NEW YORK — “Hap and Leonard” is one part buddy drama, one part caper comedy, and a rich dose of swampy film noir.
Mostly, it’s a spiky exploration of two comrades in the East Texas backwoods of the late 1980s who, each in his own way, have been battered by the 1960s’ broken promises, then get a last shot at the American Dream.
The six-episode season of this SundanceTV series, which premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. EST, fills the title roles with two actors who have left deep impressions on the audience in past signature performances. Read the rest of this entry »
Based on the books by Joe R. Lansdale, the SundanceTV series Hap and Leonard is set in the late 1980s and is a darkly comic, swamp noir story of two best friends, Hap Collins (James Purefoy), an East Texan with a weakness for Southern women, and Leonard Pine (Michael Kenneth Williams), a gay, black Vietnam vet with a hot temper. When Hap’s seductive ex-wife Trudy (Christina Hendricks) shows up with a get-rich-quick deal that they can’t refuse, it all snowballs out of hand, very quickly.
During this exclusive interview with Collider, actor James Purefoy talked about why Hap and Leonard is probably his favorite show that he’s ever done, wanting to work with Michael Kenneth Williams again, their easy chemistry, why he relates to these characters, and what Christina Hendricks brought to the project.
Collider: How much fun are you having making this show and playing this character? Read the rest of this entry »
Ahead of the release of new action thriller Momentum this week, we sat down with the film’s star James Purefoy to quiz him on what makes certain villains likable, working with Olga Kurylenko, and his upcoming projects.
Even though he’s a bad guy, Mr. Washington is quite a likeable villain – at what point does being a villain become likeable?
I think it depends on what movie it is and what kind of genre it is. One of my next projects is a remake of Roots which we’re shooting in New Orleans. I play a slave owner and he is a bad guy. I don’t want anybody to like him. I won’t go out of my way to let anybody like him because there’s nothing to like, but that’s also very much what the tone of the piece is. On the other hand, there are some bad guys where you wanna fuck around with the audience’s expectations and play with their sympathies. With Mr. Washington, although he’s a bad guy, I’d like people to like him and then feel slightly horrified by what kind of bad guy he is. Read the rest of this entry »
English actor James Purefoy has an international fanbase of women, gets paid to have on-creen sword fights and knows how to build a killer treehouse, so we reckon that makes him a man worth listening to. The star of Momentum (as well as TV’s Rome and The Following) gives us his advice on how to avoid man boobs and explains where self-confidence comes from.
Tell us about your role in your new film Momentum…
I’m an assassin contracted by Morgan Freeman to retrieve a highly valuable hard drive that was accidentally stolen during a high tech bank robbery. It’s pretty cool. Read the rest of this entry »
