In a Silicon Valley full of T-shirts, Michael Price wears a suit, and Mike Colter says that’s intentional.
In CBS’s Cupertino, Colter stars as Price, an attorney cheated out of his stock options by his former employer who teams up with fellow fired attorney Olivia Siffre (Rachel Keller) to take on the tech industry. The legal drama from Robert and Michelle King also stars Joe Morton as Price’s father, along with Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, Ella Stiller and Nik Dodani. Colter spoke exclusively with BLKCinema.com about what Price’s wardrobe says about him, the father-son tension ahead and reuniting with the Kings.
Why Michael Price wears suits in Silicon Valley
Asked about an early scene in which Price explains his suits in a tech world of casual dress, Colter said the choice is all strategy.
“I think it’s a strategic, intentional thing, and the intention is to make sure that he is taken seriously,” Colter said. “I don’t think that’s lost on anyone who’s been a, quote-unquote, minority. Even though you’re not a minority in the world, you’re a minority in this specific space, and your first impression is important, right? So he understands that, and he uses that to his advantage. He wants to make sure he puts his best foot forward.”
“He’s very intentional about everything he does. So the suits are just something where he says, this is what I need to do to make sure I get where I need to go, and that has always served him,” he continued. “It’s telling you how self-aware the character is in the space that he’s in. Surprisingly enough, you do meet people that aren’t aware of how they are perceived in the space they’re in. I don’t think that means you need to be paranoid or always filled with anxiety. It just means you need to take note of things and be aware of it, and it’s not that hard. I think he just does that innately.”
Mike Colter on Joe Morton and the father-son tension ahead
Colter said viewers will learn more about Price’s strained relationship with his father as the season goes on.
“You’ll get to see more of Joe, and you’ll get to find out what the background story is,” Colter said. “Father-son relationships, when they work in the same field and they’re both competitive and there’s some bad blood or history between them, it creates great tension and drama, especially when they face off in court. His dad’s a looming figure that everyone knows, sort of like a Johnnie Cochran figure. He’s a famous lawyer that if someone needs something and it’s high profile, they call him.”
“When you step into your father’s domain and try to take up the same mantle, you’re gonna have problems,” he continued. “There’s a lot of backstory that you’re gonna find out. It’s not necessarily in the first four, but we will get there. Joe’s constantly professional. He’s been around, and he’s such a great actor. I really enjoy working with him.”
Mike Colter on reuniting with the Kings and Renée Elise Goldsberry
Cupertino is Colter’s latest series with the Kings after The Good Wife, The Good Fight and Evil.
“It’s always a pleasure. I guess I would like to say surprising that we can continue to work together after all these years, in terms of how it just seems to keep coming up with new ideas, new characters to explore, new worlds to explore,” Colter said. “I’m lucky to work with such great showrunners who have such a great track record, but also understand how to make a great world and series for their actors to play in.”
He said he and Goldsberry had long wanted to share the screen, dating back to their time on The Good Wife.
“We worked together before, but our characters never really crossed in The Good Wife. We were in the same episodes, but we never really had a lot of screen time together that I recall,” Colter said. “We actually toyed with this idea of Lemond Bishop and her character on The Good Wife being in cahoots in a personal sense, but that not being something that was known. It was something we were brewing in our heads, just like, what if, and finding ways to work together. So it’s great that she’s been able to be on the show.”
He added that the cast still surprises him.
“Every time they get someone cast, I’m always surprised, because it feels like a wish list. It feels like a dream team,” Colter said. “It makes it easier, because you feel like you’re working with people who just have such presence. They have such command of their craft.”
Featured image photo credit: CBS
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