Five years after Paramount Network’s Waco series gave audiences an intense depiction of the fatal 1993 standoff between federal authorities and the Branch Davidian cult, Showtime is debuting Waco: The Aftermath, a sequel series that will further explore the fallout from that deadly event. The series brings Michael Shannon as Gary Noesner, who was the real-life FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit who worked to try and defuse the situation between Branch Davidian leader David Koresh and the federal officers tasked with bringing justice to the controversial figure. In addition to Shannon, actor Giovanni Ribisi stars in Waco: The Aftermath, portraying Dan Cogdell, the lawyer who served as a defense attorney for the surviving Branch Davidians.
Recently, PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Ribisi about his work on the new series, and he discussed how it was a “fascinating” yet “daunting” task to take on. “To go back, my agent called me and said, ‘Hey, there’s a sequel to the first season of Waco.’ I said, ‘I think you’re probably mistaken, because that’s like saying that there’s a sequel to the Titanic.’ It was pretty definitive,” Ribisi shared of first learning about the project. “He said, ‘No, no, you got to read it.’ So I did, and there’s so much to talk about, but it was really specifically just fascinating, daunting, because the idea of doing a courtroom drama and being the criminal defense attorney in that cross examinations and all that.”
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Ribisi went on to explain that one dynamic which made his performance somewhat easier to capture was the fact that he had a chance to speak with the lawyer he was portraying in the show. “What was great for me was the fact that I was able to talk to the real-life Dan Cogdell, the criminal defense attorney that I was playing,” he shared, “who had defended Clive Doyle, who was one of the surviving members of the Branch Davidians, and he was just so supportive. His take on everything regarding the criminal justice system, criminality, sociology, is just incredible.”
“It was just something that was, on that front as an actor,” Ribisis continued, “something that I wanted to tackle, but it was also just the subject matter of the aftermath and what had happened and this event that was singed into our minds from the live broadcasts 30 years ago… That really sparked — that and Ruby Ridge — sparked what is now known as the American Militia Movement and the growing civil unrest that we have in our country. When I was reading the scripts, I looked at the television and there were people running down the street lighting things on fire, and there just seemed to be a correlation there for me.”
Ribisi also explained that after taking his Waco: The Aftermath role he “absolutely” felt enlightened to many aspects of the Branch Davidian/Ruby Ridge stories that he had not been aware of prior. “There was so much research done,” he said. “I think they had a whole team, obviously, and Drew and John Dowdel, the Dowdel brothers who ran the show, directed all of the episodes, were so knowledgeable about this.”
He added, “That’s one of the things, there really are a lot of things that come to the surface. It’s not a documentary, and even from that standpoint, I think they were very conscious of not wanting to take either side, to take more of a pan-determined viewpoint in expressing the story to not be necessarily divisive in executing it, but just bringing up the topic because yeah, again, I think apparently, according to some survey as of 2011, there were 330 or 340 militias in the country. In other words, potentially homegrown terrorism, and so, yeah, it’s fascinating.”
Finally, speaking candidly, Ribisi offered his personal perspective on the Branch Davidian leader who ignited an entire sub-culture. “I think that David Koresh, by all accounts… from my perspective personally, again, I don’t want to get political or get controversial or inflame the conversation, but… was not a good person,” he said, then noted that “the people who were members of the Branch Davidians were looking to believe in something and were looking to have faith.”
Ribisi then concluded, “I think from that perspective and what they were doing, it was this 51 days and it was being broadcast live 24 hours a day, and nobody thought that it was going to go to this place of a conflagration. There were, I think, 28 children in the building. I think that bodes a discussion to understand what is going on.” Waco: The Aftermath will make its broadcast debut on Sunday, April 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. It is now streaming and on-demand for all Showtime subscribers, including those subscribed to Paramount+ with the Showtime add-on. Those interested in trying out a free trial of Paramount+ can do so by clicking here.
