‘For Life’ Cast & EPs Talk Aaron’s ‘Purpose,’ The Real-Life Story & More — Watch

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Aaron Wallace’s journey is just beginning on For Life. HollywoodLife has an EXCLUSIVE video of Nicholas Pinnock and more cast members, as well as the executive producers, talking about this fascinating story. “I mean, when you’re innocent like he is, it can go one of two ways,” Nicholas says. “It can completely dampen your spirit and you can go into a hole. But what it did for Aaron, was it did the absolute opposite. That’s his purpose for living is to get out.”

Indira Varma, who plays Safiya, said she was “immediately hooked by the story but then I heard it was based on somebody’s true-life experience and then, of course, that piqued my interest even more.” For Life is inspired by the real-life story of Isaac Wright Jr., who spent seven years behind bars for crimes he didn’t commit. Isaac became a lawyer after he was wrongfully convicted.

“Imagine learning the law under circumstances where you view the system itself as criminal,” executive producer 50 Cent notes. Creator and executive producer Hank Steinberg adds that For Life is an opportunity “through this incredibly heroic underdog character to explore our criminal justice system and get at it through an entertainment engine that would be incredibly compelling for the audience and also be something that could elicit contemplation about what are we doing in our society.”

The synopsis for the Feb. 18 episode reads: “Aaron Wallace’s fight to overturn his conviction to a life sentence continues. Tensions rise between Aaron and his crew when he provides counsel to a white supremacist in order to repay his debt to inmate Wild Bill. District Attorney Maskins ups his game when Aaron sues the NYPD in an attempt to gain access to his case file. Meanwhile, his daughter’s boyfriend, Ronnie, braces for confrontation as he visits the prison to meet Aaron for the first time.” For Life airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.