ButAndrew Garfield’scharacter inUnder the Banner of Heavenis anything but world-weary.
Instead, he’s an upstanding and devout Mormon with an unflappable moral compass.
He goes to church.
Andrew Garfield as Jeb Pyre.Michelle Faye/FX
He loves his wife and daughters.
He’s deeply committed to his job as a Utah detective.
The delusion was just so fascinating to me."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Jeb Pyre is a fictional person in the middle of this true story.
Did you see that as a strength or a challenge, playing a new character in this established story?
These detectives that I spoke to spoke to me under anonymity.
They had huge crises of faith, and they realized that it wasn’t so simple.
They were going through the exact same tension.
It really allowed me to put flesh on the bone in that way.
Did you learn anything about Mormonism that surprised you?
How scary it was, how beautiful, and how psychologically disorienting.
That was a really interesting thing to explore.
They’re very different men, but they have a shared desire for justice.
How did you and Gil work to develop that relationship?
I love Gil, and he’s easy to love immediately.
We really got deep pretty quickly, me and him.
Also, as far as astrology goes, he’s a Cancer.
He’s a sensitive kid.
[Laughs] I love a Cancer.
A Leo and a Cancer, I think they’re the mother and the father of the zodiac.
So me and him, we had a nice little marriage happening on and off screen.
We had a lot of downtime together between takes, and we had a lot of fun.
It was a really sweet relationship, and he teaches Pyre a lot.
His character opens his consciousness up.
What helped you most in trying to figure out Pyre’s journey and who he is?
I think that again, it’s a journey of expansion.
It’s an expansion of consciousness.
Starting in a place where he’s just on autopilot felt really important.
I’ve played a lot of expressive people recently, very externally wearing their hearts on their sleeves.
As the story goes on, his world and his psyche is getting ruptured.
How do you hold on to the overflow, the tsunami of emotion that’s coming up?
The fear, the terror, the grief, the rage?
In Mormonism, anger is not something that is particularly smiled upon.
You sublimate it into love.
You always attempt to deal with things gently.
It’s interesting because you see a lot of shows centered on detectives who are very bitter or grizzled.
They’re alcoholics, or they have terrible relationships with their wives.
And Pyre is basically this genial, stoic Boy Scout of a character.
When you think back to filming, what was your most memorable day on set?
She’s an incredible teacher and has developed her own method of working, which is so beautiful.
They were open to me suggesting her, and they met her and immediately fell in love with her.
I love her so dearly.
It was no acting required.
When you think about this show overall, what was the biggest challenge?
It was a long shoot.
It was six months in Calgary, which I love.
I love Calgary, I love Alberta.
It was heavy duty for us as a company, I think.
So, we played a lot of board games.
The challenge was to see to it that we could show up every day and give ourselves fully.
I think we had to have a lot of fun.
We tried to enjoy ourselves as much as possible when we weren’t shooting.
And Daisy was really good at that.
She got the party started.
[Laughs] She made sure we were all having a good time, as much as possible.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
