The one piece of swag that I really wanted at press tour never existed - something with the "Sons of Anarchy" colors. Maybe the creators of the new series, debuting Sept. 3 on FX, are trying to emulate a real gang in demanding respect for their colors, rather than hand out t-shirts to wimps like TV critics. Certainly there are a few guarded looks and much vagueness when they about the real gang that allowed them to hang around and do research. And some of the producers themselves look tough. One of them, John Linson, never took off his mirrored shades and hardly said more than two words during the session, sitting with his arms folded like a biker at a big sitdown. Could just be the usual Hollywood smoke and mirrors, but hey, I'm not going to be the one to ask.
To quote FX head honcho John Landgraf, "At its core, “Sons of Anarchy” is a generational family drama. It’s also a crime drama, and it’s also laced with social commentary." The cast includes sometime pretty boy Charlie Hunnam as Jax Teller, the heir to the SAMCRO throne; Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller, the matriarch of the family; and Ron Perlman as Clay Morrow, the cofounder and president of SAMCRO, the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original." (Sagal is also married to producer Kurt Sutter.)
A lot of other questions did get asked during the press tour session, including one brilliant one by me to Hunnam, and an edited Q'n'A follows. I'll have a review next week...
Sutter on the origin of the idea: I had lunch with John Linson and Art Linson two years ago. And, you know, John had this notion about doing a family drama set in the world of outlaw motorcycle clubs. What John gave me was — you know, he was completely immersed in the culture, well-versed in the area. He had friends and associates who were living the life, and what he offered me was a front-row seat. And I wouldn’t – you know, I didn’t want to get involved with anything that I felt I couldn’t do authentically. And, you know, I can’t mention any organizations, but one of these organizations sort of opened their doors to me, and I got to see it firsthand, you know. And it was — it’s a fascinating culture. And the thing that attracted me to the world and these guys, I think, was — you know, I had no doubt that they were dangerous cats, you know. But there was this amazing camaraderie. There was this amazing sort of familial “I’d kill for my brother” bond that all of them had that was just somewhat endearing. And that, juxtaposed against the lifestyle, just was really sort of fascinating material.
From that, I began to do some academic research on the world and some of these clubs and really — you know, the notion that most of these clubs really began as something else. They began as fraternities, of brotherhoods of guys, just most of them war veterans getting together to blow off steam. And in a very short period of time, a lot of these clubs morphed into essentially organized crime syndicates. And I thought that was such an epic arc that happened. And my — the core of the idea for the drama was I thought, you know, how does that guy, that first guy who designed the patch, put on the cut, and said, “Hey, let’s go out and ride motorcycles, have a few beers, and kick some ass” — how does that guy feel about eventually what the club became? And does he have regret? Does he have remorse? Would he feel the need to change it? And at that point, the idea and the club and the world is much bigger than the individual. And that’s sort of the idea that the drama grew from.
And then I imposed the sort of Hamlet archetype on top of that.
Question: it seems like the character who would be looking at – going, “Gee, what did I start? What did this turn into?” is either Mr. Perlman’s character or the dead king character in the Hamlet analogy. So how are the various characters looking at the change in the situation?
Sutter: Yeah, I think the — in my mind, ‘Jax Teller,’ who Charlie Hunnam plays, is essentially – you know, not to be — to keep nailing the pretentious Shakespearean analogy, but I will, is the Hamlet character. And in my mind, the manuscript that he discovers in the pilot is essentially the ghost of his
father. And that’s what — the discovery of that “Perhaps everything I’ve known, everything that means
something to me is perhaps wrong.” And the drama spins out of that.
Question: Did any of the actors have to learn how to ride for this role? And what was that experience like?
Sagal: Ron?
Perlman: Yes. (Laughter.)
Question: Could you elaborate?
Perlman: I’m still in the process of learning how to ride. It’s not going very well. (Laughter.) But I have major medical, so – (Laughter.) I think a bunch of us had to learn how to ride. I’m probably the biggest tinhorn of all. But, you know, it’s the magic of movies. We’ll figure out a way to sell it, I guess. It’s terrifying. I’m not going to lie to you. (Laughter.)
Question: Could you tell us about your role?
Perlman: these guys are all guys who pretty much came to this after having given the ultimate sacrifice to their government. And then they came home, and they got a little bit disillusioned about what heroes and warriors are supposed to be greeted like and formed an alternate kind of thing to depend on, an alternate family, an alternate political structure. They’re completely self-sufficient. Not completely anarchistic. They don’t want anything to do with any organization but their own. There’s a sort of a ruthlessness that comes with protecting the values that they always thought should be great American values but found out that that American dream that was being shoved at them was a little short of something you could truly depend on. And so there’s a very compelling sociopolitical point of view that they have. And my guy is one of the founding members, and he was partners with ‘Jax Teller’’s dad from the inception of the club, and now he’s kind of running the show. And he’s — he doesn’t accept failure. He doesn’t accept failure on any level. He’s very, very convinced that what he does, he does for the greater good.
Sutter: The drama, I think, happens is that you have this organization that believes that and commits to that, and yet they have to exist in — within the social boundaries that we all know. And how do you
navigate that philosophy in a world where there are laws and there are rules and your kids have to go to
the same schools as every other kid and you have to buy groceries at the same place everybody else buys groceries? So for me, the cool hook of the world was that philosophy trying to — imposing that philosophy on what we all understand to be the boundaries of society.
Question: You say that you’ve sort of given an open door into this world, which is kind of an weighted issue since, I mean, back in the day the Hells Angels participated in the Corman film and then turned around and sued him for defamation of character. And I know Sonny Barger is now after Michael Tolkin and his HBO show. How tight are you with these guys? Is there going to be any backlash? They’re fairly litigious.
Linson: I think we’ll be okay.
Question: That’s it?
Linson: That’s it.
Meevee: I hope you’ll take this as a compliment. But I sort of think of you going back to “Undeclared” and some of the other roles that you’re really well-known for, and I watching this on the closed circuit last night, and I started to look down at the cast list and looked up and went, really?
Hunnam: That’s great.
Linson (to Hunnam): What’s he trying to say?
MeeVee: (This role is) sort of unexpected for you. Can you talk about finding this character and what you had to do to prepare this character and also about the learning to ride that we asked Ron about?
Hunnam: I was very fortunate that I hooked up with these guys pretty early in the process, so I had a
lot of time to learn. Had a great guy who taught us all. By the time we actually got to shooting, I was really, really comfortable on the bike. And, you know, it’s whether you — whatever role I’m playing, the process is pretty similar, you know. I do a little academic research and then really just go out into the world and try — I felt that this character wasn’t a huge — wasn’t too far away from the character or the world that I had investigated and explored for "Green Street Hooligans." Those groups of hooligans live by a lot of the same rules and, you know — I can’t think of the word.
But so basically I just — I spoke with Kurt a lot, and John was an incredible wealth of knowledge about this
world, and so I started there and read a few books. And then the greatest research was actually finding a few, you know, real-life outlaws and hanging with them for a couple of weeks and just walking the walk and talking the talk, just learning about the aesthetic and then just trying to apply as best I could to what we were doing.#
