00:00Lo so che molte persone non pensano a noi lassù, sulle montagne.
00:07Molti dei miei pazienti sono minatori.
00:09È un mestiere pericoloso e portano il peso di costruire un paese sulle proprie spalle.
00:15Soffrono molto.
00:16Questa gente, la mia gente, si fidava di me.
00:21È incredibile quanti di loro siano morti.
00:30Michael, I think that your character, Richard, is the most complex, the most difficult and maybe even the most unpleasant
00:40character of Doopseek.
00:44Maybe we can say that he's the villain of the series, but he's a very peculiar kind of villain.
00:54Why did you accept this role and how did you prepare for the role?
01:00I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to get to work with Danny Strong and Barry Levinson and to be
01:06involved in a wonderful ensemble of actors, as well as the role itself.
01:10Just as you've said, he is quite complicated and there's not a lot of information to be found about Richard.
01:20And we're starting to learn more about him, but I think his family had a lot to do with trying
01:27to control their image on the internet in particular.
01:33But I learned a lot about him in reading what was available to read.
01:38And there's a deposition video that I watched over and over again to learn about who he was as an
01:46individual.
01:46It was only about 28 minutes long.
01:49But I learned a lot from watching that.
01:54So the role and getting to learn about him, the story itself is fascinating.
02:00And as I mentioned before, the ensemble of actors that they piece together for this is extraordinary.
02:07So it was a wonderful opportunity to be challenged and to be surrounded by wonderful artists.
02:13Did you try to talk or meet Richard?
02:17And did you know if he had a reaction about the series, about your interpretation?
02:24I did not have an opportunity to meet Dr. Sackler.
02:30And I don't know if he's seen it or will see it.
02:35I imagine he's quite busy at the moment.
02:39However, as I mentioned before, it was quite a challenge to see what it felt like to walk around in
02:50his shoes for a while.
02:52Your interpretation of Richard as a peculiar way of walking and talking and even watching the other characters when he
03:04confronts them.
03:11From what I was able to see in him, he was a very private individual.
03:19And so it was in his smaller movements, in the little I had to go by, that I was able
03:32to start from there and maybe make advances towards how he might move,
03:41how he might socialize within certain contexts.
03:49It was just a very slow step-by-step process.
03:52And I tried to let whatever situation dramatically we were portraying, presenting, guide me under those circumstances.
04:02I know that the locations of the series are very important because Matt Massey wanted to shoot in Virginia on
04:13location in real mining towns with the real working people.
04:20While your character is always closed in his luxury mansion, surrounded by his family or surrounded by pieces of art
04:34in the museum.
04:37How did you work with this kind of location that makes your character always alone and detached from real people?
04:50I think you've put your finger on exactly the element that he was mostly surrounded by.
05:00It seemed to me that it was a very lonely existence.
05:05I don't know if he made many meaningful connections.
05:09At least that seemed to be our interpretation of Richard.
05:13His closest, most loving relationship was with his dog, Unch, who existed for him in a purely loving, loyal fashion.
05:29But having been raised, Richard, having been raised in wealth, I imagine also feeling inadequate amongst some somewhat within that
05:42wealth and being surrounded by such titanic figures like his uncle Arthur.
05:49I imagine for a young man under those circumstances, there would be several questions and years of questioning about his
05:57own potential and about what might be right for him to pursue.
06:03So I think he may have had quite a chip on his own shoulder in terms of what it was
06:12he may have wanted to prove in his own life, in his own, with his own two hands.
06:20Those are elements that I'm sure shaped who he was.
06:22How do you think the Psyche is different from all the other films and series about addiction?
06:31That's an excellent question.
06:33I think it tries to be even-handed in terms of all the stories that are coexisting within our story.
06:40There is the country doctor who perhaps is innocent of what the drug can do and where that drug takes
06:51him on his journey.
06:52There are the individuals that he treats and what their journeys are.
06:57There is, as you mentioned, the whole coal mining culture and community and what that might be like.
07:05There's the DEA community, there's the FDA community, and with Richard, it's Purdue Pharma and about his wealthy background.
07:16There are several different worlds that are kind of involved in terms of our telling the story.
07:21So it tries to, I think, provide several objective perspectives in several different communities and show what those communities go
07:35through individually just because of the invention of this particular drug.
07:42It is both universal and very human and very private.
07:48So I think it does several things at once, and I think that's a beautiful, remarkable task that Danny, I
08:00think, captures extraordinarily in his ideas, in his writing, and in his vision for what this story should be.
08:08It is a massive story, and it is also a very private story as well.
08:15It, I think, accomplishes both beautifully.
08:18The opioid crisis and Purdue Pharma are on the news even in this period because this is a story that
08:26goes and goes again even now.
08:31Do you think that the series will help to change the perspective of the public on this matter, on the
08:41crisis, on the use, on the abuse of legal drugs?
08:45I hope that it can at least start a dialogue for people who are unfamiliar with what happened.
08:53It at least could possibly get people interested in the story and what select individuals went through during that story.
09:06So it all begins with asking questions, and I think our story does that beautifully.
09:12It sets up many questions and kind of doesn't resolve.
09:19Our story continues.
09:20The story continues.
09:22So I think it's an excellent invitation into the world of what happened.
09:32How was your experience with the part of the cast with whom you work?
09:40Because the cast is incredibly big, but all the stories are separated.
09:49So how was your experience from your point of view?
09:55From my point of view, it was, as we alluded to before, quite, well, the doing of it was really
10:04fun, and the individuals I got to work with were quite joyous and quite fun.
10:10I find often that when you're telling sad stories or tragic stories or frightening stories, that to lighten the mood,
10:19there is often a lot of chatter, a lot of backstage discussion of things, and I think that's quite healthy.
10:27In this case, that was true.
10:29We all enjoyed each other very, very much.
10:31However, Richard's journey within that world is also, as we said before, quite lonely.
10:36I think he feels isolated, and I think he keeps putting himself out there because he had something to prove,
10:44and I think he could only engage with the other individuals only insofar as they were willing to help him
10:52with his agenda.
10:54So I found his journey to be quite lonely.
10:57We have to wait to see the end of the first season, but would you like to come back for
11:07another season in Richard's character?
11:13It would be an honor, honestly, to work with these individuals again, and as the story has kept growing, and
11:22there's certainly enough stories within the opioid crisis to fill several seasons.
11:31So if such a thing were to happen and they would invite me back, I would be pleased to be
11:36back.
11:48This drug will become a world success.
