‘Outcast’ Preview: ‘Come for the Finger Eating and Stay for the Characters’

It seems as if every other horror film is about possession these days. So how does a show on Cinemax — so often in the shadow of its sister network, HBO — stand out in the crowd? Well, having the same creator as The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, is a good start. Casting Patrick Fugit — a limelight-avoiding darling of indie cinema — is another smart move. We spoke with Fugit and showrunner Chris Black about working with Kirkman, how TWD informs this new show, and what passes for encouragement on the Outcast set.

The show is based on a comic series, though — unlike The Walking Dead — there is no lead time; the comics were developed at the same time as the show. “I think there were five [issues] out,” recalls Fugit about his audition. It wasn’t until after he had met with the producers and had begun collaborating with them that he even picked up the comics. “They mostly communicated tone and a little bit of physicality,” he says. “It was mostly stuff that was communicated through the [script], because the writing was really good.”

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘Outcast’: ‘Demons, Exorcists, and All That’

“Look, if you have a piece of original material from the creator of The Walking Dead, this extraordinary, visionary writer,” says Black, “you’d be insane to not use that, to not make that a roadmap for your series.” But don’t expect a slavish adaptation; Kirkman loudly proclaimed his disappointment with Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin’s decision to keep the final seasons of the HBO series largely in line with his books.

The expansive nature of the show allows Black to retain the architecture of the comics while exploring characters and situations that the comics can’t. “In the comics, the chief character [played by House of Cards and The Wire actor Reg E. Cathey] appears, maybe, twice in the first dozen or so issues. But we had this amazing actor,” says Black, “so we built this whole storyline for him.” The show introduces his family and home life. “We gave him a mystery to go off and solve with one of the other characters — none of which was in the comics. And Robert was fully supportive of those kinds of decisions.”

Fugit was brought onto the project by Emmy Award-winning casting director Laray Mayfield, who casts many of David Fincher’s film, including Gone Girl, a movie Fugit also worked on. “Whenever she sends me anything, I know it’ll be cool,” he says. He was able to observe and contribute to the collaborative nature of the the creative team — Black, Kirkman, and director Adam Wingard — and felt like “what I was bringing to the table, they were responding to, which doesn’t always happen. Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss,” he says with a laugh.

When we meet the protagonist, Kyle Barnes, he’s at rock bottom, painful to watch. “What I wanted to bring was some light within him,” explains Fugit. Even though Barnes has an especially dark history, he said, “You want to root for the character.” That challenge was part of what drew him to the show. “If you’re being challenged, you’re on the right track.”

Kirkman is a demanding creator, but Fugit “really, really enjoyed working with him.” By surrounding himself with a creative team that’s on the same page as him, he ensures that “proper decisions are made according to his outline and his vision.” Because of that, he’s able to be encouraging or, at least, encouraging by Kirkman’s standards. “His version of encouragement is he pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, don’t f–k it up!,'” recalls Fugit. “That’s all he’s ever said to me. I tried my damnedest. I don’t think I have yet.”

Fugit describes his character by using the concept of “the quiet cowboy, the quiet Southern man who doesn’t say a lot, but he expresses a lot.” Barnes is a nonbeliever drawn into a situation drowning in religious references and iconography. “He’s not a superhero or anything like that. He’s grappling with the decisions that he has to make. But there are some really cool tones that I liked exploring that you really don’t see coming in the first half of the season.”

Outcast contains some shocking moments of gore — like a child eating his own fingers in the first episode. But like The Walking Dead, Black hopes that audiences “come for the finger eating and stay for the characters.” Both shows are horror but are, at their heart, character pieces. And, says Fugit, everything feels “very much evolved from [Kirkman’s] storytelling at the beginning of The Walking Dead. He’s got new techniques and a new tone.”

Outcast premieres Friday, June 3, at 10 p.m. on Cinemax.

Watch the premiere episode of Outcast here: