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Spoilers ahead forMidnight Mass.
Hamish Linklater has been doing reliably strong work in movies and television for more than two decades.
It was a meaty role for the actor, filled with lengthy monologues often shot in a single take.
Heres an edited and condensed version of that conversation.
I really was blown away by your work inMidnight Mass.
Did you audition for this?Totally auditioned for it.
It was a lot of pages and a lot of sermons.
I remember I got the material three days before I was going to go in.
This is back in the days of actual physical auditions instead of just self-taping.
So this was pre-pandemic?Yeah, totally.
It was just a joy to do it and to learn it.
The lines went in like water, which was very lucky.
I read that you are not necessarily a horror fan.
I get too frightened by horror, but I found his work in that show unsettled me.Unsettledme.
Unfortunately, it wasnt so good.
How do you prepare for a scene like that?
Those speeches stayed the same, so I worked on them for the audition.
I worked on them for the table read.
I was certainly nervous about that and I wanted to have them down.
Hes got to galvanize that parish.
Hes galvanizing himself at the same time.
A sermon is a long argument.
I think you succeeded.
It felt to me that your character was discovering his words as hes speaking.
Was your goal to attempt to do that in one take?Mike hates doing ADR.
So what you hear is whichever one he liked.
My takeaway, especially from that Good Friday sermon, was thatMidnight Masswas commenting on Evangelical Christianity.
You fight for Gods kingdom.
really made me think about the religious right.
But he is really committed to the end, which is no more death.
Theres no point to it.
Youve got to be playing your part of the orchestra and then youre going to have the music.
On Easter Sunday at the end of the series, things get, as you said, pretty gnarly.
Theres a point at which Father Paul realizes,Oh, this is bad.
This is not what I wanted.
What wakes him up?The love of his life shoots him in the head.
Shes his wake-up call and he sees it happening.
Then once it has spread, hes like, Everyone can come into the church.
Everyone stay safe here from the sun.
But when I was reading the …
I cant even talk about it, its so silly.
[Linklater tears up.
]I do cry a lot in my life but I dont actually cry easily as an actor.
Its telling this story.
Thats real horror the son rejecting his fathers faith.
Was that a difficult scene to play?There were so many working parts in that.
There were so many stunts.
It was just like, weve got to keep it moving.
That was certainly more of a technical period.
Woe betide an actor who thinks he can plan his or her career.
I mean, certainly a great rule of thumb is always to chase good writing.
Ill always be doing that.
And to work with good directors.
Ill always want to do that.
I think the genre will follow.
I just got to do my first Western.
It was so complicated to plan, but it was this great director, Walter Hill.
I think hes 79 or just turning 80.
Just this massive, wonderful guy, wonderful actors in it, but it was a Western.
You make decisions on what youre going to chase and run after based on a million different factors.
This one was, I got to wear a mustache and a cowboy hat.
I never thought Id see the day.
Their explanation was vampires.
Its a way that those natural human cravings get tabooed up into wonderful myths.
Thats why people call it the work of the devil, you know that level of ravishment.
Yeah, jazz and horror: Thats what we got for you.
I assume the angel was an actual actor?
None of that was CGI?Its an actual wonderful actor named Quinton Boisclair.
This is my second time working with him, actually, in Vancouver.
OnLegion, in the first season, theres thisenormous,horrifying creature thats like the main bad element inLegion.
Hes like this 900-pound blob onLegionand a 90-pound terror inMidnight Mass.
Hes really sweet and super impressive.
Hes a total hero.
Mike would prefer to go practical instead of CGI whenever he can.
I didnt have to act my terror.
That guy really attacked me.
And then as soon as they say Cut, hes like, How are you doing?
How was that for you?
Okay, thats good.
Then everyones back on their Instagram, so it feels safe.
