[ID: A drawing of a stamp depicting a young man sitting amongst a collection of plants. The young man’s blond hair frames the playful expression on his face; he wears an intricately-patterned vest, a black tie, leather gloves, and a yellow shirt rolled up to his forearms. He appears to lean on the frame of the stamp with one arm, and in his free hand he holds a poorly-drawn, lime green kitten. the rest of the picture is done in various shades of coral pink, yellow, and green to match. end ID]
Q: Describe how Billy is presented in this series. The first two episodes, we see a lot of his past, sort of like his formative years. But later in the series, we really start to see him come into his own as a man, so describe that man.
I think, the way we see him, at least in season 1, so far, is… I don’t think he is yet a man, actually. I think the whole season is about him becoming a man, and I think, as we get towards the end, you know, the last few episodes, you see him realizing what he has to become to survive and to live in the world that he wanted to live in. He realizes that he has to be, you know, it’s a bit of a cliche, but kind of be the change he wants to see.
I think he’s really struggling to kind of negotiate his moral compass which his mother gave him - because he was raised by this incredibly strong mother who he was very close to and very respectful of - but yeah, he’s been given this incredible moral compass and this incredible set of values by which he lives, by his mum mainly and some other influential figures, but I think we’re seeing him struggle with holding onto those values while still trying to fight the corruption and, honestly, the oppression that he sees at every turn.[x]
So I booked a very last-minute flight to Arizona, flew into Phoenix, and then rented a car and drove for 6 or 7 days around New Mexico and kind of hit all the spots that he lived in. Lived, worked, and died in. It culminated in visiting his grave in Fort Sumner. And so, really the main aim was to just kind of feel the dust underneath my feet that he walked on, you know? To kind of make it palpable, make it real, make it not just a myth that’s written in a book but something that I could touch with my own hands, you know?
