Lincoln Lawyer showrunner Ted Humphrey knew Manuel Garcia-Rulfo was their Mickey Haller “the minute I saw his audition.”
“We were looking at lots of people,” Humphrey tells Tudum. “And the second I saw Manuel’s audition, I went, ‘Oh wow, that’s Mickey. There he is.’ And I felt very confident about that very quickly.”
Filling the role of defense lawyer Mickey was no small feat: The character is suave yet personable, fearless yet vulnerable and must somehow do all of this while constantly eating... a lot of fast food. But perhaps most importantly, in keeping true to Michael Connelly’s six Lincoln Lawyer books, Mickey Haller needed to encompass two identities.
Elliott Gould and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in The Lincoln Lawyer.
While other versions of Mickey had appeared on screen in the past (see: Matthew McConaughey in the 2011 film adaptation), Humphrey wanted “to do justice to the books.” Enter Garcia-Rulfo, a native Spanish-speaking actor from Mexico who’d yet to play a leading role that depicted his Latinx identity without typecasting him (even though “sometimes it’s fun to play the drug dealer” he teases).
Leaning into Connelly’s original depiction of Mickey, which identifies him as biracial — his “mother’s genes made [him] look more south of the border than north,” Connelly writes — Manuel brought new life to the part, and Humphrey was able to carefully craft the new Mickey Haller around the actor playing him, too. “Once you cast the part, then you’ve got an actual person who’s going to bring all of their talent [and] background and everything to it,” he says. “And now you start to tailor it to that specific person, as opposed to just a general idea that you have in your head.”
When Garcia-Rulfo was set in the role, the collaboration between the actor and writers began. “There were a lot of conversations with Manuel about, ‘What would you do? What would you say? How would you deal with your daughter in this case?’ ” Humphrey says. “And we did have to tailor the character a very tiny bit to Manuel.”
This was also considered when casting Mickey’s daughter, Hayley. “We cast [Krista Warner] who played his daughter, Hayley, because she is biracial, and she also speaks Spanish,” Humphrey says. “There were opportunities for them to speak Spanish with one another and really, in as authentic a way as possible, honor the heritage of the character.”
Krista Warner andGarcia-Rulfo in TheLincoln Lawyer.
Humphrey also explains that on set, there was a very familial feeling between the cast and crew. “How much of that seeps into the show? That’s more art than science, but I think some of it does,” he says. “[That] familial feel on our set helps Manuel bring this character to life.”
Connelly, too, is thrilled with Garcia-Rulfo bringing his Mickey into the world. “I say he’s the keeper of this character, because I just think he grasps it so well,” he says. “The season, ultimately, is about a guy getting back on his horse, but it’s also really about a guy coming to a decision where he has to do the right thing at great expense to himself and those he loves. You can see the pain that that is causing this guy in Manuel’s face. When I saw that, I just knew we totally had the right person.”
