T
he central storyline of gripping new
drama series MotherFatherSon is,
to put it simply, “all about power”,
declares Helen McCrory.
McCrory (Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful)
plays Kathryn Villiers, the English heiress to
a national newspaper owned by her family
for generations. But after divorcing American
husband Max Finch – Richard Gere, in his
first major TV project – she loses everything.
Ruthless, charismatic Max takes over the
newspaper empire, establishing himself as
an influential media tycoon and appointing
their son Caden (Billy Howle) as the youngest
ever editor of his prized title, The National
Reporter. But Caden crumbles under the
pressure of his father’s expectations,
numbing his pain with drugs and excess.
When he suffers a stroke, his parents are
reluctantly brought back together.
“The power [dynamic] within the
family changes when Caden has a stroke,”
explains McCrory. “And because Max has
this newspaper empire, he has political
influence and so that stroke doesn’t just
affect mother, father and son, but ripples
across the whole nation.”
For Gere, the role of Max marks his
most significant TV work in more than
four decades in the spotlight.
“I’ve never done anything like this –
playing a lead character in a TV series, or
even playing a character for this amount
of time,” he acknowledges. “[Max is] kind of
a Citizen Kane-type character. He came up
in the steel industry, then gave it up to buy
a local newspaper, then another one, finally
becoming the owner of news organisations
involved in the highest level of politics.
He acts questionably, but I don’t see him
as an evil villain.”
McCrory feels the status Gere gained
in hit movies like American Gigolo and
Pretty Woman makes him perfect for the role.
“He brings a film star quality to it,” she
explains. “People sit up and take notice
when Max walks onto the news floor, and
Richard has that sort of command.”
A family
AT WA R
Richard Gere follows the trend of A-list film stars
flocking to TV in ambitious drama MotherFatherSon
22 Foxtel MAY