Taron Egerton Really “Didn’t Feel Good” After A Moment With Paul Walter Hauser In Black Bird On Apple TV+
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AppleTV+ has been a magnet for stars and their projects. Whether it’s Ben Stiller’s acclaimed series, Severance, or Billie Eilish’s documentary, it really does appear that AppleTV+ is a streamer with some major staying power. Of course, like any great streamer, AppleTV+ has its fair share of true crime shows. Perhaps none more acclaimed than Dennis Lehane’s miniseries, Black Bird.
Those who’ve seen the Taron Edgerton and Paul Walter Hauser-led show are likely more than aware that it’s based on some truly horrible real-life events. It goes without saying that the actors had to delve into some pretty uncomfortable territory in order to bring the series to life.
During a revealing joint interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser explained that there were times when things felt a little too real. Here’s what happened and how they managed to shake off the disturbing subject matter.
What Is Black Bird About?
AppleTV+’s Black Bird follows a convicted dealer named Jimmy Kenne, played by Kingsmen star Taron Egerton. In order to take a few years off his lengthy prison sentence, Keene is tasked with befriending a suspected serial killer named Larry Hall. What plays out is a deeply uncomfortable dynamic in which Keene desperately tries to earn Hall’s trust in order to squeeze out some information that will keep him locked up where he belongs.
Not dissimilar to projects like Netflix’s Mindhunter or The Silence of the Lambs, most of the show really comes down to the serial killer and the man attempting to earn his trust.
Inside Taron Egerton And Paul Walter Hauser’s Relationship
So much of the success of Black Bird was predicated on the dynamic between the two lead actors, Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser. So, making sure they had chemistry was vital. During their joint interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the two actors explained the key to their chemistry.
“Teamwork is always about listening and trusting,” Paul Walter Hauser explained to THR. “Listening is Actor 101, but trusting is a whole other thing that you don’t fully learn in a university or class or something. Taron and I overcommunicating our intentions for scenes and what we needed to accomplish paired with us socializing and getting along as two people, that felt like a really healthy dynamic to get what we needed out of those scenes together.”
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“We are naturally very enthused by each other as actors and as creatives, and the dynamic of those characters is two guys really studying and scrutinizing each other,” Taron Egerton added.
He went on to say that because their performances were “quite ugly” it was necessary to feel a level of trust with each other. That way they could take creative risks without fear of making the other uncomfortable.
On top of this, Hauser added, they needed to not be wrapped up in their own vanity. If they were too wrapped up in sticking with a certain image of themselves, they wouldn’t be able to do what they needed to in the scene.
But when dealing with such a dark subject matter, all of this could take a toll…
“Paul ran at the darkness of that part like a charging bull rather than try to soften it or sentimentalize it or romanticize it, or try to make it in any way Hollywood,” Egerton explained to THR. “It really was very ugly at times, but it also engendered sympathy. The dynamic that I’m most proud of is that, I think, through what Paul does with [his] part, my Jimmy finds moments — and it is in the writing — of really liking him, being amused by him.”
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“I’ve been doing this almost 11, 12 years, and there are maybe three occasions where I feel I’ve actually lost myself and been in the material deep enough with another male co-star,” Hauser added in his interview with THR. “And Taron’s one of the three people that allowed me to get there.”
Inside Taron Egerton’s Most Difficult Scene In Black Bird
In his interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Taron Egerton explained that he’s usually really good at breaking out of character when he’s completely a scene, no matter how grueling. But on Black Bird, there were two occasions where that was truly challenging.
“It’s not like you become so lost in the part that you don’t know who you are, but being unable to shed the energy of something, ” Egerton explained. “Larry’s confession and description of the [things he did to] Jessica Roach, that was a day where I think we both felt it was difficult to shed the skin of it afterward, because of the reality of it and the knowledge that it really happened — so it’s not like a really well-written bit of fantasy. You have to go home and have a bath or a shower and just try and come back down to earth, really.”
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The second scene that was challenging for Egerton took place in the third episode.
“I’m trying to win favor with Larry, but I’m also unleashing a lot of stress and tension, and I beat that guy up. I really didn’t like that,” he continued in his interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t know if you ever had schoolyard tussles as a kid, where you have a scrap or a fight with another kid in the schoolyard and you feel very shaken and anxious afterward. I felt anxious after that day, sort of compromised by the extremity of the violence. It’s like what Paul said: You just check in with each other and acknowledge that it’s all a bit weird and a bit dark and a bit grimy.”