‘Outsiders’ Star David Morse Talks Big Foster’s ‘Misery’ Experience
SPOILER ALERT: The interview for the “Shadowside” episode of Outsiders contains storyline and character spoilers.
We caught a glimpse of him at the end of the Season 2 premiere, but after Tuesday’s “Shadowside” episode of WGN America’s Outsiders, we found out exactly what had become of former Farrell family leader Big Foster after what seemed like his certain death in the Season 1 finale.
He had survived a murder attempt by the now dead Asa, stumbled down the mountain, and passed out in a heap in the road. From there, it’s a good news/bad news scenario: a family found him, tended to his wound, and nursed him back to (relative) health. But that help came at a cost: the mother of the family that found him, Corinne, had a case of the hots for Big Foster — telling him he was “pretty … like socks on a rooster” — and essentially decided to go all Misery on him. She kept him tied up in an old bed in her basement, where he was tortured by her oldest son and subjected to Corinne’s sexual advances.
David Morse, whose Big Foster continues to make some surprising moves in next week’s new episode, talked to Yahoo TV about filming those awkward scenes, about why Big Foster bonded so quickly with Corinne’s youngest son, and what his overall motivation is after his near-death experience. That, he says, will color the character, and the Farrell family’s story for the rest of Season 2.
Season 1 was, necessarily, so much about setting up this incredible world of the Farrells and Blackburg, introducing us to all the characters. It’s great that we’re really delving into getting to know them now in Season 2.
Yeah, I agree. And we set up a lot of problems in that first season, that we really see play out now. It’s fun for all of us.
What was your reaction when you got the script for “Shadowside,” and saw that Big Foster is essentially getting Misery-ed by Corinne and her creepy family?
It’s really, at the expense of those characters, I’d say it’s really entertaining. And it’s one of those things that, as an actor, you go,”Yippee!,” it’s really fun to do. And I know the actress (Mary-Elizabeth Kammer) who played that role. She didn’t realize, I think, when she auditioned really how far she was going to have to go with it. And I really, I admire her so much for just really committing to it and going with it. It was a challenge for her. It was getting intimate with people, particularly the way it happens in the episode. It makes you very vulnerable, for both of us. But it was really great fun to do with her.
Awkward and vulnerable are probably two of the words that would come to everyone’s mind regarding what that experience must have been like to film. Is there anything you did in particular to prepare for this episode, for those scenes, to kind of put you both at ease?
Literally, I’ve done roles where I had a scene where I’m supposed to be naked and in bed with somebody. I’d go onto the set, and I had not met the actress yet. I go in, get into bed, she comes in, lays on top of me, and I say, “Hi, I’m David,” and she says whatever her name is, and we’re there with no clothes on. You know, you sort of figure out how to make other people comfortable by trying to be as comfortable as you can and just having a good time with it. The real preparation, I think, for the episode was really more story-wise. When Big Foster wakes up, he wakes up a new person really in some ways, having had that death experience, and now being kept from the one thing in the world he wants, or the two things in the world he wants, which is G’Winveer and his son, the people he dearly loves. And that’s who he wants to get to, that’s what drives him. That’s what gets him back up the mountain. It keeps him alive. And that really sets the tone for the whole season.
His desire to get back to Lil’ Foster, reconnect with him, is that part of why he bonds so immediately with Corinne’s youngest son?
You know, it’s interesting, for a guy who really sort of, in the name of love, or in the name of trying to toughen him up, was very abusive [to Lil’ Foster], to see this kid being abused really resonates with him. In some ways, what he has done to his own son, to see that in front of himself, this really vulnerable little kid getting bashed around … he just gets it, it’s really clear to him what he did and what’s happening to this boy. So he feels very protective of him when that’s happening.
He deals with Corinne’s family very definitively before he escapes and heads back to Shay Mountain. Do you think that was most motivated by the fact that they had tortured him, and clearly had no intention of really ever letting him go? Or did he kill them because he wanted to protect that little boy, to make sure that at the very least, the kid wasn’t going to have to grow up in that environment?
Well, I think, first of all, Big Foster was going to survive… [they were] hitting him in the face with an ax, they were torturing him, and, as you said, they had no intention of letting him go. And Big Foster’s still Big Foster. So saving the little boy is a nice by-product of his revenge. There was nothing subtle about how he felt about that family once that happened.
That little boy really helped him escape, and I think the audience really becomes invested in him right away. Is there any chance we might see him again at some point?
Well, he’s definitely part of the story, I can tell you that.
Outsiders airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on WGN America
