Outcast, starring Patrick Fugit and Wrenn Schmidt is now playing on Cinemax, and we have the details.
It only gets more intense from here, Fugit said in a roundtable interview we were a part of.
How did you learn the southern accent?
It was a cool accent to play.
When I went in to audition for it, they had a non regionally specific accent request.
I put it on a bit but we went back and forth in the first episode.
It was so funny.
It was like everything with Kyles hair, Kyles wardrobe, Kyles beard.
We dont want him to sound like a yokel or a redneck.
So from episode two through the rest, I was like, Hes a southern dude.
He lives in the f***ing backwoods of West Virginia.
Hes going to sound like a West Virginian, like a coal miner.
What was it like filming in South Carolina?
The locations that just exist there are tonally very appropriate for the show.
How do you sympathize with Kyle?
When have you felt like an outcast?
You know, I was a weird kid.
There werent a lot of kids interested in acting or theater.
So I made some very good close friends that all sort of had the same taste as I did.
We liked to burn G.I.
Joes and watch Monty Python and take stage combat classes and things like that.
I grew up doing ballet.
So you put all that together and you do not belong in Salt Lake City, UT.
A lot of kids my age back then were baptized Mormon.
But other than that, my familys not particularly traditionally religious.
I was doing British accents with my best friend at school.
We were wearing bowler hats.
We were f***ing weird kids.
Could you just learn as you go?
Thank you for forming that question the way that you did.
Most people are like, What exorcism research did you do to prepare for the role?
And Im like, Did you watch the f***ing episode?
Kyles not a reverend.
Kyle is sort of in denial about what happened with his mother.
He has no choice really than to put it under the mental illness perspective.
Hes sort of subject to the circumstances.
In that sort of way, hes a victim.
Thats a frustrating place to be from him.
How physical have those exorcism scenes been, like when the kid tackles you?
It was a lot of fun.
We have a really great stunt coordinator and I have a really great stunt man.
My stunt guy is a coordinator himself and theyre very talented guys.
I like to train martial arts and I like to be physical just in my personal life.
Some actors are really into that.
So he gets in a bar fight with Donnie.
So Robert has created a character that I understand, for the most part.
Thats a tribute to his writing.
Thats also a tribute to the creative team hes put together.
So the character comes off pretty self-explanatory, to me at least.
Thats always great when you feel like the creator of the character believes that you understand it.
And so they trust you to bring it to life.
Thats awesome because it creates a lot of opportunity in my mind.
Youre able to explore the character in a way that lets you trust the decisions youre making.
Hes also always there to correct course if I get out of hand, which he does constantly.
How close is the shows Kyle to the comic books Kyle?
I think its fairly close.
Theres obviously a lot more texture.
Then things that branch off from there are just exploring more of what Robert has planned for Kyle.
Did you want more information for yourself on his backstory?
Yeah, kind of both.
One of the cool things about Kyle that I really like is that hes very expressive.
He doesnt say a lot but he expresses a lot.
Hes not good at lying.
Hes not good at hiding how he feels, that sort of thing.
Its not expository but its just sort of learned appreciation for whats happened to him.
What is it like having Wrenn Schmidt and Kate Lyn Sheil on set?
From what we know about Kyle, his father wasnt around when he was a kid, right?
So he has a single mother influence which is an important thing to know about him.
Throughout his adult life, the main positive influences in his life have been female.
Because of that, she holds her belief in him throughout all this darkness thats going on.
Did you and Wrenn have a chance to establish a sisterly bond?
Yeah, so about seven or eight months before we did this, we auditioned for another series.
We went through a lot of chemistry testing and we were getting set.
We ended up getting to do this which is a much better setup I think for both of us.
So we had bonded already through a whole series of casting sessions for a huge, huge studio.
Its a rigorous process, man.
Its f***ing crazy.
So if you ever go through it with other actors, you usually form a good bond.
When you see each other around, youre like, Oh, yeah.
So we already had that and Wrenn is great.
Did the other series go with different actors?
Not as good, not as good.
No, it went and its very popular now.
Outcastairs Fridays at 10 PM on Cinemax.
