Bull interview: Geneva Carr previews season 2 finale, Marissa’s dilemma
The Bull season 2 finale is set to air on Tuesday night and with that, you better be prepared for some fascinating storylines and some excellent performances. Not only will you see the continuation of the Elliott Miles case, but along the way you will also see some personal stories play out for a number of different characters. That includes Geneva Carr and her character of Marissa Morgan, who is going to be struggling with a pivotal decision after making some personal revelations about herself.
In the first part of our two-part finale interview with Carr (check back tonight for more), the actress discusses with us what is weighing on Marissa’s mind, the journey this season, and so much more.
CarterMatt – What have you appreciated the most about Marissa’s journey this season?
Geneva Carr – Season 1 was introducing trial science to people, and season 2 is about the people who practice trial science. For me, it’s been a fascinating journey to play Marissa because she’s such an interesting, unexpected journey on television. I jokingly say that she is the brains and Bull is the beauty, but she is really the person who has created the matrix and so many things that we explained to people in season 1 — mock juries are how we use it to figure out how people are going to vote.
This season has really been all about who Marissa is as a person and why she does what she does — and really, why she and Bull are friends. The interesting thing for me as an actress is being a woman playing the best friend of a man. Jason Bull is Marissa’s boss, but he’s her ally and her family. It was mentioned that Marissa doesn’t have family, but with the episode earlier on with Brad Garrett [guest starring], that episode was amazing. We learned about Marissa’s backstory and Bull was the one who had Marissa’s back and wanted to keep her family story private. He was willing to go to jail in order to protect her pride and her privacy. That is something really profound that has influenced everything coming forward.
Glenn [Gordon Caron], who is our showrunner and our genius, he has really let our writers go crazy to let every episode lead into the next episode. He doesn’t even know what he is going to write. He’s said himself that he doesn’t watch the dailies as they go, he watches when we’re done shooting. He doesn’t want how he feels to influence what’s happening in the moment. It’s unusual — mostly people watch the dailies and try to adjust as they go, but he really lives in the moment and sees where we’re going to take him. Every one of the actors has had an opportunity to influence where the show goes; I said to him jokingly at one point ‘are you bugging my phone or having me followed?’, because so much of what Marissa is going through is what I’m going through in my life. It’s been really wonderful and this season has been really deep. I hope the fans like it and I hope they care as much as I care about that friendship and why Bull and Marissa are so important to each other.
When you first got the finale script and had a chance to read it, what was your general reaction to it?
Well I started crying (laughs). It’s a really intense place that Bull and Marissa end up. The finale’s a two-parter and the two episodes that lead up to the finale are really intense. Learning about Bull’s sister and what that cost him to represent the woman who was a victim of domestic abuse was really profound. It led its way to how the finale ended up.
Marissa is at a really tough point in her professional life and emotional life. She has to make some decisions about what she’s going to do moving forward and how willing she is to put her own emotional life at risk to help Jason. It’s pretty intense. I started crying because Marissa, in some respects, is in love with Bull. People have talked about it being romantic or not, but he’s her family. He is the closest thing she has to true family. They’re both too busy for a romantic relationship, but I jokingly say that I’m his work wife. Bull is going through some really intense stuff, but how willing is Marissa to put herself at risk to help him. It’s a question a lot of people are going to ask themselves. It takes some twists and turns that I really didn’t expect. I found it really moving.
Related – Watch a sneak peek now for the season finale
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