Titus Welliver – Bosch

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) “Bosch” is the center of my universe at this point. Although, I have had a reoccurring character on “The Last Ship,” which will appear in the second season.

Q) Where do we pick up with “Bosch” when the second season begins?

A) It’s a continuation of the story. Unlike the framework of network television, the case that Bosch is handling and investigating takes ten episodes. As things were left in the pilot episode, Harry was being sued in a civil case for a wrongful death. So, it’s a continuation of that and it’s sort of a flashback of Harry handling this bones case. Things progress from there!

Q) Was there anything you added to the role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) I don’t know if I necessarily added anything. We had to make some changes from the backstory of the character because I am considerably younger than the Harry Bosch in the book. So, the military service has been changed from Vietnam to the first Gulf War and then Harry reenlists into the Special Forces after September 11th. So, we’ll get a little bit more backstory. In the reconfiguring we added an additional book, Echo Park, to the storyline. It was put into our first season as well. So, it’s City of Bones, Concrete Blonde and a little bit of Echo Park.

Q) How much has the show stayed true to the books?

A) Very little liberties. We stay very, very true to the books. Certain changes that might not work dramatically, but there are very few. I’m not driving the red corvette. The Harry Bosch that you see on the show is the Harry Bosch from the books.

Q) Who are some guest stars that we should look out for this season?

A) Certainly, we have a core group of actors, but we have great guest stars. Mimi Rogers has come on and Alan Rosenberg returns as Dr. Golliher. Scott Wilson returns as Dr. Guyat and Pat Skipper comes on to play Sam Delacroix. We have a lot of really wonderful guest actors that come on.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will receive about Season Two?

A) The fanbase is definitely an integral part of rallying to the cause of “Bosch” moving forward. The support has been really overwhelming and wonderful from fans of the book and fans of the show. There are many people who came on to watch the show, but had never read any of Michael Connelly’s books. Apparently, there were notations on Amazon saying like, “I just bought all the Harry Bosch books having seen the pilot.” It goes both ways though. Fans of the books will heavily scrutinize the show, but I think we are going to be delivering something they are going to be very pleased with and they were pleased with the pilot. You can’t please everyone. That’s the thing when you are taking a character that has existed in literature and breathing life into it. There are certain ideas and certain physical aspects of the character that might not match up to that, but that’s okay. The important thing is we tell the story, Harry’s story, and the integrity is there. I feel the readers of the books will be very pleased.

Q) What have you taken away from your experience working on the show?

A) It’s a very interesting and nuanced character. So, there is tremendous reward in playing a character with this much complexity. I work with a really wonderful actress that I look forward to going to work with every day. That’s a great gift and a very pleasurable experience.

Q) What do you think it is about the Amazon platform that makes it such a good fit for the show?

A) It’s not serialized in the same way it would be on network television. There is not one case per episode. As I said, the journey is through ten episodes as well as not having the same restrictions you would have on a network television under the restrictions of standards and practices. We can show content and use language that you can’t on network television. We don’t’ have to dumb it down or sterilize it.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure to share with fans of the series?

A) I would just say that I am very excited to have the show come out and I am very excited for the fans of the books and the show to finally get to see what they have been waiting for. I feel we have really fulfilled our obligation to the fans of the books and the show. So, they should get ready for a good ride.