After a brief stint as a lawyer in Boston, David E. Kelley quit his job, moved to Los Angeles, wrote and sold a spec screenplay called From The Hip in 1987. He subsequently forged a successful career as a television writer and producer. He’s known for venerable TV shows like L.A. Law, Boston Legal, The Practice (also based on a team of Boston attorneys) and The Lincoln Lawyer. You can take the man out of the law, but not the law out of the man.
Kelley now tries his hand at a reworking of Presumed Innocent, based on the acclaimed Scott Turow novel of 1987 which was later adapted into a film in 1990 starring Harrison Ford.
The venerable writer/ producer shared his thoughts about his vision of Presumed Innocent starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty Sabich, the Chicago attorney accused of an horrific murder.
David E. Kelley. Photo by Andrew Eccles
“I wasn’t looking to improve upon the book so much as to be able to filmically depict what couldn’t have been done in a movie limited to two hours. I was a huge fan of the book and really loved the legal thriller nature of it, the plot, but also the characters. It’s a lot to unpack in a two-hour movie,” shares Kelley. An expanded eight episode TV series was a logical extension of the story.
Kelley’s legal background gave him a solid footing to write Presumed Innocent. “I think that because I was a lawyer very briefly, it does give me a sense of home field advantage when writing. Writing the law feels like my turf.” The writer describes his take on the law as “dispositive” but he fights against that instinct to add variety and character work to his legal TV shows.
Curiously, Scott Turow is also a lawyer, so Kelley has “deference for his ability to write legal nuance. I was excited about the opportunity to bring his thinking and his vision to television light.”
David E. Kelley might arguably be known as the “go to” person for legal dramas, but he tries to make each show tonally different. “L.A. Law was a multi-story format. Boston Legal was a bit more absurdism and legal realism combined. When I pick a project at this point in my career, I’m probably most worried that I might repeat myself.”
One way to avoid repetition is to adapt material. “With Scott Turow, it was kind of the best of both worlds. I could do material that was smart and ambitious, but thought of and conceived of by somebody else. And then maybe bring my television writing and producing expertise to that material.”
Presumed Innocent (Until Proven Guilty)
The presumption of innocence is a core tenet of American law which permeates the series. In the book, much of Rusty’s character is written in first person which adds a slant to the story in the “protagonist’s favor” unless the facts of the case lead otherwise.
“It was one of the tricks and the delights of the book that maybe Rusty is an unreliable narrator and that presumption should be a second guess. I felt that it had a double-edged meaning in the book, because in the presumption of innocence, we’re presuming the protagonist to be more heroic or innocent than not. It also is the legal principle in a court of law that you presume a defendant is innocent, and is a burden that the prosecution has to overcome,” continues Kelley.
“I also felt what the book successfully did, and what we try to do in the TV series, is to play with that presumption. We allow the audience to wonder about Rusty’s innocence, or lack thereof, but maybe to keep bringing them back to root for him. That’s a tricky tightrope to watch.”
You’re asking the audience to invest in a character and root for him, but also be wary and distrusting of him at the same time.
“You want to play with the audience’s emotions and their feelings about that character. Scott Turow wrote a complex character in the book, and Jake certainly brought him to life in the series. One of the aspects of the thriller aspect of Presumed Innocent and the mystery is by leading, misleading, and deflecting the audience into that dance. Is he guilty or is he not guilty?”
So, Who Did It?
Many audience members may have read the novel and watched the film, so they know how the story ends.
Kelley didn’t want to create a scene by scene adaptation into a television show. “It was important that in the first couple of episodes that we established we were going to take some departures from the book. I didn’t want the audience to trust that they knew the ending. We had to sort of undo the presumption of guilt,” muses Kelley.
The creator taps into the audience’s sleuthing instinct. The murderer isn’t going to surface towards the end of the series, but instead, will be a suspect introduced in the early episodes.
Kelley considered, “Who’s not getting attention in Episode, one, two, three, or four? Who are the storytellers looking to distract us from? Who are we being steered to? It’s a real delicate and fine science.” He realizes that if audiences are being overtly directed towards a character, they are not the murderer.
Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard) Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
The writer has used previously internal focus groups in the past to guide his decision to name the murderer. In Presumed Innocent, Tommy Molto (Peter Sarsgaard), Rusty’s nemesis in his attorney’s office, was hinted as being the murderer. “If you have the audience engaging, wondering and investing in different suspects, that’s a healthy thing.”
“I think a big bulk of our audience was starting to focus on Peter Sarsgard’s character, the prosecutor, which was great because we certainly wanted to have him as a possible suspect. The goal is to not guess who it is. And yet, once you reveal who it is, not have to ask the audience to do a lot of reverse engineering or arithmetic to see how you got there,” speaks Kelley of his process.
“The best ending you can possibly get is, ‘What? Oh, of course, aha’, If you can get those two reactions very proximate, then you’ve done your job. If you get a, ‘Oh, my God, wow, but wait a second, hold on,’ that’s too much gymnastics. And if they’re ahead of you and they figure out who’s done it before you reveal it, that’s a problem too.”
Balancing Multiple Storylines
Rusty Sabich has a lot on his plate in Presumed Innocent. He must prove his innocence, keep his family intact after his indiscretions, and tackle Tommy Molto’s manoeuvres to undermine Rusty. These storylines need to be carefully balanced.
“Casting is critical because you want the balance to be such that the audience is happy to be in any of those venues, whether it’s the office, home, or court.”
Barbara Savich, Rusty’s wife played by Ruth Negga is stoic. “I actually think the family part of the show was really the most emotionally profound and rich. She grounded the show with an emotional realism and she also allowed the audience to trust or forgive Rusty and give him a little bit longer of a leash than we might have been presupposed to do.”
Kyle (Kingston Rumi Southwick), Rusty (Jake Gyllenhaal), Barbara (Ruth Negga) and Jaden (Chase Infiniti) Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
“Rusty was a bad husband and a bad father and it’s easy to dismiss that kind of a person and not like him. Barbara’s character was extending the license to the audience. There was more to this man than just his flaws and noble tendencies. We really wanted to root for the family.”
“The more profound question is whether this family is going to make it? And in order for us to make that question relevant, we have to care. We have to invest in that family unit.”
How Does David E. Kelley Make A Story His Own?
David is fortunate to have written and produced a diverse slate of projects. A good story always comes down to good characters.
“If I can’t really feel for the characters one way or another, then I feel a bit hamstrung as a writer. The editor Robert Frost, the quote that’s attributed to him, ‘No tears for the writer and no tears for the reader.’ I think that’s 100% true.”
Kelley also loves “Tonal Blend” in his work.
“My favorite series are ones that can make you laugh, cry and think. Not all of them do. There were not a lot of laughs in Presumed Innocent. Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, the Picket Fences, Big Little Lies probably has more of the tonal blend. Those kinds of hues are probably the ones that most delight me and may be more signatory with my style.”
