Why Randall Park chose to play another FBI agent in ‘The Residence’

The show is an eight-episode whodunit that takes place in the White House after someone is found dead during a state dinner. Aduba’s Cupp is brought in to consult, by the Metropolitan Police Department—to the annoyance of other law enforcement agencies—as she is the best detective in the world. And while she may be the top investigator, her methods are a little unorthodox (see the aforementioned silent staring). Park plays FBI special agent Edwin Park, the straight man who becomes the Watson to Aduba’s eccentric Holmes as they try to identify the killer.

When Park was first approached about the part, he was interested in being in a murder mystery show since he’s a “big fan of those,” but he was hesitant to play another FBI agent since he just played one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the card trick-loving agent Jimmy Woo). But then he read the script. “The writing is unlike anything I had read before,” he tells me. “And it was just so fun on the page…and tonally, so unique that I thought, ‘Okay, this is really special.’ And then I found out that Uzo got cast as a Cordelia Cupp, and I was like, ‘Okay, yeah. I have to do this.’”

This was Park’s first time working with Aduba, an experience he describes as “the best,” because she’s the best—a grounded and lovely human being who was incredibly generous and fun to work with. He says they clicked right away, which was fortunate since he’s pretty much stuck to her hip throughout the show. Or rather, a little behind her, I correct Park, since Cupp never actually allows him to sit next to her. “That’s true,” he acknowledges with a laugh.

Uzo Aduba as Cordelia Cupp and Randall Park as Edwin Park in "The Residence."

Netflix

In addition to Aduba, Park says the rest of the show’s cast and crew were also great to work with, going on to say The Residence has been one of his favorite jobs. “Everybody really came to this project with a lot of professionalism and a spirit of camaraderie and teamwork, and also just fun,” he says. “It was just really fun.” He adds that this camaraderie among the cast and crew was his favorite part of working on the show as they became like a family. “I think it was in part because the production itself was met with a lot of challenges and we, as a family, were going through all of that together, and we just stayed committed to the project, but also to each other,” Park says. “And I think throughout that, we all became great friends. We're constantly in communication. Whenever we're in each other's cities, we see each other and hang out, and it's just such a wonderful group of people."

And as a lover of a good murder mystery (and because, as press, we were only given seven episodes ahead of this interview) I had to ask Park if he knew who the killer was before the final episode (don’t worry, no spoilers here!). He tells me that they were learning things as they went, and while some of the cast chose not to read the script until they absolutely had to, Park says he read it right away because he was so curious. “It was very surprising to me, and just a really fun, fun episode, number one, and actually an incredible episode,” he says, “but also, a really, really fun surprise.”