Apple TV’s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed has been a devastatingly thrilling rabbit-hole adventure, seasoned with brilliantly acerbic commentary on life, work, and the absurdity of modern technology.
Dolly de Leon’s straight-talking detective, Sofia Gonzalez, is a note of clarity amongst the madness of central protagonist Paula Sanders’s ever-spiralling cacophony of terrible options.
She recently chatted with us about discovering her character and the many nuances embedded in the role.
Tell me about approaching the character of Sofia Gonzalez.
It was a little tricky because, first of all, I’ve never lived in New York, and she works in New York, right? I had to come up with a story to justify why she’s working there.
It was very hands-on with David Rosen (the show’s creator and head writer). We had a call before I actually started working and got to talk about Sofia Gonzalez and the inspiration behind her. He also gave me references from another show — an old, old show — and [how] the law enforcers in that show behaved towards each other.
So he gave me a lot of references to work with. David was very helpful with that. A huge part of the preparation came from David because he knew exactly what he wanted, and I just had to trust him and go with what his vision for Sofia was.
Sofia is such a study in contrasts. You, yourself, are a sweet-looking, tiny person, and she is a hard-as-nails, get-down-to-business kind of person.
Yeah, she is. The only way that you can wield some sort of authority in that kind of an environment. You can’t be a softy. Especially since she’s also petite, you can’t let people push you around. That’s a big part of her character.
She’s really strong, and she’s feisty, and she will take no crap from anyone. She’ll really fight for what she believes in. That’s part of the uniqueness of Sofia Gonzalez, the fact that she has to put on this… I don’t know if it’s a facade or if she’s really that strong, but she has to put that on that shield to protect her.
In her relationship with her work partner, Detective Baxter, there is an affection with an edge. How did you and Jon Michael Hill develop that cadence?
That’s another aspect of Sofia’s personality. She does have a certain level of affection for her partner, but she can’t show too much emotion to him, can’t show him that she really cares that much because then that would be showing her vulnerable side, and she doesn’t want to show that vulnerable side.
And again, because it’s a beautifully written series — the scripts are really written so tightly by David and his team — we just had to trust the way they were written. Jon and I could not be further from the characters that we play. We’re not like that at all. I’m really chummy-chummy with Jon and really sweet to him.
I love him so much. He is so talented! I watched him in a play when I was there. It’s a very different relationship, very different dynamic, and that’s the fun part about our job, playing around with the characters that are given to us and doing the exact opposite of how we are in real life.
What does Gonzalez’s gambling, something she makes no secret of, say about her character?
To her, gambling is not a hobby, not an addiction. It’s really more of an experiment that she’s doing on how luck plays a big part in her detective work in terms of cracking a case. She believes in the game of chance. That’s her motivation for gambling. She’s testing to see how luck plays in her daily life as a detective
Is the gambling indicative of a subconscious desire to take risks? As a detective, she is incredibly methodical and careful.
She is. What I’m interested to see is how the turn of events is going to change how she thinks. She has not been taking risks. She’s been playing it safe. Like, she has not been trusting her instincts. I think that’s playing it safe, right? That’s not being risky. I’m really curious to see what happens in the future. If she decides to be a little more adventurous in her choices, taking a chance in how she works.
When does Detective Gonzalez realize that Paula’s case is more than a typical Scam Boy situation?
Without spoiling it, it happened exactly in a scene where they sit down and talk to each other and talk about what Paula’s witnessed. It’s the scene with the cashews (Episode 2, “YABA”).
This is when she recognizes that Paula is earnest and that she’s really a lost victim in all of this. This is when she really starts to believe what Paula’s saying, and hopefully, somewhere down the road, they unite and join forces to solve this thing that’s plaguing Paula’s life.
What do you believe drives Gonzalez to do what she does?
Her job is her life. She really takes it very seriously. It’s her integrity that motivates her to do her job right. That’s really it, because if you pick up all the clues about her, her job is her life. That’s it. She doesn’t have a social life, doesn’t go out, doesn’t really have anything else in her life but her job.
Her motivating factor in all of this is helping people. At the end of the day, she wants to help people. She may not be very showy. She’s not very affectionate in the way she shows how much she cares, but I think that’s really it, deep down inside. She really cares about people, and she wants to help.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed drops new episodes on Apple TV every Wednesday until July 15.
