Star and Executive Producer Ethan Hawke hopes The Lowdown and its themes will spark conversations about media, politics and accountability. Given that, it seems like the FX series couldn’t have come at a better time. Most of today’s headlines are laser-focused on the state of free speech in the United States, due to what seems like a siege on not just the late-night talk show circuit, but on journalism and media in general, where speaking truth to power is a priority.
In fact, “truth” is the watchword of The Lowdown , according to showrunner Sterlin Harjo (creator of Reservation Dogs ). It is a foundational piece they returned to repeatedly in their recent conference with the international press. “It’s about healing because of truth and fighting for the truth and the idea that truth is a noble thing to fight for,” Harjo continued, referencing the rich culture and dark history of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where The Lowdown is set.
“Every one of the departments, they approach it through story and character”¦everything’s lived in. Everything’s about a story. It’s almost as if they’re all journalists themselves, trying to get to the bottom of the characters. And they approach every character in every scene that way,” said Harjo about his team, who also worked with him on Reservation Dogs . “Tulsa’s my co-star”¦And hats off to the production design team. Every time I’m walking onto set, I’m walking onto a real environment,” added Hawke.
The series itself is a hard-boiled yet reluctant detective story, a neo-Western with an investigative journalist (Hawke) of the grassroots variety at its core. “One of the first things you hear out of [Lee Raybon’s] mouth is he calls himself a truthstorian,” Hawke explains. “What I love about that expression is that it’s both kind of beautiful to me, where truth and history meet. And then if we don’t stand on firm ground, we don’t know where we are, and how could we know what direction to head.”
Given the drive of both media and history here, there must be films that stand out above others as influential. “It’s hard not to think about movies like All the President’s Men ,” Hawke pointed out, returning once again to that idea of media and communication. “Bob Woodward had a wonderful post about [the film’s star Robert Redford ] and their relationship to truth and telling stories.” In raising the seminal 1970s paean to investigative journalism, it’s clear that Hawke hopes his new series might give audiences a similar chance to engage and connect the dots as the story unfolds.
But how did the series come together? The answer is simple enough: Friendship. Hawke and Harjo clearly care about each other and have mutual respect for each other’s work. “You go through life, you make a friend, the friend’s making a show, you decide to check it out, and all of a sudden, you’re watching Reservation Dogs , and you’re realizing that a friend is putting on […] something you’d never seen before,” explained Hawke. By putting their friendship first, the work manifested organically. “I think a friendship’s delicate, especially when you want to work together in things”¦And if you hold the friendship ”¦ sort of as something sacred, then you don’t want to step on that,” said Harjo, and Hawke shared the sentiment, saying, “You know, work is easier to find than friends, so you do have to protect the friendship.”
Their partnership here has led them to a mutual interest in the fifth estate, and how to communicate truth and history, too. “The idea of being a journalist is still the same. It’s about telling the truth. It’s about reporting to the people and trying to give them”¦ something that’s accurate so they can live their life after getting that news and try to, like”¦, get along, get by in life, you know,” said Harjo, explaining what drives Raybon. But it’s also a good way to sum up what The Lowdown is all about.
We can’t wait to see how it rolls out.
FX’s The Lowdown premieres with two episodes on Tuesday, September 23 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FX, and streams the next day on Disney+ in Canada (September 24).
