Terry Morrow: Josh Lucas plants roots 'Firm'-ly on NBC

Josh Lucas plays Mitch Deere, an attorney on the run from the mob, in "The Firm."

PASADENA, Calif. — Looking back on it, actor Josh Lucas used to think it was only "a little strange."

But now, upon reflection, he sees it a little differently.

He was 5 years old and accompanying his activist parents to a protest when he tossed a pinecone in the air. It landed on the head of a policeman, who turned and drew his gun, momentarily pointing it at Lucas. Realizing he had a child in his sight, the policeman stood down and went back to business.

"I give my parents great due for the work they did," Lucas says during an interview to promote "The Firm," airing Thursdays on NBC, "but the way I grew up was a little strange."

They were anti-nuclear activists who protested at facilities in the 1970s and 1980s. When Lucas was a child, he accompanied them. Their work took them from state to state, leaving Lucas little time to put down real roots for much of his childhood.

Lucas can take some of those days and apply it to his role as Mitch Deere, an attorney on the run from the mob and known to many as the main character in the John Grisham book "The Firm" and the Tom Cruise movie of the same name.

In the series, the time frame has moved up. Years after Mitch went on the run from the mob, he's married and has a daughter. They come off the road, and Mitch gets a job with a new firm — unaware it has a secret agenda for him.

"I can relate to Mitch's daughter in this story," Lucas, a Little Rock, Ark., native says. "She wants to get off the road and have a normal life. I can understand that."

Lucas and his family moved to 30 different locations during his childhood — much of which was spent in the South.

Aside from his unusual childhood, Lucas, 40, has had a couple of other major brushes with the law. Recently, he was placed on jury duty. Though Lucas knew the defendant recognized him, Lucas was not allowed to leave the case.

"The judge said if everyone who is a public figure was let off juries, we could not have juries," Lucas says. After hearing the details of the case, in which a man was accused of beating his wife, he "found the whole process fascinating. I fell totally in love with the idea of the jury system."

His other encounter was after he was mugged. He took such a beating that his nose was broken.

After being "jittery" about going into public for a while, Lucas says he came to terms with the violence. "I decided I was not going to let it determine what I do," he says.

"The Firm" has been more work than Lucas anticipated. "It's 100-hour weeks," he says. "No exaggeration."

He's used to the days of film. Lucas' credits on the big screen include "J. Edgar," in which he plays Charles Lindbergh; "Glory Road," "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Poseidon."

"The Firm," he says, is not the best piece of work he's done in his career.

"Absolutely not," he says without hesitation. "There are a number of movies I've done that I've loved. Some did not even get a DVD release."

He favors his work in "Daydream Nation," a drama about a confused teen who embarks on a love affair with her teacher, played by Lucas. Variety called it one of the top three films of 2011, but no one saw it: "Daydream Nation" did not have a DVD release, Lucas says.

"It's heartbreaking," he says of a lack of audience for the movie. "But that's where television comes in. You can do quality work that people can actually see."

© 2012, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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