PRODIGAL SON: Lou Diamond Phillips on Gil’s Paternal Relationship with the Team, ‘Complex’ History with Jessica

PRODIGAL SON: L-R: Tom Payne and Lou Diamond Phillips in the “Fear Response” episode of PRODIGAL SON airing Monday, Oct. 7 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2019 FOX MEDIA LLC. Cr: Barbara Nitke/ FOX.

As PRODIGAL SON’s Bright (Tom Payne) embraces his calling as criminal profiler, his new team is still trying to get a handle on him and his unconventional methods.

Luckily for him, he has his boss, Gil (Lou Diamond Phillips), in his corner—at least most of the time. “He’s just like a dad with a bunch of kids,” Phillips jokes. “And you can’t say that any one of them is his favorite; he’s trying to be supportive of all of them.”

Phillips, whose recent television credits includes LONGMIRE and BLUE BLOODS, had previously turned down a number of cop boss roles in the past. “I don’t want to be that guy who’s always saying, ‘You’re a loose cannon, mister!'” he says of why he passed on similar title roles prior to this. “All of this stuff is so typical. [But] they perform a function in procedurals.”

Instead, in Gil, he found a man who is “paternal and protective, and yet is comfortable in his own skin”…and with a sense of humor.

But, of course, he may also have some secrets up his sleeve.

Phillips dives into the team’s at-times complicated dynamic, Gil’s “loaded” history with Jessica (Bellamy Young), whether fans might see a Gil-focused episode in the near future, and more…

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