How “Wicked” Number, “For Good” Helped Sterling K. Brown Nail His “Paradise” Role
Sterling K. Brown has a unique way of getting into character, and he’s not afraid to admit it. While preparing for his intense role in Hulu’s political thriller Paradise, the 48-year-old actor leaned on a song to bring out the right emotions. And not just any song — it was For Good from Wicked.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Sterling shared, “It’s one of those things where sometimes there’s a few songs that I’ll have in my ear that help put me in a particular state of being.”
“There’s a few of them, but I’ll tell you one that’s very much in the zeitgeist right now, but it will be even more when the next movie comes out. It’s from Wicked. It’s a little ‘For Good.’ A little ‘For Good’ goes a long way… it’s beautiful,” he added.
The emotional ballad helped him tap into the depth needed for his character, Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins, a man caught in a high-stakes investigation following the shocking murder of President Cal Bradford, played by James Marsden.
To fully embrace the role, Sterling also found moments of solitude before filming heavy scenes. “You step away from the crew,” he explained. “You step away from the other actors, and you just have some time to yourself. And it’s such a beautiful thing, because you don’t have to say anything. The crew is so intuitive. People can see I’m a pretty affable, outgoing guy. If they see Brown is in a very particular headspace, they’re like, ‘All right, he’s doing his thing.’ And then you come to the set ready to be in whatever state that character’s in in order to bring up the emotions, the thoughts that they are contemplating in that particular moment.”
But it wasn’t all intense method acting on set. In fact, Sterling bonded with James over their shared love of music. “Marsden’s the best. He’s a good dude…He’s a singer, I like to carry a tune, so if he starts singing, I may chime in with him. Or if he hears me humming, he’ll join in,” Sterling said.
Though For Good remained Sterling’s personal emotional tool, he and James connected over ‘90s and early 2000s R&B. In the actor’s words: “It’s a lot of ’90s and 2000 R&B, and he knows it just as well as I do for some reason.”
That fun quickly turned to focus when the cameras rolled. “However goofy we were off set, we were equally locked in on set,” Sterling said, adding, “It couldn’t have been a better partnership.”
Paradise, which premiered on Jan. 26, follows Sterling’s character, Xavier, as he discovers the president’s body and secretly starts his own investigation. As the story unfolds, Xavier becomes the prime suspect while navigating life in a highly controlled underground bunker, where even bigger mysteries loom. Who really killed President Bradford? And why are they all trapped in this hidden world?
Despite the show’s dark themes, Sterling insists he had a blast bringing Xavier to life. “People ask, ‘What is it like to do that?’ All of it is fun. The funny scenes are fun, the hard scenes are fun. And maybe fun’s not the right word all the time, but it’s the only word that I have at my disposal because I get to do it,” he shared.
He added, “People pay me to show up and do this thing, this sort of illumination of the human condition, and it’s fun. And that even when it’s painful, I have in the back of my mind that somebody will see what this character is going through and they will recognize it and they will recognize themselves inside of it and they will feel seen.”
