We’ve seen some nice moments between Julian and Alexis of late, like when she let him have some of her sundae.
“Well, that was sort of Julian just taking it. I don’t know if she let him [laughs]. But she could have slapped his hand away.”
So, how is Julian interpreting the signs he’s getting from Alexis, both negative and positive?
“He is still hanging on to some hope. He understands when she says no, but he keeps trying to find some vulnerabilities there, where she remembers the good times instead of the bad times. He is hoping that if they can spend some quality time together going forward that maybe she will remember more of the good stuff and start to fall in love with him all over again. But he’s finding it challenging to get that opportunity that he needs to sort of lure her back. He is trying to get her alone, trying to spend some time with her, but it doesn’t seem to be going his way.”
Julian, as we know, has had a rough time trying to get out of the mob. What does he make of Sonny’s new resolve to do the same?
“I think he sympathizes with him — a lot, in fact. For me, the way that I’m playing it is that there’s a bit of a kinship there, you know? We may not agree on stuff, but we’re kind of on the same bus, whether we want to be or not. We’re sort of on this journey where we want to get off the bus, but we don’t know how. It’s just impossible to get off of! Julian sympathizes with what Sonny’s going through because there is a bit of anger on his part that he, himself, has not been able to get out of the business as easily as he thought he would. So, when Sonny sort of comes out and says that he would like to get out of the business, that anger sort of bubbles up in Julian, like, ‘Yeah, good luck to him, because I got a taste of that and it’s not so delicious!’ ”
Julian’s day in court is coming up. Is he dreading that, or does he welcome it?
“I think he really wants to clear his name. Honestly, I don’t think that he expects to get his family back. He would like to get his family back, of course, but he would like to clear his name as sort of a validation that he did the right thing [by going along with Olivia’s scheme]. So far, he’s gotten no validation from anybody; nobody seems to understand him.”
I’ve had fans ask me, “Why is everyone still so mad at Julian? He was trying to keep his family safe!”
“Yeah, you know, I often wonder the same thing! Taking my emotions out, I just sort of watch the show and I’m like, ‘Man, Sonny gets away with everything!’ Kristina is, like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to know about all the [illegal] stuff you do, I just want to make sure you’re okay.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, what about me [laughs]?’ Like, ‘Oh, my God! I kept you safe, I kept Molly safe, I kept Leo safe, everybody, and somehow, I keep getting crapped on!’ The Jeromes, we’re just cursed, man. But the Jeromes being cursed is actually good for the show. You need that sort of contrast and juxtaposition in the show. It’s cool. I think that Maura [West, Ava] and I, we do great work with the challenges we’re given, since our characters are always being [ragged] on by our family members.”
