It was Paul Hunter’s existence, and there was an elevated element of surrealism to everything. It’s a quirky family, but it’s all based on Paul’s upbringing as a young guy. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the sixties and seventies, every time we had a scene that I just thought was a little bit outlandish, Paul would have some anecdote that rooted it in the truth of what happened with him, which is how I approached playing a version of his dad.
I tell people all the time, don’t be fooled by his kind eyes or his baby face, the man is a killer. He’s an assassin, he’s a monster, he’s not playing games. It was one of the reasons I initially didn’t want to do the gig on short notice. His attention to detail is almost telepathic. He’s thought of everything. That’s what it took me a second to figure out. I was like, this guy’s mapped out the entire thing. He’s also so relaxed about it.
Lorne is such a genius, he saw what people of that era were drawn to and he moved that to TV. That required fighting an ancient system that did not know at all what he was talking about. That’s why we have Saturday Night Live, and it was some of the most culturally impactful entertainment we’ve ever experienced.
I think the fear was that it was going to be so chaotic that they over-prepared to the extent that they were ready. The days were pretty tight, and the chaos worked. So to the extent a day felt a little off or things were difficult, I think it probably felt that way in 1975, trying to get a show ready in an hour and a half, and in that way, you could just kind of lean into it and use it.
Some actors are just enjoyable to listen to, especially when they got juicy lines; Pierce falls into that exclusive camp.
