Podcast Remote Controlled: Billions Stars Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti and Executive Producers Preview Season 2 – Feb 17, 2017

Remote Controlled: ‘Billions’ Stars Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti, EPs Preview Season 2 Showdowns

by Maureen Ryan – Remote Controlled Podcast, Variety – February 17, 2017

Welcome to Remote Controlled, Variety’s podcast series featuring the best and brightest in television, both in front of and behind the camera.

This week’s episode features Variety executive editor of TV Debra Birnbaum and chief TV critic Maureen Ryan in conversation with “Billions” creators and executive producers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, as well as stars Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti. 

In the second season of “Billions,” which arrives on Sunday, Chuck Rhoades comes out swinging — in more ways than one, according to Giamatti, who plays the federal prosecutor. 

Partly in reaction to various crises in his life, including his ongoing battle with hedge fund magnate Bobby Axelrod (Lewis), Chuck takes up jiu jitsu early in Season 2.

His training at the gym “becomes metaphorical for him and for the show,” says Giamatti, who notes that Chuck learns from the martial art “that you can win from a position of vulnerability.”

That insight will be important, given that Bobby, a billionaire with a deep-seated grudge against Chuck, “has decided that in order to survive, he’s got to take down Chuck,” Lewis says. “He’s decided this town isn’t big enough for the two of them, so he throws the book at Chuck.”

In responding to Bobby’s take-no-prisoners approach, Chuck gets creative and even a little devious, according to the executive producers.

You can listen to the podcast and read the rest of the original article at Variety