An Interview with Riley Voelkel & James Badge Dale from ‘Hightown’

Riley Voelkel and James Badge Dale as Renee Segna and Ray Abruzzo in Season 3 of ‘Hightown’. (Photo courtesy of STARZ.)

Riley Voelkel and James Badge Dale are a pair of highly accomplished actors that have appeared in some memorable stories throughout the years, such as The Newsroom and The Pacific, respectively. Currently, they both star as Renee Segna and Ray Abruzzo on the hit STARZ series, Hightown, and with the show beginning its farewell journey, we here at NTG had the distinct honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss their three-year journey on the show.
 
John Betancourt: What have each of you have learned from your characters and the show since we kind of take something away from these kinds of stories?
 
Riley Voelkel: Oh, man. Well, as an actor, I've learned a lot. This was a dream role. Mostly because I knew it was going to be my biggest challenge, yet. So, I've learned just a ton as an actor, especially getting to work with such incredible actors in production and crew. And I think, Badge, you had kind of talked about this earlier. But I think when you're having to understand the perspective of a character whose life is so different from yours, you learn a lot through that process, you know, on the surface, you're very, very different. You really, how can I understand, here I am playing an ex-addict, you know, a struggling mother, an exotic dancer, all these things, but through exploring their perspective, you learn a lot and kind of find that you have empathy for your character and understand them a little bit more. So, I learned… I learned a lot from Renee.
 
James Badge Dale: What did I learn from Ray… what not to do? (Laughter from everyone)
 
John Betancourt: Spot on.
 
James Badge Dale. No, but what Riley was saying is like, yeah, you need to learn to love yourself a little better, you know, what I mean? And, you know, in the cycles of addiction and our behavior and the things that you know, our bad decisions, you know, we tend to compound it, and we can make it worse, you know, and we all have these little voices on our shoulder telling us, “Hey, you're doing great. No, you're not doing great,” you know, and it's, it's constant, and it's part of it. And, you know, Ray has those, and I'm just trying to, like, take him on a journey, trying to take him on a journey and being like, “Hey, man, it's okay. It's okay.” And in turn, I'm trying to tell myself that… it's okay. You know.
 
John Betancourt: This has been a very long and winding and powerful journey over the past three years. What has this journey meant to you personally?
 
James Badge Dale: Oh, what a cool thing to be a part of. This is the longest I've ever played a single character, I've been lucky enough to be part of this amazing Hightown family. And, and we, we were surrounded by good positive people who bring a creative kind of passion to their work. And we always felt like we were doing something different and special, and we got to push the envelope a little bit. And hey man, all stories come to an end. But I'm really grateful we got a chance to end it properly. You know, we didn't get the rug pulled out from under us. We told the story that we wanted to tell. We told it together as a team, and that’s pretty fucking cool.
 
Riley Voelkel: I mean, it's… it was just absolute fulfillment from so many angles, I think I was… I was in a place in my career where I was really craving a challenge and a real and a raw role. And there it was, on the page, this incredible writing Rebecca Cutter did. And it was equally exciting and terrifying. And, and like Badge said, you get on that set, and you're just surrounded by the best of the best, the most incredible, most supportive, most talented people I've worked with. It was just a dream all the way through, and it's meant the world to have that opportunity.
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for you today because we have to talk about the sizzle this season. What are each of you most excited for audiences to see in this final season, without any spoilers, of course.
 
James Badge Dale: Oh, it's hard without the spoilers. I mean, here's the real cool thing, man, this thing is gonna ramp up really quickly. You know, we did seven episodes. So, we're coming at you fast, and it's gonna get down and dirty before you know it. And it was, this was a fun season to shoot.
 
Riley Voelkel: I'm excited for the audience to see everything kind of come to the surface, all these deep, dark secrets, all these lies, all of this, this kind of intricate web that everyone is intertwined in, come to the surface and I think you really get to see the characters pushed to their limits, pushed to rock bottom, and you get to see how they come out on the other end.
 
This Interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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