Both “Law & Order: SVU” and “Candy” are built around dramatic courtroom scenes, and in both, Raúl Esparza’s character is an attorney at the center of the action. But the fact that the courtroom was such a familiar environment for Esparza was as much of a challenge as an advantage. He was deeply aware that Don Crowder wasn’t just a late ’70s, Texan version of Rafael Barba, either professionally or in terms of personality and background. While Barba is Harvard educated, intensely ambitious, and coldly professional, Crowder is a flamboyant ex-football player who wings his way through Candy Montgomery’s defense. “He was flying completely by the seat of his pants, and that was thrilling. It was a little bit of a rollercoaster ride that he was on. It was great to play that in him,” Esparza said.
These differences also meant that he had to avoid the temptation to go into autopilot when walking onto the courtroom set in “Candy.” “As a matter of fact, I was afraid that any aspect of Barba would creep in, because you stand up in a courtroom and Barba begins to show up … That character’s in your DNA and you played him for almost seven years, and you keep coming back to him,” he said.
