Alfred Molina is one to jump head-first into every role he’s inhabited, from his Tony-nominated performances onstage to his instantly iconic turn as Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man universe, to transforming into real-life figures such as Diego Rivera in the film Frida and his Emmy-nominated performance as director Robert Aldrich in the series Feud: Bette and Joan.
And there’s plenty of jumping, running, and action involved in his latest onscreen adventure The Boroughs, created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews (The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance) and executive produced by the Duffer Brothers and Hilary Leavitt. In the supernatural mystery series, Molina puts his stamp on Sam Cooper, a recent widower who is the new retiree on the block at the sunny New Mexico retirement community of The Boroughs, where golf carts outnumber cars and worries can be cast aside as the grounds are meticulously managed by owners who have thought of everything. But when Sam discovers a terrifying entity haunting his neighborhood, he brings together his fellow residents, becoming an unlikely leader as the group works to uncover the truth lurking beneath their picture-perfect community.
Clarke Peters as Art, Alfre Woodard as Judy, Alfred Molina as Sam, Denis OÕHare as Wally, Geena Davis as Renee
Molina felt a kinship with the role from the early conversations he had with Addiss and Matthews which made it easy to jump aboard. “I realized, when we got onto the subject of loss and the sense of ‘What do you do when you lose a partner that you've been with a long time?’, that’s something that I share with the character,” says Molina. “Not that they were asking me to mine that memory, but I was happy to offer and say, ‘Well, I know what that feels like.’ ” Sam is a reluctant hero, pushed to action despite his own grumpiness. “He starts off in one place and is somehow forced to go somewhere else,” says the actor. “He may not like it all the time, and he may not want to, but he has to. That kind of conflict, that kind of contradiction in characters is where the meat is.”
Another meaty aspect of The Boroughs was the opportunity to work with a murderers’ row of generation-defining actors. Molina is joined by Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Geena Davis, Clarke Peters, and Bill Pullman in the ensemble, many of whom had already crossed paths over their decades-spanning careers. The ice was already broken before they arrived on set. “We've all been around a bit. None of us have got anything to prove,” Molina says of their instant chemistry. “When you reach a certain age, we’ve all learned how to take the job seriously, but ourselves not at all. And that makes for a very easy atmosphere.”
Alfred Molina as Sam, Denis OÕHare as Wally
What also made The Boroughs a delightful experience for Molina was the humanity at the core of the otherworldly suspense. “It didn’t feel like writing. It felt like speech, like people talking,” the performer says of Addiss’s and Matthew’s scripts. “Alfred Molina is a dream No. 1 on a call sheet,” says Addiss. “He is effortlessly talented and kind, and he can break your heart so quickly and easily.” Adds Matthews: “Everyone wants to do a good job in front of Alfred. No one wants to let down Alfred Molina.”
