Hey, Will, how's it going?
Hey, Scott, I'm good, how are you doing? I'm alright.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, busy week with
the festival is busy times, but it's nice to be back out with people.
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.
Back in the real world.
Yeah. Congratulations on the series.
Thanks, mate.
I was just talking to Danny [Strong] and said, as a Brit, I'm
shocked at how little I knew about it of this situation.
I knew a little bit.
And then when I seen the show and obviously with the book,
my eyes have just been opened, and I wondered
whether that was the same for you or whether
because you've done some projects in the US,
you might have known a little bit more going into it,
but there may maybe me knowing shockingly little
Listen man.
I think my my experience, you know, probably aligns pretty closely
with yours before I came in contact with with Dopesick.
And, you know, I think that's because on top of what's being described
as sort of one of the crimes of the century, you know,
there was also a pretty
devastatingly impressive PR cover up as well from from the Sacklers and Purdue.
And in the process, you know, I think their wealth has afforded them
a kind of level of protection that, you know,
no criminals should really be afforded.
So yeah, it's it doesn't sort of surprise me to hear you don't know much about it.
I didn't.
And when I read Beth Macy's book DopeSick,
I really kind of had my hair blown back, you know, just how
massive, widespread and deep rooted,
you know, the issue of opioid addiction was and.
And Danny's script only brought more light to it
and really made me want to be a part of lending my voice to the story.
And that was a view playing because obviously, you're playing a sales rep.
I think it's OK to say that in terms of are you because that he was saying that
he's obviously got an amalgamation of lots of people into different characters.
I wondered how you went about playing this one because obviously the sales reps
initially are trying to do their job and sell the product as they got
made the doctors what kind of stuff it kind of becomes clear.
So there people you were able to call on or speak to to kind of get a sense
of what they were going through when all this was going on around them?
Yeah.
So so my character is also a kind of an amalgamation or a composite, as you say.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to speak directly
to any kind of former paid to employees, and
the reasons for that are multifaceted.
The main one being that many of them were kind of intimidated into silence
or threatened with legal action after leaving the company.
And in fact, it's something that sticks out in the series.
But you know, you see employees that left on the kind of less
than amicable kind of circumstances
be sort of treated to kind of
like mob like tactics where you know how people show up at their homes.
They have
things posted through their letterbox and they had legal threats made at them.
You know, people waiting in unmarked cars outside that their places of work.
So you know that that all contributed to, I think, less people
being available than you might hope from a research perspective.
Still, Danny got to speak to some former Purdue employees and that really,
I think, enriched the writing and certainly kind of how my character
was ultimately represented.
So I was very grateful that the script was just so well researched
and that if I had any questions or I needed any additional information
about how Purdue operated, I mean, Danny basically has a Ph.D.
and at this point, so yeah.
And I mean, it's testament to how important a lot of you guys in the cast
want to portray this story, given that there's so many fantastic actors
on board this this project I can imagine for a lot of you,
it was important for you to to want to tell the story in the right way.
And as you say, Danny's right.
And then the way that he has approached this must be, you know, it
proves just that
the weight of the material that you all wanted to get involved
and help tell the story.
Right, right.
Yeah, I think everyone sort of recognized kind of the sense of responsibility.
And in doing justice to what, you know, Danny has kind of poured
his heart into for the last two years prior to us shooting and,
you know, almost almost three years now. And
you know, I
I feel like what I didn't know all that much about it going in.
As soon as you learn the facts
and as soon as you know, you know, the information and you see
how kind of blatant, you know, this is is a sort of story of social injustice.
You can't help but feel compelled to sort of want to do something.
And I hope audiences will be moved in the same way.
If nothing else, I hope
the people will just protect themselves against this kind of,
you know, this kind of drug.
And because, you know, OxyContin is still being prescribed
and at a pretty alarming rate, it's also still taking lives.
So, yeah, on top of that, I also hope people
kind of extend, you know, empathy towards people who suffer with addiction
because along the way, you know, Purdue preyed on this narrative that, you know,
somehow the victims were to blame and that they were the real abusers
and the only people who.
Been abusive in this entire scenario.
are Purdue and the Sacklers.
Yeah, it's a very, very serious subject matter.
I have to say, though, I did laugh when you said that that man was a breast man.
I thought that was a nice little note.
I didn't even think about it in that time of levity.
That was funny.
I have been clever enough for that, too.
Yeah.
Just before you go, I have to wish you congratulations.
You've been in the news this week.
You are Adam Warlock, which is such a big,
a big deal in the Marvel Universe.
You've done some amazing projects.
So what' has lured you...
While you can't say anything, I'm sure what's lured you to kind of do that.
Are you kind of at that point in your career
now where you're happy to maybe step into something
a little bit bigger than than stuff you've done before?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, it does feel like a step up in lots of regards.
And yeah, you know, I can't say much, but I am really, really grateful.
You know, I think
the Guardians of the Galaxy is a especially, you know,
creative and unique franchise within the Marvel Universe,
and I'm very fortunate to have been kind of , you know, welcomed into that world.
So, yeah, looking forward to getting to work and,
you know, doing the character justice, if I can.
Yeah, I look forward to seeing you in your blond locks, I think.
Thank you.
Will - always love it so much and good luck.