The Big Picture

Full Circle is a six-episode Max series that follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping and the secrets surrounding it. Jim Gaffigan plays the role of Manny Broward, a U.S. Postal Investigation Service agent in the series, and discusses the subtext and character development in the scripts. Gaffigan’s character has a toxic dynamic with Zazie Beetz’s character in the series that explores generational conflict and the consequences of their actions.

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Full Circle.]From director Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon, the six-episode Max series Full Circle follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping, the individuals connected to it, and the secrets that have long been hidden. As the puzzle pieces come together, revelations make the three seemingly unrelated storylines take shape as a more intertwined crime drama that runs as deep as the ties that bind family.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Jim Gaffigan (who plays Manny Broward, the U.S. Postal Investigation Service agent who is Harmony’s supervisor) talked about the subtext throughout the scripts, expanding his role after filming began, the shifts that happened to his character as things evolved, the toxic dynamic he got to explore with Zazie Beetz, and how he feels about the fate of his character.

This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Collider: This is such a fascinating character study. It’s one of those projects where, as the audience, we start not knowing what’s going on or how any of the pieces, which really are these characters, fit with each other. How much did you know? Were you able to read it all, or did you just trust that Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon know what they’re doing?

JIM GAFFIGAN: I read the whole thing, but that being said, Ed writes with a lot of subtext, so it’s not immediately apparent, what’s going on. It was fun to go in, particularly at the beginning, and try to piece it together. I thought it was just me, but I’d be sitting with Zazie [Beetz] and be like, “Wait a minute, who is Garmen Harry?” And I’d have the same thing with Claire [Danes]. You didn’t wanna not have that piece of information. The mathematics of it were very similar to going into a final exam, and then turning to someone and saying, “When did they kill Trotsky? I think I know that, but I’m not sure.” Maybe there’s a better example, but it was really fun. It was fluid. We shot a couple of days, and then they were like, “We’re gonna add your character for a couple more days.” There was an excitement around it because things were changing and being fleshed out and clarified. It was similar to being at a birthday party, as a little kid, and you’ve opened up all your presents, and then you realize, “Oh, there are two more presents?” So, there were two more days that they added on.

Image via Max

How much did those additional days change things for your character?

GAFFIGAN: There would be shifts on what would happen to a character. At one point, my character was killed by a machete, but you didn’t see it. And then, they were like, “Now, your character is gonna get shot,” and you did see that. With Ed Solomon, and with Steven, I would ask them, So, why are we not seeing this, but we’re now seeing this?” They were like, “Another person was killed with a machete, and we don’t wanna portray him as too barbaric. We also don’t wanna weaken the impact of him taking the machete to Garmen Harry.” I was like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” They were like, “We wanna reach a point where his behavior is heroic, and not like he’s this out of control lunatic now.” It was really fun. Because it’s so multilayered, you would find out a piece of your backstory in episode five. Sometimes you could develop a timeline, but then that piece of the timeline would be removed, even though it was ingrained in your memory.

Because this was such dense material to work with, how did that affect the way that you approached it?

GAFFIGAN: I definitely wanted to work with Steven Soderbergh, but I was like, “He’s a postal inspector and he’s Zazie Beetz’s boss. Am I gonna be just doing exposition?” The writing is so dense, and it’s not that, but there was this great scene that was explaining all this stuff when I was in interrogating Xavier, and they got rid of it because, what I imagine because no one has told me this, it was too much exposition just to be exposition, like the Dateline recap after the commercial break. But selfishly, I loved it because it was a couple page speech. It was fun.

Image via Max

There’s something so weird and toxic about what’s going on between your character and Zazie Beetz’s character. What was it like to explore that with her?

GAFFIGAN: She’s great. Some of it is knowing what we learn about Manny in episode one versus what we eventually learn about him. In episode one, Mel is bad-mouthing him and painting this picture of what Manny is like. We know from seeing the whole series that, in a lot of ways, she was exactly right. I wasn’t gonna play that. Some of it was in the writing, but I didn’t want Manny to be just this boss that was a problem. So, in that initial scene, it was very apparent that I’d rather have the audience build empathy for this mid-level boss that’s dealing with the maverick employee. I also saw it as an opportunity for a generational conflict, where it was this Gen X guy, dealing with the millennial that didn’t wanna wait their turn.

How did you feel about the fate of your character?

GAFFIGAN: I also love the fact that, in Ed Solomon’s writing, there are dimensions to these characters. The reason Manny doesn’t initially turn in this psych eval is because that would have been a death sentence for her. It would have ended her career. He didn’t turn it in because he is a nice guy. He didn’t hold it back because he knew that it was a piece of leverage that he could use, if she ever found anything out. He did not expect anyone to ever find out about his involvement in the Guyana cover up stuff. Even at the end, when he talks to Sam at the park and she is like, “There’s no proof,” he’s like, “Oh, then all we have to do is nothing.” In this show, with the crimes or the misdeeds you do in the past, karma comes back. But for Manny, he doesn’t think that he’s gonna face the consequences. In a way, his death is a way out of the true consequences of his corruption.

Full Circle is available to stream at Max.