It's the Age of Aquarius for Gethin Anthony, who plays Charles Manson in the NBC series Aquarius.
After conquering the HBO series Game of Thrones ( as gay character Renly Baratheon ), he set his sights on an indie film called Copenhagen. Anthony's theater credits include Boris Godunov at the Royal Shakespeare Company and In the Vale of Health at Hampstead Theatre.
The new show Aquarius is set in 1967, with David Duchovny playing detective Sam Hodiak. When 16-year-old Emma Karn goes missing, Hodiak sets out to find out what happened with the help of Brian Shafe ( played by Grey Damon, of True Blood fame ). Emma has joined a band of drifters, led by Manson, two years before the Tate-LaBianca murders happened.
Anthony recently held a conference call about Aquarius.
Q. What attracted you to this character in Aquarius in the first place?
Gethin Anthony: I think my first and strongest reaction was to the authenticity of the dialogue that had been written for the Manson character and the characters around him in that world. I was aware somewhat of that era in U.S. history. The dialogue was really authentic for me and so it made me want to dig deeper into understanding the late '60s.
Q. How much research did you do in preparing for the role?
Gethin Anthony: When I first got the script, I was aware that the process of being cast would probably be about a month or maybe a bit longer so all the while I started to read the biographies that were available. One of the useful things about playing such a notorious man is that there's a wealth of information out there so I could have almost got snowed under with reading and watching things.
It really became about listening to his voice and it was a very helpful thing that I did. There's an interview that he did with a studio engineer in 1967 before he was a part of the crimes and imprisons that I found very useful to take me back to the point in history that our story takes place.
Q. Why do you think people gravitated to Charles Manson so much?
Gethin Anthony: Having done the research that I did increasingly I understood why that might have been the case. I don't claim to know if there was a silver bullet of understanding of why these young women were drawn to him, but I think there are a few key factors.
One of the few books he has read is How to Make Friends and Influence People. That is something he read in prison. He claims to have listened to pimps in prison as a way of understanding how they got their way by basically controlling people from there on end.
He obviously was actively sort of engaging in how to influence other people. It's way before any of the crimes took place.
He was a man who was out of prison at a time when there was a lot of liberation in the air around young people and a lot of young impressionable minds out and about. So, I think it was kind of a perfect cocktail of circumstance really.
Q. What do you say to critics that think this is glorifying the Manson family murders?
Gethin Anthony: Well, the first thing I would say about that is we're not depicting that in this season. It should be clear that Aquarius is really about a policeman. It's not about Charles Manson. The story is about David Duchovny's character and everything else that was going on in Los Angeles and the United States in the '60s. There's a huge storyline about civil rights so there's a lot going on.
Manson sort of pulled himself to the attention of people by his actions and similarly in our story that is necessarily the case. The extremity of his actions pulls himself into the spotlight. I think we've been very careful about not glamorizing him.
Q. Beyond the intrigue of the Manson family, how was it immersing yourself in the '60s and would you have liked to live in that time?
Gethin Anthony: I do wonder that. I can tell you very easily that I'm not a big fan of flared trousers. It's like with any period drama is you've got fantastic costumes.
It was a challenge to reset some of the attitudes and perspectives. That was a learning experience. It's something that I hope to continue to do to try deepen that understanding.
Would I have liked to live through it? Yes, probably I would actually.
Q. What did you learn about Charles Manson that influenced your performance?
Gethin Anthony: I think the main thing I did was to learn about how he was brought up and how he grew up. How he grew up in institutions around the country, at prison-like institutions throughout his life and educating myself about how a human being can get to a position in their life where they are viewed so publicly as almost a mythological villain really.
For me, it was really important to go about and try to understand as much as possible about what his life was like. There's lots of information out there, but the biography about his life up until the age of 21 I found fascinating. No doubt it helped me be able to justify the actions as any actors and soldiers are obliged to do.
We are telling a fictionalized version of the late '60s and a story which is based in true events, but we fictionalized it for more specific reasons, which the show writers can explain, but then it was just about connecting to the stories that we were telling and the specificity of that.
Q. It was great seeing you play a gay role for Game of Thrones. What was your journey from that show that led to you Aquarius?
Gethin Anthony: That's a really good question. I mean, obviously Game of Thrones was a huge privilege to be a part of so I was very grateful for the opportunity. Finn Jones and I were both very excited about the storylines and we could bring to them.
After Game of Thrones I got a few opportunities, such as an indie movie in Copenhagen. I went back to the Shakespeare company to do a season there.
Along the way I had the opportunity to come out to the U.S. and meet people working here. They brought thus opportunity to me. I guess it was one of those situations where I was able to really engage in the material and process of bringing an audition tape. I was very lucky to have very good friends and help me make kind of the best audition tape I could possibly imagine because I really thought I wanted to engage in the challenges of playing this character.
Q. Would you ever try to contact Charles Manson to help you with the character?
Gethin Anthony: I don't think it would serve either party. If I could meet him in 1966, that would be useful.
Meeting him at the end of his life when he's been incarcerated for most of it, I don't think it would serve me in any performance for the show and I certainly don't think it would serve him as an individual. That's not something I pursued.
Q. How was working with David Duchovny?
Gethin Anthony: I hugely looked up to him growing up and still do as an actor. He's just a generous and lovely, very professional presence and a heck of a leader on the set so it's very nice to be around. I think I've been very lucky to work with some fantastic professionals and I definitely count him in the top sort of that league.
Q. Since you are playing Manson trying to be a rock star, will we hear you sing?
Gethin Anthony: Yes, you will hear Charles sing because in our story that's basically what he's done. He's just a guy who spent some time in prison and is looking for a record deal. He goes about that particular quest with some very unconventional methods. I had to learn to play guitar to play the role as well which was probably unfair on the neighbors, but I can sort of throw a few chords together now, so I'm getting a bit better.
Aquarius runs Thursdays on NBC.
