Taron Egerton says 'Smoke' role gave him 'weird, twisted freedom'

UPI

3 days ago

1 of 5 | Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett star in "Smoke," premiering Friday. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
NEW YORK, June 26 (UPI) -- Carry-On, Kingsman and Rocketman actor Taron Egerton says the character he plays in the new Apple TV+ drama Smoke is not a likable hero, but he was intriguing to play.
Spoilers ahead.
Inspired by the true-crime podcast Firebug, and created by best-selling novelist Dennis Lehane, the limited series premieres Friday.
It follows Egerton's Dave Gudsen, a Pacific Northwest arson investigator, aspiring writer and serial fire-starter.
"To a certain extent, you can't get into his head," Egerton, 35, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
"The thing about Dave is Dave is not really in his head," he said. "A normal person does things and they might have the self-awareness and healthy relationship with themselves to go: 'OK, so why did I do that?' and, 'Was that necessarily the best choice?' and, 'How would I do that differently next time?'
"Dave has none of that. He just is not able to be in any way self-analytical, self-critical. He's not really able to reflect on himself in any way and, although that is horribly unhealthy, it's a really, really fascinating part to play."
The character does not play by the rules of civilized society and betrays the trust his colleagues and the public have placed in him, according to the actor.
"You start to realize there's a weird, twisted freedom in it that comes at a price," Egerton noted.
To prepare for the role, Egerton listened to Firebug -- the podcast about real-life, California fire captain-turned-serial arsonist and mass murderer John Leonard Orr -- multiple times to understand how the inspiration for his fictional character got away with his crimes for so long.
"It's really useful. It doesn't necessarily give that much insight into why John Orr did the things he did or why Dave Gudsen does the things he does," Egerton said.
"Part of why we are fascinated by people who are on the fringe and do very strange things is because we can't really know why," he added. "My instinct is that it's to do with a lack of relationship with himself and a really unhealthy way of coping with things that are difficult to process."
Major red flags in Dave's behavior include his unwillingness to attend events celebrating the accomplishments of his colleagues and his condescending demeanor toward the women in his life, including his police investigation partner, Michell Calderon (Jurnee Smollett), and his wife Ashley (Hannah Emily Anderson).
"Dave is old school in a really awful, toxic way," Egerton said. "He also has a kind of unhealthy relationship with power and control."
Negative interactions with his mother when he was a boy skewed his opinion of women throughout his life.
"He has a kind of contempt for women on some level and I think you can really see that in in some of his encounters in the show," Egerton said. "He's a very, very damaged, very poisonous man."
Smoke marks Egerton's second project with Lehane after 2022's Black Bird, another Apple TV+ miniseries.
"I'm a fan of Dennis' and I think I admire his ability to marry really astute character observation and his incredible intuition about what makes people tick... with really propulsive, compelling storytelling," Egerton said.
"I find that very, very exciting," he added. "Crudely put, my litmus test for whether I should be doing something creatively is, 'Do I compulsively want to read this?' and, 'Is this something that I would watch and something that I would be compelled to give hours of my life to?' And I always feel that way about Dennis' work."
The cast of Smoke also includes Greg Kinnear, Rafe Spall, John Leguizamo, Anna Chlumsky and Ntare Mwine.