Question: The implication seems pretty clear, in the
premiere episode, that SAMCRO sold the gun that’s used in the school
shooting. How much of an impact will
that have on this season?
SUTTER: I’ve wanted to do that story for about three
years. Obviously, I knew that it would
be somewhat controversial, but I feel like, as much as I wouldn’t do something
because it was controversial, I’m also not going to do something because it’s controversial. I feel like it’s an organic story to our
world, in terms of it being what these guys do.
I feel like, thematically, it’s the right fit because we have a lead
character that’s a father who’s trying to figure out if he can raise his sons
and avoid the kind of violence that happens.
So, that will continue to play out.
There’s a lot of blood and guts in my show. It is a signature of the show, but nothing is
done gratuitously. The events that
happen in the premiere are really the catalyst for the third act of this
morality play that we’re doing.
Have
we reached a moral turning point, where it’s clear both to Jax and his family
and the viewers that you can’t really run a nice little neighborhood porn
business and a gun-running business without there being real and profound
consequences?
SUTTER: Absolutely!
I think it’s really the conflict that has fueled the entire series, and
especially Jax, with the idea of, “Can I really do what I do and follow this
path, and still show up and be a caring and loving husband, and a good and
loving father? Can I have all that and
still be the leader of a criminal enterprise?”
I think we’re on that trajectory, going into Season 6, where we have to
decide if the answer is yes or no.
Charlie,
when did you start riding motorcycles?
Has being on the show deepened your appreciation of them, or changed
that, in any way?
HUNNAM: I had just a very vague relationship with
motorcycles before. I’d ridden a couple
of times, when I was a kid on dirt bikes, and my big brother is an avid power
bike and sport bike rider. He rides
around tracks at 200 miles an hour, with other guys that aren’t really good
enough to be doing that. They invariably
hurt each other, and create a lot of collateral damage and expense. I was always a little nervous about him doing
that, but hadn’t really thought a lot about riding, myself. And then, I got the show. Living in Los Angeles, it’s always
frustrating to get around, so much so that it really inhibited my desire to go
out into the world. I just had this
epiphany, the first day on set, riding a bike around, that this is the way I
want to get around. I just love it. There’s just a sense of freedom and a sense
of being a part of the environment around you.
It’s fun riding a bike. You smell
the flowers, and you smell the garbage.
You try not to get killed by a Prius.
Kurt,
what are you looking to do with the graphic novel?
SUTTER: BOOM! is doing it for us, and they’re a great
graphic novel house. I’m excited about
it. I’ve had conversations with [John]
Landgraf and the studio about, at some point in time, maybe a few years out,
doing the prequel to this show, which would be the first nine. And we had talked about ways to keep the
mythology alive, over that few-year period, and by doing it in off-media,
whether that be novelization or graphic novels, and we’re still trying to put
together some kind of gaming idea. So,
the graphic novel was the first step to do that, and I’m very pleased with the
drafts that I’ve seen.
Essentially,
what it will be is parallel stories, so that it won’t touch on any of the
mythology that we’ve created, but will have characters, that will be secondary
characters, that will intervene and cross through that. There will be story points for the people who
are really paying attention, and they’ll realize, “Oh, that was something that
happened in Season 5, in Episode 9.”
There will be intersecting narrative points, but nothing that impacts or
influences the mythology that we’ve created, or where we want to go with the
mythology. It will definitely be in our
world, with some of the other characters.
We’ve laid track to some 30-odd different characters, throughout the
country and Europe. So, it will create
new characters and it will live in this parallel universe.
How
mapped out are you, episode per episode?
Are you certain that the end of Season 7 is the end the show?
SUTTER: I have a loose structure and blueprint that I
go into every season with, for the big mile markers. I have a sense of where I want to begin and
where I want to end, and I have a great team of writers that really hang the
meat on all those episodes. Chris
Collins runs my room, and has done an extraordinary job this year, at hanging
the meat on all those skeletons that I come in with. What I’ve learned, over time, is that the
looser I hold on to those ideas, the better the seasons are. When I loosen my grip, I let the season take
on a life of its own. It’s why I don’t
like to get too far ahead, in terms of production and writing. I like to feel out where the first few
episodes are going, and what’s working and not working, but I tend to have a
loose grip.
My
sense is that’s what I’ll do next season.
I’ll come into the final season with a sense of where it’s going and
where I want it to end. And at some
point, if I go to John [Landgraf] and the studio and say, “Hey, I need three
more episodes to close out the series,” I’m sure they’ll figure out a way to do
it. My sense now is that I’m not going
to go to them and say, “Hey, I need two more seasons to close out my
story.” I don’t think that’s where it’s
going to go. But if, for some reason, I
can’t fit it into 13, there might be some room.
Clearly, I’m having trouble fitting it in each episode right now, as
you’ll see this season. Every episode
continues to be super-sized. I don’t
know if I’ve delivered one on time yet.
They’re mostly either 15 minutes longer, or a half hour longer. There are a lot of big episodes, this
season. It’s never my intention. There’s still always 38 to 42 pages in the
script. But, as our characters get
developed and our stories get thicker and our relationships get more
complicated, these episodes just take longer and longer and longer to unfold.
Do
you know what the final shot of the series is going to be?
SUTTER: I have a sense of what it is, but I hold onto
it loosely. If that’s what it ends up
being, that’s what it will end up being.
I need that marker to go towards, and then I’ll be led to the right
place.
Jax
is deeply in love with his wife, but then he’s with a prostitute. He’s a loving dad, but his people sold the
weapon that caused the school shooting.
Charlie, what’s it like to play a character with such conflicted
emotions?
HUNNAM: In a nutshell, it’s a dream come true, to be
given a character like this. When I met
Kurt and read this script, initially, I was at a really low period of my
career. I had a burning desire to go and
do some really meaty work, and I just wasn’t getting the roles. I would meet directors, and they would be
interested in hiring me, primarily in the film world, and then the studios
would say that I wasn’t a viable enough commodity to support the infrastructure
of getting the thing made. So, it was a
really difficult time for me, and I just had this burning desire to do some of
the type of work that I’d always dreamed of doing. And then, Kurt’s script came along and it
just blew me away.
I
come from an area where these type of complexities were available to me to
witness. I grew up in an area where, if
a man wanted to escape the tedious minutia of life, and the working-class
struggle of making just enough money and being slammed by the man, all the
time, then they had to go out and take some risks. There were always consequences to doing that,
but it didn’t make them bad men. My
father was a guy who took a lot of risks in his life and paid the consequences,
and it corrupted the relationship he had with his family.
So,
these were dynamics that had been raised with and understood, and felt really,
really excited about having the opportunity to understand more deeply through
playing them myself. But, I also felt
like that experience gave me the tools to bring this guy to life, in a way that
I would believe and, hopefully, the audience would believe it, too. I’ve said to Kurt, endlessly, just “Thank
you, thank you, thank you.” It’s been,
by far and away, the greatest creative experience of my life, and I just adore
playing this guy. It requires a huge
amount of energy. Kurt hands me these
scripts, and I think to myself, “Jesus, I’m not sure if I can play this, but if
you have the confidence in me, then I’ll give it my best shot.” Somehow, with our great directors and the
support of the cast, we seem to, more often than not, be able to rise to the
challenge. In short, it’s been a really
exceptional experience for me.
SUTTER: And it’s a rare experience for me, in terms of
doing this. I was doing an awful draft
of one of the Punisher movies, and the woman who directed Green Street
Hooligans was directing that movie. It
was during the draft phase of Sons, and I watched Green Street because of the
director. I saw Charlie in that, and it
was at that moment that I wanted Charlie for Jax. I didn’t know who he was, in terms of where
he lived, or if he was available. It was
just one of those things where I said, “I want this guy. Where is he?
Who reps him?”
He was living in Los
Angeles, and he was at this turning point in his career. He was doing a lot of writing, and didn’t
know if he wanted to be an actor, but he came in and nailed the role. It was just one of those things where I
always feel like there was a certain amount of fate and destiny with this
connection. We’ve really created this
character together, to a larger degree.
I’ve not had that experience with any other actor, other than my wife
(Katey Sagal) with Gemma. So, it’s been
this really great journey for both of us because we were both taking this risk
and not knowing if anything was going to work and going, “All right, let’s
fucking see what happens.” So, I echo
that gratitude.
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