Since its 2020 debut, Netflix's small-town drama Sweet Magnolias has amassed a devoted flock of followers. Based on best-selling author Sherryl Woods' beloved book series, the show follows three lifelong best friends — Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott) and Helen (Heather Headley) — as they navigate bitter divorces, private tragedies and a revolving door of eligible newcomers. Chief of the latter is Justin Bruening's high school baseball coach Cal Maddox, an ex-MLB player with a zen-like calm. When good-guy Coach Cal swept a newly divorced Maddie off her feet in Season 1, it was as if the clouds had parted above Serenity, South Carolina. By last year's blowout Season 2 finale, however, Cal's dark past had finally caught up with him.
Wide Open Country sat down with Justin Bruening to talk Cal's headspace going into Sweet Magnolias Season 3, which bows July 20 on Netflix. The 43-year-old actor, best known for playing daytime heartthrob Jamie Martin on All My Children for eight years, dished on subverting TV's good-guy trope; on how Cal will react to the latest bombshell from series supervillain Bill Townsend (Chris Klein); and on why the other Serenity players will be "way worse off" than the down-and-out Cal we saw at the end of last season: "What's Bill gonna do to possibly try to get Maddie back? We'll see."
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sweet Magnolias Season 2.
Wide Open Country: Out of everyone in Serenity, Coach Cal is probably in the worst position heading into Season 3. He's been fired, then arrested. Is this the end of Cal as we've known him? What will it take to get him back to that state of peace he was in?
Justin Bruening: You know, I'm just really enjoying prison right now. It's great. (Laughs.) The jumpsuits are lovely. They're peach colored. This is the start, definitely, of a new Cal. You're going to see a side of him that hasn't been explored before. Definitely more vulnerable, dealing with the ghosts of his past — being forced to deal with them now. It's emotional and trying at the same time, so it'll be a lot of fun, I think, for someone other than Cal. Definitely not for Cal. He's not having fun.
Justin Bruening as Cal Maddox in Sweet Magnolias Season 2. (Richard Ducree/Netflix)
WOC: Cal is almost a therapeutic presence in so many other characters' lives. There's Maddie and the boys, and even Dana Sue. He does a lot for Serenity, but what is Serenity doing for him? What is he looking for there?
Bruening: That poses the question of Who's the therapist of the therapist? in a sense. I always joke with [the cast], "He's like Obi-Wan Kenobi in all the Star Wars movies." [Cal] would just listen and be very calm, and then all of a sudden you have this new development. I was like, "Wait, what? I punch a guy? That's not very Obi-Wan Kenobi." I think he's looking for a home. He's looking for a place where he belongs and fits in, where he doesn't have to try to impress people. He played for the Braves. He's always been sort of a celebrity, and that kind of comes with ... you put your best foot forward. He is just trying to find that place where he can be himself. We'll see how that works with Serenity, but they seem to be very loving and open, and they welcome everyone with open arms. So I think he's got a good chance ... when he gets out of prison. I'm gonna have a couple teardrop tattoos. (Laughs.)
WOC: A dark Cal, that's what we're in for?
Bruening: Yeah, but it's a peach jumpsuit, so it offsets it very well.
JoAnna Garcia Swisher as Maddie and Justin Bruening as Cal in Sweet Magnolias. (Eliza Morse/Netflix)
WOC: You've said that, when you were reading Sherryl Wood's first Sweet Magnolias novel, you could almost predict Cal's every move because he's an optimist, like you. Tell me more about how your personality or your instincts jibe with the character. And do you still feel that way about Cal three seasons on?
Bruening: I do relate to Cal, and when I first read that novel, I was shocked. Sometimes, TV writes a nice guy and he's sort of one-note, you know? He's just nice — that's it. He doesn't have anything under the surface. As I was reading the novel and as we've explored him further, that definitely changes. Definitely changes now. I can still 100% relate to him. We diverge ... no, I'm not gonna go punch someone in a bar. But I can relate to his willingness to protect someone he loves. Ultimately, that's what drove him: that instinct to protect the woman he loves, thinking that she's in danger.
You're actually gonna see a lot more of me and him this season. We get to have some fun eventually, when we weather the storm. The sun always comes back out, and the rainbows come, too. It's a lot of him finding himself and checking in like, "Is this me?" I've been this guy for so long, this sort of celebrity. Now, [Serenity] doesn't care who he is on the outside; they care who he is on the inside. The more friendships he gets, the closer he allows people to get to him, they're gonna draw the real Cal out. And, hopefully, we get back to being a therapist. (Laughs.) It's a lot more fun than having to be on the receiving end. But don't worry, there's plenty of drama this season that I have to deal with. So I'll have to talk people off the ledge all the time.
WOC: Hopefully, Coach Cal will be the one blowing the whistle again.
Bruening: Everybody's gonna have to have some drama on the show. People will be way worse off than me eventually, a few episodes in. Then they'll forget about me.
WOC: At the end of last season, we learned that Bill is Isaac's biological father. When, or if, Maddie tells him about this latest bombshell, what is Cal's first reaction? Do you see him popping off, or going into coach mode?
Bruening: When we see Cal, he's in a lot of inner turmoil, so he's a little unpredictable. He's not doing things the way that he normally would. I am really good at punching people, though. Bill kind of does deserve it. I'm afraid he might be my father, too, though, 'cause he's the father of half of Serenity. But I think that remains to be seen, 'cause there is a history. There's a friction. I do sort of have the woman he was married to, and his kids sort of are gravitating toward me. It's maybe more the question, "What's Bill gonna do to possibly try to get Maddie back?" We'll see. I'm gonna try not to hit him.
Justin Bruening as Cal and Carson Rowland as Ty in Sweet Magnolias. (Eliza Morse/Netflix)
WOC: You're from a small town in Nebraska. Do you recognize some of the small-town quirks in Serenity, where everyone knows everyone's business and your enemies are always just as near as your allies?
Bruening: I do recognize a lot of Serenity from where I grew up in Nebraska. I grew up in a town — sorry, village — called Saint Helena. There's 85 people in it. So it's a little bit smaller. I mean, just a little bit. Every time we film, I'm like, "There's another park? How big is this town?" But, yeah, there are always those little quirks, like you know your mailman and the guy at the hardware store. (We didn't have a hardware store, but you know all those people.) Everyone's parents know you, so you couldn't get away with anything. The second you think about doing something wrong, they already know.
Even with our crew and cast and everyone — producers, directors, all of them — we are like a family. We are Serenity. That's what I always say. We get along famously. It's like old friends, you know? I get so giddy when I find out we're going back. I got all my buddies in every department. So it's like being in a small town when we film.
WOC: When you get together with the cast outside of filming, are you drinking a Sweet Magnolias-style margarita, or are you more of a beer guy? How do you like to pour it out?
Bruening: I'm more of a bourbon person. I'm a big fan of a bourbon called Blanton's. JoAnna [Garcia Swisher, who plays Maddie] has gotten me on old fashioneds, which are bourbon-based. They're a little sweet for me. Just bourbon on the rocks, that's what I pour out.
Sweet Magnolias Season 3 premieres Thursday, July 20, on Netflix.
