Ramón Rodríguez’s Will Trent isn’t the type of character you expect him to be, especially if you read the series of novels by Karin Slaughter, which the show is based on.
The series, which is about to conclude its third season and has already been renewed for a fourth, has instead built a new character. One that shares traits with the book version, but one that, in many ways, stands on its own. That’s sometimes the beauty of adaptations.
Remezcla sat down with the Puerto Rican actor ahead of the Season 3 finale of the show to discuss building the character, Will’s Puerto Rican identity, and if we can expect that long-awaited love interest from the books to pop up in Season 4.
“I read the books when they came to me with the project,” Rodríguez shared. “And I was really intrigued by this guy. His backstory and what he’s been through in his life. And yet the heart that he shows and shares, and how much he cares, and his resilience. There were just a lot of qualities I loved about him.”
Yet, Rodríguez also told us he wasn’t sure about bringing him to the screen, because he doesn’t really resemble the character described in the books. “What was cool was I was able to kind of find a version of him that’s different from the books, yet we try to really honor a lot of the qualities about who he is.” And the show does draw a lot from the source material, without being very literal with it.
And when it comes to his Puerto Rican identity, Rodríguez spoke about how important it was to play a character “who’s very different from him,” but that he can “represent something that is uniquely him, but yet make a culture and the people feel like, yeah, that’s right. You know, we don’t just have to be one thing or another thing.”
In the show, the discussion about Will Trent’s identity doesn’t come right away, as he isn’t even aware of it—and it isn’t until we learn that his mother is from Puerto Rico that this becomes something to be explored. For Rodríguez, this was very interesting because it opened up conversations like “well, how do you feel about this?” and approached the storyline in a way that feels authentic.
“He’s an orphan and did not know who his parents were. And so, when he discovers his mom, and who she is, and where she’s from, I can imagine that curiosity being something that he wants to scratch that itch.” And that’s something that, “feels very organic and truthful to the character’s experience and what it must be like for someone like Will, to go back to or to go to a place where they’re from, where their parents are from.”
And it’s something that, with a Season 4 already confirmed, Rodríguez said should be revisited. “We want to go back. I want to go back,” he said about Puerto Rico.
The actor also left us with a little tease about the possible appearance of Sara Linton, who is Will’s romantic love interest in the books. “That’s something that we talk about, and we’re very mindful of when and how we bring characters in, if they’re from the books or not. And I know it’s something people want; we all were very aware of it.”
Does that mean it’s coming? “I think it’s something that, at some point, we are going to probably have to figure out how to integrate. We haven’t gotten too specific about it. But it is something that we talk about, so we’ll see what ends up happening there.”
Season four planning will start soon, so Ramon Rodríguez left us with this. “Maybe in Season 4.”
We’ll be tuning in either way.
Will Trent is available on ABC and Hulu.
