Jazz Raycole Talks Izzy and Grace’s Romance, Legal’s Death, More

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4.]

Her boss being on trial for a murder he didn’t commit aside, things were going pretty well for Izzy (Jazz Raycole) in The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4.

She’s very much the voice of reason and a source of stability running the firm while Mickey’s (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) in prison and on trial and Lorna’s (Becki Newton) figuring out the kind of lawyer she wants to be and defending Mickey. Oh, and she now has a girlfriend, Grace (Gigi Zumbado), who has zero issues with Izzy’s time being taken up by work and figuring out who really killed Mickey’s client, Sam Scales (Christopher Thornton).

Below, Jazz Raycole unpacks Izzy’s relationship, her character feeling more settled in life, and more.

I really liked Izzy and Grace together. What was it about Grace that initially drew Izzy to her, considering everything going on when they met?

Jazz Raycole: It’s interesting because I think when Izzy first meets Grace, I think she’s a little skeptical because her boss knows my boss. And so I think initially, she’s not sure if she’s there for her or if she’s just there to get information, but I think Grace’s character is so genuine and so giving and really just a support system. And Izzy could use all the support that she needs.

Courtesy of Netflix

I really like that we’ve seen recently that Izzy’s settled when it comes to her career. She’s on the path she knows she wants to be on. So I like that we got to see her looking at, well, what else is out there? What else can I have in my life, a personal life? Can she do it? And she finds she can, right?

And I think because we meet her in Season 1 and she’s kind of just coming off of a very big life change and being an addict, and she meets Mickey and it kind of grounds her and it kind of helps her find out who she is and gives her an opportunity to realize that there’s more that I can do than just what I’ve been doing. And I can actually broaden my horizons beyond dance, beyond tour, beyond all these things that I thought I wanted.

It’s true that Grace could’ve been out to get information from her, but instead we got a relationship without any drama. She even helps with the case. Date night!

Date night working, yeah. [Laughs]

And she was there to help. She allowed Izzy to focus on what she needed, so that’s what Izzy needed at that point, too.

Just a really good partner. And I love how they wrote her. It was light and airy and for queer relationships, I love that we get to see queer people in that way.

Also, this is a relationship you can really root for. Do you think they’re going to last? I hope they do.

I hope they last. We’ll see in Season 5, but I hope they last.

Are they getting a dog?

Oh my God. That’s the last thing that anyone needs is another dog. [Laughs] We have Winston. Winston is enough. We have a lot of dogs.

One of my favorite dynamics on the show is Izzy and Lorna, and I love when Lorna’s like, wait, who is Grace?

Yeah, and it’s interesting because me and Becki kind of have a very similar dynamic. We’re kind of the odd couple. She’s a mom of four and a beast of a woman. I am not a mom. I have a dog. That’s enough. But the way that our synergy off set kind of translates into it, and it’s a really, really fun dynamic to play.

Courtesy of Netflix

How was it for Izzy to see Mickey dealing with everything he was this season?

I think Izzy is really scared for him. I think she was faced with something similar being in jail years ago, but also, it’s the addiction element of when really bad things happen, the easiest way for an addict to cope is to go back to the drug. So I think that there’s a lot of fear and she worries about him because he’s someone that doesn’t always let people in, where he has kind of an armor up.

What have you enjoyed about playing Izzy’s journey so far from the beginning? Because you talked about where she was when you first met her, but it’s been so great to watch it over these four seasons so far.

My character is one of the only ones that’s not in the book. And so when I initially got it, me and Ted kind of sat down to try to figure out what the trajectory was and who her character was, what her background was. And so I went in with, “I have all these ideas. Let me pitch all this stuff and you tell me what you think.” And they took a lot of it and kind of ran with it, especially the dance storyline. But they’ve really given her legs and made her really grounded. And Becki says this, she’s like, you’re the voice of reason a lot of the time, and it feels really good to grow into my own as a character.

She really felt like the voice of reason this season because it’s like Mickey was in jail. Lorna was trying to hold together the firm and Izzy was just kind holding everything together.

Yeah.

Was there anything specific that we saw in Season 4 that you suggested?

Well, I had pitched very early on that I thought that she was bi. I thought that she was queer. And so the fact that they’ve now incorporated a love interest was really, really exciting for me because they’ve trusted a lot of my instincts, which is, as an actor, always the best feeling in the world.

What would surprise Izzy of Season 1 the most about who Izzy has become now?

I think the fact that she has a family that’s not a part of her old life. I think her identity was really set in dance and the injury. When she got injured, that took her to a different place, hence the drugs. But I think her having a family that’s in a whole different world and being excited about having a career that’s in a whole different world and enjoying it.

It feels like Izzy’s kind of settled in things. Do you think that’s what we’re going to see from going forward, is that stability in her life?

Yeah, I mean, I hope so. I’m really excited to see what’s happening with Season 5. I know we start fairly soon, but I hope that they continue that and I hope that her experience in the office actually grows to be more and more.

There’s a phone call at the end of season for Izzy and Mickey and he’s about selling his house. Everyone knows where it is. Then he says he’s going to cook at home. What does Izzy think he needs to change the most?

Listen, I think Izzy loves the hell out of Mickey, and I think they’re very much kindred spirits, but he’s going to do what he’s going to do and he’s not always wrong, which is the problem. Sometimes what he does works out, but sometimes it doesn’t and it lands into a world of pain. So I think she just rolled with the punches. She appreciates and accepts him for who he is. And sometimes you get it right and sometimes you don’t, when you don’t really don’t, you really, really, really don’t.

I like the Izzy and Cisco (Angus Sampson) moments we got, especially this season with the chocolate and she’s like, what am I doing with this?

Oh man. And the crazy thing is me and Angus are really, really good friends. My Aussie brother, we call each other spirit animals, and so we have the best time just playing on set. And I love that they’ve been able to give us stuff because for the first couple seasons, I was really isolated. I was on the car a lot, so we’d see each other in passing. “Did you have a good day?” So it’s been really cool to actually be able to be in scenes and play and have some fun.

I want more from Izzy and Maggie (Neve Campbell), I have to say.

I think we all want more Maggie, period. We all want more Maggie. Neve’s one of the best actors. She always comes prepared to work. She is really the soul and the heart when it comes to Lincoln and she grounds everybody the second she walks on set.

The big thing at the end of the season is Cobie Smulders coming in as a Bosch-like character. Hopefully we’ll get scenes of you two together next season…

Oh, I hope so, too. She’s so lovely. I met her [at the premiere] for the first time and she’s just lovely. Cobie Smulders is Cobie Smulders, but gosh, what a human. She’s magnetic. So I really, really hope we get to play around next season.

What do you think that dynamic will be like?

I don’t know. So I’ve only seen a couple of the little things that they’ve put out for Season 5 and her character’s not at all what I want and I love every second of it, so I’m really curious of what the dynamic’s going to be with all of us because it’s such new energy. It’s such a different way to go. I’m really curious to see what they do with it.

What else are you looking forward to exploring with Izzy next season? What’s something on your Izzy bucket list?

I’m like, if we had seven, eight seasons, God willing…

You probably will, but it’s a hit.

I hope so. But I have so much fun, not in the courtroom a lot, and those courtroom days are long, but I have so much fun watching them go back and forth and looking at the jury, going back and forth with the judge, arguing with the attorney. It’s like there’s so much happening that I’m like, I want to be up there. I think Izzy would be the coolest lawyer. I think she would be such a cool lawyer. You know, if Kim K can do it…

What do you think Izzy thinks the firm should be going forward? Especially now that we have Lorna figuring out the kind of lawyer she’s going to be. What does she want for the firm?

I honestly think that she probably wishes that Mickey would probably get out of the murder industry altogether, even though he’s really good at it, because it ends up affecting not just his life, but all of ours’. But I think just stability. I think everyone needs to have stability, and I think a lot of the cases that come with him being a murder trial lawyer really shake things up and nothing is ever quite safe, I’ll say.

What were your favorite scenes to film from Season 4?

Honestly, and it’s so funny to say this because Season 3, I don’t think any of us felt this way, but we are so used to being in the conference room — the four of us, me, Becki, Manuel, and Angus — and we didn’t have a lot of them this season, and so we were all kind of in different worlds. So to kind of all be together this season in the conference room where we have cried and laughed and can’t keep it together, we have had all the emotions that you can have in that conference room, I think that was my favorite because it was the fam. It’s us being together.

It’s like when you don’t know how much you’re going to miss something until it’s gone, and then you’re like, where are those scenes?

Yeah, yeah. Because we’re like going to the conference room, you’re in this room all day, so sometimes it feels tedious. But yeah, the second that we didn’t have them, we were like, we miss each other, come back.

What was your reaction to Legal’s death?

I mean, Elliott Gould, man, he is such a legend and I’ve been a fan of his for so long that reading it, when we first read it, I remember crying about it and then I got to set and Manuel was like, I read it three times and I could stop crying. I mean, he’s such a gem and having him on set is like you’re working with a legend that’s been in the game for 50, 60 years he’s had a career. So his stories, his insight, the way that he works in his 80s, his stamina and his gusto, it’s like not only as a cast, we’re going to miss him, but I think the story is going to miss him. He’s such a big part of the show.

The Lincoln Lawyer, Season 5, TBA, Netflix