Stephen Moyer Compares Sons Of Anarchy’s Clay To His Character In The Bastard Executioner

Fans of Sons of Anarchy know to expect insane and violent storylines with hints of MacBeth involved. Following that series, its creator Kurt Sutter is moving on to his next show on FX, the medieval drama, The Bastard Executioner. One of its stars, Stephen Moyer who plays Milius Corbett spoke with EW about working for Sutter and how his wife and former True Blood star Anna Paquin feels about his 14th century look.

On Sutter doing a period drama:

“I had heard about it probably a couple years ago, and I knew nothing about it other than its name, and that it was medieval. That probably goes for most people. Nobody really knew what it was, or what it was about, or just the fact that it was The Bastard Executioner. Truthfully I had no idea that when we met for coffee in January that it was going to be about this. We had finally found a window in our schedules when we could meet at the same time, and it led to this, so I was very happy. Most of the stuff that was coming my way was what I had done before. For me to get the chance to work with Kurt was very fortuitous.”

On the similarity of The Bastard Executioner to Sons of Anarchy:

“I tweeted a picture of me on my horse and I said, “This is my Harley Davidson.” If you actually analyze it, a very simple first look, I’m Clay, and he’s [Lee Jones’ character] Jax. You can see that. But if you think about it, you can do that with any drama, really, and all the guys under him are his team, his gang, and I suppose in a funny way my boys who are working under me are an amalgam of the Sons boys, but they’re also antagonists. There’s definitely connections, and you see rhythms within his storytelling, which lead to Shakespearean tragedy in the same way that Sons was Hamlet with leathers. There were definitely traces of that within it.”

On Anna Paquin liking the beard:

“She’s into it. She’s surprisingly embraced the whole thing, and the grey. It’s lovely. We’re really loving Wales, and I think it’s been really nice for Anna to get away from L.A. and live more simply, in the best possible way.”

Ahead of the premiere, Huffington Post reported:

“In execution, “The Bastard Execution,” which is set in 14th Century Wales, even bears notable similarities to “Sons of Anarchy,” which was critically successful for a while and commercially successful for much longer. Both shows feature lots of bearded and burly dudes who call each other “brother,” there are regular dustups, whispered conferences and bone-crunching battles, and the plot is driven by shifting alliances and misunderstandings that often lead to quests for vengeance. Details big and small recall the long-running biker drama: There are lusty sex scenes and sturdy leather accessories, and Katey Sagal plays a key pot-stirring role.”

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Stephen Moyer Compares Sons Of Anarchy’s Clay To His Character In The Bastard Executioner