'Bastard Executioner': How Kurt Sutter Chose His Leading Man

There will be a lot of twists by the end of the two-hour season premiere of The Bastard Executioner, but a featurette released by FX gives viewers a nice lay of the land as Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter’s next journey begins.

Lee Jones stars as Wilkin Brattle, a 14th century knight who lays down his sword to become a farmer in Wales but, as we see in the clips above, picks it up again for revenge after his village is slain in retaliation for his and others’ rebellious opposition to the baron’s ever-increasing tariffs. Stephen Moyer simmers as Milus Corbett, the most trusted advisor and strategist to Baron Ventris (Brian F. O’Byrne), while Katey Sagal co-stars as Annora of the Alders, a mystical healer who’ll counsel Wilkin to embrace a new identity, that of the show’s title.

Sutter saw a lot of actors before meeting Jones, an Aussie theater actor, near the end of his casting window. “I really wanted somebody with a believable physicality, who felt like a hulking guy who you believe could swing a sword and do damage, and there’s a lot of little actors out there or big actors who can’t act,” Sutter tells Yahoo TV. “I needed somebody that could wrap their brain and their skills around the language, and then, most importantly, somebody that had the depth and vulnerability to find this guy. So, there was a lot of boxes to tick, and you know, as usual, you find two or almost three.”

So producers broadened their search. “I just felt some of the British actors, although super talented, had a polish that I f–king hated. So we went looking at some Aussies, because they’re as f–ked up as the Americans are in terms of history, and you know, and they’re all f–king drunks like we are,” Sutter says with a laugh. "We saw Lee’s tape and ironically, he was in L.A. So we flew him out to London, and it was that thing that I have with most actors: It’s sort of like I know, usually within the first few words that are out of their mouth. And both Paris [Barclay, the executive producer who directed the pilot] and I had the same experience, which is, ‘This is a great fit.’”

Once the casting was approved and Jones’s deal was made, it was go time. “They pretty much threw me straight into knight school — horse riding, sword fighting,” Jones says, picking up the story. “I’d done sword fighting on stage before, which is very, very different. You might’ve heard me speak about it [at TCAs], but I learned that mistakes are good. Because that’s what a fight is, isn’t it? In my downtime and my days off, I am continuing to train, because I have to learn the next week’s fights and stay on top of all of that stuff. And the stunt team that we have is incredible. They have me doing a bit of footwork to keep me light on my feet, and that’s helping a lot. I can feel myself improving.”

In truth, his preparation might have actually begun in 2013. “I played Frankenstein’s Creature for about six months [on stage], and there’s actually similarities there with somebody that’s broken and searching for a higher purpose, like both of those characters are,” he says, “and also how emotionally charged and physical they both are.”

What he’s realized playing Wilkin is what Sutter articulated earlier: “It’s very important that as much strength as he has, that we see his vulnerability. That’s key in having somebody that does dark scenes, but that we still have to care about,” Jones says.

It’s a layer Sutter sometimes sees missing when he watches antiheroes and heroes on TV. “I think it’s important to see in characters that no matter how hard we are or pretend to be, or no matter what face we wear, that there are moments when there’s a crack [when] that villain really is released,” he says. “And [SOA’s] Jax had this a lot, too. As well-versed as Jax was in violence, the same way Wilkin is well-versed in violence — it’s something that comes natural and something that comes easy, something they do very well and is a default for them — ultimately it’s not something that’s easily compartmentalized. It’s not something that they can distract themselves from. It chews away at them and begins to bleed all over their choices and behavior. To me, that’s really important, especially when you throw in the religious components and the spirituality stuff we’re playing with [in Bastard Executioner]. That then becomes even a deeper layer of what maybe triggers that vulnerability.”

The Bastard Executioner premieres Sept. 15 at 10 p.m. on FX.