Anarchy’s Hurst joins another clan
Ryan Hurst keeps the hair and beard for new show Outsiders, writes Michael Donaldson.
For fans of Sons of Anarchy this could get a little confusing – it looks like Ryan Hurst’s character Opie Winston has wandered on to the wrong set.
‘‘A lot of people have thought that,’’ Hurst laughs as he talks about Outsiders, where his character Lil Foster bears a striking resemblance to Winston, the well-loved character he played on Sons of Anarchy. And in some ways the characters are same – they live in a counter-culture outside the law where loyalty is highly valued.
The long, straight hair and beard that would have any hipster swooning in his sofa have worked so well for Hurst the look has now become something of a trademark after clean-shaven, short-haired roles in Remember The Titans, Saving Private Ryan and Bates Motel, among others.
‘‘I like to keep this look just in general but right after Sons of Anarchy I did a show for TNT [King & Maxwell] where they requested I was clean-shaven – after that one season I just started growing it all again and I haven’t cut my hair of beard since then.
‘‘Anywhere I go – when people see the beard and long hair – they walk up and say `has anyone ever told you look like Ryan Hurst?’.’’
Outsiders tells the story of the Appalachian hill-dwelling clan, the Farrells, who are fighting a coal-mining company that wants to evict them from their ancestral land where they live a semi-rural existence, making moonshine and music, and occasionally riding their quad bikes into town to ransack the supermarket for supplies. The show has undertones of Game of Thrones, Justified and, of course, Sons of Anarchy, but Hurst insists it’s one of the most unique and original shows he’s worked on.
‘‘In this business there is so much material out there that is so bland – that doesn’t have any uniqueness to it – this was one of first scripts where everyone involved, as soon as they read it, was saying `What is this thing? What is going on?’.’’
While the show is based on a hillbilly existence, Hurst says it wasn’t modelled on any particular clan and nor did it set out to accurately capture Appalachian culture. Instead, the actors were given almost free rein to evolve the rudimentary world imagined by creator Peter Mattei. ’’Here’s the best part … when we all read the first script it inferred these traditions and a way of life these people abided by but when we showed up for first shoot the creator, Peter Mattei, said `look I don’t have all the answers, I leave it up to you guys to help define these people’s way of life’.
‘‘So it was a wonderfully collaborative thing where the actors along with the producers and writers said `What is the ethos of these people? What do they believe in? What do they practice? What is taboo?’ We knew it was going to be a nature-based civilisation but it was wonderful to sit around and go through this democratic process where everyone threw in the ideas.’’
As a result there are a number of group gestures and behaviours that have been created by the acting team. ‘‘It wasn’t like there was an anthropologist there saying ‘this is what you should do’ it was us saying ‘this is what we’re gonna do’.’’
That extended to one of the clan’s defining phrases ‘‘gedgedyah‘‘ which is call to party or to affirm something – something like a ‘hell yeah’.
Hurst himself played a role in creating that idiosyncratic phrase. ’’Before shooting the first episode I was telling the show’s creators that I’ve lived in these worlds – whether it’s a biker culture or a soldier culture – and what they have in common is that they are secret societies and when you have a secret society you need something that defines them as separate to everyone else – and one of the ways to do that is a call to arms.
‘‘In the army it’s hoo-ah and there’s the Jugaloos – the followers of Clown Posse – who yell `whoop whoop’. And I said we have to come up with something. Peter [Mattei] came back with `ged-gedyah‘ and as soon as he said it I got goosebumps and thought `that’s the one’.’’
The input of the cast into the language and culture of the clan helps ’’ground the show in reality that’s so organic it gives all the actors a chance to be crazy but still have audience appreciate the authenticity of the show’’.
In the opening episode of the series, when Lil Foster’s father Big Foster is urging the clan to steal guns to defend themselves, Lil Foster’s partner G’Winveer argues against, saying ‘‘guns make you weak’’. Given the current political climate around gun violence in American it’s a bold line and I ask Hurst if he’s game to make a comment on gun culture.
‘‘The DNA of the show deals with the idea that there is power in family, power in community, power in nature – and the further we isolate ourselves and the more entrenched in technology we become, the more powerless we are. The inter-connectivity of technology has just given us smaller and smaller boxes which we’re tied to with electronic leashes. Even though we feel we can take a picture and put it up on Instagram for millions of people to see it, it doesn’t make us anymore connected. What are the vehicles that help us connect? That was the underlying ethos of the show – what are those relationships? And quite simply, guns separate, they don’t bring anybody together. That was commentary we were heading towards.’’
Apart from the culture and language of the show – with the clan’s old language drawing on Gaelic as its source – one of the highlights is the bluegrass music, much of it created by banjo genius Morgan O’Kane, who was first discovered busking in New York by comedian Louis C.K.
Another charm of the show is the cinematography – with a number of scenes shot through windows, behind trees, or other hidden positions. ’’Yeah,’’ Hurst enthuses, ‘‘I brought that up with them when they were shooting first episode – I said `I really dig what you guys are doing, shooting this in a way that makes the audience feel like an outsider – and they all looked at me like I was crazy.
‘‘I thought it was conscious but it wasn’t a choice they were making … but they started doing it more from then on and it is like you’re watching it in secret.’’
So far the show has picked up mostly positive reviews in the US and has done well enough to justify a second series.
Outsiders, The Box, Thursdays, 9.30pm.