Douglas Booth Talks That Dirty Black Bag Season 1, Working with Longtime Friend Dominic Cooper, and More

Douglas Booth is one of Hollywood’s most versatile young actors. He’s best known for the dynamic characters that he’s brought to life in projects including Great Expectations, The Riot Club, and Speech & Debate.

This year, he blew audiences away with his transformative performance as Red Bill in That Dirty Black Bag. The western-drama describes the encounter and clash between two men: McCoy (Dominic Cooper), an apparently incorruptible sheriff with a dark past, and Red Bill, a dirty, taciturn bounty killer trapped in a desire for vengeance that cannot be fulfilled.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Douglas about his role as Red Bill in That Dirty Black Bag.

PC: One of the benefits of television is the opportunity to develop and flesh out these characters. With each new episode, we learn more about Red Bill and how the loss of his mother led him to where he is in the present day. Halfway through the season, we’re able to see him in a different light. You handled that with so much nuance. As an actor, how did you create the space for yourself to dive into that arc?
Douglas: Firstly, thank you. I start at the beginning. I start with who made this character and what made this character the character that he is when we meet him. He lost his mother at a young age. I had to go through my own experiences. I’m very attached to my mother. I’m a bit of a mum’s boy. I used to have recurring nightmares about losing my mom when I was a kid. I drew on that potential loss and the trauma of it. I imagined if it had become real and how that could have affected my growth. It became something very nasty for Red Bill because he didn’t deal with it in a good way.

He’s very unhappy when we first meet him. As an actor, I have a tendency to lean into a character’s vulnerability. I find that’s an easy place for me to go. The real challenge was holding back rather than showing everything that’s going on underneath the character at the very beginning. I had to lock it away. He is this tight bottle where the pressure is building up. It’s a pleasure for the audience later on. One of my favorite parts of the show is when he goes into the Red Lantern and starts playing Chopin.

It’s like suddenly you see him in this completely different light. In my head, I imagined that he used to play piano with his mother. She sat there next to him. It was moving. He’s lived such a desolate, unhappy life for so many years now and with this thankless task of trying to find his mother’s killer. As an actor, it was a pleasure to drip softness and sensitivity back into this character.

PC: This is a role unlike any that you’ve done before, which is one of the reasons why you were attracted to this project. Did anything surprise you about the overall experience? What was the biggest takeaway that you learned about yourself and your craft?
Douglas: It was appreciating the stillness, which was something that this character really demanded. It’s something that I will take forward. I’m quite a fidgety person. When you’re on the stage, you realize how important acting with your whole body is but also what power can be brought from staying still. That was something that I’ll take away from this. Another challenge of this role was that we shot six days a week for almost six months in temperatures of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We shot in Spain, Italy, and the Sahara Desert in Morocco. There were many challenges physically. I feel like the landscape is a character in the show. It very much beat us up at times, but that was what made the whole thing so fulfilling. It brought us all together.

PC: With this being such a departure for you, was there a scene or episode that you were really excited for your fans to see?
Douglas: I was excited for the scenes between Dominic [Cooper] and me. We have a really funny relationship in real life. He’s one of my great friends, but we know how to wind each other up. These characters go at each other. I was excited to let that play out on and off the screen. I very much enjoyed working with Aidan Gillen and being beaten up by him. It was quite full-on, being hung upside down all day and for days on end and being covered in live maggots. I literally had rope burns. I felt very present. It was a good time. It was great. It was great people to work opposite off of.

PC: You and Dominic were childhood friends. How did that prior trust and comfortability lend themselves to the choices you made when approaching the dynamic between your two characters? What is something that fans would be surprised to learn about him?
Douglas: We were there for each other. When you’re working on this type of material, it’s about trying things that may work and figuring them out. There were many nights when we’d be up at night trying to figure out a scene or making a beat make sense. We tried to draw from the material. We had each other’s back very much in that. We would push each other, but we’d also be there for each other. It was a very supportive relationship.

What’s something that people don’t know about Dominic? He loves ’80s music. He loves advertising jingles. He loves them. He’s always singing all these jingles from the ’80s late at night. He’s like, “What ad is this?” He loves retro ’80s stuff, which is very odd and bizarre, but he’s a very funny man. He has me in stitches all the time. He’s an extremely good photographer, which you may know if you follow his Instagram. He’s a laugh. He’s a very funny, kind, loving personality, but he’s a big personality for sure. He takes up space. [laughs]

PC: You’ve been a part of so many incredible projects, and we often don’t see you play the same character twice. You’ve also been a part of this industry for quite some time now. As you’ve grown, how has that changed the vetting process for the roles and projects that you want to be a part of?
Douglas: I’ve always tried to play a variety of different characters. If you look at each one, they’re all very different. They’re in different genres. I’m always trying to follow and work with great filmmakers. I’ve had the pleasure of working with the Wachowskis, Darren Aronofsky, Terrence Malick, and Michael Winterbottom. I’ve always tried to work with great filmmakers. I’ve always tried to push myself. Richard Madden is a great friend of mine. I worked with him almost ten years ago when I played Boy George and he played opposite me in that. He said, “Doug, always do what you think you’re not good enough to do. Push yourself.”

I’ve always tried to abide by that a bit. There’s also an element of taking the best job you can at the time wherever you are in your career. Matthew McConaughey has probably gone up against DiCaprio for roles or in vying for the right script. We’re all on different rungs of where we are in our careers. It’s partly taking the best job you can get at the time because the really good scripts are hotly contested. You’ve got to do the best job you can and work really hard to create interesting stories and be fortunate enough to work with great filmmakers. That’s all you can do. It’s a matter of trying to keep a work-life balance and remembering what it is to be a real person rather than getting lost in a constant wheel of productions—because you’ll lose what it is to be able to play a real person.

PC: You’ve said that being a part of this project and starring in a Western has been a childhood dream of yours. What’s left on your bucket list?
Douglas: I definitely want to do a comedy. There’s a film that I’m attached to that’s being put together that I’m going to shoot in Toronto. Hopefully, we’ll be able to shoot that at the beginning of next year or the middle of next year. It’s a comedy. I’ve done it a bit on stage, but that’s something that would be fun. I would also love to be in a big fantasy or historical epic. I loved Lord of the Rings growing up and movies like Gladiator. I always wanted to do one of those—not necessarily Gladiator, but I love those big adventure stories. I would love to be in something like that. I’d love to be in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. There are so many things that I’d love to do, but I’m going to have to take each job as it comes. I’m about to start a film in a month with Michael Winterbottom, who’s another great British director. I’m very excited about that challenge. Take each day as it comes.

To keep up with Douglas, follow him on Instagram. That Dirty Black Bag is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.