Black Bird Paul Walter Hauser Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi I'm Allison with slickdirect and I'm speaking with Paul Walter Hauser about Blackbird hello how are you I'm doing well Allison how are you I'm good so how much research did you do about Larry Hall and his his interactions with with James Keane yeah it was a lot of research because uh it's not like Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer where there's sort of video footage and a whole catalog of supplementary materials it was basically just trying to honor Dennis Lane's script and know where I was at in the lineage of the story you know because when you're shooting a six episode Arc like that you really have to know where you are in the chronology and the timeline so that was tricky I tried to study that and try to make Larry as as you know colorful and nuanced as possible so colorful and nuanced but yet someone who kind of Blends in with the crowd in a sense because he wouldn't want to necessarily stand out so how do you create that balance yo the predicament he's in being a quiet person in prison and just being a number slapped on his back as a prisoner you know that that disposition definitely lends itself to being uh sort of anonymous but but when you actually converse with a guy like Larry you find he's a very layered equal parts you know interesting but entirely troubling figure and and that Duality is a lot of fun to play that's really interesting you know absolutely and it makes more depth for the character um how did you get into the mindset of Larry he he seems so a little bizarre but very like I said Falls below the radar a little bit but also wants to stand out a little bit so how do you do that how do you as an actor how do you prepare for that I think it's all in the writing the writing informs everything I do and that's sort of the blueprint that's the Bible with which to kind of operate in that world I think Larry has Larry has his own playground and environment in his head that he lives in and then he also has the external environment in which he lives in so you're kind of dueling and and layering based on those two environments at all times it's kind of a bit of bit of a cerebral uh Cosmic gumbo I guess you would call it so let's talk quickly about the writing Dennis is amazing what was it that you drew you to the script what was it about his writing in particular that made you say yes I want this part uh yeah just Dennis is writing the opportunity to play a serial killer which I think every actor wants to play a sicko weirdo if they say they don't they're probably lying um it's a showy role too you know actors these people we all want attention you know like you're you're doing a showy type of role and with great writing and a class act like Taryn Edgerton across the table from you so it's a pretty cush creative environment to walk into I felt like I was set up to succeed for sure yeah absolutely so I want to thank you for your time I loved the show so far I haven't seen all of the episodes but I will get to the rest of them because I'm so excited it keeps building for me so thank you you did a great job nice to meet you thank you