It’s not just a coincidence that actor Daniel Sunjata is starring as the lead FBI agent in USA Network’s taut new series, “Graceland,” premiering June 6.
It took a mountain of circumstances to land him on the show, which is based on real-life federal enforcers who lived undercover in a Southern California beach house.
Sunjata, who spent seven years as the fiery Franco Rivera on “Rescue Me,” and co-starred in “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” doesn’t believe in luck.
“I believe in a universe where even though we might not be able to comprehend the divine calculus behind it, I believe in a universe that makes sense on some level, even if we can’t quite fathom how and why,” he said,
All of his life Sunjata, 41, has been goaded by forces beyond his control, starting with his adoption when he was 2 months old by a loving couple who nurtured and supported him.
“I never met my biological parents. There was a time when I thought about (finding them). I think it’s because I didn’t have any incredibly traumatic experience as an adoptee.”
His adoptive mother suffered from a polio-like disease when she was a child and was confined to a wheelchair. But it didn’t prevent her from being the major breadwinner in the family and encouraging her son’s imagination.
“After I graduated from NYU there was a period of about three months where nothing much was going on and then I got my first job. It was ‘Twelfth Night’ with Helen Hunt and Paul Rudd. It was a very small role, but it was a Broadway show,” Sunjata said.
“I don’t know what to attribute it to. I had excellent training at NYU, very motivated, had a lot of desire. But there are a lot of aspiring actors out there who had all the same things, and it just never fell together for them. So I have to call it grace.”
He finds grace in other facets of his life.
“Even though we can’t factor and compute the force behind events that seem completely random and totally meaningless, does that necessarily mean there is no higher power?,” he said.
“I find that hard to believe because I see evidence of a higher power everywhere I look,” said Sunjata, whose full name is Daniel Sunjata Condon. The name Sunjata comes from the founder of Mali.
Watch it
“Graceland” premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday June 6 on USA.
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