Wayward Pines actor Matt Dillon on why humour is crucial, the 'terrifying' Toby Jones and if Ethan really is in this town

 
Eerie: Matt Dillon as Ethan Burke in Wayward Pines
FOX
Toby Earle11 June 2015

‘The Truth’ is the title of the fifth episode of the eerie Wayward Pines and a promise of that magnitude, to explain the inherent craziness of the murderous all-American town, has to be delivered. Without spoiling too much, Matt Dillon told Toby Earle why humour is a crucial part of the drama, if his character Ethan really is in this town, and why we should be nervous around Toby Jones.

How important was it to you that there was some humour? It is blackly funny at times.

I didn’t play it for laughs, ever, and by that I mean I like that, but I’m not the director. For example, there was a scene in the first episode when Ethan takes a statue in a yard, smashes a car window, breaks in and drives off – there was a shot I remember when we did the scene of a child taking piano lessons and we see him breaking into the car from their point of view. To me, I thought that was so funny.

And that matches your reactions in the first episode, which are quite sarcastic, as you’d deal with being in such a weird place.

It’s pretty absurd, right? That’s what I found sometimes when I would contribute with the writers, what’s very important to me having been doing this for a while is character logic. I'm fine with the character doing anything as long as it’s not a schematic that the writer uses to make a plot point. There were times when I’d say, ‘Ethan would confront this absurd situation and say something, at the very least’. What I found would happen is that after that there would then be humour, because it’s an absurd situation and everybody is playing it straight.

But he’s definitely there, in this curious town? It’s not in his mind?

He’s in this strange place. Part of his character is that he questions himself, because he’s had problems before with his life and work. He’s had a breakdown and had to see a shrink. But he has woken up in this place, where everything appears to be something he recognises in an American town, but there’s something totally artificial about it.

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Not The Bold and The Beautiful, then?

I don’t even know what that is. A limited series is, I think, the most exciting new method of telling a story on TV. It’s how you experience reading a book – there’s a beginning and an end. I don’t like something that goes on and on and on. It’s all about character development and dialogue in the end and that’s what happens in TV.

How terrifying is Toby Jones and is he the scariest character in Pines?

Terrence [Howard] is pretty terrifying early on and as a character Toby is very interesting. You know he’s not just this benevolent and kind doctor, but he is scary because of his ideas. A nice surprise from making the show was learning how deep the allegorical themes of truth, acceptance of truth, and accepting life on life’s terms run. I was surprised that it was much deeper than a science-fiction show.

Wayward Pines airs on Fox, Thursday 9pm

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