Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers of “vagrants”, episode 5 of “Task”, now in difficulty on HBO Max.
In the context of the violent flights of drug houses in Philadelphia, HBO’s “task” revolves around a group of land agents led by the FBI which are all on a mission to find a disappeared child. While Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo) is getting closer to the discovery of who is behind burglaries, the working group is challenged by Perry Dorazo (Jamie McShane), one of the chiefs of the Dark Hearts Motorcycle Gang, who also tries to find and kill anyone who is responsible for stealing local trap houses. With the FBI and the black hearts which both search the suburbs of the county of Delaware in Philly, each side is found in a game of cat and mouse to find the culprit.
While the black hearts have discovered that the man they are looking for is Robbie Prendergast (Tom Pelphrey) – an unpretentious waste collector, not only responsible for the death of several gang members, but for kidnapping Sam (Ben Doherty) – episode 5 follows Perry while investigating the PREDERGASTS house for responses. While Perry begins to set up loose ends to discover where Sam is, he questions his own judgment after having assassinated Eryn (Margarita Leveva) – Jayson’s wife (Sam Keeley), his close confidant and his substitution son – in the lake near the Woods, after discovering Eryn him.
McShane spoke with Variety About the staging of the shocking drowning sequence, injuries on the set during the shooting of episode 5, and season 2 of “Wednesday”.
Perry visits the Prendergrast house in episode 5, where he finds Maeve (Emilia Jones) after the death of his father. From Maeve’s point of view, she thinks that Perry may have had something to do with the murder of her father, even if she does not know that he was not involved. How do you imagine that Perry perceives Maeve after all these years?
Even if she suspects Perry, he had nothing to do with Billy’s death. Perry did not even know the murder of his father, and I don’t think he really thought about the family’s house. He’s just there to see what’s going on, and it is shocked that she is already so big children. Even if he talks to her, he also does his thing typical to try to find more information where Sam could be.
Throughout the season, Perry and the rest of the black hearts look at the working group as they try to find Sam. The FBI has its own way of managing crimes in the city, similar to the way dark hearts have their own techniques. With these two rival groups, which is better to keep things clean?
Dark hearts have their ways of doing things and discovering things that will be faster and more effective in a way than the FBI. It depends on how you define “clean” because for legal purposes in the program, those who do so are the working group. But if someone needs something or someone to take care of or to prevent something from coming back, it would be the dark heart.
After Perry killed Eryn, he lingers around his body with total shock. Even if Perry is the type of leader who can kill anyone without remorse, at that time, he almost has the impression that he regrets killing Eryn – especially because of how much he considers Jason as a family member.
Perry had no intention of killing Eryn. He tells her that he gave him a clean way for his situation, and now they have to manage it differently. When he tells her to go, he tells her that he brings her back to Jayson, who will find her own path to deal with her. When she fled, he tries to do it until he realizes that these children are standing [on the cliff] Party and play, and Eryn only screams a bloody murder. He tries to make her silence while he looks at the children, and he just does not realize what he does. When it strikes him, he is horrified, but at that time, the gangster mentality clicks inside.
How was it to shoot Eryn’s death sequence, especially since the whole scene takes place in the woods and in the lake?
It was a brutal shoot. As soon as I tried to get up water, which is on all kinds of loose rocks, I went down hard and I broke a tendon in my finger during the first catch, and I could not straighten my straight ring finger. They called the doctor and they took me to the emergency room because they had to see if he was broken or not. After each grip, I literally had to pull my finger and hold it. I went to Texas to film “1923” after working on “Task” where I had to shoot weapons all the time, and my finger was still messed up.
During the last catch, when Perry walks away after floating Eryn’s body, I didn’t want to go back where I was falling, so I went to a deeper area. I forgot that they told me not to go, and while the cameras were still rolling, I broke my left tibia on a shredded rock. So, when I got out of there and I went to urgent care, I walk with my rolled pants and my legs bleed, and the nurses were like “Oh, you are there for your leg”, and I told them “no, I’m here for my finger, but you could also check that too.”
Earlier this year, you resumed your role of sheriff galpin on “Wednesday” of Netflix. Between this role and your game as Perry, these are two incredibly different performances that you filmed at the same time. What does this experience look like when you jump between the two?
I was lucky to get these two roles. Working on “Wednesday” was interesting because we filmed in Romania for season 1. With season 2, they shot in Ireland. Even if I am not in many scenes, it was enough where they had to make me fly back and forth between the shooting of the “task”. Fortunately, my beard was the same on the two programs. After finishing working on “1923”, I returned to Ireland [to film “Wednesday”].
It was incredibly fun to be back for season 2, but I would say that “task” is the best show I have ever made in my career. It was absolutely fantastic to be one of these two programs.
This interview was published and condensed.
