Hulu’s Paradise has featured several jaw-dropping moments. But the first one that really crushed viewers was the murder of Agent Billy Pace. In Season 1, Episode 4, “Agent Billy Pace,” viewers learned that affable, charming Billy was a killer under the thumb of Sinatra. But when Billy tried to go rogue, Sinatra had him killed — by his own girlfriend, Jane Driscoll.

With the Paradise finale just around the corner, CBR spoke to actor Jon Beavers about his too-brief time in the role of Billy Pace — and Billy’s importance to the story after his death. The actor discussed the audition process to even land the coveted role, and how he worked alongside Nicole Brydon Bloom, who portrays Jane. Plus, how does he really feel about Billy’s death?

CBR: What was your first impression of Billy, going from those opening scenes where he truly just seems like comic relief to getting to Episode 4, when the full extent of his tragic past is revealed and then he’s killed off? How did you react to this huge arc that he has?

Jon Beavers: The trippy part was the audition process. I got to read [Paradise Episode 1] before I auditioned, and 1 already has that hook at the end, where you’re like “Wait, what just happened?” And as crazy as it is on the screen, it was that crazy on the page… so I’m like okay, fine. We’re underground. Wild. I’ve got a thousand questions about that, but I get how this guy is a part of that, and I get that he’s a good friend to Xavier. And I get that we’re guarding the president. Good, that’s enough. I can audition from here.

So I do my first audition, and then my second, I read for [Paradise creator] Dan [Fogelman]. Then he has me come in and and and meet Nicole Brydon Bloom for a chemistry test. And I’m like, okay, yeah, I get this. I’ve got a love interest. This all makes sense. And it’s after that initial audition… he asked me to stay back and he basically told me, listen, I’d really love it if you could give us an additional scene. He was basically letting me know that he liked what I was doing and wanted to push me on the network. There were some big actors circling this role. And honestly, he was taking a chance on me. He was just trusting his gut. He felt like I was the guy — and that’s just Fogelman. He’s an advocate for artists everywhere. But the point is, he said I need you to do this additional scene, because I need to show them more.

He gave me the scene from [Episode] 4 with Sinatra, where I I tell her where to go for making me do all these horrible things. And so I’m looking at the scene, I’m getting ready to read it for for my favorite writer, and there’s so much information in this damn scene that I had to walk in to be like, I’ve got 13 questions before we could even start here, you know. [Laughs.] You go with it, and you jump in, and you’re like okay, I’ve done all these things. And then they call me and they say listen, so you know, we like you for the role, you know. Oh, this is amazing. What else don’t I know? Well, you should know Jane isn’t who she says she is. [Laughs.] Oh, Jesus, there’s gonna be a twist and a turn on every page in this thing.

As the scripts came out, we were all on set looking at each other funny and being like wait, did you know this about your…? Did you know that I had a…? It was honestly, like a little bit of being in a murder mystery. On set, everybody was looking at each other suspiciously until the final script came out.

Having those first four scripts in advance, did you and Nicole have any conversations about how to play Billy and Jane’s relationship before that big twist? Or how did you approach it, knowing as the actor that the romance wasn’t necessarily genuine? Or do you think there were actual feelings there at some point?

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The harder work was Nicole’s — because as far as I’m concerned, all I have to do is fall in love with Nicole Brydon Bloom, which is very easy to do. She’s got all these layers to play, but apparently there’s a funny story she tells. Dan, in the audition process, was watching her do one of the later scenes, and he said okay, can you do it again, but as a psychopath? And she said well, am I a talented psychopath? And he says, What do you mean? And she said well, if I’m a talented psychopath, then I just did do it as a psychopath. She was basically saying you’re not going to see me doing anything. Everything I’m doing, I’m going to be doing internally.

And so did she layer in some of that sinister behavior into the earlier scenes? I think if you go back and watch them, she did. Was [Jane] actually in love to some extent, to whatever extent she’s capable, with Billy? I think there were genuine moments where she didn’t know she was going to kill this guy and she was having a good time. What’s crazy is, even with something as tried and true as a murder mystery and a femme fatale, when it’s Dan Fogelman writing, there’s always going to be layers. We tried to play all the layers as much as we possibly could.

So you exit Paradise after Episode 4, but Billy doesn’t quite leave. He’s seen in a flashback, but also, it’s very clear Xavier is carrying Billy’s spirit and what Billy meant to him with him, particularly in Episode 6. How did you build that rapport with Sterling K. Brown?

That’s to do with how good the writing is. And that’s how good Sterling K. Brown is. He’s such a great actor — I think one of our best living actors — but also is such a generous person, and he was setting the tone for the whole set, because he’s also an executive producer. He’s number one on the call sheet, and it was so easy to have a genuine friendship with this guy and and also to admire him, because I did anyway.

We cooked up such fun on set that I think he really built up this energy with Billy, so that he could feel the absence of it in the rest of his performance. And that’s just a great actor doing what he does. And I agree with you. I listen to him giving the speech in [Episode] 6, where he says we’re taking her down for the President, but we’re also taking her down for Billy. And I’m watching on the couch at home, and I’ve got to wipe a little tear out of my eye, because there’s my buddy still looking for justice. It’s a good feeling.

Having seen now what’s unfolding leading up to the Paradise finale, is there anything you would have wanted to be a part of? Or do you feel content with where you left Billy Pace, considering the sprawling amount of ground you covered in just four episodes?

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I think it’s both. I had so much on the page. Dan Fogelman really trusted me with with one of the greatest roles I’ve ever been given. There’s layers to the guy, there’s flashbacks, there’s the sense of secrets, there’s the sense of reveals. There’s all the different aspects to his personality. He’s a mercenary, he’s a boyfriend, he’s a Secret Service agent, he’s an uncle. He’s all of these things at one time. So I really did get to flesh out a very three-dimensional person, and it was extremely satisfying.

That said, once you start to love somebody — which you do when you play them — you start wondering. He didn’t maybe just spit out a little bit of the poison, and he gets up, and then he comes in with a gun, and he helps [Xavier] in the end. It’s just such an amazing world and such an amazing story, you never want to let go of it.

Were you able to talk to anyone else in the Paradise cast about what’s been happening on the show? Or what’s it been like to see the full extent of the story unfold, just on that level as a viewer?

The actor Ian Merrigan, who plays Trent the Librarian, is my best friend in real life. We’ve been friends for over 20 years. I’m godfather to his daughter. He lives in the same apartment building as me. We’ve never worked on a television series together. We’ve been talking about these scripts privately, keeping it a secret from even our friends and family, for going on a year now. We’re just now — as Episode 8 comes out — going to watch everybody’s face. It’s been like being in a giant game of Mafia for 365 days, and I can’t wait for his dad to see the show.

Looking back on Billy Pace, and what you accomplished in bringing him to life, how much did your perception of the character and the show change over this journey? As you said, you certainly couldn’t have predicted what you were going to get to do, so how do you reflect on Paradise as a whole?

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Dan is so good at introducing you to a character — let’s say he starts out and makes this character just despicable to you. Well, you can almost guarantee that at some point he’s going to show you an aspect of that character that’s going to make you love them. And then right when you love them and you’ve decided that you forgive them for everything, he’s going to show you another despicable part of them and send you back the other way, and he’ll do it on the other side too. If you love somebody, you’re going to hate him, and then you’re going to love him again. I think what he’s trying to say, on top of just being entertaining, is that we are many, many things all at once.

And I think the journey for Billy is that he has come to this place that for for everybody else is the the apocalypse. They’ve lost their real lives, and they’re trying their best to subsist with a facsimile. But Billy never had normal, and so this place for him is the closest he’s ever come to feeling safe and feeling seen, feeling needed, and maybe even feeling loved. When he ends up lying to his best friend — which he does, and it’s complicated, because he’s telling the truth about one thing, but he’s not telling the whole truth — he’s lying to his best friend because he’s scared he’ll lose him. That if I tell you the truth, you won’t be able to love me the way that you love me now.

And I just think it’s such a universal story. It’s such a human story that we all identify with. We’ve all got a shameful skeleton in our closet. And what if we were to say who we really are? What is it to to decide you love somebody enough that you’re going to take that chance? That’s a really wonderful and heartfelt message and storyline to be telling in the middle of a sci-fi murder mystery. But that’s the different complicated tones of this show, and that’s Dan Fogelman on the page.

Do you know what comes next for you after Paradise? Or would you be open to a few more flashbacks of Billy in Paradise Season 2?

I got to work for Kevin Costner recently on his Horizon series. [I] got to play a really complicated character in in the first movie, and the second movie just premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. So it’ll be really exciting when that comes out, and we get to see the the continuation of that complicated story.

I don’t think maybe I’ll ever have as much fun — or the same kind of fun — as I did on this set, just because I was working with heroes who became friends and mentors and collaborators. I was working on an incredibly juicy character that satisfied all of my itches, and did die tragically and before anybody thought he would. But Dan shows us in Episode 5 that he comes back already in one flashback. [He] could maybe squeeze into a couple more. So who knows?

Season 2 is going to have a lot of big questions in it…. We’re going to continue to get plot twists, but we’re also going to get these really incredible human moments that can only happen in these bizarre scenarios. I can’t wait.

Paradise streams Tuesdays on Hulu.

Paradise

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Network

Hulu

Directors

Gandja Monteiro

Writers

Jason Wilborn

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  Sterling K. Brown

  Xavier Collins

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  Julianne Nicholson

  Samantha ‘Sinatra’ Redmond