Ian McShane is a talker in the best possible way. In conjunction with a series of interviews I conducted for a THR feature, I requested to speak to the “American Gods” star for just 10-15 minutes. These were quick phone interviews, but McShane insisted on meeting in-person. I wasn’t feeling well heading over to the hotel, but McShane is just as charming as the characters he tends to play and, as our conversation ran long, I quickly forgot the flu that would rack me for the rest of the week.
Based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, the”American Gods” TV series is the brainchild of Bryan Fuller (“Hannibal“) and Michael Green (the upcoming “Blade Runner 2049“). It’s set in a surreal version of our own reality where old gods walk among man in new forms. A recently released convict, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), finds himself hired as the bodyguard of Mr. Wednesday (McShane) who turns out to be the Norse god Odin. The series sets up a conflict between “New” Gods (Mr. World, Technical Boy) and the old, such as Mr. Wednesday. The series features beautiful production design, cinematography and costumes, but at the center of it is the calming presence of McShane.
Our chat took place before the entire series had aired, but McShane dives deep into his character, rather bluntly describes how he got the role and says he’s actually read some of the “Deadwood” movie script that has fans buzzing.
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Gregory Ellwood: Thanks for sitting down to chat.
Ian McShane: It’s easy talking about a show when you actually like talking about it, when it’s a show you like talking about. Instead of being forced to sit in a room and go, “Yes, I had a wonderful time. 20 weeks in Bulgaria, it was fantastic. We had the best time.”
You probably found one restaurant in Bulgaria you like.
One, yeah. It’s called Bull’s Blood. It’s really interesting when you see a show like this, I felt the same way. I didn’t see any of it before we went down to Austin for South by Southwest, and then I saw it for the first time on the big screen. It does work on the big screen.
It’s gorgeous.
It’s gorgeous. I thought, “Oh yeah. It’s a really good show.”
How did it come your way?
I worked with Michael Green before. I did “Kings” with him on NBC. About eight years ago now, classic example of a network wanting a cable show. Actually, the two don’t go together. They just can’t do it. It’s impossible.
It’s hard.
You cannot do it. They shoot 20 shows a year. You can’t do that, churn it out. The audience isn’t that kind of audience anyway. They want basically the same show every week with a twist. That’s not to denigrate it, but that’s the difference in TV. That’s a different kind of drama. I come from the day when you used to have seven days a week TV and that was it, four channels. Now the great thing is, and it’s nice to be part of a show that is actually pushing the boundary a bit in terms of that cinematic boundary, because it looks, as you said, it looks gorgeous. Bryan Fuller, he’s got a great visual sensibility.
I would say the show is surreal and that it’s definitely not like even most cable shows or even premium cable shows. How did he pitch your character?
Michael came and said, “Look, we’re doing this show and there’s this character, we’d like you to read it.” It was Czernobog, and I phoned him back, because we’d been in touch over the years and he said, “You’d only be in a couple of episodes, not recurring, because it’d be great to work with you but you don’t do television.” I said, “Why didn’t you ask me?” I said, “Also it’s intriguing to read this.” I said, “I can think of 10 actors who’d do Czernobog better than I would, but what is this Mr. Wednesday?” He said, “We’re sort of, you know …” I read the book and then they came back 10 days later and said, “Would you like to play Mr. Wednesday?” Either whoever they got it out to at the time said no, or you know the way this business works. It’s a funny old business, but sometimes parts have got your name on it, I always think. Sometimes a part will find its way to you, whatever. I didn’t know about the part, I didn’t know about “American Gods.” I didn’t know the book. I knew Neil Gaiman, I’d done “Coraline” which is great. I read it and I thought, what a great blueprint, outline, to make a series out of. When I saw it, I thought it was a very good combination, it was a good call because no matter what happens to the show, it’s part of television lore.
Exactly.
However it turns out, I have to say, when you don’t judge a show by a seven season run or whatever. Also, I think it’s about time that Fuller found his home. He’s been working on network TV, and I’m sure they all go, “He’s fucking great, but what do we do with him? He’s a genius, but what do we do with him?” Move him over to cable and let him do his thing.
They finally put him on a network people would want to watch his show.
He has. It’s a complicated shoot, Greg, it was difficult sometimes in the best sense of the word. It wasn’t like it was all seamless because I don’t think they knew exactly the tone they wanted when they started it. They knew the script, but when you get this kind of material, and you’ve got this road trip for the first three episodes combined with a body moving and extraordinary things happen. How much to reveal, what not to reveal. What not to give out, but, at the end of the day, you have to give your audience something. I always think that was a problem with our lovely series I did years ago, “Carnival.” It didn’t give me anything back. I was there, I thought, “Come on, give me something,” but it didn’t give. That was fascinating, I thought. Getting dealt with a lot of those big subjects — faith, spirituality, religion, belief, whatever, ghosts, people, strangeness. You’ve got to give the audience something for them to keep invested in watching you.
I actually think that if “American Gods” had been on six or seven years ago, the response wouldn’t have been as positive or the interest wouldn’t have been as strong. This is just my opinion, but peak TV and all these different shows sort of trained audiences to expect something different that they wouldn’t have even expected from HBO.
I would look at the whole landscape change, because it doesn’t now matter, you know, very much. It doesn’t matter about audience size, whatever. It’s content. You’ve got so many platforms you can sell it to, and it’s not like if we don’t get 10 million people watching it, then this, this, and this. Those rules don’t apply anymore, that’s normal TV. All these companies, especially streaming companies are building up content. That’s all. Building content, and some of it’s great. There’s some fantastic stuff out there, television. I mean, movies are movies, movies explore different arenas. Working like this, long form drama which has taken the place of all the drama you used to see on movies, they just don’t do those films now. They explore it in long form which is great for all those creatives. There’s a lot of talented people about.
