'American Crime' stars Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman talk about season 2 premiere

NEW YORK -- "American Crime" is back on ABC for a second season, and so are many of its big stars from last season, including Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman.

"You get to inhabit a completely different character and you couldn't ask for anything better," Huffman said.

"The challenges lie in the fact that you have to try to erase people's memories of the character you played in the first season, that's the biggest challenge," Hutton said.

While last season focused on race relations in the country, this season tackles the issues of sexual identity and socioeconomic inequality.

Timothy Hutton stars as basketball coach Dan Sullivan and Felicity Huffman stars as Headmistress Leslie Graham. Both of their characters work for the exclusive Leyland School where scandalous photos of a student circulate around school. The student gets suspended, but is the situation what it seems, or was he actually the victim of a rape at the hands of some of the school's basketball players?

"This season, it's a very personal story, and it's filmed very lyrically and very beautifully, but it's a personal story I think everyone can relate to. It's about community, it's about family, it's about education, it's about sexual orientation, it's about socioeconomic diversity, social segregation, and those are all things that can be American strengths or they can be American crimes," Huffman said.

"It doesn't come down to heroes or villains, it's an ever evolving thing of what people need to do to get to the truth of what they believe the truth needs to be, and along the way the perception of that character may change quite a bit over the course of the 10 episodes and that's what makes this particular story so interesting," Hutton said.

"Season Two: Episode One" was written and directed by John Ridley.

The second season of "American Crime" premieres on Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.