'Mayans M.C.' Star Sulem Calderon Gushes Over Working With Showrunner Elgin James for Season 3 (Exclusive)

Sons of Anarchy fans have stayed loyal to the hit FX series since its debut, even bleeding over into the show's spinoff series, Mayans M.C. But while viewers have enjoyed every moment of the powerful and engaging show, by the time Mayans rolled in 2018, things didn't seem to go as smooth off-screen as they did on-screen. In October 2019, it was announced that show co-creator and executive producer, Kurt Sutter had been fired from FX following multiple complaints of his behavior. However, in an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Sulem Calderon, who plays the role of Gaby — the love interest of EZ (JD Pardo) — sang the praise of new showrunner, Elgin James, admitting it has been an effortless journey for her, the cast and crew.

"It's been absolutely the smoothest ride I've ever had in my entire life. It's been so warm," she confessed during our PopCulture @Home series, further noting how everyone involved in the show's third season met via Zoom prior to filming. "[They] really wanted to set an intention, and a great intention that we're all in this together," she added.

2020 was an incredibly tough year for many and because of it, the series was forced to push production on Season 3 of the FX show. As a result, Calderon said there was added pressure to not "mess this up" because not only did fans need an escape from reality, but the new episodes were highly anticipated. "With this pandemic, it made us even like, 'Okay, we can't mess this up. We have to do our best, and we have to make [this the] best performance ever.' And we put our whole hearts into this [...]," she said.

Mayan's is Calderon's first big series as a lead, following her introduction toward the end of Season 2. But her filmography is already quite impressive as the 30-year-old played the lead in the 2017 film Nona alongside actress Kate Bosworth. She will next be seen alongside Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt in Disney's Jungle Cruise. Having already worked with some big names, she didn't take her role as Gaby lightly. In fact, she and Pardo take the development of their characters' complex relationship very seriously and have an "understanding of the depth" of it; therefore, both have put in a lot of work to bring life to their characters for fans.

"One thing about him [Pardo] within the framework of this beautiful story between EZ and Gaby, I feel like JD and I, we had this understanding of the depth and the complexity of this relationship and how we really wanted to give it our all and give this thrill performance," Calderon explained. "I remember him and I, we had lunch and we really spoke about how this is very important, especially for JD because this is his first time having a relationship in season three and showing a different side of him. And we just wanted to be in our rawest moments, being vulnerable and giving it our all, especially for the fans."

New episodes of Mayans M.C. air every Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET. They become available the next day on Hulu, and PopCulture readers get a free trial. The first five episodes are currently available on the streaming service, along with the first two seasons of the FX Network show.

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Mayans M.C. airs Tuesdays on FX at 9 p.m. CT.