prioritizing. And also, with Jeff’s character being a police officer, right? So those are the two things that complicate their relationship: her son, and his job.” There’s also Grace’s ex/Billy’s dad to worry about – a compelling combination of charm and sleaze named Virgil, played by Mark Pellegrino, who seems to specialize in those types of roles. The strong ensemble cast also features Bill Camp, David Alvarez, Julia Mayorga, and Rob Yang. Daniels said that even though he wasn’t overly familiar with the Pennsylvania specifics depicted in AMERICAN RUST, he feels a kinship with the characters and the struggles they face because of his own background. “I grew up near Detroit, and so the car companies, some are still there, but most have gone to Mexico and China, and the steel mills did the same thing in Pittsburgh,” he said. “When big business picks up and leaves, this is what’s left behind, and there’s a rust that happens, not only to the buildings, but to the people. These people still exist, they’re still there. And they have families, and they have dreams, and they have things that will never happen. They’re still good people, and they’re still trying to find a way to just get up to maybe a better place to live, a better way to be, something, anywhere other than where they are. That’s who these people are. They’re good people trying to get up to that next rung on the ladder.” AMERICAN RUST will follow a weekly release schedule, with the next new episode due on Sept. 19. billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv