Jesse Bradford talks joining an online TV show with Crackle’s ‘Sequestered’

TORONTO – Jesse Bradford admits he initially wondered whether starring in an online show would be a “demotion.”

But the more the 35-year-old actor thought about Crackle’s original murder drama “Sequestered,” he realized the future belongs to video on demand platforms.

“It’s kind of the new Wild West in terms of entertainment,” he said in a phone interview. “The rules are not that well-defined yet. People are looking for an excuse, not necessarily to take overt risks, but at least people are looking for the chance to carve out their own niche.”

The suspenseful courtroom series, also starring Summer Glau and Patrick Warburton, premieres in Canada on Crackle on Tuesday. The streaming video platform launched by Sony Pictures Television is free and doesn’t require a subscription.

Bradford plays Danny Firmin, an attorney defending the alleged murderer of the eight-year-old son of Gov. Mark Bennett (Warburton). When Firmin discovers a conspiracy in the case, sequestered juror Anna (Glau) finds herself considering the fate of a possibly innocent man while fearing for her family’s safety.

“I liked my own character that I was playing,” said Bradford, an actor known to many for his roles in a string of movies in the 2000s including “Bring It On,” “Swimfan” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”

“He is struggling to be honest and a good guy. He has a gambling history and sort of a dark side. To become a defence attorney for him and a good one, I think, was a bit of an escape from other potential negative paths in his life.”

He added that he was interested in the scenes that focus on the sequestered jury, even though he is not a part of it.

“I didn’t realize on the page how funny it was going to be to watch the tension rise with these people. So I think it’s a cool format, and if we do a second season, I know that definitely they want to stick with that format,” he said. “But maybe this time it’s not going to be in L.A. Maybe it’s going to be a small town. Maybe it’s going to be somewhere on foreign shores.”

Bradford’s father in the show is played by Bruce Davison, who also played his dad in a 1995 film called “Far From Home” when Bradford was just 14.

“When I started gearing up to do this thing, they asked me who I liked for the role and I said ‘Bruce Davison,’” said Bradford. “We were lucky to get him. I think part of why he did it was because the kid who played his son 20 years ago was like, ‘Hey, will you play my dad again?’ I think he was into that.

“The first time I worked with him I was 14 and now I’m 35. We were able to have a very different set of conversations about life and adulthood. It was cool to connect with him in a bunch of new ways.”

Although “Sequestered” hasn’t been renewed yet for a second season, Bradford is keen to direct an episode if it is. He said he also dreams of directing a feature film someday.

For a long time in his career, Bradford wasn’t interested in doing television and only wanted to do movies, he said. The idea of being “stuck playing the same character for five years” didn’t appeal to him.

“You get a little older and you realize the value of a steady paycheque. Certain things change and other priorities come into play and you go, ‘Oh, wow, that’d be great.’ Plus I’ve never done that. I would love to try that. I would love to see what it’s like to play a character for five years,” he said.

“What I see happening as a trend in entertainment is that the Internet is becoming television, in terms of accessibility. Television is becoming movies, because it’s getting better and better, you can pick when you want to see it and do it at your pace and it’s attracting all this incredibly great talent … And movies are becoming sort of rarities. That’s not to say that there aren’t lots of movies being made, but they’re like the art world.

“That’s the shift that I see happening. Films becoming Faberge eggs. Television becoming more like films. And Internet becoming the new television because it’s the medium of the masses.”

— Follow @ellekane on Twitter.