Inspired by class spaghetti westerns, the drama series That Dirty Black Bag (which is available to stream at AMC+) is a brutal tale about the clash between Arthur McCoy (Dominic Cooper) a sheriff that isn’t who he presents himself to be, and Red Bill (Douglas Booth), a bounty hunter known for keeping the decapitated heads of his victims in the bag that he carries with him. In a town where the line between good guys and bad guys is not so well-defined and threats are all around, survival and revenge can become very dangerous and very violent.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Booth talked about the experience of spending a chunk of time hanging upside down in the first episode, what makes westerns so appealing, why the evolution of this character appealed to him, the fun of working with co-star Cooper, the brutality of the Old West, and his reaction to reading the script for the season finale.
Collider: I’m very curious to know what the experience was like, getting strung upside down and tortured by Aidan Gillen. Was that a wild experience to have?
DOUGLAS BOOTH: It was wild and it was the first thing I shot, which was intense. It started with the very practical thing of, “Let’s hang Douglas upside down and see how long he can stay upside down for,” which turned out to be about three minutes, but I don’t think it should be more than a minute. To be honest, it was fine. I had a harness underneath. It did all the acting for me, really, because it was really uncomfortable. My eyes were bulged out of my head. It was fun. It was fine. Although, the place was absolutely disgusting. It was strewn with real maggots, so I was covered in real maggots and hanging upside down. But Aidan is such a pleasure and such a dream to work with that I actually really enjoyed the experience of hanging upside down, surprisingly.
So, the pain in your eyes was very real?
BOOTH: It was. By the time you’re brought down, your head feels like it’s tripled in size.
Did you have any idea how full-on that was really going to be?
BOOTH: Kind of. When I first read the episode, I was hung upside down for the whole episode. And then, the stunt coordinator was like, “We may have to start him on the floor, string him up, and then bring him down for a bit.” Otherwise, they would have had to shoot over a huge period of, or they would have killed me.
What was it like to work on that character dynamic?
BOOTH: To be honest, once I was strung up, that did most of it for me. It was one of the easier things to act in the show, I’d have to say. Aidan was always such a gentleman. I enjoyed the dynamic. I loved that when I would try to get to him, I would just swing. It was quite fun to play. I’d never acted being a pendulum before, but I enjoyed it.
Many actors talk about how they’d love to do a western and not only did you get to do one, but you did a series and spent eight hours making one. What is it that makes westerns so appealing to actors? Is it just the ultimate sense of childhood play?
BOOTH: Maybe it’s childhood play. It’s maybe having been a fan of movies in the past. For me, when I was a kid, I used to love riding. I used to ride horses, and if my imagination could run away with itself, that’s where I’d go. To have a trusted steed on the open road, it’s just cool. There’s something about them that is cool and fun, just to be in the outdoors. And we were very fortunate, we got to shoot in Italy, Spain, and Morocco, so the travel wasn’t too bad either.
What was your experience of working in those locations?
BOOTH: We shot in Fort Bravo/Texas Hollywood and mini Hollywood, where we created our own sets and repurposed some of the sets. We mostly shot interiors there. And then, we wanted to go to Morocco because it gave this vastness and this dry landscape that was a part of our narrative. We wanted it to have a post-apocalyptic feel.
Because we don’t know much about this guy, in the beginning, what was the first impression you got of this character when you first read him on the page?
BOOTH: In the fourth episode, you learn more about where Red Bill and McCoy come from. And then, in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth episodes, you find out more about where they’re headed. For me, it took me a while to get my head around him. It very simply all boiled down to it being about this boy who lost his mother and, in doing so, he lost himself. He’s stuck in this purgatory where he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He thinks he wants revenge because he thinks that will bring him some sort of peace, but it won’t. He begins to question why this has happened to him and why this happened to his mother. It’s really about a boy that’s completely lost. He’s lost his way and lost his soul, and about how he’s gonna begin finding it again.
It says something about a person’s place in life when their only companions are some heads in a bag.
BOOTH: And his horse. It does. When you learn about where he came from, his past, what happened after his mother died, and who raised him, you’ll have a bit more insight. The writers wanted it to be that way. At the beginning, I wanted to put more emotion in, and they were like, “No, you can’t give anything away.” He really has to feel like he’s stripped of all of that color and life. As the series goes on, you see him fall, and you see a bit of life return to him.
It’s such an interesting story because, as a viewer, you find yourself, at least in the beginning, trying to figure out who the good guys and who the bad guys are, and whether there are actually any good guys. Is this the type of character that sees himself as the hero of his own story, or is he pretty honest with himself about who he actually is?
BOOTH: He can’t look at himself for a while. He’s so he’s so lost, and he’s stuck in such a rut. He’s effectively going from town to town, trying to find these wanted people. Anyone that’s walking around talking to a bunch of heads in a bag has lost touch with reality. My question always was, if and when he finds the person that killed his mother, and if he manages to get revenge and kill that person, what then? Does he kill himself? What’s interesting is that everyone in this show is lacking something in their life. They’re all searching for contentment. That’s what makes it a spaghetti western. These aren’t all-American heroes. It’s a bunch of people that are unhappy and searching for contentment.
It also makes the character dynamics really interesting because, if you don’t know whether somebody is a good guy or a bad guy, then how do you even interact with anyone? What was it like to explore that dynamic with Dominic Cooper?
BOOTH: So fun. I’ve known him for many years. His mother was my nursery school teacher, so he’s a great friend of mine. We had a lot of fun with that. We played around with it a lot and it’s something that we were wrestling with while we were shooting. That ambiguity is interesting. As the series goes on, these are two people that you find their fates are aligned. Once they meet, they’re on a crash course collision with each other, and their past and their future. That’s what’s fun about what will be revealed in this series.
There’s a brutality to the Old West that is also very apparent in this show. What is that harsh reality like to explore? How does that motivate the characters? How does that affect the characters? What kind of environment does that create on the set?
BOOTH: It’s a show where there are no heroes and the predators can become the prey. When you meet Red Bill at the beginning of the first episode, he is very much in one position, and at the very end of the first episode, he is very much in another position. What’s fun about the show is, that can change at any minute. You can’t quite predict what’s about to happen. It creates a fun dynamic where anything is possible, and it gives you a freedom to play, as an actor.
What was your reaction to reading the final script of the season? At what point did you get to read that, and how did you feel about learning what the endpoint would be?
BOOTH: My reaction was, “Wow, this is fun.” It builds and builds and builds. The end is surprising. It was surprising to me. I feel like it brings some clarity to Red Bill and is potentially gonna send him in a more direct direction.
That Dirty Black Bag is available to stream at AMC+.