“Before Black Bird, I had never embodied a role brimming with such black masculinity”

In 2022, the United States definitely likes to come back to their most edifying news stories. After The Girl From Plainville Where Dr Death on Starzplay, it’s Apple TV+ that refreshes viewers’ memories with BlackBird. The screenwriter of Mystic River Dennis Lehane tells the true story of an inmate, tasked by the FBI with gaining the trust of a prisoner suspected of involvement in the disappearance of some 40 women in the Midwestern states during the 80s and 90s To regain his freedom, Jimmy will have to extract a confession from him. A dangerous friendship and a Socratic dialogue develop between the two men in captivity.

Launched in July on the platform, the six-episode miniseries, which ends this Friday, is based on the autobiographical story of Jimmy Keen. Taron Egerton lends his features to this son of a police officer fallen into drug trafficking and to whom a risky redemption is offered. The star of Rocketman and of Kingsman has a lot to do to break through the walls of his adversary, a fan of reconstructions of the battles of the Independence and Civil War camped with deceptive sweetness by Paul Walter Hauser.

For Le FigaroTaron Egerton tells this fascinating face-to-face which inspired him with reminiscences of the HBO series The Night Of and movie Thesilenceofthelambs with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins

LE FIGARO. – What seduced you in this intense face-to-face?
Taron EGERTON. – Jimmy Keene’s story is so extraordinary that it was developed into a film. The project was known to everyone, including me when I was just starting out. What was my surprise at the end of the pandemic to receive the scenario of this project which had become a miniseries! It was the first script that had my heart pounding since the lockdown and I was let be one of the producers. There was the challenge of giving flesh to a being so many unsaid. The Jimmy Keen of black bird hides his thoughts, his hopes, his mission. He must do so in the dangerous environment of a high security prison. A place populated by unstable fellow prisoners. However, you have to be sufficiently transparent for the viewer to capture this inner war. The other challenge was to get back into decent physical shape after two years of confinement and coronavirus (laughs). Jimmy had the build of an athlete… I looked like a sack of potatoes!

How would you qualify the complicity between Jimmy and Larry?I had never played a character like Jimmy brimming with such dark energy and masculinity. The start of the series makes no secret of the flaws and unremarkable aspects of his personality. I found it difficult at the beginning of my preparation work to feel compassion. It is by colliding with an individual even more in the heart of darkness that he will react and want to question himself. Getting inside Larry’s mind means becoming as rough and flirtatious as he is. And also to reveal to him his cracks, in particular those of an unhappy childhood. Jimmy recognizes elements of his own nature in Larry that he dreads. Their bond is ambivalent. Jimmy must make him believe that he subscribes to his ideology. At the same time, they have to face together the hostile environment of the penitential center and this creates an emotional bond and an equally dangerous dependency. It was a very heavy atmosphere. I am grateful to Paul Walter Hauser for blowing a wind of lightness off camera. He’s a very funny person and it was fascinating to watch him go completely against his nature on screen.

black bird offers to Ray Liotta, died in May, his last role in front of the camera. He plays Jimmy’s sick father.
For this tension, this closed confessional to work, it was necessary to understand where Jimmy came from, who this brilliant and respected policeman father was. It was necessary to feel the external stakes. Working with him was a remarkable experience. He had his feet on the ground. It exuded a mind-blowing raw realism. As soon as the camera was on him, he dictated the atmosphere. I was very lucky that he offered me his time, advice, experience and friendship.