A bit like the new kid at school, Joy Sunday approached co-star Richard Jenkins to run lines on her second day on the set of “DTF St. Louis.” They had barely met, yet were getting ready to shoot their characters’ final scene together, depicting how far two investigators’ partnership had come after a rough start.Jenkins declined.“We’re supposed to have this really lovely relationship” by that point in the story, Sunday says. “I asked him, he goes, ‘No.’ That was pretty much where we started out.“And then we do the scene. It’s this beautiful conversation on a porch, like we’ve been friends for decades. I felt such comfort and awe that it was just about the work. Immediately after they called ‘cut,’ it was like we’re old pals.”In a separate interview, Jenkins says, “I knew right then how good she was. It also broke the ice for both of us as people, as friends.”Sunday says, “I think he recognized my respect and love for what I was doing, and we connected because of that.”Jenkins says, after that, “We hung out a lot and laughed and talked … I mean, we became friends in seven episodes. In the miniseries and in life, we became friends.” (Erik Carter / For The Times) In HBO’s “DTF St. Louis,” written and directed by Steven Conrad, the two play set-in-his-ways Det. Donoghue Homer and quietly curious special crimes officer Jodie Plumb, who have teamed up to solve the apparent murder of American Sign Language interpreter Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour). Smernitch’s wife, Carol Love-Smernitch (Linda Cardellini), and best friend, local weatherman Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman), emerge as the leading suspects. The show has received 13 Emmy nominations, including for each of its five main actors.The 29-year-old Sunday is no rookie, with more than 20 credits over about 10 years. Meanwhile, in well over 100 film and TV appearances since 1974, the 79-year-old Jenkins has collected two Oscar nominations and four Emmy nods.“I think the first week I might’ve called him ‘Mr. Jenkins,’ ” says Sunday, laughing. “I was so happy when he opened up his heart and talent to me. I couldn’t have been half of Jodie without his support and his encouragement.” Then she chokes up slightly.She smiles and says, “I’m doing a really good job of not getting teary-eyed right now. But yeah, I really do love that grumpy old man. It’s the biggest gift of my career to have gotten to do this project with him.”Be like a lighthouse“It’s my favorite experience of really diving into a script. You have this stoic yet empathetic and warm character,” Sunday says of Jodie, “but then you also have this weird rhythm and these weird people and these weird situations.Sunday says Conrad told her to “stand out from this structure, to be like a lighthouse in this very kind of shrouded and stiff environment. He wanted Jodie to be someone we could look up to.“She learned a lot and gained a lot. She had the experience of nurturing and blossoming into a relationship with someone [Homer] she previously didn’t think possible … It was magical, getting to work on the scripts.” (Erik Carter / For The Times) Jenkins says, “It took me about 10 pages to say, ‘This is so good.’ [Conrad] is an artist. You can tell a Steve Conrad script; it’s him. And he’s also a fabulous director.”Jenkins says the specificity with which Conrad treats his characters was the hook.“They’re people, they’re human beings,” he says. “They change, their opinions change, they grow. There’s life to every one of these characters. The kid who manages the umpires … the two workers at Jamba Juice. They all have lives. If [Homer] was a cop that was there to solve a mystery only, I wouldn’t have done it. He doesn’t really talk about his past, but you know he has one.“And give me that, man. Give me that.”Homer’s odysseyJenkins says Homer “discovered something about himself, that his ideas about who people are was pigeonholing. ‘This is who you are because you live here.’ He realizes that’s baloney. And he may have been doing it his whole life as a cop. So I loved playing it.“And I love Joy. She listens when she acts. You always feel comfortable with her in a scene. It’s going to be interesting where she goes from here because she’s really talented, and she’s going to have an interesting life in this profession.”“There’s so much from that set that was beautiful to experience,” says Sunday. “It’s HBO, it’s Richard Jenkins, it’s Linda Cardellini. You go into it being kind of scared and hoping that everybody kind of likes you, maybe. To walk away feeling equal to everyone else is amazing. I’m so grateful.” (Erik Carter / For The Times) Jenkins recalls that first scene with fondness: “I see a friendship. It’s so funny because we just started working with each other. When I watch it, it looks like we did it at the end of the shoot, and it was the opposite.“I mean, I just really love working with her.”Sunday remembers how she and Jenkins started, then ended up close. “I’m dragging him to brunch and trying to get him to golf with me — never happened.” She laughs. “He refuses to play with anybody who’s not a golfer.”Jenkins confirms: “I would not golf with her. I said, ‘I’ll go to the driving range with you, but we won’t go golf.’ ” Then he laughs as well.
