The finale opens with him having these visions of a future filled with regret, looking back. You’re in very elaborate old-age makeup. How were these sequences presented to you?
Well, the makeup was astounding. Six hours, seven hours, something like that—it took a very long time. I looked like my grandfather. It’s difficult for me to talk about, because not all of that scene made it into the cut. There were parts of that scene that were not included in the final episode. Some of those omissions nailed down the nature of Blackthorne’s character and motivations, as I’ve previously described—they nailed down the extent of them, but it was a difficult scene to play. It’s so theoretical that the purpose of that is to depict the man as he was, succeeding in the way he initially hoped to succeed, and the ramifications of that on his soul.
Was that level of physical transformation new to you?
Oh, yes, it was. I mean, they got rid of most of the scene, but to play an old version of Blackthorne, it really felt like he came full circle. It was really nice for the makeup department to allow the actor playing Blackthorne to be able to do that, because you couldn’t do it otherwise. It’s not the same, because you look at yourself, you see yourself in a mirror—they really imprinted some years on him.
I know it’s tricky to talk about, but what do you make of what is in there versus what was cut from those future scenes?
I know the reason that it was omitted. Ultimately, it makes no difference, because it’s my understanding that Blackthorne’s motivations were what I thought they were since the beginning. It’s clear in episode eight, when he encounters Salomon from his crew, and it’s clear throughout. The sincerity of Blackthorne’s arguments and pitches throughout the entire series are totally up for debate, and in terms of the motivations that catalyze them. And like so many of the other characters in the show, there’s so many people who say something, but you don’t know why they’re saying it. The fact is, he’s lying in his bed, an old man in England, and he has some Japanese artifacts, and he’s told his grandchildren stories about how he killed the savages. That’s what Blackthorne sees, and it terrifies him.