All Rise star J. Alex Brinson on the aspirational evolution of Luke Watkins

It’s only the second season of All Rise, and Luke Watkins has grown by leaps and bounds.

J. Alex Brinson’s character on the CBS drama started as a bailiff, then graduated from law school and joined the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, where he’s gone from new arrival to junior prosecutor. In a season and a half Luke has evolved from watching other people try cases to having an active hand in their resolution.

He’s also grown immensely as a person along the way. TV crime drama fans have watched Luke fall in love with Emily Lopez (Jessica Camacho), only for the relationship to end—for now—as he did some serious introspection. Looking for a way to change the system, Luke’s started with changing himself; in the most recent episode, he explored the concept of restorative justice, and will continue to dig into that idealistic approach as season 2 continues.

Luke has had more growth than some characters do across entire series, and J. Alex Brinson spoke to Precinct TV about how he’s played all that, as well as discussing what it means to him and how All Rise might be the most timely show on television.

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“I had an idea when we started developing Luke that he wanted more,” he explained of portraying his character’s extensive arc. “He wasn’t just sitting in the courtroom as a bailiff, looking back and ‘Okay, am I done? Can I grab my check?’ He was invested in the process. He was invested in the court system and how it works and how it actually affects people’s lives.

“He wanted to be more involved and ultimately, he gets into a relationship with Emily Judge Carmichael becomes his mentor,” he continued. “Those were the building blocks and the foundation for his ability to grow and to do more. It was embedded from the beginning, but it’s the same blue line.

“He just wants to help people with the law. He wants to make a positive impact in his community with the law.”

Like most of All Rise‘s characters, Luke has an idealistic quality about him. He strives for the best, not just for himself but for others, and he’s putting in the work to make it happen. It takes a lot of hustle and a certain amount of courage to upturn one’s entire career but Luke follows his heart to a different path of service. That’s one of the things that makes J. Alex love the character he plays.

“I love the guy’s curiosity. I love his empathy,” he said. “He feels—very much like Emily Lopez—for his clients. He feels for what they’re going through.”

Never more has that been on display than in Luke’s current storyline involving the idea of restorative justice. Rather than looking to punish offenders, he’s introduced to the idea of letting them make amends instead, even as the person who’s educating him about the idea is implying that he might not be able to follow those principles and be an effective prosecutor.

“Rick Fox, a wonderful gentleman, was introduced to the show,” J. Alex explained. “He’s playing this wonderful character based on Adam Foss, this prosecutor in real life that is bringing this restorative justice or creative application the processing criminals and their crimes.

“I think it’s fascinating. I think that humanizing this process will make a difference,” he continued. “I think if I have a connection to the people that I’m harming, I will have a better sense of how my behavior as an individual has affected someone else. It makes a lot of sense to me. Rather than ‘Okay, well, you robbed this house. The book says five years in prison’…Here are the people that own the home, this is what you took from them, and this is how you made them feel. I think that there is a lot of opportunity to make changes on a really human level.”

While Luke’s first attempt at restorative justice didn’t work, All Rise made clear that he might be discouraged but he’s not deterred. Just as he has with every change he’s made in his life, he’s going to pick himself up and try again. That’s the biggest message that J. Alex is hoping to send with his character—that you don’t always win but that’s part of the journey. What matters is not that you hit a wall, but that you work to climb over it.

“Luke is a young guy and I think as young people, we think we know so much and then stuff blows up in our face and we’re like uh-oh, maybe we didn’t know as much as we thought,” he said. “But certain people get discouraged and they stop chasing, and other people hit those failures and they keep going. I would love it if people got to see Luke’s journey and got to see him failing, but then continuing to grow and try to rise over those obstacles.”

“That’s what it’s about, right? It’s learning and evolving and growing. I think it’s the same thing with his relationships,” he added. “He loves Emily but he’s like, I don’t think that this is right. I don’t know. He’s on this journey of trying to figure it out. I think that that is very admirable, because when you know everything, there’s no room to learn and I don’t think you grow.”

But that’s part of All Rise‘s biggest strength as a series: its diversity. Not only in the literal sense, with so many cast members of color, but philosophically as well. The show presents different perspectives on the criminal justice system because characters fill roles throughout the process and they also have their own varying points of view.

The show provides a much fuller perspective than your traditional TV crime or courtroom drama, and J. Alex explained what it’s like to be part of a series that makes a point of being so ethnically, professionally and philosophically diverse.

“it’s the best,” he enthused. “When you set out to be an artist, you want to be a part of something that creates the world, that creates the culture, that that has meaning and substance. Then it’s also dope art and it looks cool, it feels cool, people are talking about it. It’s just wonderful. All Rise is such a historic show because of that diversity and what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s wonderful.

“People feel, as individual actors and artists, like I’m actually getting to contribute in a way that I’ve never done before. All the roles that I’ve played before, they never actually dug into my storyline. I was just serving someone else’s storyline. People come to work feeling excited because they get to bring more of themselves.

“I had a wonderful conversation with Reggie Lee about that and being a Filipino actor—what that’s like and the roles and the journey that he’s taken,” he added. “Luke and Choi have a wonderful moment where they get to share a moment about that diversity and about coming together and working in a system where there are not necessarily people that look like them.”

The show is resonating even more now because it’s taking on important topics as they’re still happening. Restorative justice is only one meaningful concept that All Rise has hit head-on. It was the first network TV series to return during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to incorporate COVID-19; the season 2 premiere tackled Black Lives Matter, and a police misconduct storyline just finished.

The show isn’t flinching from these issues, which creates an interesting situation for actors who don’t really get to leave reality behind when they step into their fictional roles. For J. Alex Brinson, having his world and Luke Watkins’ world look pretty much alike is a huge positive.

“It’s wonderful. Nina Simone said art should reflect the times,” he concluded. “Just to be able to go to work and bring yourself to the process—because what you’re going through at home, isolating, living in a pandemic, not being able to see your friends and your family, and then your character’s going through the same thing, it just makes it easier to access that real emotion, that truth and that authenticity for that person. I think it makes my job better.”

All Rise airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. The next new episode premieres Feb. 8.