‘Hell on Wheels’ Postmortem: Anson Mount on that Emotional Goodbye

Warning: This interview contains spoilers for the “Return to the Garden” episode of Hell on Wheels.

There’ll be a lot of farewells as Hell on Wheels comes to an end, but that one between Bohannon and his son, William, may be the toughest to watch.

After accompanying William, Naomi, and her new love, Isaac, to Salt Lake City and ensuring their safety back in the Mormon fold, Bohannon made the decision to say goodbye to his wife and son, for good. In a barn — fitting, since William was conceived in one — Cullen spoke the advice he’d planned to give William when the boy was older: that he strive to be humble, respect women, take his hat off at the table, never start a fight nor run from one, forgive, forget, speak true, and [get the tissues ready], listen to his mama and his daddy.

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“That’s one of the hardest scenes I’ve ever had to shoot,” Anson Mount tells Yahoo TV. “The burying of Elam, that was a more visceral thing that I knew needed to come from as much a place of disgust as a place of emotion, so I got there through playing a very practical kind of nausea. But saying goodbye to the son, that’s something I was determined I was not going to try to manufacture on the day. And if Cullen, in this entire series, is going to be overcome by an emotion he can’t control, it’s gonna be that moment. We planned the day so that there would be a scene shot before that, that I was not in, so I could have time to get me into that place. Then, they spent a ton of time lighting that barn, so I had to stay in this place. There were other takes where it was even more emotional than that, but we felt like it was stronger to see the tough guy trying to hold it back rather than be completely broken down. I was happy with how it turned out. And that little boy is amazing. He was crying, too. Those kids, they can feel what’s going on.”

There was one detail Mount felt adamant about. “I was determined to play the majority of that scene, until I talk to William, not able to look at Naomi because [Cullen]’s embarrassed,” he says. “She offered him what he always said he wanted, and he’s turning it down, and it’s embarrassing. It’s terribly embarrassing to be called out in that way. She comes to him and she’s not mad at him; she hopes the best for him. It’s like, oh my god. That makes it even worse.”

Naomi’s final words to Cullen were that she hopes he finds love, because he deserves it. Could it be with Fong/Mei, who ended the episode stripping herself bare and in Cullen’s bed? We’ll see.

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Hell on Wheels airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. on AMC.