Courtney B. Vance Dishes On New TV Series ’61 Street’

Courtney B. Vance is back playing a tough as nails attorney in the new AMC series 61 Street.

The eight part legal drama, created by Peter Moffat, courses through the dark heart of the infamous Chicago criminal justice system as police and prosecutors investigate a deadly drug bust that threatens to unravel the police department’s code of silence.

Vance stars alongside Aunjanue Ellis and Tosin Cole who plays Moses Johnson, a promising high school athlete, who is swept up into the infamously corrupt Chicago criminal justice system.

We caught up with Vance and Cole about digging deep to portray their characters and what attracted them to the project.

“I think that the show is really, it’s the human side of life happening to you,” said Vance who plays Johnson’s attorney Franklin Roberts. “It can happen to anyone. I was raised to succeed, scholarship to an amazing private high school, Harvard after that, and a drama school and Fences, and at any point in my trajectory, I could have run up on a police officer, a bad situation and I could have been in the system.”

“It’s an important story, there are how many layers, there are so many themes that reflect the time today,” explained Cole.”Most important is family, community, justice. Those are the things that kind of stuck out to me.”

“61st Street” debuted Sunday, April 10 at 10pm ET/PT on AMC, with the first two episodes streaming on AMC+ and ALLBLK. New episodes will roll out weekly, on Sundays, and be available one week early on AMC+ and ALLBLK.