Set in Cape Cod, the Starz drama series Hightown follows Jackie Quiñones (Monica Raymund), a National Marine Fisheries agent whose rocky journey to sobriety intersects with her discovery of a body on the beach and subsequent decision to try to solve the case. Jackie's own investigation leads to a clashes with Sergeant Ray Abruzzo (James Badge Dale), a member of the Cape Cod Interagency Narcotics Unit, which further complicates everything as they both start to spin out of control. The series also star Amaury Nolasco, who plays Frankie Cuevas, head of the local opioid ring; Riley Voelkel, who plays Renee Segna, an exotic dancer and mother of Frankie's child; and Shane Harper, who plays Junior McCarthy, the son of a fisherman trying to stay sober to keep his family together.

During this interview with Collider, Nolasco, Voelkel, and Harper spoke about how Hightown is a character-driven show, the fun of getting to explore the darker side of this story, humanizing the issues which the series explores, and how Hightown is not the typical crime procedural.

COLLIDER: Is it fun to play in the darker side of things with this show?

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Image via Starz

AMAURY NOLASCO: I’m having too much fun on the darker side. When I got the script, I realized that we had something amazing. I hate reading with a passion, so I know I have something good if I don’t have to look at how many pages I have left. By the time I was done, I was like, “Are you kidding me? I’m done? I wanna see what’s next.” I fell in love with the character right away. I get the villain roles, maybe because of my amazing face, but [Frankie] is something I had never had a chance to play before. He’s not your typical villain. He’s a charmer and he cares for his baby mama. There are so many layers to this character, and I think every character has so many layers, which is one of the most amazing things about the show. It’s a character driven show, in every way, and it’s a roller coaster.

RILEY VOELKEL: They’re very dynamic characters, which is what attracted us all to the script. I do like that you don’t really know what’s going on, and there are things that are unexpected. Is it love? Is it manipulation? What’s going on? That was fun to play with. Our show is still really sexy and fun, but it does touch on really dark subjects, which I think is really important, as well.

SHANE HARPER: It’s that three-dimensional aspect, with all of these people, and you see it particularly in Junior. He’s such a good kid. He’s 90 days sober. He’s trying to get his life back together. He loves his girlfriend and their baby, and he wants to do better, but he’s not making enough money, fishing lobster, so he’s gotta do some illegal stuff, to try to provide. There are always multiple sides to every story, and it was very fun to play. He’s a sensitive soul.

NOLASCO: Every time we would get a script, it was like, “Did you read the new one?” To me, it was like having a donut. There was a cliffhanger, every single time. We were like, “What’s gonna happen with this?” It’s a sexy drama, with the backdrop of the opioid crisis, and it shines a light on a lot of things that are happening right now.

VOELKEL: It humanizes it. Whether the audience knows it personally, or through someone they love or know, the goal is to humanize these issues, so that people can relate and look for recovery.

Telling this story seems like a giant puzzle, and you never know who’s connected or how it will all fit together.

NOLASCO: It’s a puzzle. I saw it with a buddy of mine in Puerto Rico, one of my best friends, who’s not in the business, ‘cause I wanted to see how he saw it and said, “I wanna see the next one.”

How do you view the relationship between Frankie and Renee?

NOLASCO: Some people are open about sexuality, but it makes you wonder, “Does he love her, or is she using her?”

VOELKEL: You don’t know, with that relationship. He’s the only consistent thing that’s been in her life. So, even though he’s not providing for her, the way that he used to, right now, there’s consistency there. And there are moments where you think almost it’s this domestic, happy family, and then you think maybe they’re just partners in crime that are forever bound. Frankie picked Renee up at a young age, 19, when she was a drug addict, and he took care of her, so that’s all she really knows.

NOLASCO: Maybe he doesn’t even want her doing this. He’s okay with her dancing and stripping, but that’s it.

Getting to see the family lives of these characters also really does help to humanize them.

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Image via Starz

HARPER: Yeah, it’s really sweet. It unravels more, as the series progresses, but all of the character arcs with me and my little family that I have and that I’m trying to provide for, is heartbreaking. You get that glimpse into their lives, which humanizes it all, and then you can relate to it.

Does that also make you get more attached to your character, in a way that you might not have expected?

VOELKEL: [Rumi C. Jean-Louis, who plays our kid], felt like our kid. I fell in love with him, the moment I saw him. I saw him in the trailer, and I was just so in love with him.

NOLASCO: I don’t get to work with everyone, all the time. I’m in prison. So, when I saw the episode and saw the relationship with our kid and [James] Badge [Dale], I got a little jealous. I was like, “Wait, what? That’s not dad.” With me, he’s a little more shy. It also has to maybe do with the cirmstance and him being in prison. He has to see dad in prison. Coming from a little kid, he did a hell of a job. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but you can tell the difference, how he behaves when he’s at the house, as opposed to when he’s in prison, visiting me.

VOELKEL: He’s such an important part of the character arc. You first see Renee at the strip club, dancing and having this alter ego of Candy. And then, you see her pulling out her retainer, in the morning, making her son breakfast. That’s where people can relate to her, and it’s so important to have that in the character.

Riley, what was it like to explore that aspect of the character?

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Image via Starz

VOELKEL: I’ll be honest, it was terrifying at first. I’m not a dancer. I have no dance background. I could barely touch my toes when I auditioned for the show. Oh my goodness, the girls that do it are just so strong and they were actually so empowering. They brought something out in me I don’t think I had tapped into, which was this confidence that you own the stage, and that does not come naturally for me. The dancing, the stripping, and all of that, does not come naturally to me, so I really did have to train, but I had the most supportive cast and crew. Everyone was just so professional and helped me, along the way. My coaches really made it an empowering experience. It’s her power. It’s where she has power and where she feels like she is in control of the men that walk in there, unlike her life outside of the club.

Will we get to see more interactions between all of the characters as the season goes on?

NOLASCO: Of course, it takes time to introduce every character. I got to work with [Riley], [Shane], [James] Badge [Dale], and Monica [Raymund]. I don’t know how much more I can say.

VOELKEL: We all intersect.

HARPER: It’s surprising how much this body washing up on the shore sets things off. All of a sudden, that Rubik’s cube movies and, by the time we get to the end, it’s stunning.

VOELKEL: And it’s not about who’s done it. It’s not that typical crime procedural. We know who did it. It’s about, "How does this now intertwine all of our lives?"

NOLASCO: I feel like everybody can relate to at least one character on this show, and I would love to see who’s gonna relate to mine. He’s misunderstood. I don’t think he’s that bad. He’s got a goal, he knows what he wants, and nothing is gonna stop him.

Hightown airs on Sunday nights on Starz.