'All American' Season 2: Michael Evans Behling teases a new character to help rekindle Jordan's bond with his father Billy Baker
Football lovers have something to be excited this Fall as The CW's 'All American' is back with a bang. Starring Daniel Ezra in the lead, the series follows Spencer James — a star player from South Crenshaw High School's football team who is approached by Billy Baker (Taye Diggs), the coach of Beverly High. The series also features Michael Evans Behling as Jordan Baker, the quarterback of the Beverly Hills team and the coach’s son.
In an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Michael Evans Behling shared snippets on what to expect from his character in the new season, the possible controversy and rock bottom that Jordan could hit, and his off-screen relationship with his castmates.
Drawing light to his character arc in the series, he said, "Jordan is enjoying the fruits of being QB1 and he is just having fun. Are we going to see him take a turn? Yes, we are. He is going to hit rock bottom at some point in the season and it's going to be a pretty big rock bottom. He's going to be hit by this major controversy that will cause him to basically get out of this phase or he's going to keep rolling down the downtrodden path."
In the last season, Jordan shared a pretty complicated relationship with his father Billy Baker. Will they come together at some point and fix some issues that they've had in the past? Delving deeper into the father-son bond, he revealed, "Last season, Billy and Jordan were always at loggerheads with each other as Jordan was never enough for Billy and Billy never saw Jordan for who he was. In the end, we do see them connect but we see them break apart again because of the state championship and what Billy did to protect Jordan. But Jordan doesn't want to be the baby."
Teasing a "big controversial sequence", he said, "In this season, we do see them come back together. It's great because I love working with Taye as a real father and son as opposed to being in a constant fight." Jordan also revealed that he finds Taye really "carefree, goofy and fun" on the sets. "He taught me to stay relaxed, stay focused and to not let your guard down."
Moreover, this season will see Spencer and Jordan become closer too. "The butt heads between Spencer and Jordan will not be seen as much as the first season. Jordan has left that baggage and he will focus on himself, much more than anybody else and that will take all the negativity from Spencer and Jordan's relationship. In real-life too, the co-stars are really close and have a "budding bromance" off-sets.
"Luckily, we live in the same apartment. We're not roommates but he is always at my place. Basically, every single weekend, I wake up, unlock my door and start my day with some breakfast. Daniel just texts me, "Hey, are you home?" and 20 minutes later, he just walks in. We then spend our Saturdays with Netflix and UberEats!"
The actor has a football connection from his high school days. Revealing that he played football for two years, he said his coaches did come to congratulate him but he never showed off too much as he wasn't as good as he is on screen. However, the actor said he knew the most about the sport on sets. "I think I have the highest football IQ among my cast members on the show and it shows when I'm playing with Daniel because he doesn't know what he is doing. In all the football scenes, it's not us but real football players who are ex-football leagues."
Talking about the new characters that will be seen on the show, he said, "In the first episode, Rochelle Moseley (Kayla Smith) comes into the picture and she will be interacting a bit with Jordan, but not as much as Spencer. There will be a new character coming up, I believe, in episode five. This character will play a big role in Jordan's life and the rekindling of Billy and Jordan." New episodes from the second season of 'All American' airs on Mondays at 8 pm EST on The CW.