Gerald McRaney Breaks Down His Effortless Father-Son Chemistry With James Marsden on ‘Paradise’ (Exclusive)

Paradise has Gerald McRaney and James Marsden facing off as father and son, which came rather easy to them.

“We just fell into it,” McRaney, 77, exclusively told Us Weekly. “James is an incredibly good actor and we just picked up on each other’s vibe. There was no particular effort in getting that chemistry. I often equate working with people like that with athletics. The great thing about working with a great athlete is it ceases to be a chore and starts being fun, even though it’s a brutally hard thing to do.”

McRaney compared playing sports to his own craft, adding, “It’s the same thing with acting. Acting can be brutally hard. I’ve been in things that were brutally hard, but when you’re working with really great people, you go back to playing.”

Paradise, which premiered in January, initially appeared to be set in a serene and wealthy community forced to face the realities of a shocking murder. In typical creator Dan Fogelman fashion, however, a twist at the end of the premiere revealed Paradise was actually an underground bunker housing the world’s most prominent individuals after an apocalyptic event destroyed the rest of humanity.

The twists kept on coming when Marsden, 51, was killed minutes into the first episode. While it was already revealed that Paradise would be following the high stakes investigation into Cal’s death, the show has introduced several suspects who could have benefited from the former president’s murder.

“I pretty much knew it wasn’t me. But with Dan, you never know,” McRaney quipped to Us. “I [was just] excited to be on this show because Dan Fogelman is a genius and the stuff that he writes [are so good]. The twists are one thing but what I find wonderful about his writing is his dialogue, his sense of drama and also his sense of humor. He weaves it all together and it’s just great fun to play.”

As Hulu released more episodes, viewers got a larger glimpse into Cal’s tumultuous relationship with his father, Kane. McRaney appreciated the chance to develop a complicated character who struggled with pushing his son into the career he felt he was destined for.

“The thing I had in mind — and I don’t know if Dan did or not — but Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. had the same sort of problems there. I don’t think his sons were as reluctant as Cal to pursue these things,” he noted. “But I think Joe Kennedy had two things going. One was he wanted the power for the Kennedy family but the other thing was he truly believed that if you’ve been given great wealth, then you’ve got great responsibility and you’re supposed to do good in the world.”

McRaney continued: “There’s that bizarre combination of being power hungry and being benevolent all at the same time. So it’s a complicated thing in this business of pushing your son to get great power.”

In addition to having a tense relationship with his son, Kane is also dealing with dementia.

“Walking that fine line when somebody has dementia is they also have moments — at least this has been my experience — where there are moments of absolute clarity. Then they fade back into that sort of netherworld of dementia — that downward spiral,” McRaney explained. “But there are moments of clarity and that’s basically what I tried to do with it and with that knowledge that he has. Those flashes of clarity can be frightening to him and dreadful.”

The newest episode, which premiered on Tuesday, February 11, showed Kane helped his grandson find out what led to Cal’s death. McRaney broke down the reasoning behind that decision, especially since it puts Paradise‘s biggest secrets at risk.

“I have no idea where the character will go from there. But I can tell you that the way I approach that is that I think quite often with dementia, there returns a childlike innocence,” he shared. “It gets rid of all the walls that you’ve built up during your adult life and you’re back to just wanting to be a nice guy again.”

New episodes of Paradise are released on Hulu every Tuesday.