Kingston Rumi Southwick is a rising star who can soon be seen acting alongside one of Hollywood’s elite players. The Los Angeles-based musician and competitive baseball player knew he wanted to pursue an acting career very early on in his life, creating short films with friends, and perform in the occasional play. Whenever an opportunity would arise that involved acting, he would always want to be part of it.
PopWire recently connected with Southwick before making his Tribeca Film Festival debut in New York, where he talked about his upcoming Apple TV+ series, working with his A-List co-star, and more.
Hailing from David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) and J.J. Abrams (Lost), Presumed Innocent takes viewers on a gripping journey through the horrific murder that upends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorney’s office when chief deputy prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Jake Gyllenhaal) is suspected of the crime. The series explores obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.
“He’s a very caring kid, a very smart kid,” Southwick says about his character, Kyle, son of Rusty Sabich. “He grew up with a very smart lawyer, a very creative mother, and a very smart sister. He’s a very good kid, but he also wants to show himself a little bit and be a little bit independent, but loves his parents and wants to show that. You’ll get a mix of both worlds of breaking free and loving them because that’s what we all love — to show both sides of everything in a movie or a show.”
Not only does the horrific murder upend the prosecuting attorney’s office, but it greatly affects the Sabich family as well. For Kyle, Southwick says that “it hurts to see stuff like this happen to my family or the things that my mom has to go through.” While those around Kyle might think he is being kept in the dark about what’s going on, his portrayer says that “he sees everything.”
“Kyle is very smart just like his sister, and he grew up with very smart parents, so he understands what’s happening,” Southwick shares. “He watches the news. He sees everything. He’s not a stupid kid. I feel like him figuring out, ‘Wow this is happening to my parents. This is something I’m going to have to break away from.'”
The actor says that Kyle’s father being dishonest with him about the whole situation feels like giant betrayal. “I feel like seeing my dad kind of break a promise or lie to me in a certain way breaks down everything that he’s taught me about trust and about love. It’s like, wow, that’s a blow,” he says. “I can’t really trust what he says about [what’s going on] so I kind of break away and figure that out for myself and rebuild how I trust people and how I love people.
“I feel this story would be Kyle figuring out how to compartmentalize everything that’s happening while still trying to be a grown-up,” Southwick continues. “There’s a lot of twists and a lot of things in the show that you will watch and will definitely add on to what I’m saying, but I feel like it’s him figuring out how to cope with this himself, how that could make him crazy, or how that could make him wanting of a different type of love or wanting a family that is more like other families.”
Because of the heavy nature and subject matter of the series, it’s important for everyone on set to have a little fun in between takes. Kingston prides himself at being a pro when it comes to putting everyone in a good mood. “I’m always there if anyone has a little problem or if anyone wants to get a little laugh, I’m always there,” he says. “I always love to cheer people up. I think I’m pretty good at it.”
Kingston admits to lightening the mood on set by always making funny faces to the camera. “Because the show is very serious! It’s very dramatic,” he exclaims. “We have some fun takes. I’m dying laughing with Chase [Infiniti] and with Ruth [Negga]. It’s very fun. We all wanted to kind of have fun. I hope they have bloopers because we have some laughing moments for sure.”
Some of those laughing moments even included Academy Award-nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain), who was a role model and mentor on set. “Jake was a teddy bear,” Southwick gushes. “He was the sweetest person on set. Jake was a very workaholic person. He loved his work and he loved to outwork himself. He taught me if you work hard enough, you can make any job look very easy.
“I really appreciate all his tips and tricks and everything he taught me,” he continues. “He was always a very calm person when we were doing a certain scene. If I wanted to kind of bring it this way or bring a scene to a point, he’s always like, ‘Okay, let’s try it like this, let’s figure it out.’ I really, really appreciated his help and his advice and he was an amazing, amazing first person to work with. Masterclass.”
Southwick expresses that viewers should tune in to Presumed Innocent because the series is very realistic to connect to, adding “connect to these characters and their emotions and their wants and their needs and their desires and their anger. The cast — it doesn’t matter if they are huge names — it just matters on the way that they connect to an audience and we always thought about how the audience is going to take this.
“I feel like besides the names, besides everything, it’s the way that we made it for you guys, that we made it for everyone watching,” Kingston Rumi Southwick says. “I feel like you all are going to connect to it and be excited and absolutely be in the drama right there with us.”
Presumed Innocent, the eight-episode limited series, based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Scott Turrow, is available to stream June 12 only on Apple TV+.
