Sons of Anarchy has always been full of shocks, twists, and surprises, but the last few minutes of the Season Six finale… I don’t think anyone could have prepared themselves for what we saw. What kind of impact did it have on the cast?
When we read that episode at our table read, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. When we had to say goodbye to Tara in that table read, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. When Maggie got to stand up and say goodbye, not a dry eye in the house. And then you forget, as a cast member. That took ten or eleven days to film that episode, and of course, the only ones who were there were Theo, Katey, Rockmond, Maggie and Charlie. That’s it. None of us had seen it. We read it, we felt it, but we weren’t there.
So to see that ending the way it was, and the way they edited it… again, I’m on the show, so it’s bullshit, I suppose, coming from me, but that was some of the most riveting television or film I’ve ever seen in my life. Right from Jax and Tara at the picnic table, surrounded by the club, when Tara thinks she’s gonna get wiped out right there on the picnic table, to Jax making the deal, and then she takes a fork in the back of the head? I mean, what the fuck is happening? Who thinks of stuff like that?
So on the one hand, it was an epic ending in the saddest possible way. But how do you top something like that this season? I really don’t know, man. And we’re halfway through it, and it’s pretty brutal,whats happening on the show this year.
I remember sitting on the couch with my fiancée and watching that scene unfold, and it felt like I had been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.
Right?
I had no idea how to react. No matter how you might think it’s going to go, no one ever saw that coming.
No one did. Nobody.
And that leads me into the season premiere. There’s an interesting bit of synergy with last year’s season finale, because they both take place in the kitchen at Jax and Tara’s house. We closed last season with the aftermath of Tara’s murder, and we’re closing out the first episode in the same place, with Jax getting what he thinks is retribution – but as the audience, we know that’s not the case.
Here’s the deal. This is where the millions of fans around the world are gonna be sitting there going “wait a minute, that poor guy is getting hauled for what Gemma..? And they’re gonna…? And how’s he gonna…? And what’s happening…?” And we go through the same ritual that Jax maybe thought happened to his wife. It’s so brutal, yet we picked the wrong guy.
And we’re full of wrong guys this season, that’s all I can say. We are full of wrong guys, and you know why? Because of one massive lie, and that massive lie is from our queen. And I’m telling you, bro, it doesn’t look up after this first episode. It doesn’t look up, it is full-on violence. I don’t know what else to tell you.
I’ve seen the first three, and I’m already to the point where I’m thinking “Jesus, this is gonna get so bad.”
Well, thank God Tig still has a sense of humor. We need that, and you know that – on such a dark show like this, if you lose all focus of any hilarity, those funny, softer moments, then the more tense drama moments don’t have as much punch.
And it’s only me now, this year. I seem to have a sense of humor still, at times. And Chuckie, I suppose, and Rat Boy, a little bit. I just love those moments like no other, I’m very blessed to be given those sort of jester moments, from the outside looking in. I think Tig still has that.
We’ve seen Walton Goggins on the show a couple of times as Venus Van Dam. I don’t know if “attraction” is the right word, but there’s definitely a fascination that Tig has with Venus. What is about Venus that Tig is so drawn to?
Her breasts. [laughs] No, here’s the deal. All my fans – and there are so many of them, I’m so blessed, I’ve worked so hard and they just go crazy for Tig – they want to know three things. One, does Tig live? Two, is there even more of Tig this year? And three, will he hook up with Venus? Will he really be with Venus?
And I can’t answer any of those questions, but I can say this about Venus Van Dam and Tig Trager, and whatever that fascination was. I think there’s a part of Tig, when he saves those dogs… he’s a nurturer. He’s a giant of a dark ass man at times, but he’s a nurturer, and he’s a protector. And he sees the underdog like no other character on the show. I saved Chuckie from the Chinese. I save people, I do – I kill the wrong people half the time, and the other half I’m saving people. And they’re always the underdogs.
That fascination with Venus is something Tig has no fear of. No fear, whether there’s a penis or a vagina, no fear of anything. All he sees is a broken, brilliant, smart, odd, Midsummer Night’s Dream person, and there’s a heart inside there, and that heart is hurting. And he senses that, and he feels that, and Sutter’s done an amazing job these last two seasons introducing Venus and Tig. And now, all the fans want to see what’s going to happen with those two. All I can tell you is that Venus does come back this year, and we’ll leave it at that.
I want to make sure we also mention your upcoming charity event, Hogs for Heart. Tell me a little bit about how this came together.
My daughter Kyla has this amazing nonprofit called One Heart Source, and she’s been part of this since she was with UCLA. They go to Africa, and there’s five big shots who run this organization, it’s all nonprofit. It’s educational based, it’s to give empowerment and education to these kids who have literally nothing. They’re teaching them English – my daughter is fluent in Swahili – and they’re in Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Cape Town, and they’re making such a difference.
I came up with this idea with my wife, Diana, of having a fundraiser. We did it two years ago and we called it Hogs for Heart – hogs for Harleys, and “for heart” for her charity, One Heart Source. We raised $63,000 two years ago, we raised $93,000 last year, and we’re gonna raise well over a hundred grand this year. It’s coming up in October, and tickets were gone in under four minutes. Now, that doesn’t mean we won’t do another one next year, or maybe even before that. The show will be over, but Hogs for Heart will live on, whether it’s Charlie, me and Theo, or Boone, Tommy, Theo and me, or Katey and me. We don’t know yet, but my boys, my brothers and my gals will always stick with me.
We all have charities that we support, especially Theo Rossi and myself, and we’re very proud of them all. One Heart Source is at the top of the list for me, and what Kyla is doing as a young woman in this world is stuff that I’m so proud of, as a parent. What she does over there in Africa is just mind-blowing, so for us to help her out, it’s a pretty amazing night.
Alright, last question, because I know I’ve gotta let you go. People always talk about the fact that Sean Bean has died a lot onscreen, but what a lot of people don’t seem to realize is that you actually hold the record for the most onscreen deaths.
I heard that! ls that true? There’s some truth to that?
Absolutely, with 32 onscreen deaths.
[laughs] I think it might be more, now. I don’t even know, bro, but I heard that. There was a cat in England who made this tape of 25 of my deaths or something…
Yeah, the Kim Coates Death Reel.
Yeah, there you go! It’s supposed to be pretty hysterical. I haven’t seen it yet, but I need to watch it, I hear it’s pretty funny.
So with that being said, do you have a favorite death scene that you’ve done?
You know, I don’t have a favorite, but I have one that kind of rocked my career and my life at the time that it happened. It was in The Last Boy Scout, with Bruce Willis, and it was my first big American film. I was in New York, and I had just done Broadway, and I’m Canadian and getting my visas, didn’t have a green card. Warner Bros discovered me in New York, and the late great Tony Scott – I miss him so much – put me in that movie with Bruce Willis, the first big star that I met.
And that death scene was something that people could not stop remembering. It was fun to do, and I sort of came up with how I wanted to die. Bruce thought it would be better if he just punched me and I flew into the pool, and I said to Tony, “that’s cool, but can I try something?” And he goes “yeah, you can try whatever you want.”
And so we had some cameras rolling, and the way he smacked me and I fell down like a little boy on my ass, and then just plopped over – we literally did that in one take. And it was so funny, everybody laughed so hard, and it just worked. So I’m pretty proud of that death, and in OK
Magazine in Britain, like ten years ago they came out with like the Top 50 deaths onscreen, and it was actually Number Two. So how about that one? Let’s just take that one, for shits and giggles.
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Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10pm, exclusively on FX.