TV Talk: CMU grad is part of ‘Leverage’ sequel series

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

The 2008-12 TNT drama “Leverage” returns Friday as sequel series “Leverage: Redemption” on free, ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV.

The biggest change? Team leader Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) is dead and his grifter widow Sophie (Gina Bellman) is out of the Robin Hood game but gets pulled back into it as thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf), hitter Eliot (Christian Kane) and hacker Hardison (Aldis Hodge) continue to right the wrongs of the rich and powerful with the help of New Orleans attorney Harry Wilson (new-to-the-franchise Noah Wyle).

In the second episode of “Leverage: Redemption,” Hardison takes off on a new adventure. His computer-­savvy foster sister, Breanna Casey (2018 Carnegie Mellon University grad Aleyse Shannon), takes his place.

In a Zoom interview last month, Shannon, a CMU drama acting major, said she was back in Pittsburgh in early June, visiting her old neighborhood (Shadyside) and favorite restaurants, including The Yard.

“(At CMU) it was four years of eating, sleeping and breathing acting,” she said. “They take your first couple of years and they break you down and then they build you right back up. I was one of six actresses selected for my year. I don’t know how I got it because I’m coming from straight-up public school and there are some actor actors going into that program already (who) have agents and managers.”

Shannon credits what she learned from CMU movement instructors Catherine Moore and Kaf Warman and acting instructor Andrew Moore with helping prepare her for the work she’s doing now on “Leverage.”

“They really taught you that you cant know what you don’t know,” Shannon said. “And so here’s some tools to use when you show up and how to be open and how to be generous and not be afraid to fail. And those are the tools that I rely on the most on this set.”

Shannon admits to being intimidated coming into an established series with a cast who worked together for almost 80 episodes.

“There was almost this imaginary guide book that they set up before me and they were like, hey, here you go, run with it, young grasshopper,” she said of the returning cast. “Everybody has been so instrumental in teaching me. Its like I went to class again, its like CMU-point-two with actual actors who are brilliant.”

Kane credits fan interest in the “Leverage” revival, and it’s clear the cast has a bond. Hodge’s career has really taken off since “Leverage” ended in 2012, with the actor winning an Independent Spirit Award earlier this year for “One Night in Miami…” and yet here he is back on a TV series that doesn’t fall in the prestige category of his projects since, including “City on a Hill” and “Underground.” (Hodge appears in two of the eight episodes that drop Friday; he’ll be back for one more when another eight episodes debut in the fall).

“A lot of times, you go off, you do a series with someone for years and years and then you don’t talk again for 10 years until you bump into them in a restaurant,” Kane said. “Three years ago or maybe two years ago, we all got together and had dinner, the whole cast (of the original series). That’s how close we are.”

Of course, Hutton’s absence may disappoint some viewers.

“He was unavailable. That’s just how it was,” Kane said.

Although Hutton was probably still contractually tied to Fox’s 2019-20 dud “Almost Family” at the time “Leverage: Redemption” was announced, it was clear “Almost Family” would not be renewed. Around the same time Hutton faced a rape accusation that the actor has denied and called an extortion attempt.

“I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since we wrapped (production on the new season), but he’s always been supportive,” Kane said. “Nate Ford is still very, very much a spirit within the new ‘Leverage: Redemption.’ He’s talked about a lot. He’s still there in spirit big time.”