During Rabbit Hole Season 1 Episode 3, you got a much better feel for two of the show’s stars, Charles Dance and Meta Golding.
Dance stars as Ben, John Weir’s father who set up a faux suicide so horrific that it altered the course of his son’s life.
Golding stars as Hailey, a woman John had a dalliance with that turned out to be a setup of unknown origin, leaving John questioning her motives and kidnapping her to keep her from revealing something that could affect his status as a suspected murderer.
Both stars have excellent comedic timing and have been imperative in some of Rabbit Hole’s most exciting scenes. They play off of each other and Kiefer Sutherland beautifully.
In our last interview from the Rabbit Hole Press Day, they share their thoughts on their characters and filming scenes that aren’t always what they seem on the surface.
Charles, Ben is a walking conspiracy theorist, and his theories are subsequently confirmed. What’s the most fun about playing a character like him?
Charles: Well, it’s the same fun about playing any character that’s really well written and is as intriguing as that character is because I, like most of us in the cast, weren’t given all the information from day one.
And it was a very interesting journey when somebody says, “Okay, you’re going to turn left here, but we’re not going to tell you what’s around the corner, but you are going to turn left.” And you know, think, “Right, okay.” So off I go, and I turn left.
I think, “Oh my God and I can’t go back.” I’ve got to go on, and now you’re going to turn right, you know? Does that make sense to you?
Absolutely, given the story. Of course.
Charles: And it’s a really fascinating exercise because some of the jobs we do as actors, and I can only speak personally, although I’m using the royal “we” here rather presumptuous.
Meta: No, it’s true.
Charles: Do you know that there are times when… Here’s the job, there it is, this is either a one-off film or it’s a television series — perfect example, Game of Thrones. We knew what was happening at the end of the season from day one at the beginning of the season, there were 10 episodes right through. So you know what’s happening.
This, it’s really intriguing because you are not quite sure, you have a fair idea. But these writers are very, very clever, and it certainly keeps you on your toes as an actor when you’re doing something like that.
So you’re saying you received it script by script versus having it charted out for you?
Charles: Well, yeah, so I’m not saying that we had absolutely no idea at all. I mean, we knew the general direction that our characters were going to go in, but not 100%, no.
And filming it seems like it would’ve been a lot of fun as well. There’s a scene in Episode 3 where Ben and John are talking about killing Hailey.
Meta: Oh yeah.
We don’t know that as an audience until the camera backs up, and all of a sudden, we see that Hailey’s actually sitting there in a part of that conversation. There are so many of those fun scenes. What was it like filming them? Were any of them tricks? Were you actually sitting there the whole time?
Meta: Yeah, I was actually sitting there the whole time. Well, that scene for me was very much like going to the in-laws. It was like, the crazy in-laws, like an in-law that literally wants to kill you. But even though the stakes were very high, I kind of approached it like, “Oh, I am at my boyfriend’s very dysfunctional family’s house.”
Because underneath all of the big themes of the show, it is family dynamics and dysfunction and people just trying to survive and sons and fathers trying to make peace and trying to see if you can fall in love or they’re these things.
So everything I always went back to, like, “Okay, what’s the basic here? Basic here is it’s my crazy in-law.” So I guess there wasn’t really a trick. I just always tried to simplify things.
That makes sense and in a script this detailed and with so many places and turns. And Charles, Ben’s fake suicide heavily influenced John’s life.
But whenever John kind of confronts him about, “Hey, you pretended you killed yourself, and it changed the entire course of my life.” He kind of plays it off. What do you think Ben’s really feeling at that point where he sees his son again for the first time?
Charles: That’s a very, very good question. I think Ben is taking an enormous risk. And I felt he was pretty confident about the outcome of giving his son that kind of information. I mean, it’s shattering. I mean, really, it’s quite extraordinary.
And I like to think that my character decided that, “Okay, there’s no getting around this. I actually need the help that my son can give me, and I’m going to have to confess to something that has caused such trauma in the last few years of his life that I’m just going to take the risk.”
And if, having given him that information, he just promptly tells me to get out of his life and, really, I want absolutely nothing to do with you, then that’s something I would’ve had to have accepted. It was quite a gamble for Ben Wilson to do that.
And Meta, it seems like Hailey kind of got swept up in this craziness, but she’s hiding something from John, so she’s maybe not as innocent as it seems like she is right now through episode 3. How much more are we going to learn about her as the season goes on?
Meta: Well, what is so fascinating about the script and specifically Hailey is that it’s multilayered, and so you’re going to constantly find out things about her that are unexpected.
And when I read the first script, I thought it was one thing, and then I was like, “Oh my God, it’s not at all.” So it’s a constant peeling of the onion, shall we say, of finding out who she is and why she’s there.
And how much more bonkers is the season going to get from here?
Meta: [chuckles] Bonkers. It gets pretty wild. It’s really a ride, and it’s really one of those shows that I hope the audience is sitting at the edge of their seat waiting to find out what’s going to happen next because it’s a real rollercoaster.
New episodes of Rabbit Hole premiere Sundays on Paramount+.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.
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