From visionary director Sam Esmail (the creator of Mr. Robot) and Eli Horowitz & Micah Bloomberg, the creators of the critically acclaimed podcast of the same name, the psychological thriller Homecoming follows Heidi Bergman (Julia Roberts, in her first starring role in television), a caseworker at the Homecoming Transitional Support Center who helps soldiers deal with returning home from war. As she works with a young veteran named Walter Cruz (Stephan James) and they bond over his desire to rejoin civilian life, the two also develop a complex relationship while working through his experiences. Four years later, when a Department of Defense auditor (Shea Whigham) finds Heidi working as a waitress and living with her mother (Sissy Spacek) in a small town, his questions about her departure from her old job begin to unravel the reality that she has come to rely on.

At the Los Angeles press day for the TV series, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with actor Shea Whigham, who talked about wanting to work with Sam Esmail, getting to read all of the scripts and have the podcast to refer to prior to shooting, his approach to his character, and how Carrasco is different from the type of characters he typically plays. He also talked about what’s made Joker such a special project to work on, why who’s directing a project is always important to him before he signs on, and who’s still on his director bucket list.

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Image via Amazon

Collider:  How did this come your way?

SHEA WHIGHAM:  To be honest with you, I didn’t even listen to the podcast before I said yes. It was Sam Esmail. I’d known Sam’s work, and I jumped at the chance to work with Julia [Roberts]. I tell people that I’ve had a chance to work Sam Esmail, Damien Chazelle and Cary Fukunaga, and those guys are working on a different level. Sam is incredible. I’m very fortunate and lucky.

How much of this story did you actually know, before shooting it? Were the scripts all finished?

WHIGHAM:  Once I signed on, I immediately dove in. They had all ten [scripts] done, and I had the podcast for reference, too. I wasn’t much of a podcast guy. Oddly enough, I did this and something in Dirty John, which is another podcast, so they’ve been very good to me. With this one, I sat down in one sitting and just gorged on it. There’s some great stuff coming out of podcasts. The trick is always, how do you open it up? How do you make it visual? You have to have someone like Sam, who goes, “Okay, I know what to do with this.” That’s one of his many strengths. He also lets things breathe, as far as acting. He loves actors. As an actor, I’m always interested in men and women, where there’s a deep amount of empathy and kindness, but a capability of enormous volatility, like Daniel Day-Lewis. You meet him and he’s kind, but he can go to other places very quickly. Sam is the same way. A lot of times, the darker individuals, their material doesn’t always translate. Sam is this guy where you meet him and you don’t think Mr. Robot would come out of him. That’s interesting to me. He walks into any room, and he’s the smartest guy in the room, without trying.

How was it to adjust to his approach on this, as a director who puts the camera in places that you wouldn’t necessarily expect one?

WHIGHAM:  I’ve worked with David O. Russell. I’ve worked with Marty [Scorsese]. A guy like Sam doesn’t want to do something that’s been done before. That’s boring to someone like him. I found that it’s invigorating and enthralling. He loves actors. I told him that I thought I had a bead on Carrasco, and I said, “It’s gonna take a lot of trust.” It’s like microsurgery, for me, to get it right. If you’re not careful, you could slip into caricature, but you also have to walk up to the line because he’s not a sleuth and he’s not a private investigator. He doesn’t always know the questions to ask. He just wants to get down to the bottom of this truth. That’s interesting to watch.

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Image via Amazon

This character seems like he really doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into, with all of this. How much fun is that to play a guy who just really doesn’t know what’s happening, or what he’s gotten himself into?

WHIGHAM:  It allows you to stay in the moment. I didn’t want to get too far out ahead of things, with Carrasco  and his situation because then it gets tricky, which is not interesting to play or watch. I don’t usually get characters like Carrasco. That’s what was interesting. In the search for the truth, he gets in over his head pretty quickly. He’s a dog with a bone. He wants to do the right thing with this anonymous complaint.

What was it like to work with co-stars like Julia Roberts and Marianne Jean-Baptiste?

WHIGHAM:  Sam understands how to put the family together, with the right actor for the right role. It’s akin to Boardwalk Empire. They’re such great actors, so if you don’t come in ready to play, you’re in trouble because you have six or seven pages of intensive dialogue.

You’re also part of another exciting project, with the Joker movie that you’re currently shooting. What’s that been like to work on?

WHIGHAM:  We’re in the middle of it, right now. It’s intense. For me, it’s as good as it gets. I’m flowing back and forth between television and film, and it’s not lost on me, to work with Joaquin [Phoenix] and to see what he’s doing. And Todd Phillips has put this amazing script together. It’s the origin story. People haven’t seen how the Joker becomes the Joker, and oh, my god, man, it’s incredible. It really is.

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Image via Amazon

What can you say about where you fit in?

WHIGHAM:  I’ll say that, Bill Camp, from The Night Of, is one of our great actors. He’s finally getting his due. He and I play two cops from Gotham P.D. in 1981, when the city was tough. We’re investigating something that’s just happened, at the start of the piece. We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, and it leads to where it leads to. You know, it’s rare that I’ve been on a set where it feels like it crackles. It’s pretty amazing...I want to have an experience. I don’t call it a job. I don’t say that I have a job. I have a gig, or a piece, or a film, or a show, but it’s never a job . . . We’re having an experience on Joker. We had an experience on Silver Linings Playbook, on Boardwalk Empire, and on True Detective Season 2. I think people viscerally feel that.

You’re doing all of these really interesting projects and working with incredibly talented people. What do you look for, when you read scripts?

WHIGHAM:  It’s directors. My marching orders to my people were, “I wanna work with the great directors.” Boardwalk Empire allowed me to do that. I also worked with Marty [Scorsese] on The Wolf of Wall Street. I’ve worked with Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog, Olive Stone and David Gordon Green, and Damien Chazelle on First Man. When you have someone at the helm like that, they’re gonna make something great. So, it starts with that. What interests me depends on where I’m at, in my head. People wouldn’t necessarily see me as Carrasco. He’s vulnerable, and usually I get the tougher roles. There’s a mix of things, but it definitely starts with the visionary captain of the ship.

Are there any director’s on a bucket list of people you’d still like to work with?

WHIGHAM:  I’d say Paul Thomas Anderson. I don’t know what he’s up to these days, but he’s definitely one. When I think about it, I’ve been really lucky. I’ve knocked down some of the big ones. When I did True Detective, Cary Fukunaga was a nobody, and now he’s got Bond.

And you’re like, “Remember me?”

WHIGHAM:  Yeah. I’m like, “I’ll do craft service for you now, on Bond.”

Homecoming is available to stream at Amazon Prime.