'Outsiders' Postmortem: David Morse Talks Big Foster's Anger, and That Backhoe Battle

SPOILER ALERT: Storyline and character spoilers ahead for the “Demolition” episode of Outsiders.

Things are heating up on WGN America’s Outsiders. As the series nears the halfway mark of its first season, the coal company is starting to get more ruthless in its quest to get to the coal on Shay Mountain, and Farrell family members Big Foster and Asa are realizing just how seriously they need to take this threat to their community. The Romeo and Juliet-ish romance between Hasil and Sally-Anne went to a new level, but threatens to also spark violence if her family finds out exactly what she’s been up to, while Sheriff Wade is trying to get haughty coal company exec Ms. Grimes to stop underestimating how dangerous the Farrells will be in defending their lifestyle.

Big Foster himself, Emmy-nominated St. Elsewhere, House, and Treme star David Morse, talks to Yahoo TV about the episode, which also includes Big once again brushing off son Lil Foster, who excitedly shared news of his impending nuptials to G’win with his cold papa. There are reasons Big treats his son the way he does, Morse tells us, while also dropping hints that we’re going to learn a lot more about Big Foster, who feels brushed aside himself.

We finally get more insight into Big Foster in this episode. I love when Asa says to him, “What the hell happened to you?” We’ve gotten a sense that he resents the fact that Asa went out and had all these experiences, but that’s not all of it, is it?
No, of course not. As the rest of season unfolds, you get to see more of that. It’s hard to talk about it and not give away stuff. Big Foster… his vulnerabilities are going to be more and more exposed as this goes along, and you’ll get more of a sense of just the sadness of this guy, but also the depth of him. It’s a fun combination.

Related: ‘Outsiders’ Postmortem: How’d They Film That ATV Battle?

[Big Foster] obviously has experienced the [rest of the] world more than probably most of the people who are up on the mountain. He’s experienced those same kind of temptations as Asa did and the same fascination with that world, and he’s chosen to not go that way. Asa talks a little bit about how all the kids looked up to Big Foster when they were younger. I think Big Foster had a lot invested in those kids by making the choice to stay on the mountain, being an example to those kids. Asa kind of betrayed that; there was an abandonment there, the rejection of Big Foster. It’s very personal to him, then.

He also seems drawn to Asa, though. Is there maybe a grudging respect there? It feels like the two of them are the only ones who really understand how serious the threat of the coal company is to continuing the Farrell way of life. Is that maybe why he’s drawn to him, because Asa is the only other person who knows that something has to be done?
Well, it’s absolutely true that Asa really does get it, and Big Foster, the two of them, like you say, really do understand the danger. But Asa is a threat. There’s a lot that Big Foster fears. He’s really afraid that Asa is, because he has returned, maybe legitimately the right [person to be] Bren'in. It really is a fear. And he respects Asa in a way that he doesn’t Lil’ Foster. With Lil’ Foster… there’s a vulnerability in Lil’ Foster, kind of a sensitivity that, in Big Foster’s eyes, makes him weak. Asa doesn’t have that some kind of weakness, and it’s something that Big Foster respects.

Lil’ Foster desperately wants love and respect and affection from his dad, approval most of all. We see how crushed he is when he tells his dad about his engagement to G’win, and Big Foster’s mocking reaction to it. Is all of that, that rejection, because Big Foster sees him as being a little weak, or will we find out that there’s more to it?
I think it has to do more with, obviously, there are some people who just believe in tough love. Big Foster believes in a kind of tough love. That’s how you make people stronger. I think more than that, there is something, like I said, there’s a vulnerability in Big Foster that he sees in his own son. Big Foster doesn’t ever want himself to be in that position again. He doesn’t want to be hurt again in the way he was hurt when he was younger. He uses it to be manipulative. There is something deep in him that is vulnerable, that he sees in his son, and he doesn’t want his son to be that person. He doesn’t want himself to be that person.

The urgency of the situation [with the coal company] also, there’s no time for it. The world is coming up the mountain and if we’re going to save ourselves, there just can’t be any place for that.

Did Big Foster think he would have become the Bren'in long ago?
Oh, sure… when his mother became the Bren'in. It’s supposed to go from father to son. That’s the whole tradition. He was younger, and his mother became the Bren'in… she said at the time that he would become the Bren'in. Of course, he was thinking in a couple years, a few years; 25 years later it still hasn’t happened. It’s just a lot of time not getting to be the person he was meant to be. It’s just a lot of years of being in limbo and fighting and drinking, and not fulfilling the life that he was meant to live.

And he has to operate amongst this group, with them knowing he hasn’t become the leader he thought was going to be, which I’m sure adds a whole other level of frustration and embarrassment.
And over-compensation. In all this conflict, I’m trying to prove I’m the guy. I’m manly enough, I’m whatever enough, to really be the Bren'in. In Big Foster’s mind, he really is the Bren'in. It’s just that his mother is not letting go.

There were some fun moments in this episode, too. The construction equipment fight between Big and Asa… it looked like a dream come true, getting to play in life-size Tonka trucks. How much did you get to do with those stunts?
[Laughs] We did almost all of it. We spent a couple days actually in these things playing and then learning how to use them. I have twin boys, and I told them about it — this is their dream to be able to get in one of those things and play. It was so much fun to be able to do that. They had to have the real operators do some of it. We, of course, didn’t want to get out of there and let them do it because it was so fun. It was a blast. We spent three nights shooting that. In fact, that stunt didn’t quite happen the way it was supposed to happen and became a little more expensive than what was intended. Originally, that cab of the one Asa was in was just supposed to crush; it was not supposed to be ripped off. It became way more expensive when that thing was pulled off the body. It’s very cool to watch, it’s fun to watch, but nobody expected it.

Did that hold up production, then?
I think there were a couple of producers who lost their breath and maybe peed in their pants a little bit when that happened.

Had you ever operated one of those machines before?
No, had never been in one before at all. We actually had to go play in this big dirt yard. Joe [Anderson, who plays Asa] was out there in one, and the stunt guy was hopping in and out of them with us. Then we just got to go play in the mud with the boulders and throw them around. We really got to play. It was fun to learn how to use them. These guys who own them, he’s grown up operating these things, since he was kid he’s been operating them. When he saw that thing get pulled apart, he almost started to cry. He felt so bad his machine was damaged like that.

Then the explosion, what was filming that like?
Hot. It was really hot. The crew is way behind Joe and I [during that]. When that thing went, you could feel your hair crinkling.

And the knife-throwing scene with Big and Asa, that was actually you throwing?
Oh sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I did a lot of training for that. Pretty much, we had three weeks before we started shooting the season. Every day I was out there with knives, throwing knives, learning to throw them.

Are you enjoying that aspect of the show? It does have everything, certainly no lack of action.
No, that’s for sure. I definitely have a little boy in me and that little boy loves all that stuff. I love those ATVs, throwing knives, and pretending in that world.

The action only promises to ramp up, too. Asa’s off implementing his own plan to sabotage the coal company and its employees, and it seems like the situation is going to get a lot more dangerous very quickly. As it continues to escalate, is there any way it won’t end up in violence?
We’re still waiting to hear if [the show will] have a second season. I can tell you that it’s going to be very difficult to tell the story without violence… I just can’t imagine how it’s not going to go there. It’s what is being set up to happen, this confrontation.

Outsiders airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on WGN America