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By
Suzanne

Interview with Harold Perrineau of "Sons of
Anarchy" on
FX 9/19/12
Final Transcript
FX NETWORK: Sons of Anarchy
September 19, 2012/10:00 a.m. PDT
SPEAKERS
Kristy Silvernail, FX Media Relations Manager
Harold Perrineau, “Damon Pope” / Sons of Anarchy
PRESENTATION
Moderator: Welcome to the Sons of Anarchy conference call.
During today’s presentation, all parties will be in a
listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference
will be open for questions. This conference is being
recorded today, Wednesday, September 19, 2012 and I would
now like to turn the conference over to Kristy Silvernail
from FX. Please go ahead.
K. Silvernail: Good morning, everyone and welcome to the Sons
of Anarchy conference call with special guest star Harold
Perrineau who plays “Damon Pope,” ex-drug kingpin who rose
from the streets and built a legitimate empire and is now an
influential advisory for SAMCRO. Before we get started, I
just want to take a brief moment and thank all of you for
joining us today and especially Harold. It’s such a pleasure
to have you with us – thanks for sharing your time.
H. Perrineau: Thanks.
K. Silvernail: As everyone knows, Sons of Anarchy airs
Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific only on FX.
So with that said, let’s open it up for questions.
Moderator: Our first question comes from the line of Jamie
Ruby with SciFi Vision.
J. Ruby: So, you obviously play a really nasty character in
this show. Can you talk about kind of how you prepared for
it and how you just go into that mindset?
H. Perrineau: I had talked to Kurt Sutter a bit about the
character. We talked at length a bit about his ideas about
“Damon Pope,” some of the people that “Damon Pope” reminded
him of; one of them being Frank Lucas who was the movie
American Gangster that Denzel Washington did, was based on
his life. And then, I started doing a bunch of research on
my own about a different guys who took their sort of street
life and then turned them into more legit businesses and
that’s kind of how I sort of setup “Damon Pope” and how he
might think or the way he may act in retaliation to things
that are very emotional for him like that. So, basically, I
just sort of pulled on these different sorts of businessmen
and gangsters who I thought had similar kinds of
backgrounds.
J. Ruby: Right. So, how did you become involved in this show
originally?
H. Perrineau: I knew they were looking for “Damon Pope” for a
while. Kurt Sutter was tweeting about it and I followed him
on Twitter. My wife is always reading it and one day she
said, “You know, they still haven’t found ‘Damon Pope.’
Maybe you should try to send Kurt an e-mail.” And so, I did
and sent him an e-mail just to see if I could get a meeting
with him and he took the meeting and we sat and talked about
it. By the time I got home, he bravely said, “Let’s do it.”
And so, there I am.
Moderator: Our next question is from the line of Earl Dittman
with Wireless and Digital Journal.
E. Dittman: I have to say you play one mean MF in the show.
H. Perrineau: He’s angry. He’s very angry.
E. Dittman: I guess the first question is… I’ve followed your
work all along from OZ to Lost, everything else. When you
look for doing a show like this and the shows before you,
what do you look for mostly? Do you look for the character
you’re going to play in the overall show? Is there any
particular little thing you look for or anything?
H. Perrineau: Certainly, I look at the character that I’m
going to play. I’m largely aware of the characters I’m going
to play, but often, I look for the content of what’s going
on.
Oz is one of those things—when I did Oz back in the day, we
didn’t know where it was going to go, but I was really
interested in this idea of whether prisons were for
retribution or actual redemption and I knew that that was
part of the conversation that we were going to be having
with Oz as well as being entertaining; the same with lots of
other things that I pick. I kind of try to pick things that
I would be proud to be part of, that I’m really happy to
say, “Yes, I was part of that conversation,” even if it’s a
hard conversation about some of the entertainment things or
whatever.
I like to do things that are fun, entertaining and also kind
of help you think. I’m not so interested in a lot of like
mindless things that sort of take you away from your life or
take you out of your experiences, but things that are just
plain stupid, I guess.
E. Dittman: So, what was it about “Pope” that you liked?
H. Perrineau: I like the show Sons of Anarchy. I like Kurt
Sutter. I like the idea of this guy who’s not just rolling
in as some gangster to be tough, but he’s a guy who just
lost his child. One of the things that I felt like might be
really challenging and kind of fun is to see if the audience
members just go like, “Oh, he’s just a terrible guy” or if
someone can go, “Hey, if somebody had killed my daughter for
a frivolous reason that ‘Tig’ killed his daughter, what
would I do” and actually have some empathy for “Pope.” I’m
really curious about whether that will ever play out, or if
it’s just going to be like, “He’s just a bad dude.” So, for
me I thought that was an interesting thing to try to spot
and then try to bring to the character.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Mike
Gencarelli with Mediamikes.com.
M. Gencarelli: Listen, so in the show…everyone’s a bad ass in
this show, I guess how does it feel coming in…and playing
like the main bady in this season?
H. Perrineau: It was a little daunting I have to say because
they are a bunch of dudes who play bad asses. They’re great
actors and they do really, really well. And so, I felt in
the very beginning it was going to be sort of interesting
trying to ingratiate myself into this group of guys while
also keeping a bit of distance because I knew that my
character is just going to be an adversary and I didn’t want
any of my own personal feelings about liking them or any of
that stuff to come across with “Damon Pope” because I think
“Damon Pope” is very focused and serious about what he needs
done and wants to do.
So, it was a little tricky, but they’re a great cast of
people and great actors. And so, they made it really, really
easy.
M. Gencarelli: And like you mentioned, the character is just
plain mad. I guess after picking off ... and I guess what
else can we expect from “Pope” in the coming episodes?
H. Perrineau: You can expect a guy who is looking for
satisfaction and he will not be denied. He wants some
satisfaction for the death of his daughter and he won’t be
denied, period.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Nathan
Smith from Blogomatic3000.com.
N. Smith: Thanks for taking the time out and I promise I’m
going to try to refrain from Lost questions. I know you
mentioned earlier that you had approached Kurt about the
role of “Damon Pope” and what I wanted to ask, I guess, in
that same regard is had he already kind of started scripting
for “Pope” or were you used as another point to kind of
fashion the character around you specifically?
H. Perrineau: No. He had already started scripting “Pope” and
he had an idea about “Pope” at the end of Season 4. He had
been down the line of meeting people and stuff like that for
the character and I guess those things didn’t work out. When
they didn’t work out and I knew I had some free time, I kind
of thought whatever that idea was was a long shot—what his
idea for “Pope” was is probably a long shot for me because I
don’t normally cast like that, but I had confidence that I
could probably pull something off. So, it wasn’t fashioned
after me at all.
I think as it’s going on there is a working together as I’m
doing it, as he’s writing it, that somehow they start
forming like the same person. It all starts gelling
together. But yes, I’m pretty sure he didn’t have me in mind
when he originally wrote “Damon Pope.”
N. Smith: Okay. So, he just kind of picked up and ran from
there.
H. Perrineau: Yes.
Moderator: Our next question is from Nick Nunziata from
CHUD.com.
N. Smith: Between Tom Fontana and Lindelof and J.J. Abrams
and now Kurt Sutter, you’ve become kind of like the Kevin
Bacon of great TV shows, like we could almost do the six
degrees of Harold Perrineau now.
H. Perrineau: My wife ... jokes.
N. Smith: You have a habit of being attached to very
interesting and diverse projects and this was no different.
I kind of want to get your vibe as to the dynamic on set. I
mean Tom Fontana is notorious in the way that he runs a set
and obviously Lost was the myriad tapestry that it was.
What’s Sons of Anarchy like when you get into the mix? Is it
a different kind of working experience for you?
H. Perrineau: Well, without giving too much away, it is
different in that with Lost and with Oz, there was such a
huge cast of people and there was always tons of people and
personalities around all the time and so, you’re negotiating
that when you’re working and playing the role and stuff like
that. The sort of luxury I’ve had with Sons of Anarchy is
while there are lots of people on the show itself, “Damon
Pope” is very specific and he’s very focused. And so, I’m
really not around everybody as much. And so, for me, it
doesn’t feel like there’s that much to negotiate. I feel
like I can really focus in on what this one character has to
do and who he has to do it to or with or whatever. So, in
that sense, I don’t feel how big and broad like the rest of
the cast is like I did in the other two shows.
N. Smith: The other note is the other shows you had a chance
to watch it to build the ground swell and rise to
popularity. This show you’re riding in on the peak for now,
the peak of its success. Did you have an idea from your
previous experience what to expect with the fan base that
this has and with how available Sutter is to his audience
and the sheer passion that people have for this show? Did
you feel a different kind of energy once you became a part
of the mythos?
H. Perrineau: Yes. This all feels like new because I just
sort of walked into this house that was already built. And
so, yes, you’re right. Earlier on, you kind of get to feel
it like growing and growing and growing and it’s really fun
and exciting and watching it grow is pretty cool. But this,
I was really shocked by like how passionate all the people
are about the show, how, like you said, available Kurt is to
his audience.
So, I feel like a little like I’m playing catch-up, like I
don’t know what people expect or what they do and they’re
already in there and they’re settled in. They really love
the show and they know everything about the show and I
really am trying to like catch up as much as I can and do
all of my homework and see the shows and know what the
people are talking about because they really do seem to love
the show and are passionate about it.
I am feeling the love. I’ve got to say that. They’re really
loyal even if they don’t like “Damon Pope.”
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Diane
Morasco from Morasco Media.
D. Morasco: I have to ask, do you have a preference of which
types of scenes you’d rather do? Do you like doing the
violence to challenge your pent up energy, or do you prefer
the softer side to elevate your humanity?
H. Perrineau: That’s an interesting question because it
really feels like we’re not getting too like esoteric. It
feels like a real ying-yang for me. I like them both. I need
them both for very different things, like I like to do the
softer things because I do like to consider things not so
violently or romantically or really loving, but I grew up in
the United States, in Brooklyn. So, there’s a certain amount
of rage and pent up anger that is just kind of always there.
So, to get to express that in a really healthy way and
sometimes a cool way is really good for me as well. So, I
really like them both because they both serve real big needs
in my life.
D. Morasco: Now, what do you find most infuriating about the
role of “Damon” as opposed to the other characters that you
have played?
H. Perrineau: What do I find infuriating?
D. Morasco: Yes, for “Damon” as opposed to the other
characters you have played over the years.
H. Perrineau: I don’t find a lot of it infuriating. There’s
something about—it’s not infuriating, but it’s really
interesting for me. There’s something about the level of
violence that “Damon” is capable of and the positive way
people respond to it. There’s something really curious about
that for me. He has the ability to be really, really violent
and people get really super excited about it and there’s
something I keep going like, “I don’t know if this makes me
happy or not,” you know what I mean? This guy, he just
burned a girl and everybody’s really excited about that. So,
it leaves me really in this strange place. I’m really happy
that people like the work and really confused because it’s
really violent. So, it’s not infuriating, but it is kind of
curious for me.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Steve
Eramo from SciFi & TV Talk.
S. Eramo: I wondered if maybe you could tell us what kind of
sticks out most in your mind about shooting your first Sons
of Anarchy episode and initially stepping into the “Damon
Pope” role.
H. Perrineau: Say that again. What?
S. Eramo: What sticks out most in your mind about filming
your first Sons of Anarchy episode and initially stepping
into the “Damon Pope” role?
H. Perrineau: I mean I guess for me the obvious is like my
first day there, the very first thing I’m doing is burning
someone’s daughter in front of them, while they stand by
helplessly watching that. What sticks out in my mind is
like, “Oh, my. Oh, my. Where can this go? How much heavier
can this really be and how do I bring a real depth and
honesty to this while I’m cringing at the thought of the
whole thing.” So, my first day was a little confusing. It
sounds like I’m confused a lot. I’m not really, but that was
a little confusing.
S. Eramo: And then just a general question if you don’t mind.
I wanted to find out what would you say makes a career in
this industry rewarding for you so far.
H. Perrineau: The thing that’s making the career the most
rewarding and is also kind of the most frustrating is that
I’ve gotten to play a lot of different things. I’ve gotten
to do a lot of different things and that’s really what I
wanted to do. I really love being an actor and for me, an
actor really gets to step into many, many different lives
and experience them and try to bring them to life and tell
the story that the writer is telling. I’ve been able to do
things that you wouldn’t expect me to do or things that I
think I should be able to do, but no one else does. And so,
you can bring life to that kind of thing, but it’s also the
thing that’s the most frustrating because people will see a
thing and sort of because the way the business is and the
branding is, it’s hard to just pin down, like, “Oh, he can
do that one thing.” So, I feel like I’m constantly,
constantly having to prove like, “Oh, yes, I can do that
too,” not like in a bragging way, but it’s like this is what
my job is as an actor. If I can’t do it right now, I
certainly can figure it out because that’s what my job is.
So, it is both the thing that I’m most proud of and the
thing that causes me the most sort of stress because I’m
always having to prove, like really, really keep proving
that I can pull this off as well. Sometimes I’m wrong.
Sometimes I can’t do it, but I really like trying. So,
that’s the answer.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Melissa
Girimonte from The Televixen.
M. Girimonte: Have you had a chance to see any of the fan
reaction to your character so far either from your existing
fans who have followed you to this series or fans of Sons of
Anarchy?
H. Perrineau: Because of all the social media stuff, yes.
Right after the opening episode, the very first episode, I
gained a whole lot more Twitter followers and people who
were really excited about it, people who were really happy
to see me, had seen me do other things before, people who
had never seen my work before, people who were really mad at
“Damon Pope,” but super excited about what was going to
happen next. And so, pretty immediately I got to experience
a lot of the SOA fans.
M. Girimonte: As a quick follow-up, do you think “Damon Pope”
has any redeeming qualities besides buying ice cream for
neighborhood children?
H. Perrineau: I think he has many redeeming qualities. I
think we’ve structured a man who really isn’t just a guy out
there being violent for violence sake. “Damon Pope,” he’s
more complex than just being an angry man and we’ll find out
as the season goes on. So, I think there are many redeeming
qualities about “Damon Pope,” none of which I can talk about
at this particular moment, but by the end of the season,
we’ll be able to talk about it more.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Kristyn
Clarke from popculturemadness.com.
K. Clarke: So, I’m curious; as you delve into the role of
“Damon,” is there anything that you’ve been surprised to
learn about yourself as you explore this character?
H. Perrineau: I mean yes. I consider myself a really sort of
empathetic person and so, I’m surprised sometimes, once I
set myself in motion for “Damon Pope,” how unempathetic I
can be and how surprisingly good that feels based on what
I’m trying to achieve. Does that make sense?
K. Clarke: Oh, yes and as a quick follow-up, I mean you’ve
played so many various characters. Is there any role that
you’d love to tackle one day that you haven’t had a chance
yet to play?
H. Perrineau: I get asked that question a lot and I don’t
actually have an answer for it. I mean I really have been
enjoying the way things have been going. I’ve gotten cast to
just do a lot of things. And so, as they keep coming up,
there are things that I just couldn’t have thought of. I
couldn’t have thought of “Damon Pope,” you know what I mean,
but I’m so excited that I’m getting a chance to do it.
I did a movie called Woman on Top where I would never have
considered that I could play “Monica,” the transsexual, but
there it was. And so, I’m just like looking forward to
reaching out and searching and finding things and finding
people who I can work with and collaborate with and come up
with new, really interesting, fun things to do.
Moderator: Our next question comes from the line of Lance
Carter from Daily Actor.
L. Carter: So, you’ve been on two of my favorite shows, Oz
and Lost and now this show. So, if you want, I’m just going
to send you a list of my other favorite shows so you can
appear on them too.
H. Perrineau: Hey, if I can I will. I’ll try.
L. Carter: Earlier, you talked about shooting, your first
shooting day and shooting your first scene. You’re in a new
environment, around new people. How do you prepare for that
and prepare for that one particular scene you were talking
about? I mean your nerves got to be like amped up. Are you
just so prepared for that that you don’t let your nerves get
in the way?
H. Perrineau: Well, no. They actually do get in the way and
that’s fortunately the great thing about film. You get to
keep trying it until the nerves go away. I had Paris Barclay
on set who was—as we were both learning about “Damon Pope”
and what worked and what didn’t work, I had Paris Barclay
there to help me really like hone in and find very, very
specific things to do. We used to experiment with a few
different ways of approaching it. That really helps your
nerves when you have a really great director and then you
guys can actually collaborate or really think things through
together. So, that helps a lot.
L. Carter: You said your wife kind of pushed you to talk to
Kurt about this. Are you going to give her 10%?
H. Perrineau: I give her so much more than 10%. I kind of
wish she was my manager or agent because it would be a lot
less expensive.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the line of
Jamie Ruby from SciFi Vision.
J. Ruby: I know you talked a bit about ... role or whatever,
but is there someone specific that you’d still like to work
with that you haven’t?
H. Perrineau: Do you mean as far as like actors or directors
or any of the above?
J. Ruby: Either. Yes, anybody.
H. Perrineau: There are tons of people that I’d still like to
work with, but I haven’t gotten to work with; people I’ve
worked with and would love to work with again. I’d love to
work again with Laurence Fishburne or ... Berman, but I’ve
never gotten to work with Denzel and that would be an
amazing thing or to work with either one of the Nolan
Brothers. So, there are lots of people out there who are
doing really, I think, interesting work and I’d like to get
in there and see what I can do.
J. Ruby: Awesome and after watching the episode, I was
thinking about even though “Pope” is kind of really evil at
some points in the episode, he actually has a lot of
similarities, I think, to “Michael” and loss because of
being a father and that. Can you kind of talk about that and
maybe compare them a little bit?
H. Perrineau: Yes, I actually do think that they are very
similar and being a parent myself, the question always
becomes for me if someone were to hurt, kidnap, put in any
way your child in danger, how far would you go? The answer
for me is always I’d go as far as I had to. I’d go as far as
I could and so, like I understand given each person’s world
like what they would be.
“Michael” being stranded on this island and not really
having any resources and only to collaborate with “Ben” ...
in order to get his son back, which means he had to do one
heinous thing and one thing he fully regretted. What would
you do in order to get your child back? The same with
“Damon;” he lives in a really violent world where there’s
not a lot of talking or negotiating or hand-holding or like,
“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean to kill your daughter.
I meant to kill the guy next to her.” There’s none of that
like kind of friendly banter even in a world where it really
is survival of the fittest. It really feels like the
fittest.
Having those kinds of means and having your daughter
stripped away from you, all the years of work and love and
care and having someone just take that away without regard,
how far would I go? I’d probably go that far. I’d probably
go further, you know what I mean? I’d be that mad and in
that world, I’d understand, you know what I mean? Harold, I
wouldn’t do it, but in that world, I get it.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the Nathan Smith
from Blogomatic3000.com.
N. Smith: I just wanted to ask you; when you did receive the
pilot script for Oz, did you at that time, did you foresee
it being such a ground breaking series? It was one of the
first series for HBO. How did you feel about that?
H. Perrineau: I called my mother. I said, “Hey, ma, I’m about
to do this thing that’s a little crazy. I just want you to
know that I love you. I don’t want to disrespect our family
or anything.” So, when we first read the pilot script, I
thought, “Whoa.” One, I couldn’t believe that we were going
to do it on television and two, some of it was just so wild.
There are things that didn’t even make the screen that were
just so like outrageous that I was a little nervous. I
really had that feeling of like, what does this do for me.
Does it like help elevate my career or do I wind up going
down as like, “Oh, he was part of that group of crazy people
that tried to do that thing on HBO.” And so, luckily, HBO
kept doing wilder stuff.
N. Smith: And the kind of a side step question about another
series. I wanted to ask you how you felt about the
cancellation of The Unusuals. I really, really like that
show.
H. Perrineau: Oh, man, one of the biggest bummers ever; one
of the biggest bummers ever. Noah Hawley is such a great
writer and showrunner and we were having such a great time.
We thought for sure the show would keep going. Renner was a
friend of mine from before and me and Adam Goldberg just had
a great time working together. So, when the show didn’t get
picked up I was pretty bummed for a long time and I’ve been
out there working and doing stuff for a while, so I try not
to get too attached, but I was pretty attached to that. I
was having a really great time playing “Leo Banks.” I
thought we were going to get explored that some more, but
I’m bummed.
I’m happy for Jeremy. He kept going and doing lots of
amazing things and Adam and I ... but I was bummed about it.
That’s the answer.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the line of
Diane Morasco from Morasco Media.
D. Morasco: Harold, what did you take away from your
experience filming with Sammy Davis, Jr. in The Linda
Lovelace Story?
H. Perrineau: We never shot that. That never got shot.
D. Morasco: It didn’t? Do you think it will be?
H. Perrineau: No, that’s not a real follow-up; I know. That
never got shot. So, I don’t know what’s going to happen with
that script or anything. I don’t know why it’s still up,
like people see that I am—I never got to do that. So,
nothing; I didn’t take away anything from it because I
didn’t do it.
D. Morasco: I’ve got a question though. Were a fan of Sammy
Davis, Jr. and would you like to portray him?
H. Perrineau: I am a huge fan of Sammy Davis, Jr.; one of my
early heroes, not that I’m song and dance man like Sammy
Davis, Jr., but I certainly come from a musical theater
background. I danced and sang. When I was really, really,
really very young they were auditioning for that movie Tap
and I didn’t really tap well. I tried my best to go to the
audition and Gregory Hines and Sammy was there and I got cut
really quickly. But, if I ever got the chance to really play
Sammy, and I don’t know that it would be in the Linda
Lovelace Story, but if I ever got the chance ... I would
jump at it because he really is one of my favorites. He
really, really is. He’s just amazing - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Moderator: Our next question is a follow-up question from
Nick Nunziata from CHUD.com.
N. Nunziata: In Season 5 of Oz, you took a loss, but you
returned to narrate the sixth season. Now, if you get popped
this year, I’d be very disappointed if you didn’t narrate
next season of Sons of Anarchy.
H. Perrineau: From a ... in a wheelchair, right?
N. Nunziata: But, there are two things that you mentioned in
this interview that are astounding and they’re definitely
problems that we’re facing or not problems, but parts of the
business we’re facing now that we’ve never had to face
before. You talked about being a brand and you talked about
using social media. I don’t think De Niro had to deal with
that when he was coming up. So, I kind of want to get your
vibe as to how do you manage that where the artifice of
being an actor is compromised all the time because of how
available you are and because you’re right, you’re building
a brand and people look at you that way. So, packaging is
the entertainment industry. How do you kind of live in those
worlds that kind of make the art a little bit more subdued
than the business?
H. Perrineau: Hopefully I won’t have a long answer for this,
but the answer is ... because it’s all happening like so
fast. Some of it is really uncharted and some of it is very
charted. I mean like building brands is very charted, but
uncharted in the social media way because new things keep
happening and stuff like that.
Anyway, what I keep saying to myself, what I keep saying to
myself is I just keep really being true to what I like to
do. If I just keep doing that, if I try my best not to make
a bunch of compromises to who I am, not to what I can do,
but to who I am then that will be my brand. There is only
one me. There’s only me and if you buy it, cool. If you
don’t, cool.
And so, while I like being able to make money and take care
of my family, I really am able to do that now. I hope that
that doesn’t change where I can’t take care of my family and
stuff like that, but I don’t want to have to sell my soul so
much that I’m suddenly not happy about who I am because then
I feel like even if I did make the money then I wouldn’t be
able to be the kind of person I am at home. That’s all
theory. I don’t even know. That’s just what I’m doing right
now. That’s the only way I know how to go about it right
now, just keep trying to be like as true to Harold as I can
if that make sense.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the line of
Jamie Ruby from SciFi Vision.
J. Ruby: As far as talking about who you are and everything,
what do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t in the
business?
H. Perrineau: If I wasn’t in the business? That’s really
interesting. It’s a question my dad used to ask a long time
ago and he’d say, “Of course, you could always get a job at
the post office,” which was in that movie back in the day
too and it was really real.
I really don’t know. I’m one of those people who is a jack
of all trades and a master of none. There are so many things
that I’m interested in and there are so many things I could
probably do and don’t. So, I don’t know what I would be
doing. I know that I have a certain amount of tenacity to do
whatever I’m doing as well as possible. So, I’m sure that
wherever it was, even if it were the post office, you know
what I mean, I would be doing a really respectable,
respectful job and being as successful as I could at that,
but I don’t really, really know.
The truth is I wish I could say I’d be fighting in the UFC.
I really wish I could say that, but that’s not really
realistic, but I love it so much I wish I could say that.
J. Ruby: Is there something that you can tell us that maybe
your fans would be surprised to know, like a hobby or
something like that?
H. Perrineau: A hobby.
J. Ruby: It doesn’t have to be a hobby, just something that
would surprise people.
H. Perrineau: I don’t know. Somebody asked me this recently
and the only thing I could come up with was that when I was
still in high school, I was preparing to be a violinist in
an orchestra. I think originally I was Brooklyn Phil
Harmonic and see if I could go past that because I was a
violinist in high school. So, that’s something.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the line of
Nathan Smith from Blogomatic3000.com.
N. Smith: I wanted to ask you was there any correlation
between “Augustus Hill” and … on Oz and I guess the Wicked
Witch of the East and the West? I know that’s kind of a
weird question.
H. Perrineau: How did you get to that comparison?
N. Smith: Well, Emerald City, Oz, the whole kind of Wizard of
Oz mentality behind the show. It was just kind of a question
that had been kind of crossing my mind.
H. Perrineau: You said between “Augustus” and ….
N. Smith: Right and them being subsequently the Wicked Witch
of the East and the West.
H. Perrineau: You know what? There was never any correlation
for me between those characters, but I think what’s in the
context of the show, Tom Fontana did mention The Wizard of
Oz a few times and made correlations between characters.
That’s going to make me go back and think for a little while
if there is something between “Augustus,” …, the Witches of
the West and East. I’m going to have to think about that
some more. I didn’t see the correlation, but I’m going to go
try to figure out how you came up with that one.
N. Smith: And then finally, I noticed that the few characters
you have played, so I guess this is kind of ... a lost
question, but the two characters you played have been
confined to a wheelchair. Was that at all a challenge or a
limitation to portray that, especially in “Augustus’” case,
to play that on screen?
H. Perrineau: There was a little bit of challenge and I
really felt grateful that I had a long history as a dancer
before I was an actor because once I sort of kind of learned
what you would do as a paraplegic, I knew what capabilities
you had, then I could try to work on enhancing those things
that I was able to use while not using my legs. So, it took
a little bit of practice. It took a little bit of practice
and rehearsing and I went to a couple of different places
and talked to some people. Every year, we tried to make it
look like his legs were atrophying some more. So, I’d buy
bigger and bigger pants that I would wear on the show. So,
it took a little bit of work and practice. And so, when I
did it again in Lost, it was just kind of a throw back. Even
Damon Lindelof said, “I think it was funny to put ‘Michael’
in a wheelchair.” It’s ... “what’s up” to all the Oz fans.
Moderator: Our next question comes a follow-up from the line
of Lance Carter from Daily Actor.
L. Carter: Did you say earlier that you had done some musical
theater?
H. Perrineau: Yes, I was a musical theater major in college
and my first show was off Broadway and then eventually on
Broadway were all musicals.
L. Carter: What did you do on Broadway?
H. Perrineau: I was in the chorus of the revival of Revival
of Dreamgirls and this is like back in the ‘90s. I went out
on tour, like an international tour with Dreamgirls and then
that show came back to Broadway again. So, I did that on
Broadway and then off Broadway I did like Godspell and
Street Dreams and like all these other little musicals, but
yes, those are my first jobs. I was a dancer, singer and
musical theater guy.
L. Carter: Would you think about doing another show?
H. Perrineau: I would love to do another show. I haven’t had
the opportunity lately. The coolest thing that actually
happens, I did the show that’ll be on in November, called
The Wedding Band and that’s the closest to a musical that
I’ve been able to be part of. It’s going to be a lot of
really great singing and a lot of great songs. I got to play
like, I don’t know, 10 different instruments in this thing.
So, it was just a ton of fun. So, that was the closest to a
musical I’ve gotten in a while. I just haven’t had the
opportunity lately.
Moderator: We have a follow-up question from the line of Earl
Dittman from Wireless & Digital Journal.
E. Dittman: In addition to fatherhood and the empathy that
you built for “Pope” and understand about “Pope,” are there
any other things about him that you can relate to?
Secondarily, out of the characters from Oz, Lost and this,
is there one character that you relate to the most or is a
bit more like you or are none of them like you?
H. Perrineau: Yes. I would say—okay, so the first part of it
is there are lots of—like I said earlier, there are lots of
other things that I really do relate to about “Pope” that I
think are great and spectacular. Because the show hasn’t
aired yet, I can’t really talk about it now. As the season
goes on, you’ll see he is a very interesting man. As I said,
many great men are or many men of power and influence, there
is always the side of them where there are people who are
really happy to be in their good graces because they make
their life better.
Now, as to whether I feel—I don’t feel really like I’m like
any of those characters at all, me personally, though
there’s a lot of me, a lot of sort of my ideals about
myself, a lot of things that I kind of wish I could be, but
I think the difference in each of those people are the
flaws. I have my own set of flaws that don’t necessarily
relate to those characters. You always try to bring your
strengths anyway and so, I try to bring some of my strengths
and some of my flaws, but they all have very different
flaws.
I had the thing with drugs and that was a big thing. That’s
never been a thing for me and “Michael” has this sort of
like—“Michael” might be the closest because the writing
was—I feel I had to like just grab stuff really quickly
because we didn’t have a lot of press time. So, “Michael”
might be the closest because some of the flaws “Michael”
has—I don’t know if I can contribute it to the writers, you
know what I mean - the stuff about him not being with his
kid and stuff like that. I break my neck to try to be with
my children all the time. So, those are different.
And with “Pope,” yes, his access to violence is not
necessarily mine. And so, I wouldn’t say that I’m really
like any of those things, but I do embody a bunch of
different quality. I couldn’t say that any of those folks
for me necessarily.
E. Dittman: Well, I appreciate it. I have to say Sons of
Anarchy is one of my favorite shows on television. I’m so
glad you are now a part of it and a big part of it.
H. Perrineau: So, am I.
Moderator: We have a follow-up from the line of Jamie Ruby
from SciFi Vision.
J. Ruby: You know how many episodes you’re in this season?
H. Perrineau: Eight. Eightish. I don’t remember. I think we
talked about eight, but we’re not finished just yet. So,
eightish.
J. Ruby: If you wouldn’t mind, could you just really quick
kind of tell us maybe your favorite memory from Lost.
H. Perrineau: Favorite memories from Lost; well, the first
season of Lost was really my absolute favorite. I mean I
feel like we all worked together. We all had no idea what
was going on.
J. Ruby: No one did.
H. Perrineau: Right and no one did and it was all happening,
we really, really bonded. Somehow, I sort of remember
standing next to like Maggie Grace and Ian Somerhalder at
the Screen Actors Guild Awards and just like hugging them,
almost crying, going like, “What just happened to us this
year?” It was the last year we were all together. So, the
first and only year we were all together.
So, that very first year, I really do miss. Like we’d get
together for details at episodes. Like at my house for
“Michael’s” episode, I came on. Me and my wife, we did this
southern cooking thing and invited everybody over and then
when Evie had her first episode, she invited us over and
made all these really exotic meals. I really do miss those,
miss that very first year. It was so much fun and we were so
bonded together and we were just doing all these things to
like recall it and entertain each other. I really miss that
and love that about our very first season.
Moderator: At this time, I am showing no further questions in
my queue. You may continue.
K. Silvernail: All right. Well, I think we’re done. Thank you
so much, everybody, for participating today. As a reminder,
Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. eastern
and pacific. If anybody has additional questions, go ahead
and give me a call at (310) 369-3699. So, thanks again for
being here. You guys can now disconnect.
Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude our
conference for today. We thank you all for your
participation and at this time, you may now disconnect.
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