Did you read the book to prepare for the role, or were you
actively avoiding it to start with a clean slate?
I did the same thing with "The Help" -- I hate having a preconceived notion of what it's going to be and then playing to that thing, especially once I heard that it's certainly based on the book, but [with] a series, there's a lot of maneuvering that we have to do. So yeah, I didn't.
Give us a little background on your character, Barbie, and where we find him in the premiere?
Barbie is a great guy. I love him. He's a former Special Forces operator. He's gotten out of the military and since then, he's done a bunch of odd jobs, trying to find his spot and where he fits in.
He finds himself basically collecting debts for a bookie and nine times out of 10, it's a nonviolent ordeal. He's not a heavy that's going around thumping on people, breaking kneecaps, [saying,] "Pay up. Pay up." Normally, everyone's willing. But he finds himself in some situations where he has to defend himself, which is sort of the catalyst which brings him into this town and he happens to find himself here when this event happens.
So he finds himself stuck in a position of having had to defend himself after a rather nefarious deed and stuck in a small town where word travels fast and everyone knows everyone. There's a lot of stuff swirling in the first couple episodes, and what I like about the show is, judging by the opening of the show, someone might say, "Oh, Barbie, bad guy -- Big Jim [played by Dean Norris], good guy." But that's not at all the case. And I enjoy that it takes time for everything to unravel here and that everything that you see is not what you're getting.
Read full interview at HuffPost
I did the same thing with "The Help" -- I hate having a preconceived notion of what it's going to be and then playing to that thing, especially once I heard that it's certainly based on the book, but [with] a series, there's a lot of maneuvering that we have to do. So yeah, I didn't.
Give us a little background on your character, Barbie, and where we find him in the premiere?
Barbie is a great guy. I love him. He's a former Special Forces operator. He's gotten out of the military and since then, he's done a bunch of odd jobs, trying to find his spot and where he fits in.
He finds himself basically collecting debts for a bookie and nine times out of 10, it's a nonviolent ordeal. He's not a heavy that's going around thumping on people, breaking kneecaps, [saying,] "Pay up. Pay up." Normally, everyone's willing. But he finds himself in some situations where he has to defend himself, which is sort of the catalyst which brings him into this town and he happens to find himself here when this event happens.
So he finds himself stuck in a position of having had to defend himself after a rather nefarious deed and stuck in a small town where word travels fast and everyone knows everyone. There's a lot of stuff swirling in the first couple episodes, and what I like about the show is, judging by the opening of the show, someone might say, "Oh, Barbie, bad guy -- Big Jim [played by Dean Norris], good guy." But that's not at all the case. And I enjoy that it takes time for everything to unravel here and that everything that you see is not what you're getting.
Read full interview at HuffPost
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