It was a stunning thirty minutes where we followed the history of the Gemstone family in their patriarch, Eli, who was a thief, a liar, and a murderer who found his faith after a whole lot of sinning.
Danny McBride sat down with IndieWire to talk about the episode.
Let's take a look at some of his most interesting quotes.
When it came to the episode, he knew it would be a challenge for some of the audience to come back into a new season this way. But he said, “I knew it was going to be a tall order because the show relies on an ensemble and now we’re going to have an episode that relies on no one the audience is showing up to see.”
In order to alleviate those challenges, he knew he needed a star.McBride continued, “It had to be somebody that was not going to disappoint the audience, somebody that has charisma and charm, like Bradley Cooper.”
Working with Cooper was a good experience, and McBride said he wanted to create his own character that stood out from other people on the show but stayed true to the themes and tone they set in the first three seasons.
This allowed McBride and Cooper to come together in the past and lay the groundwork for what showed up on screen.
Of course, there were lots of other challenges shooting a Civil War episode with battles, camps, and amputations for TV.
McBride elaborated, "It felt like an interesting challenge for everyone I work with,” McBride continued, “Can we pull this off? Can we create something that feels credible in this time period? Most of it is daylight-dependent, which made shooting it very tricky. Everything became about not only what was our vision, but then what can we actually pull off?”
The way they pulled it off was just planning their shots and taking one day at a time. When you watch, you'll see a lot of long takes, that allowed them to shoot quickly and set the pace for the episode.
They minimized setups and the amount of takes they could do. Relying on Cooper as a seasoned actor to nail things. and all that, plus a little luck, took them over the finish line.
The episode was profound, and I think you can expect it to be nominated for Emmys when the time comes.
What were your thoughts watching this episode?
Let me know in the comments.
