‘Found’s Brett Dalton on How Feelings Can Blind You

[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 2 of Found.]

The NBC series Found follows Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton), a kidnapping survivor turned advocate for the missing who had been keeping the monster that haunted her nightmares chained in her basement until his escape. Now captured and awaiting trial, Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) is becoming so increasingly frustrated that he’s being ignored by the object of his obsession that he’s even reached out to Heavy Boots, aka Detective Mark Trent (Brett Dalton), who’s trying to resist being drawn into his game of tricks and manipulation. But that proves to be even more difficult when he finds out that the woman he’s been dating (Danielle Savre) is now defending him as his lawyer.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Dalton talked about what it’s been like for Trent to face off with Sir, the frustration of dealing with someone who’s always 10 steps ahead, what he enjoys about playing a good guy like Trent after having played Ward on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., that his feelings for Gabi really blind him in a lot of ways, how he was unaware of the way things would play out between Trent and Heather, whether Trent would break the rules to get rid of Sir, and how delightful it is to play scenes with Gosselaar.

Every Time ‘Found’s Sir Faces Off With Trent, It’s a Battle of Wits in Which He’s Always Ahead

“It is incredibly frustrating.”

Collider: Since finding out about Gabi’s lie, Trent has been very conflicted between his duty as a cop and his loyalty to Gabi and her team. There’s been a lot of conflict going on for your character. How much do you think actually facing Sir in person has changed his feelings about things? Did that help put things in perspective in a different way than just what he thought it would be?

BRETT DALTON: He’s such a slippery character. I feel like every time I walk into the jail, it’s a battle. It’s a battle of wits. There are just so many things going on that are said and unsaid. He is so smart and calculating. There are moments when Trent feels that he’s got one over on Sir, only to find out that Sir is actually 10 steps ahead. It’s tough. It’s frustrating. It’s somebody who seems to just be ahead of the game or even playing a different game entirely. It is incredibly frustrating. I’m sure Trent thought that as soon as he was in jail, this would all stop, but instead, it just keeps going. We saw a moment, in the last episode, that there’s an uneasy alliance with Sir, as well, because he may have information about certain things. He is the problem that won’t go away. It’s a very interesting game to play. But if we were interviewing Trent right now, I’m sure he would say, “It’s not interesting at all. It’s incredibly frustrating. And I wish it would all just end.”

Related

Watch How Sir’s Captivity Began in ‘Found’ Season 2 Sneak Peek [Exclusive]

Shanola Hampton and Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s past comes to the forefront in “Missing While Misidentified” tonight.

What is it like for you to play someone who is a good guy, who tries to do the right thing, and who has the moral compass? People talk about bad guys being more fun, but as someone who has played them both, what do you enjoy most about playing Trent?

DALTON: You’re right, I have played both sides, and bad guys have a lot of fun. That is facts. What can I say? They get to play by their own rules. And Trent is a guy who very much plays by the rules already in place. It’s good to see someone still coming from a good place, using the tools at his disposal and also doing the right thing. He may actually be swimming against the tide in a lot of this stuff, but to see someone valiantly trying and oftentimes succeeding in bringing justice is heroic. I’m not saying that I am playing a hero, I’m saying the effort itself is heroic and it’s nice to at least strive for that. We are never going to win one hundred percent of the time, but if we try, we just might some of the time, which is really good. That is what bonds him and Gabi and everyone who are imperfect characters working in an imperfect system in an imperfect world and still doing their best to do the right thing. It’s good to play. It’s interesting when somebody who is so kind and surefooted and pure-hearted comes up against his own system, or maybe his own, beliefs or biases, and we constantly see him make the right choice. It’s fun. There’s still conflict there. Nobody’s perfect. There are some bumps along the way.

Trent’s Feelings for Gabi Blind Him in Season 2 of ‘Found’

“Trent lets Gabi get away with a lot.”

Trent seems to be the guy who attracts women that keep secrets about Sir from him. How does he feel about what Heather is doing in comparison to what Gabi did? Is he quicker with recognizing when he needs to draw a line?

DALTON: Trent lets Gabi get away with a lot. His feelings for her really blind him in a lot of ways. Trent is probably still in love with Gabi, at the end of the day. So, anything with Heather was probably like, “Yeah, I’m trying something, but I don’t know if I’m fully here yet. I just don’t know. I know that I’m ready to move on, or I think I’m ready to move on. I’m ready to put my feet in the water, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to dive in completely.” There must have been something, along the way, in his head about, “This might be too good to be true. I don’t know what I’m doing in this pool in the first place. I don’t know if this is the right thing.” And then, when she makes the decision to represent Sir, then it’s like, “Okay, that’s the line.” That being said, it’s also not on the same level as kidnapping your kidnapper and keeping them in your basement and then using their intel under duress to solve your own cases. The scale is a little bit different, but I think you might be onto something that maybe he can recognize these things sooner.

Related

“This Cat-and-Mouse Game Between Them Isn’t Over”: ‘Found’ Season 2’s Showrunner Gives Round 1 to Gabi vs. Sir

Creator Nkechi Okoro Carroll also says that viewers have yet to see the full breadth of what Sir is capable of.

Did you know from the addition of that character how that would play out, or did you, as the actor, think that Trent was finally going to have a nice, healthy relationship on the show?

DALTON: Yes. I was excited when I first found out about it. I was like, “Finally!” We hadn’t really gone home with Trent. He’s part of the team as an honorary member. We go home with the rest of the characters, and we see their lives and their houses, but that didn’t happen with Trent in Season 1. With Season 2, I was like, “Oh, my God! Great!” I wanted to know what his house looked like too. I already had my own backstory, so it was nice that the audience would learn some of that too. I was really excited that there was something outside of that. It adds a whole other layer to the character that the audience gets to see. So, I was excited initially, but I’ve been on the show long enough to know that all good things get complicated real quick. I did have a feeling that it wasn’t going to work. I didn’t think they were going to hold hands and walk off into the sunset, in a romantic comedy way, but I didn’t know that it was going to end the way that it ended. The audience is really going to love what’s going on. The writers have found a way to put these characters in the most extreme circumstances they can. It’s great.

‘Found’s Brett Dalton Struggles With His Desire To Get Sir out of Gabi’s Life for Good

“A good day would be that the name Sir never comes up unless someone is asking me how I would like my coffee.”

If Trent could get away with it and not have to worry about the rules or repercussions or what could happen, do you think you’d want to kill Sir, or does he just want to see Sir punished through the system?

DALTON: That is a good question. I think it’s the second one. If rules didn’t matter, Trent wouldn’t be Trent. Trent is all about the rules. But should this end the way he wants it to end, it would be no communication from Sir. We would not hear about him. He’d be a problem that just finally goes away. A good day would be that the name Sir never comes up unless someone is asking me how I would like my coffee. That would be great. But it doesn’t happen that way. It’s frustrating. That is all I will say.

Related

‘Found’s Shanola Hampton Trusts the Plan for This Rollercoaster of a Show: “Our Showrunner Already Has Five Seasons in Her Mind”

“On a personal level, I miss not being in scenes with Mark-Paul Gosselaar,” says Hampton, of having less moments with Gabi and Sir in the same room.

What has it been like to figure out the dynamic between Trent and Sir? After having Sir be the boogeyman for so long, now that they can interact and share the same space, what is that like to play? How has it been to get to be in scenes with Mark-Paul Gosselaar?

DALTON: I love it. There is always something to play. You think you have one up on him, but he’s ultra smart and ends up being five steps ahead. And then, there are other moments when he really seems to be cornered, but then he ends up climbing the wall. It’s so fun to play. He’s also just an unapologetically bad dude. It’s great. He’s so verbal about it too. He does so many linguistic gymnastics all around you. It is so, so, so fun. The character and what Mark-Paul is doing with it is just incredible. It’s so delightful to be up against the boogeyman to see what he has in store. There’s always the hope that you’re going to beat him. It’s really fun to see if this is the one time when you actually do.

Grant Ward would probably love to have a word with Sir.

DALTON: Yeah. Or not even a word, probably an action.

Found

Release Date

October 3, 2023

Network

NBC

Showrunner

Nkechi Okoro Carroll

Directors

DeMane Davis

Writers

Nkechi Okoro Carroll, Jennifer King

Found airs on NBC and is available to stream on Peacock. Check out the Season 2 blooper reel: