5 Things You Need To Know About ‘The Bastard Executioner’ | Monsters & Critics 

5 Things You Need To Know About ‘The Bastard Executioner’

The Bastard Executioner — Lee Jones as Wilkin Brattle. Credit: Ollie Upton/FX

FX is betting that lightning’s going to strike twice with the team of Kurt Sutter and Paris Barclay, who came together creatively in an explosive way during the run of Sutter’s “Sons of Anarchy”.

Paris directed many episodes of the biker drama and then came on board as a producer later in the series. The energetic style of Barclay’s direction could be seen in well orchestrated chases and on-mass biker melee.

The two are now executive producers on the visceral period drama “The Bastard Executioner”, a story brought to Sutter by uber producer Brian Grazer who knew Kurt was the just the man to tell the story of warrior knight Wilkin Brattle in King Edward I’s charge, broken by bloody hand-to-hand combat in war and who vows to lay down his sword. But when that violence finds him again he is forced to pick up the bloodiest sword of all.

The cast includes Lee Jones, Stephen Moyer, Katey Sagal, Flora Spencer-Longhurst, Kurt Sutter, Sam Spruell, Darren Evans, Danny Sapani, Timothy V. Murphy, Sarah White, Sarah Sweeney, Elen Rhys, and Ethan Griffiths. FX’s “The Americans” star Matthew Rhys and Ed Sheeran is also set to guest star.

This medieval period drama set in Wales will see ten episodes run over nine weeks beginning with a two-hour series premiere on September 15th on FX.

Castle’s almost done. Cue The Executioner! #TBX pic.twitter.com/tRkvK59P39

At the recent TCA’s at the Beverly Hilton, the FX TBX panel spoke of their amazing production designer Giles Masters and the art department that works under him. Paris Barclay said, “Most of the castles you see in the show are built. Giles Masters, who is our production designer, is truly a master. And most of what you see, including that 50 foot castle that is Castle Ventris, exists on our backlot. Most of the interiors you see we built on stages.

We have four different stages in Wales that we do the show in. The dungeons, the Lady Love’s bedroom, all those were built meticulously by extraordinary craftsmen. I was really kind of blown away by what we got for value and for craft in the UK.”

Stephen Moyer, who plays Milus Corbett, a rather violent fellow, said, “The thing I’ll say about the locations is, as a the geek in me was super excited to be shooting the scene where we walk we’re walking down the corridor in one castle, in Caerphilly, which Caerphilly Castle was built in 1156. And then we go to St. Donat’s, which is 1250. And then for the next scene, we open the door, and we go into the courtyard of St. Donat’s. And then we walk through there, and then we come out of the doorway and portcullis of our castle that we’ve built.

And the extraordinary aspect of that is that our characters, the way that Kurt’s written it, would have been in those castles. They’re the specific castles that our characters would have existed in. So there is a kind of beautiful sort of tying up of historical detail that is kind of amazing to be part of.”

Lead actor Lee Jones said of Masters’ labor intensive sets, “It does a lot of the heavy lifting for you because it just feels so real. And I think our backlot and the sets are the only thing I’m getting to see of Wales. I’m so busy that I’m so I’m kind of getting the real thing anyway. But I’d never been to Wales before…although my family originates from there. So there’s some kind of nice synergy going on there.”

Moyer (L) and Sagal (R) at the recent TCA panel at the Beverly Hilton

See the pretty teeth of our stars Katey Sagal and Stephen Moyer in the photo above? You won’t be seeing those pearly whites while they are in character.  

Sagal’s husband is Kurt Sutter, who like Paris Barclay, has AMAZING teeth in real life too, except when Mr. Sutter is dressed as The Dark Mute. When asked at the TCA panel about these dim period-perfect choppers, Barclay said, “Don’t ask the actors about the teeth.”  

Well of course the TV critics who saw the 2 hour pilot were fixated.  All of the characters have a grey brownish film on their teeth. Sutter passed the ball to Stephen Moyer, who made hay with the fact his character on HBO’s “True Blood” pretty much wore fangs for seven years. Moyer said, “I really didn’t think I was going to be coming onto a show where we were going to have to have teeth casts. But every motherfucker did.

So we all have pieces that we put in, bottoms and tops. And I think that, you know, what I actually respect about that is that I don’t think and I’m talking for Kurt here. I don’t know this. But I don’t think you want to be criticized for something as stupid as shiny teeth, you know.

When you’re looking at when you’re looking at the screen, you want to not be thinking about other little tiny details that could have been better. ‘Oh, it would have been better if’ blah. ‘It would have been’ you know, so I think that Kurt and Paris rightly wanted that to be something that was taken away.

And therefore, you know, you get a lot of people talking like this for a couple of days. Katey Sagal added, “And they’re very uncomfortable, yes…You get used to it.”

Sutter couldn’t resist the set-up. “So not only did I make them do dialects, I made them do it with mouth guards in.”

Penny Dreadful’s Danny Sapani Has A Significant Role In TBX’s Brotherhood

First, if you never watched “Penny Dreadful” on Showtime, shame on you, it’s excellent. Danny Sapani was one of the reasons why. At the recent TCA FX party after the panel, I accosted Paris Barclay on the way out and begged him for any insight on Sapani’s character, Berber the Moor, who lives in Wilkin’s village with his wife. Paris said, “Danny is a fantastic actor, and I cannot tell you if his character makes it to the end of the season.”

I begged for more details, Paris relented. “He DOES have an interesting backstory emerge in episode three that you must watch for.” Huge smile. Excellent news. I’m in for Sapani’s TBX arc!  Catch up on this actor’s work if you are unfamiliar.

Katey Sagal Has An Accent That Was Handed Down In The Family

Katey Sagal has a Slavic accent that was inspired by her own grandmother’s voice. At the TCA panel, Sagal said, “Actually, it was a choice of Kurt’s to make Annora of Slavic descent. And that’s my descent as well. My background is Russian. So I think there was and I have a real affinity for it as my grandmother spoke with that accent, and it was something that came somewhat naturally.

So I hope that that was an authentic sound. And we just wanted for me, as an actor, I was glad that I didn’t have to speak with a British accent, just surrounded by all these actual British people. So that was it’s been an interesting experience, actually.”

Sutter told all of us that he immersed himself in the history of the Plantagenets, and what he described as that “whole really fucked up lineage.” If you missed that whole period in history, let me help you. According to the RoyalUK.gov website:

The Plantagenet period was dominated by three major conflicts at home and abroad. Edward I attempted to create a British empire dominated by England, conquering Wales and pronouncing his eldest son Prince of Wales, and then attacking Scotland. Scotland was to remain elusive and retain its independence until late in the reign of the Stuart kings. In the reign of Edward III the Hundred Years War began, a struggle between England and France.

At the end of the Plantagenet period, the reign of Richard II saw the beginning of the long period of civil feuding known as the War of the Roses. For the next century, the crown would be disputed by two conflicting family strands, the Lancastrians and the Yorkists. The period also saw the development of new social institutions and a distinctive English culture. Parliament emerged and grew, while the judicial reforms begun in the reign of Henry II were continued and completed by Edward I.

What does this mean to the bloody-thirsty fans who have migrated from the SOA ranks and are now flying their TBX flags on social media? It means the Welsh are going to kick some English ass, motherfuckers! Scotland had “Braveheart” and the Irish had “Bloody Sunday” to tell their tales of English woe, now Wales is in the spotlight with its own mythology and history with “The Bastard Executioner.”

Fans can count on graphic unflinching deaths, up close and bloody in grim medieval settings.

On panel, Sutter said, “Nothing wrong with colorful brutality, but I think you know, my mandate, as it was on ‘Sons,’ is the same for this, which is that the violence, as absurd as it could be sometimes on “Sons,” was it always came from an organic place and that it was never done in a vacuum, meaning that to every violent act, there are ramifications.

And I feel like I was able to follow through with that. And that’s sort of my same mandate here. And yes, it’s a medieval setting, and their laws in terms of punishment are a lot were brutal and heinous…so that’s a reality of the world.”

From what I saw in the first two hours, you fans of the ultra-violent won’t be disappointed.

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