It makes sense that “Coyote” was filmed with a multinational cast and crew – as the new drama series starring Michael Chiklis deals with life on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
“Half of our writing team is Mexican from South and Central America,” says Chiklis, 57, who plays a former US Border Patrol agent on the CBS All Access series. “We wanted people from all corners of this equation to weigh in on their perspective so that it was represented on our scripts.
“We had a border patrol agent who was our technical advisor, as well as [border patrol] people on the Mexican side of the border, ”he says. “It is a difficult line to walk, but I feel that we have done it very successfully.”
At the series premiere on Thursday, viewers meet the tough, dedicated and respected Ben Clemens (Chiklis), who is retiring loudly and reluctantly after 32 years on the job. Divorced, with a teenage daughter, he heads to Mexico to finish building the house that his business partner, Javi Lopez (played by Jose Pablo Cantillo), was building on a picturesque cliff by the sea before he died.
“This is a good man who made some terrible mistakes and is trying to reconcile those mistakes and save his life,” says Chiklis. “He’s trying to change his own epitaph, you know?”
But it is his trip to Mexico that unleashes the multilayered “Coyote” plot – when Ben tries to help a teenager, Maria Elena Flores (Emy Mena), who is pregnant with a local drug lord and desperate to escape her clutches. He finds himself involved in a dangerous and transformative situation that unfolds on both sides of the border in a series of unexpected twists.
“This program is about a conversation between Mexico and the United States, about a collision of cultures that is taking place across borders around the world,” said Chiklis, winner of the 2002 Emmy for “The Shield”. “It is understandable for so many people who live in countries where cultures are pushed against each other and need to find a way to coexist.
“I thought it was a very opportune and interesting way for a guy who looked at the world through a particular prism all his life literally and figuratively and suddenly had to be on the other side of the wall … and walk 100 miles across another man’s shoes.
“We removed the policy entirely to show and represent all points of view without taking a stand.”
“It’s an interesting way to take a very controversial political topic and humanize it,” he says. “We have completely removed politics to show and represent all points of view without taking a stand … so that people can watch the show and not be so attached to politics, but to humanity.
“No matter what happens, the situation on the border is still very current and will continue to do so,” he says. “We wanted to dive deeper into this situation and see where it takes us.”
Where “Coyote,” not See Chiklis and his fellow executive producers, including Michelle MacLaren (“Breaking Bad”, “Game of Thrones”) and David Graziano (“American Gods”), went to the conclusion of the 10-episode series, which was filmed in Baja, Mexico .
“We were in the middle of episode 7 when we were interrupted by COVID,” says Chiklis. “Not without irony, we were unable to continue after things went back into production a few months ago, because we were unable to go to Mexico.
“If we are able to continue, and I hope we can, I think [the shutdown] it was a blessing in disguise because of everything that happened in 2020 ”, he says. “I feel that this will shape the way forward for all kinds of stories in relation to this [border] question.”