Interview With "Masters Of The Air" & "Manhunt" Actor Anthony Boyle

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[00:00:59] business no matter what stage you're in. We took it all. We brought them to this night,

[00:01:13] amber hot and icy cold. The rage of the earth. We made this curse.

[00:01:20] Carved it in the blood of our backs. We did not see. We could not, but she did. And in the end.

[00:01:29] What will I become? Senua's Saga. Hellblade II.

[00:01:34] Play it now with Game Pass.

[00:01:35] You are listening to the Next Best Picture Podcast and this is Shadon Larkey's interview

[00:01:41] with actor Anthony Boyle about his two performances from the Apple TV Plus shows,

[00:01:46] Manhunt and Masters of the Air.

[00:02:22] You fool yourself, brother. We're everywhere.

[00:02:29] Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

[00:02:32] Thank you. Thanks very much. Happy to be here.

[00:02:34] So I have to confess something, which is that I had no idea that you were Irish

[00:02:38] until I was doing my research for this. So I was wondering, sort of having these two

[00:02:44] very different shows that are both uniquely American in their own way,

[00:02:48] how that played into your research, your preparation, sort of the way you

[00:02:53] thought about approaching the role?

[00:02:55] Yeah, well, it's interesting. Like, you know, I'm so used to playing roles that aren't Irish.

[00:03:00] I'm so used to playing Americans or English people that I know I'm not sort of looking at it.

[00:03:05] I'm just looking at them as human beings. You know, I'm not looking at them as

[00:03:09] Americans or English people, or I'm just sort of looking at them as people just having a

[00:03:15] human experience as opposed to, you know, what way they sound or their geography.

[00:03:21] You know what I mean?

[00:03:22] Yeah, absolutely. I'm not sure sort of where how you film them,

[00:03:25] but did you find that they informed each other in any way just being so close together?

[00:03:30] Yeah, the preparation was different. I mean, for Masters of the Air,

[00:03:36] we've done like a three week boot camp and we had this sort of army general called Dale Dye,

[00:03:43] who was making us do push ups and calling us maggots.

[00:03:46] And we had to learn how to fly these planes. So we were in these flight simulators and they

[00:03:52] had replica B-17s and these aircraft hangars. And it was crazy. It was just so full on. It

[00:03:59] was like Star Wars or something. The set was so vast and there's so many screens.

[00:04:04] And then the prep for Manhunt was very different. I went to Savannah where we shot for a month

[00:04:14] before we started filming and just started riding horses every day with these like cowboys.

[00:04:22] I was like chewing tobacco and drinking whiskey and just trying to

[00:04:27] be as boothy as possible. The director used to say real boothy. That's how the director directed

[00:04:34] me. If I was being too, too boothy, he would say less boothy. And if I wasn't being boothy enough,

[00:04:40] he'd say more boothy. More boothy. More boothy, maybe. Or as I said, yes, we were at Savannah,

[00:04:49] we were riding horses, hanging out with these cowboys and just like sort of getting into

[00:04:54] like booth sex. He's an actor. So I was reading the Shakespeare plays that he had performed

[00:04:59] and reading all of his letters, all the letters he had written and received from 15 to 24.

[00:05:07] I was reading them quite a bit and just getting into the mental space of this like,

[00:05:12] this pretty difficult guy. And did playing these two very different characters stretch you in any

[00:05:18] particular way as an actor? Like looking back, did they help you unlock something that maybe

[00:05:23] you hadn't realized before about your approach, your performances? It was really good to play

[00:05:30] right after one another. Like it was like two months and I wrapped Masters of the Air and

[00:05:36] then two months later or three months started filming Manhunt. And what was cool about it,

[00:05:41] it was just enough time to sort of squeeze out a possible moustache. And also like,

[00:05:46] it was just enough time to sort of shake Crosby off and sort of start getting into the sort of

[00:05:53] physicality and headspace of Booth. Did this stretch me? Yeah, both in different ways.

[00:05:59] Crosby was so motivated by love and light and goodness and was very nervous. So there's a lot

[00:06:07] that you know, there's a lot of sort of aggression, you got the people and you know, being kind to

[00:06:11] people and having that in your shoulders constantly quite highly strong. And then Booth stretched me

[00:06:19] because he's an asshole. You know, he leads with his chest, he's all about power. So yeah,

[00:06:24] they stressed me in different ways. Because I will think about the emotional toll of two

[00:06:28] performances like that sort of back to back. Do you find it easy to sort of leave your work at

[00:06:33] work? Or do you find yourself bringing a little bit of that home with you? We took it all.

[00:06:39] We brought them to our land. An endless night, ember hot and icy cold. The rage of the earth.

[00:06:49] We made this curse. Carved it in the blood on our backs. We did not see. We could not but she did.

[00:06:59] And in the end, what will I become? Senua's Saga. Hellblade 2.

[00:07:04] Play it now with Game Pass. I mean, I've done so much theatre when I was younger that you sort

[00:07:12] of learn to decartpartmentalize and like one scene you're falling in love, next scene you're someone's

[00:07:18] dying, you know. So when you've done so much theatre, you have the luxury of sort of coming

[00:07:24] off, you can sort of leave it at what they call cut. I think you bring a little bit of the

[00:07:28] physicality home. And I bring a little bit of the accent home. If I'm doing an American accent all

[00:07:34] day at work, your tongue just feels, you start to sort of just sound kind of American because

[00:07:39] you've got this whole kind of, you know, your voices, you're staying in it for so long, you

[00:07:44] know. So I guess you bring a little bit of the, a little bit of it home. Yeah. I guess you've

[00:07:49] never flown over Germany without a parachute. No, Crosby, have you? I'd opened a man until

[00:08:05] wheels are plus 30 minutes. Yes, Major? Yes, Major. Yes, Major! Yes, Major. All right. You're the man, clean up, let's go.

[00:08:19] And with Master of the Bear, I mean, it's one of the most expensive TV shows ever produced. And so

[00:08:24] I wondered being on that set and the gravity of it all, what was that like to sort of stay grounded

[00:08:32] within your performance when you have all these other stuff going on in the background? Yeah, it

[00:08:36] was grand. It was, you know, whether you're on like a half a billion dollar TV show or like,

[00:08:44] you know, a million dollar movie, whatever, like whatever the budget is, you're not thinking about

[00:08:51] that. You're not thinking about the budget. You're not thinking about whether it's like a huge green

[00:08:54] screen or there's an explosion. You're just thinking about, well, I'm just thinking about

[00:08:58] what my character is emotionally, what they, what they done that morning, what the person,

[00:09:03] actor in front of me, you know, thinking about like looking into their eyes. It doesn't matter

[00:09:07] if there's like a million extras and all these horses or whatever, or if it's just you and them

[00:09:12] in a cafe, you're just focused on the other person and what you're feeling. So we never felt too,

[00:09:20] I never felt too bogged down about the budget or anything. And sort of being in this moment in your

[00:09:27] career and exploding in a sense is so fascinating to kind of also contrast that with like John

[00:09:33] Wilkes Booth, right. And how he felt about fame. And so how did playing him and playing an actor

[00:09:39] sort of maybe inform your own views on fame as you reach this new level in your career?

[00:09:45] Yeah, he's a, I think he's an, he's, he's a narcissist and is motivated by ideas of self

[00:09:53] grandeur and a lot of just a lot of things that I don't have in me. Like I just, I like a lot of

[00:10:02] things that naturally I just would shy away from it or wouldn't feel comfortable with. So what it

[00:10:07] was, it was fun to play an actor because you could sort of embody all of the sort of asshole

[00:10:12] actors that you've ever met. And they sort of put a lot of that into Booth and his narcissism,

[00:10:19] which was, yeah, a lot of fun. And you know, I did ask for questions before I was going to talk

[00:10:27] to you and somebody, they wanted to know, you know, you are kind of exploding, but you've also

[00:10:32] in their words and in mine managed to stay very humble and gracious. So how are you sort of

[00:10:37] balancing this new attention and interviews with, you know, maintaining your own sanity and your own?

[00:10:45] I don't know. I just don't feel like anything internally has changed, you know, like the work

[00:10:53] is still the same. Like I'm still going to, I'm still doing the same work. I still feel very,

[00:10:59] you know, focused and I enjoy the work. Yeah. It's not something I ever think about or

[00:11:08] anything that ever comes into my head. You have Say Nothing coming down the pipeline

[00:11:14] and you've played vastly different roles. Do you have something that you would like to play

[00:11:19] or is there something that you look for in the roles that you choose?

[00:11:22] Yeah, I like variety. I like to sort of do the opposite of what I've just done.

[00:11:27] So like the jump between Crosby and Booth, I like that. I just don't like doing the same thing.

[00:11:34] I kind of like when it's something I can step into when it's a bit further from me and it's

[00:11:41] something that like I can, I sort of can create and then step into. I kind of enjoy that kind of work.

[00:11:47] But I've done so many period dramas. I think right now I just want to play a character that

[00:11:52] has access to the internet. Yes. Well, I did want to ask like, what is it like watching

[00:11:59] these projects back? Are you able to unlock anything as a viewer maybe?

[00:12:05] What is it like watching these projects back? It's always a bit weird because you're so close

[00:12:11] to it. You know what's going to happen. You know the story, you know the dialogue

[00:12:14] and it's hard because you're like, I like watching other people's scenes in the shows

[00:12:19] because you're like, oh, I wasn't there for that. But when you're there, you go,

[00:12:22] I remember it was cold that day. I remember this happened. I remember X, Y, Z. So it's really cool

[00:12:27] to like watch bits of the story that you weren't a part of and to see like your cast mates doing

[00:12:32] things and you're like, oh wow, that's a really cool bit of TV, you know?

[00:12:36] Anthony, thank you so much for your time. It's such a joy to get to talk to you and

[00:12:40] I wish you the best of luck as you enter this next chapter of your career. Thank you so much.

[00:12:44] Thank you so much. Thank you. So nice to speak to you.

[00:12:47] Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening to Shadon Lockie's interview with actor Anthony Boyle

[00:12:52] about his two performances in the Apple TV Plus shows Manhunt and Masters of the Air here on the

[00:12:57] Next Best Picture podcast. Masters of the Air and Manhunt are up for your consideration for this

[00:13:04] year's Emmy Awards in all eligible categories and can be streamed in full right now on Apple TV Plus.

[00:13:11] You have been listening to the Next Best Picture podcast. We are proud to be part of the Evergreen

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[00:13:33] Thank you all so much for listening as always, and we will see you all next time.

[00:14:20] Hey there. I'm Hannah. And I'm Audrey.

[00:14:23] We are a sister filmmaking duo. And co-hosts of Sleepover Cinema.

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