Billions Is Changing the Hearts and Minds of Middle-Aged Republicans

On Saturday, Billions stars Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Asia Kate Dillon, Maggie Siff and Malin Akerman and executive producers Brian Koppelman and David Levien reflected on Season 2 and broke some news about Season 3 of Showtime's Shakespearean finance drama at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

Dillon, who plays breakout character Taylor, Bobby Axelrod's (Lewis) gender nonconforming CIO, said that the response to their character -- considered the first nonbinary character on American television -- has been "really, really gratifying."

"The range of responses that I got from people of all ages from all over the world saying 'I'm nonbinary' or 'I'm gender-fluid' or 'I'm trans and just by having you as a representative I feel less alone,' to parents of kids saying 'my kid is nonbinary or gender-fluid or trans and I was having trouble relating to them and Taylor helped me do that,'" they said. "Someone tweeted at me recently, 'I'm 65 years old, I'm a Republican, I'm a white man, I'm cisgendered and straight, and I was transphobic until I learned to love Taylor on the show Billions because I love that show.' That's real change. That's art affecting real change that's going to make the world a little bit safer. And that is the most gratifying thing that I can ask for out of the work I'm doing."

Check out our complete TCA coverage here

The team also talked about what's coming up in Season 3. Koppelman and Levien revealed that comedian Mike Birbiglia will show up for a guest arc starting in Episode 4. The part was written for Birbiglia, but he apparently wasn't sure if he was the right man for the job, according to Lewis.

"He's got this kind of lazy, sort of slightly confused thing about the world," said Lewis, who slipped into a Birbiglia impression as he relayed the story of what the comic said to him. "He said 'how am I going to be on a show where everyone talks so quickly?"

Billions Season 3 premieres Sunday, March 25 at 10/9c on Showtime.

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