Summary

• Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney shine in American Rust: Broken Justice, exploring complex characters facing fallout from Season 1.
• Tierney's Grace undergoes major shifts, while Daniels's Del investigates a shocking homicide, setting up a gripping narrative.
• Challenges for the actors include Tierney struggling with Pittsburgh driving and a standout scene between Tierney and Rob Yang.

Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney are in top form for American Rust: Broken Justice, the second season of the gritty Pennsylvania-set crime drama. After the violent events of Season 1, both Del Harris (played by Daniels) and his girlfriend Grace Poe (portrayed by Tierney) have to face plenty of fallout. Del has returned to Pittsburgh, where he's investigating a shocking homicide with a seemingly innocent victim. Back in Buell, Grace is trying to sort out the chaos of her family.

CBR spoke to Maura Tierney and Jeff Daniels about what interested them in revisiting Grace and Del for a second season, which is now streaming on Prime Video. The award-winning actors also discussed their biggest challenges in these roles and the influence of Philipp Meyer's 2009 novel on the TV series. But whether audiences have read the book or not, or even if they haven't seen Season 1, American Rust: Broken Justice offers two complex characters played by an incredible duo.

CBR: What interested you about returning to your American Rust characters for Season 2? Were there specific parts of Grace and Del, or of the world, that you wanted to examine more?

Maura Tierney: I was interested that the character of Grace was going to have a major shift in her circumstances. I knew this from before we started shooting... So it was great to be able to come in and play the same character, who now has a lot more autonomy.

Jeff Daniels: I wanted to find out what happened. I really enjoyed the character and the [other] characters. I wanted to find out what happened, because I knew that the writers would have free rein after kind of adhering to the book. Season 2, they got to go wherever they wanted to. I'm always looking forward to see what the characters might inspire in the writers, and so that was a big pull for me to come back.

CBR: American Rust: Broken Justice picks up very strongly where Season 1 left off. For viewers who may not recall that season or are getting into the series now, what's the most important thing to know about your character?

Tierney: The most important thing to know about my character is that she's a very devoted person, who is possibly not entirely trustworthy. [Both of those] two things can be true. She can be very devoted and very loving -- and she's also not necessarily trustworthy.

Daniels: In a way, it's a bit like a love story. You're trying to find out, in Del's case, how far he will go for love. To be with someone he just has to be with. The lengths he'll go to.

CBR: Both of you have fantastic careers -- Maura, you won a Golden Globe for Showtime's acclaimed drama The Affair, and Jeff. you have two Emmy Awards for HBO's The Newsroom and Godless. Was there anything about this show that challenged each of you?

Tierney: I found it really challenging to drive in Pittsburgh. I had to drive myself to work, which is not a problem anywhere else. But it was really, really, really challenging to get lost all the time. It was COVID, so we had to be [careful] still. So that was really hard.

Daniels: I agree.

Tierney: And I never got better at it. Quite honestly, after two freaking years, I didn't. Did you, Jeff?

Daniels: No, I agree wholeheartedly. That was the one thing that -- you've got the Three Rivers, you've got all those bridges. Even the GPS is telling you--

Tierney: --Has no idea where the hell it is.

Daniels: No idea. Turn left, and you're three lanes over coming off a bridge, and you've got it... and now you've missed it, and now you're in Ohio. And they'll tell you that when they laid out all the roads, they weren't really planned out as well as they could be. They'll admit to that. But you learn how to drive there. If we do [more] seasons, maybe I'll finally master it. But driving there is tricky.

CBR: Are there scenes or elements of American Rust: Broken Justice that you're particularly excited for viewers to see?

Tierney: There's a lot of them. I do think that scenes with me and Rob [Yang, who plays Steve Park] are kind of funny. They really dig into each other in a way that I'm hoping is a little bit lighter. That's why I'm curious to see those; I haven't watched it yet.

Daniels: There's a scene between Maura and Rob in Rob's basement. I call it NAR -- No Acting Required. [laughs] All she has to do is see this little thing he's got going on in the basement, and that's fun.

CBR: As Jeff mentioned, Season 2 is its own entity, but did you ever at any point read Philipp Meyer's novel American Rust? Did that have any impact on how you approached Grace or Del, or even just as far as setting the tone for you?

Tierney: I did not read it. I was informed early on that the character was going to change, [that] they weren't basing the character in the TV show so much on the character in the book, so I felt like I would just have a fresh look at whatever the writers wrote on the page.

Daniels: And they did that; they went a different direction with her. I read it; I at least wanted to get a feel for Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, and Philipp Meyer did a really good job of that. There were a couple other books written by Pittsburgh writers about that area that helped as well.

All ten episodes of American Rust: Broken Justice are now streaming on Prime Video.