Jimmy Smits' character on CBS'
Cane is a far cry from his previous starring roles, which include Detective Bobby Simone on
NYPD Blue and young pro-bono lawyer Victor Sifuentes on
L.A. Law. Now, he plays a morally conflicted businessman named Alex Vega, but this doesn't bother Smits, as he appreciates the emotional complexity of his character.
"I thought Alex would be someone interesting to inhabit for a long period of time if I had the opportunity," the 52-year-old actor told the
Toronto Globe and Mail. "The family is very affluent in South Florida. Alex is the adopted son, who because of a health crisis the patriarch figure [
Hector Elizondo] is going through gets thrust into the forefront of this family. He is a very good son in the sense he has a strong moral compass and a sense of family and duty. But he gets himself into a lot of trouble too."
An “epic drama,”
Cane follows a large Cuban-American family running a highly successful rum and sugar business in South Florida. Apart from Smits and Elizondo, the cast includes
Nestor Carbonell (
Suddenly Susan, Lost),
Rita Moreno (
The Golden Girls),
Polly Walker (
Rome),
Paola Turbay,
Michael Trevino (
Cold Case),
Lina Esco (
CSI: NY),
Sam Carman,
Alona Tal (
Veronica Mars, Supernatural) and
Eddie Matos (
General Hospital, The Bold and the Beautiful).
Cane debuted on CBS on Tuesday, September 25.
Fans of Jimmy Smits can also catch him on the new drama,
The Jane Austen Book Club, which opened in New York and Los Angeles on September 21, and is scheduled for nationwide release today. In the film, Smits plays a husband who callously dumps his wife,
Amy Brenneman (
Private Practice), for another woman. He tells her that leaving his mistress is “non-negotiable.”
Smits said there is more to his character in the film than just a hard-hearted adulterer.
"I don't think that character's love for his wife and family ever diminished. He was always in love with her, but there obviously was a kind of miscommunication between them to the extent that he got the wandering, roving eye,” Jimmy Smits, a divorced father of two, said. "But you know sometimes you have to go through valleys to get to nice peaks.”
-Lisa Claustro, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Toronto Globe and Mail
(Image Courtesy of CBS)